If Prerna was asked to make a list of all those people she'd like to thrash black and blue, the guy standing in front of her would top it.
It was Anurag Basu. Her enemy from school.
His shock subsided and he started sneering. "Oh. It's you. Couldn't have expected any better driving from you." He glanced at her contemptuously.
Prerna let out a short laugh of incredulity. "You hit my car! Okay? For no apparent reason." She shouted. "I dunno why people like you, with no minimum road sense, are granted licenses."
Anurag gave a short laugh, induced with full sarcasm. It irritated Prerna to no length. The nerve of him!
"Look, who's speaking! The woman who gives the right indicator and turns to the left."
Her mouth fell open at the accusation.
Wait. Was that true? She tended to do such things. But she could still deny. There was nobody here to contradict her expect him.
"Take. That. Back." she said, punctuating each word with a meaner glare.
But of course he wasn't taking it back. Riling up her and laughing at her expense has always been his favourite pass time. "No wonder they say women can't drive." he said, with a sympathetic shake of his head.
Did he just say that? Such an arse!
"And no wonder men like you are still making stereotypical statements about women."
Anurag rolled his eyes at that. "Look Sharma, unlike you, I've got a job. If you please move your truck to the side, I can go."
He insulted her. He insulted her car! This was heights. This man was going nowhere until she was done with him.
"You aren't going anywhere till you have paid for my car. Get it?" She was getting late too. But she can wriggle out of being yelled at. She was her boss's favourite. Efficiency at work helped her get these perks. And this Anurag getting late for whatever he's got to do, will be the cherry on the top. He wasn't leaving till he paid for the damage.
Anurag pinched the brim of his nose in frustration. This girl was getting on his nerves. He shook his head, vehemently.
"Pay and you can leave."
"Why should I pay for something that was clearly your mistake?" demanded, Anurag, clearly annoyed.
"Because you were speeding over limit and there is still no proof I gave the wrong indicator."
She was positive she gave the right indicator. Right indicator as in the correct indicator. Not the right side indicator, okay. As in the left indicator. Oh god, why did she confuse herself.
Sometimes she tended to confuse with right and left. But not this time. She did give the right signal. She means the correct signal.
"You are testing my patience." Anurag said.
"The deal is clear. Pay and leave." Prerna said, folding her hands, leaning on her car.
Silence. None of them reacted. None of them moved.
A shrill cry from Anurag's phone punctuated the silence.
His eyebrows creased, evidently in worry. Prerna noticed. He really seemed to get late for something important.
Anurag cut the call.
Prerna thought it over. It was such a sad thing that she was such a nice human being. Guys like Anurag didn't deserve her niceness. But she being the benevolent she, would let go. This one time.
"Okay. I will let you go now." She conceded. "Give me your number. We can negotiate the amount later."
Prerna expected Anurag to be relieved, grateful. Maybe even thank her.
But she was forgetting who she was dealing with. This was Anurag Basu. Topper of Prerna's list of idiots.
"Sharma," he said, amused, taking a few steps to close the distance between them. "You could have asked my number directly. I get it you seem to be taken by me. You didn't have to do so much drama."
This guy deserved no niceness. Clearly no.
"Okay then, keep standing here till you get fired from your job for being late."
"No. No." Anurag said, hastily. "I was just kidding, Sharma. Forgot you had no sense of humour."
Prerna gave him a mock smile.
"Give me your phone," Anurag said, annoyed at being the helpless one. He took her phone from her hands.
Prerna looked at him waiting, folding her hands. This guy was in such hurry.
After a second, Anurag gave Prerna her phone back with an abashed look. He rolled his eyes at himself.
It obviously had a pass code.
She opened it and gave it to him.
Anurag grinned at the wallpaper of Chris Evans on her phone and murmured something like 'immaturity' under his breath. He punched his number on her phone. Gave a call to his own and returned it to her.
"Happy, Ms Sharma? Will your highness please move the car?" Anurag said, giving her a mock curtsey.
Prerna grinned to herself, maliciously.
She drove her car into the street and Anurag's car followed her. He seems to have work in the same lane as that of her office.
She drove the car to the valet and gave him the keys. Anurag stopped right behind her and honked.
What was Anurag Basu doing at her office?
She shrugged and made way to the ground floor.
She gave a forced smile to the receptionist Sheena, and got an even more plastic smile in response. Sheena and she were clearly not on good terms. Sheena was not on good terms with any woman in the office. But, the men, well, she had fans there.
