The Lateral Hire By Gaurav Raj

Table of Contents

Joining Date

Kalpana was hired as lateral hire for replacing a previous resource in Ajay’s team. The management was not quite happy with the way last resource worked in some critical situations showing very little ownership and letting situations escalate.

Eventually management decided to let that resource go and hire someone more energetic, responsible and with good skills. Unlike Alisha and Sakshi, Kalpana got very good remarks during her interview from Ajay and his manager.

On her joining date, post her formalities completion she was allocated her system and credentials. Fifteen minutes in, while she was logging into different portals and checking her access, she got message from Senior Lead that the application she had been assigned was crashing in its latest release. He asked her to debug and find the root cause before she concluded her day.

From a technical perspective for a new person to put their hands on a crash on the first day of joining can be the most challenging activity one can think off. To her rescue came Ajay, who was also her buddy and was looking at how she started panicking with this challenging situation on her first day only.

Quickly he suggested her to login into the application environment and debug the core. After spending an hour they both identified that problem was because of certain changes pushed by different team to the repository and asked her to check with them about changes they pushed in. Showing good ownership and communication skills she worked quickly with another team, found the root cause, and shared findings with the Senior Lead. Finally, she could leave office that day with a sense of satisfaction.

Working on Releases!!

Ajay and Kalpana spent the next few months working on multiple releases and achieved multiple appreciations from management. Ajay was experienced, but even being new Kalpana became an integral and dependent part of the team quickly. Working late nights and on weekends together because of strict timelines, it was evident they were spending much time together as compared to their friends and family.

Agile like many companies was in play here too. With frequent requirement changes during the sprint and undefined scope, it was always challenging for both Ajay and Kalpana to achieve quality delivery in a given timeframe. Raising it to higher management also did not help. Eventually in such a challenging environment, it was not surprising for them to become friends or more than work buddies.

One day Amit the QA lead came in their cubical to discuss few issues he had raised on their latest release. Ajay was never comfortable after Amit used his tricks to ruin his interview and kept teasing him taking names of Sakshi. He always avoided Amit post that event and restricted Amit only for professional conversations.
Recap: Sakshi was the QA from Amit’s team who was testing Ajay’s application earlier and Amit always felt that their proximity was increasing because of working on same application. Because of this, he was jealous of Ajay.

So when Amit, Ajay and Kalpana were discussing the issues all of a sudden Amit had locked his eyes on Kalpana’s upper body parts. Suddenly the situation became awkward, Ajay sensing the situation asked Amit to send queries over mail which they would respond as currently he and Kalpana had to leave for lunch. During lunch, they both discussed raising this incident to HR but ignored that thought because Amit had some issues with his eyes because of which he many times used to see at a different angle than expected. They both gave weightage to this fact but the possibility of nothing wrong from Amit’s end was also there.

Romantic Rainy Day!!

It was one of the days just after a long weekend and many team members opted to work from home. Coincidently Ajay and Kalpana were in office. Around lunch time it started raining making it a perfect lazy day professionally. By now Kalpana and Ajay were lunch buddies too so they decided to go to nearby restaurant for some delicious food.

They booked a cab and reached nearby place full of restaurants and pubs. By this time the rain slowed down and started kissing the ground slowly, making it a perfect romantic day.

They both made courageous decision and went to a pub. For the next hour or so they tried different flavors of drought beer and pub’s special starters. While they were splitting the bill Kalpana said “Kya yaar aisi life hogayi hai kaam ke karan can’t put time on myself. No one seems interested in me these days.” Ajay never saw Kalpana prettier than today. It was one such moment where the beer was speaking. He gained courage and put his hand on her hand and told “You are so intelligent, smart, career-oriented and beautiful at the same time that any boy will be lucky to be with you”. Before the situation became intense, they both left for their home and took evening stand-up call with leftover hangovers.

The Annual Day!!

Then came the day of Annual Party. In corporates, you work day and night for months but during such events, you can certainly cool off and enjoy the company of people whom you never miss to escalate if a situation arises. Those days Ajay used to have his superbike, so he opted to reach the venue on his bike and many teammates opted for office transport. Although Ajay was never conscious of his get-up during such parties, but this time he took help from one of his fashion-conscious friend.

Ajay reached early and was enjoying the mild sunlight with coffee when the team bus arrived. His eyes sparkled when he saw Kalpana. She was wearing a black dress so beautifully wrapped around her body that Ajay was surprised if she was the same girl with whom he was sharing the cubical. Curves of her body and feminine beauty parts were sexier today as they always remained hidden behind the formal corporate dress. Very little makeup on that black dress also was eventually making it challenging for Ajay to remove his eyes away from her. Kalpana looked back at him with a little surprise too as Ajay was well groomed and seemed like his friend’s few fashion tips worked. But this time her look at Ajay was certainly more prettier and sexier than it used to be in office.

