Touch of Mist
♥♥ CHAPTER 01: Love @ First Sight ♥♥
THREE YEARS AGO
Bangalore, Karnataka
Spring was in the air. The busy city, with its arid, dusty streets,
garbage laden sidewalks and leafless withering trees seemed to have
come to life in a way that made children laugh and play; lovers hold
hands and even make wrinkled old women smile at one another.
Reena woke up earlier than usual, took a quick bath and wore a
maroon salwar. She glimpsed her reflection in the mirror and was happy
with what she saw and appreciated herself for the choice of clothes
and accessories. She packed Sidney Sheldon's Memories of Midnight
and Programming Android book into her bag which had an Applz
logo. The bag was given to her complementary by her new company
at the time of joining. She proudly took her company ID card, kissed
her picture with a grin and zoomed to the bus stop.
Today, the day she had dreamt of for a long time. The day she
started her course - B.E (Information Technology) in the best university
in India, her aspiration was to get placed with Applz Inc. The placement
statistics reports, disclosed it to be one of the best and toughest
companies to be hired by. Reena cleared 12 rounds of interviews to get
the wonderful job offer and endured further rounds of interviews to join
the project. After a successful completion of hard-hitting trainings and
exams given by Applz, she was adorned into a new project at a new
branch and today, she was on her way to her first day of her new
office.
The light breeze, bringing in the fragrance of fresh blooms, teased
her soft hair and the dupatta. It was getting late, but Reena was enjoyingthe soft sun and the light breeze, so she didn’t mind waiting. A brightly
coloured ball rolled and stopped at her feet. Smiling slightly, she picked
it up and rolled it back towards the two little boys who were playing
with it.
She boarded a bus and found an empty seat opposite to a guy, a
complete stranger, just like any other day. Never in her wildest dreams
had she thought that this stranger would one day, mean the world to
her. He is Gautham, a tech savvy Software Engineer with eye-catching
looks and resembles any supermodel. Gautham is a big cricket freak
and has always experimented with his hairstyles based on the cricket
players’ hairstyle trends. Last year, he grew a long mane to match with
that of Dhoni, whereas this year, his hair is short and spiky, to get that
Virat Kohli look. Next year!? Only our Indian cricket team can decide!
His accessories include a Rolex watch, Woodland shoes, Hugo Boss
sunglasses and Stars & Straps’ belt. If ‘Apple’ launched a new version
of the I-Phone, he would definitely swap with his I-Phone 5S version
for the latest one!
(Readers: Trendy guy! Doesn’t he owe the latest Suzuki’s Hyper Sports bike?
Author: Undoubtedly, he does own a latest sports bike. But he
prefers traveling in a bus for three reasons. One, he doesn’t want to
waste PETROL for riding to his office without a girlfriend on his bike.
Reason 2, he is a typical software techie who returns home at mid night and hence prefers his company transport while coming back on those late, strenuous nights.
Reason 3, he doesn’t want to get caught by the infamous Bangalore traffic police and pay them bribes even having showing them the mandatory documents.)
Reena flopped down in haste as the bus was about to make a move.
He didn’t observe her as he was engrossed in listening to music. To her
he seemed a bit crazy. She took out the book and got completely
immersed into it. After a few minutes of travel she finally broke the
silence, “Could you please inform me when the First Technology Park
arrives?"
Gautham pulled out his mobile from his pocket to pause the song he
was listening to and confirmed in an American accent “FTP? Yup”
“Thanks!” she replied and delved into the book again and soon got
engrossed in her book again. But Gautham was taken aback by her
striking yet serene beauty. He could not take his eyes off her. There
was something about her that attracted him. She possessed a stylish
feather cut hair which added an extra delicacy and enhanced the beauty
of her neck-line. Her petite nose, luscious lips and drop-dead gorgeous
eyes were mesmerizing and they captivated his eyes like a magnet.
