Unrequited Lawyer

“Courage uncovers strength, grace reveals beauty, vulnerability expresses humility, inner peace reflects contentment. “ - Millen Livis

Standing at the exit of the Terminal 1 of the Mumbai airport breathing heavily and staring into the hustle and bustle of the city she was now to call home. All of her 5’6 inches in her jeans and a Mickey Mouse T shirt holding on to her Tumi backpack for life, Ayesha though brimming with excitement was also hit with a slight bout of nervousness as she felt lost amidst the waves of people walking in and out of the airport.

Finally getting her bearings together, she walked towards the Taxi stand. Softly almost inaudibly she cried out “Bhaiya, one taxi to Andheri please.” Quickly getting into the taxi she looked at her cabbie as he stared back at her and then yelled back, “Behenji, with that voice of yours, forget getting a cab you’re not even going to be able to survive in this city. This city is for the loud and boisterous, don’t get lost or worse don’t lose your spirit.”

Smiling at the words of the cabbie Ayesha smiled, stuck her head out of the window and smiled to herself as the wind blew across her face smelling of smoke, the sea and a light fragrance of the incense stick that was burning in the car.

2 hours later, Ayesha finally arrived at her new residence, Malti Madhav Society wherein she’d rented a room through an agent online. As discussed, the agent was waiting to take her in. As they walked up the stairs into her apartment she said a silent prayer hoping that it would be all that she dreamt of and also hoping that this journey be successful.

3 floors and a hundred stairs later she walked into her tiny little apartment which she was now to call home. Noticing the mildewed walls and the dirty floors she looked at the agent in despair only for him to shrug at her as though saying that this is how it is and there is nothing he can do about it.

Having no other option in hand Ayesha took out the money from her bag handed it over to the agent and signed the agreement. As soon as the agent left she dragged her luggage into the room, opened the windows to let some fresh air in and comforted herself over the thought that atleast she had a place to herself.

Somewhere between dreaming about tomorrow and feeling homesick for the past, she slowly drifted off to sleep.

As a cold draft flew into the window and the early morning horns started blaring Ayesha woke up with a start realising that she’d dozed off quickly took a shower and got ready for her first day of work and another nervous cab ride later she stood before an enormous building which yelled business and class and as people marched into the building she realised she better go in too unless she be late on her very first day so thereby settling down the butterflies in her stomach she walked into the building straight into the huge glass doors which was on her right with a huge golden board with a sign “T. A and Associates.”

Ayesha was directed to go to the HR’s office wherein she was allocated to the Commercial Team. Excited about the new beginning, Ayesha immediately went in and started introducing herself to her colleagues and shared her enthusiasm about work. The colleagues were of all ages and Ayesha was excited about the fact that some of them were her age thereby making a silent note that she must make friends here as meeting anyone outside office seemed very unlikely keeping in mind her work hours.

With that began her journey as a lawyer in one of the top firms in India and as nervous as she was, she was also proud of the fact that her first milestone had thereby been achieved. Being her bubbly, social yet shy and her hardworking self she soon earned the trust and friendship of her colleagues and as the days went by she started feeling more at home at work thereby enjoying every minute spent there.

About 6 months into her being part of the organisation. One day as she walked into her office, there was a lot of hustle bustle there as it was rumoured that there were 3 new employees joining the team. As a lot of speculation went about who and how they were, Ayesha though excited about seeing new faces was so occupied with her work that she had no idea that the new team would be joining them in an hour and as she sat head bent totally buried in her work she heard a loud announcement and clapping. With a start she got up and looked towards the front of the office where she saw 3 new faces. Let me rephrase that, she saw 2 new faces and a Greek god who seemed to have walked out of a movie and as she stared at them, she didn’t realise when they’d walked right towards her. It was only when he said Hello that she woke up from her trance like state and frantically said hello and started pretending to be busy wondering why they were all in her space.

On looking around she suddenly realised that while she had been labouring at her files, the staff had arranged the area around her for the new joinees and to her much despair the Greek God in question was going to be occupying the seat right next to her.