Yakshagni - An odyssey of unbroken devotion

Life in a City

The Present Era:

Dharma completed one month at Index Fashion House. She was enjoying her work and had made new friends. The one thing that troubled her was the attitude of the head designer, Lekha Mehta. She got a sneaking suspicion that Lekha Mehta was not pleased with Dharma's appointment. However, she did not interfere much with Dharma's work. When Dharma had queries, she approached Sonia Mittal who was, in general, supportive of all the staffers that she had recruited. Rashika Krishna, the managing director of Index Fashions was an enigma to Dharma. She came to the office only once or twice a week. A month back, when Rashika was introduced to the staff, Dharma had been despondent to learn that Rashika was Maurya's fiancée but she had quickly recovered from the fit of anxiety, although she could not comprehend the reason behind her anxiety and feelings of despondency. In the subsequent days, she had made an effort to forget Maurya and she supposed that she had been successful. She did not meet him thereafter and even if he visited Rashika, she was not aware because her department was on the second floor whereas Rashika's cabin was on the first floor.

Brahim also joined his new office and he had moved to a small flat in the city. Brahim and Dharma planned to travel to Parijatpur and surprise Kamya on her birthday.

Index Fashion had a showing in two months hence Dharma had been working on new designs. The design team had conceptualized many themes. The team members assembled and discussed ideas on alternate days. Each time Dharma came up with a suggestion, Lekha Mehta would instantly dismiss it. Dharma struggled to remain unaffected by Lekha's stance although she observed that others in the department had started noticing Lekha's disapproval.

A week before her visit to Parijatpur, when Dharma was sifting through the swatches album, Sonia came to see her, "Hi Dharma, how are you doing?"

"Good, enjoying my work," she replied, admiring the chic suit on Sonia.

"Good to hear that," Sonia approved with a smile. Looking around the room thoughtfully, she proposed in a low voice, "Dharma, we have a team of buyers coming from Poland next week. Can you come up with a line for the same? You will have to get three samples of each design ready. Would you be able to do it?"

Piqued by interest, Dharma asked, "How many designs do you need?"

"Five or six will do..."

"Sure! Will Lekha also be designing?"

"Yes, she will be but this is your individual line. You can take her guidance but it would have to be your own designs. Of course, they will need to be endorsed by either Rashika or Maurya."

"Oh!" that set her thinking but she shelved that bit of information to the back of her mind and concentrated on what Sonia was saying.

"Yes! Also, check the fabrics in our store. Lekha is in charge. But if you want more variety then I am afraid you have to source them independently."

"OK, I will check in the store first... When are these buyers expected?"

"Sometime next week most probably...Get started as soon as possible Dharma. These people are tough ones to please. You will have to work really hard."

Dharma nodded, her plans of going to Parijatpur turning to dust!

She swung by the storeroom that afternoon, to examine the available fabrics. There were rolls of materials stacked in the room. While she was inspecting them to assess their count and weight, Lekha entered the room and ran a glance over her sceptically.

"Hi, good morning Lekha..." Dharma greeted her although it took an effort to be pleasant to the woman.

Lekha nodded, not bothering to return the greeting.