Her nails were neatly shaped, manicured and polished in a shade
complementary to her red lipstick. A string of tiny pearls were on her
right wrist and a watch on the left one. He tried focusing on the road,
but ended up checking her out again. Her hair had been caught by the
light breeze of the A.C and was flying out behind her. Her beauty
exponentially increased, as the minutes passed. He felt a catalyst
speeding up a chemical reaction within his heart. He wanted to interact
with her but controlled himself. She was still buried under the Sidney
Sheldon book without even noticing his continuous gaze.
(Eve: Oh God! Why did you create us beautiful? These guys fall in love at first sight.
Adam: Excuse me. There are millions of good looking girls in
this universe. Are we falling in love with each and every of those million
girls?
Eve: Not exactly. But you don’t fall in love with an average looking girl.
Adam: See, there is no term called good looking and average
looking. Everyone looks beautiful to someone or the other. Actually,
beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. To me you look very beautiful
and attractive. I get a special feeling the moment I see you. So, I have fallen in love with you. You may not be beautiful to others.
Eve: Oh! So you say I am ugly to others?
Adam: I did say you are beautiful and attractive to me already.
Eve: You indeed said that there are millions of good looking
girls in the universe.
Adam: Chill. Let me clarify. I said there may be millions of
good looking girls, but only you seem to be beautiful to me my dear Eve.
Eve: No. It’s the other way around. I am ugly to others. And you feel there are millions of good looking girls.
Adam: You girls can never pick up the positive part of a sentence. You just pick up the negative part and fight.
Eve: You guys can never speak out a positive sentence. Always queue it up with negatives.)
FTP stop was about to arrive and he felt the adrenaline down his
spine as he now had a chance to talk to her but before he could do so,
the conductor over took him and questioned her, “FTP? This is your
stop.”
“Gosh, how many people did you keep posted to notify about FTP?”
Gautham was a little annoyed since he was about to knock Reena but
couldn’t.
She conveyed thanks to the conductor, got down and started walking
towards the gigantic steel, glass and aluminium clad edifice - The Applz
Inc. building. Gautham also got down and started following her like the
most obedient disciple.
The FTP campus was built over 200 acres, dotted with 165 software
companies like Infosys, Microsoft, Dell, Google, Accenture, Capgemini,
Wipro and so on. All the companies had been constructed with unique,
vibrant styles of sprawling architecture. Reena admired the ravishing
beauty of the glass pyramid, spectacular egg shaped and grandly built
edifice.
Beep, Beep!!!
A young man on a bike, suddenly braked on noticing Gautham. He
was a strikingly handsome man, in his twenties, tall, with chiselled
features and a head of curly hair. He is Kishore, Gautham’s best buddy
from graduation and roommate. He is of the type who can just turn any
stone for the sake of their friends. Kishore’s presence is liked and
entertained by Gautham for the very reason that he has matured and
balanced attitude.
Kishore offered him a lift, “On the way to office? I will drop you buddy. Come on!”
“You carry on dude; I couldn’t manage time for my morning walk. Will join you at the office,” Gautham said, annoyed at being disturbed while he kept eye on Reena.
"When were you so health conscious and had you ever gone for walking? Sick with your jokes! Now come and Sit.”
Gautham, exasperated with Kishore’s helping tendencies, sat on the bike. The bike zoomed pass Reena. He quickly took a snap of her with the camera in his eyes, and saved it the memory of his brain. Reena was not bothered about him, in-fact she hadn’t even noticed as she was preoccupied with her thoughts about her first day at Applz and she kept walking towards her destination.
At office, Gautham's cubical...
The walls were painted in lime green and mint green alternately, to
visually stimulate and boost the mood and enhance their associate’sproductivity. Gautham’s cubical was covered with pictures and posters
that were supposed to inspire work. A print out of his application topology
that projected the layout of ‘How a different critical application in an
enterprise connected to each other’ was embarked on the wall panels
of the cubicle. Few trophies like “Best Innovator of the Year”, “APL
Man of the match”, “Excellence Award” and “Spot Award certificate”
were arranged neatly.
However, Gautham could just not concentrate on work today as he
kept recollecting and pondering over her pretty face, those bewildering
pair of eyes, those rosy lips and that soft smile at the corner of her
beautiful lips.
“Good morning buddy,” his team lead said, pulling him out of his dream without warning.
