A/N: Hey all. Hope you haven't forgotten me. Presenting you my next update. Do let me know how you felt about it.
Chapter 11
Khushi, NK and Deepak entered the conference hall. They were already delayed by an hour as their train' arrived late. They took the seats at the far end quietly. Khushi kept searching for Arnav. But she could not spot him. Back to back presentations were made. The projector's light was the only one which was illuminating the conference hall.
Around lunch time, the lights were turned on. Khushi eagerly looked around. No, he was no where. Did he not come? Was he not going to come? How would she know? Whom could she ask without attracting attention?
"Khushi...come on. Lets go and have lunch." NK ushered her into the Dining hall.
Disappointed she walked along with NK and Deepak.
***
Arnav woke up with a start. 7 AM. Oh God. He would definitely miss his flight. He hurried to catch the next flight. He reached the Hotel and left his luggage in his room. And walked towards the Conference Hall. Only to find it empty. An attendant told him that everyone were in the dining hall having lunch. He went ahead and took a seat, having already finished his lunch in the flight.
***
Khushi looked around. Everyone was busy eating or chatting. She no longer had any appetite. To add to her despair Shyam was sitting on their table. She whispered to Deepak that she would be in the Conference Hall as she was done with her lunch.
She ambled towards the Hall. Why did HE not come? Would he be coming tomorrow? Or would he come only on the last day. But I am leaving tomorrow evening. So, there would be no meeting him...
She slowly opened the heavy door of the Hall. It squeaked.
She found a lone man sitting inside and stilled...
***
Arnav heard the door opening and turned around in his seat. Calm was the first thing he felt. His tense nerves relaxing automatically. He slowly left a breath, relieved to see her. Khushi left the door and walked a few feet ahead. The door slowly shut with a soft thud.
Khushi's imagination
Khushi's soul left her, running towards him. Arnav took a step back to balance the two of them, as she clung on to him as if there was no tomorrow. Tears of relief and happiness flowed, telling him how much she had missed him. He tightened his hold on her. Taking her in. Soothing her. Telling her he missed her too.
End of imagination
Arnav stood up slowly. His feet carried him to her on their own accord.
"Khushi..." he spoke softly "Tum theek ho?" His face was ridden with concern.
She came back to the present. She realized it was her imagination.
"How are you Sir? Why didn't you arrive in the morning... I thought... I thought you wouldn't come..." She did not hide her anguish.
"I missed my flight Khushi. I should have called..."
Just then, his Marketing Head walked in. "ASR, good, you are here. It is my presentation next. I wanted to talk to you before that. I have made some small changes based on the new orders we received last week. Can you please come near my seat... I will show it to you directly on my laptop."
Arnav turned to Khushi, "I will talk to you later in the evening...ok?"
She nodded.
Arnav followed the Marketing Head. "Where is my laptop?" She heard him ask the Marketing Head. "It's with Ms. Mallik ASR. She said she will get it."
Arnav got busy reviewing the slides. Soon, all gathered for the next set of presentations. Arnav took notes on his notepad, badly missing his laptop. He kept glancing at Lavanya. Hoping that she would take the cue and give him the laptop. But she kept smiling, feeling shy, waving and doing every other thing on earth, except handing over the laptop. Just the sight of her ticked him of.
Not wanting to disturb the presentations, he decided to wait till the end of the day to ask her.
He took note that the shortest and the most boring presentation belonged to NK. He hardly had any new sales to show. And finished the entire presentation in less than 5 minutes. He just said "This slide is self explanatory. I will enlarge the slide, for you to see the numbers clearly". Saying so, he just kept zooming in and out of the various sections of the slide. He was clearly not interested in giving the presentation, resulting in some giggles here and there. While most people thought that NK was making a fool of himself, Arnav was sure that this was NK's tactic to humiliate the management and higher-ups. That's it, these guys had to tell him what was wrong.
