Song beneath the Song (AbhiGya Story)updated ch-1 - Page 2

Chapter 1: Ditching the comfort-zone

Sahil halted at the doorstep of Caf Brew ending his twenty minute long sprint from the bus stop. Panting, he bent to rest his palms on his knees and concentrated on gaining his breath back. After a minute or two he straightened and turned the door knob to the pinkest caf the world had ever seen. Every time he entered this caf he was surprised by his continued dislike for its ambience. Basking in subdued orange lights the entire cafeteria had the feel of a fairytale gone wrong. He hurriedly made his way to his usual spot, in front of an old, formidable looking lady with huge glasses. He took out his laptop from his bag careful not to meet her stern gaze.

"You realize that we could finish a whole new chapter in the sweet time you took to reach here from next door?" she said and pursed her lips as if daring him to disagree.

"Umm.. I don't live next door." he replied meekly.

"Really? Then why do we meet at this hideous place for our work?"

He rolled his eyes and answered "Because.. this is where your late husband had proposed to you 50 years back. You said that to me when we were covering the chapter on your early wedding and torturous in-laws."

"Good. I'm impressed", she smirked "It is fun testing you at times. When Sameer told me he will send a school boy to collect notes for my biography I was quite disturbed. These timely tests reassure me."

"I will be finishing school very soon Ma'am. In fact in the next two months" he replied in a defensive tone.

"I don't care when you finish school as long as your mentor compiles my biography on time." she snapped.

He started jotting down points as she expounded on her past life but after 10 minutes of paying attention, his mind wandered elsewhere. He thought of the promise he had made to Pragya that morning, about getting her a well-paying part time job. He owed a lot to her. With his parents constantly pressurizing him to join their family business after school finishes, only Pragya Ma'am had encouraged him to pursue his dream to become a journalist. With that encouragement he had started interning at a media house and his first assignment was to help in the biography of Mrs. Gunjan Shekhawat, Creator of the showbiz magazine called Spotlight. If only he could convince her to give Pragya a small job in her magazine... But will she agree?

"Ma'am" he said in the most polite tone he could master, "Your life has been so inspirational. Specially the part about how you always help young and talented people find employment."

"But I still haven't started telling you about my career", she said suspiciously.

"But I read up about you", he said eagerly, "You know.. to help me with my notes on your life and I was so surprised, they call you the Messiah of the young and talented."

"You read up about me? That's impressive!" she remarked.

It was true. A lot of young writers did owe their success to Mrs. Shekhawat and her popular magazine that gave them their first break.

"And then I read about the negative publicity of Spotlight a month ago", said Sahil abruptly.

His words had the desired effect. Mrs. Shekhawat frowned and said with a hint of suppressed anger, "What do you say about these young journalists?! They would do anything to get close to the celebrities. This woman. What was her name.. yes Kanyaka, she offered this Rockstar, Abhishek Mehra a one-night-stand in exchange of a good review on his show. He exposed her, giving Spotlight a bad name!"

"May be you need someone who is not swayed by these rockstars and their popularity. Someone who will remain true to her work and not butter these celebrities. I know someone like this. She is talented and honest. Would you like to meet her?" he asked, with his fingers crossed under the table.

When she did not answer he continued, "She has been far isolated from the showbiz world to have motives of her own and she is very good-natured. She will focus on her work. Any temporary work. Can you help her ma'am?"

Mrs. Shekhawat thought it over. After the Kanyaka episode none of her journalists wanted to cover rockstar Abhi's shows fearing a backlash from media competitors or from the rockstar himself. Only someone who has not been in the industry long enough will not fear her reputation shattering as she wouldn't have a reputation to worry about.

"Okay", she said after a while, "Send her to my office tomorrow. But are you sure she will be up for this kind of thing?"

"Yes!" he grinned, "She is all in for ditching her comfort-zone for a while"

Meanwhile, Pragya left college with butterflies in her stomach. She was about to meet Sahil in Caf Brew after he finished interviewing some lady he saw every evening.

"Shayad isiliye aj subah date pe gaya tha, sham ko kaam jo karna padta hai!" she laughed to herself.

"God knows what this new work is going to be like" she thought. Bulbul's birthday was after three months and she planned to gift her money for her portfolio then. But this required three months of doing something that was completely out of her comfort zone! How difficult would it be?!

"Don't be scared. You can do it" she told herself "it's just three months and then life will get back to normal."

Somewhere high up in the sky, cupid laughed to himself. He alone knew what was in store for her. It was time to polish his bow and arrow.

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P.S Hope you liked it. Please leave comments. Constructive criticism welcomed. :)

Also, i was confused whether cupid should be a girl or a boy.. but settled with boy eventually😉