Finding Love

5

If anybody would steal Ananya Murthy's phone and checked for her last searches on the Web, they would find frequent searches of 'stress and hair loss'.

Ananya was having very demanding and strenuous days at the office back to back. With the deadline of the first big launch of the merger being only a few weeks away, the employees of the Kashyap-Malhotra merger are being pushed to the limits. She was working and stressing so much. And also losing hair. Lots of it. She suspected she'd be bald by the end of this thing.

Ananya wasn't complaining however. Work has always been her first love. She returned home everyday and collapsed on the bed without bothering to change. She would immediately shut the lights off and sleep.

Ananya's new team mate at work was being a welcome change too. Avinash Nanda, she realised, was not even that bad a company. They worked without any glitches majority times. But the few times that they did have a difference of opinion, none would back down. They ended up going to their boss for solution who somehow always managed to find a common ground which also seemed like the best option for the business. He was the boss for a reason.

Ananya found a new chat buddy in  Avinash. They would daily bicker about some random stuff for a good half an hour before she went to sleep. This had become a daily routine. It was fun too.

Nights became short, it seemed to Ananya. She hardly got full, satisfactory sleep these days. Dreams of Chris Evans are slowly and mysteriously seeming to disappear.

Her car was back to looking sleek and shiny, thanks to the trip she and Avinash took the repair works the other day.

The repair had cost a whooping one lakh rupees. After arguing like mad men for about an hour about the charge and bringing it down to a very reasonable 70000, Ananya and Avinash agreed.

Ananya offered to share. She could have been at mistake too the other day. She didn't bother sharing.

When the stress turned too much and not a word of anything entered their minds anymore, Ananya and Avinash would make a detour to the chai and samosa stall at the end of the street. It provided the much needed stimulus. It had wooden benches laid infront of it and was quite popular in the surrounding areas. The benches were properly shaded by low hanging branches of the few municipality trees. The shopkeeper, an extremely genial guy served excellent chai and the light drizzling of the rain that accompanied their trip majority times made it an excellent stress busting part of the day. Ananya's favourite infact.

All in all Ananya's life was at a juncture where she had no time to think about anything more than work and had nightmares of losing her hair. She didn't have the time to even talk to anybody except for her arch nemesis and of course had the time to chat with him and also go out with him on Saturdays and Sundays also.

One thing Ananya discovered about Avinash was that he worked with a passion which was unparalleled and  nothing like anything she has encountered in her six years of working experience. He got very edgy and frustrated if he committed any mistake and worked as long as it took to make it right. It seemed like his passion was fuelled by something more than his love for his job. Something very strong. And one day, Ananya knew what it was. She had an idea.

She was sitting on the bench outside the tea stall all alone, fiddling with her samosa and thinking deeply.

There were only two weeks left for their first launch and the environment in the office was extremely tense. Avinash and Ananya coped with it very well and were confident it was going to work out well. This morning, they were supposed to go through the revised plan and ensure it was perfect, as its presentation to the Board was scheduled the next day. They made big plans for today last night and decided they needed to work double to not leave an scope for discrepancies.