When all the presentations were complete, everyone was asked to move to the Dining Hall of the Hotel, for snacks and tea.
NK, Deepak and Khushi took their cups and snacks and sat on a circular table. Shyam came and sat by Khushi, pulling his chair very close to her's. Khushi immediately got up, saying she was going for another serving of the snacks. When she came back, she sat on the other side, leaving NK and Deepak between her and Shyam, much to his annoyance. But he shamelessly went and took the seat beside her again. And she stood up, under the pretext of giving NK a snack and sat beside him. This merry-go-round was getting ridiculous. Someone might see. Finishing his tea quickly, Shyam made way towards his honey-waley-sasurji, while constantly thinking how he could use these two days to get closer to Khushi.
Arnav, who was seated two tables away, did not miss any of this. Khushi's discomfort around Shyam was very apparent. And NK and Deepak did not even heed his existence.
He saw Lavanya taking a seat beside her father. They were joined by the rest of the Management Team and Shyam.
It had been four hours since he was in the conference, and Lavanya did not have the sense to handover his laptop to him. He kept eyeing her. She would just gush and wave at him. Clueless that he was expecting something from her. Exasperated, he walked towards her table.
"Ms. Mallik, I believe you have my office laptop. Can you please give it to me?"
"Uhhh..." she went blank. "Which laptop ASR...?" she asked
All eyes on the table were now on them.
"Ms. Mallik, I believe you took my laptop from the system administrator yesterday and told him that you would be carrying it to give it to me."
Lavanya slowly recollected. Oh shit! She had forgotten all about it when she received that call from Sim.
"Woh...ASR..." She drawled
"Do you or do you not have the laptop Ms. Mallik?" Arnav was on his wit's end.
"I forgot to bring it." She looked around embarrassed.
"WHAT!!" Arnav almost yelled. "What's wrong with you Lavanya. How can you forget such a thing?"
Lavanya cringed hearing him shout. Mallik and Shyam were furious. How can ASR humiliate her in public. But a single stare from Arnav shut their mouth.
Arnav suddenly realized that the entire gathering was now staring at him. He had made a scene already. He spoke softly, audible only to her and Mallik.
"If you can't live up to a job, then don't take it up Ms. Mallik. There are people around you who value this company and this work much more than you do. And I have asked you a million times by now to stay away from my work. But you just don't get it, do you? You have proved beyond doubt that you are totally not bankable. I have presentation to give tomorrow and a branch to lead Ms. Mallik. I would obliged, if you can let me do my job."
Sarcasm, despise and ridicule were dripping in his short speech. Mallik understood his daughter's folly. For the past couple of months, Lavanya had woven stories that she had become an integral part of ASR. And ASR could just not function without her. And now the truth hit him hard. All along he was swelling in pride that he had never given his daughter her due credit. Always thought of her as a rich spoilt brat. And today, he had come to know that she is not only useless, but also was fabricating stories about her success.
Arnav walked out of the dining hall infuriated. His anger was visible for all to see. Lavanya smiled sheepishly towards the people around her and bent her head down, ashamed.
Post Snacks, everybody made way to their respective rooms to rest and get ready for dinner.
All were asked to gather at the Dining Hall again at 7 pm. It was 8 pm already. And ASR was still no where to be seen. Khushi knew he was still angry. And the first target of that anger would be his food. She went to the front desk and asked for his room number. Showing her conference name-tag and saying that she was from his office.
She knocked at his room door. No answer. After a few minutes, she knocked again. No answer. She turned to go away. Arnav opened the door in irritation. And stopped. Of all the people, he had not expected to see her.
"Khushi ... ?"
"Sir... woh... Dinner will be served in some time. And you haven't eaten anything in the evening too... So... I came here to call you."
"That's not necessary Khushi. I am leaving now. Will have my dinner in the flight." He moved back into his room, leaving the door open.
"Aise Kaise Sir?" She scurried behind him. "You must be having your presentation due either tomorrow or the day after, isn't it?"
