A Coffee at Dawn

Chapter 24 : New Venture!

"Mayank," Dia came in search of me.

"I could not find you inside the green room, I guess we are ready to make it big," she had the twinkle in her eye that showed how happy she was. I held her hand and smiled. I moved in, not wanting to make any eye contact. I did not want her to catch me low. She stood there in perplex at my reaction and followed me in a while.

"So are we set to go out there?" I cleared my throat before I yelled out the question. I could hear a 'yes' in unison. The energy in the room was influencive. I kept Aarti aside for a while now. I had an act to pull off, this would give the direction I was striving for in life. The entire troupe moved out of the room and took the back stage. Rahul and I chose to enter from the front and we took our positions.

"Put your hands again for Shadez! Spectacular indeed," Sankalp, the host for the night spoke. After a twelve minute tiring performance, all we could hear were the roaring applause and smiles every where around. I turned around to see my troupe, all were beaming and I could see myself enjoy the moment. We knew we had killed it. The foreign delegates seemed impressed, the event manager who roped us in for this was satisfied. I could see him nod at us when we stood on stage with contentment.

We left the stage and moved back to the room allotted. The event organiser followed us. He called out Rahul and I as he had to handover the amount decided for our performance. This was in a way our first payment.

"So, what do I say? Perfecto!" Andy, the event organiser congratulated us. We smiled in return. He took out an envelope that had the pay cheque. That moment was a one to be proud of. I let Rahul take it and I could hear the troupe hoot as we received it.

We turned back while Andy stopped me. I turned back and Rahul left to show it to the troupe.

"Well, that indeed was an amazing show," Andy said.

"Thank you, Andy. Thank you for giving us the opportunity, you.."

"Shh!" He stopped me in between.

"Do not say thank you, not yet," he said.

I looked at him perplexed. He laughed looking at my expression and my knitted brow.

"Well, I have been working with you guys closely since a month, and I must say, this is one heck of a team!" He rolled his eyes in amaze. I could not decode what he said then. He took me out to the balcony.

"Let me not drill you more, and get straight to the point. There is an event that is going to happen in Delhi," he paused to capture my reaction.

"Okay, and.." I trailed eager to listen to him complete.

"And I want you to organise the entire event, " I saw his face glow as he said that.

"You are kidding me, let's get in," I put my hands over his shoulder and tried dragging him inside.

"Whoa whoa! Wait, who says I am?" He holds me back.

"Andy, we have been only performing at events, now to take over an entire event and organise it, is not a child's play," I tried to debate.

"I have heard a lot from Payal about you and the way you have delt with events at college. Yes, I agree this will be your first venture, but trust me, every thing in life needs a start," he tried to convince me.

Payal and Andy were friends even before I knew her. She had not mentioned about him till the troupe was formed. In a way she introduced us to him.

"You can take over the organising part with a help of a two or three. The rest of your team can practise to showcase how best they are," he seemed too determined to sell the offer and I hardly had any choice but to agree to him. He smiled and turned to leave.