The Software Engineer who sold his Pulsar - Chapter 4

Santa walked into my cubicle with a grave expression on his face. The clock on my taskbar read 03:26 PM. I was wrapping up my work to make an early exit from the office. But the sight of Santa’s face made my brain work overtime. I played with different kinds of replies to Santa’s question about why I ordered the sea food platter.

“I don’t know what you are talking about” or “Oh that was not included in the buffet?!!!” or my personal favorite, “It was Rajat’s idea”

But Santa walked in and slumped into a chair near me. When I looked at him there was no hint of an accusation but only a wearied expression.

“Dude”, he began, “Do you know who ordered the five plates of seafood platter? That was not part of the buffet. I had to pay 2000 rupees extra. The manager at the floating restaurant said that someone from our group specifically asked for it, but he did not remember who it was.”

“WHAT? But why are you asking me?”

“You are the only vegetarian in the group. So I can be certain that it was not you. If you saw who it was please tell me.” Santa was genuinely angry.

I could not believe my luck. Not only was I not accused but I was getting an opportunity to pin the crime on anybody of my choice.

“It was Kunvarjeet”, I said.

Kunvarjeet was a senior guy in Santa’s team. I did not like the guy much. He used to travel in the same company bus as Rajat and me. Once Rajat had saved me a seat and Kunvarjeet sat despite my handkerchief on the seat. Finally I had to pry the hankie from beneath him and had to stand the rest of the journey. I had not asked him to get up, which I would have done, but for the fact that Kunvarjeet was 6foot 2inches tall and an assiduous body builder.

So when I saw the opportunity to tarnish his image, I took it. There was also another reason. I was sure that Santa would think twice before picking up a fight with Kunvarjeet.

Santa thought for a while and finally said with a false laugh, “Oh it was Kunvarjeet? Yeah, I remember now. I had agreed to buy something special for the group earlier. So maybe he just ordered the seafood platter. It is fine. What is the big deal, right?”

I also smiled and said, “Yeah. What is the big deal? You are going onsite, man. Enjoy that!!!”

“Oh yeah, I had to ask you something. Now that I am going onsite, I need to get rid of my pulsar bike. It is in pretty good shape. I bought it from my roomie who went onsite last month, so you never know, the bike might be a lucky bike; 53000+kms done till date. I heard that you were looking for a bike. So are you interested?”

I thought about it for a moment. Buying a bike was high on my priority list and I knew for certain that Santa used to take good care of his bike. So it would not be a bad buy.

I asked cautiously, “What price do you expect?”

“Dude, what is the big deal again? You just give me 20k and we will call it a done deal. How is that?”

Honestly, 20k for the bike was a pretty decent asking price. I had seen the bike and I knew that it was worth the money. But as all Indians, I was never satisfied by the first quoted price. I had to bargain.

“Santa, the bike has run 54k kms. So how about 18k, huh?” I remembered to stress on 54k kms.

“Ok dude. You drive a hard bargain. But I need the money by tomorrow. I will come to your house tomorrow. The bike is still registered in my roomie’s name. So there is no paper work to do. One year insurance is there. So you have basically nothing to do but to take the bike from me. Saturday is a good day for money transactions as well.”

“Ok”

Santa and I chatted for a little longer and later parted with assurances from both sides about meeting tomorrow and sealing the deal.

The day had brought me a mixture of fortunes. But I was feeling quite happy about buying the bike.

I told Rajat about the deal on our way home and Rajat was also of the opinion that the bike might be a lucky one.

The weekend passed without much incident. Santa had come over to my house and I paid him 18k and became a proud owner of a black pulsar.

So on Monday, Rajat and I went to office on MY Pulsar. As we walked in to our development bay, we saw Santa walking towards us with a wide grin. Sometimes I used to wonder whether he was born with that grin on his face.

“Hello fellows. Tomorrow I will leave to my home town. I will be back only after a week. Meanwhile I need to talk about the visa and all with Bharath. So today is going to be hectic. On top of it all we have a team meeting at 10.”

It was customary in our team to hold team meetings whenever someone left the team or the company or went onsite. I immediately knew what the meeting was all about and the reason for the grin on Santa’s face. 


Everyone would be praising him and he would be the star of the show.

The week was off to a bad start. But I was not giving into despair yet. Over the weekend I had worked on my ten point plan for improving the TL’s efficiency.

At 9:50am there was a rush of people to reach the conference room. Our team meeting usually included both the development and support team and consequently the conference room was always crowded. It was a struggle for seats because Bharath loved hearing himself speak and would go on talking for hours and those who arrived late had to remain standing the whole time.

I ran towards the conference room and dove easily under the arms of Kunvarjeet who was heading towards the last available seat and placed myself on the chair and smirked at Kunvarjeet. He glared at me and for a moment I was afraid for my life. But then Santa walked in grinning. All heads turned towards him. All the whispers and talks died down. Santa took in the attention and stood erect by the door with the grin intact. He did not look at anyone, but stared straight ahead and remained so until Bharath walked in.

Bharath walked in pushing a chair for himself and sat down as soon as he came in. I slowly placed the sheet on which I had written my ten point plan in front of me on the desk and waited for Bharath to start the proceedings.

“Friends”, Bharath started speaking in his dreary, monotonous voice, “We all know that one amongst us is going to the client location very soon.”

