This is my entry for the
Summer Lovin' 2020 Contest
. Be warned - it's a slow burn and full of Aussie lingo. Vegemite is consumed.
The story is set around a couple of Indian characters, Madiha and Neha, created by Sweetdreamssss. I collaborated with her extensively for this story. This one follows on from her stories, and I recommend you visit the "Landlord" series to get a bit of background.
Thanks to Bdrew86 and JerseyGirlDownUnder for some excellent assistance, and BelleCanzuto and Bramblethorn for reading it through and making sure it all made sense.
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'NEHA, GUESS WHAT??? I'M GOING ONSITE TO AUSTRALIA!!!'
'Madiha that's great! You're so lucky. You deserve it!' came the reply via text.
Luck had nothing to do with it. Well, maybe a little. It was luck Amit was still Madiha's supervisor at Raspberry Infotech, and that he was more progressive in his thinking than most of his colleagues. Raspberry Infotech was a large Indian based software development company, specialising in devising solutions to allow disparate programs to talk to each other seamlessly. Madiha had been instrumental in devising the breakthrough that allowed this dream of all IT users to occur. Their innovative methods allowed them to further expand worldwide and Madiha had occasionally travelled to other offices, but this was different. This was special. If this was accepted by their clients, then Raspberry Infotech would be rolling out the update to them all. And Madiha would be the project leader.
Amit had called Madiha into his office one morning in November. He had a solemn look on his face, his hands clasped together on the desk. "Please close the door and sit down Madiha. I have to tell you some news about the project."
Madiha sat down, and her heart was sinking. Again she was going to be overlooked for a senior position, she thought. Western women talked about glass ceilings in their professional life, but in India the ceilings were concrete. They rarely broke.
Amit looked down at the desk and took a deep breath. He didn't seem to want to look at Madiha. "I put your case to management. In my opinion, you are the most qualified person to go onsite. They were adamant that Ranjani was as good, but I referred them to your previous work, and to the fact that it was you who finally got the system running effectively. Not him. I insisted that if anything went wrong in Melbourne, you could resolve the issue without needing external assistance."
He looked up at her and broke into a broad grin. "They agreed. You have to be at the Melbourne office when it reopens in January after the Christmas break."
Madiha's mouth dropped open. She couldn't believe what she had heard and asked, "Pardon? I'm going onsite? Really?"
She really wanted to hug Amit, but there were too many people outside his office looking curiously at them. Madiha slowly exhaled and reached over the desk to shake Amit's hand. "Thank you. I... Thank you. It must have been hard for you to get this for me. Thank you for your support."
"You deserve it, Madiha." He started chuckling. "It was very hard for me not to tell you straight away without smiling. That's why I was looking at the desktop. I wanted to see your expression when I said you were going."
He became serious. "So, as of today, you are to transfer your work to the others in the team and concentrate on what you need to succeed in Australia. You have to make this work. I have faith in you, but others will be happy to see you fail. Don't give them the satisfaction."
She left his office feeling like she was walking on clouds. It was unbelievable. She immediately sent a message to her friend, Neha, and started to think of everything she needed to do in the six weeks before she flew out.
The time raced by. She managed to get everything completed on schedule with her team's help. The whole team was excited with her opportunity because, as Madiha happily explained, it was their unwavering teamwork that had made it happen. Even Ranjani, who she thought would be upset when he wasn't chosen, seemed to be happy to pitch in. Training materials were shipped, copies of the software stored on the secure server and backups made. Her work visa arrived, and her flight and accommodation details were confirmed. The only glitch was there were no business class seats available on the first leg of her flight, but Madiha didn't mind. That short hop to Kuala Lumpur was only a small part of the trip.
She was ready and was getting nervous. This was going to be very different from her first onsite trip to Omaha in the USA. On that visit, she had been part of a larger team and there hadn't been a decent sized Desi population in the city. Melbourne was the opposite. There was quite a large Indian community, but Madiha wanted to stay away from that as much as possible. She was there by herself to work, but she wanted to be able to have some fun without having to comply with the usual social conventions Indian women had to deal with.
Amit had argued to upper management that her new status required her to fly business class and to have her own serviced apartment. She would be in Melbourne for about three months - maybe a bit longer - so he put the business case that it was more economical to stay in an apartment than a hotel. The company was happy to pay for the serviced apartment, but the compromise was they wouldn't pay for her meals unless they were directly related to work. Madiha was grateful to have the freedom of her own apartment and was happy with providing her own meals. After all, she would have had to eat at home.
She went back to her parents' house to say goodbye and pick up a few things that might be useful. Madiha was surprised her normally very reserved father actually seemed proud of her achievement. Miracles did happen. She suspected that both her parents hoped after this onsite trip she would finally settle down and find a husband. She didn't want to disappoint them, but there wasn't much chance of that happening anytime soon. She was enjoying her work and relatively carefree life too much.
Neha insisted on seeing her before she left. "It's ok. You don't have to come. It's a long way on the bus and it's not like I'm leaving forever," protested Madiha.
"But I want to," replied Neha in her excited high pitched anime voice, "We don't see each other enough now we're in different offices, and I miss you. We should at least get a pizza and maybe go to a nightclub now we're both single again. We might even meet a couple of nice guys. Or even just one to share."
"You are such a sex addict Neha!" Madiha giggled, "Ok, it would be great to see you before I go. So when can you get here?"
They went through their calendars but the only day that would work was the Thursday night before Madiha was to fly out. Neha was working in Chennai, so it would take her nearly eight hours to get to Madiha's home in Bangalore by bus. Neither girl owned a car, and Neha's little motor scooter was not designed for such a long trip. They concluded that the night club might not be a good idea as Madiha had to get to the airport early, but getting a pizza, and maybe the pizza boy, was definitely going to happen.
