A girl was just about to step into a wonderland.

But since, it was the 21st century, and the girl wasn't just a kindergarten girl but a woman- this was a trip to a gadget producing factory and not Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory.

The first process that started it all was the injection process. It was basically a mould making process where the first round of front covers, rear covers and sim trays were made. There were huge machines on either sides with an employee operating on each. The mould was dropped on the cavity and then clamped together to form the outline.

"See these cavity boards in the middle?" Her guide pointed out.

"Say what? I can't hear you!" Pallavi raised her voice over the humming noises of the machines.

"Those cavity boards are going to be clamped together! Look!"

Her guide was the well known workaholic Sai. Mister Tiwari initially told Adhvik to tour Pallavi around the house, but Adhvik claimed he was tired after walking around for the past two hours in the assembly floor. Disappointed, Mister Tiwari was forced to appoint his favorite student.

Pallavi rubbed her forearms, feeling a sudden chill after exiting the injection room. With around twenty- five machines, no wonder the room was thrice as hot. She dreaded to imagine how much hotter it would feel at summer, instead.

The whole production house was like a tunnel, except in three- dimensional cuboid shaped with rooms at either side.

They went to a few more rooms- Coating room, Laser room, and assembly room- All with different equipments and processes. There were many layers of coating and polishing done before the final product was produced in the market. Sai proved to be an incredible mentor, reciting her wonderful stories.

"During one inspection, two employees ended up using M31000 coat instead of M31001, which is the blue coat. They were fired immediately."

"You know just four months ago, these workers were on strike because of the low pay raise. The one leading the strike left the job but he was rumoured to be fired in secret."

"Blah, blah, blah.... And guess what?"

"He was fired." Pallavi completed his monogamous sentence. "You're a fantastic guide, you know that!"

"Oh, really? Thank you," Sai's smile grew wider in appreciation, or rather his ego. "I guess I should be the one assigned to train the newbies after all."

Of course Pallavi meant that sarcastically. She would rather explore the place alone, than the nutcase besides her.

The assembly room was the biggest amongst them all, with hundreds of employees, standing in rows. It was like a school's assembly hall, without a stage. Each row of employees constituted a different Mi model. Pallavi observed how each employee would attach a child part to the cover, either by their glove covered hands or a small attachment machine, and pass it onto the next, all the way to the final product area. The final products were kept in trays, which were then packed in boxes in the 'packaging room'.

"Oh," Pallavi remarked, after observing the final product in her hands. "It's not the actual final product."

"Obviously not. Child parts like LCD screen, speakers, battery, chips go to the vendor houses who manufacture that."

She picked a child part which constituted a mobile camera. "So even parts like this have a vendor."

"Yes, like this cam-corder was produced from Heung Shong."

Pallavi's eyes widened with fascination. Heung Shong working for Mansur, Mansur working for Xiaomi Cooperation. Then there were other companies who assembled other child parts. She could almost envision a pyramid with Xiaomi on top. Although she was aware of the complexities involved in manufacturing a gadget, but knowing and seeing were two different things. Naturally, she was left in awe.

* * *

Pallavi began to understand the documents a little bit better. It was like learning the alphabets of a language. She was still on the basics. She began to spend time by reading documents of previous Mi models. It wasn't easy. It wasn't the process that puzzled her, it was the documents itself. A document of rear cover alone covered sixty pages. Each process had a set of alphanumeric codes, procedures, tables, diagrams, temperatures, pressure amongst other things. It was too much to take at once. Since Mister Tiwari already explained her a few more things today, she was hesitant to ask him again. Mister Hyoung was forever busy to even spare a conversation. And Sai was a big no- no. He already scarred her enough with his 'you're fired' stories. She took a little help from Tulsi and Adhvik but that was it. This wasn't college. Not everyone will have time for you. She realised she will have to study the rest alone. So, she studied.

And then, studied some more.

And more.

Eventually, it was the third day.

"Gah, I'm booored!" Pallavi exclaimed as she slumped her head against the computer table. Her hands etched to fetch her mobile from her pants but then, she stopped, lest Mister Tiwari noticed. She seriously had the worst luck ever with her cubicle being right in front of Tiwari's. He could simply turn right to check on her. It was that easy. She thought of sitting next to Tulsi again, but apparently, Tiwari Sir sort of prohibited the girls to sit together, since they would only end up chatting. Her seat partner Sai had his head crouched, as he inspected the mobile covers with supreme concentration, while Adhvik went to accompany Mister Hyoung somewhere. Must feel nice to be given important work by the boss.