The Song and that ride way back Home!!

So with every passing hour, a plethora of delicious foods, body-kissing sunlight on a winter day, and soft music added to the mood of people present that day. Leaving behind the worriedness of timelines and work pressure same people seemed more personally behaved than usual office days.

This was early evening and the moon was never more beautiful than today. This is when Kalpana asked DJ to play “Ankhiyon ke Jharokhe se”. A few of the lines from the song is like-
“Ek tere bharose pe sab baithi hu bhul ke, Yuhi umar gujar jaye tere sath gujar jaye” were enough for Ajay to break the barrier that was stopping him from going close to Kalpana since they arrived. He reached near her while having his drink, and asked “Whom you are seeing Ankhiyon ke Jharokhe Se”?

She replied “Can’t you see the whole day whom I am noticing” focusing her eyes on him. This was quite a straight answer which he did not expect! He sang slowly “Ek tere bharose pe shab baitha hu bhul ke, yuhi raat gujar jaaye, tere sath gujar jaaye”. She replied, “If you wish to, because I will not be available from the next outing”. She smiled but it took Ajay a few seconds to gather her words and realize that she had resigned and might leave the organization very soon to join her dream company.

They both knew they were not ready for this discussion right now. Just now they shared the most beautiful moment in many months. Thinking about how soon things would change for them was getting tougher for both of them with every passing second. Ajay gained courage and asked, “Are you taking office transport”? She replied, “I don’t want to go back home with the same people again”.

The Night and Lateral Hire

Way back home on Ajay’s bike, they both seemed inseparable. Kalpana was sitting on his bike the way boys prefer to sit as she felt it would be a more comfortable way to be close to Ajay. She had her arms wrapped around the body of Ajay. Maximum sports bikes have their back seat set at an inclination and with every jerk, Kalpana was coming close to Ajay from the back and Ajay could feel the warmth of her body from behind. After an hour of the ride, they reached Kalpana’s hostel.

He stopped his bike on side yard and told “We are at your hostel, you can come down now from the bike”. She did not reply but hugged him more tightly from behind. He again asked “Are you going to hostel as tomorrow we have to go office again?”. She hugged him more tightly replying “I don’t want to go” and Ajay reversed his bike. They reached Ajay’s flat in next fifteen to twenty more minutes.

Ajay those days was living with one of his friends who had gone to his relative’s house for a day. He opened the lock of his flat and Kalpana followed him. They both closed the gate and came inside the hall area. By now the sexual tension between the two had reached its peak. They quickly put down their bag on Sofa placed in one corner of hall and started kissing each others lips. While still in hall Ajay put both his hands on her waist, pulled her closely towards him, and started kissing her neck again. She was reciprocating equally by passionately kissing Ajay as if she might not get this moment again.

In the heat of the moment, they forgot to open Ajay’s room. Once they realized that they had the whole night in hand before his friend came tomorrow morning, they moved to Ajay’s room. They had slowed down a bit but the proximity of months of spending hours together, the romantic built up at the pub and the sexual tension of whole day took over them and they started kissing each other passionately again.

This time Ajay put his arm under her dress and started freeing her upper beauty parts from the tightness of the whole day. In the heat of the moment, he found it difficult to unlock the exact hooks. Kalpana helped him by freeing them. Ajay pushed her dress above her upper beauty parts and started fulfilling his thirst of hours. Inseparable and locked together at the moment Ajay moved towards her navel area. He licked her navel area and started pulling down whatever was left on her lower body parts.

She puts her hand in resistance but can’t stop him now. By the time she tried to stop she was completely in her skin and her body glowing in dim light. Ajay was in no mood not to kiss and feel any part of her body. When Ajay kissed her most feminine part below she felt the thirst of years demanding to be filled immediately.

Each passing minute seemed uncontrollable to them. They both wanted to feel each other deep inside, to talk about each moment they felt in the last few months, and to express each challenge they would face once Kalpana moved out from the company away from each other. Every time Ajay was deep inside her mind, she loved and kissed him passionately in reciprocation. That night wrapped in each other arms this way they stayed awake the whole night, inseparable for even a moment. That night they had tears in their eyes even being so close together.

After serving her notice period Kalpana soon left the organization, to a different city for her dream job, leaving Ajay at the same place, same team, lost in her memories.

Disclaimer: This is a fictional story. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.