That day was a tough day for Arjun, he was walking home in the night full of stars lying in the blanket of dark, the moon, half glowing, half hidden from the rest of the world, glanced at Arjun like praising him for his hard work or warning him.
He lived in a rented flat, located a few blocks away from his office, he tried to ask any of his colleagues to drop him but he was unable to ask them, he went on walking, hands lying under his pocket, listening to music, while the beats of good music entered in his ears, he recalled the gesture he got from his colleague for the first time in last two years.
When Arjun went to the office that morning, he found himself in a critical situation. His company had an urgent project that needed to be submitted, but the person who was hired to finish it had resigned due to internal conflicts with the boss. This person had chosen the most inconvenient time to show their absence. However, Arjun had all the skills necessary to resume the project and finish it. He worked in an IT company where they needed to make a website for a special client. It was the last day to complete the project, but the previous employee had left everything incomplete, and Arjun didn’t even know his name.
The client who had given them this project was a big businessman whose identity was not disclosed. According to Arjun’s boss, the project was one of the biggest profit-making ventures they had ever had, and there was no way they could afford to leave it incomplete.
When all the work was completed and he and his team sat for dinner, there was one different happiness after completing the work you love, Arjun was enjoying, but he was tired as well, he was about to drink coffee, but then a person from his team called him, he didn’t know his name, but he can’t ask his name in front of the team which might let him feel disgraceful.
“Pleasure to work with you.” that man said, getting his hand ahead for a handshake.
Arjun nodded while handshaking, he didn’t know how to respond.
“I have noticed your hard work, you have been awarded a trophy for the employee of the year twice, but still don’t you think it’s ironic that we are talking for the first time.” that person said.
“I guess so, so let’s know each other.” Said Arjun glancing at everyone sitting there.
“My name is Arun; you might know me.” that person said.
“Yeah, I heard a lot about your work.”
“I am Priya.”
“Great to meet you, Priya.” he said but he was confused rather to use ‘great’ or any other word.
There were two more people, after the introduction they talked about their previous works, about their school and college life, and then they shared dinner. After completing the dinner, they gave a final touch to their project.
That was another reason that made him feel that the long day was a good one, only a good one from his two years of work. He was smiling thinking of talking with them the next day. When he was sleeping in his bed, he thought about Priya, she was a designer, and the way she designed the website was completely awesome, he had worked on many projects, but he had never seen this kind of design in any of them.
He stared at the ceiling fan, moving at its speed but that day it was not moving sadly, there was some joy in that fan, it was difficult to find sleep, though he worked all day. He woke up, walked into the hall, switched on the TV and changed some channels to see a good movie, there were a few movies that he had seen, and one of them was on TV at that time, he grabbed snacks, then binged watch until his eyes got tired.
Without any thought he went inside his room and slept there, unable to figure out which dream he would see that night, soon the sun replaced the moon, and the stars were gone, he woke up from his dream as per the alarm. That day he woke up with excitement, it was not usual for him, not in his lifetime.
After getting ready, he grabbed his bag and went outside to eat breakfast, he went to a tea stall where he could have tea and breakfast. Then went to his office, observing the chaos on the road, not the visible one but the chaos which was occurring in the mind of every person who was driving on that road, calmness was absent on that road, and rush took over everyone. He saw one man who just survived by getting kicked through a bike, Arjun could see the relief in his mind.
He greeted everyone in the office with a good morning and shared a smile with a few of the team members he had last night, and one of them was Priya, whose smile he loved, as it happens to him that he had seen a smile from a beautiful woman for the first time. Till that date, he had seen his mother smiling but now he can’t even see that every day.
The day was quite normal for them, there was one small task for Arjun which he did on his laptop, and then stood up for a coffee break where he found Arun.
“Hey,” he said looking at him.
Arun nodded at him raising his cup from a distance, after filling a cup of coffee, he went there and sat aside of Arun, there they engaged in a talk about themselves to know themselves better. Arjun was feeling glad to know that there was someone who wanted to know him, as he didn’t know how it felt to have a friend who knew about you, or you wanted them to know about you.
Priya also joined them, Arjun was unable to help himself from noticing her beautiful hair, he wished no one from them had noticed him. He went silent for some time while conversing because he didn’t know how to continue but still both his new friends kept going on that conversation.
Arjun became way too familiar with them and slowly he became talkative just around them, he started liking Priya after knowing that she was unmarried and neither she had any boyfriend, days went by, they got projects, and they completed them with the same energy and the year was about to end, this time it was probable that from three of them, someone may get a promotion because they were active throughout the year and did more projects than anyone from the office.
And the party was also organized where they were going to disclose the name of the person who will get an award for the employee of the year, Arjun, Arun and Priya all them were excited, Arjun was the winner from the last two years, it was easy to know that many people didn’t like that but it was the reality, Arjun was the best in his work. His dedication was unmatched by anyone working in that office.
But this year, Priya did great designs which was remarkable, and all clients praised her designs, Arun was also great that year as a software developer, he was also a possible winner of the award.