She pressed the elevator button and waited for it to arrive.
She got a call from her boss. Oh. She was late by 10 minutes.
"Sorry, boss, got stuck up because of a complete arse. I am coming in 5 minutes."
Prerna was completely informal with her boss. He treated her like his daughter. If you are wondering who her boss is, it is Keshav Kashyap. And he was a super cool boss. Totally informal.
"Language, Ms Sharma. You gotta report in time. I got lots of work for you."
"Yeah. See ya." she said. She loved her job and her boss.
The elevator pinged and she entered it. It was just about to shut off when she heard someone shout 'hold it'.
She pressed the button and held the elevator open and in entered Anurag Basu. Again.
"Hey, thank-" he was saying, slightly out of breath since he ran to the elevator, but cut his gratitude down when he spotted who stopped the elevator for him. Sharma again.
"You can say thanks," Prerna prompted. "But it's okay, dude. I won't expect etiquette from guys like you. Your head is so full of yourself, thoughts like respecting somebody don't enter it." She finished, viciously.
"Nice summing up Sharma, thanks. I am clearly all that you have stated. Good analysis." he said, leaning onto the elevator walls, grinning.
Shameless fellow. He irked her so much.
"What are you doing here?" she demanded, after a minute or two.
"Who are you? My mother?" Anurag retorted.
"A toddler can give a better retort than that, dude. Pity, you haven't grown up still! Still behave like when we were in school." she said, sneering.
"Oh, you mean that time when you used to put on braces and combed your hair into plaits. And also the time when your crush, what was his name, Rohan? Yeah. He dumped you. Poor heart of yours must be aching. Were you talking about that time?" He said, at his meanest best.
Prerna shook her head, smiling."Proof of what I just said. Still stuck in school. Maturity level - negative infinity. Grow up, dude. And there's nothing wrong in having braces or oiling you hair. "
"Everything you do is wrong, Sharma. That's all I know."
The elevator pinged again, halting their argument.
They both got out on the same floor.
They both walked through the same corridor.
The both stopped in front of the same cabin.
They both cast the other the same look of utter displeasure.
They both went for the same handle.
Okay. Stop.
"You go ahead." Anurag said, receding. "I'll go after you."
"You were getting late already, you go first. I dunno what you are here for but it's your first day. And impressions matter."
With a slight shrug, Anurag opened the door.
"You can thank me later!" Prerna said, grinning.
"Whatever, Sharma," murmured Anurag, as he braced himself. He seemed nervous. That was something new. She didn't know he was the nervous kind.
"You'll do good. Go on!" she said, with an encouraging nod.
He cast her a faint smile. That was something new too. Prerna double checked if he was actually smiling by which time the smile was gone and a second later he.
Prerna sat on the sofa in front of her boss's cabin. She took out her laptop and checked for new mails. There was one new one from the secretary of the Malhotra Industries welcoming her to the new venture. They seemed to have sent a mail to all of the people in the corporate office.
She quickly typed out a reply to the secretary. And refreshed. No new mails.
Prerna sat thinking about what Anurag could be doing here. He was here to work, of course. But why did he need to? His dad owned the Basu Group. He could be the next successor to it.
He was that filthy rich kid of her school who had everything he wanted with
a gang of cronies, making others life hell. He was that kind of guy. Okay, she was exaggerating. But he made her life hell though. He hated her. The feeling, of course, being mutual.
Or maybe he just wanted to experiment something new. Must be something like 'trying to make a name for myself without my dad's support' kind. Yeah. That could be it.
Prerna immediately opened her Google search bar and was about to type the words Anurag Basu.
Wait.
Would this be called stalking? She can't stalk Anurag Basu. That would wound her ego. But what about curiosity? She wanted to know what was up with him coming here.
Prerna's curiosity and ego fought an internal battle for a good 5 minutes. And when curiosity, finally, emerged victorious, it was too late. She was beckoned in by her boss's secretary, Vaibhav. She had to put off stalking Avinash for later. Not stalking. Knowing about him. Yeah.
Muttering a hello and giving Vaibhav a warm smile, Prerna entered. They were good friends.
Anutag was still sitting in one of the chairs looking like he had eaten a sour lemon. What was wrong with him? Did his first meet go bad?
"Morning, boss," she said, genially, smiling.
