Na Jaane Kyon...

Hai yeh pyar sajna

Each floor of the office building had a small open projection near the stairs. It had about four feet of cemented parapet and another six feet of glass enclosure for safety purpose, but the area was open from above, filling the place with both sunlight and fresh air.

That is where Sameer saw Naina while walking to his room after the meeting. With her back towards the office, she was talking on phone. A smile appeared on his face, in spite of the gloom around his heart because of losing the hope of having her as his assistant... even if the hope was only for a few seconds.

"Pagal hun kya main?" He muttered to himself, wondering why he was smiling when he was sad.

Naina turned to her side, and the mellifluous voice reached him, shocking him, "Haan hai, tu hi hai. Ab pata chal gaya na... toh main ab jaun?"

He gaped at her.

After a silence of two seconds, she smiled, "Shaam ko bataungi. Ab mujhe kaam karne de. Bye."

Sameer quickly moved behind the pillar of stairway, watching her as she crossed him with a loving smile on her face, moving her thumb on the screen as she checked what seemed like some pictures. Her smile was very different from the ones she gave to him, or even to Rohan. It was an affectionate smile, indulgent and caring.

Back in his room, Sameer kept thinking about the softness in her features when she was looking at the phone. He recalled their first day meeting on the terrace, when she was on the phone like this. Her face had the same tenderness when she had turned... for a moment, until she saw him.

"Family mein se koi hoga. Uss din bhi Naina ne kaha tha personal call hai. Aur kise karegi... friends ke saath thodi timepass karegi office hours mein. Haan, family mein se hi koi hoga." He assured himself.

After going back to his room, first thing that Sameer did was open the laptop to see the employees list on their company's site. These details could be accessed only by a few selected people, he being one of them. Typing Naina's name by touching the same keys that she had touched some time back filled him up with a shivering feeling of closeness... as if he had taken one step towards her. He closed his eyes for a moment, before taking his attention back to the screen.

There were three Nainas on the list... but only one Naina Agarwal. Her entire education was from Agra, he could see. School, college, management Institute... all were well known, prestigious establishments. She had topped the school but her college grades were not exceptional, though they weren't bad. She had again topped the Management course, earning a gold medal. Nothing was mentioned about her family. But then, family details were not registered for anyone. However, address was... which in this case, showed a blank square, with just one word... Pending. She hadn't yet updated the HR department about her Delhi address. Usually, for the employees who were from other cities, permanent address was always their home city. But Naina had not provided that either. One thing that elated him though was her date of birth. He knew she was 23 but there was a different felicity in knowing her birthday. Another information that brought a radiant smile on his face was the small tick against her relationship status... she was single. Though she was too young to be married, and he had not fretted over this possibility till now, getting this fear out of the way was indeed a relief.

"Kaash uss din nanu ko Rohan ke liye nahi apne liye Naina ko bulane ko kaha hota. Uski awaaz sunke mujhe uska chehra dekhne ka mann hua tha tabhi samajh jaana chahiye tha." Sameer mumbled wistfully, then was stunned by the direction of his thoughts, "Kya samajhna tha? Yeh sab kya ho raha hai mujhe? Naina ke alava kuch soch kyon nahi paa raha? Ek week hone ko aaya, lekin ek second ke liye bhi usko apne dimaag se nikal nahi paya... what is happening to me!"