I mean it was hazardous to show dissent. Even a quiet disagreement with your boss was not possible because he could sense it and needlessly chastise you before you even think to come up with an alternative solution to the problem in question. Subtlety has never been his forte! Nevertheless, it didn’t really matter whether your natural show of ‘dissent’ (or call it a valid ‘difference of opinion’) is proffered openly or secretively among like-minded colleagues; it made no headway in our cranky boss’ villeinage for a chance at correction or re-look at things that are on the table for discussion. Even if you felt like making a bona fide point or two that was worth its salt to consider, our boss would elbow you out of the room, literally!
GG Howdy never had a talent or inclination to let us get on with our jobs. It could have been so noble of him had he been some kind of friendly manager that we so desired then, but never did have one. It was such a pity! Long and hard days were spent in appeasing his foolish ego and snappish attitude. Keeping up with our great learning experiences and completing our set of tasks was hard-pressed against our collective sense of professionalism that sometimes baulked and sometimes our rock-solid thick skin could manage to withstand the vagaries of our boss’ poisonous barbs.
Since we were young and dreamy we would simply condone that unlikeable phase of our professional lives at Satyam and carry on doing our work – all this suffrage under the tutelage of that satanic nightmare called GG Howdy.
Obnoxious Ego-Maniacal Anger
Not one to take everything like a slave, one fine day Shiv Charan Joey Prasad famously rebelled like a house on fire and gave a piece of his adolescent mind to no one in particular but certainly against the so-called established norms that were set ages ago by who else The Big Boss, Manpreet’s Chichcha, Merion’s favourite Mr. Howdy! Joe, poor guy, all his voluble perambulations fell on deaf eardrums and walls of the acrid heart. Norms that were written “GG Howdy” all over – his prerogative, his imperatives, his will, his word, his command, his control, his wish, his whim, his bidding, his way or the highway – came right at us in a deathly embrace of hideous catcalls. Young Joe, including all of us, had it all.
Balzie Gigamorthy was well aware of Shiv Charan Joey Prasad’s rebellious ways of doing things in the roaming division. Joey’s rebellion was, to be fair, understandable and it was even necessary to the extent to let the powers-that-be know what we think about their restrictive and regressive ways of doing things. He wanted some kind of a positive way; an unrestricted, independent way to execute his office tasks; that which doesn’t get under the weight of dirty doses of harangues of the boss. To be able to work freely and at the end of the day get job satisfaction out of it. Therefore, to become a mere stooge to the ever-nagging GG was unthinkable for him (and all of us indeed) to tolerate. GG pissed him off thoroughly. But before anything untoward happening such as threatening to topple GG’s well-established Apple Cart (roaming division that is) by resigning or something, Balzie took a seething Shiv Charan out of his newfangled reverie by counselling him and persuading him to let go of his irrefutable rage, assuring him to just go with the flow and quit agitating the already-pissed off Monster.
Balzie was right and so too was Shiv Charan Joey. But what could Shiv do? Shiv no doubt brought a new rebellion into the mundane world of GG and his crooked howling ways, but unfortunately, all that came to no avail. What could little Joey/Shiv do? What could anybody do for that matter? GG will never change his ways of doing things and why would he? He is getting what he wants. He will not let you, anybody, make any change unless you are game for sparking off his obnoxious ego-maniacal anger, and that too for nothing. So beat it.
Balzie’s counsel was kept in mind over everything that was done in the roaming division for the entire time it existed before it was taken over by another supposedly enterprising outside business entity where GG obviously suited himself into a know-all karta-dharta, a Head of that division in a company called Cow-Labs his entrepreneur friend owned.
This new understanding, we had of each other’s professional discretion regarding our boss’s ever-present rude behaviour was everything to get miserable about, but as days turned into months and months to years we realized that not only have we (even Shiv, had to) got ourselves accustomed to GG’s daily ranting but also it had altogether seized to matter after a point of time - basically to save our jobs from going kaput. Our goose was cooked! Ready to get carved!
The morbid fear of losing our job has made us lose our natural brilliance and enthusiasm for an uptight brute like GG Howdy!
It Didn’t Matter Anymore to Any of Us
Any ‘normal’ person with an iota of common sense would indeed care to ask: What kind of unsociable monster is your boss heading your division? No one could take that question to answer without keeping a straight face, until one fine day we were passed on the news by Sexy Devee and Truck Driver Suraj that Gudumba Gongura Howdy was ‘leaving’ Satyam! Hah! Salud!
“GG has resigned!,” announced TD Suraj triumphantly. Arinvan Maliek and Manpreet Singh heard that all right. They were stooped over their desks working and feeling that old feeling... After all that hell!
Taking a deep, really deep breath, they said in unison: "About time Suraj, about time."
Oh!.... Alas! After all, there's light at the end of the big, dark ominous tunnel.
(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.