All heads once again turned towards Santa. He stood as though he was oblivious of all the attention and remained with his eyes fixed on Bharath. There was one improvement though. His grin had made way for a gentle smirk.

“So let us all join in wishing all the very best to Santhanam Balaji while he makes his way to Hyderabad. Santhanam, you are an essential part of our team and we are sad to see you leave. But the separation is only physical. For everyone’s information, Santhanam is going to the new branch that our client has set up in Hyderabad. The branch is a joint venture by our client and another new generation bank. We are lucky to have that project too and I wanted the best person to represent us there. And you all will agree when I say that Santhanam is the best that we have to offer…”

Thud!!!

Bharath stopped his monologue upon hearing something crashing down. I caught only a glimpse of the figure of Santa prone on the floor before he was carried out of the conference room. I quickly grabbed my ten point plan and tore it up before rushing to Santa’s side. Everyone cornered Bharath asking him why he told Santa about an onsite opportunity when he was actually sending Santa to Hyderabad.

Bharath was all apologetic. He explained that onsite means being at the client’s office and does not essentially mean going abroad. He also said that he was unaware of Santa misunderstanding him and that it was a clear case of communication breakdown. People gave him nasty glares but nobody dared to say anything untoward to Bharath, especially after watching Santa lying unconscious.

After sprinkling water on Santa’s face and roughly shaking him for a while, he finally came around. He sat up, looked at all of us and did not speak anything. Bharath said sorry and explained that there had been a misunderstanding. Santa took it all in and then slowly walked out of the development bay without saying a word.

Epilogue:

Santa did go to Hyderabad and later on to Australia. But I heard that it did not last long because the client-side folks were also annoyed by Santa correcting their grammar.

I used the Pulsar for a long time and other than serving me well, it did not bring me any special luck.

Bharath was feared from that day on and even I began to watch my step around him from that day.

But Santa did find a way for revenge and got Bharath in a fix. But more on that at a later date.

It is me, the model Professional signing off…

The Software Engineer who sold his Pulsar - Chapter 3

I walked up to Rajat’s cubicle and announced, “I am going to work my way into an onsite opportunity. I have a plan”


Rajat gave me an incredulous look and said, “I don’t know why but I always have a bad feeling about your plans.”

“Rajat, some plans work and some plans don’t. That is the nature of plans”

“But in your case, none of the plans work and all plans fail”

“Ok. If you are taking that attitude, I am not telling you my master plan” I was annoyed but had to admit the hard truth in Rajat’s statements.

“Ok ok. Tell me please” Rajat made a show of regretting his doubt.

“Ok. We know the reasons why Santa is going onsite. One, he annoyed Bharath. Two, he threatened to bring in changes in the working of the team that would not have been good for Bharath. Am I not right?” I paused to ensure that Rajat was following my train of thought.

“Yes. Or at least that is what we think.” Rajat was always cautiously pessimistic.

“Dude, there can be no other reason. There are many more deserving candidates in the development team. But Bharath chose Santa in particular because he posed a serious threat to the serene Saturdays of Bharath.”

“Yeah, Ok, I guess it is so” Rajat seemed to be finally coming around.

“Ok. So what should I do to go onsite?” I asked.

“What should you do?” Rajat repeated.

“I should emulate Santa. I will tread the exact same path of Santa. That will force Bharath to find an onsite opportunity for me as well, pretty soon”

“I don’t understand.” Rajat seemed thick-headed at times. Rajat was very intelligent in straight forward matters. But he seemed to lack the worldly knowledge and the smartness that I possessed. That was one of the reasons why I had taken Rajat under my wings; to impart my wisdom to him.

“My dear friend, allow me to break it down for you. The first part is annoying Bharath. I have a head start in that area. Once Santa is gone, I move to the first place in the list of most despicable people for Bharath. The second part is a bit trickier. I have to threaten Bharath’s peaceful existence in the team. So you get my idea? I mix these two catalysts and voila, you will find me on the next flight to Australia”, I was eloquent and for a moment thought that politics would have been a better career choice for me. I needn’t have wasted time in college or even the latter part of schooling could have been skipped.

Rajat looked at me with wide-eyed disbelief. After a while he seemed to find his bearings and he asked, “How are you going to threaten Bharath’s peace?”

“Good question. I am going to come up with a ten point plan for increasing the TL’s efficiency in particular. And I am going to suggest the TL working from home even on Sundays. I just have to make Bharath believe that I will present the plans to our PM. Bharath will have me on the next flight” I announced.

“Seriously? You are going to do that?”

I could tell from Rajat’s expression that he thought this to be one of the worst ideas he had ever heard. But then, Rajat was a child when it came to making plans and I could not care less for his judgment.

“Rajat, dude, you just wait and watch. It is going to be legendary.” I said imitating Barney Stinson from the sitcom ‘How I met your Mother’.

Rajat shook his head and remained silent. I was irritated by the obvious lack of enthusiasm from Rajat and was about to embark upon another speech to convince him when I heard Santa’s voice behind me.

“Hey guys, I am taking my project mates out on a treat to the floating restaurant. I am going to be awfully busy going forward. So I thought I would give treat today itself. So you people join us now for lunch. Ok?”

