Chapter 2
The alarm had rung and had been left unheard for 4 or 5 times
. Utkarsh dreamily picked up his I phone "have you completed your logs, bring it the first thing in the morning". The voice obliterated all the sleepiness he had."yes sir right away ".. The late night chats was messing with his orderly work pattern. He rushed to the shower and got ready within minutes. He never thought
being a software developer would be such a hassle.. While doing his engineering he dreamt of coding codes all through the day.he felt an unnatural sense of satisfaction writing codes, running through them, Debugging his mistakes after a few fits of frustration. He enjoyed the stuff which to others we gibberish.
.He wore a black shirt and a denim. He was ready within minutes. Right from his striped Navy blue tie to his woodland shoes. It was a God's gift he had . he could carry off any dress he wore and he knew it. He got more compliments than a girl did probably and he knew it. Not that it mattered He adorned his hand with the rolex.a gift from his mom. He gave an over enthusiastic smile to the mirror to augment his dimples.Girls would be vying fot this look.. He laughed at the silliness of it. He had always thought of girls as distractions. He got this far in life on his own interest handwork and dedication.
.. That doesn't mean he didn't talk to girls . Oh no no He loved being the life of the party when he wasn't busy with his coding. He would talk to them, beauties anyone would be vying to talk to ;but not him he had been getting this attention ever since he was 8 so it was nothing new. He had just one rule he talked to girls as long as they didn't take a romantic take on the conversations..
.
He got out the room. Hung the key in the " secret spot" for the maid to get in and do the chores. Not that Utkarsh needed a maid. He was perfectly capable of taking care of himself. Another reason he didn't think he needed a woman in his life.
He got inside his Honda Civic .. It wasn't the car he wanted to but but it was better than the flipkart given tata manza. .but just 3 years into his job that was the best he could afford . He was obsessed with cars and speed. If he had his way he would buy one of the luxury sports cars he fantasized since his childhood. Maybe he will. It was one of those things in his bucket list after all.
. Utkarsh revved up the engine. The revving of the mean monster engine was like music to his ears.. He went car sporting every Sunday.. The speed, the feeling of being in power the feeling of being in control is something which he always enjoyed.
It was early in the morning,
very early in the morning . His flipkart morning shift was too early .. It was hell the first few days Of his job .Not that something had changed.waking up so early on a December morning was hell. It still felt like a torture .one shot of tic tac and off he went.
The morning light had just graced the streets of bangalore. The cool air put utkarsh in high spirits. At just 24 He had the looks of a handsome teen, the face innocence of a kid and a maturity much older than
his years.
He loved this city. It had something for everyone. Rich and poor alike.. It was a city where you'd see taxi drivers who were millionaires before and millionaires who were taxi drivers. But bangalore had everything to satisfy everyone in their way. It had everything for the nature lover, the optimist, the pessimist, the ambitious and forlorn people. The traffic was never too much to make it unbearable or too less to feel as if it weren't a busy city. Utkarsh loved this morning drive. It took almost an hour to reach his office. Every drive through the roads of bangalore seemed to be unravelling a story. Each completely different from the previous one.
He saw a couple of old people in the grounds in front of his flipkart office. They were laughing as if they didn't have a care in the world. They were the members of some laughing club. Utkarsh never got the idea behind laughing clubs. It's precisely because you're not happy and laughing that you're there. Why laugh like that when you don't mean it.. Does thinking like that make him a hypocrite Utkarsh wondered. Cause that's the same thing he did all the time. Sometimes out of politeness sometimes to scrape out of the insipid conversations that didn't interest him.
It was nearly 7 when utkarsh entered his crucible. Just 3 years into his job and he already had been promoted twice. Still he worked hard, hard to have a cabin of his own. Just entering the crucible utkarsh became his usual hardworking self. The logs he had already completed the day before. He managed them put them in order
And promptly went to the boss's cabin. Getting in he noticed that the boss wasn't in his office yet. Utkarsh kept the logs where he was supposed to. He tried to make the logs more orderly and he noticed something. He saw his previous logs and noticed they hadn't been touched. He wasn't supposed to feel bad. He was an employee after all;he was in the good books of the boss ;he was the first person he called when yet it did . yet it did pain. His work was worth more than this unread cabinet.
