Relieving Letter

He had met her earlier. But he never felt for her that way. Actually it was she who had given him the offer letter when he joined the firm. However, his thoughts then were only about doing his job well, succeeding and creating new benchmarks. The ambition, passion, and will power were very much intact; albeit channeled towards attaining goals he has set for himself; professionally.

The above traits combined with perseverance and single minded dedication ensured that he rose - in salary, designation and stature. He was soon heading a function. He was the “go-to-man” for his seniors as well as for many key officials in the organization.

And then, one fine day, he was offered a better, more strategic role by another organization. He was comfortable here but the fire in him dint wane one bit. He was still game for newer challenges and tougher responsibilities. A serious battle ensued wherein his pragmatism plundered his emotions of attachment to the organization and he decided to put in his papers.

The organization was desperate to retain him as he was great at work, interpersonal skills, teamwork, and most importantly, he was honest and sincere. It was difficult to find many like him hence a replacement would take time. His notice period of two months was not a “honeymoon period” as some would put it. There were days in the first week of the notice period wherein he was in the office into the late hours of the night. He wouldn't compromise on his honesty and work ethics to the very last day.

Throughout his professional life, he made it a point to reach office early, start clearing his mails and plan the day ahead. He was to write a copy for an advertisement on a “perfume brand” which his team was struggling with. Two days into it and neither neither his team nor he could think of something worth what they were charging the client. He was looking around for inspiration and that’s when she walked in. He has interacted with her, even had the occasional friendly banter with her but never did he pay much heed. He had seen her many times but today he observed.

He could see the brown eyes which seemed like symmetric buttons, the swirl in the lips which parted just enough to flash her pearly whites. He felt like he heard every alphabet of the “Good morning” she said to a colleague. Her voice had a soothing effect he never felt before. Her hair was no less than a serene waterfall to him. In the confines of his cubicle, he felt light, elated, and mesmerized. “He felt like heaven”. The words made a seamless journey from his sub-conscious mind to his brain and he got his line. “Feels like heaven” read the headline of his copy.

How could I have ignored her for so long? And yet another line came to him. “Ignorance is not Bliss”, he told himself. And for some strange reason, the lines that came to him were matching the task at hand. “Ignorance is not bliss” did go well for his product; though it was tweaked a little to read “Ignoring this is not bliss”.

He jotted the lines quickly and then stared at her again. By this time, she had settled and was logging into her workstation. One great thing about this guy was determination. If he made up his mind, there was no stopping him. He had made up his mind. He was convinced about this being a moment of truth. He knew that this lady needed to be by his side. And then it dawned to him that he had only seven weeks to convince her to be – his better half.

That was just one part of his problem though. He had never even bothered to find out if she was married. It was clear to him that this would be his final project before leaving the organization and he also knew that if he were to pull this off, it would need immaculate planning and execution.

His way of handling a project was unique. He spent a lot of time studying and planning the project. He had to have it clear in his head before he would head to execution. And this was a project where he couldn't afford a lapse.

The first week was sieving through all the information available across the organization. He would make it a point to intersect her path, have a few words, anything to get to know if she is still a spinster. Success came to him at the end of the week when a casual chat with a colleague lead to him knowing her marital status. And it was a great feeling for obvious reasons!

The next three weeks were spent understanding if she was going around with someone and he slowly but surely succeeded in getting the answers he expected to get for this question as well. It was the beginning of his last three weeks in office when she, being in the personnel department, approached him for help with creating an email campaign for an employee awareness project she was working on.

“Hi, I would need your help. Can you help me out with this campaign?” she said, pointing to a few papers which she placed on his desk. His eyes looked down and his mind focused up to the heavens, wondering if the Almighty was helping him in his pet project. He put his heart into the project, literally, and the resultant email campaign was well-appreciated and the lady won lot of kudos for it.

With two weeks left, the lady came to him to express her appreciation for his support. “I am so glad you helped. The results are there for all to see. I did get a lot of appreciation for this. Thank you so much. If I could be of any help to you, let me know,” she said. He was not someone who would react impulsively but something came over him and he said he needed some help right away. He told her about the inspiration behind “feels like heaven” and “ignorance in not bliss”. The words seemed to flow and he used the next 10 minutes to present the most convincing pitch of his life.

