Rohan was sitting on his bed in his Bangalore house, shaken by the dream he just saw. He couldn’t believe how real the entire thing felt. He could clearly remember all the faces; the girl named Anjali, the lady in the pink saree, the guy Sammy, the Physics professor, Payal, Anjali’s father. For a few moments, he believed he was in Shimla and all of this had actually occurred.
His alarm buzzed loudly, waking him up completely. He had a meeting first thing in the morning. He pushed aside the thoughts and rushed to get ready. He called out to the housekeeper to quickly prepare bread toast and coffee for him. Rohan had completed his Law degree from a prestigious college in Kolkata, and had been practicing at a high profile firm in Bangalore, for the past five years.
The traffic as usual was at its peak when he was finally on the road, and he got further delayed. This client he was meeting with, was very particular about punctuality. Rohan’s firm was retained by his company, but this was the first time his case was handed over to Rohan. He had heard a lot from his colleagues about Sajeg, the ideal client, with high expectations. He was always fair with his dealings, never delayed payments, was always five minutes early for a meeting and expected the same high quality deliverable from his vendors. Rohan had convinced the partners to let him handle Sajeg’s company’s upcoming case. After a month of coaxing they had finally agreed. Rohan was nervous as he wanted to make a good first impression. The traffic wasn’t helping, he was constantly looking at his watch and preparing his speech in the mind.
His car came to a halt in the parking lot with ten minutes to go for the meeting. He gathered his bag and coffee thermos quickly and ran towards the lift. The office was on the eleventh floor. The lift stopped at almost every floor and with every stop his heart raced faster. He prayed that Sajeg gets delayed today. Finally when he reached his office, it was five minutes past the scheduled time. Sweat broke on his forehead when he saw Sajeg in the conference room. Thankfully, a senior partner was talking to him when he entered through the glass door. The senior partner gave Rohan a stern glance and introduced him to Sajeg, ‘Mr. Sajeg, please meet Rohan. He is one of the most promising attorneys of our firm, in line to become a junior partner very soon.’ They shook hands, as Sajeg looked at Rohan observantly. There was something familiar about Sajeg which Rohan couldn’t put a finger on. The senior partner left after a while, leaving them to discuss the details of the case. Without any delay, Sajeg began to list down the facts and set his expectations. Finally when he finished, Sajeg said, ‘This belongs to one of my subsidiary companies. My partner is the MD of that company.’ As soon as he had said that, Rohan heard the conference room door open behind him. Sajed spoke again, ‘Please come Anisha, we were waiting for you’. Rohan got up from the seat and one look at Anisha sent chills down his spine. He couldn’t believe what he was witnessing. Anisha was Anjali from his dream! He couldn’t figure out at that moment, that his eyes were wide shut or wide open!
