Reality Ever After

Part 63. Seize & Surrender

Hey everyone,

How are you? Apologies for being so irregular. But I have been buried in work and have no time to breathe. Despite that, I have managed to write this part this weekend putting all my work on hold. Hope you guys enjoy the part.

Thanks,
SV

PS - I will update the translations later.

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Manik was awake late in the night pacing around his room. His conversation with Cabir a few days back had really brought a lot of clarity and a fresh perspective of all the issues he was facing. And now he was determined to fix them all. He was done being a pushover. Now, he was going to take things under his control and ensure he gets what he wants and seize the day. This was the first time he actually realised the difference between being a go-getter and being someone who surrenders to the universe and lets destiny play its role. While there was nothing wrong with doing the latter, he realised that he functioned better when he was a go-getter. He liked to be in control and define his own life. He would give in his all to achieve everything and in the end, even if he didn't get what he wanted, he would know that he tried his best.

His first plan of action was to go back to Soundemic's office to give that Nikhil guy an actual flavour of who Manik Malhotra was. Nobody got away with insulting him like that. He picked up his laptop and started collating all the information he had gathered on Soundemic during the last few days. He could see the flaws in their business strategy and also compared them to their competitors. Soundemic was nowhere in the game as far as their subscribers and their music database was concerned. And they weren't even marketing as much as they needed to and whatever little they were, was not working for them. Probably because they didn't have enough money. Their app also had a lot of technical glitches and bugs and was not very user-friendly. But the best part about this app was their social media platform. It had a lot of potential for people to connect over their similar taste in music and make friends. He made a short little presentation on the overall strategy he thought would work with all the stats that he needed to support it. He was determined to push his way in and make his point. He didn't care if they offered the job to him or not. He just wanted to prove it to himself and that Nikhil guy that he was good and it would be their loss if they didn't have him on his team. He was planning on railroading into their office on the next day as he didn't have an appointment but he didn't care. When he was finally done and satisfied with all the information he needed and all the work he'd done, he finally decided to call it a night. When he glanced at the time, he realised that it was almost 5 am. He realised Nandini would be awake by now and decided to speak with her a little before he slept and hence gave her a call. But he was very surprised when he heard her sleepy voice.

Manik - Hello...

Nandini - Hmmmm...

Manik - Nandini?

Nandini - Hmmm?

Manik - You're still sleeping? It's 5 am.

Nandini - Hmmm. I'm very sleepy today.

Manik - Are you okay? Health-wise? Kuch hua hai kya? Do you have a fever or something?

Nandini - No Manik. I'm fine. Raat ko neend nahi aa rahi thi so I was up until late.

Manik - Why didn't you call me then? You know I'm always up late.

Nandini - I thought you must be busy. So I didn't want to disturb you.

Manik once again noticed her distant behaviour and felt bad but didn't say anything. Instead, he decided to break the forming frost between them.

Manik - Where was this concern when you used to wake me up at 4 am to make your filter coffee? Neend se uthakar coffee banwaati thi tum mujhse, remember?