"Morning, Ms Sharma. I am happy to have you working on this new merger. Your work with the finance department was exemplary and you, according to the latest Employee Work Appraisal report, have the capacity to handle something bigger. The recruitment department has retained you to work on this grand project of ours and I can't be more glad. My favourite employee is working on it." He said, giving her a full blown smile.
Prerna grinned back.
"And I suggest you get to work starting from today. Our first launch plan would have to be finshed within a month at the earliest."
Prerna nodded.
"Before I divulge the details of the work you are expected to take up, I would like you to meet your team mate Mr. Anurag Basu. You would both be working on this together."
Wait a minute. Did he just say work WITH Anurag? That was such a disastrous idea!
Prerna's mouth fell open in horror. She was supposed to work with that guy? Why? No!
"What? Why?" she cried, on reflex, her voice laced with horror.
"Why?" repeated Kashyap, laughing. "That question makes no sense, Ms Sharma. I think you both are prodigious enough to handle this entire project and the functions would be divided among you. You would still find that there would be a lot of work that you would both have to work together upon."
Prerna was till in dismay. She looked at Anuraf to know what he thought of this.
He gave her a helpless, despondent look. He seemed to like this idea no better than her.
They would be a failure as a team. This was an important project. They couldn't take any risks. She had to tell her boss about it. Team work was very important. They can't expect to be lax at this point.
"I understand, boss. But, I, but, you don't know," Prerna said, struggling for the right words. "I don't think we'd make a good team."
She glanced at Anurag for support. He nodded earnestly, suddenly hopeful.
"And may I ask why?" asked Kashyap.
Oh wow. He asked that very question that she didn't want to answer. What was she supposed to tell him? That they were enemies from school? Super mature answer that would be. No?
Anurag spoke. "Mr Kashyap, we know each other since before. All our past interactions have been, let's say, not very peaceful." He tried explaining, in the most meaningful manner.
"Personal interactions, as you might very well be aware, Mr Anurag, are very different from the professional ones. And I would also like to remind the both of you that a good professional is one, that would never let his professional life get influenced by his personal. And just out of curiosity, are you both a couple who had had a bad break up?"
"NO!" they both yelled, aghast. No way! The idea was so disturbing!
"I wouldn't date Anurag ever!" Prerna said, shuddering.
"I am not particularly dying to date you, either, Sharma. You and your abnormally large ego would not let me bear you for a day!" Anurag said, dismissively.
"Ha! Look who's talking about ego! Your head would one day fall off to the ground with all the weight of the ego and arrogance that's in there. No wonder you were so hated at school by everyone." Prerna retorted, viciously.
"You would do well to shut up, Sharma!" Anurag shouted, in a sudden rage. She seemed to have touched a nerve.
"You would both do well to shut up," said Keshav said, his voice thundering over their shouts. "I wouldn't have ever imagined that two professionals like you would behave with such indignity! If you both have a problem with working with each other, you may please leave and I would appoint two more people, who, though not as professionally competent as you both would know how to BEHAVE!" He said, angry.
Prerna was being shouted at by her boss
First time ever. Her eyes watered.
"Sorry," she muttered, meekly.
"I am so sorry, Mr Kashyap. You know how much this means to me. I am ready to work with her. I have no qualms. Please." Anurag appealed, earnestly.
"I would too, boss. I am so sorry I disappointed you." Prerna said, trying to cajole her boss. Tears threatened to leak form her eyes.
Kashyap heaved a sigh. "Look, I completely trust you both to do this job excellently. I have no doubts about you as a team! Trust me you'd make a great one.
Anyway, you would both, from now on address each other as Mr Basu and Ms Sharma. And your are both expected to work together. You would both find your respective cabins in the dual cabin area of the fourteenth floor. You have been allotted cabins adjacent to each other because the nature of your jobs would require frequent communication. You will find your job requirements mailed to your respective ids. And you are expected to start working today. I would have suggested you to both sit in the same cabin and work. But seeing that you both are not able to stand each others presence, you can communicate through any other means. But the work should be reaching the standards. I want no compromise because of your personal issues. Prerna, you would be heading the Finance, Marketing and HT functions. And Mr Anurag you would be handling the Production, R&D and Information System Departments. Get to work."
They both shuffled out of the cabin, not uttering a word.
They had work to do. Unfortunately, with each other.
That was chapter 2. How did you find Anurag? Arrogant? Contemptuous? How did you find their interaction?
Ye Hai Mohabbatein
Arjun
Sensational South