She was tongue-tied. He could not comprehend if she was shocked, surprised, expecting this or in a state of trance. She remained in this state for what seemed like eternity before uttering a sentence. “I.. I.. I..ne..never thought of you this way.”

There are some days when you are so spontaneous that you could have not needed any meticulous planning to succeed. It was such a day for him. He told her that neither did he ever think of her all these years but that day had to be special. He could feel his pulse rate and heart beat for the first time, he could feel every second tick by, every word uttered by her was registered in his mind and he was sure that she had blinked 10 times on her way from the door to the workstation. To add what he thought would be a knockout punch, he said that those 10 seconds were the best in his life and he would want to relive it infinitely. And if he had to relive it even once, she had to be with him.

He wasn't sure of the effect it had on her. She chose the traditional “I need time to think” answer and excused herself. If those 10 seconds were the best, the next two weeks would be the longest. The last week was usually about good-byes and exit formalities and he was aware of that. He told himself that if he was to get an affirmative reply from her, one that he desperately sought, it had to be in the current week. By mid-week, his patience was getting the better of him and he went to her workstation to have a word.

“I know smart girls like you think on your feet”, he said. He told her that he thought she would have made up her mind by now. She said she was really busy and requested if they could talk later.

He tried to not disturb her and overdo the follow up. The next day, he went to her again asking if she would join him for coffee. This time, she just glanced and conveyed her lack of interest. But he was not one who would easily give up.

Some handover processes consumed his Friday and thoughts, restlessness, impatience and frustration consumed his weekend. However, he was known for thinking positive and not once, did he feel that he would fail in this project.

The first three days of the final week required him to attend meeting where the company wanted to seek his inputs and suggestions on upcoming project. They were unintentionally being very rude to him. “Thursday” it would be, he told himself.

On Thursday, he came in earlier than usual. He waited in anticipation to see her come in but he was never rewarded with that glimpse for all his efforts. To his utter dismay, he got to know that she was on leave. Would she come the next day? With great difficulty, he did something which came very easily to him otherwise – Suppress the pessimist within.

On Friday morning, he came in very early, drafted his farewell mail and again spent time waiting for her. Her peach-complexioned face and brown hair was all he could see from where he was seated as she walked in through the door. He was sure that he had to talk to her. He was wondering if she was not interested. Was she apprehensive because he wasn't rich? He wanted to tell her that he owned a house and had saved a good amount over the last ten years. A zillion thoughts ran though his mind as he approached her.

If you were to choose between “Yes” and “can’t say no”, what would it be? She knew where he was heading but she liked the style. She flashed a smile and raised one of her eyebrows in a seemingly friendly gesture. She even went out for coffee with him but she kept the balance hanging. She said she was short-tempered, lacked patience, was very moody and couldn't talk well unlike him. He said he covered these qualities so she wouldn't have to bother about those. His answers were so prompt that it seemed he had practiced these situations. She was convinced that his intent was honest, his attempts were sincere.

They dint get much time to interact later as he had colleagues, well-wishers and team-mates chatting with him and wishing him luck. And then it was the last hour of the day and then the last few minutes.

She came to him with an envelope which seemed to contain a piece of paper. Through the window of the envelope, he could see his name in block letters. It was his relieving letter. She handed it to him. He said,” I will need your mobile number? How can I reach you and get to know your decision”?

“You won’t need my number”, she said with a wry smile, turned and walked away. He already had her number but he somehow wanted the answer to the bigger question, probably the most important one in his head right now.

He was dejected when he opened the envelope. He knew that the relieving letter was not going to provide any relief. Uninterested, he peeped in to find two pieces of paper. One was obviously the relieving letter but the other was a neatly typed one in size 12, Verdana font and it read as below:

“My only concern with you was to find out if your attempt was honest. I was always convinced about you as a person. I believe that a man’s true riches are his potential and his attitude and if I were to grade you for these, you would rank very high. If you still haven’t guessed my answer, you can try new ways of convincing me. My mobile number is: 9XXXXXXXXX”…

His mind wasn't even reading further. It was somewhere else. This was, literally and in every sense of the word, the “RELIEVING LETTER”.

