Talk of the Town

01 //

It has been three weeks since MIRROR's new office in Chennai was ribbon-cut and grandly opened by the Chief Editor's son (The Chief Editor couldn't come because of food poisoning) but there isn't a coffee machine in the office yet. Miraya refuses to understand the reasons behind the delay in setting up one. She had even gone to the extremes of aligning benches and making a welcoming space for the machine, but there has been no effort to acquire one. Sure, the office is fancy and minimalistic, outlooking the disgusting Chennai traffic (thankfully noise-cancelled) but what is an office without a smart coffee machine tempting gullible human minds to take a break every half-hour to sip free delicious coffee?

Miraya places the large takeaway cup of coffee on her desk, and Fiya, after looking at it, sighs visibly.

"Watch this lose all its warmth before I finish half of it," Miraya says, seating herself with contempt. Don't get her wrong. She loves her job, she loves her office and she loves the people working in it but she simply cannot function enough to love them if there's no caffeine in her.

"The pain," Fiya says.

"Good for you, non-coffee drinking alien. You got your Alphabet juice?"

"Hey! Don't insult my ABC juice. It gives me life." Fiya is in a white blouse tucked into a lilac pleated skirt that reaches her ankle. Her hair is French-braided, and her eyes are lined with extra kohl. Miraya realises that she is going out on a date with Ashraf tonight. Good for him, she thinks.

Miraya powers on her computer and sinks back into her seat. She looks around and discovers that the chief editor's room and the art director's office are empty. "Is there a meeting going on?"

"Oh, yes. All the department heads rushed into the cabin room at the same time. Must be a last minute story that the Delhi unit has conveniently pushed to us," Fiya says, typing on her computer.

"When do you think we will write our south-Indian cover story? All we've been assigned is the Life Essence column and the piece about Rising music trends. I mean, the music one is fun, but I can't wait to interact with celebrities I grew up with and write a posh article about our conversation. I have so many ideas to make it funny and catchy—"

"What if this meeting is about a cover story?"

"No way. You know that we book celebrities for the cover way before, right? If it was someone from the South, they surely would have informed us about it."

Fiya pouts. "This is so sad. When will we get to do the cool stuff? And who is on the cover for the next month's issue anyway? I swear if it's Deepika Padukone again —"

Miraya bursts out laughing. "I am sure it's not. What is your problem with Deepika?"

"I mean, I love her. But she is literally on every magazine cover these days. I want someone new. Don't you think so?"

It is true. People need to read about fresh faces and the unheard voices. The undiscovered need the spotlight more.

"It's not up to us anyway. Have you finished your piece for the website? Sam has been nagging me about it. He needs to upload it on Thursday."

Fiya groans and goes back to typing, uninterest painted on her face . "I'll send it to you by today."

Miraya smiles and picks up where she left off last evening. But her mind wanders off to the possibility of actually getting to do a cover story. If they are given the opportunity, Miraya knows for a fact that she would be the obvious choice to do the piece because she had the most experience in the field. She has worked for a popular fashion magazine in Germany for two years and one year in MIRROR's main quarters. On top of that, she has recently been promoted as editor. The staff writers are not experienced enough to handle such a big section.