CNN IBN, Mumbai branch.
“Gupta!” someone yelled and she tripped
and fell on the stairs. Of course, where ever Khushi was, accidents were bound
to happen. She swore some choicest swear words before getting up and turning
around to face her friend, her colleague, Rohit Pandya.
“What?” she asked gritting her teeth.
She hated when someone called her using her surname. It made her feel old.
“How come you always fall?” Rohit
snickered.
“Why do you bother?” she scoffed, “why
did you call me?”
“Boss is looking for you...” he replied
grimly with an expression on his face that perfectly suited funerals. “She
apparently says it is very important. You are in trouble, I think, Gupta!”
“Thanks,” she said coldly before going
away from Rohit in the direction of her boss’s cabin. Before Khushi goes into
her death trap, a quick introduction of Boss. Heading the Mumbai CNN branch,
Arti Saxena AKA Axe is someone not to be messed with. Sharp eyes, aristocratic
nose, and a mouth that rarely opened, she was feared by everyone in the branch
not just for her looks but also her steely determination which wasn’t able to
be handled by many in the office. Yet, a few choicest employees earned her
appreciation and Khushi was one of them.
There was a knock on her door and she
adjusted in her seat before muttering a, “come in...”
Khushi walked into the cabin and gave
her small smile, “yes mam.”
“Gupta,” Arti got up from her chair as
Khushi flinched slightly at the mention of surname, “I have a work for you.”
“Yes mam,” she replied.
“I need you to take an interview of
Arnav Singh Raizada. He is the man behind stopping that woman trafficking mafia
case.”
“I know him, mam,” Khushi replied
seriously.
“I know you do,” Arti said pointedly,
“that is why I am asking you to go.”
“I didn’t understand,” Khushi said
confused and Arti smiled a small smile, “Khushi let’s just say he is worse than
me. If you can handle me, I think you will manage just fine with him. If I send
anyone else, I don’t think I will be able to get any decent interview from
them.”
Khushi smiled before agreeing, “Sure
mam. I will do the interview. When do you want me to go?”
“Tomorrow morning 10 AM,” Arti replied,
“I haven’t managed to get an appointment. He just doesn’t receive the calls nor
read the messages. I think you will have to try our luck in meeting him. It
might take whole day or even may be a week to get an appointment with him but I
want this interview at any cost. You get it?”
“Yes mam, I will try my best,” Khushi
assured.
“Good, then get on with your work,” Arti
said before picking up a paper from her desk, “these are the list of questions
I want you to ask him. Improvise it further.”
“Right,” Khushi said as she took the
paper from her boss, bid her a good afternoon and went out of the cabin. Arti
sighed as she picked up the phone, “Inform your boss the job’s done.”
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Somewhere in Mumbai.
“Boss, the job’s done!” Arus spoke into
the phone. The boss who knew everything already just smirked before replying,
“You are late, Arus. I already got the report.”
“But how did you?” Arus blurted out but
immediately regretted it. The boss’s voice turned a little colder if that was
possible, “you are not the only informer I have, Arus.”
“I am sorry, boss,” Arus apologized. The
boss chose to ignore it.
“Boss, the bait has been well placed...”
Arus spoke, trying very hard to sound calm when his heart was beating hysterically,
“Raizada wont know what hit him...”
“He will never know what hit him...” the
boss smirked, “he thinks too much of himself to give any importance to anything
else happening around him. Anyway, the reports?”
“Sent boss,” Arus replied hoping to get
an appreciation for the work done but all went in vain when the boss cut the
call without any pleasantries...
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morning, 9:45
Sharma knocked at his boss’s cabin, who from
morning seemed really distant from the time he entered into the precinct. A cold
and absolutely boring “come in,” indicated Artesh that Arnav was in one of his
foul moods and better left to be alone but the meeting someone wished to make
was another pressing problem.
“Sir, there is a reporter to see you,” Artesh
got straight to the point understanding that twisting and turning of the actual
reason of his knocking the door would do no good to him, especially when his
boss was busy pulling off an ASR.
“What does he want from me?” snapped Arnav,
still looking into a couple of files that were all over the place on his desk.
“Not he, sir...” Artesh said, hoping
that may be then mention of a girl can make him come out of that angry ASR mood, “she...”
Arnav looked up and raised an eyebrow, “So?”
thereby successfully bursting the balloon the junior officer was blowing up.
“Actually, she says it is important to
meet you sir...” Artesh muttered. Arnav just twitched his jaw and turned his
attention back to the files.
“Sir, she is from the CNN IBN....” Artesh
finally managed, “and it wont be good to turn our backs on CNN people. They write
the hell about us then.”
“Really?” Arnav scoffed, “if you are so
worried about your reputation, why don’t you go and speak to her?”
“Sir, but...” Artesh tried to argue when
Arnav got up from his chair, effectively shutting Sharma up, “Dont you dare
tell me what I have to do and why I have to not...”
“Sorry sir,” Sharma mumbled before
running off from the office in top speed.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“I am sorry, mam...” Artesh spoke to the
woman standing in front of him, “sir is busy right now...he cant speak to you.”
Khushi bit her lip in frustration but
calmed herself quickly, “it’s okay. I will come two hours later,” and scarpered
off from the building, trying to think of new techniques to get hold of Arnav Singh
Raizada.
This interview was her big ticket. She knew
it. It would propel her into one of the high designations inside the cubicles
of her drab looking office of CNN IBN, giving her a new sense of authority and
power over her colleagues and she wasn’t about to ruin her chances by giving
into attitude of some insufferable man. To hell with him if he wasn’t interested
in giving an interview because she was hell bent on taking one and she would
leave no stone unturned for this one mission that Arti had given her, knowing
full well that she had in her an uncanny ability to control animalistic humans
and if she could do that with Arti, this Arnav Singh Raizada would be
cakewalk...
She
smiled herself as she circled along the CBI office’s compound looking for
security cameras and stuff that would give her presence away and making sure
that there was a way to enter the premises without getting caught in the act by
the eyes of irritating CCTVs, she took a deep breath and launched her plan into
action.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Arnav Singh Raizada, a commander,
Assistant Commissioner of Police and Special Task Force Director, was a lazy
man sometimes and hated to climb too much stairs to get to his office. Hence his
spacious but boring looking office was in the first floor, facing east and
looking out at congested area of Fort, Mumbai.
Highly disinterested in the happenings
of the traffic in his city, Arnav sat with his back to the window whilst he
studied some high priority files of the investigation he had just laid his
hands upon and was extremely taken aback when the window of his air conditioned
cabin opened with a snap and turned around in alarm to see a girl, probably in
her late twenties, in a pair of jeans and Kurti, climbing into his cabin with
the help of the wall projection his window had.
“What the hell,” he roared, “who are you
and how did you even come inside?”
“Hello, Mr. Raizada. I am Khushi Gupta,
a journalist from CNN IBN and I have come here to interview you on the infamous
Mumbai Girl Trafficking Case. Do you think you could spare me some minutes?”
she said calmly, with a smile on face that reached her amused eyes as it took
in the highly disoriented appearance of one of high ranking and ever feared
crime branch officials, ASR.
PRECAP:
Not going to accept your defeat, are you?
Not a chance...all I want is some titbits of your heroic act and you
will see the whole of Maharashtra praising you tomorrow...
A/N: So how did u like it? :P
