Destined

*01*

Destined

Chapter 1

Through teary eyes Suman watched the sun falling behind the horizon, painting the sky shades of red and pink, and she thanked God that this day had come and gone. All the pain she had suffered. All the hurt she had felt. Everything. Gone. though only for a day. Another day would come with another set of problems. 

She sighed another failure, the sixth failure to be precise. How brutally they had asked her to leave. She had been giving interviews since she had shifted to Delhi, but nobody was ready to give her a chance. All she wanted was a chance. 

Suman still remembered those days, the last days of her happiness, when she still dreamt of most ridiculous things, when life was easy. 

But that one day changed everything. 

“Suman, wake up, it's already eight in the morning. Sumaaaaan!"

'Isn't that my mother?' She thought.

"Indeed. There is no doubt that I am your mother. Today is your campus placement interview, and here you are still in the bed."

She sat up, rubbing her eyes with the heel of her palm, "Huh! Such a beautiful dream it was, but you had to ruin it, you could have waited a bit!"

Priya rolled her eyes saying "First be there on time, then only you can fulfil your dreams. It's already eight, and look at you, sleeping like a baby, no worries at all."

"Hmmm." Still not satisfied with her fragmentary dream, Suman asked, "Where is Papa, by the way! Is he coming with me or not?"

"Of course I am coming! My princess is going to get a job. I have to see that in my own eyes!" said Nikhil. "Come on, freshen up and have breakfast, I am waiting  for you outside."  

Suman sighed thinking, again the car must have broken down! But as stubborn as her Papa was, he was never going to give up on this car! 

"Got all your credentials beta?" Her over-worried mother Priya asked for the umpteenth time, to which Suman sighed, and nodded again. 

She never liked it whenever she had to sit in the backseat of the car, but this time she was not alone there, her Papa made Maa sit with her too.  "Papa, you know how much I hate to sit here, you didn't even let Maa sit beside you. Seriously, Papa, you had to put that stupid bouquet there."  She whined.

"Don't be a crybaby, This is for my princess, what, you don't expect me to congratulate my daughter empty-handed." 

Papa and his antics! 

She rolled her eyes, "But Papa . . ." She wanted to argue more and that's when a huge truck rammed into the back of the car before she could understand, her little car rolled over several times, breaking glasses, crushing-squeezing from all sides, the only thing Suman could feel was silence,  an extreme piercing silence. She wanted to scream, she wanted to fight, but the smell of fuel leaking didn't help her much, unable to take it anymore she closed her eyes as if someone pushed her into a deep sleep.

A single lone tear rolled down her cheeks. It had been three months, but still, it felt like yesterday. She wanted to cry, she wanted to thrash everything around her. But life never waited for anyone. Suman had to shift to Delhi with her maternal grandfather, as there was nobody to take care of her. 

Her grandfather, Raghuvendra Sharma was a clerk at a bank. The money he had saved for his old age was enough for a lonely man like him. But now that Suman moved into his house, he had to take care of certain expenses. 

She needed a job in any case. But she had lost her credentials in the accident. As though she had requested to her university for the duplicates, but it would take some time to get those in her hands. 

***

The next day, and another interview. Suman knew she would hear the same answer again; she wanted to try. She got up and got ready. 

At the breakfast table, two experienced eyes met with her. “You are pushing this very far Suman.” Her grandfather said softly. “Just wait for the mark sheets to arrive. Then you can hunt down every job available in this city.” He laughed at his own joke. 

Suman looked at him, “I just want to . . . Nanu, please don't fret over this . . .”

“You just want to help your old man here. I understand Suman, but I would suggest you wait for another month.” His eyes crinkled at the corners, “and I am sure, you are not going to listen to me. Fine. All the best then.” 

“Thanks, Nanu.” She Mumbled, she wanted to listen to him, he was the only family she had. But sitting idle at home was simply killing her. She wanted to get busy. Suman wanted to get away from this lonely man, how badly he was trying to stay happy for her when he had lost his only daughter and son in law. He didn't deserve this. Not at this age.

***

"No Ms Tiwari you have to show us the original credentials of yours. As you said, these are only print-out of the soft copies you have saved on your computer." said one of the interviewers.

"But, sir, as I told you I have lost my certificates and mark sheets in an accident! It will take just a month to get the originals. I have already applied for the duplicates."

"Sorry Ms Tiwari,  rules are rules.”

She came out of that cabin with teary eyes and sat on one of the chairs that had been provided for the candidates, at the Malhotra n Sons. Though she was sure that they would reject her, she had hoped she would get this job.

With a light tap on her right shoulder, wiping up those tears, she saw a beautiful lady, smiling at her.

"What happened?" she asked softly.

There was something in her voice, that for a moment, Suman felt her mother was standing there. She stood up and hugged that lady saying, "Everything is getting out of my hand...I...I don't know what to do!"

"You can tell me, And first stop crying." She was never the one who would cry at every given situation, but she could barely gather her wit. She needed someone, and this unknown woman and her soothing voice made her give up on her grit.

Suman sighed, embarrassed of her sudden emotional outburst; she let go of her. "Hmmm. . . These are certain rules we have to maintain, nothing can be done!" She looked at the woman, who had a faint smile pasted on her face.

"So I have to wait for another  month to get a job?"

"Unfortunately yes. But..." She paused as if she was in deep thought, "I don't know how you will react, I have a job for you."

Suman gawked at her saying "But may I know who am I talking to?"

"Finally,  I thought you were never going to ask! Hello...I am Mrs Nirmala Malhotra, one of the board members of this company."

Suman gasped! All this while she had been telling her story to one of the board members. Another bout of embarrassment crept all over her body, making her blush profusely.

"You didn't answer me. Are you interested?”

"What kind of a job if I may ask?" 

"Of course you may. You can say it is a post of a personal assistant." Nirmala explained.

"For you?" Suman sounded hopeful. She was already liking this lady.

"No, for my son, Shravan Malhotra."

***

I unpublished this story long ago. Because I was not happy with the storyline. So I have decided that I'll be editing and tweaking a little bit, and publish it again.

Destined was and is still very close to my heart.

The one who hasn't read it, give it a try. And please let me know how is it.