Ankur took his dish of what the office canteen folks called ‘breakfast’ and walked towards an empty chair in the canteen. Chewing away like a cow that was ruminating on rubber, he mused on the happenings over the past few weeks, when his success rate and performance had been at its lowest…
Ankur was a good worker in a big software firm, with over 5000 employees. He was enthusiastic and bright. But off late all his credentials were under scrutiny, when he entered the leanest patch in his career. It seemed like a curse had been put upon him. His work was not moving at all, and his seniors also had started expressing their displeasure at this slip in standards. Till a couple of months back, he was the unanimous choice to be sent to the client’s office in US to interact with the client and coordinate the project team from there. But with the jinx that Ankur seemed to carry currently, his bosses seemed to have grown apprehensive about sending him onsite.
After washing down the last morsel of bread with a glass of orange juice, Ankur took his plate and walked towards the wash area. As he rounded the corner, someone came towards him, headed for a perfect collision. Both of them stopped dead in their tracks, face to face. A pair of sparkling, long-lashed, feminine eyes looked up at Ankur’s honest eyes, and then dropped. The girl just mumbled ‘Excuse me’, sidestepped Ankur and walked ahead, as Ankur stood spellbound. His heart went into overdrive, and adrenalin was being pumped in so large a quantity that he could feel it splashing at the back of his mouth.
Walking back to work, Ankur tried to recreate the moment in his head. She was strikingly attractive, very feminine. The memory of those sparkling eyes, first lifting and then drooping, seemed to charge all his depleted cells.
As he walked to his cubicle, everyone noticed something different. Those slouching shoulders had squared up, his eyes were gleaming and there was a spring in his gait. The difference was evident in his work also. The day went so well for him that in that single day he fixed all the bugs that he had created in a week.
He walked out late from the office. He was in such a good mood that he had worked till 10 pm. He kick-started his motorcycle and vroomed out of the office campus. That was his way always - speed was his passion, at work, or while driving. As he sped along the highway at 90 kmph, the wind whistled tunes in his ears, through the gaps in his helmet. He grinned at nothing. What magic had that face done? Was it just inspiration, that you get when you see a thing of beauty, or was it the lady herself who had his luck reversed?
Suddenly he felt his cell phone vibrate. He slowed down and stopped just before a turning in the road. But by the time picked up the phone, the ringing had stopped, and he didn’t recognize the number. He shrugged and started the bike again.
As he rounded the corner, he was still in second gear, and on the road illuminated by nothing other than his halogen headlights, he saw an idiot driving a truck with no headlights on, in the centre of the road. He braked hard, and jerked his motorcycle handlebars to the left stopping inches away from a dead tree on the side. It suddenly dawned upon Ankur that the call had just saved his life. Had he negotiated that curve at his usual 70-90 speed, no amount of braking would ever have stopped his bike in time. He would have taken his first flying lessons!
The Next Morning...
“I swear it, my luck had been astounding yesterday, since I met her in the morning!” repeated Ankur. Vivek and Anu mumbled something about people losing their brains totally when they work too hard. Vivek was a friend of four years, who had joined the company with him, while Anu had joined a year later, and was working in Vivek's team. Only recently had they confessed to Ankur that they were not ‘just good friends’, after a lot of prodding and shoving from Ankur. Ankur started saying the story all over again and Anu gave him that exasperated look of hers, from behind the hair that had fallen over her forehead and eyes, and said, “Inspiration? Stroke of luck? On just seeing a female? She had better be very good looking, or I will just say you are plain loony!”
But as luck would have it, our inspirational lady, whom they started calling ‘Inspi’ affectionately, never appeared when Ankur was with the cynical duo. Vivek and Anu would never reach office early, and most of the times when Ankur used to have an early breakfast, Inspi would present herself in front of him. But never since their first meeting did their eyes meet. Most of the times her eyes would be trained on her friends’ face, always with a smile on her lips. Nevertheless, on all those days, Ankur’s performance at work just overshot all expectations! A couple of days Vivek and Anu came early just to see Inspi, but those days she never turned up!
Three Days later...
