Asked to Leave

  “Hey Ram, join us please.” George asked me to join team. I collected both my pen and the notebook and went in the bay, where George was about to start the training.

  Finding A Girlfriend, Finally……

  Sitting alone in the cafeteria, I was thinking about my career and further survival with the company. I saw a short, simple and sweet girl sitting on the table next to me; she was as silent as the water of an ocean. Everything seemed to have stopped; I kept looking at her with the heartfelt admiration. I was not concerned of either her reaction after getting caught or the public around, as I had no bad intentions for her. When I saw her, I was easily able to figure out that she had got some deep wound in her heart. We looked at each other for about 10-15 minutes, after which she went inside.

  On the second day; I reached there on time, in fact an hour before the usual time. I went to the cafeteria; my eyes were searching for her.

  That day, she was wearing a blue jeans and a t-shirt, looking awesome. She was short and sweet, about 5 feet maybe; not precisely more than that. She came from behind and came to share the same table with me.

  “Hi!” I said after a few minutes of silence. I started the conversation.

  “Hello,” It was the first time I heard her voice. I felt like I was standing on the peak of Mt. Annapurna and the golden rays of sunlight were pouring upon me making me feel awesome; I was impressed with her ear-soothing voice.

  “You are looking great today.” I said that with a smile on my face. I was not flirting with her but just trying to build a conversation.

  “Thank you for the compliment. My name is Devika, what’s your name?” She asked me offering her hand, which I shook.

  “Ok, nice name. My name is nice, I am sorry, I am Ram.” I was a bit nervous as I didn’t expect her to ask me my name and offer a handshake so quickly.

  “Ha..Hmm.. What happened?” Your name is really nice, Lord Rama! She could not stop laughing unless I stammered and tried to say something.

  “May Lord Rama bless us!” I said, looking towards the sky.

  “We can be friends Ram!” She said and I was glad to see a smiling face, looking at me with an unworldly eye contact.

  “So how long have you been working here?” I formally asked her; as people around us had started noticing us, not unexpectedly because we expected that to happen.

  I was trying to grab her attention towards me than the crowd. Moreover, we had only 20-25 minutes left for the break to get over, so the fear of getting separated was also making me rush to talk to her and make her feel comfortable.

  “So, how do you see your career here? I mean how long do you want to stay here?” I asked her to know what was going through her mind.

  “Well Ram, I don’t know what time has decided for me, but I want to stay here with pride and self-respect. You know what; you are the first person, in fact the one and only, whom I am sharing my feelings with.” Things were going in my favour here.” I was sure she had something she wanted to share.

  “See Ma’am, I am sorry, I forgot your name,” the effect of that poison was still there, so at times I used to forget or skip something.

  “Devika.” She said and accepted it as a natural mistake.

  “I am humbled, you know the real me ‘Ram’. I want to do good for people. It doesn’t matter, if we have a chance to get deceived, but an action of helping someone in need, gives satisfaction to my soul. I will tell you what happened when I was travelling home last week, and you will be shocked to know how and up to what level some people do evil. I had learned maths tables of up to 200 by heart, when I was merely five years old, I could memorize the entire essay, poems along with the page numbers in the book. And now you see Devika! I am facing challenges in remembering the name of one of the most beautiful ladies in the world.” I thought I told her about that incident at the wrong time. But, the last line of my statement worked a bit to bring that smile back to her face.

  “What happened to you last week?” She sounded concerned for me.

  “Oh my God! Thank God you are safe and alive.” She took a deep breath after listening to the entire episode.

  “Most of the employees at D*ksh know about it.” I said.

  “How?” She asked.

  “It was reported to the emergency helpline and circulated by the corporate communications on a Lotus mail. I think you didn’t get it.”

  “No dear, I didn’t receive it. My email outlook is not configured yet.” She said.

  “Do you go to discs?” She asked after breaking the silence.

  “No, I can’t go anywhere to celebrate for 1 year at least; as my father recently passed away.” I said.

  “Oh, I am very sorry to know about your father’s demise. When and how did this happen?” She asked.

  “In the month of May 2010. He was suffering from Prostate Cancer and Coronary Artery disease.” I let her know.

  “Do you want to go to the party?” I asked after letting her know what had happened to my father.

  “No, No. It’s okay. We don’t need a separate place to talk.” She said and I admitted.

  “So, who all are there in your family?” I asked her to know her better.

  “Well, there’s me, my mom and my daughter, that’s it.” Devika said.

  “Oh! That’s great to know you have a daughter.” How about the rest of the family? I asked her. I was curious to know about her father and her husband.

  “My father had died in a car accident last year, and I got divorced a few years back.”

  “What went wrong between you and your husband? I am sorry, it’s been just a couple of days and I am becoming personal day by day.” I said.