I did not respond. There was an uneasy silence, but Rajat quickly said, “Yes Santa. We will be there.”

Santa said that he had to invite a few other people for the treat and so he left immediately. After making sure that Santa was out of earshot, I turned to Rajat and asked, “What are you up to? Why are we going for the treat? Don’t you have any self respect?”

“Dude, the way I see it, Santa is going onsite anyhow. So let us eat… You know… EAT”

Rajat laid stress on the word eat and immediately I caught the drift. Once in a while Rajat would surprise me with such insightful observations. I felt that there was hope for him yet.

So we trudged our way to the floating restaurant. The name floating restaurant was a fancy one but contrary to the expectation that the name evoked, the restaurant did not actually float on water. The restaurant had a pool encircling it and it had been a great disappointment for me when I first went there as I had expected so much more judging it by the name. But since then I had come to like that place as it offered palatable food even though at high rates. Good food was hard to come by in our company campus despite many different caterers operating in the food courts. At times the situation was so bad that it felt like the vendors had a competition amongst themselves to find out who could cook the worst food.

Rajat and I turned towards the path leading to the floating restaurant. The path was closed for cleaning. We saw four people cleaning a square tile from four directions. Sometimes our company overdid themselves when it came to cleanliness and housekeeping. I pointed this out to Rajat while we turned to take a longer route to reach the restaurant.

I said, “Rajat, see that? Four people cleaning a single tile in the path. Another person wiping individual leaves of the plants on either side. Sometimes I wonder whether all this is necessary”

“That is what our company is all about. Processes… Using four people ensures superior quality of cleaning. Plants are cleaned and maintained… Happy plants… Happy clients”, said Rajat.

I looked at Rajat trying to discern whether he was cracking a joke. But there was no hint of humor there. It seemed like he believed what he said. I did not push the matter as we had reached the restaurant by then and was greeted by a grinning Santa.

“Hey guys, come on in come on in… I am paying for buffet for all of us. So let us all enjoy today.”

Rajat and I managed to smile and walked in. I walked straight over to the manager at the billing counter and asked, “Is there any dish which is not part of the lunch buffet?”

“Yes sir. The chef’s special sea food platter is not a part of the buffet. It is made only as a special order.”

“Great. What is its cost?”

“Each plate costs Rs.400”

“Splendid. We are going to need five plates of those for our group. You should ask your chef to start weaving his magic soon.”

The manager left to instruct his chef.

Rajat was standing by my side and was confused. He asked, “But you are a vegetarian. And do you think Santa will pay for those?”

I said with a shrug, “Let the people enjoy today. And by the time the bill comes and Santa figures that the platter is not part of buffet, we will be long gone. I am sure the manager is not going to remember who made the order. Even if he does, I am going to feign ignorance”

Rajat smiled appreciatively, “Good thinking man”

The party went on without much event. Santa was at his overbearing best. He told everyone that he would bring back whatever his friends needed from Australia. He cracked a few humorless jokes and the group laughed… the suck ups.

After the lunch, Rajat and I quickly made our way out of the restaurant and went back to our cubicles.

We chatted for a while in Rajat’s cubicle and later on I returned to my place and to my pile of tickets. At around four in the afternoon I once again saw Santa’s head hovering in front of my cubicle. He had a serious expression on his face.

“That manger must be taking some memory enhancing medication. Shit.” I swore under my breath and sat with an innocent expression adorning my face.

The Software Engineer who sold his Pulsar - Chapter 2

We were nearing the end of the year of 2008 and so most of the client-side folks were away on holidays. That ensured a lower than normal number of support tickets for us. But that did not stop Bharath, our TL, from assigning the maximum number of tickets against my name; such was the love and affection that we had for each other. It was no different on that day either.

I started closing the tickets one by one and I was busy writing comments in one of them, when Rajat rushed to my side panting like a dog.

“Did you hear? Did you hear?” he gasped for breath and looked like he was about to have a heart attack.

“Dude, calm down, whatever the problem is, I am sure we can face it. We are dudes, dude. We eat adversity for breakfast. So quit your panting and tell me what the problem is.” I smiled and felt smug about my pep talk.

Rajat gulped and he was a bit annoyed, “Oh ok. Then eat this… Bharath has offered Santa an immediate onsite assignment”

“WHAT?”

Rajat’s words hung in the air. For the next 2 minutes the cubicle was like a cemetery. Nothing moved and the air seemed to have forgotten to flow.

Rajat slumped down into the chair next to me and we remained staring at the tiled floor for a while.

Finally I spoke and my voice had lost all its self-assured confidence, “When did you hear? Who told you? How is this possible? I mean… How? What the …?”

“My friend, Sushant, in the development team pinged me with the news. Apparently the assignment is for one year. Even people in the development team cannot believe it” said Rajat.

“How can Bharath do this? I mean… Wait a minute… There can be only one explanation for this. Bharath is trying to send Santa away… He must be absolutely fed up with Santa. Yes… That should be it.” I spoke as though I had made an important discovery.

Rajat said thoughtfully, “Yeah. That could be it. But onsite? Bharath is doing Santa a favor. If he is pissed at Santa, why send him onsite? There are numerous other ways to take it out on Santa.”

