Short story that is character driven Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Short story that is character driven - Essay Example My mother used to say it, my teacher at school said it, but nothing in my life bore this out’, I paused to check if she was with me. She was listening intently, leaning forward a little. ‘Go on, Roy, it’s something I’ve always believed in†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ ‘Then you have got to hear this’, I cut in and settled back heavily as the sofa springs creaked in protest. My eyes glazed over to that day six years back. *** The rain had been falling in a steady torrent through the night. Whether it was the thunder that had raged night-long or the steady thumping of my adrenalin, I had been able to sleep barely a wink. My head pounded with thoughts of what I would say at the meeting: ‘Yes sir, I am a qualified chef†¦.. been to the best catering school in the country†¦. I have the training and the experience†¦.. have been saving up for this break†¦.. give it to me†¦..give it to me†¦.. oh, give it to me†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ The wor ds raced through my mind, sometimes reaching my lips, sometimes dying away as new thoughts leapt up. Would they think me good enough to make the investment? What if I fumbled? Was I stepping too much out of a comfort zone? What if I lost the initial deposit, my life’s treasure, if I didn’t bag the deal? At this, I jerked out of bed and felt the sweat trickle down the back of my T-shirt. I walked over to the tiny kitchenette and switched on the light. As warm light flooded my little nest, my nerves steadied and I glanced at my reflection in the cut-glass framed mirror in the passage. Bright eyes, a determined mouth and a springy shock of dark hair stared back at me. My teacher’s words came back, ‘Roy, you are the best I ever saw. You are not just a great chef, you have in it you to be an entrepreneur†¦. Go for it my boy’. I had gone to see Mr. Dias when I saw the ad in the newspaper. 50,000 dollars deposit, catering school background, proven exp ertise, a go-getting spirit and the drive to set up and manage an international catering franchise in Mumbai. The company, Great Grub, was an international chain looking for a young person with the above qualifications to set up their first venture in India. Besides the 50,000 dollars that I had to put up to enter the fray, they would take pick up the tab on the entire rigmarole – real estate, marketing, staffing, kitchen operations, everything. Woo hoo, it was a dream come true. Tailor-made, answer to all my prayers, the one thing I needed to jumpstart my career to the big league. As I put water to boil for that cup of coffee I so needed, I remembered the wrench I had felt those two months back when I had to finally dig into the bank deposit that my mother had begun the day I was born. ‘When you need it for your studies or something big, it will be there for you’, she would say. In those carefree growing-up years those words had meant little and the first time t he existence of that tidy sum registered was when her lawyer handed me the papers on my eighteenth birthday, a year after she was gone. As I sipped my coffee pensively, I recalled how much she had wanted me to make it big, how she had stood by me like a rock when I wanted to follow my heart to catering school, how she had rebuffed all those who had scorned my choice of career as too ‘girly’. ‘This one is going to be for you, mom’, I whispered. The day began to break in, as it normally did – a little sliver of light crept in from the east window, picking out first the chintz covered sofa and then the antique center table in