Tere liye

ch-26

    Sidharth saw this. He stood there for few seconds then opened his jacket and sat beside her while rolling up his shirt's sleeves. He was dead tired from back to back meetings and work. His eyes were begging to be closed and mind to rest but still he sat there to help her.

  " What are you doing? I didn't ask your help. I will do it myself,you don't need to do it." Aranya objected.

   " I am not helping you in the first place.
I am helping myself. As you said, this is my project and if it will not complete on time then it will be my loss only. I know,
one week is very less time and one person alone can't do it specially if that person had never done this before. So, I can't take risk. I will give you the outline and format and on basis of that, you can go further. I have so many other things so I can't do it on my own. You prepare it in the office and then at home I will check it for any corrections or inputs. In this way, we will be able to complete it on time." Sidharth suggested her.

   Aranya didn't say anything. He was actually saying right. It was his project and he was himself an experienced architect too. She really wanted some experienced person to guide her but she never imagined it will be Sidharth himself. She noticed how efficiently he started working within seconds whereas she was struggling for hours. Maybe this is why experience matters and company gives preference to experienced person instead of freshers. Then, she started noticing his body language and face. Although he was still looking as handsome as he always used to look but tiredness was clearly visible on his face.
She looked at the watch,it was past 10 pm. Something clicked her and she immediately asked.

   " Did you have your dinner? " she asked him.

   He got surprised by this sudden question. He just nodded his head without looking at her. Aranya was not convinced by his answer but she didn't coax again.

  " It's really late and I am feeling sleepy. Can we do it tomorrow? As you said, I will prepare it and then you can give your suggestions after coming home." She requested.

   This time Sidharth looked at her. He wanted to thank her for this as he was really struggling to sit there with open eyes and functioning mind.

  " Yeah,see you tomorrow. Good night." He said and left the place.

   Aranya kept looking at him till he was visible to her eyes. Then she looked what he did in those few minutes. She was impressed would be understatement of highest level. She was determined to achieve such kind of efficiency in her work in near future.

    For next few days, it became like a routine. Aranya used to work on hospital blueprint in the office after finishing her regular work. She took input from her parents too. She used to do as much work as she could do as she didn't want to burden Sidharth knowing his already overburdened schedule. At night, Sidharth used to sit with her to see the progress and do needed corrections.
During this whole encounter, Aranya saw a different Sidharth who was extremely intelligent, knowledgeable, professional and empathetic too.He never made her feel inferior or tried to demean her lack of knowledge instead of that he used to appreciate her smallest of ideas and very politely corrected if there was anything not good. Without her knowledge, she used to look forward for those 1-2 hours whole day. The more she was spending time with him the more she realised that he was somone who could tick all the boxes which her friends used to talk about regarding a perfect man. She had started feeling a pull towards him subconsciously without even realising it.

       She was sitting in the hall and waiting for Sidharth like all other days. Today was last day and tomorrow she had to submit her work to Mr Murthy. Although she had completed it under Sidharth's guidance but still she was nervous. She was busy in her thoughts and didn't realise when Sidharth came and sat beside her.