Feelings

5

After spending an entire evening flirting with Mrs. Khurana , after the party got over , Hercules along with his driver at 3:00 in the morning were on their way back to the hotel  , the farmhouse where the party was thrown was on the outskirts of Delhi , on the way back to the hotel they were to cross a part of jungle , it was a very silent road with no one else around , they crossed that road without any difficulties , but as soon as they get back on the highway , suddenly the car stopped , the driver managed to park the car in the service lane ,

“ Is there a problem with the car ? ” , Hercules asked the driver .

“ Give me a few minutes sir , I’ll check ”, the driver replied .

The driver got out of the car and opened the bonnet of the car , a few minutes later he got inside the car and said ,

“ Sir , I think there’s a problem with the engine of the car .”

“ Can you fix it right now ? ” , Hercules asked .

“ I’m afraid , not sir and there’s no mechanic around , but don’t worry I’ll call another driver to come here with a car to take you to the hotel  ” , the driver replied .

Hercules gets out of the car and starts wandering around , a few steps away from the car he sees a restaurant decorated with a birthday theme , and the music could still be heard from a distance , he sees two girls coming out of the restaurant and this was the first time Hercules Knight saw Neha Sharma .

Neha and Neelima coming out of the restaurant were having a conversation that one could listen to properly even from a distance ,

“ I told you I wanted to go back home early Neelima  ” , Neha said to Neelima .

“ Dude just chill , you already called your home and your family is cool with you being out late at night with me , they know am your guardian angel ” , Neelima bursts into laughter as she said that .

Hercules started looking at Neha from a distance , for a moment he just stood still staring at her long silky hair , her gorgeous face and her beautiful dress . Hercules was standing like a statue just staring and staring , he wanted to know who this girl was , he wanted to know everything about her , but as soon as he came back to his senses , another driver reached at his footstep with another car . Hercules knight and Neha Sharma both went on their ways , Hercules to his hotel and Neha to her home , even though Hercules spent the entire night flirting through eyes with Mrs. Khurana , but all he had in his mind was Neha’s face , every detail he could notice from a distance .

Even though Hercules could reach by his hotel around 4 : 00 in the morning , but the next day he took a shower before 9 : 00 in the morning , in the shower he heard his phone ringing , so he came out , wiped himself and picked up the phone , it was Emily ,

“ Hey Emily , how are you doing ? ”, Hercules asked .

“ Am fine sir , what about you , how is your tour going on ? ” , Emily asked .

“ Well , I must say , India is a beautiful country and for businessmen like me have one of the best business opportunities one could get  ”, Hercules replied .

“ That’s really nice , so have you decided , which company are you going to choose for partnership ? ” , Emily asked .

“ Not yet , last night with Viraj’s help I threw a party and invited several businessmen and politicians and I think there a lot of companies around us which have the potential to join our hand with and I was thinking that maybe it would be better for us , if after merging with an Indian company we should hire college students for the company , because as freshers , we’re giving them quite a lot of experience and we don’t even have to pay them much  ” , Hercules replied .

“ Okay , I get it . So what’s your plan for today ? ” , Emily asked Hercules .

“ Well today I am invited to a college in Delhi as a guest because last night Viraj invited a few chairmen of nearby colleges when I told him that I will want to hire some college students for the company , there at the party one of them invited me to the technical college fest as a guest , there I’ll be examining a number of projects and research work , and if I like someone , I’ll pick him or her for the company as well ”, Hercules replied .

The college where Hercules Knight was invited to as a guest for the technical college fest was none other than Neha’s college . The fest was about to start in a few hours , and Neha Sharma was going to represent her own research work and her project and was the head volunteer for the fest as well . She was pretty much stressed and anxious about the fest because this might be her big break if someone in the fest likes her project and selects her for an internship or a job as well and apart from that she was really connected to her college , so she wanted the fest to be planned and executed perfectly . Neha wasn’t seen idle for even a second before the fest started ,running from one corner of the college to another , handling the paper work ,the stage and several students , one could easily determine her enthusiasm and her passion towards the work she was assigned .

“ I hope everything goes as planned ” , Neha said to Neelima .

“ Don’t worry Neha , everything will be fine , and I’ve heard that we might be expecting some new guests and investors , be sure to represent your project and research as well as you can  ” , Neelima said to Neha .

“ Yeah , I’ll do my best but apart from anyone else I really want the CEO of “Arpa Technologies ” , come and pick me for internship at their company , I really want to work for them  ” , Neha replied .

Arpa Technologies was one of the leading software companies in India , it had several branches in Delhi , Bangalore and Pune , all of them the IT hubs of India , they take really good care of their employees and pay them a lot of money for a fresher . Arpa Technologies had always been Neha’s dream company , she had always wanted to work for the company , she was really excited that the CEO of the company was going to be in the college to see their projects and they might select some of them as well . The fest was a once in a lifetime opportunity for the students in the college , the college had never invited this much number of companies and CEO to their college before .

The college also hosted a donation camp , the people visiting the college in the fest could donate some amount of money if they wished to for the students of the college who belonged to a weak financial background or to support some of the students who are not able to pay their fees and Neha now fell under this category , though she did pay her fees ,but her teachers and the whole campus knew how hard she was working to pay her college fees .

“ Guys , remember we need to talk to the people visiting the campus today into the donation camp ” , Shivam addressed to his group of friends .

Everyone nodded and went to their respective positions , Neha and Neelima while walking discussed that if someone gave a decent amount of donation in the donation camp could really help Neha and several students like her .Actually the thing was , Neha’s father had already taken a loan for her studies , which was now nearly impossible for her family to pay after the accident , so this fest could work as a game changer for her , she had high expectations with Arpa Technologies , for them selecting her project and getting her a paid internship or even a job in their company secondly she was regularly praying that someone might come to the fest and donate a decent amount of money which may help her in paying her college fees so that she doesn’t have to work at the café and she could concentrate on her studies back again .

