Saturday 25 February 2012

The Seminar

They were contrasts.She was  a bubbly rambler and he was quite silent . We all know how opposites attract and in their case they really did.

She first saw him when she was waiting in the office corridor to attend one of those boring seminars which have become a recent fad in today's corporate world. It was a stupid training session on 'Communication and its right approach'.

"Hah,as if we don't communicate well,"mused Sneha who had been working in this field for almost twelve years by then ."But these bosses do want to torment you by sending you to these training sessions and seminars",she smirked.

"Why can't such seminars be organised in the same branch or the head office where I work? Why do I need to get up extra-early and drive for an hour to this Noida office?Oh no!I generally doze off with boredom in such seminars!!"

Nonetheless,there was no choice.She was representing the head office and she had to attend the seminar with utmost sincere enthusiasm (atleast it should reflect like that on her face).

And so when he went past her ,she randomly noticed his good looks and wished,"I hope such a person is the speaker for today's session so that atleast I'm not bored.

And so it was.As she entered the Conference Room (she was the last one),she noticed that it was noone but him standing at the podium.He was in a pink  crisp shirt (quite metrosexual,she thought ) ; and some dark trousers. Actually ,she was so besotted by his Greek features that she didn't speak when he asked her to introduce herself in the ice-breaking session:"Hmm...Ummm...I 'm Sneha Dalal from the head office ..."Her confidence just vanished  in a lame reply as she felt weak in the knees.She had the same feeling only once before in her life..When she had seen her husband for the first time .

Yes ,she was married with two kids but it really did'nt strike her as something immoral or obnoxiously insane.Things like this happen all the time.People just don't talk about it.She believed in listening to her heart and follow it without any notions of "good" or "bad".That's what she was and she was proud to be herself.Let people say whatever ,it didn't matter to her.She was true to herself.

So ,back to where we were...there she was,totally,completely bowled over by his good looks and imagine what happened then!!

She heard him speak.What a manly baritone.."Ahhh...would I be able to answer ",she thought and participate  and impress all like a winner as usual"?
But  not only  did she answer all his questions and enquiries about the topics but also excelled in the partner role-play activity which he initiated .Her roleplay was very dramatic and used a lot of space.It also had humour which the other groups had not worked on.(as commented by Mr.Anuj Malhotra...that was his name......he  was younger to her..how many years...till that time,she had no idea.)

The five hour seminar ended as if it was just an hour..she wanted more of his intelligent add ons to her not so perfect knowledge (interestingly,before this day she was quite snooty about her knowledge and experience).

Finally ,the seminar ended.She mustered the courage and walked upto him ,took his number ,told him how impressed she was with his skills and presentation and started for home.

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Some days later.

She had to arrange a similar seminar at the head office.She was to be the solo speaker.She prepared all the slides and arranged for a lot of fun games and activities to make it more vibrant.


She entered the Audio-Visual Room where she had about 25 co-workers from various branches waiting for her.She noticed a familiar face in the second row.It was none other than Anuj.He looked very different now,though.He had lost some weight and grown some beard.After the first session ,she w hoped to see him and ask why he looked so crushed by life.But she couldn't.
She didn't want him upset at any cost.

He took her number at the end of the day,showered her with similar compliments about her professional talent and waved her goodbye as they both left in their cars.

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Months have passed . They have become friends .However, they both have many hidden secrets which they  want to share with each other.
The only reason that they don't is because she is married and they know the obligations of the Indian culture.If it were the U.S.,none would have thought about it so seriously.May be in future,they do end up telling each other what lies underneath their formal , professional talks.
I'm  waiting for Sneha to write more so that I can share the news with you.

Simply yours
Sneha 's diary