He turned towards his right but to his alarm, all he could see was
the face whom he had so deeply admired in the bus. He laughed at his
madness and for a second he felt that as if he was in a deep slumber.
“Gautham, You there?” The team leads voice echoed again from his left side.
He turned towards the voice and saw Varun his team lead standing to his left. He is about 28 years with sharp features but a serious-look. Varun initiated the introduction, “She is Reena Balasubrahmanyam, Graduate Trainee, joined our project today.”
Reena, his dream girl was standing towards his right. “Reena, he is Gautham Sridharan”
She exchanged the same mystified look that had overshadowed his eyes too and could only utter, “Hi!”
“Hello, Welcome to our team,” he said
He took her hand and gave her a firm handshake.
Varun continued, “Gautham had joined this organization as a graduate
trainee, and will be completing 2 years by December. For the time being, you will be reporting to him.” He completed the introduction and allocated her seat right to Gautham’s place.
Reena was surprised to see colleagues sitting on bean bags instead of the standard ergonomic chairs. Initially, it looked very uncomfortable to her but, she soon realized how comfortable they were and how they created an informal, friendly ambience at the office.
Once Varun left the place, Gautham launched front camera in his
phone. A huge smile stretched across his face. The smile mirrored his
strangely satisfying look. This heart whelming happiness mixed with his
newly felt ardor provided him with a snap he had never had earlier. He
turned his face towards the monitor that was currently displaying a
screensaver with a blue color tooth brush image and a famous quote,
“Treat your password like your toothbrush. Don’t let anybody else
use it and get a new one every six months.” He pressed the “Enter”
key to exit from the screen saver and absently started typing R E E N A
in the password text box instead of his password.
“The username or password is incorrect” he read the error message which was displayed and realized a trifle late that he has typed her name by mistake.
“Excuse me sir…” Reena called him gently. “Sir? Call me Gautham”
“Okay Sir…” Reena replied “Sir again?”
“Sorry Sir”
“Oops. Do I look like your school teacher? Did I teach you any subject, for which you are addressing me as sir?”
Reena stood speechless.
“Please call me Gautham. In the corporate world, we don’t
encourage employees to address others as “sir/madam”. I hope that during your induction you attended the session campus to corporate,” he said, trying to project his attitude as much as possible.
“I agree sir. But I am uncomfortable addressing my seniors by name.” replied the annoyed and surprised Reena.
“How did you address your seniors in college then?”
“In the first year, during ragging period we were ordered to address them as sir & madam. After that we called them brother. Can I call you brother then?” she asked innocently.
His heart skipped a beat.
“What? Brother? Then would you address the Manager as uncle? And the, CEO who is around 50, as grandpa?” He continued with an ordering tone, “Call me Gautham!”
“Ok,” drawled the reluctant Reena.
“Tell me now. What do you want?”
“Could you help me in setting up a mail server?”
He helped her in completing all the formalities most willingly since it gave him an opportunity to get closer to her.
(Eve: This is too much Adam. He likes her so much, then why can’t he be a little polite and nice?
Adam: If we are nice to you girls, you will call us flirt. If we
speak out just what is needed, you will call us rude. What do you want
us to do?
Eve: Try to deliver only what is needed.
Adam: How to know, what is it?
Eve : That’s your business. You need to research on that)
Lunch time...
Gautham thought of inviting Reena for lunch, but was held back as he didn’t want to appear like a flirt. At the same time, he didn’t want to miss a chance of talking to her.
He went nearer, caressed her hair and said, “Settled into the new
project?”
“Trying to!” she replied in a lot of excitement.
“Lunch?”
“Five minutes dear!” Reena replied.
“What 5 minutes? You come right now,” he started dragging her. “Ok, alright. Let’s go.”
Gautham had to be blissful at the above incident. But he was
disturbed and shocked, since the last conversation was not between
him and Reena. It was with some other guy and Reena. He was
absolutely bewildered at the pandemonium within his heart as he wanted
to bring back the butterfly which fluttered away from his grip leaving
behind an awestruck child.
Next Chapter : CHAPTER 02: Love Re-Loaded
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