Chapter -2 At the Resort.

Having nothing else to do, Tanisi just took a stroll outside her room. Soon it was supper time and she had a light meal along with her colleagues. Their HR Varidhi announced that they were going to start at 5:00am next day. The itinery consisted of visiting a nearby waterfall. Shopping in the local market which was famous for its wooden and jute artifacts. Back by lunch and then some team activites had been planned.

Soon after supper Tanisi went to her room. For some reason she was both exhausted yet excited. She set the alarm for 4:45am for the next day and went to bed. She fell asleep soon.

The next day she got up and got ready and they all went to the waterfall. It was a beautiful place and they played in water for sometime. They had carried spare clothes to change after. Soon Tanisi stepped out of water, dried herself and changed in the make shift changing rooms there. She then went shopping with the others. She brought some small wooden toys for her kids, a pair of Jute flipflops for Adarsh and a nice cute jute handbag for herself. And she went around roaming. There were some locally made pickles, fruit bits, herbal preparations which could be taken instead of tea. She shopped all of them and merrily hopped back to the bus which took them back to the resort.

She kept all her shopping  bags and then took another bath and came out for lunch. Atul who just had come to call her for lunch saw her opening the door before he knocked. He grinned and said "Hey, missed me so much? You opened before I knocked as though you were waiting for me!". Tanisi stuck her tongue out and said "Coincidence! and also I am starving". Atul laughed heartily a said "Yeah come. Let's have lunch".

After lunch Varidhi said that all of them could take a break and gather at the front lawn of the resort by 4:00pm and that they had team activities planned.

Tanisi took a quick nap and reached the lawn by 3:30pm. Tea was being served along with some snacks. She found Pradyumna and Padma chatting nicely. She went to the counter, took a cup of tea and waving her hand, reached them. Padma who was talking incessantly suddenly became silent. Tanisi found that odd and asked, "Should I go, sit somewhere else?". Padma smiled a fake smile and said "Oh no! Big sis, you are welcome". Tanisi felt even more uncomfortable. Pradyumna said "Join us Tanisi, nothing that you shouldn't or already know. Padma is being dramatic". Tanisi wanted to move away from there, but was looking for an excuse. She feared it would be rude if she abruptly moved away. Just then Atul, Shirish and Ashish found a carrom board. They were looking for another player, and Tanisi just shouted "I want to play". She excused herself and quickly went over. While Padma was pleased, Pradyumna felt Tanisi avoid them both. He didn't like it. Tanisi and Pradyumna were very good friends and through Tanisi, he had got to know her favorite junior Padma. Soon Padma joined them and she slowly started keeping Tanisi away. Pradyumna didn't feel it initially but started to realise that Tanisi was spending lesser time with them. Even though Padma used to suck up to Tanisi, somehow Tanisi had felt the hostility in her and started to avoid them.

Soon the game of carrom started. Atul and Tanisi were a team and Shirish and Ashish were a team. Their game caught the attention of others who had come there by that time. Atul was quite good at it. And he was mostly finishing the pawns. But then some of the pawns were at tricky positions. Tanisi soon played some awesome shots. Her colleagues were super impressed and Atul raised his eyebrows at Tanisi and gave a thumbs up. Pradyumna who had also witnessed the game praised and encouraged Tanisi. Suddenly Padma said "She has to play so well, she is after all my big sis!" Atul said, "Padma, she is your senior not your real sister. And stop trying to steal her limelight. She is an awesome player!". For some reason Tanisi felt very good at Atul mocking Padma and smiled gracefully. Suddenly one by one all of them started teasing Padma and Padma grew silent.

Just then Varidhi called all of them. Ashish and Shirish were made to promise a lunch to the winners Tanisi and Atul, once they all went back.

Varidhi had planned a puzzle competition for them. They were divided into a team of four and they had to solve small riddles, puzzles and clues to finally find the missing piece of the gigantic puzzle which lay in front of them.

Atul, Pradyumna, Purvik and Tanisi found themselves as a team. Purvik was very good with riddles, while Tanisi was good at solving clues. Atul and Pradyumna made a good duo and fixed the puzzles. They found themselves neck to neck in the competition with another team. And finally it ended in a draw. Each of the winning team member were awarded a gift coupon as both the teams were declared as shared winners.

Padma started to sulk by the end of the day. It was supper time by then. The next day they were supposed to trek to the Ratnagiri hills. It was again an early morning schedule which was to start at 4:30am. Varidhi asked them to pack and be ready as they had to checkout before heading for trekking. And by next morning they were supposed to be back in their City. Since it was a weekend the day after, the plan was to rest for the weekend and come back to office fresh on Monday.

Tanisi was getting cold vibes from Padma, so she avoided her the whole evening. After dinner, she packed her luggage and kept some essentials in her backpack. Seeing everything ready, she stretched and went to the bathroom. She brushed her teeth and keeping her towel, toiletries ready, she went to sleep.

She woke up at 4:00am. She brushed her teeth. Finished morning duties, drank half a litre of water and took a quick shower. She changed her clothes to comfortable trekking gear. Combed her hair neatly and tied it into a small bun. Applied some of her favorite moisturiser. She made sure she had her bindi on her forehead and applied kohl to her eyes. She also applied some tinted lip balm to her lips to avoid them chapping. She packed her used clothes in a separate laundry bag and tucked them into the main luggage. She took her phone and charger and packed them into her backpack. She took back her toiletries and packed them with the main luggage. She hated using hotel toiletries hence all of them provided to her remained intact. She didn't like using the towels provided by the hotels as well. Hence she used to carry her own set of toiletries and towels. She used the hair dryer and quickly dried her towels and neatly packed them in her suitcase. She had kept a hand towel, moisturiser, comb, lip-balm in her backpack. It also had her wallet, mobile powerbank, watch, mobile and charger. Along with her sunglasses, hat and spare set of clothes, a bottle of water and hair accessories. After checking her backpack for essentials, she double checked that she had packed all of her belongings into her suitcase. And then she stepped out of her room with the backpack on her shoulders, pulling her trolley suitcase with her.