Chapter 3 –A Silly Mistake
The next morning I found two fresh beauties in my bus. The girls I knew in the bus were also looking lovely. This was scary. It is said that when you fall in love with a girl, all the other girls in the world look beautiful to you.
You would ask me why? It is because, you see, you won’t get them when you are in love with her. Tell me guys, how many men find their partners beautiful and other girls not so much? It was not their beauty but the reason behind them looking so beautiful to me that had caught me in the fear of ‘falling in love’.
I had already started thinking about her. Her pretty smile was disturbing me the whole day. I was caught off-focused by my friends while discussing a cricket match during lunch time. And somehow, I was not in the mood to work that day.
Just about an hour before the day’s closing, I got the response from Trisha. A mail from her had been the wish from my heart the whole day. I quickly opened to read it. It was a happy response from her. Her brother Abhishek had got a call from my company and he was going to be interviewed the next day.
Hay! Wait a minute. How can it be? I didn’t forward his disastrous resume. Have the HRs gone mad? At this time of recession, when so many SEs are ready to work for half a penny, what made them to call him? Anyways, it shouldn’t bother me as the change will be minuscule if a new idiot is added to the lot. I should just enjoy her politer gestures for the misunderstanding.
I sat down to write a detailed response to her mail. It took me a while. And when I finished writing it, I realized that my office bus had left me. Love was surely affecting my schedule. And now, I had no choice but to catch the late night office cab.
And then I saw that my neighbor Satish was staring curiously at me.
“Is something bothering you Satish?”
“Nothing, actually I was surprised to find that you staying late today?”
“I had to stay back. I had some deadlines to meet”
“It’s good to see you work so hard”
Yes guys! My dedication to work was commendable that day as I was staying back. In India, hard work is not as important as appearing to be working hard. Satish is an excellent specimen to prove this fact.
He was a bachelor, staying away from his small town in a cheap rented accommodation here. As his family was not here, he usually stayed back after office hours to enjoy the free office internet, free desktop, free dinner and free night cab. He ensured complicating even the minutest of tasks given to him and completing it in a tough manner by staying late.
In return he was praised for his hard work, dedication and passion for work. He had won several awards and good ratings from our manager. And according to latest rumors, he was also going to be promoted in the near future.
As if that were not enough, the guy would also occasionally take long vacations of a week or more from my manager. The reason was simple; he was staying ‘miles’ away from his family. As for me, I never could get a week long leave as I stayed in the city itself? My manager simply could not understand why I would require a week of vacation. In short my home location defined my leave period.
These thoughts, didn’t allow me to notice that Team Lead Rajiv had come to my desk. But of course he was staying late as he had also ‘worked hard’ to be my Team Lead.
“Hi Rohit! Good that I found you at this time. I urgently need a favor from you”
“From me? Yes Rajiv, what can I do for you?”
“Actually, you see, I am going on leave for a week. Can you please take over my part till I am back?”
I had to take over his part but what part? This was confusing. As far I knew, Rajiv never had any part as he was the Team Lead. He would only give work to others and inquire about their status. Rajiv never had anything else to do except probably offering some boring Team advices.
“I can’t understand it Rajiv. Can you please explain me what do I have to do?”
“You just have to take over my part. Alright, let me clarify. You remember the tasks that were given to me and I delegated it to you and the new guy. The ones which our manager Mahesh had asked me to complete.”
“Ok, I got it. But I thought that it was our team task.”
“Don’t bother about that. It doesn’t matter whether you do it or I do it. Just ensures to get it done and tell Mahesh that ‘we’ have done it. Also, you need to take some interviews tomorrow. We have to recruit a new guy in our team. Here are the resumes of the candidates.”
“I have to interview them. Sure Rajiv, I will take the interviews.”
I quickly accepted his part as the joy of not seeing him around was too overwhelming. Also, I was happy to be taking interviews. Interviews had always been an entertaining experience for me. Besides giving the respite from your work, interviews can actually make you feel worthy in your company. Interviews also make you remember some of your college education that was long forgotten in maintenance projects.
As I glanced through the resumes of candidates, I found that the one of Mr Big Brother, Abhishek.
“Oh Shit! What have I done?”