A gem....

I was pretty satisfied with the project I was put in ,not because it was a development project where I could learn a lot but mostly because of my fellow team mates with whom I started interacting there.They were a group of young talented people,not sticking their eyes on to the computers all day and were quite jovial and friendly.They preferred gossiping at tea breaks about some interesting thing at work or some daily soap that was aired the last night ,to sitting in the library trying to gain some more knowledge like a true professional!
There was this particular tall,sweet looking girl in the same group,just a year senior to me,who was assigned as my mentor.She was the one I had to take work from and report to her once I was done.To be honest ,I was a bit skeptical about this in the beginning.The reason was pretty obvious.She was utterly sincere,very intelligent and was a perfectionist in her work.On the other hand I was this college passout who had no idea about professional work,not at all sincere and over and above, had a severe lack of confidence.I thought I was screwed big time!!!
All the above notions were lifted like a purdah once I got to interact with her more closely.Her confidence,her obesession to deliver any work perfectly and her humility petrified me.I was stunned at times just by looking at her approaching any complex work item she was asked to work on.It was liked a smooth process.Analysis,design and then coding was her usual procedure on tackling a problem and each of these she accomplished with sheer finesse.This nature of her reflected in her daily activities too.She was a devoted follower of the great Sai Baba and worked voluntarily in many institutions(set up in his honor) helping the less piviledged ones.She was a beautiful person.
Whenever I faced any problem in my work ,I would rush to her.She asked me to sort it out myself.Mostly I couldn't even after trying ten times over,but at other rare times I would find a really silly mistake I made and we both would laugh together.This grew in me the confidence which I lacked then.Slowly I grew so fond of her and her ways that I felt I was trying to copy her in some ways.May be I really did .
We were in the same cubicle and our seats were adjacent.All day besides working we both enjoyed joking about silly incidents and some really funny guys at office....she was my friend and guide at the same time..
Soon she was leaving India.Yep,she cracked the GRE with an awesome good score and was going to NCSU in few months time.I felt heart broken.So much was left to learn from her..so much was still left to share,so much was left to blossom the friendhship which had just started budding....
I decided to make most out of the time left with me.As she gave me KT(knowledge tranfer),I would genuinely study her ways to deal with things,her naturally confident approach towards problems and her awestrucking humility which never seemed to attenuate even a bit inspite of her soaring success in every field.
Then the day arrived,her last day in office.We gave her a warm farewell and wished her luck.I was not able to express my feelings about how I felt in words to her ...so I decided to put them in ink.I gifted her with a small Ganesha that would bless her in all her future endeavours and a diary where I penned down some gratitude I owed her.
Thus she went miles away from us leaving me with a dull feeling of losing a real friend ,a teacher , a guide and a gem whom I would never ever forget in my life....Hope she continues to be just the same girl whom I knew for that short but precious span of my life.