Chapter 3

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On the same day

Bom Jesus Basilica, Banguinim.

"Done with the prayers? Done with your fathers and ancestors? Tell me honcho! Are you done now?", Bhushan couldn't stop shouting behind Zaid while walking down the steps of the church.

"We're about to head to the premises only. Why are you howling after me? Varishth Uncle see no!", said Zaid irritatingly and started pacing even more carelessly.

"Son wait!", called out a soft voice from inside of the assembly hall.

Zaid, along with his group turned back in unison.

Father Joseph approached swiftly towards the men in black suit. His paces became even quicker when people behind Zaid parted and made way for the father to reach Zaid.

"Yes father?", asked Zaid ebulliently.

"Our church has organised a charity celebrating event called 'Give In His Name', for welfare of the orphans, next Sunday in which many  popular faces of Goa are invited. I'd like you all to be a part of it and honour our function with your presence.", said the father happily resting his hand on Zaid's shoulder.

"So how much you want us to donate?", an unwanted question asked by Bhushan.

"Bhushan!", exclaimed Varishth and everyone exchanged glances as the Father was startled by Bhushan's question.

"No no actually dad, I wanted to know from father since it is a donation camp or something like that, then we'd obviously be asked to contribute only if we're invited. That's what I'm asking, how much should we.", he said wearing an expression of concern on his face.

Zaid turned towards Bhushan in a flash and said,"He invited us to be a part of such a blissful occasion, donating or not donating is an intention that pops in when we see people participating into it and we contribute in accordance with with our individual willingness to give not with how much we wholly possess. Isn't it? It is rather an informal invitation by him and we're personally commited to it."

"I see this Bhushan has problems in understanding his roles as where to talk like a human and where to talk like a businessman.", sighed Varishth and turned towards the Father only to say,"We're definitely coming Father. And not only we but we'll also ask our subordinates to join us, what say, Aadam?"

"That's a brilliant idea friend!", said Aadam.

All of them were then walking on the pavement leading to the main gate of the church. Their car was parked inside the premises of the church but Zaid still stood outside with his hands crossed and Bhushan was seen sitting on the driver seat and moving out carrying the other three men in the car.

That was because, there were two groups of the candidates - the citizens of Goa strength of which was 40 and the ones from others states containing 30 candidates. And for the interview there were two panels also. Panel one comprised of Varishth, Aadam and Bhushan who were supposed to interview the candidates from Goa and the other panel contained Zaid who was the Chief Financial Officer, Ajay Mahanty, head of the HR department and Mrs. Pratyusha Khandelwal, the Chief Marketing Officer.

It was precisely because Zaid had always come out smarter in dealing with outsiders with his approach. So, that was how it was supposed to take place.

There is ample of time for the second panel to act, thought Zaid and was watching orphan children playing in the playground adjacent to the church building.

Suddenly something like the sun's rays reflection fell on Zaid's face and unfortunately he was not wearing his sunglasses at that time.

The shape of the reflection on Zaid's face was an inverted N but given the intensity of the sun which was no more humble Zaid tried shrinking his eyelids and used his hands to bar the light.

A hand that had worn a wristlet with an N attached to was rested on the shoulder of an old Christian lady. That N was glazing with like a gem upon Zaid's face and glorified it. Sometimes it'd appear as an N but as soon as the young lady shifted her hand to the other shoulder of the woman, it'd violate the law of shape as it was appearing like a Z then.

Nuska was helping the same old lady to enter into the church, Bom Jesus Basilica, by accompanying her and holding her protectively.

The shining object, sometimes forming the reflection like an N and of Z also showed no mercy to Zaid's eyes. His eyelids kept on flickering until Nuska along with the old lady crossed Zaid.

As soon as Nuska passed by Zaid, without looking at him as her focus was to escort the old lady, a football, of course of the children playing nearby, fell on the old lady's shoulder, hurting Nuska on her hand and it rotated on the floor to reach where Zaid was standing.

