CHAPTER 7 - A New Beginning

Savitha Tandavi’s Initiation into Satyam:

A tall, slim and lithe figure, wearing a tailor-stitched baggy Salwar outfit, sat straight up almost throughout GG’s and Balzie’s impromptu introductions; she stiffened further up to get herself introduced to all of us present in the small room. Her dark startled-deer-like eyes liquid with bare anticipation sparkled with an assertive message as in: “I gotta have this done!” The name I caught from her candid voice was: “Savitha… Tandavi…”  She spoke about her experience she “brings to the table” and briefed on how she’d make a meaningful contribution to the team. Needless to add, she did a decent enough job with her overall dress sense.

Savitha’s hair, which was both suitably ponytailed-pigtailed, in tight knots like thick co-axial telecom cables, (done that way, perhaps due to awful summer heat and all, you know!) dangled about till far below her willowy physique. She touched it first with her right hand and then with her left probably to ensure whether the silly thing is still there and not slinging sloppily from left to right and right to left as it would have done when on a bumpy bike ride! Speaking about her ‘get-up-and-go’ professional goals she knew what she was talking about; yes, she means business, just business, and not mean business! She sure enjoys the ‘journey’ and doesn’t think too much about reaching the ‘destination’ because “Destination sucks!” she said confidingly. Sitting inches away from her in my seat, I had wanted to laugh at the practical joke she recounted, but controlled myself to smile benignly instead! Oh my! That was really something!

Touching upon her hobbies and interests, she, a Deywon Bayedour Modular College product, had said that she liked collecting “sea-shells and stamps” (the last word came out heavily accented as staaaamps!) and arcane things like “collecting mistletoes for my garden” and “riding bikes: Hondas, Scooters, Scootys, and everything!!!”, “pot-holed roads are not a problem really” and of course last but not the least “enjoying with friends!” I saw GG turn his podgy head to Balzie as if to bellow: “I am too old for this, Balzie you handle this, will you?” and somehow giggled good-humouredly, and in exactly the same way Balzie too turned his to GG as if approvingly (as though meaning to say: “Sure! Whatever you say, boss”). 

At that moment, I turned my gaze upon Savitha Tandavi again and kept steadily on her to be able to figure out her seemingly cavalier approach towards this darn thing even as she went ahead regardless to enlighten us with her other-worldly tomboyish homilies. It was a one-of-a-kind introduction and we enjoyed it to the hilt. It was great fun. (For some reason I thought, perhaps, earlier on Savitha’s joking spirit could have been used to handle GG-induced dialogue-baazi from going abuzz around our ears. But never mind).

Miss Tandavi just went on regardless like a runaway train failing to detect both GG’s and Balzie’s evident display of red discomfiture signals at what they just heard from her: the new little Missy-On-Mistletoes? and for God’s sake: riding… what? Bikes…? Those made-for-boys bikes…? Why?

The other guy – apparently a northerner-turned-southerner in the pink of health and has not been introduced up till now and who was next in line after me in the formal introductory round – looked straight ahead of… everything, (his seemingly single-malt-whiskey brown eyes not blinking at all, concentrating but!), without any visible effect to Savitha’s off the cuff, relaxed intro. Savitha’s intro in the small meeting room relieved our collective palpable tension. It had relaxed our mental muscles quite a bit and made us smile too. But the munda punjab da took no notice of it. Apparently, ideas were floating in his head even as he was trying to figure something out and stay serious, at least outwardly. I looked at him again and he was smiling all by himself over something that this time I couldn’t make out what. He seemed to prepare his own little ‘speech’ within his head safely wrapped around in a maroon pugree, for his turn was coming – which happened after Arinvan’s intro. But Savitha made it up for her faux pas when she began making passable points about her recent professional learning at a pretentious, US-posturing financial company. We heard GG exhale after she finished her “eeny meeny miny moe” self-intro song. Savitha Tandavi then slid down her seat a bit thankful that it’s over, and was found completely relaxing there to her heart’s content. Game over! Your turn.

