Serious in Love ✔

7- "Cos you're loud and whiny like a parrot."

« AHANA »

They say you should look into signs when you notice them. They say those signs were a premonition of an event in the near future. I was called stupid but I wasn't stupid enough to believe those superficial, horror stories. But you see, adults had ingrained those stories into our heads as a part of our sanskari (traditional) education. We would notice them even if we turned ourselves blind. Just like today.

It started right after I woke up. I walked into the balcony and the first thing I heard was my sweet, lousy neighbor downstairs shouting to a milk delivery man. Myth one-- if you happened to see or hear the voice of an unfortunate person, first thing in the morning, your day was bound to turn into a catastrophe. Myth two-- If a black cat crossed right in front of you then it was a bad omen. Myth three-- If your right eyelid happened to blink repeatedly then it was a surefire sign of a bad event. It was as if nature was giving it's best performance to warn me. Even my mother warned me after she read my horoscope today. Normally, I wouldn't even bother to bat an eyelash but with multiple things happening one after the other, I was forced to come up with bizarre conclusions. A road accident? A natural calamity? A heart attack? Or will it happen to my parents? No, no, hold your horses right there you overactive mind. Maybe I should just take a leave from office today.

In the end, I listened to my logical mind and my logical Papa, prayed to God anyway and walked my ass to office. To hell with those centuries old myths. What could possibly happen on a bright sunny day such at this?

Well, what do you know? I was proved wrong.

For starters, it wasn't anything to do with road accidents or natural calamities but who knows, I might be victim to a heart attack very soon. At first, I didn't pay any heed to the loud commotion happening in front of the main office until I noticed my dearest colleagues taking part in that small commotion. They seemed quite traumatized and angry. When I asked them what was wrong they simply flashed me their respective termination letters they received from their evil boss. I probed them further but they were frustated beyond their wits to explain it in decent words. From what I heard, it seemed like a case of redundancy. Knowing that nothing would be gained by loitering around here, I entered the building as requested.

My worst fears came true when my boss handed me my resignation letter. I was kicked out of my job. My boss seemed pretty distressed herself as she stated the reasons. To be truthful, I kind of anticipated this but I didn't think it would actually happen. Design Plus, being a start up company, was tight on finances for a long time now. Our projects were successful but we needed to catch on a bigger fish in order to cover our expenses and debts, which we weren't getting. It became a little more difficult due to the effect of demonetization in the country. My boss was considering this for a while now but only decided to take action after our last project. She was afraid that she and her partner might have to shut down their business if this went on so they decided to make a majority of their employees redundant. For now, they decided to retain ten employees, who were working in the head department. Being the head of the company, she was quite sorry herself and wished never having to witness this day ever again. She had a solid reason behind her actions and seeing her sorry state, I didn't feel like fighting back. Though that didn't stop me from feeling enraged at the situation itself.

My mind did a flashback of all those days I've worked as I visited, at what used to be my cubicle for one last time. From the corner of my eye, I could make out Nikhil lamenting at a distance. The floor itself was empty now. I clenched my teeth and beat the table with my fist. Eighteen months... I've worked for eighteen fucking months here. Before realizing it, I got attached to the company and my colleagues like it was my own. I sacrificed my Saturdays when things got hectic, gave my blood and sweat for this job and what do I get in return? A fucking piece of trash, confirming my termination.