A Myriad Of Emotions

The Alarm went off at 7 AM and Sadhana woke up with a start. She got refreshed and hurried to the door to collect milk and the newspaper. Her neighbor Lakshmi was drawing a beautiful rangoli pattern in front of her house."Good Morning Sadhana", wished Lakshmi."Good morning aunty", Sadhana wished her back with a smile. She put the newspaper on the coffee table and went into the kitchen. She set the milk to boil while she made decoction for coffee. She went on to check the milk but it was curdled."God!! This has happened for the second time this week. I will catch hold of the milkman tomorrow.", she shouted out. It was the morning coffee that gave her the energy to start the day. With that gone she was extremely frustrated. She had no time to go out and buy milk, so she tried to put the whole thing behind her and started preparations

for breakfast and lunch. Sadhana is working in Hyderabad for a service-based company, away from her hometown and family. She lives in a rented apartment all by herself. She has a lot of friends and loves to have fun but dislikes the idea of having a roommate.

Sadhana was only halfway through with her cooking when she got a call from her manager."Good morning Prathap", she said picking up the call."Good morning Sadhana. There is an issue with the delivery that went yesterday. Please login and join the bridge", her manager informed."OK Prathap", she said. She opened her laptop nervously. It was a very important delivery and she was sure that she and her team had done it all right."What could have gone wrong?", she wondered out aloud. She left everything as is in the kitchen and logged in as quickly as she possibly could and joined the call. Her manager, one of the developers from the team, and the client manager were already in the call.

"Hi Everyone, Sadhana here"

"Hi Sadhana", said the client Manager Robin."We have Prathap and Karthik on the call. There is an issue in the account report, we are not getting the amount details correctly. Karthik just started looking into it"

"OK, I am opening the code".Informed Sadhana.

After nearly one hour of analysis, they found out what the issue was. The code had to be changed and moved again.

"How long is it going to take?", questioned Robin.

"We can raise an emergency ticket and move it in 3-4 hours", Sadhana said.

"That is good, I will engage the testing team and migration team in the mails. You guys take it forward from there", said Robin.

"Sure Robin. Didn't you do a review Sadhana?", Prathap began to play the blame game.

"I did review Prathap. Somehow I missed this.", I replied feeling really irritated.

"By the time Karthik corrects the code and moves it for testing, I want you in the office", Prathap commanded.

"Sure Prathap", Sadhana's voice was low.

"Great, we will drop off now. I will set up a meeting again by 12 PM to check on the status. Does that sound good?", Robin asked.

"Sure Robin", answered Prathap.

All of them got off the call and Sadhana rushed to get ready for office."What a great start", she commented sarcastically.

She could think of nothing but this miss. How did it pass testing, she wondered. Prathap is going to put it all on her now and she was scared and worried. She got ready in no time and booked for a car-pool ride.

She walked to the main road and waited at the bus stand for her ride. Her phone rang, it was her friend."Hello, Dhivya"."Hi Sadhana, I am coming to Hyderabad for the weekend to attend a function, If you are free we can meet up".

"That is great Dhivya, sure we will meet"

"I will call Anju too, I hope she is free."

"Sure, call her and let me know. This is awesome, I am so excited. How long has it been since we all met?"

"Really long. I am excited too. OK, I will give Anju a call and call you back"

"OK, bye"

While Sadhana was talking, she could not help but notice a small frail girl, lost in her own thoughts, seated by the side of the road a few meters away from where Sadhana was standing. She was dressed in a ragged gown, torn in many places, her body exposed to the changing seasons. She was staring at a little child across the road, fortune enough to have ice cream. Sadhana approached her with chocolate. The little girl's eyes brightened and she spared some time to look at Sadhana and smile. Soon she ran away clutching the chocolate in her weak hands.

Sadhana's ride had come by then and she got into the car. It is not going to be an easy day in the office and Sadhana knew it. But she is not going to let that crush her. A person goes through a wide range of emotions in a very short period of time - frustration, worry, anger, fear, excitement. But sometimes, all we need is an innocent child's smile to forget all that and get going with one's life, mused Sadhana.