“Dude, Santa is not in support team. So Bharath cannot dump more and more tickets on Santa. Even if Bharath sets strict deadlines, Santa finishes them off. He might be a loudmouth, but Santa is pretty good at his work.”

Rajat didn’t look convinced.

So I continued, “And I am certain that if Santa stays here any longer, he will put forward his ten point plan for improving team efficiency to our PM and then the consequences will be terrible.”

“Hmm. True. Bharath wouldn’t fancy working on Saturdays, I am sure”, said Rajat.

The cubicle again fell silent. Rajat and I remained lost in thoughts for over five minutes when Santa walked into our cubicle.

“Guys, I hope you heard the good news.”

I gritted my teeth and flashed a smile which did not reach my eyes. If Santa had looked a bit closely, he would have seen murder in my eyes.

“Yeah, we heard the news Santa. Congrats. So when is it all happening?” Rajat spoke up trying to appear cheerful.

“Don’t know guys. Bharath just said that I might have to travel within a month. I don’t know how I am going to get my visa and set everything in order. It is all a bit sudden. But, hey, I am not complaining” Santa let out a high pitched laughter as though he had cracked a joke.

Rajat and I looked at each other and Rajat reluctantly joined the laughter. I did not bother to make an effort.

“I am glad to see that all my good work is being rewarded. Recognition has been slow in coming, but I am just thankful that it is finally happening.” Santa seemed pretty happy and content with himself.

He then turned to me and said, “I know that we both joined the project at the same time. Hey, don’t lose hope yet. You will also get onsite opportunities. May be I will put in a good word for you with Bharath and the onsite PM. How is that?”

I clenched my fist and would have been happy to see my fist pass through Santa’s stomach and come out the other side.

But not all dreams can be acted upon. So I managed to say, “Thanks man”

“You are welcome buddy.” Saying so, Santa patted my back and turned to leave. I quickly put my finger in my nose and with that hand patted Santa’s back. Rajat who saw it, snickered.

It was a juvenile thing to do. But I could not help myself.

Santa turned and flashed his big grin at us once more and walked away.

“Argh” was all that I could manage once he was gone.

Rajat shook his head with a grave look on his face and walked back to his cubicle.

I once again sat down in front of my computer. A ticket from an employee of our client stared back at me from my monitor. I resisted my urge to write the resolution comment as ‘You are a dumb troll if you cannot find this out yourself’ and set myself with renewed gusto to the tasks at hand. It helped to take my mind off the troubling thoughts about Santa for a while.

After about thirty minutes, I got up and walked towards Rajat’s cubicle. I was a man with a plan.

The Software Engineer who sold his Pulsar - Chapter 1

“Good morning” A heavy voice said as though the owner of the voice was greeting the whole wide world.

I heard the voice and immediately resisted the temptation to look over my shoulder.

I would have recognized the voice even if I heard it amongst a cacophony of other noises. It is funny how people always recognize voices that they try really hard to ignore.

“Hey, you busy?”

There was no letting off.

I locked my computer and slowly revolved my chair. My face bore an expression akin to that of a school kid on a Monday morning.

Santhanam Balaji stood there with a wide smile adorning his face.

“Hello, you are busy? Did you have breakfast? Care to join me?”

I had often wondered how he managed to talk while keeping his grin intact. To an uninitiated mind the grin and the innocent face could have been indicative of a very charming and lively face. But from experience, I had come to realize that behind that smile and innocent face, lay a trap.

“I am not that hungry now. I will go over sometime later.” I said.

“Come on, you shouldn’t miss your breakfast”

“I will not miss it. I said I will have it later.”

“No no. You come along now. Give me company” Santhanam reached out and yanked me out of my chair. I was no match for Santhanam. I rued my decision to choose dramatics instead of karate in school. Back in school it had seemed like a solid choice because almost all girls used to sign up for dramatics. But now, I really wished I could wriggle my arm out of Santhanam’s grasp and land a blow on his chin accompanied by a guttural ‘yeeehaw’.

“Santhanam, I am not hungry now. Please let me work” I said unconvincingly.

In fact I was feeling a bit hungry and I was definitely not working. But I did not want to go with Santhanam.

“Hey hey, call me Santa. I am Santa. Dude that is my style…”

He had told me the same thing when we were introduced the very first time. But I had made it a point to call him his full name whenever I got the chance.

“Ok. If I call you Santa, will you let me go?” I asked almost hopefully.

Santhanam chuckled and said, “No. I won’t. You don’t take care of your health nowadays. Come, we will have a good breakfast today.”

So I went along, tailing Santa like a reluctant bride. While we were walking past the cubicles towards the door of our development bay, I saw my roommate, Rajat walking towards us. Rajat also worked for the same client as us and sat opposite to my cubicle. Rajat saw Santa and me walking towards him and froze in his tracks.

I looked at Rajat pleadingly and tried to make my face look like a cute puppy. Rajat realized my plight, but instead of rescuing me, that Judas took out his phone and pretended to make a call and started walking in the opposite direction.

“Santa, do you see Rajat there? May be he hasn’t had his breakfast. Let us ask him.” If I was going down I was taking Rajat along with me.

“Good idea” Santa started calling out Rajat’s name.

Rajat increased his pace and went farther away.

I was all for following him but Santa didn’t care that much. Santa already had a prey.

