Sunaina - she had dreams in her eyes
Sitting at Café Good luck and waiting for
her food to arrive, she was in the middle of an interesting conversation. The
atmosphere was cacophonic and there was haste in the air. The business was
usual on a pleasant Sunday morning of late December. Speaking to her friends as
always with a quick throw of words; as a quintessential chatterbox, she was
deep into the discussion. This time the discussion was about her, by her.
“I am selfish”, she said. “I mean, I cannot
explain..”, she retorted with a pause and resumed with an emphasis, “but I am
selfish”. For a couple of seconds she looked for examples or better words may
be. “Let’s say I am eating a packet of noodles, and I have to share it, and
then I would end up having three fourths of the plate and leave the one fourth
to you. You won’t do that, right? I am basically, that selfish”, she came back
strongly explaining her point. The result of which was a moment of light
giggles with a tinge of surprise to the way she had put it. Friends were all
around and life was good. The world looked beautiful and here was she, in the
middle of all of it.
On a quiet morning as she finished her
video interview she had a lot of plans and day dreams. The things she would put
in place if she clear all the rounds and gets the job offer. The smaller issues of her life like paying the
EMIs for the personal loan, sending money to parents back home in Dewas, or
saving for any dreaded emergency ordeal begin to seem now easier as things were
starting to fall in place. The bigger issues of her life - like getting the
broken footwear fixed or say, what food recipe to prepare for dinner or getting
the clothes ironed for the work-day looked out of place to be completed. She
had worked through the ranks of a trainee; now gaining four and half years of
work experience and making an informed decision of changing the job for better
prospects. Somehow things were not clicking for months on end. At a point, she had considered
going to the holy shrine of Trimbakeshwar for some divine intervention in her
interview process. She knew He was watching and He had some special plans for
her. The dice had begun to roll after 8
months of applications and attending the interview processes of numerous
multinationals. At one occasion after the completion of all the initial
formalities and 3 rounds of interviews, the position for which the selection
was made had abruptly been closed. The lightning had struck once.
The next day at 2:24 PM, her mobile phone
made a distinct beep sound. The e-mail application showed a notification
regarding the second round of interview being scheduled two days later.
On the interview day, as the rickshaw drove
through, from the gate of her apartment at Sus Pashan Road towards the Pune
Bangalore highway she ruffled through the original documents and phtocopies she
carried for the interview. Of course making sure that the interview call letter
was not forgotten. As she was recalling the answers to some potential questions
in the interview, the rickshaw was decelerating on the decline of the flyover
meeting the highway. She saw a speeding KTM Duke breezing through her right
side with an approximate speed 100 km/hour with a thunderous sound. At the next
instant, the bike collided at the intersection with an Volkswagon Polo. There
was a deafening silence of 17 seconds and it brought in a void in the mind,
leaving aside all the interview questions.
Two hours and fifteen minutes later she
admitted the person named, Yogesh Varshney in the hospital. After completing
the necessary procedures, she made sure his relatives arrived to take care of
the situation. She realized she had to make a choice couple of hours ago. She
chose what she felt was right to her. After all, nothing is right or wrong.
Eventually it is a matter of perspective.
She did drop an email to the interviewing company
for the postponement of the interview. Her potential employer sent across a
courtesy e-mail assuring the interview will be rescheduled. It never was. The
lightning had now struck for the second time.
On the Makar Sankrant day, as a bunch of
colorful kites soared high in the sky, she spent her day updating her resume
and contemplating on the events of that day, looking out of the window
hopefully.
She had
joined in the new company completing 5 years of professional experience.
After the new joinee documentation was completed she went in to discover the
taste of the new cafeteria and ordered a club sandwich along with a cold
coffee. As she sipped in the drink, she recalled, that, in no time, the new
calendar year had brought in pleasant surprises for her. Surprises add the
essential spice to life, they say, and spice brings variety. The postponed
interview was rescheduled one and half months later. As she came out of the
building completing the interview, she shone bright as star in the sky. The lightning did strike for the third time, and
now for the good.
On the other end of the cafeteria, Yogesh
Varshney, Senior Manager, Recruitment Team was having a tea break with his
colleagues discussing the knock played by Rohit Sharma on a flat Motera wicket
against the South Africans.
That day - she came home with a heavy heart–
a heart full of many little things. Of little joy, of some sense of
achievement, with some more satisfaction and a lot of hope. Hope is after all,
not a bad thing. She looked in to the mirror for a moment and a recap of last
few months passed before her.
Sunaina, her name, wasn’t just like that.
She had dreams in her eyes.
