Life and Loss.
She had settled down in Mumbai since last 7 years. Initially
it was a very difficult and unfamiliar environment, as her hometown was in the
beautiful Nilgiri District of Tamil Nadu, in the lap of nature. A place of beautiful mountains, waterfalls
and grasslands. Now she had adapted to the highly populated place and
mechanical lifestyle of the city of Mumbai. Though it was a completely
contradictory life, she had to adjust to it as her circumstances had brought
her here, after the landslide and
complete destruction of her ancestral home, losing her entire family in the
catastrophe. Her qualification and her own self was all she had. Perturbed and
penniless she decided to travel far away from her hometown to keep away from
the grief and melancholy of the place.
Once in Mumbai,
she managed to get a decent job with her intelligence and competence. She
stayed at a girl’s hostel and worked hard to establish herself. She was sitting in her office cabin that day.
A little sad and lonely. The designation
on the name plate read,
Mira Nathan.
Chief Executive Officer, HRD.
Her
nervously fluttering eyes glimpsed around the office and rested on the
designation plate. HRD, Executive
officer, it read. And her thoughts flew back and forth through
the years that had gone and the experiences, bitter and sweet, that she had
before reaching this position.
A knock on the
cabin door brought her to the present with a jolt. Prashant walked in. He was
her colleague and a good friend. They always discussed their work projects and
life problems. He had been a great help and guide to her in various matters.
Prashant was an over ambitious person, willing to take undue risks to attain
his profits. And Mira always opposed him in his risky endeavors.
That day
Prashant had offered Mira a deal. It was
regarding illegal transfer of information from their official business
transactions. The documents that dealt
with the transactions with a Multinational company. Prashant had received an offer worth crores
to get the information, but it would not be possible without Mira’s help. He
gave her a fifty-fifty offer for it. The
offer had made Mira nervous and a bit edgy.
She did not know what to do. She had always lived her life on her values.
He walked into
her cabin and sat down. He put forth the entire plan and asked her about her
final decision, whether she would help him or not. Mira was apprehensive of herself. She had
tossed and turned all night but could not make any decision. Her values and her
priorities were holding her back.
Prashant said in an edgy tone, ‘Mira, why don’t you answer me? Is it a
deal or not? I do not have time to wait till eternity. We do it now or never. I
am not going to wait for you. Please decide and let me know in half an hour. I
am waiting for your answer.’
And he walked
out of the cabin.
She sat there
silent, motionless, perturbed. Her
entire life came afloat in her eyes, her poverty, her misery, her
circumstances, her sufferings, and her loss.
Contradictorily she was in a good social and financial position now. Why
should she give in all she had achieved for a fraud that would ruin her life
again. Why should she cheat her firm,
which had given her the respectable status and position. She could not decide.
She was restless. Time was moving fast. She had thirty minutes in hand to make
the decision that would change her entire life.
Once again she was in a dilemma.
Before seven years she had faced this situation and now she was not
willing to leave her comfort zone. She
picked up the phone to tell Prashant that she was not interested in the deal.
Ten minutes were left and Prashant would go off on his own with the plan to
transfer the information through another source, he said he had tracked down.
She was about to talk to him and the Devil popped up in her mind. Crores of rupees!!! Greed worked at its best. She could live a life of luxury that she
always yearned for. And she made the call.
‘Hello, Prashant. Done. I am with you in the plan. Let me
know, what has to be done and when.’ ‘OK, Thanks
Mira.’ came Prashant’s amused voice.
During the week
she transferred the important data to her account in the late office hours
after the office staff had left the premises. She stayed back on the pretext of
important projects to be completed. Prashant remained out of it, so that nobody
could doubt their liaison. He would give her instructions on the phone
regarding the exact information needed. She would safely transfer it to her
account. The entire operation took one week.
Meanwhile, Mira applied for a fifteen days leave to keep away from the
office the following weeks. If at all any confusion or chaos occurred over the
information leak. So as a precautionary measure she chose for a leave in
advance. Prashant told her to get the information in a pen drive. He was smart
enough to not take any risk on himself, not to take any information through
email in his own account, so that if they would be caught, all the blame would
go to Mira. He was playing a double game but Mira never realized it, as she considered
him to be a good, trustworthy friend.
And because she had slowly, unknowingly fallen in love with him. She had
tried to talk to him and propose him twice but he kept on declining her. It was
also a reason of her giving in to the offer.
Trust was at the
centre of their friendship. It was the cause, the reason of all that was
happening between them. It was the reason she dared to take such a bold
decision. Sunday evening she informed
Prashant that all had gone well according to their planning and that she would
give him the pen drive that evening. They were meeting for dinner that night.
It was a beautiful
place, the ambience was romantic, with soft music, candles, flowers and lightly
perfumed dinner hall. It was a five star hotel and they were celebrating for
their success. Mira dressed beautifully and joined Prashant who was waiting for
her. They enjoyed the dinner. Mira handed over the pen drive to Prashant with
the same trust that had brought her there.