I resigned myself to my fate. After all Santhanam was not that bad. The problem was he had an opinion about everything in the world and it was impossible to shut him up. A conversation with Santa would go with him talking… “Blah blah blah…”

One might try to interject and say something in between, but he would not let it go beyond two syllables.

Santa and I reached the food court and stared at the board on which the names of the varieties of food items were written.

Santa suddenly began, “Do you know how white boards came into existence?”

“I …”

“It was made to take down messages and was kept near telephones in olden days”

“Oh!”

“I find the use of whiteboard for display rather weird. What do you think?”

Honestly, I was thinking of ways to shut him up. So I didn’t bother to answer; not that it mattered to Santa.

He went on, “Do you know that staring at a white background can cause vision impairment? Also the markers used can cause some people to become addicted to smelling it”

Then he went on to describe the various substances to which people can get addicted. He kept it up all throughout while we were having breakfast. I realized that even food did not dilute the enthusiasm of Santa. 

He talked even while chewing food and I wished I had a face mask for protection from the rain of crumbs showering all around me. A mask for my plate of food would also have been nice. I decided to put that in my wish list for my birthday. Suffice to say that I did not eat my breakfast and poured out my bowl of cornflakes, with crumbs of idly floating in it, into the waste bin.

We returned to our cubicles. During our walk back to our building, Santa had moved to the topic of paint thinners and how harmful they were to human lives.

Finally we arrived at Santa’s cubicle and he reluctantly let me go. Santa was working in a development project for a large Australian bank which was our company's client. Rajat and I were working for the same client but in a support project. So our cubicles were at two separate corners of the development bay. We had a common Team Lead, Bharath and I knew for certain that if Bharath was fed-up with anyone other than me, it was Santa.

I had seen Santa lecturing Bharath on the inefficiency of the team structure every now and then and once Santa had pasted a printout of Santa’s ten point plan to improve team efficiency, in Bharath’s cubicle. The first point in the list mentioned the Team Lead working on Saturdays.

So I was assured of only a second spot in Bharath’s list of despicable people and I knew for certain that I was a distant second.

As I neared my cube, I saw Rajat looking at me and smiling. I mouthed a profanity at him accompanied by a rude hand gesture. That only increased his merriment.

I slumped down into my chair and unlocked my computer. The day was off to a very bad start.

The Professional - Part6 - All is well that ends well

I woke up with a start next morning. I had a bad dream in which I saw Rajat’s and Meera’s kid puking on me. My confidence from last night was gone. I began to wonder about a possibility of Meera accepting Rajat’s proposal. No sane girl would accept a proposal from a guy whom she barely knew, but from my experiences I had come to realise that girls were fickle and unpredictable.

Rajat also seemed subdued. He checked his Orkut account and there were no messages.

“Dude, no messages... What does this mean?” Rajat asked. He was looking like a lost puppy.

“I don’t know, Rajat” I said and it was true. I was as confused and concerned as Rajat.

The bus ride to office seemed slower than usual for me. But for Rajat, the bus must have seemed to be in supersonic flight, because I noticed him look at our office building with pure dread when we reached our office.

He was already a bundle of nerves by the time we reached our cubicles.

We found Meera already in her seat. With a kick of her heels she revolved her chair around to face us when we approached.

My eyes darted to her hair immediately. I heaved a sigh of relief when I saw no flower in her hair. In fact she had not even bothered to tie up her hair and it fell on her shoulders making a lustrously black outline for her fair, round face.

She was looking past me and I followed her gaze to find my friend, Rajat, diving into his cubicle. I turned to look at Meera.

She was looking appraisingly at me. Her eyes were like sharp needles boring into mine without mercy. I averted my gaze and quickly sat down. I wanted to switch on my computer, but for some reason my hands were shaking.

“Did you have any part in it?” I heard Meera’s voice behind me.

I froze. I did not know how to answer.

After a long pause that seemed like a decade, I answered in a feeble voice, “I don’t know what you are talking about”

“Sure you do. You are his roommate and I am sure roommates discuss such things”

I searched my brain frantically for an answer that could paint me as an ignorant, innocent bystander, but I found none.

So I asked, “Are you referring to the message in Orkut?”

“No. I am talking about Obama’s election” said Meera in a mocking tone. She added, “Of course I am talking about the message and now I know that you are also involved since you identified the issue so accurately”

I gulped and tried to form some words but nothing came out.

“Will you please turn towards me and tell me what the meaning of that message was?” Meera asked. I could tell that she was angry because she had raised her voice to a high pitch. I was sure that Rajat was listening to the exchange, sitting in the next cubicle.

I slowly turned and even then I made no attempt to meet her eyes. I was suddenly interested in the way my shoe laces were tied.

Sensing that she would get nothing out of me, she said, “Come with me.”

Then she jumped up and swept past me and marched into Rajat’s cubicle. I followed her like a dutiful dog.

I found Rajat crumpled in his seat and he seemed to shrink under the glare of Meera.

Meera repeated her question, “What was the meaning of that message, Rajat?”

On any other occasion it would have been funny to see the sight of six foot tall, well-built Rajat cowering in front of a girl. But Meera was fuming and Rajat could be forgiven for his fear.

