She was waiting, and waiting sitting across the big,
repulsive …the pale door near the staircase. She was cladded in her pair of
greyish-blue denims and a crisp lime shade halter top. Oh, that oomph! The office
people passed by again and again and glanced at her. She tried to read their
lip sync but doesn’t care over the usual comments she is accustomed to.Her gaze was steadily set on that huge
rectangular piece of wood. Her fingers sometimes clenched the folders and sometimes
the straight hair falling on the shoulders were being played with, as the time
had to be passed. She twisted sometimes to look for the receptionist who was
busy taking long calls at the receiving desk.
The interview with him was fixed for 10:30 this
morning, she has her own office to attend to which she has escaped to attend to
this new offer. ‘Shelly Seth’ called the haughty receptionist, Mr. Aman is waiting
inside for you. The name, pinched something inside but the eyes shimmered and
this moment was thanked by her. She hastily turn to her nude-tinged heels and walked
in head-high. The disposition she carried through the foyer was all calm and
the elegance was personified in the way she dressed for the day. After all, she
was to audition for a new advertisement, she had to look her best and yet
effortless in appeal. Aman looks at this muse walking in the chiffon top and
kept looking……She sat opposite him, thoughtfully shook hands with him and expected
the round of questions to be put forward. She was quiet and quiet…. he sat
alike. The silence invaded the atmosphere and no questions came around. Aman
congratulated her, they shook hands. She came out of the same repulsive door
without looking back, walking aimlessly, clueless and unable to react.
The phone buzzed one, twice and thrice, Shelly did
not pick and undecidedly sat in her car and drove to her workplace. As she
parked the car in the lane outside the office suddenly a realisation hit her,
that mummy’s call need to be returned before she reaches the workplace. She didn’t know what to say, she said, ‘I did
get the job, but I am not going to go’.
The day was absent-mindedly spent at the
workstation, some assignments done, a few scenes shot for the advertisements. Unless
she found the bunch of documents at her desk - freshly wet by the drops from
the eyes that gazed upon them; she didn’t know she was crying. The tears marked
her journey to the lovely days spent together in college, the frames flashed in
front of her, the selfies they clicked together, the biscuits they broke into
two and sipped from the same cup, the visit to the quiet lanes of Hauz Khas
that was the favourite hotspot during the college days, the drives together,
listening from his boring Kishore Kumar numbers to her favourite Honey Singh, the
days of sharing the same platter and being best friends to the cutest couple,
Aman and her…
She was breaking into pieces by now, after all she
had promised herself 4 years back that she will never meet him again. But, life
had planned something which she had never planned, life today morning had taken
this U-turn. The evening brought such dullness, mummy made her favourite Orange
Chicken; Shelly took her pillow to her couch and the dinner remain unattended.