Although the ball hit both the women but its impact was negligible to them. They immediately accelerated their speed into the church building to avoid more issues while Zaid, with his leg allowed the ball to get fixed before him and gave it a hard kick. To the joy of the children playing there, it surpassed the church's fencing and reached the playground. They all were looking at Zaid like people admire their superhero after he had saved their lives.

Zaid smiled at them and turned back to see who were the ones whom the ball hit recently. To his despair, he didn't find anyone.

Nuska reached inside the church with the lady who was not tired of reiterating her gratitude towards the young and helpful maiden.

"Holy father always blesses the ones whom help other. You're such a wonderful soul child.", said the lady caressing Nuska's cheeks.

Nuska smiled very shyly and blinked at the lady.

"It was all my duty towards people auntie. Thank you so much for letting me do it."

"Oh great child! You've such a great thoughts. May God give you everything you wish for. I'm sure you'll pass with your interview with excellent performance."

*Of course she will 😂

"Thank you so much for your blessings auntie. It means worlds to me.", said Nuska with a choke in her throat.

After the lady was gone inside and Nuska was crossing the pavement to exit, the wind suddenly started blowing so coyishly that while passing by Zaid again, who was facing the exit, her yellow coloured dupatta touched Zaid on the face giving him a velvet touch over the place where few minutes ago her wristlet had casted its blaze, as if the wind was using Nuska's dupatta to mitigate the effects of heat that the sun had caused using her wristlet's N.

The competition between the sun and the wind on the face of Zaid of using Nuska's wristlet and dupatta as weapons was all was understood by everything except two of them.

As Zaid by that time had his eyewear on, he just appreciated the unknown touch in his heart but didn't allow his focus to shift on the delicacy passing by.

Nuska without paying a heed to anything around reached outside and was all upto catch the bus when her phone rang. After receiving the call and spending two and a half minutes in the conversation, she learnt that she had to reach KSE, and not the Grand Hyatt for the interview.

Her heart started sinking in nervousness as all of a sudden the news was surprising enough to make her upset about such an immediate change in the schedule and that also in the last moment.

How an hour before the session starts, she said in her mind.

Inside the church premises, Zaid was cherishing the peacefulness his heart was experiencing there when his foot stamped lightly on something. He bothered to look down and in order to get a clearer view of the object he removed his sunglasses only to receive the same reflection on his face that he had faced sometime ago.

He bent down and picked up the wristlet which had small sparkling stars attached to it and there was an N in the center.

He recalled someone was hit by the football and started looking sideways but couldn't find anyone. Then he rotated his body with his eyes now sharply hunting for someone around. But there was no one.

He tried to search people around but everywhere there were nuns and their disciples who had no far connection with any metal wearings except the cross locket around their necks. The group of people who entered into the church were all engaged in the afternoon prayer that would continue for at least one hour which was long enough for Zaid to wait.

To his dismay and to his fortune's amusement he had no option left with him. And also he cannot put the thing on the ground either ways. He simply let the wristlet slide into his pocket, smiled and forgot about it.

Inside the Khan's & Sarkar's Estate.

*Reader's digests about the  KSE interviewers.

1. Aadam Khan was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the company.

2. Varishth Sarkar was the Managing Director (MD) of the company.

3. Zaid Khan was the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the company.

4. Bhushan Sarkar was the Chief Business Officer (CBO) of the company.

5. Pratyusha Khandelwal was the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of the company.

6. Ajay Mahanty was the head of the Human Resource Department.

3:55 pm.

There were discussions going on inside the interview room. Varishth Sarkar and his son Bhushan Sarkar were on a conflict about concluding the performance of the last candidate of the first panel.

"Dad believe me that girl Shilpa is way talented in interacting and she has a great convincing skills.", said Bhushan laying stress on his father.

"But she doesn't have the flexibility to welcome the vivid sorts of people that are the day to day part of our business. Didn't you notice she was cynical regarding certain traditional values?", said Varishth in a serious tone.

