“Do you mind if I smoke?” Shikha asked. I kept silent. In fact, I was wondering on this strange first connect with her. Varun replied – “Not at all! Go ahead.” Shikha repeated her question looking straight into my eyes. As a matter of fact, her widened eyes were penetrating my mind like an x-ray machine. I said – “No problem, get going.” We had spent almost more than 30 minutes in this restaurant. Shikha was a missile as Varun was whispering in my ear. Shikha was the one who was talking non-stop. In fact, Varun and I were just silent listeners.
Photo credit: waithamai via Visual hunt / CC BY
I met Shikha for the first time in an international security solutions event where our group had a huge stall and I was instructed by my CEO, to whom I was reporting directly, to visit the stall and spend at least half a day out of this three days event. Shikha was there at our stall representing our security solutions company. I was working in IT solutions company of the same group. We had a small interaction and gradually we got connected on LinkedIn. I am sure, my first connect with her was not ending here.
Varun had never met Shikha earlier. In fact, for him too it was a first connect. I told him to come along with me to meet Shikha as we both were looking for some new business avenue and Shikha was starting her own venture. A few weeks back, while exploring my potential connections, Shikha’s profile and her mobile number there prompted me to give it a try. After a sequence of yes-no from either side because of our individual professional engagements, finally, the day came when we were sitting opposite to each other.
First Connect – A Short Story
“You know I have built a cash bucket of around 4 crores to invest in my new business. My husband is well earning. Even if I don’t work at all my hubby can take care of me for life. But then you know I have a worm inside that never lets me sit idle.” Shikha said. “I want an uneducated worker to respect himself, to respect his family, to respect his wife and children. For this, I would be opening training centers for them to learn about this part of their life. A worker’s children never see their father respecting their mother. And that is what makes a women an object for them in their life too. They can never think beyond that”. It was about creating a meaningful first connect in worker’s life.
Photo credit: storyvillegirl via Visual Hunt / CC BY-SA
Shikha was telling about the birth of her only son. “I told my husband it will be a son and he asked me how do you know,” I told him – “Damn it! As a matter of fact, I never told God whatever you give me will make me happy. I clearly told God I need a son and I know God accepted it.” “It was a serious operation. The moment they took out the baby out of my stomach, I yelled – It’s a boy?”
First Connect is the most important factor in life
Shikha continued – “I told the nurse to bring my newborn son in my arms. She asked how is that possible, I was operated just now. I told her Damn it! you don’t have to put him back in my stomach. Bring it here, up, let me feed her. I know this is the best feed for a newborn. I fed my son instantly.” Something is there to come up about the most wonderful first connect.
Shikha told that after the feed, her son slept on her. For next 14 hours, he kept sleeping and for next 14 hours, she kept awake. Just kept looking at her son’s face. I asked Shikha – “Why so?”. She replied – “Damn it! I had to wait for him to wake up, open his eyes, look into my eyes and make our first connect, eyes to eyes. In fact, I never wanted to lose that opportunity. I had to wait till then.”
