CHAPTER 36 - Out of the Fire, Into the Frying Pan!

New Friends, New Life

Dilnawaz Khan was a smiling Buddha of few words compared to Shiv Charan ‘Joey’ Prachad who easily got bored and exhausted with GG’s freak-show (of operations handling). Our little Joey, Shiv Charan that is, was a bundle of nerves - a man of mood swings and a rebel of torrid aggression. Yes, aggression. One is not talking about him being ‘aggressive’ and all.

Aggression is the word that best describes his inner angst. It suffices to say that most of his rebellious nature was more or less acquired at Satyam and this sort of thing has come over him on account of our boss’s perpetual narcissistic approach to all things that were actually meant to be nice and smooth but never were. ‘Aggression’ was GG’s own prerogative but 'our' Joey was smarter still to pay him back in his own coin; in fact, a little of ‘Aggression’ had rubbed on him too. He never liked GG for that same reason. Nobody did. Neither did Merion Roz Reyo, GG’s favourite pupil.

In cases like these, the feelings always end up being mutual. That is, both hate each other the same way as the other, without anyone openly acknowledging it. Good on Shiv Charan, for he had endured, like all of us, the tyrannical dynasty that solely was of GG’s creation.

Aggression may be is an internal thing for Shiv Charan Joey to worry about and which is at once descriptive of his loony funkiness for smoking heaps of cigarettes, but in so far as he began, just as everybody did, to dislike GG, his 'aggression' had quietly manifested into something which must have really been a cheeky outward mask - a cover, a veil, he so liked to put on to tackle the might of GG.

Manpreet and Arinvan thought they knew about Shiv’s ‘mask’ thing and damn right they did: the invisible outward mask that puts on his person had clearly become quite a necessity for him to be able to deal with the excessive gall of GG’s miserable temerity. Most often than not he was found successful in warding off what we call GG’s wrath because he knew how to keep his metaphorical tail firmly tugged in between his trembling legs and shut the fuck up. That was a prolific art form - a strategy for coping with a bad boss - he almost always found himself ferreting about at our roaming division, and he excelled at it for sure. Most times, he would just do the work and push-off, without having to ruffle our boss’s feathers lest he might be unable to tackle him head-on.

Unfortunately, Arinvan Maliek couldn’t have such masks/covers for himself and his ‘tail’ was discarded a long time ago and so it doesn’t exist anymore for anyone to tug at it or make merry at his expense. Neither did Manpreet Singh whose intricate maroon-coloured pugree was meant to be wrapped immovably around his head as a defender from all shades of GG-triggered malice. That leaves the Smiling Buddha of the roaming division Dilnawaz Khan, whose serene ear-to-ear toothy smile (a veritable pooreh daanth ki dukaan!) was simply a potent softener of hardcore hearts. To tell you the truth, GG’s heart never melted for anyone who had the misfortune to report to him, and for that matter, Dilnawaz’s smile never worked to keep his scathing insults at bay! It for sure looked duplicitous to GG who couldn’t care less of any smiling Buddhas of the world. Merion Roz Reyo was a different ballgame. Since she was not reporting to GG Howdy she automatically becomes his favourite sweetie.

Shiv Charan’s spunky, child-like composure and his cache of girlfriends has the revealing meaning of the words Rebel Child born out of his own genetic wedlock of X-rated Y chromosome in his genes; the one that is not intended to be directed towards any individual, but definitely getting back at GG’s gooey mentality and his, generally, awful moodiness that he so ‘affectionately’ showered on each one of us long-suffering souls!

(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.