"Dad! That's what training for! You only use to say, and also your honcho boy (targeting Zaid), that we can bring about a substantial change in their behaviour by training them and teaching them soft skills and business ethics even during their job tenure."

"Bhushan, you seem to have forgotten one more saying beta, training changes people's behaviour to the cause, not their nature. Remember this."

"Yeah exactly, I completely agree with Varishth in this.", spoke Aadam while examining the resume of the last candidate.

"But Aadam Uncle, what if I give you a guarantee that keeping her under my supervision as my P.A. would serve this purport?"

Aadam raised his eyebrows and exchanged glances with Varishth before he began,"You already have two personal assistants, how come you're entertaining this void idea?"

"Uncle, you're not understanding me.", went Bhushan.

"Wait, first you tell me, you want to create a P.A. pool or what? If the candidate lacks the most essential quality for being a part of KSE then it is for the full and final- we have to reject her.", said Varishth while sipping water from a glass mug.

"Exactly beta. I'm supporting Varishth's opinion here.", Aadam sealed the conversation.

Bhushan looked away clenching his jaw, bloody old rascals, he hissed under his breath.

Their team then collected the data in the files from the table and welcomed the second panel interviewers to join their session with rest of the candidates.

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"It has been so late that we've joined the panellists, I think this session would last at least till 7 in the evening.", said Mrs. Khandelwal munching on the sweet sandwich that was kept for the interviewer's refreshment.

"Yeah exactly.", said Mr. Mahanty and blinked at Zaid in response to which Zaid said,"You don't have to worry Ma'am, your merry departure will not be hampered anyway."

"Oh yeah Zaid, you said the right thing. By the way I was eager to leave as soon as possible. Today's my daughter's birthday and I'm unhappy I'd miss those lovely moments by arriving late."

"Then you could've asked us to shift panel 2 interview before, this way you could've been done by this time.", said Zaid with a little concern.

"Alright, alright. You're now exaggerating it unnecessarily.", she laughed and both the men followed the same.

"Okay. Send the first candidate. Sulochna Burman.", said Ajay Mahanty to an attendant in a bossy tone and the atmosphere of the room learned seriousness.

The interview was continuing well with Zaid and the other two interviewers  actively testing the wits and skills of the applicants. It seemed to Zaid that although those people were not a part of Goa but their cultures were all around same with the standards of that place.

It was 6:45 pm. And there was only one candidate left before whose interview the interviewing team was almost exhausted.

"Did you notice this one - Arun Kashyap?", said Ajay.

"Yeah what's wrong/right with him?", said Zaid.

"This guy seems to have that caliber but has not performed the interview well. It lasted only for 4 minutes. He could've done well but he was avoiding answering questions regarding dispute control with employees in a company.", Ajay pointed out.

"I'm not impressed with his performance as well.", the lady announced.

"Umm... Let's keep his profile separately. I see he's the most qualified one among all. So, only with that respect I think we'd recruit him in case there is any chance of coming across with some requirements later.", said Zaid quickly and asked the gatekeeper,"There's one more left no? Send that one quick, I guess he or she must be worn out by this time."

Zaid smiled looking at Mahanty who could sleep anytime.

"Sir, the last candidate was here unless five minutes ago but...", said the gatekeeper.

"But what?", asked Zaid, Ajay and Pratyusha in consonance.

"She fainted so I asked the manager to take her to the restroom and keep her under an attendant's custody."

"What!", exclaimed Zaid and sprang up from his comfy chair.

Mrs. Khandelwal and Mr. Mahanty were shocked to hear this. They immediately got up and called manager to learn the candidate's condition.

"How's she doing now, Varun?", asked the lady in a disturbed tone.

"She's taking rest at this moment. I guess we should call off her interview as for now as it'd be unfair to cross examine a candidate in a vulnerable condition.", said the manager and all of them exchanged glances.

"I want to ask something. Varun, wait.", Zaid spoke in a stew.

"Yes sir?"

