CHAPTER 39 - A Boss with Unchecked Authority!

Not even his right-hand man Balzie Gigamorthy, whose better coordination abilities worked OK with each one of us at the roaming division, was completely favorable to Mr. GG Howdy. 

Indeed, even TD Suraj, Mr. Howdy’s other left-hand man, could do no better in the likely job of boss-appeasement. How could he, for GG always showed the poor guy his place by one deathly stare at him and poor fellow, Suraj that is, couldn’t even dare to adjust (in case if he felt like) his long prehensile GG-worshipping tail in his greatly bothered underpants! Poor guy, it was that bad for him! 

That leaves our temptingly red-lipped front office drifter Merion Roz Reyo whom GG had the exclusive affections for offering smoothies/chocolates he regularly brought from his business trips abroad. Merion on her part was game for it. We found her to be obstreperously delighted every time when the penny-pinching curmudgeon of the roaming division – our gruesome boss, preferred to deluge her with his unbridled affections.

In many ways, Merion and GG shared similar mental make-up. With regard to their mental conditioning and approach towards sociability issues, both complemented each other’s presumptuous temperament towards their fellow colleagues at the workplace.

GG obviously had an upper hand at this sort of game of fanatical one-upmanship. We knew he was cunningly trying to figure out how to make us boys jealous while he covetously showered Merion, the front-office Minnie, with chocolates bought from abroad. Needless to say, we simply dismissed GG’s such worthless manipulative exploits as a shamelessly fraternizing Oldie’s unchecked bossy mindset that could, regrettably, never have given a small bit chance for his warped, prejudiced mind to know what plain human behaviour is; but of course, he never knew that such a thing ever existed. We think he never had it in him to be a good chief.

Must say, such benign bossy gesture bursting with the romantic prospect of imported milk chocolates stuffed in the dumpy hands of Gudumba Gongura Howdy used to leave Merion Roz Reyo eternally blushing from one side of her face to the profound other all throughout her long and roving association with keeping front office desk. A GG-sighting was well-neigh possible and there he was unexpectedly flushed with the flow of his adrenaline-pumping big time in his elderly pot-bellied self. Merion’s squeals of joy were GG’s prerogative delight to take a wholesomely-satisfied swim in, and clearly, he enjoyed his escapades very much! His platonic need to see with his own travel-weary pair of bespectacled eyes that get instantly affixed on this well-endowed woman luxuriating in a splendorous exhilaration was worth a planeload of chocolates, Boeing or no Boeing!

GG’s phoren chocolates – all for the partaking of his cutely smiling Merion, exclusively! Sometimes (just once rather) there used to be chocolates offered to us folks as well, and we, believe it or not, took to chewing them dutifully in front of him – just to show our solidarity with this pompous ass!

GG Howdy was in a raging-bull position of excessive authority and no one thought it fit to investigate it and help make amends. The power has likely gone straight to his head and that was part of the reason why he kept up his tempo of authority in full gusto. Since his friend was a blood relation to the Managing Director of Satyam and no one to object to the kind of fanatical subordination he had us committed to, he bashed on paying little regard to what kind of opinion people might have of you. I specify the word ‘likely’ because I am being nice and sober to not to speak really ill of this sickening individual who happened to be our Consultant. To be frank, someone ought to have ‘clipped his wings’, but nobody came forward to pull GG up and make him cease his confrontational behaviour… at least for the sake of the greater common good that was hard at work at the roaming division. It’d have been truly justified had someone taken that first step forward regardless of the trouble one could or could not have faced to clamp him shut.

Everybody gave up on him like a lost cause. Shiv Charan Joey didn’t feel at all to interact with GG unless it was really required of him to do so. Dilnawaz Khan abhorred GG as much as he possibly could. Arinvan Maliek took it as a professional hazard thing. Manpreet Singh couldn’t care less unless it was expected of him to care more. Balzie, Sexy Devee, and TD Suraj - all of them considered GG as some kind of an intolerable dingo that by a twist of fate happened to come to their way woof woofing! More of a bad luck thing that was playing itself inside out! Gory, absolutely gory!

GG has never been gentlemanly in his life; so expecting him to redeem himself was akin to trying to straighten a Dog’s (or a Dingo’s) permanently twisted tail. He couldn’t be resurrected. No chance. Not even a bit. For GG, the world was not enough. He wanted more of it according to his taste and suitable convenience to plunder. But first, he had us in his savage harem as sitting ducks to have repeated potshots at!

Even the slightest aversion to his unwritten decree was tantamount to losing one’s professional prospect at Satyam; therefore, we thought it would make better sense to somehow prevail over the barbarities that he perpetrated on us day in and day out, and accept the so-called ‘reality’ of the dire circumstances we found ourselves in as offbeat career lozenges for slavish upstarts like us to chew on. Get to be as snug as a bug in the rug? That was a savvy thing to do forthwith or perhaps not. Yet, it was tough enough to resiliently deal with such a horrible character whose level-headedness had always shot through the roof! That is to say, how does one deal with a coldblooded haranguer like him? Like hell, I know! Call me if you have a better answer. I surrender the pretense of needing to answer that question effectively.

Open Heart Forgeries

On a lighter note, there’s just one person that escaped GG’s bad temper and that was the front-office femme fatale Merion Roz Reyo, who excelled at committing Open Heart Forgeries! She was one fluky miss. She was lucky in a way because she was not reporting to him. That fact of her life had saved her a lot of headaches; never mind GG’s tender chocolates to subside any such thing that troubles his favourite pupil, even heartaches who knows! The poor enchantress had majorly been spared from a god-awful situation that she, we were certain, couldn’t ever have handled on her own accord had she not hoped to carry on living a long uninterrupted professional life, with some chocolates thrown in.

Remember Savitha Tandavi? You do, don’t you? Oh, Man! She had shed a ridiculous amount of tears to get over GG Howdy’s almost psychopathic attitude towards her. And mind you! She wasn’t all that successful either aiming at her leaky tear ducts every time GG threw a barb at her that she couldn’t duck. If she thinks she has gotten over the unutterable horror our boss GG had put her through, she’ll find herself at fault. It isn’t over yet! Well, I am only just totally kidding about that! Trying to defuse the tension with humour you can relate to!

One feels that it doesn’t matter anymore whether GG lives or becomes deceased. For Savitha at least, or for that matter for anyone who happened to know him (even if by chance), he is better off dead, decomposed, and gone. R.I.P. GG! Take rest forever!

(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.