  “It has been 2 years now. I got married 3 years ago. But, when I was pregnant, they got an ultrasound done for the baby’s sex determination and found out that it’s a girl child. They starting assaulting me and forced me to get money from my parents for medical expenses, as they wanted a baby boy. I could not give them more than myself, but unfortunately, they didn’t want me there anymore. So, I filed a court case against them and the court decided to give me my daughter forever, and we got separated. I heard through a common friend that he got married again and is happy in his life.” She must have felt relieved after sharing her painful story with me, because I felt my shoulders becoming heavy.

  “Now, I am feeling good. You are my best friend. Apart from you, my mom and my daughter, there is no other friend, no boys, no girls. But promise me one thing that you would never leave me alone.” She said with a throat choked through emotions.

  “I promise you that I will keep you happy forever, will do my best, but you should at least come out of that zone and make friends, at least befriend girls.”

  “Hi Ram! Please come to training room no. 31, and let others know about this.” George called me up and asked me to come to the training room.

  “Sure George, I am coming there.” I was looking at Devika when she looked at me with intentions to know about the caller.

  “My trainer is calling me up. I am sorry dear, I have to go. What can I do?” I was missing that conversation, also wanted to know a lot of other things about her.

  “No problem; tomorrow is my off. But I have an appointment with the doctor. I will be here in the second half tomorrow, or the day after.” She consoled me.

  “Ok, we can meet outside somewhere. Tomorrow it’s my holiday too.” I said and we had found a reason to smile together.

  “Why not Ram! We will talk in detail tomorrow. Let’s meet at 3 PM here.” She said.

  “Take my phone number and we will coordinate over the phone.” I said.

  She took my phone number, and gave me a missed call.

  The next day we met at Leisure Valley Park, Gurgaon.

  “Wow, what a pleasant surprise. Hello baby!” I greeted her and her baby girl.

  “T
hank you Ram” She was happy to see me there.

  “Say hello to uncle, Leena.”

  “Hello uncle.” Leena was cute, and happy as she was in a new place.

  “Can I give her a nick name?” I asked.

  “Nannu” After getting non-verbal ‘Yes’ from her, I thought I gave the little baby a new name.

  “That’s what we call her at home, stupid.” She smiled, I smiled, which made the little baby girl smile too.

  “What happened yesterday?” I asked holding her toddler up in my arms.

  “I remembered you a lot yesterday.” She said grabbing a chair in the park and asked her baby to play with a ball that had a smiley on it.

  “What did your doctor say?” I asked.

  “She said that I will be fine. It is sometimes fever, sometimes cold, sometimes stomach-ache, sometimes headache.” She said and laughed. I accompanied her. That evening, we talked a lot, it was my first crush; she also let me know how her ex-husband forced her for dowry and when her parents refused, she had been asked to leave his house; her parents had paid the price for following the principles of their lives. God had also taken away their happiness in the form of Devika’s father, by killing him in the car accident, leaving her paralysed mother and divorced daughter to support each other.

  Had you been standing in my place and listening to her tragic story, you would not have been able to stop your tears. So it was natural for me to cry; she knew I was soft at heart and not faking it. She kept telling me how she had spent her childhood in the bastion of her parents’ love. I was trying to find solutions to help her make her life better. Meanwhile, her daughter was running after squirrels or sometimes after the tiny birds in the park. I was thinking about their future, I mean Devika and Leena.

  “Ram, I had promised my mother that I will find the best match for myself. I don’t care about his physical appearance much, but he should be caring, understanding and should accept the fact that I am a divorcee with a daughter. I don’t mind if the guy is widowed but should be a non-alcoholic, non-smoker who can take care of me emotionally as well.” I was quiet, dreaming in the bright light of a sunny day.

  “Why can’t you hold my hand Ram?” she asked, offering me her hand to hold.

  “Is my name written there?” I held her hands and said looking at her palms; her soft hands were in my hands. Slowly, I was falling in love with her.

  “We have plenty of time to think about it. Since, we are so close to each other; I would never let emptiness and loneliness touch even an inch of yours. That, I can promise.” I said.

  I felt she was looking somewhere else and crying.

  “What happened, my dear?” I asked with a lot of love and care.

  “I don’t have much time.” She said.

  “What! What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Actually, you don’t know what I am suffering from.” She said.

  “Tell me what happened?” I was baffled.

  “I am suffering from the critical stage of cancer. It was like a jail for me, thank God, I escaped from there.

  Now, listen to me carefully, I want you to do me a favour.” She said.

  “What favour. Tell me what can I do to save you?” I asked her. Both of us were fighting with our emotions. I couldn’t allow tears to flow from my eyes, but we had already lost the battle.

  “I don’t want you to marry me, because I want your life partner in future to see you as a bachelor, not a widower. Although, I think I have lived my life with a lot of ups and downs. I have seen the blood-soaked body of father, seen my mother crying for days and nights after sending us to the bedroom, have been a victim to my husband’s cruelty, saw my angel, my daughter opening her eyes and sleeping next to me. Now, I see you, helping me, supporting me.”

  “I don’t believe in all that. I believe and worship love which you do, I am sure my mother and the rest of my family members will also be with me in this decision. And one more thing, you are not dying okay! Remember it.” I tried to console her.