"Yeah I'll talk.", said Zaid to the manager and turned to Mrs. Khandelwal,"Ma'am I guess it's over 7:15. You must be getting late for your preplanned function. And whatever has happened shall be looked after by me now. I pray you and Mr. Mahanty may go to your respective places for the things you're expecting or expected to do. I shall alone make sure nothing would go wrong with the girl's candidature due to this uncertainty. I'm postponing her interview and I'll be cross-examining her on my authority."

"That's so great of you Zaid.", said the lady and both of them exchanged greetings before leaving the room and the premises of KSE.

Zaid was galloping in a tremendous speed and was followed by a manager who carried the resume of the candidate whose name was -

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"What's her name Varun?", asked Zaid while they were in the elevator.

"Miss Nuska Nisthar.", came the reply.

"Oh. Okay", said Zaid without pardoning his galloping speed.

Employees all around the corridor, when they saw Zaid, began greeting him.

"Good evening sir"

"Good evening sir"

"Good evening sir"

"Good evening sir", each and every mouth had flashed with the same term and Zaid without responding to anyone of them continued to move on until he found the security guard in front him who wished him a good evening and opened the door of a room that was named- Healing hub.

Zaid stopped at the threshold when all of a sudden his huge body experienced jerks from behind by two people who were following him blindly. One was Varun Sharma, who was the first-line manager and the second one was Ravi Bhattacharya ,who was the auditor, who joined the walking boss later.

Ravi was also the Personal Assistant of Zaid since Zaid was the Chief Financial Officer, having bagged this position by dint of his chartered accountancy qualification and being the son of the CEO in the first place.

"What?", went Zaid turning around.

Both of them seemed blank.

"Relax huh relax.", said Zaid calmly and entered into the room where Nuska was lying on a rich cosy bed and an attendant was looking after her.

The first thing that caught his eyes was on a hook pinned on the wall with which her bed was attached, there hung a yellow coloured stole, fresh and lively as ever.

Unknowingly or knowingly a beautiful smile played on Zaid's lips the way it was visible during his wait in the traffic jam.

Then Zaid bothered to shift his focus on the face of the sleeping beauty. He surmised his eyes were as if honoured to see such an elegant and pretty face with her eyes closed and her *bust rising up and down in a rhythm. Then he shifted his focus again on the stole and hesitatingly lowered his gaze.

"How's she doing now?", asked Zaid to the attendant.

"She's okay but needs some rest. It must be a stressful day for her I think. And sir, one more thing, she didn't seem to have had her lunch. Maybe that's why she had dizziness and she fainted."

"Hey? A minute. She fainted 'cause of weakness? I mean she didn't eat and that also in a luxury hotel! Wasn't she given the refreshments...", questioned Zaid raising his eyebrows.

"No, no actually sir, security told me she hadn't had anything when she was offered."

"What are you saying? Why so?", he asked worrying.

"The foods were most probably not of her taste and the rest I pray you understand."

"I understand but weren't there drinks apart from the fermented ones?", he questioned without any willingness to be responded.

The attendant kept quiet and left the room without uttering a single word. Such was the impact of Zaid's bravura on his subordinates.

He sat on the bed beside Nuska and thinking a minute he put his hands on her hand while his gaze was still on her dupatta that was hanged beautifully on the wall. He thought something and got up to collect it then his ears heard a sweet jangling inside from his trousers' pocket. That sound made him wonder for a while and he looked at both of the wrists of Nuska. One contained a leather watch and the other one was empty.

N for Nuska, he thought in his mind when there was a knock on the door and Ravi was standing like a loyal dog. Zaid asked him to come in only after resting Nuska's stole politely on her bosom.

"Boss, I was wondering what to do with her interview as I've collected and verified everyone's document save her. And I can't even go with her ones as she wasn't cross-examined.", said Ravi like an obedient child.

"Ravi, add her documents as well in the collection. And as for the performance sheet, I'll make the one for her."

"Make the one means...", wondered Ravi.

"It means she will be selected without being cross examined."

Zaid called it a day.

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