Rudra Subramanian exited his cabin, slightly weary, but with a sly smile on his face.
It had been a successful day no doubt. He had signed one of the biggest deals of his life. The partnership with the Japanese would surely propel his business to new and greater heights.
Rudra Subramanian or RS, leader of the Indian Pen Industry, (not exactly a very big deal as there were hardly any competitors but then he did get to be a millionaire) was one of the most successful young entrepreneurs of India. Aged just 26, he had been propelled to majestic heights, owing to the quick success he had achieved in the short span of time.
RS was a person who believed in himself. An orphan for as long as he remembered, he had never been introduced to values and beliefs as such. Anything and everything that he believed in was himself.
He got into the lift of the 13th floor of his office building. And yes, his building did not have thirteen floors due to any kind of numerology at play. It just simply suited his convenience. RS was not a superstitious person as well. The only thing he trusted were his instincts and it ended there.
The lift quickly spiraled down to the ground floor. As the lift doors opened, Rudra winced out of habit. For he knew what the first thing he was about to see would be.
The faint scent of sandalwood agarbattis reached him first. On a neatly mounted small platform stood a small 'Ganesh' idol. On the left was the ever present small black mouse and on the right was the stand on which the two lighted agarbattis were placed.
To date, Rudra had been unable to comprehend the significance of this arrangement in a workplace, but he had allowed it (after a lot of deliberation) just to pacify the employees and let them work in peace. If the installation of a random deity that cost him just around 500 bucks, increased the efficiency of his employees and actually increased his profit turnout percentage by a good four percent, it was worth the deal for him.
And yes, Rudra was an atheist. He just was not raised in an environment that was very God fearing and he just did not understand why people believed the existence of an apparent higher power when no solid proof was available to even prove its existence! But Rudra had long before discovered that it was far better to maintain his own counsel rather that try and convince the people of this God crazy country.
He exited the main entrance of his office as well, the strong fragrance of the agarbattis troubling his nose a bit. He searched the road for his car which he had parked outside his office in a hurry this morning. After a few blinks in the late afternoon sunshine, he found the black BMW convertible. The funny sensation in his nose still prevalent, he started to cross the road.
And then a lot of things happened all at once. The irritation in his nose finally got converted to a sneeze as he reached halfway across the road. The sneeze propelled him forward and made him loose his balance and stagger a bit, which made him come into the path of a slightly speeding car. The car tried to avoid him by steering violently to the right, which turned out to be another mistake as the full side part of the car now hit Rudra with impact.
He felt a stinging pain near his waist and a sensation of weightlessness as he flew slightly into the air with the force of the impact. Then another sharp pain at the base of his skull as he fell down. And then darkness.
What he didn't hear was the sound of breaking glass as the driver of that car also fell out of his side glass with the impact
