SECOND CHANCE

02
The Dream

A sixty-year old man was sitting on his chair, gazing idly at a mark on the cover of a file lying on his desk. His wrinkled face was lined, and his dense, bushy eyebrows and moustache were a mix of black and white hair. He wore a ten-year old tattered safari suit.

‘Kailashji…’

A voice woke him from his trance. He looked in the direction of the unfamiliar voice.
A beautiful girl with dyed brown hair and streaks of blond was looking at him. Her face was loaded with pancake, with excess of everything including mascara, foundation, rouge, lipstick and lip-gloss. Her nails were painted to match her attire. She was looking more like a Barbie doll than a living girl made of flesh and bones. The blush on her face made her look artificially cheery and her lips bled with maroon lipstick.

‘Kailashji…’ she called out to him again with a fake smile.

Kailash stood up and trod towards her.

‘Yes?’ Kailash said.

The girl smiled again to reveal her shiny white teeth. ‘Kailashji, will you do me a favour?’ she said with a fake accent, albeit in a sugar-coated tone.

‘I’ve never seen you before,’ Kailash said.

‘I’m new here. It’s my third day in the company. I’m Hrishita.’

Kailash greeted her with a smile.

‘Do you have any problem?’ Kailash asked. ‘I mean, do you want help?’
The girl smiled again and said, ‘The work is tough and I don’t understand anything but that isn’t a problem. I’ll manage.’

‘Then?’

‘I was supposed to hand over this file to Mr. Kapoor,’ she said.

Kailash nodded.

‘Will you please give him the file?’ Hrishita said and handed the file to Kailash. ‘I’ve so much to do here.’

‘All you want from me is to go and give this file to Mr. Kapoor?’

Hrishita nodded curtly.

‘Don’t you know I’m your senior? You have been here just for three days and…’ does she think I am a peon? Kailash pondered.

Hrishita said nothing; but she clearly wasn’t ashamed.

‘You’d not have celebrated as many birthdays as I’ve celebrated this company’s anniversaries.’ He handed the file back to her even without looking at it. ‘Do your work yourself.’

He returned to his seat and plunged himself again in his thoughts. Absent-mindedly, he again started staring at the mark on the file.

- -
‘Kailashji? Kailashji?’

‘Hmm?’ Kailash gazed up and looked at the peon.

‘Are you okay?’ the peon asked.

‘I’m okay.’

‘Kailashji, Kapoor sir is calling you.’

Kailash felt worse as he heard these words.

‘I’m coming.’

The peon went back.

Kailash stood up and trudged toward Shekhar Kapoor’s cabin. He was perplexed because he knew his boss didn’t like him, and meeting him had never been a good experience.

‘May I come in, sir?’ Kailash said from the door.

Shekhar made no response as he wasn’t listening to him. Kailash saw the scattered files on the floor.

‘Sir…?’

Shekhar looked at him busily and again plunged himself in his work. Kailash waited for his response, standing at the door, wavered.

‘Kailash.’

 ‘Y… yes, sir!’ Kailash said in shaking voice.

‘Where’s the file Mr. Manish gave you?’ Shekhar kept digging his eyes in his laptop computer.

‘S…sir,’ Kailash thought a second, ‘Sir, he told me to give it to Miss Unnati.’

‘Fetch it.’

Kailash stood motionless for a moment as if he could not comprehend the command, and then slowly moved towards the Planning Department. He stumbled on amber marble to reach Unnati’s desk. She was not there. He rummaged the files kept on the desk, looking for the yellow one, the one that Shekhar Kapoor had asked for, but there was no such file.

Kailash looked at the closest table; Hrishita was sitting on the chair.

‘Where is Unnati?’

Hrishita looked at him and, with a fake smile spreading on her shining lips, said, ‘Oh, I don’t know where Unnati ma’am is but I think she’s gone to have coffee.’
‘I need the file of trimester planning,’ Kailash said. ‘Do you know where it is?’
Before Kailash could finish his sentence, the false pleasing expression on Hrishita’s face suddenly turned diabolic. ‘I have the file,’ she said and handed him the same file which she had given to him a few minutes ago. She sneered at him.

‘I had given this file to Unnati,’ Kailash said. ‘How did you get this?’

‘I’m assisting Unnati ma’am.’

He took the file and walked towards Shekhar’s office. He didn’t bother to acknowledge the pleased look and disdain smile on Hrishita’s face.

‘Sir, may I come in?’ Kailash knocked at the door.

Shekhar motioned him to enter.

Kailash silently kept the file on the table.

‘Can I go-’

‘Pick up the files.’ Shekhar said cutting him mid-sentence.

Kailash stared at him blankly, and saw him pointing towards the scattered filed on the floor. He stood motionless, not being able to find the strength to do anything.
Shekhar lifted his gaze up and glared at him.

‘Sir….?’

‘I need the files first.’ Shekhar said with a hint of anger.

Kailash crouched, gathered the files together, picked them up and put them on the table and, before Shekhar could say anything else, he left his cabin. On the way to his desk, he could feel the hotness on his face, but he couldn’t say whether it was anger that he was feeling or pity for himself. He was sweating profusely and felt his lips quivering as if he was going to cry. Once upon a time, he had been a General Manager in the very same company, until Shekhar had demoted him. It happened in the first month of Shekhar’s taking over the company, right after his father’s paralysis. And what was he now? A menial worker-cum-peon?

The last decade had been the worst years of his career. He anticipated that times would change in these ten years, but nothing happened. He was replaced as the Manager by Manish Kshirsagar, an utterly untalented lad who knew nothing about his job. Kailash could never understand why Shekhar had demoted him, though he did have a vague idea about what the reason could be. Manish gave Shekhar what he wanted, and Kailash believed that if for being the General Manager he had to be a pimp, then he would rather be just a worker.

Since he was demoted, his salary was reduced ten times and he was not assigned much work to do except bringing files from table to table. Even after being treated so poorly, Kailash never felt brave enough to start from scratch at this age. He missed his work the most.

                       *** 
                         3
Page     1     2     3     4     5     6     7  
If you want to read the book on your Android phone, first download "Amazon kindle app" from google play and purchase the e-book from amazon. It will appear in your kindle app, open the book in the app and enjoy it with a cup of coffee.
Proudly powered by Weebly