Missed Opportunity.. Episode 9

Several days past by and there was no news of any new strategies being put in place by our stud, Pavan except for that effort of clicking on a button in Linkedin to add her in his network!! By now, he also had developed some close friends with whom he had shared his interests in someone in office, and as a usual ritual in friends, they had started pulling his leg. Teasing him on her name had become a common timepass for his coffee time group.

A couple of days later, a mail from the HR team flooded in everyone’s mailbox asking for participation in one of the corporate competitions. The event was being organized by an event management firm and employees of different IT firms would be representing their company in the competition. The competition was of a Paintball event – an event where males and females can compete in teams – each team asking for a participation of minimum 6 members. Each company of course can float in only one team, which meant only 6 people from one particular firm can enroll in. Given that Pavan was quite new to the firm he hardly knew anyone around and none of his group colleagues were interested in participating in the competition! Not that he was particularly interested in participating in the competition but he always wanted to meet new people – he wanted to shed that introvert image that he thought he had. Some time back, Pavan was mocked by a college mate of his for being a introvert and that had hit him hard enough. Though he always tried to be ‘not an introvert’, he made a conscious effort to avoid making people think that he is one!

He had finally made up his mind of participating in the competition albeit none of his known colleagues were participating. A couple of days had already passed by until he had hit that reply button to the mail and he was not sure if he would really snap up any chance of entering into that 6 member team. HR team was immediately to respond being apologetic about not confirming Pavan’s participation as they already had a list of more than 10 people fighting for a place in the 6 member team. He was wondering what were they going to do about the final team selection and how would they justify the non-selection to the other guys!! Anyways, HR wasn’t an easy job anytime!! Nevertheless, those who were not participating were always invited to come and cheer their company team and also at the same time enjoy other events at the venue. Work pressure being less that day, Pavan thought of giving a visit to the venue of the competition along with few of his colleagues.

Pavan’s life wasn’t so simple and neither was he lucky enough! He realized this again when he saw he was cheering Ananya playing in the 6 member team. Thousand questions and images whizzed across his mind like What if I was in the team? I would have got the best chance of my life to crack at least a small chat with her.. Could have had a good game of paintball and then good team outing if we had won the game.. Phew.. But life isnt so easy, you have to live through it !! Pavan managed to enjoy rest of the events, cheered his team to the fullest and returned home that day – lost… lost in thoughts.. as always..