Beyond the Clouds

chapter 2

Chapter 2

Bangalore

"Looking forward to working with you, Mr. Agastya Kapoor." Elena smiled, briefly shaking hands with him.

Agastya smiled, standing up straight and nodding his head. "See you soon, Ms. Elena." He made his way out of her office, passing a smile to the peon outside who waited with some cups of tea in a tray.

He passed by several offices that was shown to him during the tour of the place, smiling unapologetically at everyone that came in his way. As he made his way out of the office, he turned around for one last time. He could call himself the executive web designer and producer at Hattrick Digital finally.

He started walking towards his flat, looking forward to tell his roommate about the job. Vidya was more excited than he ever was for finding a job which actually meant something to him. She spent hours looking for job openings and he was ever so grateful to her.

Agastya stopped midway, finding shade under the bus stand. Bangalore never stopped, it was always in motion. People were constantly running behind something or the other and finally, amongst all this chaos, he found something which gave validation to his hard work.

He dialled her number and waited for her to answer.

"Disaster, again?" Vidya answered the call, biting her lip in anticipation as she ran out of her class. Her students were shocked, she was the kind of teacher which swore off mobile phone usage in class.

"Not this time, fortunately." He could hear her fight off her scream by covering her mouth.

"Details when I get home. We are going to turn up. Wash my feet with Sangria, thank you, see you soon."

Agastya laughed as he hung up, resuming his walk. Reaching home, he poured himself a glass of cold water, settling himself in the sofa, feeling extremely grateful about his house. When he first came to Bangalore, however, it was a different story.

Agastya came to the city three years ago, when he was extremely sick of the slight nudges his parents did whenever the topic of how his sisters were doing extremely well and here he was, a college drop-out, unsure about everything. It wasn't his fault his sisters came programmed with what they wanted to do in their minds. Agastya's mind didn't even start working properly till he came to Bangalore, while his older sister, an IIT graduate was doing great in her professional and married life. His younger sister, a singer, who was a finalist in a leading show was also doing well professionally. And then there was him, the odd one out.

Bought up among the confines of an extremely well to do family, Agastya didn't know of an electricity bill until one was presented to him. He saw his hard-earned money from the various internships that he had done flow as rent and bills. He cursed his stars for the flat that was too small, his jobs that were paying too less and his talent which was ignored silently as he designed web pages for people who already knew what they wanted. He constantly saw himself questioning as to why he was doing this, why he left his comfort zone and was doing this to himself. Those questions soon answered itself when he was at his sister's wedding. He was among people who narrowed their eyes at people being completely true to themselves. He was among people who praised the ones who settled and had a stable job. He was among people who looked down the people who had no plan.

After the wedding he found himself working extremely hard, harder than ever before. The first time he came to Bangalore, he came to prove a point to his parents. This time, he came for himself.