Shades of Life

Her Dreams

I looked up at the tall building that stood in front of me in all its glory, man I can’t believe my dream is finally coming true. I paid my cab and crossed the road with a big fat smile on the face. Setting my hairs and pulling my long coat, I entered the Mehta Industries building. I smiled at the watchman and entered the building. I bee-lined to the front desk and saw a young girl and a guy standing there attending to few people. I stood in the queue and glanced around the huge building in awe.

It was full of modern architecture, made of glass. Everything was so posh and completely peach colored. I checked my shoes if there was any dirt because this place was so clean. Yikes!

Last week, I said bye to my friends and family and packed all my stuffs. My family and friends threw me endless parties; they were bittersweet moments. I was so nervous about my first day that I slept late last night and woke up late this morning, so that’s why I had to take a cab. Fighting with my GPS and this traffic would have definitely made me late.

When my turn came, I told them my name and they came me my ID and a welcome kit. They gave me a warm welcome.

Thanking them, I rushed to the floor that they said to find the team lead under whom I’ll be working. Team lead did contact me once, congratulated me for the job and welcomed me on aboard. Sent me few files that I had to sign and also service agreement. He did tell me that I would meet the whole team when I join in.

He told me that I would working with a team that working directly under the CEO which had me in jitters for a while but then I thought he’s just human, what worse that could happen?

Right?

Right?

God! I hope I’m right!

Sighing to calm my nerves, I entered 17th floor which was spacious and I was expecting cubicles but there were 6 spacious glass walled rooms I guess. They were transparent and had a huge table, a fancy chair and an apple computer. Everything was fancy-fancy.

I know I’m fancy! A little bit fancy, whole lot a fancy!

Focus Akshu!

I scolded myself, you see I tend to lose focus at times and this is one of them.

All the rooms were filled with people, what looks like 2 girls and 4 boys.

I stood at the entrance not knowing whom should I talk to, I mean everything is fancy-

Oh! I’m so fanc-

Akshu!!!

Okay sorry.

Clearing my throat, I knocked on the glass door to my right where there was a girl in yellow salwar. She looked at me, muttering a come in. I opened the door.

“Um, hi. I’m Akshara Vashisht, I was looking for Rahul Kumar?!?!” I asked her all confused.

She sized me up, looking from top to bottom. I raised my eyebrows at her action.

Does she swing that way?

“Are you the new girl?” She asked keeping her voice hard.

Okay, you got a tough nut to crack there Akshu.

“Yep” I said smiling cheekily hoping that would soften her up.

“His cabin is over there” She said pointing towards the cabin in the middle, where a guy was involved in the computer.

I turned to say thank you to her but to see her already turned around doing her work.

Well! Okay then.

Muttering a ‘Thank you’, I got the hell out of there. I bee-lined to the cabin where this Rahul guy is staying, which I’m hoping is correct because I didn’t trust that girl.

I knocked on the glass, he looked up and looked at her.

Giving me a wide smile, he got up and opened the door.

Wow, a whole different treatment.

“Hey, you must be Akshara. Hi, I’m Rahul” He said opening the door and held his hand out.

“Hi Rahul” I said smiling and shook his hand.

“Come in and have a seat” He pointed towards two chairs in front of his desk. Only his cabin had guest chairs, guess maybe because he is the lead.

“Thank you” I said taking the seat.

“Okay, so far I’m hoping you had a pleasant time here” He said with a wide grin. He looked like 28 to 32 years old guy. Too chirpy, just like me.

“Yeah, it was. I just met that girl over there and the conversation was something” I said honestly with a guilty grin, he looked at the way I was pointing and laughed out loud.

“Oh, I see you have met Vani. She is a bit difficult but you will gel up soon, don’t worry” He said with a comfortable smile.

“I hope so” I said with a small shrug.

“So, first of all welcome to Mehta Industries and welcome to our team. I am the lead of this team, we will be working with Varun Mehta, whom I guess you will be knowing about. We will be handling high profile projects. We handle main work and the support and maintenance work will be passed on to another group called Reboots and we are named as One Frame Team. They are just stupid names that we have given to ourselves so don’t worry about that. Now, let me introduce you to the team” He said pointing to his left.

“Sure” I said looking to my right.

“That is Ashish, our functional master who has direct contact with the client to get their functional requirement right” The guy was wearing a geeky glasses and wearing green shirt. He looked like he was as tall as me and I’m 5’7 so yeah.

“He’s a cool guy, all he cares about is work and work. He is very dedicated and works really hard” Rahul explained.

I nodded my head.

“That guy over there is Keith, he is our financial master who looks after the financial conditions and estimations of the project that we get. He is a laid back guy. He sure loved to gossip but I’ll you find out more about him” Rahul said pointing at the guy, whose cabin is between Ashish’s and Vani’s with a smirk on his face.

I chuckled at him reaction.

“And you have already met Vani, she is our database operator. She is very good at her job, basically everyone here is, so that’s why they are hired but she is a little bit orthodox. She means well but her point of view is little different from us. Don’t worry you will warm up to her as time goes on” He said with an encouraging smile. I highly doubt that but hey, I’m here to work not judge. Let’s see how it will play out in the future.

“This girl to my right is Richa, bubbliest girl of our team. She is both functional and technical tester. She is chatty and trust me she is very friendly. You will like her” he said moving his jaw in her direction. She wore a nice pink sleeveless shirt and a black office pants. Her hairs are done perfectly and she has nice make up. If she is bubbly as Rahul said, I’m sure we will be best of friends. I like to have people with positive energy around me. If they are negative, then I keep my distance.

“The cabin next to Richa’s is Aarav’s, who is late as usual. He is our techie, a java developer. He is a goofy guy but man he is a genius with computers. You will be working with him. He will brief you about the work and set everything up for you. Your system is ready and I’ll be here if you need any help” Rahul said with a warm smile.

“Roger that, thank you Rahul” I said with a sweet smile back. Now, my nerves are a bit calm but my excitement has doubled thinking about new job and new people.

“I’m sure you know a little bit about Varun Mehta, our CEO. We will be having meeting with him twice every week. He will be interacting with everyone, though I’m his initial point of contact. He can be a bit intimidating at first, but don’t worry we all will be there with you” He said reassuring me. I did get a chill when he mentioned the CEO, I mean my friends always talk about him making him some kind of a celebrity and now that I’ll be working near him send a chill down my spine.

We heard a BANG sound making me turn around to see a young guy around my age dusting his shirt and hands, there was a fancy looking vase on the floor. Thank god, it was not shattered.

“Oh look, our techie is here. Good luck with him, trust me you need it” Rahul said looking at Aarav clumsily picking up that long vase. His words made me sigh.

This will be one hell of a ride.