Dumb Blonde

She climbed into the bus and all eyes looked at her. The beautiful dress, the cascading hair, and the faultless face contributed to her painting like appearance. The word “Perfect” seemed to resonate throughout the bus.

She seated her majestic self in the first few rows to the left of the air-conditioned bus – the ones normally reserved for ladies. Her Smartphone quickly came into business and connected her to someone (not really important in context). The rare beauty’s hair was a stand-out feature. It’s not often that you would get to see blonde hair color in India.

Seated just behind her was a smartly dressed man. He seemed to be an absolute gentleman, atleast by the look of it.

Diagonally opposite to the centre of attraction sat a person of African origin who seemed to be listening to songs on his mobile while also typing something.  

Suddenly, the gentleman started talking to her. Flattery was definitely one of his virtues. His smooth talk and easy charm saw him easily floor the blonde. His compliments seemed to have an effect on her and she also opened up to him. And small talk soon made way for laughter and some light flirting.

Though the bus was moving, it maintained a serene status quo inside. The rest of the passengers were listening to songs, reading, or sleeping.

The couple had struck a chord and seemed to be oblivious to the happenings in the bus. The African gentleman though, seemed to be intently looking at the couple, overhearing the conversation. It was tough to understand how he could understand the local language that the familiar strangers were using abundantly to spice up their rendezvous.  

The scene continued for another ten minutes while the bus gathered good speed. “I have to get down at the next stop. It was a pleasure meeting you”, said the gentleman to the lady. They seemed to exchange numbers and he promised to call her sometime soon.

“Is the African gentleman taking my pictures?” she asked the gentlemen just minutes before he was to alight. The easy charm gave way to a difficult-to-comprehend expression. However, he quickly regained composure and said that as soon as he gets down and the bus stops, the lady should call the co-passengers and raise this concern. He said that if her observation was true, she should give him a call and he would intimate the cops who can catch hold of him at the next bus stop.  He went to the extent of saying not to confront the African gentleman as he may retaliate and also might have a gun with him.

The blonde followed his advice and as soon as the gentleman disembarked, she called upon the fellow passengers and told that the African gentleman was capturing her pictures. She said she was scared as she thought he would morph her pictures and use it for personal gain.

The passengers gathered around the African gentleman and demanded he show his mobile. They asked him why he was taking her pictures. He did not answer inspite of a volley of questions being fired in his direction. The situation was getting out of control and one of the co-passengers who fantasized playing the knight-in-shining-armour caught hold of the collar of his shirt. At this moment, the African gentleman opened his mouth and started uttering something. It was at that moment that the passengers realized that the man was dumb. (as in a person who is unable to speak).

At this, one of the passengers wanted to snatch his mobile but the African gentleman started frantically nodding his head. The cumulative strength of the passengers was no match for the strong African man. They snatched his mobile and as two people held him captive, one of the passengers (the knight-in-shining-armour) caught hold of the mobile and began to browse through the image gallery.

He could not find a single image of the majestic beauty. He checked the videos and his expression suggested that he had found a related video.  In a display of machismo (uncalled for), the knight-in-shining-armour caught hold of the African man’s collar again as he played the video with his other hand.

As the video played, his grip on the collar loosened and slowly he withdrew his hand. The knight-in-shining-armour understood his mistake and profusely apologized to the African gentleman. The sudden twist of events had the passengers also confused.

The video was replayed and the blonde also saw it this time. No sooner did the video end than she looked for her branded and very expensive handbag. She started crying loudly and tears started rolling down her pretty cheeks. She had been conned… conned by the smooth talking charmer who has opened her bag and stolen her purse which, according to her, contained not only lots of money but 3 of her credit cards.

The African man received a lot of sympathy with some passengers offering him water and the mini mob apologizing to him for the unwarranted manhandling. The obvious question was why he did not alert his fellow passengers when the act took place?  He couldn’t answer it as he was dumb. Or was he really? For his act gathered enough evidence to nail a crook. On the other hand, the blonde who thought she was smart (atleast appeared to be) proved otherwise. Dumb blonde, shall we say?