All in a day's work


Adjusting her beige monochrome overalls, Kaya preened into the mirror. A slim body that was accentuated by a blue belt, she quite enjoyed the smirks of envy from her peers. There were talks that some important tenders came in solely because of her looks. But, she didn't care. She knew she had the stuff to make the cut.

"Oh, come on, will you? We're getting late" pressed Lakshmi who was more down-to-earth, hardworking and a stickler for punctuality. She had butterflies in her stomach. The duo was chosen to give a presentation to the head of the department. And, Lakshmi instinctively knew that only she held the cards to crack the deal.

They charted their way hurriedly through the cubicles that were arranged in neat rows. Heads bobbed in and out of them, urgent calls being placed at some desks, complaints being answered patiently at some, while a few wore an uncharacteristic look of calm as though to mock the ones who were running at a frenetic pace of the office hours.

"Hello, gorgeous girls, what's the rush?" a deep voice called out from behind.

Kaya almost bumped into Lakshmi who was walking a few steps ahead in a straight line. They spun around to face Kimi who was perched comfortably on the white desk. With a body that took almost the entire breadth of the surface she sat on, Kimi looked like a reigning queen that looked down upon the working class who did menial jobs for survival.

Casually swinging her stubby legs beneath the desk Kimi beckoned to Kaya and Lakshmi who were irked for being stopped thus. Now, they would be put to interrogation by the all-important person of the office who simply had to know everything that went about in the workplace.

Even as they regrouped themselves for a quick tete-a-tete, a burly moustached person barged in. Dubeyji was ordered by Ms. Raghav, the HOD, to bring the files for finance, design and the thickest of them all, the one marked as confidential, to her cabin.

He thanked his luck to have found all three at the co-ordinator's desk. He quickly grabbed Lakshmi, Kaya, and Kimi together in one swift sweep and marched away. After all, the Lord of the files couldn't be kept waiting.

****
Written for the prompt "Lord of the files" at the BarAThon.



Would you like to read the other posts in this series?

Outnumbered
A new haven
An irrational dream
The fault lies in our stares

14 comments:

  1. Ah, nice twist at the end there. I was wondering how you'd use the prompt. Very seamless. :)

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  2. Hahahahahaha, it took a second for the penny to drop but I got the fun twist! Nice!:))

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  3. Good one Uma!! Loved the way you have decribed the characters!!! I could imagine the entire scenario and put faces to them from folks I worked with in my previous offices ;-)

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    1. I'm so glad those came out the way intended. Thank you, Shalini!

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  4. A nice end...cute story I must say- made me imagine the world of files :)

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  5. A scene from an office - perfectly etched, Uma! And, I loved the end! :D Didn't see that coming!

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    1. Glad you liked it, Shilpa. I was a bit skpetical of the end :)

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  6. Oh that was a surprise. I went back a re-read the story to figure it out. I was wondering how the Lord of the Files would fit in. Nicely done Uma.

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    1. Did it feel odd? I kept wondering if it was a good idea to name the inanimate objects but saw no way to carry forward the story without the names while retaining the suspense.

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  7. That was such a fun read, Uma! Again, another brilliant piece. Thank you for sharing your works with us for free! I had your work be read by some of my closest friends in the office, and although it’s far from our daily experiences, the scenarios were really funny.

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    1. Dear Anonymous,
      I see you have been spending your time here. Got notifications and since comments by anonymous are 99% spam, I was pleasantly to find out someone truly is taking the time out to read and also comment. That's very humbling. Thank you for appreciating my writing and to bring me back to my dead blog:) Hoping to know your real name.

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