‘The train arriving on platform number two is a 7.51 am
fast train for Churchgate.’
An announcement in a melodious voice was made at
the Kandivali station and repeated the same in Marathi and Hindi. The platform
was flooded by the people. It was the beginning of a busy day for the people in
the city of Mumbai. The people were in a hurry to catch the trains on time. The
trains were full with an abundance of the city dwellers.
‘Where will the ladies’ coach arrive?’
A lady, in a
formal shirt and trousers, was standing with a bit of confusion on her face. With tightly clutched hair at her back, she
stood with a bag on her shoulders and an umbrella in her right hand. She was
fair and her face had an inherent charming appeal to it. She looked extremely beautiful
amongst numerous ladies standing on the platform to catch the train.
‘Here. Just stand here. Ladies’ coach will come here
itself.’ Another lady standing next to her told her. Hearing that, she stood still and started
looking at the direction of the train. Her eyes were sparkling grey. They
looked lively on her beautiful face. She wore a confused look at the moment.
She was continuously looking for the arrival of the train. With another glance,
she looked around her. ‘So many people’, she thought. Will I get to board
the train?
She looked at her watch. It was 8.00 am. She was supposed
to reach her office at Bandra by 9.00 am. Somehow she thought she would be
late. The train has not arrived yet. And the platform is full with the people.
What if I get late today? What impression will it leave for a new joinee and
that too a fresher, to be late to the office on the very first day?
And the train arrived. People literally jumped inside.
She was fortunate enough to somehow get in. It took around forty minutes to
reach the Bandra station. As she walked out of the station, many eyes,
especially of men, followed her. She had a slim posture and looked extremely
fit. If Kareena Kapoor had brought in the concept of size zero in India then
here was a beautiful example of the same. She was, probably, accustomed to the
men-staring-at-her thing. Men, anyway, keep looking at each and every lady
passing by. And here was a 20-something, beautiful, formally dressed, charming lady walking
on the streets of Bandra.
The city is full of people, she thought. A group of
pigeons, she saw, flew out into the sky, their wings making the sound of wind;
they criss-crossed each other and made for the west. There was an extraordinary
sky today: a bright, deep blue like butterfly wing, with streaks of orange that
reached towards the west; it was framed by one of the arches. The arrival of
monsoons was evident since there were dark clouds arriving from the west. No
one seemed to have noticed; there were trains to be caught. But the lady observed
the beauty of the sky and smiled.
It was still fifteen more minutes for 9.00 am. As she
walked along the road, she looked straight and around. The city, she observed,
was moving very fast. The vehicles, the people, the shop keepers, the hawkers,
everyone seemed to be in a hurry to reach their destinations. It was not that
they were completely indifferent towards others around but they hardly cared
for anything. It echoed their will to start a yet another busy day in the
commercial capital of the country.
All of a sudden, she remembered the day when she was at
her home at Malvan, a small town in the Konkan area of Maharashtra. A friend, Sakshi
had called her. ‘Nishi, yes, you!! You have cracked Sunrise
Technologies. They have selected only you. Congratulations!!!’ The news had spread like fire. Her mother was
very proud of her. With tears in her eyes, she had kissed her forehead and
said, ‘Your father would have been so proud today.’
Malvan was a growing town along the western coast of
Maharashtra. It belonged to the Konkan belt of the Western part of India. Nishi had
graduated with a Computer Engineering degree from the University of Pune, the city where
she had spent four years of her life in a girls’ hostel. She was born and brought
up at Malvan. Her grandmother was a teacher at a school in the village. The old
lady always wanted her granddaughter to study further and become highly
successful in her life. She was a prime trigger in sending Nishi to Pune from
Konkan for her further studies post her twelfth standard. And today, her
granddaughter was beginning a new corporate life in the city of Mumbai.
She looked at her watch again. It was ten minutes to go
for 9.00 am. ‘Bandra Kurla Complex’, she asked the auto-rickshaw driver. The
driver nodded and she sat in. As the rickshaw drove her along the road, she
looked out. The wind was mesmerizing and chilling. It heralded the beginning of the monsoons. The air, she thought, was bringing in a breeze of hope and spirit for
her. She simply fell in love with the weather.
As she entered the entrance of Sunrise Technologies, she
was asked for her identity card. ‘New joinee’, she said. The security guard
performed the security check and let her in. She walked in the direction of her
office. There were plenty of formally attired men and women walking around;
some were simply walking, some were in BMWs and the other cars, while some in
auto-rickshaws. The air had a corporate feel in it. She was not nervous at all.
The day, after all, had finally arrived for her. As she
took the turn to another entrance, there appeared the huge building. On top of
it was written in bold letters, with a logo, SUNRISE TECHNOLOGIES.
Sunrise Technologies was one of the top notch IT Companies in India and rated extensively in the top five. Over the years, it had brought in a lot of outsourcing projects for the Indian IT sector and became one of the premier IT service organizations of India. Getting a job at Sunrise was a golden opportunity, be it for a fresher or an experienced professional.
She looked
at the poster and the letters. She stood there for a while. The words signaled the
beginning of a new phase in her life. She was excited, very excited. There were
abundant hopes in her eyes. There were many dreams to reach the top, to become
highly successful. There were many plans and ideas. Finally her knowledge of computers and programming was about to get implemented. She always wanted to be a Software Engineer. She had high ambitions in the field of software development and the path was about to begin. She was beaming with pride.
She signed in at the security office of the main building.
The man at the counter couldn’t pronounce her name right. He read it
out. ‘Nishi...what?’ he asked.
‘It’s Nishigandha. Nishigandha Dixit.’