Hours went by. Pallavi didn't realize how long she was staring blankly at the computer screen, lost in her collage of thoughts, until she felt a slight tap on her shoulder.

"Yo."

She turned to see Adhvik standing with his arm resting against the top of the cubicle. When did he return and when did Mister Tiwari leave, she had no idea.

"Um, hi..."

"What's up?"

"Nothing, really. Just trying to decode these documents. I.... "

Pallavi watched in bewilderment as
Adhvik grabbed a chair next to hers. He glimpsed at the content displayed on the screen and tched. "You won't understand anything like this. Relax. Just pay attention when a new model plan arrives. Read the document only after you go through the practical experience first."

"Fine." With that, Pallavi closed the document.

He leaned back further into the chair, getting comfortable. "So Pallavi, where do you live?"

Her brows furrowed, "Am I being interviewed again?"

His lips twitched, "Who knows? I'm eventually going to train you girls, so might as well round up with some basic info about my juniors."

"But I thought Mister Tiwari-"

"He could also end up as your trainer, I'm not sure. I was just told by Hyoung about a possible scenario in the future. We'll see what happens. I don't care either way." He shrugged nonchalantly.

"I live here only. With my family. What about you?"

"What? Oh." His brows arched in realization. "I live alone. My family is in Ranchi, Jharkhand."

Thereafter, they got around with the basic introduction about their family, education and job experiences.

"You worked in MCL, too?" Adhvik eyes widened with surprise.

Pallavi mirrored his expression. "Too? You worked there as well?"

"Yes, in 2013."

"Oh, I was still in college then." She covered her hand with her mouth to hide her yawn that escaped. "I only worked there for forty days though. Couldn't withstand those customers barking in my headphones."

"How is this possible? I don't believe you. Who's your bloody manager?!" It took a while for Pallavi to understand that Adhvik was enacting as a frustrated customer, talking to a BPO working employee. "I said I want to talk to him. Just let me through, you... Beeep."

Pallavi tried to control, but when she couldn't, she burst out laughing, her shoulders shaking. Raising her fingers against her ear as if it were a phone, she continued, "Thank you for calling ABCD helpdesk. Have a nice day... Tring, tring... Hi, I'm PallavicallinfromMCLtechnologi. HowmayIhelpyou?"

The conversation continued on for a while as they talked about the difficulties they faced in BPO's and had a good laugh about it. Pallavi was starting to understand Tulsi's praise about him. Despite his rugged gangsta looks, there was an aura of ease around him that made it easy to talk to. Pallavi was relieved to know there was someone else besides Tulsi with whom she could interact to. Hopefully.

At one point, Adhvik was staring suspiciously as Pallavi chuckled. He stared and stared until it got to the point where she couldn't take it anymore. She stopped her conversation mid-way.

"Is there something on my face that you're, um... something?" She voiced out incoherently while looking elsewhere.

But Adhvik's expression didn't faze one bit.

"Actually, there is something... " he finally answered, pointing a finger near the left side of his mouth, "over there."

"Here?" Pallavi's finger shakingly pointed over to her left side.

"No, there...." He pointed to his right."

Initially Pallavi considered the possibility of him toying with her, but when she touched the right side of her mouth, she indeed felt something. Wiping it off, she brought her forefinger before her eyes to see a food particle stuck on its tip. Must have been the cheese from the sandwich she ate at lunch.

"Oh." she uttered. Although her 'Oh' couldn't even cover the level of embarrassment she felt right now. Her gaze drilled into the CPU under the table, hoping it would hide her inside. Unfortunately, it didn't. What she should do? Thank him, perhaps. No, wait! Who the hell thanked someone for pointing out their embarrassment? In the end, she naively let the silence take over.

When Adhvik asked about her second job, she was immensely relieved. Her little mishap seemed to be under the bridge for now. Few minutes passed until Adhvik was called by his colleagues. He excused himself, saying he'll see her later and she nodded.

