Madness and Magic...❤️

6

"Hi! Are you busy?" Maya opened the door of Sidharth's office and asked. He was reviewing some engineering drawings in his personal laptop,he quickly minimized the window and got alerted.

"No, please come in," he offered with a smile, though his thoughts still lingered on his confidential engineering project.

"Are you done with your meeting?" Sidharth inquired. Maya had just wrapped up a crucial meeting with the top management during her visit to their Delhi office.

"Yeah... things seem fine. Bas acha hoga if we could just push the sales of the healthy range bit higher," Maya explained, her eyes reflected the concern.

"Hmm," he replied absentmindedly. His thoughts still remained anchored to his secret engineering project, and a nagging feeling persisted that he might be underestimating the significance of their new product line.

"but don't worry things are still fine,anyways I am leaving. Try to get back early."Maya changed the subject,
Sidharth recalled that he needed to visit the workshop where the prototypes of his secret project,he was working on was being made. It was a tightly guarded secret, and he had collaborated with few more engineering under a strict confidentiality agreement.

"Mom, I might get delayed.I am not sure if I can make it for dinner," he said, as his project demanded his attention.

"But I have made it clear that I want you to meet Shehnaaz,I am seriously considering a larger-scale collaboration with her." she emphasized. The mention of her name made him little restless.

"I know but I have some commitments." he replied.

"And you committed me too beta,I wanted you to help me me deciding how much to contribute." she said.

"You are the CFO. Who am I to decide how much you want to donate to her cause? You have the authority to take the decision and allocate it under the CSR budget," Sidharth responded, acknowledging her position and autonomy in making such decisions.

"It's not that I require your permission." Maya replied warmly.

"I really wanted you to meet her and I have already promised her that I would introduce you to her."As Maya spoke, Sidharth felt a faint curiosity stir within him. He wanted to meet this girl, even though he anticipated awkwardness. He felt the same kind of thrill that one experience when stepping into the unknown, not knowing what lies ahead but eager to try something new. Yet, his work was important.

"Aap aj mil lo, I will meet her over the weekends" he said, soon Maya went back to his apartment.

*

"Munni,ache se kar pehele left ja phir turn karke ghum ja, pinky tu bhi"Shehnaaz was in the chawl, the time was 5 in the evening. After her college classes, she headed straight there to teach dance to the kids.

"Didi, dekho, embroidery sample thik hai?" A woman in her 30s approached, holding up a piece of fabric. Shehnaaz glanced at it and said"Haan thik hai, ab main fabric pe start kar do" her head was bursting with the mounting pressure of the approaching event. She realized she was falling behind schedule.

Her designs were still in the early stages of embroidery, awaiting the final stitching. She only had 30 days left. She had just a few part-time models with her, she needed to find a showstopper too, and time was slipping away from her hand.

"Didi embroidery ka material lane ke liye paise de dijiye."the woman said and she reached for cash in her bag. Her eyes, suddenly caught the sight of the handkerchief she had taken from him. It wasn't the same bag she had with her that night, but she had chosen to keep the hanky during a bag switch for college. Pausing for a moment, she gazed at the hanky, and his face flashed before her. She held the hanky and caught a faint whiff of the cologne he had worn that night. "Do you really have time for this?" she thought, "and he wasn't even interested in you. Raunak is your guy." With that reminder, she kept the hanky back and took out some cash.