before you go

Chapter 1- The Random Meet

As the rain drops from the tree dripped on her, she,  Aashna Singh, was scrolling through her Instagram chats. Aashna was a twenty-three year old, from the city of Chandigarh, Punjab. Not disappointing but reality at the start, she was an orphan and was leading her life independently doing her job at a startup as a content writer and pursuing her Phd. through scholarship schemes at St.Joseph's University, Bangalore. She lost her parents in a tragic accident and never looked back at the history which made her an orphan. She was the only daughter to her parents and was brought up really well by her mom. No matter how rich her dad was, everything she had was seized by her dad’s business partners since it was a share. Since Aashna was 17 when her dad passed away she was not a stakeholder and her shares weren’t given to her as well. As she kept scrolling Instagram bored up waiting for her cab, she got a call from her best friend, Lavanya.
“Hello Aash sun” Lavanya said.
“Haan ji bolo” she said
“Tu itu respect nahi dene ka. Tu Aasha ke liye advisor puchi thi na?”
Aasha was the registered NGO Aashna and friends were running.
“Haa yaar, I need advice na, I am not so experienced” she replied in anxiety to know who Lavanya was to refer.
“Abey chal oye, acha hai ye, his name is Vikram Sharma. Delhi se hai, acha kar dega” Lavanya started her usual job of trying to taunt Aash for no reason.
“Arey thik hai thik hai group mai add krdena, shaadi.com nahi chala rahe hai, band kar personal description” she cut the call and opened her whatsapp when her cab arrived.

“Kahan jaana hai madam”? The driver asked
“Ghar hi bhaiya” she said by scrolling the group
{Since he was her usual driver}
‘~Vikram Sharma’ his name in whatsapp.
“आँखों से तेरी क्या क्या छुपा है, तुझको दिखाऊं म ज़रा?” said his Whatsapp about.
Aashna hit her head twice and said to herself, yaar aaj kal toh I thought it was only people who are cringy, pickup lines bhi ho gaye cheezy. As she came back to the chat, when she was about to type,
‘Hi’, ‘This is Vikram Sharma’, he typed.
‘Heyy there’ ‘Aashna Singh this side’ She
replied.
‘Hope everything is fine and great, glad to be on board. Thanks for having me at Aasha’ he wrote in a big message which Aashna hates, she types by dividing a message by 2 or 3. Paragraphs are irritating.
‘Most welcome’ she replied in irritation.
‘So, are you free right now?’ he asked.
‘For?’ she asked in a weird feeling.
‘A call…. Umm…. maybe……. To know my work?’ he replied.
Banda ladkiyo ke liye vela betha hoga. She thought to herself.
‘Shall I call you in a few minutes? Please excuse me, I am traveling’ She said formally.
‘No, don’t be so formal, take your time’ he said with a smiley and the chat ended at that time.
As she reached home and settled, she took her phone and rang to Mr.Vikram.
“Helloo?” his damn voice fed honey to Aashna’s ears.

To be continued…