The First Trillionaire

Faceoff with Bachu Singh

Slowly, Shail's life rolled into a routine. From the time she woke up until the time she got into bed, everything had worked out into a rhythm. She would go to work, stay there all day, then get driven back in Olivia's car. Her mother would welcome her with a cup of hot tea and a smile. But that idyllic routine was soon to be disrupted. It was a cloudy day, one week after she had started work at the bank.

Seeing the cloudy day from her open window, Shail felt lazy in the morning. She did not feel like getting out of the bed and decided to sleep for an extra ten minutes more before getting ready for office. She wished she could stay in bed and not work for just one day. Although she could sleep in the car, Shail still preferred to look out of the window on her way to the bank. While other passersby generally had their windows rolled up and shut when driving through the National Highway, but Shail preferred to keep it down and look at the freely waving grass in the meadows and the children walking to schools in the nearby village. She liked the feel of wind rushing by. At times, she would stick her head out of the car's window and feel the warm summer breeze blow the loosely hanging strands of her hair. The winds roared in her ears and Shail smiled as if she was talking to the wind. So, one week passed by in no time.

But on that day, Shail woke up in a comparatively gloomy mood. She had been browsing through the pages of Facebook and talking to Olivia till late night and her eyes felt sore and she was seriously sleep-deprived. Vanashree entered the room and saw Shail still sleeping.

"Shail, is it a holiday today, child?" Vanashree asked. She sat near her pillow and looked at the innocent face of her daughter as she slept. Vanashree ran her fingers along Shail's hair and looked at her daughter's tightly clenched fist. She recalled how, as a child, Shail would often get nightmares and she would tightly clench the corners of Vanashree's saree in her fist before sleeping. Suddenly, she was struck by amount of time that had passed. Her daughter was no longer a girl, she was a young woman. Vanashree smiled.

The alarm in Shail's phone rang again and she got up in a hurry. All her lazy thoughts vanished in an instant, and her responsibilities came rushing in.

"Maa, I will have to rush otherwise I will get late for office. Please give me my breakfast soon or even better, pack it in a box. I will eat it in the car," Shail shouted, taking out her clothes from the almirah and rushing towards the washroom. She was really getting late.

"Silly girl! This is what happens when you keep staring at that phone of yours until midnight. I have asked you so many times to sleep on time, Shail. You have been getting very irregular sleep nowadays! I am not packing any food, have proper breakfast and then leave!" Vanashree shouted back at her in a high pitched voice. She wasn't sure Shail even heard her through all the noise in the bathroom. She had started the tap in the washroom and was now bathing in a hurry.

A few minutes later when Shail got out of the bathroom and saw the breakfast laid out on the table, she panicked.

'Maa! I asked you to..." but before she could complete her sentence, Vanashree forced a bite of chapati and dal into her mouth.

"Don't put a single step out of the house before finishing the entire breakfast Shail, I am telling you! You got late because of your mistake. I won't let your health suffer because of that," Vanashree warned her daughter and moved towards her room to clear up the bed and make the room tidy. That girl, she fumed, she really let her head wander sometimes.

Mothers, they are so typical! Shail thought and a smiled lighted up on her face. Just then the driver honked as he pulled up in front of the house, when Shail realised that she was already running too late. Finishing two chapatis would take another ten minutes more, which Shail couldn't spare. She left the breakfast right there on the table and quickly washed her hands and rushed outside.