Arinvan Maliek’s Inception into Satyam:

Arinvan, on the other hand, kept his self-intro act short and sweet; not one to get unduly uptight about fuzzy details when really not required. Talk about the sane head, this guy has it! Already, all his initial observations on GG had had his goose thoroughly cooked! He began to be nervous. ‘Over the top balderdash’ and ‘hot-headedness’ were GG’s areas of interest and Arinvan got that carefully understood. GG, the boss, would be quite a thing to ‘manage’, he figured. Arinvan gathered his thoughts and began on the oft-repeated beaten-to-death lines of “tell me something about yourself”. Of course, there’s was no looking back or getting away from this dreadful intro thing, it had to be done. It didn’t matter whether you like it or not. There wasn’t anything that could quickly present Arinvan with some breathing space from this thing; immediately after Savitha’s steadfast debut, it was Arinvan’s goose that was to be…barbecued!

“Hi, I am Arinvan, Arinvan Maliek. Thank you for inviting me into this exalted company of professionals (I couldn’t believe I used the word ‘exalted’ here! Oh shit! But I cannot roll back now!) and it’s a privilege to be in such a group of like-minded people. I started my professional career with… … …” and added in full gusto: “This position demands a lot of knowledge, skills, and abilities which I am well worth of”. After which, he dwelled majorly upon his real-time experience at a software development company that was an offshoot of its cement-producing parent company. Not forgetting to mention how his contribution is going to make a valuable difference to the new team at Satyam. 

He related to the august audience present thereby describing that he is committed “to thorough efforts, knowledge, skills which I gained from my academic years make me feel that I could substantiate the role of a committed professional. My upbringing taught me not to shy away from testing situations and that there is always a resolution to problems.” Being an ex-student of a boisterous Kendriya Vidyalaya (Oh! those golden years in the secluded old county up north and a life that was never to be with a certain Ms. Florence, bred and buttered in the Air Force.) and hailing from a family of Army background, Arinvan has imbibed a strong functional and managerial foundation to his credit. 

Quick in interpreting and analyzing business processes plus providing and implementing business solutions is his area of expertise that he had toiled hard to achieve. Bolne main ke jaata hai! Listening to music; reading and writing; playing badminton and impromptu cricket whenever the mood strikes are some of the happy digressions he indulges in with like-minded folks back home.

Manpreet Singh’s Induction into Satyam:

The last person from amongst us was a chubby-cheeked Doraemon – a possessor of a pair of tiny almond-shaped whiskey brown eyes – that takes its own sweet time to blink, Manpreet Singh. Straight off the mark he gave a very typical ‘Oye teri…!’ look and said with a voice mellow like as if a freshly battered pumpkin pie is placed in front of you: 

"Hallowwo, Manpreet Singh here…” and began by relating to his family business background and the rich experience he gained from this first-ever professional exposure. He said he was schooled at Vidyaranya, an archaic almost-unknown educational institution situated on the foothills of the mountain atop which Birla Mandir is ensconced. "I believe in prioritizing for continuous growth and improvement. An area which I want to focus on is managing people who’ve different expectations from me”, explained Manpreet, his sober manners in full display.

Working hard to attain “good customer-handling skills with relevant knowledge and experience to achieve effective outcomes in business”, as he reiterated, is his specialty. He had been handling his family business after he graduated from a college of commerce. Now, qualified with a computer science degree and keen business management experience in his kitty, he longs to call it a day to be able to join a professionally managed company like Satyam Computers. Manpreet’s computer degree coupled with an institutional computer program makes him well-adept in computers and the works.

*

After we had our meeting concluded (someone quipped that “on a positive note”), I took Balzie aside and asked him casually what “GG” meant. Or is it a misnomer? A knowing smile played on Balzie’s deep-brown face and taking me a still further aside, he said calculatingly: “GG hunh?” and gave a thrifty laugh before saying "Gudumba Gongura Howdy”. That’s his complete name. We simply call him “GG””.

Gudumba Gongura Howdy!!! WHAT! Frankly, I couldn’t help but, oh my God! put my hand firmly to shut my mouth and prevent myself from vomit… er … speaking any further! I petered out from the scene.

(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.