“Rajat, what century are you living in? What do you know about me to fall in love with me? We know each other for just three weeks. It is childish, you know that? I didn’t think you would be like this. I took a special interest in you thinking that you are a friend who did not know how to behave in a society. And yeah...that is what you have shown. A lack of understanding of how the society functions”

Rajat looked at me beseechingly to interject and stop the tirade. But I was helpless. Meera seemed to flare in anger and I was not going to get my hands burned. I had expected a negative reaction from Meera, but not such a forceful one. Neither had I thought that she would react in the cubicle. All my hopes of ever becoming Meera’s bosom friend were lost. I would have been glad to get out of that situation with all my limbs intact because Meera looked ready to rip Rajat and me apart.

A few heads popped from nearby cubicles, apparently interested to know the reason for the commotion.

Meera also seemed to notice the attention of others and lowered her voice.

She chuckled derisively, “It is typical, you know. A girl smiles and immediately you are making honeymoon plans. I feel sorry for you both.” With that she stormed out of the development bay, leaving Rajat and me staring at each other.

We were lost for words. Rajat looked ready to dig a hole and bury himself and as for me, I was quite willing to join him then.

I saw Bharath walking towards us and I thought I saw a glimmer of a triumphant smile on his face.

He came towards us and said, “Boys, what is all this? I heard some bits of the conversation. I am gathering that one of you gentlemen proposed to Meera. Bad, bad, bad business.”

Bharath shook his head from side to side so much so that I hoped that it would just unhinge from his neck and fall down. But nothing was going my way that day.

He was revelling in the moment. He continued, “You both should just hope that Meera doesn’t take this issue up with the HR. If she does, I will have no choice but to support her. Anyways, I am having lunch with Meera today. I will try to put in a good word about you both. Ease things off a bit, you know”

He went back to his cubicle. I envisioned him giving Meera a pen to write a complaint to the HR.

I went back to my place and slumped down in my chair. All my plans were down the drain. I was devastated. I stretched back in my chair and remained staring at the ceiling for a long time.

I must have remained like that for over twenty minutes when Meera walked into the cubicle. Seeing her, I quickly sat up and switched on my computer.

Meera hesitated for a moment and then said, “I am sorry for the earlier outburst. I don’t know what came over me. I had come in the morning thinking that I would talk to you people calmly and make you both understand my situation. But then after coming to office, I called my fiance and he got very angry and that got me also all riled up and...”

“Your what?” I cut her off.

“Yeah, I am engaged and getting married next month. I should have told you before. But I did not want to say anything without the invitation card” She took out an ornate cover out of her bag and extended it to me.

I was lost for words and looked at her with a hapless look on my face.

“His name is Sujith. We were schoolmates. Now both our families have agreed. We were waiting for him to get a job. He still has some back papers from engineering college. But he got a job with a bank last month. He interacts with the people who default on the loans. He has such great convincing skills. He is doing pretty well in his new job.” Meera was beaming with pride while she was talking about Sujith.

“Oh? He is a collection agent?” I asked while praying in my mind for it to be not true.

“Collection agent? Yeah, I think that is the title of his job. Isn’t it great? He is just perfect except for his temper. You know, he was going to come over here from Kerala when I told him about the message that Rajat sent yesterday”

I gulped and asked in a squeaky voice, “You told him about Rajat only right? You would not have mentioned anything about me, right? I mean, why would you? Did you?”

“Yeah. I told him about you also. I told him that you would have helped Rajat in the whole business”

“Terrific”

I just hoped at that moment that I would be alive to see my next birthday.

“Meera, I would like to apologise for all our mistakes. We did not know that you were engaged. I don’t blame you for getting angry. And know that I am truly sorry. Please tell Sujith also that I am sorry.” I was genuinely apologetic.

Meera smiled and said, “Apology accepted. Please tell Rajat also about my marriage and both of you should come for my marriage.”

“I think I am going to be busy that day”

“But you don’t even know the marriage date”

“Oh. What is the date?” I asked.

“18^th of next month”

“Yeah, I am busy that day. Sorry. May be Rajat will be able to make it.”

Meera decided not to push it. She said, “Please explain the situation to Rajat. You are a good friend to him. One in a million”

She went to her place and started off with her work. My mind was too agitated to work.

 I was merely going through the motions when I saw Bharath coming to take Meera out for lunch.

“Hey Meera, May be you should invite Bharath to your marriage during the lunch.” I suggested.

“Yeah. Good idea. I need to talk to him about my transfer also.” Meera agreed.

After I saw Bharath and Meera walk away for lunch, I went over to Rajat’s cubicle. I gave him the invitation card, patted his shoulder and said, “She is not angry anymore. And let it go. It is too late.”

I saw genuine sorrow on Rajat’s face then. I stayed with him and soothed him for a while. We finally got up to leave for lunch when I saw Bharath and Meera returning from lunch.

Bharath looked at me and I saw an invitation card in his hand. I did not feel elated. I felt a kinship with Bharath. We both were losers in the battle. I nodded at Bharath and he returned it.

Meera came forward and shook Rajat’s hand and said, “Sorry”

Rajat stood staring after her for a while.

I finally took his arm and guided him towards the elevator.

THE END

Epilogue:

Meera eventually got a transfer to the Trivandrum centre of our company.

She got married to Sujith and as far as I know, is still happy in her marriage. I did not attend the marriage, neither did Rajat.

