With time, life began tumbling downhill; circumstances changed within a blink of an eye, and I was far from absorbing the happenings, let alone digesting it. They say that life's a series of ups and downs, and it was around the time when I began rolling down a steep slope, in an uncontrollably brisk manner that the world around me was blurred out, completely. It didn't take too long for the City of Dreams to turn into the biggest nightmare I've ever had.

In my office, I turned the pages of a file, as I chewed the tip of my ballpoint pen, when Andrea – a senior colleague – snapped her fingers before me, drawing my attention towards her. "Hi!", I exclaimed, cheerfully, and radiated a beam in her direction, while she looked back at me with her usual arrogant expression. "The presentation you made isn't what I want. I've sent you an e-mail about how I want you to alter the presentation with the points I need. Fix it and mail the presentation back to me. Today", she ordered, in one breath, and her words pounced straight over my head. "Which presentation?", I questioned, blankly. "The presentation I'm about to show to the Singapore clients, Dityaa!", she sighed in annoyance. "You? That's my pr—I'm conducting that meeting", I informed Andrea, who breathed out loudly, and looked around. "Looks like, Karan hasn't informed you yet; there's a change in the plan – the meeting, now, belongs to me and I'm leading the team", Andrea revealed and the ground beneath my feet slipped away, as I gawked at her in silence. "Hello!", she called out and I shook out of my thoughts, before darting straight inside Karan's cabin.

"What's Andrea doing?", I banged both my hands on Karan's table, and he held his tea-cup in midair, expressionlessly. "Karan, what is Andrea doing in a meeting that belongs to me?!", I demanded of him, furiously. "Sit down, Dityaa", he calmly instructed. "I need my answer. Why is she bossing me around?", I raged, and looked at him, expectantly. "I had to do it. The higher officials wanted Andrea to conduct the meeting, and I couldn't argue with them—", he began with his explanation. "But why? What is Andrea doing in the last minute? I was the one who prepared for this!", I bombarded. "Calm down. Listen to me, first", he breathed. "The officials think that Andrea is more experienced than you, and that's why she should take over", Karan said and I scoffed, throwing my hands in the air. "Why didn't you inform your goddamn officials that I've been the one who has taken care of everything for the past three months? Andrea never gave a flying fuck about this whole meeting, Karan. I was the one who worked day-in and day-out for this meeting. This office was my home, and my home was my office!", I stated and forcefully pressed the tip of my index finger on my table. "And now, she's pretending like she cares. She's bossing me around to do things for her. She wants me to change the presentation; a presentation I've worked on for days!", I shouted. "And I'm telling you – I won't do it", I breathed. "I know what this means to you, but—", Karan clasped his hands on the table. "Oh, please!", I smirked. "You don't. You do not know what this means to me, because if you did Karan Singhania, you wouldn't have snatched this away from me to drop it in the hands of someone who's absolutely unworthy of this. You wouldn't have overlooked my hard-work, blindly", my voice quivered. "I'm sorry", Karan apologized and we visited silence, as I took a deep and shaky breath in. "And I'm sorry, too, Karan", I apologized back and swallowed hard. "I'm sorry, but I'm backing off for this project. I don't want to deal with this anymore. This is unbelievable, and simply so unprofessional!", I shook my head to the sides, and stormed out of his cabin only to bump into Andrea, near my work-space.

"Get into my cabin with the files and summarize everything for me. And once you're done, edit the presentation according to the way I want", she ordered, painlessly. "Which presentation?", I questioned, with a straight face. "How many times do I tell you? The presentation for the Singapore clients!", she exclaimed. "It's your meeting, and that's my presentation; I'm sorry, but I cannot share it with you. Nothing comes easy in life, Andrea, but you still managed to bag a meeting without doing anything; so, I'd suggest you to sit down and build a presentation from scratch – at least put in some effort to make it look like you have earned this meeting", I forced a smile at her. "You—", she raised her voice. "There, you'll find everything related to the meeting inside these files. Sit down, read through them, summarize the points and create a presentation; you still have a whole week to go. Good luck", I pushed the stack of files towards the corner of the table, and she glared at me, boiling with anger. "I would have worked for you if you were nicer to me. But if you show me attitude, I'll show you an attitude worse than yours. Take my advice – you should pick up the habit of using politer words, and a soft tone, towards your colleagues. You've bagged a meeting, only; don't walk around as though you've won the world. If you're still flying, I'll tell you something that'll bring you back to the ground – your past experience has gifted this meeting to you; not your present hard-work. So, stop staring at me and get going. It's about time you start working hard, so that people start thinking that you're worthy of this post", I crossed my arms against my chest and flashed a victorious smile at her. She snatched the pile of files from the table and stomped away, once she shot a disgusted glare in my direction.

I collapsed down on the chair, with my head thrown back; I didn't know if I did the right thing, but for the first time – in my defeat, I had the taste of victory. Life's weird, at times.