My search stops on you

part 2

Sarah's pov

Later in the day, I called Aqib again and confirmed the details with him about the company and how to apply. the company is located in Delhi and it has branches in Bangalore and few other metropolitan cities. the work will be to provide customer support via chat. The company's work is to provide food delivery services. It basically acts as a bridge between the restaurant and the customer.

I researched about the company and about the kind of interview they were conducting. I went through few youtube videos on interview skills and prepared myself for it.

In the comings days, the interview process started. the interview process went smoothly over video call. initially I was very hesitant to appear before some stranger over video call. I I prayed to Allah before the first round of interview to make this easy for me. All praise be to Allah alone, thankfully there were total of 3 rounds, two rounds were taken by a female and third one was taken by an old aged sir. he was very polite and during the conversation he remarked to me that I resembled a little like his daughter.

The 4th round was of a versant test, a computer-based test. it was mostly depended on one's level of general knowledge. writing and reading skills. Actually, we in Kashmir usually have good general knowledge, as we usually go through a lot, we have to be prepared for any unforeseen circumstances like calls for strikes happen on regular basis. every other day in some or the other part, a strike is going on against military or local police, and whenever some big personality from militants die then govt has to impose internet shutdown mostly for a day or two to curb down insurgent activities. 

 People tend to educate their children properly here. Modern education is something that still finds less relevance in some parts of India especially among muslims.

After two days of interview rounds, our results were finally declared and thanks to Allah alone, I got selected. the information came to me via email. I was super excited about everything. I was going to be a professional soon. I already started to plan how I would be using my first salary. Or maybe I won't spend them I would just take my pocket money as I take every month and save my salary for maybe a new dress or something.

Sameer's pov

I reached office by 11 am one hour before the scheduled time, I didn't want to show up late at any cost. It was my first day as SME I got promoted to being an SME(Subject Matter Expert) yesterday only. Now I won't be working as a regular customer support agent. I will be working as a support staff. My work will be to support and assist the new agents who will  be start working from a day or two.

I went to my seniors, greeted them, they congratulated me with a pat on the back.

After talking to the seniors. I came to know that today the new agents who have completed their trainings, would be going through an internal certification before starting the work. They informed me that today I'll need to assist them in their internal certification so that this process can go on smoothly. I got a list of agents whom I'll be assisting. Arun sir, who was taking care of this process added me in their whatsapp group. then I started picking the agents one by one. I tagged each agent on  whatsapp group to get connected on google meet and started assisting them.

After working for two hours straight, I and the newly promoted some went upstairs. I ordered a cold coffee and he ordered some snacks. then we sat on an empty table, we talked about our today's experience.

"These guys totally lack the required skills to face the internal certification as of now, I wonder who must be their trainer." he said showing frustration through his face.

"Yeah I have faced similar kind of situation with the ones who were assigned to me." I had a sip of coffee.

After chit-chatting for a couple of minutes, I started taking walk in the canteen. Whenever I sit for more than an hour or two, I get the urge to take a little walk. After some time, I went down through the shining marble stairs.

On the next desk, where I was sitting, a lady was sitting,  her eyes fixed to the computer skin. when I came near her, I noticed she was Malini mam. she had a pretty face with light makeup. And as usual, she was attired in simple salwar and kameez. she was from some north eastern part of India and her words reflected that.

No muslim should look at the opposite gender with the intention to check her or him out or to gaze at intentionally. Allah gives command to Muslims in Quran to lower theri gaze whenever they see the opposite gender.

When I reached near her, I greeted her, " good afternoon Malini mam, my eyes were on her desk."

"Hi", she responded with great enthusiasm as we were meeting after a long time.

"Hi Sameer, how are you? , how's work going on?, she stretched out her her hand for a hand shake.

"I am very good. recently got promoted to the position of an SME", but I didn't shake hands with her. 

I was in an awkward position that time. I felt very guilty about it. She rolled her eyes and after few seconds when she didn't receive the response, she pulled her hand back. She congratuled me with a smile and and I reciprocated but avoided making eye contact with her.

 While talking sometimes I looked at her purse or the chair or on the floor but tried avoiding looking at her directly. after exchanging couple of words, I said goodbye to her and went away. 

I felt guilty from inside because she didn't know about this Islamic ruling that a muslim cannot touch a non mehram. actually, this wasn't her fault at all, she was totally innocent. It was my duty to educate her about this . after I went away, I wrote a message to her on whatsapp to apologize. I wrote," mam, I wanted to say actually I didn't shake hands with you because I normally avoid to touch opposite gender as it is against Islam. that's why I didn't shake hands  otherwise I respect you a lot"

I felt nervous about what she might think after reading this. For a moment I thought she will think of me as an extremist or uncultured but deep down  I knew she will understand. So after gathering up the courage, I pressed the send button.

Sarah's pov

As soon as I saw that congratulatory message, I let out a scream. I shove my phone on the bed. Adi was near me, I picked him up on my lap and kissed him everywhere. He got quite irritated with that and tried to push me away but I hugged him tighter and called his name multiple times. then he pinched me on my face. it hurt it then with one big kiss on right cheek, I put him aside and went running downstairs. Although I was quite lazy to get up from my bed but that moment was too special for my laziness to take over. I went downstairs and informed bb that I got selected for that job. That time she was on video call with her sister, my khala. evening time is usually gossip time for sisters. my mother prefers video call over normal call. she was multitasking. she had put the phone on her front with the help of something and she was cutting vegetables for dinner.

"Bb,bb I have one good news for you" I said in kashmiri. At home we speak in kashmiri only. When we have to interact with other people people mostly from outside, we use urdu. People from outside Kashmir are basically bihari to us be it punjabi, delhiites, maharashtrian or anyone, all are same to us. it doesn't mean we discriminate on the basis of ethnicity, it's just that we are different from the rest of indians.

" I have got selected for the job", I said to bb and then I turned towards khala informed her the same.

bb responded with happiness, she put down the knife and blessed me by putting the hand on my head. normally, I don't like anyone touching me or my head. but when it comes to her, I always cherish this moment.

"wait a minute", I said cutting both of them in between. "I forgot to thanks Allah taala", I said and rushed back to my room. I heard both of them laughing.

I went inside the bathroom, performed wudu,searched for my dupatta it was hanging on the bed partially. I wrapped it around my head and spread the prayer mat. I performed my salah. After that I had a longer dua than usual. I thanked Allah for giving me this opportunity to work. I was so glad about that. I didn't care about the money a bit, I didn't even confirm my salary, I just wanted to spend my time in some actual work.

(Assalamu alaikum guys, thanks for reading my book. I hope you will start liking  it as I'll start uploading the chapters.)