The Unsaid Dreams . Truth . Desires

7

When Rob woke up from his short nap, Alina was not at her seat. She returned from the restroom a couple of minutes later. To her surprise, Rob tried to continue their discussion from before,

'Tell me more about your job, how did you get there, to become, umm..what do you call..a strategy person..?'

'Hahaha, you don't want to listen to this' she knew she would become all technical in her answers which would doze off Rob again. 

'Now come on, be a sport', he bumped his fist on her shoulder as if they were friends.

'Tell me when it gets overboard'

'Sure thing'

Alina took a deep breath, made herself comfortable as if her answer is going to drain enough of her energy, and started, ' So, I always wanted to do something big, something that would be used by hundreds and thousands of people out there, which could really really help me create an impact and leave my mark. So I did engineering and started working as a software developer so that people across the globe could use my applications. But something was amiss. I wanted to know more, understand people's perspectives on my delivered solutions'.

By this time, she was almost talking to herself, not even looking towards Rob.

'I thought, why not do an MBA, ti sway, I would know the bigger picture as well. So I did an MBA and later used both my skillsets to understand issues related to strategy and functioning of technology and media companies, and this gave me a fancy title, quote-unquote Strategy Consultant.

She was lost in her own world, forgetting Rob's presence next to her.

'Whoa! That's a lot to take for a guy who hasn't ever completed his graduation. And you are an engineer as well? Man! I suddenly feel so foolish sitting beside you!' Rob said in his thick American accent with his eyes wide open.

But Alina was still lost, she continued to blabber, 'but that's not it, I still want to make my mark...not sure how to do that.'

'Umm...sorry? Couldn't catch you there.'

'It is nothing, tell me, how come you never finished your graduation? You must have gone to, what is it...art school? Or maybe a school of drama, where they would teach acting and..I am not sure...dancing maybe?' Alina quickly changed the topic, bring Rob under her radar.

'Nah! None. I thought why waste time when I could actually learn practically. I have been doing theatres since I was, perhaps 17 or 18.'

'Makes sense. And I do remember that horribly romantic movie you did like...10 years back' it was too late when she realized she has used 'horrible' word to describe his movie and she immediately regretted her choice of words. 'Oops, I didn't mean...' she said trying to mitigate the damage. 

'It's cool, and thank God I finally found a girl who hates that movie. Everybody is like, it's so dreamy, they are so in love. No! it's disgusting, it's super weird. But you know, back then, I needed it to break into this industry, else I would have been stuck doing stage plays..like forever.'

 'Yeah! I remember, all my high school girlfriends were like, Oh! I want a guy like Rob in my life. You know, I even skipped a few movies after this one, just by reading that those have the same actors in the lead role.'

Alina might not have found that movie to be dreamy, but the present situation was surely dreamy, she being on a flight to the US and gossiping with his once upon a time celebrity crush, with no sign of hesitation creeping in from either of the parties, would anyone ever believe this?

'God, I never thought I would be discussing this with you...like ever.'

  'Yeah, see, that's how people should have reacted to my initial set of movies, but good for me, I got to stay in this scary industry.'

'Now that we are talking..how was it for you..you know, your journey as an actor? You always wanted to become an actor and have cameras following you everywhere?'

'Aah', Rob sighed, 'it's a long, lengthy story.'

'We have around 5 hours before we land.'