The technical fest  began as scheduled , people started showing up and in no time soon the place was full of people in suits , and elegant dresses , several CEOs and even politicians started showing up , and with other normal people several security guards and personal bodyguards covered up the whole space . The place was full of enthusiasm and passion , several students had several activities going on in every corner of the campus , be it go-karting , IT software  , robots and a lot more . The students and several teachers were so busy in their respective work that at one point they weren’t even aware where they were and what exactly they were doing , the grounds were all covered with several stages , the students were performing on those stages , it was one of a kind fest in the college . When most of the students were enjoying the fest at the same time , Neha was vey anxious as she was the head volunteer and she had to represent her own project and research work as well , she had given almost 3 years to her project and her research so she was really very nervous about it . As soon as everything started to fall in the right place Neha gathered her friends and asked them to handle the management as now she had to be present at her spot to represent her project .

Hercules Knight and Viraj were on their way to the college to attend the fest , their car stopped at the red signal , Hercules started looking outside his window , it was when he saw a boy of around 25 years old working at a roadside cycle repair shop , he was wearing a simple white vest , which now had turned into a pale yellow vest , the vest had several cuts and holes , seeing that boy working at the roadside cycle repair shop , Hercules went into nostalgia , he started remembering the days of his childhood , when after the death of his father he had to work at a number of places just to earn money for the survival of the family , the signal turned green  and the car started moving again , with the passing sight of that boy , Hercules smiled a bit , remembering all the sacrifices and the hard work that led him to here , he was really proud of himself but what he didn’t knew was , his pride had now became the most negative quality of his personality because he saw himself as superior over everyone else .

What Hercules didn’t know about the boy who he just saw at the roadside was that the boy , Rihan was himself a student of the college where Hercules along with Viraj were going to , he was Neha’s junior and by now it’s pretty obvious that he belonged to  weaker economic section of the society . About a few minutes later , after Hercules saw Rihan , Rihan finishes his work and goes to his father and asks him ,

“ Dad ,  can I go to the college now for the fest ? I’ve already finished my work at the shop , I promise that I’ll be back on time , I just want to represent my project in the fest .”

“ Okay , you can go but be sure to reach home before the evening , because in the evening I’ll be going to the mosque and I want you to be at the shop at my place ” , Rihan’s father replied .

Rihan agrees , he goes inside changes his clothes , takes his bag and leaves for the college . As soon as Hercules and Viraj reach the college , the dean of the college was himself present there to welcome him , because Knight’s arrival in India was a big news , though many people won’t recognise him but he indeed was a powerful businessman .

“ We’re glad  that you could make it to our college today , it’s an honour sir ” , the dean said to Hercules .

“ It’s a pleasure sir , I’ll be selecting some students if I like their innovation , so it’s an opportunity for our company too  ” , Hercules replied .

Neelima and her friends were standing at a distance from Knight’s car , they saw all the faculty members along with the dean himself were welcoming a handsome hunk , it seemed like he was some kind of celebrity , but they couldn’t recognise him .

After the warm welcome , Hercules asked the dean to not to tell the students about him picking some of them for the company and he asked him to not to treat him as the chief guest because they might have already called someone as their chief guest so it wouldn’t be appropriate to change it at the last moment , he said that he wanted to see the student’s project himself not along with a group of professors . You see the thing with Knight’s behaviour is that he doesn’t believe in showing off his achievements  and his personality though on the other hand his pride was the only reason behind his arrogancy . Keeping his word Hercules started visiting student without his bodyguards and even without Viraj . A few minutes later the chief  guest of the fest Mr. Lakshminath Mohan , the CEO of Arpa technology arrived , Mr Lakshimanath was one of the most elite businessmen in India , he created his own legacy just like Hercules Knight , as soon as Neelima saw Mr. Lakshminath arriving , she went running towards Neha to tell her about his arrival , when Neelima reached her , she was showing her project to some of the faculty members , when she told her about Mr. Lakshminath’s arrival she really freaked out , Neelima calmed her down , and asked  her to relax and concentrate on her project .

Hercules was wandering around the campus and exploring the Indian culture because to him everything there was new to him , on the other hand Neha was at her spot waiting for people to visit her , but her anxiety levels were increasing minute by minute and to addition her spot very far away from the others . Vineet along with Shivam were trying to talk people into the donation camp , along with Neelima , Shivam saw Rihan coming towards them , Rihan greets Shivam and Vineet and asks ,

“ Are the guests already here sir ? ”

“ Yes they are , now come on hurry up and reach to your spot ”, Vineet said .

Rihan was a very bright boy  , he had managed to get into college by receiving annual scholarships from various institutes and examinations , though Rihan belonged to a very weaker economical section , to him knowledge was greater than money , he even refused to take a job because of his studies last year , so in all Rihan was a very studious and dedicated student .

“ Any decent donations yet ? ”, Rihan asks .

“ Not yet , we hope someone does that soon , because this year many businessmen have come ”, Shivam replied .

Rihan rushes to his spot , opens up his laptop and started displaying his automobile designs , and as soon as he did that , several people gathered around to see his designs , and along with him people started gathering around Neha’s spot too . The time finally came , when the chief guest was very near to Neha’s stall , he saw that her stall had gathered a lot of people around , so he became eager to see that spot and within time Hercules entered the scene , he recognised Rihan and he really felt excited to see Rihan at his spot .