Pallavi observed as Adhvik raised from his seat to approach a pair of rowdy looking guys. It was as if she was noticing him for the first time. His unruly curls that almost reached his shoulders, his small sheepish eyes, long nose, and an extended stubble that matured him. His Adam's apple showed a bit as he smiled. Pallavi didn't know why but his face suddenly reminded her of the Bollywood actor Kunal Kapoor. If one had to describe Adhvik, they would say he was a poor imitation of that actor. Add to that, Adhvik was underweight.

One of the guys wrapped an arm around Adhvik, insisting him to visit the canteen. As they started walking away, Adhvik craned his head to take one last look at her.

Their eyes met.

* * *

Two days later, there was a small office treat going on in the testing room. All Pallavi knew that it was someone's birthday and all she cared about was the food. She and Tulsi were just returning, with a samosa when they noticed Adhvik working on his computer, all by himself. Weird. Was working on his computer more interesting than the platon of food next door?

"Hey, aren't you going there?" Tulsi pointed out and took a bite of a samosa. "Hmm, this is so good. And there's chole bathure, too."

"Okay..." He replied, furiously typing away on his keyboard.

"What are you doing anyway? Show me." Tulsi continued despite his absent minded reply and walked over his seat to look at his computer screen. He barely bat an eyelid at her curious questions.

"I think you should let him be for a while. He doesn't seem like he wants to be disturbed." Pallavi whispered besides her. Tulsi reluctantly agreed and left him be. "I'm coming to your seat. Be right back."

Pallavi took an extra chair and sat next to Tulsi, chatting away for a while. Although a part of her couldn't keep the curiosity in her head so she arched her shoulder to take a peek on his screen. The only thing she understood was a government website concerning Indian railways. She contemplated on asking him, lest she disturbed him.

"I'm not working right now if that's what you're thinking."

His voice almost made her jump. Hesitantly, Pallavi voiced out. "What, then?"

Adhvik averted his eyes at Pallavi for a second before looking back on the screen with a sigh. "Nothing. Now that my work's done, I'm just tracking my mother."

"Just tracking your mother?" Pallavi blurted out in disbelief.

He let out a laugh before motioning her to scoop closer to the screen. "She left a few hours ago. See, here's the ride from Faridabad to Ranchi. I simply entered Ma's ticket details, and viola, I get to know where she is and when she'll reach"

Pallavi's mouth formed a O in surprise. Guess we learnt something new everyday. Although looking at this, she could easily tell how much he cared for his mother.

It was only then, Pallavi realized to her dismay that she said that out aloud. It was quite evident from the questionable way Adhvik was staring at her. She found herself in an embarrassing spot yet again, spouting a series of incoherent words, cornering herself even more.

"I do." The corners of his lips lifted up as he looked down his seat before grinning. "After all, its usually the mothers who love their children the most."

He really did value his mother. This time she was able to kept her thoughts to herself. Perhaps she should start valuing her mother as well. "Oh, I almost forgot."

Adhvik's eyes widened as Pallavi picked a samosa from Tulsi's table and gave it to him. "Me?"

"Yes, you."

"Are you sure your stomach doesn't need two samosas?"

"No... No!"

"Fine, don't say I didn't offer you." Adhvik laughed when she glared at him. "Thanks. And don't mind, huh. I was simply pulling your leg."

"Okay."

As if on cue, the birthday man approached Adhvik, scolding him for not joining the fun. "Sorry. I hope you have a few bites left for me atleast."

"Of course, man. I made sure to leave a whole plate for you."

Adhvik got right up, patting the birthday boy's back. "I take my sorry back. You are officially my best friend." Both of them shared a laugh and headed towards the testing room.

Somehow it seemed like their first conversation where Pallavi observed him from a sidelines until Adhvik stole a glance at her. Though this time, he smiled. The kind of toothy smile that fluttered a heart.

"See you around, Pallavi."

A crooked smile was all she was able to muster in return.

So was this the beginning of an excruciatingly long awaited something in our dear Pallavi's life? Only I will tell.

* * *

Hope you are able to understand my descriptions of the job. Anyhoo, how was the chapter? Should I continue writing. I really don't know. Do vote and comment your thoughts.

Happy Dusherra to everyone!