Chapter One: The Chance Encounter

5 years ago

Mahi

@Mannmohanaa

...

CHAPTER ONE

THE CHANCE ENCOUNTER

“Bloody hell! You can’t even write a damn code! Get OUT, you useless dimwit fool!”

The blurred, vague haze pulled her arm so stubbornly that she stumbled right down, in front of glaring, confused faces.

But quite surprisingly, she heard a loud blaring ring instead of the supposed thud with which she was to meet the floor.

“WAKE UP!!!” Someone yelled at the top of her voice. Wait, that wasn’t someone. It was her sister.

“Get up you lazy bump! Turn your alarm off!”

She got up, with beads of fear and nervousness on her forehead and a silent relief that it was a dream.

She quickly shut off the alarm. This dream had been frequent. Not the code part of course but the feel of it – unsuspecting, reckless situations which she couldn’t handle. A portion of this stemmed from her alert demeanor, and the capability to sense and absorb her surroundings way too deeply, sometimes even unnecessarily and other from her insecure self. She took a deep breath and made a vain promise to herself that she wouldn’t let this affect her day, infact, her special day. But it wasn’t unknown that she was inevitably disturbed and affected by this.

“You’ll be fine, just be on time" mumbled her sister, in half sleep. She laughed at the idea of her sister knowing her inside out. She sprang out of the bed seemingly better, not before ruffling Kshama's hair and kissing the forehead of her adorable – naughty – I can’t do without you – sibling.

--

“ID card?"

“Check"

“Wallet?”

“Done”

“Insurance premium money?”

“Taken" she uttered, not sounding too confident. And immediately, she got the expected response.

“Why don’t you ask him for that?”

She froze. Her mother knew it but wouldn’t acknowledge the fact.

“Why don’t you recollect all that’s been happening all this while? We aren’t even on talking terms.”

“Okay do as you please!" She said rather coldly.

“Now don’t spoil the day any further, please Ma.” She gave her mother a small peck on the cheek and left, trying to forget the scratchy start of the day.

--

“Here’s your login ID, password and credentials. Change the password within 24 hours. Do you have a laptop?” 

It was the HR coordinator talking to her.

“Yes… er, no" she said, a bit confused. “I mean, I have it at home but not right now.”

“Alright, I’ll give you a spare one for today but you have to carry your own till we assign you a company device.”

“Here is your employee form to be filled by tomorrow and I’ll need your Aadhar details as well.”

She nodded and made a note of everything. 

“Now go and meet your team leader, he would be waiting to see you. And yeah, welcome to company!” she smiled, making her feel comfortable. She acknowledged with a smile, perhaps smiling for the first time that day. It wasn’t that bad a start afterall.

Loaded with the files, she finally reached her desk. The place, which she could call, her own.

She couldn’t stop smiling as the letters Antara Prajapati were engraved on a small glass plate on the front wall of her cubicle. She had every bit earned those.

The first thing she did was to set up the team’s Gmail account, on the temporary laptop. She had clear instructions of being alert and receptive, regarding the emails forwarded and important docs sent there. She opened an unread mail but her laptop screen froze.

The screen refused to respond or even shut down, with even the power button press yielding no result. She decided to just let that be, decided to inform the IT team and walked towards the team lead's cabin, lest she should be late for the first reporting.

Completely oblivious to the sign of PULL, she pushed into the door. And as luck would have it, she bumped right into a man standing on the other side. The collision led to the coffee mug in his hands emptying its contents onto the documents he had.

“I’m terribly sorry" she gasped, whilst trying to recover some papers from drenching into the warm liquid. And after a whole of ten seconds, she looked up, to see his face. His spectacled eyes were small but seemed intelligent. 

“I’m sorry sir I should’ve noticed the sign” she mumbled, after getting momentarily distracted. His shirt was soiled. 

“Careful" was all he said before moving out of the cabin.

She turned around to watch him greet the Team Leader, right outside.

“Rachit, come in! Where are the drafts? And looks like you've had a great coffee bath!”

Antara prepared to apologize again.

He looked at the stained papers in his hands and said,

“Just give me fifteen minutes, Varun" he replied, and left, as if the small mishap had never taken place, surprising her beyond words.