She informed him that she would be leaving for Manali on a 15 days
holiday and that she had been looking forward to this break since long.
Prashant assured her that he will keep updating her about
the proceedings of the deal. On Monday evening he was to exchange the
information for the large amount. He would get the money at the earliest and
would give her share immediately. She believed him and told him to keep her
informed. She wished he would talk something other than their deal. She was
awaiting some romantic moments. But Prashant was distracted by his greed. He
showed no sign of any involvement other than their deal. They parted after a
hearty meal.
Mira reached
Manali the following day, had a beautiful stay in a hotel overlooking the
picturesque view of Manali’s scenic beauty.
Two days past, it was Wednesday. She had
not received any message from Prashant.
She felt uneasy. Strange thoughts
kept emerging in her mind. What could have happened? Why didn’t Prashant contact her? She tried to be patient. She took a long walk
in the beautiful hills. Maybe the deal might have taken some more time to
materialize. Maybe some procedures took longer.
She kept on telling herself.
That evening she
called Prashant. He did not answer her
call. She left a message. Thursday mornining
she called. No reply. She left a message. She was getting impatient now. He was
totally out of sight on the mobile as well. He was not even checking the
messages.
What was happening?
She could not understand. She had staked her job for this deal and for
Prashat’s sake. The job that had made her what she was, that had given her
status in society. The whole thing was
getting on her nerves now. What could have happened? Why was he not attending
her calls? Was he in some trouble? Was the fraud exposed? Questions were
playing havoc in her mind. She called
his home number. No response. What was
she to do? How could she contact him? She did not know.
On Friday, she
called one of her office colleagues to inquire about Prashant. He immediately
attended the call. And what she heard from him, left her speechless. She was
aghast. What was this? Was all that he said true? She felt dizzy.
Her colleague informed her that Prashant
had gone overseas on Monday with his wife and child. He had informed the office
about it earlier, but had requested not to disclose his whereabouts to other
colleagues, as he was going on an important business trip. That on Wednesday he
had called the office and informed that he would be discontinuing his job.
Reasons were no t known to him. That he had informed the boss earlier about it.
They had no other information about him.
Mira went blank.
Her entire world collapsed. What was this?
What was happening? What had he done with the secret information she had
given him? What if she got caught in the
fraud case? Whom should she talk to?
What was to come next? She did not know. She felt choked between her
sobs. She tried to calm down. Called Prashant once more. Sent a message to contact her urgently. But
to no avail. She felt lost. She felt cheated. She could guess now the reason of
his hostility whenever she tried to be close to him. The reason why he did not
respond to her affection and love. He had double crossed her. He had used her for his selfish intentions, taken
away the information, made the deal and disappeared with the money. And his Family? She had not known that he was married. He
never ever talked about it. That he had
a child. She felt betrayed, cheated,
lost and depressed.
After two days, she
managed to be calm and composed. She decided to think practically, leaving all
the emotions aside, and to move on. She thought about what needed to be
done. She sent him a final message that
said it all. Her disappointment, her frustration, her accusations and her
betrayal. She did not wish to talk to
him after that and decided to tackle the whole thing on her own, with whatever
needed to be done to save herself. She
did not know whether she would get her job back or had she lost it. She still
had a week’s time on hand to sort the things out. She decided to talk to her
boss and disclose every detail about the deal and to confess of her crime. Her thoughts
were on Prashant all the time. Had he
read her message?
She willed herself to not check her phone to see if he had
replied. It had been about three days now. She hated that she was constantly
checking his ‘last seen at’ status and yes, he had logged in just five minutes
ago. Yet she couldn’t stop herself. This sinking feeling to find absolutely no communication
from him was becoming unbearable, almost torturous.
And then, just as she sat down in her chair, her phone
vibrated. With her heart thudding in her ear, she unlocked her phone and stared
at the screen. Finally! It was his message.
But when she opened it, she nearly stopped breathing. She
didn’t know if he was joking or not. What was this?
He had sent a message with a lovely bouquet. With love and
kisses. He said he had successfully
cracked the deal. He had received the
amount. Gone overseas, to Dubai.
That he had bought a lovely flat there. He was alone and waiting for
her.
He posted a photocopy of her air ticket on Whatsapp. And that NO, he was not married. He had told
the colleague to tell her what she heard from him.
That he loved her and knew that she too loved him. That he wished to
marry her. That he will receive her at the Dubai airport that Friday evening.
Lastly, he added that they had not committed any crime. They
had not cracked any secret deal. That he was working on an important overseas
project for their firm and his boss had posted him to Dubai. That he was
testing her love for him and was awfully sorry for hurting her.
She closed her eyes to let the thought sink in. Was she
imagining things or was it reality. She thought,
What was this?
TRUST or BETRAYAL.
And she just let it
be.
Whatever it was. It
did not matter because she had found the love of her life. She was ecstatic.
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