Shivangi, entered the massive building of her very first
office, with ultimate awe. All her doubts about her new job vanished, the moment
she laid eyes on the huge five storied office. She thanked the almighty for his
kindness and remembered her parents, whose sacrifices and support had brought
her here to this day. She had her own job, her whole life waiting to be
explored.
Shivangi was handed over to the core development team where
she met her Manager, smart and dashing, Mr. Khanna, he was the same person who
had come to their college for campus recruitments. Shivangi was all starry eyed
and with lot of eagerness met her other colleagues & seniors.
Her eyes were constantly observing and absorbing this new
place, the people around, the mannerisms, the movement, and the constant hustle-bustle
going inside this IT firm.
The days were spent learning from the respective mentors,
knowing about the various applications, how they work, the technology behind
and performing minor duties and attending trainings. In between there would be
the usual tea and coffee breaks, lunch, snacks. This was an entirely different
world for Shivangi.
She had started becoming carefree with passing of time and
would sometimes stay back late to finish off her work or rake her brains to get
through the maze of codes and find some logical meaning.
Shivangi, gradually started noticing a pair of happy eyes
watching her, coming near to the water dispenser, which was close to her
workstation, every now and then. Below those happy eyes were 2 large lips
always smiling, not particularly at her but everyone around in general. This
was the same individual who would sometimes offer her tips on writing complex
software codes, or provide her info on how to find certain files from the ftp,
or when she would be stuck with some code-defects, show her the easiest of solutions.
Even though he was not the most conventional tall, dark
& handsome person around but still she was attracted towards him. At the
water dispenser they would often start off a conversation or joke about
something, and have a laugh. The most important aspect of this person that was
drawing her towards him, was his sheer balance of thorough knowledge on vast
ocean of topics along with an entirely happy go lucky funny side. This one time
she heard that he was being sent to France on an onsite project for a couple of
months. She was happy for him still she could not understand that why somewhere
in some little corner of her heart she was sad.
But little the two realized that this was actually the
beginning of an elaborate long distance rendezvous which shall strengthen their
bond for a lifetime. They started writing emails to each other almost daily and
talked about every topic under the sun from family, to science, spirituality,
social issues, to ideologies, expectations, feelings. Shivangi would wait for
the office to end so that she could chat with him, after hours. During one such
chat out of the blue he proposed. Shivangi could not believe her eyes, a weird
feeling rushed through her veins and spread through her entire body when she
read the 3 words flashing on her chat screen. She was going through mixed
emotions and with shaking hands she typed,” how can you be so sure, we have not
yet met properly and maybe didn’t even know each other so well”.
He said that he knows and that’s it.
Shivangi, remained skeptical although she was trying to be
practical, she knew her father would never agree to this match. One day she
poured her heart out and let him know that without her father’s approval she
would never go ahead with their relationship.
In the mean time, Shivangi’s father was busy looking through
marriage proposals, sorting and selecting and rejecting pictures of probable
grooms. Subsequently on a bright October Sunday morning Shivangi’s father
announced that they were going to meet a probable groom at the Indian Coffee
House, the famous meeting place of many such match makers, and that they shall
leave by 10 am. Nervously Shivangi dressed up in a red chiffon saree and tiptoed
to the washroom to call him. She was a bit surprised and yet consoled by his
soft yet firm voice that meeting someone did not imply marriage, so she had to
just get done with it.
They reached Coffee house just before 11am & waited
anxiously for the boys family to arrive. A waiter informed them that the family
had arrived, since then Shivangi just kept looking at her fingers and toes. She
had fixed her eyes on the ground. She just could not bring herself to look up
eye to eye to the gentleman and his parents. But suddenly of all the voices,
she heard a familiar voice, she lifted her eyes up and saw her beloved Shome
standing in front of her, with that killer smile, that had blew her heart away,
the first time they had met.
It has been 15 years since that day and they are going strong. Their love has grown and strengthened with the passing time, they nurtured it with love, respect and kindness, facing all that life has to give together.
