The First Trillionaire

Untitled Part 12

Shail could see the many-storied building looking bright and strong as the taxi came to a halt. The name 'EAST INDIA BANK' was splashed in deep blue colour on the cream and brown painted building. She paid the driver as he brought out the last of her luggage from the boot, depositing the bags firmly on the ground. She picked, pulled, and dragged her blue suitcase and started towards the gate of the college.

She stopped at the entrance where a guard sat on a stool. As she stood there asking him questions he came forward to help her, carrying the suitcase, inside climbing up some half a dozen steps. For the first time, Shail panicked and looked at her mobile screen. It said 9.20 a.m. She had to be present at the class before 9.30 a.m, she told herself as she climbed the last steps to enter the building in a hurry.

The kind guard placed her luggage on the floor in one corner of the big hall and went back to his post at the gate after giving her the directions to the office for reporting, and also instructed her to get a key to a room allotted to her in the hostel which stood opposite the classroom-cum-office.

After about five minutes, Shail was unlocking the door numbered 27 among a number of similar doors around her, pushing the suitcase inside with her feet as she struggled to open the door. She looked around the sparsely furnished room with a big cupboard built into the wall. She shoved the suitcase inside with some difficulty and locked the cupboard firmly as she looked at her wrist watch.

"I don't know why Maa had to pack so many things for me. It's not as if I am moving forever to another continent. I'm going to be in Mumbai just for few days," she thought, and guiltily reminded herself to call her mother when she got the first break from her class.

"I have to rush now before I am too late," she thought, and picked up her handbag and mobile from the bed and took one last look at her reflection in the big mirror fitted in the cupboard. She wished she could take some time to tidy up a little bit but another quick look at her phone told her it was 9.37 a.m. and she was way too late already. She thought, "For now, this would have to do," and pushed the few strands of hair from her forehead and tried to smoothen her unraveling braid. She left the room and locked it, taking hurried steps towards the classroom building, almost breaking into a run when she had to cover the few feet between the two buildings.

Taking a deep breath, she knocked on the door of the lecture room, took a deep breath, and entered with a smile. The instructor, a benevolent-looking man in his 40s with neatly combed hair, welcomed her and returned her smile, and gestured her to enter and take a seat. The room was filled with about 35 trainees, apart from the instructor.

Shail walked to the back of the class where she sat on an empty chair behind all the other trainees who all looked poised and ready, unlike her. She felt a little self-conscious in her light blue churidar-kurta, especially when she saw that all the other girls in her class were dressed smartly in formal trousers and shirts.

"Good morning. I had just begun the session for today. I am Deepak Singh, and if all of you are seated comfortably, I would like to begin the session," he said, giving a glance at his wristwatch. "I am sure the whole batch would want to hear from each of you, just as I am eager to know you all myself," he said, looking at the whole class with a smile lighting up his rotund face.

"Yes, let's begin with you." He looked at the guy in front who was wearing a cream coloured shirt.

Shail could only see his back and tried to listen to his words, but since she was stuck all the way in the back so it wasn't clear.

"Good morning everyone. I am Dharmesh Chaudhary from Delhi. I have done B. Tech in Mechanical Engineering from Globus Engineering College, Delhi."

Shail only vaguely remembered the rest of his introduction, and he had accumulated too many achievements and other qualifications, which sounded unfamiliar to her.