"What presentation? How can I give a presentation when I don't have the slides with me. Didn't you hear my conversation with Lavanya downstairs. Her pea-sized brain forgot to get my laptop." He continued with his packing. His suitcase was lying on the bed.
Oh, that's why Sir was upset earlier.
"So what Sir? We can re-create the slides."
"Really, are you kidding me? Or have you started hanging around with that Lavanya?"
"Sir, I am not saying we can re-create everything. But I am sure, if you put your mind to it, you would be able to make atleast 75% of the presentation. The rest you handle it verbally."
"Khushi, you know I don't work making adjustments. And I loathe giving shabby presentations. Do you think I am an NK? I mean, if he has no interest in giving a presentation, he should have stepped down. Period. And that's exactly what I am doing."
"Sir, this is not done. I am sure we can do something about it."
"No, we cant. And I am done with dealing with incompetent people. That's what this company is all about. A bunch of incompetent people."
"Sir, you cannot extrapolate one person's performance to the entire company. In whichever company you go, I am sure you will face good and bad people. We cannot avoid people. They are integral to our existence. We need to work-around the bad ones and tag-along with the good ones. And it is human to err. Are you telling me that in all these years, you have not dealt with set-backs?"
Arnav stopped. He knew she had a point. Yes, this was just a set back. But thinking of Lavanya, his anger came back.
Khushi continued. "I am sure you have. So take this as another set-back. And lets deal with it. Instead of sulking over it."
"Sulk? I don't sulk Khushi."
"Well, let me tell you then, whatever you are doing right now, it would be termed as sulking."
"Then what do you propose,Ms. Gupta? How do you think we would be able to re-create the entire presentation overnight. It took me more than three weeks to gather the data."
"Sir, I see you have another laptop. Do you have an internet connection?"
He nodded a yes. Allowing her to continue.
"Then, I am sure you have based your data on the reports sent by all the branches. In that case, they will all be there on your office emails. Please access your email account on the web and download the data. And then we start making the slides again." She clapped enthusiastically. But stopped abruptly.
Arnav was staring at her. She couldn't make out if he was sold on the idea. "That makes only 25% of my presentation. How do you propose we present the financial data for which I have no information on my emails? And the market research which took me over 10 days to arrive."
"Sir, I have a solution for financial data. We send monthly reports to the Head Office. I am sure the regional branch's Finance Head will have all those reports in his mailbox. And as for the market research, I am sure you do remember where to pull that data from. Hmmm... honestly, I don't have a solution for that problem." She finally gave up.
Both of them were quiet for some time. Each in his own thoughts. Finally Khushi broke the silence.
"Sir, at the cost of sounding your own words back to you, all I have to say is this. There may be a thousand reasons to not do a job. But we need to find only one reason to do it. And the reason why we should create these slides is for you to present your achievements. They are not only your's Sir. It belongs to all the 12 branches. We owe it to those employees, our team members."
Arnav had to give it to her. She never gave up. And her plan was realistic. The new presentation may not be as classy and detailed. But now his reputation was at stake. He remembered the smirk on that Shyam's face. And the challenge that the Management Team had thrown at him with their contemptible sneers. They would be expecting him to withdraw his slot of presentation. It sounded like a good surprise for them.
"Ok Khushi Gupta. I am presuming you would give me a helping hand in making this presentation."
"Of course Sir. There was never a doubt about it." She grinned ear to ear.
"Alright, get going. And ask the Regional Branch Finance and Marketing Heads to join us with their laptops. We have a long night's work. I will clear up the room."
"Ok Sir."
She quickly ran down to the dining hall. Pulled the Finance Head and the Marketing Head aside and explained the situation. Totally worried, they left their dinner mid-way to join Khushi and Arnav. Neither of them were sure as to how ASR would pull it off. Making an entire presentation from scratch and that too overnight was unthinkable.
