CHAPTER 6 - A New Dawn

A series of meetings took place on the first day at the office. There were a couple of individuals, obviously, new entrants, assembled for the meeting to be conducted in a small spacious glass-fronted room. We remained standing outside the room designated for the first introductory meeting to take place and waited for the managers-that-be to get there.

Before I could initiate a casual conversation with the new entrants, GG Howdy and Balzie Gigamorthy swaggered by and insisted that we get seated right away. For some reason, bloodcurdling words like “within short notice”, “here and now”, “bad eggs!” scraped through my mind like screeching fingers nails on a blackboard. GG’s face was pumped up with a Garrison Commander’s adrenaline rush! His chest heaved up (for no reason at all) like a puffed-up bullfrog! His fevered looking red-as-a-Lobster eyes that were a result of his last night’s mad goose chase (probably on his bed at home) betrayed his false sense of worth and hot-headedness, even as his beer-belly protruded like a failed launch of a home-grown Chinese missile that never went anywhere but exploded out on his own spindly legs! Balzie, the poor baby, laconically pushed his elderly-looking red-rimmed “I-am-more-sensible-than-him” oval spectacles up on his nose and chose to stick to the sidelines not wanting to draw undue attention like his boss GG did.

The room had been cold and had ample space to host at least 5 people in it. I pulled up a chair to sit as did everybody else. I saw Savitha Tandavi reaching for her black and shiny Parachute-oiled ponytail-pigtail to deposit it firmly within the range of her well-toned sinewy midriff. She sat in her chair and at once propped one leg over another and sighed demurely. Manpreet Singh cleared his throat and nudged his nose twice before squeezing himself into the chair, uncomfortably. Balzie Gigamorthy looked relaxed and high-and-dry at the same time while GG sat with his laughing-buddha-like tummy adjusted on his oh!-no-not-again! lap! Five adult people were seated at a table meant only for three. I noticed, perfunctorily, that the AC vents were running parallel from one end of the false ceiling to the other before disappearing into the adjacent room. The meeting room had been virtually sound-proof and cozier than I thought; nevertheless, a faint murmur was drifting in from the well-trafficked hallway/corridor outside. I was really impressed by the way the long corridor that bridged the West Flank with the East Flank of the building was tastefully done-up with polished green-marble flooring and elegant skirting.

The long corridor (which ultimately became Arinvan Maliek’s favourite walkway) was flanked by a series of meeting rooms on one side and a ceiling-high glass wall on the other led to a lobby manned by a pleasant-looking receptionist. Intelligent use of thick plated glasses formed as the transparent protective wall was on display everywhere. At one nook, very near to where we convened for our first ‘official’ meeting and very close to the way to one of the 5th-floor elevators, a clean, deservingly-tempting Nescafe Espresso coffee dispenser was parked.

As always, (and by now as expected) GG took up the reins of introducing the departmental niceties to all four of us (including the ever ‘sensible’ Balzie).

Holding a paper cup of hot coffee that he selfishly and egoistically availed himself of from the Nescafe Espresso without even giving a decent enough thought for us that if we want to have a cup, unmindfully GG started off opening his Shrek-like mouth and dropping goo out of it! Parking himself further into the deep cushion of his stunted chair, he said in his deep baritone: “Hello everybody” (one couldn't miss feeling that it came out as a sarcastic quip from his open coffee-stained mouth) before taking a quick sip of his coffee that went down his gullet dislodging his Adam’s apple up and about in his coffee-stained throat. I even noticed, to the utter futility of doing so, that a fair bit of surplus skin that covered his Adam’s apple was hanging off it uselessly.

He began nonstop in his deep baritone of a voice again:

“I am GG Howdy. You can call me GG. We gather here to… blah blah blah blah blah… blah blah blah blah… blah blah blah blah blah… I welcome each one of you to Satyam Computers. I have been handling this operation since… blah blah blah blah... blah blah blah… blah blah blah… We have grown, as you can see, from a 2-team wonder to now 5-team force.

"Over the next 6 months, we will need another 3 souls to join us. Word has already gone out to HR for that to take place.”

Taking a good satisfying swig at his coffee again, he continued nonstop:

“We want to make a remarkable contribution to the company. This here is Balzie Gigamorthy. Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah Blah… Currently, he’s handling the daily operations… right from starting off with understanding customer requirements to fulfill them on an on-going basis. Balzie will give you a detailed preview of what we do here and before long I’d want you to take charge of the same. Balzie will be your reporting manager. Any issues you know whom to get in touch with... blah blah blah blah… Remember, your division is the fastest achiever in terms of revenue realization and we would do everything that keeps up its success rate intact blah blah blah blah blah...

"I want your contribution towards this objective and blah blah blah blah blah... and more blah blah blah blah blah… Maybe a penny more but not a penny less! Now, I invite each one of you to say something”.

Just when GG Howdy finished his chat, a thought stirred up within my mind that said something was amiss in his speech and, oh yes, it was: I look forward to working with you; GG never said that. That was expected of him to say, something on that line at least. Perhaps, to conceal his noticeable error, he gruffly opened up his palm with all his stubby fingers, think and brown as sausages, already pointing towards Balzie Gigamorthy to take the cue and start speaking pronto.

Next up was, of course, Balzie Gigamorthy’s turn to gorge, nicely though, on the operational details before welcoming us with his brainwave of smart encouragement.

Understandably, he kept it short and sweet. I trust he likes it that way. Not the one to get worried about any supervisory bunkum. Good on him. I deduced that he is not one to get bothersome about anything unnecessarily and yet he gets important enough for everyone to take him earnestly, at face value. That’s how young professionals would like to work; they take everything at face value and make no bones about it. They perform based on what I call ‘face value agreement’ they have with their peers. Why go into “protocol” and “formal adjudication” cock and bull when you know you can carry out all your tasks because you simply will have to.

(To be continued...)

By Arindam Moulick

Disclaimer: This story is a work of fiction. All incidences, places, and characters portrayed in the story are fictional and entirely imaginary. Any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely coincidental. No similarity to any person either living or dead is intended or should be inferred.