Rajat moved to Chennai and he found someone interesting, who found him also interesting. I hear that they are planning to tie the knot soon.

Bharath never invited anyone ever again for lunch. He eventually got married.

As for me, well I continue to be a damn good professional...

The Professional - Chapter - 5 - The Leap of Faith

“Hi Buddy” I said with an apologetic smile. I was the first one to wish Rajat as we approached him.

Meera had not noticed him until then. She turned around and smiled at him and asked, “Hi Rajat. How are you? Had your lunch?”

Rajat was still staring at me. Meera’s smile softened his features a little bit. Still his voice was gruff when he spoke, “Yeah I had lunch. You two had lunch together?”

“No, not just us… Bharath had plans of having lunch with Meera. I went along with them.” I stressed on Bharath’s name and looked at Rajat meaningfully.

“Why would Bharath have lunch with Meera? He never invited any of us for lunch before.” Rajat was not getting the picture yet.

“I guess he is being friendly”, I said with an extra stress on ‘friendly’, and to drive home the point, I winked at Rajat without Meera noticing.

It finally dawned on Rajat. He said, “Oh. Ok. I see. Yeah, he is becoming very friendly nowadays.”

With that he walked back to his cubicle. Meera entered our cubicle and I was about to follow when I heard a low whistle.

I looked at Rajat, he mouthed, “Thank you”, gave me thumbs up and went into his cubicle.

I was in high spirits. My plans had worked extremely well until then. I had to get a little bit more close to Meera and then the culmination of my plans would arrive. I would propose. Meanwhile I would have to get Rajat out of the picture. That would be tricky. I didn’t want Rajat to know what my true intentions were all that while. I couldn’t come up with any ideas as I sat down in my place and logged in.

As expected, I found six new tickets in my queue and a mail from Bharath asking me to give an update the same day. I smiled, put the problem of Rajat out of my mind for the time being and started off with the tickets.

I left office very late that day. Rajat had taken an earlier bus. He was waiting for me when I reached home.

“Dude, you did well today. Thanks for not letting Meera go alone with that p****” Rajat must have been extremely agitated; else he would not have used an invective.

I was modest, “Yeah, I am just happy to help buddy”

“No. You are a true friend. One in a million”, Rajat was showering me with praises.

“Well I try”

“Ok, my friend. I am going to tell you something important. I have decided, dude. I am going to do it.”

Rajat had a very serious expression. His breathing was heavy. His whole demeanour was like that of a man who had taken a tough but inevitable decision; intensity emanated from all parts of his six foot frame.

I did not respond. I waited for Rajat to make his announcement.

“I am going to propose to Meera”, Rajat announced in a defiant tone.

He looked at me searching for any expression on my face.

All that he would have seen on my face would have been surprise. Not anger, not pity, just pure surprise. I was not imagining such a development. It was so soon. Rajat knew Meera for a little over 3 weeks and he was already contemplating professing his love to her. It was stupid and sure to result in failure.

I said, “Good. I think you should do that”

It was Rajat’s turn to be surprised, “Really? You are not going to ask me to wait?”

“No no. I think it has to be spontaneous and soon. Otherwise, Bharath or someone else might make a move on her. You are right in this case. You have to propose.”

In my mind I was playing out the outcome. Meera would obviously reject the proposal. There would be future awkwardness. So she would have to clear her doubts with me, opening up a route for me to be a bosom friend of hers, thereby making it impossible for her to reject me when I made my proposal. I was thankful to Rajat. He had solved the problem that was troubling me in the afternoon. Once he is rejected, I would be free to make a move on Meera and that too without the fear of Rajat’s ire.

“So when and how are you planning to do it, Rajat?”

“I am planning to send a message”

“WHAT?”

“Yeah, I don’t have the guts to go and tell her face to face. I cannot send the mail from office id. What if she escalates it to the HR? So I have decided to send it as a message in Orkut. How is my idea?”

It was a very bad idea. It removed any remaining doubts about Meera rejecting the proposal.

So I said, “Ok man. Draft the message and let me take a look at it before you send it.”

Rajat hurried to his laptop like a caged animal which found its cage door open. He immediately set to work on his love message.

Meanwhile I freshened up and I was already in a good mood. All the troubles of the office work were left behind. Rajat was digging his own grave and I didn’t have to move a muscle to goad him to do it.

When I came out from a cold shower, I found Rajat waiting for me.

“How is the love letter coming along, buddy? I have to say it is a bit old school but girls usually fall for such age old methods”, I was enjoying myself.

“That is the problem, dude. I don’t know what to write”

“Ok let me do it for you” I was at my helpful best.

I sat down at Rajat’s laptop and found a blank message window already open.

I began to write,

Hi Meera,

Roses are red, violets are blue,

Sugar is sweet, and so are you.

Meera, I have wanted to tell you how much I love you ever since I met you. I just didn’t find the courage. That is why I am professing my undying love and devotion to you by this message. I will take care of you till my last breath and will stand by you in the toughest of times.

I love you. If you feel the same about me, please wear a flower in your hair tomorrow to office.

With Lots of Love,

 Rajat

“Come on, Rajat. Read and learn from the master”, I told Rajat.