Once in his room, the work was quickly divided. The marketing head was asked to do all the research work. Khushi and the Finance Head started making the financial slides. And Arnav started to draw the frame-work of the slides on a paper. And each person had to fill in the numbers.
Multiple coffee's were ordered. And at about 1 am the Finance Head and the Marketing Head started to feel sleepy. Arnav asked them to rest for a few hours. They took a chair each and slept in his room. But Khushi continued. At about 2.30 AM...
"Khushi, my slides are done. How about you?"
"I think mine will be done in about half an hour Sir."
"Alright. Do you have an office pen drive. I will move the slides on my laptop to yours. Once you are done, I will consolidate all thes slides and review them together."
"I have one in my room Sir. I will go and get it."
"Don't bother. Give me your room's key-card. I will get it."
She gave him her room's card. And told him that the place she had kept her pen-drive.
***
Arnav entered Khushi's room. Walked to the bag she had asked him to open. Took out the pen drive and pocketed it. Just when he had zipped the bag back he heard
"Khusssiijiii..." the voice was slurred and soft. But he did hear it.
"Khushiji... Its me. Shyam. Open the door Khushiji." The whisper was louder now.
Arnav frowned. Shyam. Here. At this time of the night. He looked at his watch. And walked to the door. But did not open it.
"Khushiji. Why? Why do you do this to me? We have finally got some lone time. Come on. Be a sweety and open the door. I will give you the best time of your life. You will crave more and more for it Khushiji. You have no idea since when I have wanted this."
His voice was heavily slurred. Clearly drunk. Arnav stood there. Dumbfounded. Anger raising by every word uttered by that vile man.
"Khushiji. Come on. Open the door Khushiji. He started banging the door. You have no idea how many times I have fancied about you. Lets not waste time. I can no longer put off the pleasure I have been seeking all these days. Khushiji...Khushiji..." His knocks were harder on the door.
Suddenly the door opened. And something hit him hard on his face. He staggered back. Once more. His nose cracked. He winced in pain. With the third punch he slumped to the ground.
***
The moment he heard Shyam utter atrocities about his imagination about Khushi, something snapped in Arnav. Rage took over him. He opened the door swiftly and without a second thought punched Shyam. Then a second. With the third, Shyam dropped to the ground. Wincing in pain. Lying flat on his back.
Arnav bent down and pulled him up by his collar. The stench of the alcohol was unbearable. He left the collar making the body slump back.
Holding his nose, Shyam opened his eyes to look at the person. Arnav warned him by waving his fore-finger. Not being in a condition to fight back, Shyam just lay there, drunk and bleeding.
Arnav stepped over him and walked away. He would make this man pay. As he walked through the lobby of Khushi's floor, then the lift and then back in the lobby of his floor, only one thought plagued him. What if Khushi had been in her room instead of him? What if she had opened the door innocently in her sleep? What if she had been over-powered? The consequences were frightening? He opened his room's door in a flash.
Khushi looked at thim with a start.
"Why the hell didn't you tell me about this earlier?" He towered over her, extending his arms to haul her up roughly. But something moved at his peripheral vision. He realized the Marketing Head and Finance head had opened their eyes sitting straight in their chairs. And looking at him doubtfully.
Quickly deciding that this was neither the time nor the place to talk about it, he turned his back to all of them to calm himself down. He then walked towards his chair and roughly puled it. Inserting the pen-drive he started to copy his part of the presentation.
Khushi was clueless why Arnavji had behaved the way he just had. What did she not tell him? Had he... Had he come to know of her resignation? Her last working day was in a week. But she had sent her resignation to both Shyam and the Regional Finance Head. That was three days ago. She had offered to pay up the notice period penalty too.
She had also meant to tell Arnavji one-on-one. In the conference. But she had not found the time till now.