It was a Friday evening, and the three friends decided to go to the mall. As Vivek and Anu stood in a ladies’ clothing store, debating whether the white top or the green one was better, Ankur gave up waiting and walked into the book shop nearby, and straight into the fiction books section. He was reading a Wilbur Smith novel’s back cover, when he heard a crash from the nearby shelf. A cute kid, not more than four years of age had upset a small glass bowl kept on a table. His mom gave him a resounding slap on his thighs, and the little rosy lips parted, the eyes started brimming. The lady then said something to a person who was standing behind a shelf, out of Ankur’s sight. That person stepped into the scene, and scooped the kid up in her hands and said, “Why did you have to hit him aunty? He’s only a kid!” She then started fondling the kid, and Ankur once again stood as if electrocuted. Running into Inspi here, of all places, was really too much of a coincidence!
She was wearing a bright purple dress, and she looked angelic in that. She lifted the kid to the level of her face and delivered a kiss on each cheek, now glistening with tears. As Ankur gathered his wits, his primary instinct was to run out of the shop, get hold of his dumb friends, who were probably still arguing about the color of the dress, and bring them here to show Inspi to them. But the exit was only through the floor above, and he had no time to do that. He picked up his cell to call Vivek, and as luck would have it, the range bar showed no signal! Ankur then did the last thing he could think of. He just focused the camera on his cell, towards Inspi and the kid and clicked. The no-flash camera captured the duo, as Inspi rubbed her nose affectionately against the kid's, both giggling. He looked at the photo that he had captured and groaned. The photo had captured the most beautiful maiden and the cutest kid he had ever seen, and it seemed to him that was the best photo he had ever taken!
After a bit of frantic searching, Ankur found his friends in the food-court and proudly showed off the picture on his phone. Anu and Vivek looked at each other and grinned. Anu then made the tenth critical look at the photo and commented, “Except for the nose, she looks ok!” Vivek lost it and retorted, “Just ok? She is gorgeous! And what is wrong with the nose? It is just a bit long, that is all. Anyway, it is not as ugly as your upturned nose, through which people can see till the bottom of your spine!”. The table suddenly jolted and the tea in a cup spilled out. Vivek also jumped at the same moment. He then bent down and groaned, rubbing his shin. Anu had kicked him under the table!
That evening at home, Ankur transferred the photo to his computer and took a color print out on the glossiest paper that he could get hold of in the market. The print had come just as well as the photo. He took out his photo from the frame that had been gifted to him by his colleagues on his previous birthday and placed this photo instead.
One Week Later...
Ankur walked out of the Project Manager’s room, elated. He might, after all be going to the client location in the US. The assignment was for a couple of years, if not longer. The growth opportunity in this was the best he had got since he joined the industry. But the final hurdle was yet to be crossed. His client interview was over but the clients were yet to get back with the results. If they were impressed he could travel. He sighed. The first thing that he had set his eyes on in the morning was the framed photo of Inspi, and he was confidence personified throughout the interview. But you could never truly know what the clients wanted!
That evening, Ankur sat on the canteen bench opposite to Anu and beside Vivek, deliberating on the turn of luck that had happened with him since the day he met Inspi. It was as if a girl, whom he knew nothing about, had changed his fortunes. Since that day he hadn’t put a step wrong, and whatever he touched had turned golden. It seemed as if the curse upon him was lifted. He was jolted back to reality by Vivek’s words, “Don’t worry about the interview results. Just try to see that girl once more. I’m not being superstitious or anything, but seeing her really is doing wonders at least for your morale!" He added with a teasing smirk on his on his face, "Had I had found a girl who brought me luck, I would have not gotten stuck with this vampire female!”
Again there was a jolt to the table, but this time it was Ankur who jumped. Anu had kicked the wrong leg, and she jumped up, crying, “Oh I am so, so, sorry! I meant to kick this (punch, punch on Vivek’s shoulders) opportunist, who had said ‘my joys will be complete only when I am with you blah blah blah!’ Guys are cancer on earth, and Mr. Vivek is an ulcer on cancer!”
It was 8:50 pm and still there was no mail from the clients. Ankur decided it was not worth waiting any more. He decided he would open the mailbox after seeing Inspi at the breakfast table on Monday morning. Though it defied all logic, he still thought that after seeing her again, he would soon hear the good news!
As he walked out of his department building and started his bike, he heard the last of the company buses leaving the campus. He rode towards the gate much slower than his normal standards. The security guard stopped him at the gate and said, ”Sir, one lady has missed the bus. She has to go urgently to the Railway station. Can you drop her somewhere from where she can pick an cab?”