Rajat read the whole passage and said, “It is good, but isn’t the flower in the hair a little too much? It sounds very cheesy, like it is coming out of some very old movie”

“No no. That is how these things go. Romance is always a bit weird, dude”

“Ok. Alright, I will take your word for it. So here it goes”, Rajat took a deep breath and hit the send button.

There was a chill in the room after that. Neither of us spoke much that night. Even when we went to bed, we were lost in our own thoughts. I kept twisting and turning on my bed wondering what would happen next day and at some unknown late hour succumbed to sleep.

The Professional - Chapter 4 - Two is company, three’s a crowd

Those days, going to office was a very interesting affair. Not because of the work. The work was boring, but the thought of sitting in a cubicle with Meera, made the journey worth its while.

Couple of days since I gave my new directions to Rajat, my plans seemed to really take off.

The days that I spent in an engineering college were not completely wasted. I had perfected technique of sleeping with my eyes open during the engineering lectures. I had continued to employ that technique in my office as well.

So when Meera tapped me on the shoulder, I jumped.

“Were you sleeping?” Meera asked with a curious smile.

“No no, no, nooooo.  I was just lost in thought. I always think a lot.”

“OK. Anyways, I wanted to tell you that, I think my efforts with Rajat are really making a difference”, Meera said in a proud tone.

“Really? How can you say that?” I feigned surprise.

“Well, it is this and that, you know. He is very nice to me nowadays. He does almost all my work for me and he even drafts the mails for me.”

“Oh that is great. You are really helping him and me. Thank you.”

“I just feel for Rajat, you know. He is such a good guy deep down.” Meera said.

I didn’t like what I was hearing. Rajat was overdoing it. I made a mental note to tell him to back off a little. “Meera thinks that you are smothering her. Give her space dude.” I could tell him that at night.

With that note safely stored away, I decided to take my plan a step forward. It was lunch time.

So I asked, “Say Meera, have you had lunch?”

“No I haven’t” she replied.

“Mm… Err… Ok… So I was thinking of going to the cafeteria for lunch; and Mmmm… Err… I was wondering, I mean, if we could have lunch together. I mean, have lunch from separate plates of course, but together, as in sitting at a table together, I mean, on opposite sides of the table.” A lot of blood had rushed to my head and I grabbed on to my chair for support.

Any guy who saw me then would have understood that I had a crush on Meera. But girls seem to have the ability to ignore the obvious. Meera didn’t seem to notice my stammer or may be all guys stammer when they talk to her.

Meera frowned apologetically and said, “Oh I am sorry. Bharath asked me to join him for lunch.”

“WHAT?”

Of course, Bharath...That snivelling, whiny man who made my life miserable. Our team lead…

Now it all made sense to me. The plan of bringing Meera into the team; Taking her out on lunch; Oh he was a piece of work. The brilliance of his plan hit me and I smiled admiringly.

I added in a sad tone, “Oh ok. Alright”

But my mind was racing furiously. All along I was concentrating on Rajat and I had failed to see the threat from other quarters.

Meera did notice my sad tone and suddenly she said in an excited tone, as though she had made an important discovery, “Oh I know. Why don’t you come along with us? We all can have lunch together”

I smiled. It was a genuine smile. Nothing gave me more pleasure than irritating Bharath.

I didn’t have to think twice about answering, “Yes. What a good idea. Come on. Let us go find Bharath and tell him the good news.”

Bharath was busy assigning the tickets in our team’s queue, when we reached his cubicle. He smiled at Meera and said, “I am coming, Meera; Just give me a minute.” Then he noticed me and his smile faded.

“Hi, any problem?” He was abrupt.

“Lunch” I said with a broad smile on my face.

“What?” Bharath was confused

“He is joining us for lunch” Meera said noticing Bharath’s confusion.

Bharath looked at me and then at Meera and back at me. Then without a word he turned and assigned two more tickets to my queue.

During lunch, Meera proved to be a good conversationalist. She spoke about weather and her training days and college days and a host of other things. Bharath and I, we were great listeners, oohing and aahing at appropriate moments and laughing at every joke that she said. But even while laughing, Bharath would glance at me and suddenly become serious. Watching him doing it, gave me a great deal of happiness. The feeling was worth the two extra tickets in my queue.

After lunch we went back to our cubicles. Bharath was apparently more irritable than usual. I decided to push my luck a little further.

I told Meera, “You know Bharath was in the first standard when Indira Gandhi’s assassination took place. Isn’t it, Bharath? He got to experience that dark day”

Bharath looked at me with murder written all over his face. If eyes could pierce, I would have had two giant holes in my head.

Meera asked with apparent interest, “Oh is it? That is so cool. It would have been pretty scary. As for me, I was born only in 1986. So I have only heard of those days.”

“Yeah, Bharath has lived out history. He is like a very wise old man. We all ask his advice from time to time” I added with a smirk.

Bharath quickly said bye and dove into his cubicle. I imagined him assigning two more tickets to me, if not all of them.

I was very happy with the outcome of the lunch. I had managed to deliver a stinging blow to Bharath’s approaches to Meera. Now I would have to tread carefully. I feelt pretty smug about my success.

Meera and I walked back to our cubicles chatting easily. As we reached our cubicle, I saw Rajat waiting there. He was looking at us walking towards him and I could tell that he was not enjoying the sight.

He kept glaring at me with a hurt expression as we approached him.