Conference For Two

Prizes and Prestige

A light pink spotlight raced through the audience before raining down on Anika, while the winner was announced with confetti blasting.

"The Entrepreneur of the Year is Anika Malhotra"

Applause erupted from the crowd as they parted to let her pass. Her red gown trailed on the pitch-black carpet, sweeping confetti in its wake. She carefully made her way up the stag, it didn't matter if she took her sweet time she refused to rush, fall and embarrass herself.

A glistening clear structure was handed to her as a memento. She bowed her head in an acknowledgement but the chief guest had lost his smile, and she wondered why. He managed to lay his hand on her head and make a pretence of blessing her, but she would have to figure out what was on his mind, a lot rested on it.

She walked towards the mic to speak, but it was moved away by the program coordinator.

"We don't let the young Entrepreneur category speak on stage, it didn't go down very well last year," he clarified in her ear.

She remembered the headlines after last year's event, 'Drunken Youth says Boost is the secret of my energy' and so on. The politicians had used this to maim each other, although the guy had nothing to do with politics. The conclusions they had drawn were miraculous, to say the least. She cringed at the memory, she hadn't been invited last time around but she had read every article about the event and business fair she could find. Although it had been funny at the time, she didn't think it would dim her spotlight one day.

She raised her trophy, bowed and said thank you, instead of the speech she had hoped to give. As much as she told herself she wanted to speak to get an investor through it, she just wanted to stand up there and speak mindlessly. Why do you think speakers for every event go on till your ears bleed? because they're having the time of their lives.

As she did so, a man in the crowd raised his glass to her in a toast. She smiled back in what she thought was a graceful smile before it soured. It was Ishaan's boss. Not that the guy needed to work, his dad wanted to see him work his way up and had arranged for him to be employed there. Anika wondered if something had happened between the two, something must've acted as a catalyst for the sudden breakup.

Once she got off stage her secretary Tanya rushed to greet her and jumped into her arms. Staggering to hold both of them up, Anika had no choice but to let out her usual retort.

"Are you going to get off or should I cut your bonus for the coming holiday?"

Tanya unhanded her like she was burning coal and pretended to sulk away. Anika reached out to pull her back, Anika was uncomfortable with bear hugs and displays of affection but she knew Tan was just genuinely happy for her. They walked towards the open bar, struggling through the crowd, so much so that they already looked thrashed when they got there.

Tan reached over the counter to order both of them a drink when Anika overheard a man who sat in front of the bar, his back turned towards them.

"I can understand women empowerment and everything but to hand off awards to a lass while ignoring all the good work our boys have done is just a little, you know," he said conspiratorially.

Anika couldn't recognize the voice, but the bald head that was looking away from her- she could recognize it in her sleep. The chief guest from earlier. That solved the smile-less prize-giving mystery at least.

"Give them a category of their own, that ought to solve the issue. That's what most organizations do, instead of stealing the recognition others ought to get." another encouraged.

She had planned to collect an award, bag an investor and go home happy. And she was going to do just that. Taking a step towards the gathered vultures, she positioned herself such that she could see everyone like she was a leader of this impromptu gathering.

Their eyes went wide at the sight of her and the chief guest deigned to defend his words but she sharply held up her hand. He was shocked when she did so, with his age and experience he wasn't used to people shushing him. She topped the gesture off with a smile, she wanted investors, not enemies.

"Now that I have your attention," she began. Her secretary shook her head, resigned, this could go one of two ways and she hoped it went Anika's way.