Ankur nodded half heartedly. He really was in no mood to take responsibility of anyone with the current state of mind he was in. The security guy signalled to a girl in a white dress, who was standing in the shadows. She stepped forward into the light, tottering because of a heavy bag pack. Ankur’s heart shifted to fifth gear, and for the second time in both their lives the two pairs of eyes met again!
She smiled and said in an embarrassed tone, “Hi, I am Asha. I am really sorry to inconvenience you but I am without any other option. I was leaving for my native place by the 10 PM train and I missed the last bus to get to the station”. Ankur started saying in the most awkward way that it was his duty to help a colleague in trouble, but whatever he said was mostly rambling nonsense.
Ankur got the bag from her and placed it over the fuel tank. She got on the bike and sat behind him leaving a little space between them as any well brought up girl would have done. She said, “Just drop me somewhere I can get a cab”. Ankur replied, “Don’t worry Asha, I stay near the Railway station and I can drop you till there! By the way, I am Ankur.“
They felt at ease with each other very quickly and talked all the way to the station. She told about herself, her family and her work, and he shared his. She told that she stayed with her Aunt here (and Ankur almost said, ‘yeah, I know!’) and was going to meet her parents for a week.
They reached the station at 9.45 and the train was half an hour late. Ankur offered to carry the bag till the platform. She resisted at first, but she couldn’t refuse the polite but insistent offer made by Ankur. He said, “I have taken up a responsibility by agreeing to take you with me from office, and my duty is not complete till I see you safely in the train. And I don’t leave any job unfinished”. Asha smiled and groping around for words of gratitude ended up saying, “It is really kind of you to do all this for a stranger!” Ankur confessed that she wasn’t a stranger to him.
He narrated the entire story from the near collision at the canteen, to Vivek’s suggestion that he should meet Asha before Ankur could get the results. Although she raised her eyebrows when Ankur mentioned the quick photo he took with his phone, she was amused by his narration of the events and replied, “Well, this is the first time I heard anyone saying that seeing me brings them luck! I would be really happy for you if you could get through the interview, now that you have seen me again! And of course, when I come back from my native place next Monday, I shall take you out for dinner at the Pizza hut as my way of thanking you for the help you have done today. But of course, you will treat me the next day if seeing me turns out to be lucky once again!”
Her voice was drowned by the arrival of the train. Ankur carried her bag to her coach, and kept it above her seat. He then straightened and said, “Now my job is complete and I can go. Have a nice vacation.” They awkwardly shook hands, and he walked out back to the platform. As the train moved along, she smiled and said through the window, “See you next Monday evening at the Canteen, 5:30 sharp!” Their eyes locked and Ankur couldn’t stand the sight of her face getting farther away from his eyes. So he waved and turned his back to the train walking out. She really had made a big impression in his heart. Suddenly, in the depth of his heart he felt a pang of remorse. If he goes onsite, he would no longer get to meet this charming girl, whom he had started loving unknowingly.
His phone rang and it was Vivek’s number. He was itching to tell him about the evening’s events but the obstinate donkey wouldn’t even let him start. He said, “Dude, boss called just now. You are through! They have an urgent requirement and they want you to start next week! You will most likely travel the coming week.”
Monday Morning...
“Sir, can’t we just postpone this for a couple of weeks? I have some urgent things to be next week”, pleaded Ankur. His PM raised an eyebrow, ”How could you say this Ankur? You know very well that it is neither in your control nor in mine. Even if you threaten to resign, they won’t budge! They were so impressed with your work that they wanted you there for two years starting from next Monday. So get started on the formalities, start packing and don’t miss the flight on Saturday!”
Saturday Evening...
As Ankur waved to Anu and Vivek at the International departure terminal, he suddenly remembered that he had promised to meet Asha at 5:30 at the canteen on Monday. He turned back and said, “Hey guys, do me a favour, will you? Asha will be waiting for me at the Canteen on Monday. Will you tell her what happened? You will recognize her, won't you? You have seen the photo, right? And give her my e-mail id and ask her to email me, ok? No, I don’t have her e-mail Id or phone number! Please, don’t forget this, ok? Please…” As he walked inside the terminal, he looked at the picture of Asha and the baby which was now in his wallet and mumbled, “For this one time at least, couldn’t you have ceased being so goddamn lucky for me?”
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