  “So, will you stay with me in a live-in-relationship? I want to live for the rest of my life. I want to stay with you for the rest of my life, so that I can close my eyes in your lap, seeing my daughter in the right hands.” She proposed.

  “Yes. Let’s make home and live together.” I accepted her proposal.

  As soon as I completed my statement, I found her hugging me tight, very tight. Was that happiness like the first sunlight touching the top of the mountain; or like the flame of a candle burning before it dies? I failed to understand, or I didn’t want to because I was holding the love of my life, which was still hugging me tight and was not ready to leave me. After some time, I felt her grip becoming loose. She ran towards the girl child, and brought her to me.

  “Baby; don’t call him uncle, okay?”

  “Then what to call him?”

  “Papa” Devika said.

  “New papa” Leena asked.

  “He is your one and only Papa my sweetheart.” She told her daughter and gave her hand, into my hand.

  “Who is your first responsibility Ram, is that me or my daughter?” She asked.

  “Oh come on, we are family now. All of us are each other’s responsibility. I will take care of both of you in every situation, and we will fight the circumstances together.” I promised

  “That is trust, I trust you, and you trust me.”

  We had met in the park that day as friends, but we returned as a family.

  ***

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  The Battle Of Survival

  October 2010, D*ksh DLF Cyber greens Building, Gurgaon, India

  Happy to help

  “Hello Ram! Are you at home or on the way to office?” Jai Singh called.

  “Tell me brother, I am at home.” I said.

  “I was on the way to the office and I have met with an accident. My trouser is torn. I can’t go to work like this, if you can arrange for one.” His voice was mixed with laugh and tension. Because he met with an accident with himself, he slipped on a wet floor near infinity towers.

  “Okay, I will be there within 10 minutes. But where will you be available.” I stopped my Laugh-out-loud motion and asked him.

  “I will wait for you in the washroom of tower B, Infinity towers. Please come soon.” He said.

  “What a funny dressing sense Jai Singh! Shamim would have died seeing you like this.” I said passing on my recently bought trouser from Peter England, City Centre, Gurgaon.

  I went to the office, leaving him in the washroom to change his torn trouser and rushed into the Cyber greens building, to reach in time.

  The Pre-shift Briefing

  “Guys, let’s meet in the meeting room.” My new team’s team leader Sanya said.

  All of us put ourselves on ‘meeting’ break and went out, we were following her like a herd of sheep following the shepherd and couple of friends were missing. She looked back and started counting, and found Gurav Kakar, and Gurav Sharma missing.

  “Where are they now?” She yelled and asked the security guard to open the meeting room for her and her ‘kids’.

  She kept quiet for the time being, rebooting the computer on the board meeting table, all us settled down, except both of the missing guys, who knocked the door, opened it and looked at each other.

  “Ma’am, should I rub the white board?” The ‘would be’ team leader asked her, all of us were humbled of him for taking that extraordinary initiative. Sacrifices are done at times, to become someone’s favourite, that’s what was happening and all of us were witnesses.

  “Hmm.” She looked at him with a tiny smile and permitted him to rub the board.

  “Guys we are not doing a good job. That’s why we are not able to launch the incentives programme for this process. Rest of the processes are international processes and people who work in those proce
sses earn huge incentives every month. We should collect more money from the customers, so that you guys can earn incentives, once you perform better, my manager and I would also get incentives and promotions. You don’t know what type of language the management uses during the reviews, they literally abuse us. Because of your performance, we get damn and Shits, so please work hard” She looked at the door as Jai Singh, one of our teammates who used to commute from Shakurpur, Delhi entered the room, he was late.

  “Wait and go sit on your work station on the floor, you are out of this training. What time is it in your watch?” She screamed after opening the door, the security guard from the third party agency started staring at her, it seemed as if he got scared, I don’t know.

  “Ma’am, sorry for coming late, but the entire highway is blocked, due to traffic and I didn’t get any vehicle to reach here in time. I had to run from Shankar Chowk to reach the office building. Trust me.” Jai said wiping the sweat off his face using his handkerchief. He was out of his breath, so his face turned red.

  “Your efforts are highly appreciated, but what is the result of that Marathon? You are still late.” She was still angry at him and the 25-people team sitting in the room was waiting for her. He was late by 10 minutes. They had a policy of 15 minutes as per the HR, but Jai Singh didn’t dare to ask the team leader to think about the policy and put his job in risk, because the team leader would have misinterpreted it as an argument. The punishment for people, who ‘argue’, was extremely wrathful. As a result of the ‘argument’, she would have marked him on a half-day and he would have got paid only for half a day, even though he was only 10 minutes late.

  “Come on in today, this is the final verbal warning for you, don’t be late, else you would be referred to the HR.” She showed him her big blue eyes and asked him to settle down. It took 5 minutes for Jai Singh to enter the room, which meant the company had lost 5 minutes of all 25 members who were sitting in that room, which is more than 2 hours. I was asking myself, why did we lose 2 hours and 5 minutes.