Disappointed, she quietly sat back on her chair and continued to work on her slides. The Finance Head joined her. The data they had worked on had been totally transformed. It was now laid out in crisp slides. The flow of information was smooth and simple. Some ratios and graphs were enlightening when laid out in the way Khushi had presented. The Finance Head was totally impressed. But he did not voice it out. She was leaving in a week's time anyway.
Khushi looked at the Finance Head. Fidgeting her fingers. Indicating she was done. Too scared to talk to Arnav.
"Sir, I think we are done. If you can look at it..." the Finance Head left the sentence incomplete.
Arnav did not speak a word. He came and sat by Khushi. The Finance Head standing behind both of them.
He inserted the pen-drive and within a few minutes had merged both the files. As he started reviewing he heard Khushi's soft voice.
"Sir, I think, we can move my 3rd slide after this page. Then the flow of information will make more sense."
And just like that Arnav melted. He looked at her. Their eyes locking. You should have told me. I would have taken care of it.' His eyes told her.
I am sorry. But you have no idea why I can't continue.' Her eyes told him. Face ridden with distress.
Arnav left out a small sigh. And bent his head down. After all why was he angry with her? It was Shyam's fault. He was the one who had to bear the punishment. And he would get it. He would not even know what hit him and why.
By 5 in the morning, the slides looked presentable. They had only 60% of the information when compared to his original one. He decided to let go of the three of them to take some rest.
He insisted to walk Khushi to her room, even though the Finance Head told him that their rooms were adjacent. Upon reaching her lobby, he saw that Shyam had managed to remove himself from there. Good. He asked Khushi to lock her door properly and to not open the door to strangers.
Khushi felt like a child being lectured by her mother. But did not say anything. She went inside her room.
After hearing Khushi latch her door properly, Arnav went to his room. If he put in two more hours, he would have the presentation just the way he wanted. Khushi was right after all. If not for the people who worked under him, he owed it to himself. To do what he had been planning to do in this conference.
Khushi and others got up as usual and attended the 1st Half of the conference. Arnav skipped it, too tired. Having his lunch in his room, he came downstairs, just in time for his presentation.
Khushi kept looking for him all this time. She had to bid him goodbye before his presentation started. Her train was at 6 pm. She had to pack and check out by 4 pm. And go to the station. She couldn't bid him good bye in the middle of his presentation.
With these thoughts she finished her lunch quickly hoping to meet him in the conference hall. She wasn't disappointed. Arnav was setting up his laptop and the projector. He had made separate booklets for all the management team to read. He was sure that all of them would read his reports in the confines of their cabins.
Khushi, walked towards him. "Sir... Sir, I need to talk to you."
"Not now Khushi. Lets talk after my presentation. I have lot of things to discuss with you too."
"Sir, it wouldn't be possible then Sir." Arnav, kept moving from chair to chair, keeping the presentation print outs.
Turning towards her, he said sternly, "Khushi...NOT NOW... Don't you get it?"
She backed off. She asked him if she could do anything. He nodded a NO.
She went back to take her seat, thinking she could always call him before her last day.
People gathered in. Arnav was already standing on the Podium. Dressed prim and proper in a suit. His first slide displayed on the screen.
Mallik was surpised. He had expected Arnav to throw a tantrum and withdraw his presentation slot.
Lavanya was indifferent. Pouting like a child who had just been admonished.
Shyam was staring at his image in the mirror of his hotel room. His lips quivering with rage.
The Management Team were ready to catch any ideas that Arnav would suggest.
Khushi gave a soft smile. Feeling a sense of pride.
Arnav looked at her. Calming his senses, he started: "Good Afternoon ladies and gentlemen. I am here today to present before you the progress and accomplishments of my regional branch and also to share my thoughts as to how we can take this company to new heights."
Pin-drop silence. All ears were tuned to him. Arnav began his presentation.
Next Chapter: Meddling with minds and Final Good-byes?
A/N: Please do let me know how you felt it or hit the LIKE BUTTON. Would be waiting for your comments eagerly, as always.
CID
272