Utkarsh loved appreciation, not attention mind you and he'd made it clear to people who questioned that. "the fact that I did something good, a quiet Nod a
small" well done ", a silent smile is all i ask. .
A little gesture to show that I matter" he had said this on several occassions.
He sat back at his cabin and opened his whatsapp. Utkarsh went through the babyish conversations of the previous night and weirdly all his dejectedness vanished. On other occasions he would be angry at the girl and himself.. For staying up so late. But she didn't actually make him stay awake..Utkarsh stayed awake because she was too magnetic to stay away from .. The babyish conversations would be childish for the other high end egoistic girls he usually came across but not her. She replied him exactly the way he would want to get a reply nothing more nothing less . the fact that it was him who drove the conversation and the feeling of control endeared the girl to his heart . however there was a quiet forcefulness behind her supposed submissiveness in speech .this is exactly what made this girl magnetic to him. Made it hard for him to go away. The clock was nearing 8 and his past conversations with this girl gave her the idea that She'll be awake minutes from now.
"Looks like sleeping beauty's finally awake ".
He smiled. However utkarsh had to complete the job at hand. Getting our of his
Initial dejectedness he poised over his Computer and then he got busy with his coding. The random strings of code puzzles simplifying itself under his watchful glance. And there he was like a generic worker.. Same posture same intent gaze, the computer light flickering againstmore intent glasses. He did the usual stuff. Had his lunch punctually at 2. He preferred eating alone but today just his luck none of the tables were free. "Utkarsh here, I saved you a seat" called Aman a colleague who had never become a friend even though he sat at the cubicle across him. Amal had an awkward habit of speaking in cliché, a habit Utkarsh found disgusting. Besides every one around him was competition and someone who would have to be stamped on and go forward. So there goes the friendship. But a utkarsh never let anyone know that so as expected came that fascaded smile "thanks man you're a life saver". His 32 teeth aching to come out . He knew the clichéd question was coming.
"so Utkarsh you got a girl yet " Aman said followed by a lot of sneers .
" nope not really, before you imply it I'm not gay " Utkarsh said with the biggest coy smile he could manage.
" And why else would you be single " said someone Utkarsh had never bothered knowing the name of. Utkarsh always came across as mysterious to his colleagues. Probably because all the girls his colleagues ran after asked utkarsh s phone no before giving them theirs.
" handsome guys like you are taking all the chicks away " Utkarsh said. the colleagues faces screamed " Oh please " followed by a fit of jealous depression.
. Utkarsh did not like this sort of conversations and it was getting unbearable already. So he was having his food fast.
" who was that hot girl with you in your car the other day "
Aman said. They must have been alleging to the girl from his locality. Utkarsh had given her a lift seeing her at the bus stand.
"she's out of my league man, so I don't try " Utkarsh said knowing nothing else wouldn't make them stop.
"so there's no girl who remotely has your interest now? "
" of course not ". Utkarsh gave the smile again. There was a girl but he wasn't going to say that to these people who meant nothing to him.one more hour if diligently doing his Job and he was back in his Honda civic at 3.
On his way out he noticed the laughing old people of the morning had been replaced by a plethora of children of 16 plating football. How he wishes he could be there. He had been buried in his books when he was their age. He had always been made to believe that the future would be beautiful only if he focused on studies then. That there will be a lot of time in the future for those petty plesentaries. The future ;his present
Well he didn't like it that much. His life seemed like a perfectly prepared dish but without the salt. He was melancholic all through the drive home. The sun was drooping off already due to the time of the year and it fitted his mood perfectly. He saw his face glistening in the car mirror. There was no smile. What would he have to do get it. What more did he have to do. Utkarsh wondered.
The Honda civic was in the garage by 4 .
Skipping steps he got into the room and slumped on the bed without taking his shoes off. A few grunts of cozyness before he got herself and his room under order.
But the late night talks were getting to him. He reached our for the remote to his
sound system and buried his face in his pillow
. This time after throwing off his shoes across the room. He Loved R&B and hip hop but back home from work it was Ben rector, James blunt and Jason Marz that calmed him down. He had missed his workout in the morning but he didn't worry about it..