A Strange Day Serendipity - part II

[ Please read the part 1 if you have not read it yet..]

So it has been 2 hours since I read that surprising email from my sales force head. Like I said before I don’t even remember what I did for the past 2 hours except that I met Akhila and we are planning to have lunch today after the presentation. The day is still going to get better!!

The AC hall in B block looked almost like a ballroom all packed with white faces, some old ones gobbling the café day sandwiches, some rosy chicks giggling and some tall ones sitting in the front row and flipping through the A4 printouts. I am all set and suited up for the presentation. The first 30 minutes, I have no idea what I said, in fact I don’t remember a word I uttered, but I can tell you from the reaction from the faces, I am here for a big fish today. I am sure. My cell phone rang twice in between the presentation. I know it was from MK. I cut the call. Why should I attend? I wouldn’t be surprised if he had asked me to put him on speaker and taken the control of the presentation had I attended the call. Good I did not.

Guess what? Looks like MY first proposal meeting turned out well. The air in the conference room is overwhelmed with satisfaction and admiration. But I have to wait for another 2 hours for the results. That entitles me for a 2 hour lunch with Akhila. She was also there in the presentation watching me with a lot of excitement. Think she did not have much to do on first day.
So.. here I am sitting with my once-upon-a-time-dream-girl over the lunch table and still thinking how to start the conversation. A strange day indeed.
” You know Ram, I always liked your quietness when we were in college” she broke the silence with a clean sweep.
Now this is the moment most of the guys lose it.
“Seriously? I never knew you liked it!” I fumbled.
As you might have already guessed it- I am bad at this. I am very bad that I lost my book “21 days to become a romantic guy” on the 7th day when I was already behind by 3 days of stuff to catch up.
But still I am observing something in her eye today that kept telling me “You are adorable!”
Again, what a day this has been so far?

There were already 5 big guys standing next to my cubicle waiting for me when I entered the office after the lunch– all of them are either managers or department heads – I know the name of only 2.

“Hey Ram. Congrats man. We got it finally. You pulled it through. Customer has personally congratulated you and you know what? You are travelling to the UK this weekend. Hope you don’t have any issues? Get geared up man. This is really a good news”.
A pat on my shoulder.

“Thanks Nandy. How long is the assignment?” I mumbled as my brain was struggling to process this sudden surge in the information coming in.

“6 months is what is decided now. But you know how it works. It might get extended by another 2-3 months. What? you don’t want to go or what?” he smirked.

To tell you the truth, all I have been waiting until this moment was to get a chance to go to Delhi some day and work in the head office for 2 -3 weeks like how Karthik did.
Man... Free accommodation, free food, additional allowance, places to visit and more than anything else I don’t have to see MK’s face and I can even ignore his calls. That’s pretty much what my carrier objective so far. But not anymore. See how things turnabout in one day. I am expected to travel to the UK tomorrow and will have to spend almost a year there. As I walked back to my cubicle still trying to get my head around this whole thing, I couldn’t help noticing Akhila looking at me with a beautiful smile on her lips. It can’t get luckier any more, can it?

The terminal was not crowded much. Even it was, I wouldn’t have known because this is the first time I have ever been to the Bangalore international airport. I told Akhila not to come but she said she wanted to meet my parents and this would be the best chance for her to meet them. Looking at the way she is talking to my parents, I kind of think they already started liking her. Something to consider seriously, may be once I come back from the UK.
I am about to get into the terminal for check-in now. I said bye to Akhila. She almost had tears in her eyes. Kind of strange for a 2 days old relationship isn’t it?
I went to my mom, gave her a big hug and was about to touch her feet. The moment I bent down, I could hear a big thud and it was followed by a very bad pain on the center of my forehead. Sh**.. what the heck is this?...
I managed to lift my head up, and there is Karthik standing with a wet bath-towel tied around his hip and laughing at me like a jackass.
“Da... Are you okay?” he is still laughing. I am trying to find my glasses on the floor.

“Don’t worry. You are not late for anything. Today’s presentation is anyway postponed. MK wanted to do it on his own when he is in the UK next week.”

“But why is he…?.... “. I murmured, still trying to find where my mom and Akhila are gone.

He continued - “Dude MK just called me. He in fact tried calling you twice half an hour ago it seems.. guess you were in deep sleep, you cut his call.. Anyway he wanted me to update you about the presentation. And one more thing – that rookie he was talking about yesterday... the one who is joining us today?!! – “Rajesh” is his name it seems. We have to orient him today. I hate this stuff man.”
I am almost getting into a concussion now. Still trying to understand what he just said.

“Man... you just fell off from the cot.. nothing else… What happened to you... Are you okay?.. I told you last night it’s not a good idea to go for the night show. Look at your face now…”, he couldn’t control his laugh. So did I.
Good that the meeting got postponed; I am yet to start with the presentation. I am happy at least I did not miss Rajnikanth’s movie yesterday. It really turned out to be a strange day!!!

[ This story is dedicated to all the software engineers with 1, 2, 3 or more than 3 years of experienced, working in a startup or medium scale or large companies, working with stupid or funny or smart managers, working for customers from the US or UK or Europe or even Pakistan. I pray god at least your dreams will come true one day. May god be with you. Amen ]

:-) :-)