PS – Work of Fiction
Continued from part 1
“Excuse me, Sir. What’s your problem?” The Lead Cabin crew member said to me.
“That’s it,” I said and asked,”Why the hell is she staring at me and wanting to talk to me?”
“Who sir?” She enquired.
“It’s her,” I pointed my finger towards the flight attendant who interacted with me. “She is constantly stalking me since I boarded the jet.”
“Stalking?” The flight attendant mumbled.
I cleared my throat and continued, “First of all my day has been ruined by my boss and she is nagging me.”
“When I say that I don’t need anything then I mean each and every word of what I say.” I continued.
“Priyanka.” The senior cabin crew member looked at the flight attendant and asked, “What is this?”
“Well, Mister. It’s our duty to serve people and our airlines pays us to do this,” she said and continued,”We have to ensure that no passenger is unhappy with our services.”
“Why on Earth should I stalk you?” She asked and said,” I don’t even know you, sir.”
“I didn’t do anything wrong and kindly accept my apologies if my actions hurt you.” She said and left. Her eyes were moist as she spoke each word. Everyone was looking at us. It must have been an embarrassing situation for anyone and I realized that it was my mistake.
“Avoid interactions with strangers!” I recollected what I read at morning.
“Oh God!” I slapped my forehead.
My day was turning from bad to worse. My first interaction of the day wasn’t a fruitful one. My boss had cruel plans of sending me to the E&Y Project audit. First of all this sudden plan came out as a surprise to me and I wasn’t prepared at all.
I felt guilty for hurting a girl. Not just any girl – a beautiful air hostess!
She was standing near the emergency exit door. I looked at her but she didn’t give a damn to me. She was visibly upset and she had all rights to be angry on me.
I tried smiling at her but she was not ready to look at me.
Well, no girl would do that. Her anger was justified.
I had to be sorry. I felt like I had done a big blunder. I had to apologize. But how? Several thoughts started surfacing my mind.
The plane landed at the Indira Gandhi Airport at 11 AM. The ensemble of Air Hostesses gathered at the door to bid adieu to the passengers. Some of them even clicked photos with the passengers. Priyanka shook hands with each one of them. She wore a lovely smile on her face. But her smile vanished as I raised my hands forward to greet her. She quickly moved aside. The other girls laughed and giggled at me. I moved forward. I looked behind and saw that she was clicking selfies with a group of young kids. My day would have been made if she had smiled at me. But seeking a smile after terribly hurt someone is the worst thing to do. God forbid!
The worst thing was that I could never muster enough courage to apologise to her.
Sooner, I left the airport. On my way to our Delhi branch, I had my lunch at the Akira Back without realizing that Lunch arrangements were made for us at Office.
The meeting was rescheduled to be 3 PM. I took this opportunity to take rounds of the office premises. I took a puff of a cigarette and roamed outside the office.
“Is there any representative of the AT&T CICS East Team?” The Audit coordinator asked outside. I quickly dropped the cigarette butt and went inside.
My train of thoughts was disturbed by whatever happened inside the Flight. I desperately wanted to meet the girl and apologize. It was my mistake and I was too harsh.
“Where is the meeting?” I asked the Audit coordinator.
“Chanakya. Take left on the second floor.” She riposted. I took my seat inside the conference room. Everyone including the E&Y auditors introduced themselves.
“Varun Kapoor here representing AT&T CICS East team from Mumbai,” I announced
I met the others from the AT&T team. Though our interaction with them is limited but I knew them. I was looking forward to meeting all of them after the Audit meet.
The auditors were discussing the key learnings and lessons learnt from our previous releases. They were scrutinizing the records and the review documents.
The meeting got over in 3 hours. It was more of a review meeting. As I about to leave, I heard someone calling me.
“Hey Varun.”
“Hi,” I said and continued, “I’m sorry I am not able to recognize you.”
“Aniesha Mehra here.”
“Aniesha.. the Project Manager of the CICS West Team, right” I confirmed.
“Correct. I was looking forward to meeting Bakshi,” she said, “Is he here?”
I wish I could tell her that Bakshi was being an asshole and send me to represent our team.
“No, he isn’t,” I said with a straight face.
She was not more than 35 years old but she looked too young. Her charming personality and her way of talking impressed me.
“Ok, I will meet him at our company Leadership Summit later this year.” she said and asked, “Want to have coffee?”
“Sure!” I said and we both left for the cafeteria.
“It’s good meeting you in person, Aniesha!”
“Same here, Varun.” she took a sip of coffee and smiled.
“How’s work?” she asked.
“Going good.”
“What’s wrong?” She asked, “Is everything fine?”
I was clearly upset about everything that happened at the morning. I wish I could tell her everything. But why should I?
“From what I know about you, you seem to be a jovial and fun-loving person.”
“You look disturbed and distracted today,” she added.
“You can share your problems with me if you want,” she said and continued,” Or is Bakshi harassing you?” She joked.
Bakshi doesn’t have the balls to harass me yet. I wish I could say this to her. “No Bakshi is a nice guy!”
“Then?” Aniesha asked, curiously.
“Yes..somewhat disturbed…I actually hurt a beautiful woman,” I said. I narrated her the entire incident which took place in the jet.
“Life comes with its own clause. And some clause is such that we break the boundaries and go beyond the extremes.” I said.
“Talk to my face. Don’t talk like Philosophers,” she laughed.
“I happened to hurt a wonderful woman out of frustration.” I said and continued, “But it just happened out of impulse.”
“And who is the poor lady?” she asked.
“The Air hostess.”
“Poor thing. Air hostesses are cute,” she giggled
“And you hurt them and made them cry,” she added.
“No, she didn’t cry. She seemed defiant and looked like the rebel kinds,” I said,” And stop taunting me okay?”
“And by any chance is she working in Spicejet?” she asked curiously.
“Spicejet! Oh yes!”
“Viola! I can help you then,” she said and winked at me.
“Help? What? How? Really?” I sat dumbstruck, watching at her in a state of confusion.
(to be continued..)
