The room looked similar to the one she had been in before. The only difference being that there were two computers set up in this room -one on the main desk and the other one on a smaller desk in the corner of the room. She realized that she would probably be working on the one in the corner.
She looked around the room slowly. Apart from the desks, there was a small wooden cupboard and a small bamboo plant next to the window. There wasn’t much at all.
She took out her phone from her bag and panicked when she saw five missed calls from her mother. She picked up the phone to call her mother, but then she heard footsteps approaching. Before she could put her phone back inside her bag, it slipped and fell on the floor.
“Hey, Esha! Relax, don’t be nervous,” said the man who had interviewed her. She felt embarrassed and couldn’t answer him.
“This is my office and you will be working for me.” he said, confirming her thoughts.
“You are my boss?” she asked in disbelief before she could stop herself.
“Why? Is that a problem?” he asked. “I guess you imagined me to be a manager and you would be working with someone else. Right?” He said this in such a casual manner that she couldn’t reply and just nodded her head.
“Well, Esha. I wish that were true, but we don’t have many people working here. So, I act as the manager for interviews, but I am also the boss,” he added and handed her the letter of appointment.
Esha took the letter from him and started reading it slowly. Her eyes fell on the details, especially the salary. It showed her salary to be 8000/- per month. She had not expected it to be so low and a lump formed in her throat as she knew she would have to tell him that she couldn’t take the job. She lifted her head, trying to form the words, when her eyes met his.
“Is it too low?” he asked softly. Esha didn’t know what to say.
“I know it is low,” he said, “but as the company grows your pay will increase too. Well, actually Esha, I am looking for a partner of sorts. If you invest your time and efforts here now with this pay, I will give you 10% of the profit from the company as it grows.”
“10 %?” queried Esha.
He moved forward in his seat and still looking at her, said, “Ok, 20%.” He didn’t smile when he said it though.
Esha started to feel uncomfortable. She quickly said, “I think 10% will be enough.”
“Great. Then Esha, shall we start working?” he said, then paused for a minute before adding, “By the way, my name is Siddharth. Call me Siddharth. No ‘sirs’ please.”
Esha repeated the name out loud. “Yes, tell me what you want to know.”
“So, what would be my job profile?” she asked.
He leaned back in his seat, “That’s a good question.You will be taking care of all appointments, finding new clients…. In short, you will be my right hand. Managing and handling tasks related to the development of the company.”
Esha nodded knowingly. Her job would include doing everything.
He moved his computer screen in her direction, and said, “Basically, we are a wholesaler garment company. We provide an online catalogue for shopkeepers to buy garments from us. At present, we have about one hundred loyal customers, but it has become difficult to manage everything on my own. And also, I plan to expand this business. We are taking up designing as well. Until now, it has just been pieces of cloth but now on we are going to add life to them.”
He smiled at her. “To get started today, can you draw up a list of all the wholesale garment buyers from the internet.”
Esha thought about how he spoke. Sometimes he used ‘we’ and sometimes he used ‘I’. She was a bit confused. Did he actually want her as a partner and if yes, then why did he use the term ‘I’? Did this mean that she was just an employee and not a true partner.
Working at a start-up company, which did not have a proper office or much furniture or any staff scared her, but what scared her more was the thought - Would he be able to give her a salary every month? While moving to her desk, she was hit with another worrying thought. She was all alone with him. There was no one else in the office. She shivered thinking about what happened when her Uncle turned into a hyena. What if Siddharth behaved like that too? She didn’t know where she could run to. He seemed like a genuine person, but her mother’s words terrified her.
With every passing hour, she looked at him and then thought about her salary. She wanted to send money to her mother as soon as possible. She looked at him and making a decision that she couldn’t stay in the job, raised her head high, took a deep breath and went straight to his desk.
He looked up halfway through scanning his files and said, “Did you finish taking the list?”
She shook her head and he said, “You can search using Google.”
She felt as if he thought she was dumb and said, “I checked on Google, but there aren’t any references.”
“Look, you won’t get the information just like that. Actually, you need to try another way. Check for garment businesses like ours and scan their client lists. Call them one by one and tell them you are working on a survey and ask them how they would like their garment supplier to improve and where they should focus. Write down what they say. Then thank them. Then call them again, this time from a different number and tell them that we provide those services that they said they would like, as well as some additional benefits. Then ask them if they would like to start working with us now,” he said.
Esha repeated his instructions to make sure that she had understood what he wanted her to do.
He smiled. “Smart girl. I guess we could go a long way,” he said.
His eyes were bright and he had a big smile on his face, which seemed to reach his ears and made fine lines appear at the ends of his eyes.
She watched how he kept his files in order and how his eyes remained constant on the screen while typing on the keyboard. He was a bit like Aakash, Lucky’s college boyfriend. She hadn’t seen him since she had shifted to Mumbai and wondered what had happened between him and Lucky.
Esha settled down at her desk and started working on the client list. A few of the clients disconnected her call straight away and a few picked up, but gave excuses about not having time for the survey. There were some who listened to everything that she said and then said they were not interested. She got only a handful who were happy to share their experience with their present garment supplier.
She didn’t expect the calls to be so draining. Taking in a negative response from others wasn’t easy. Looking at the next potential customer’s name, she felt a little hesitant and looked at Siddharth.
“Do I need to call everyone?” she asked him. He had already been looking at her when she asked him the question.
He shook his head and then asked, “Did you bring lunch with you? If not, we could go somewhere for lunch.”
She hadn’t expected to be asked to work right away so she hadn’t prepared for her first long day at work. And with the work stress, she hadn’t thought about her lunch at all. But as soon as he mentioned eating lunch, she could feel her empty stomach needed to be filled.
This would be her first lunch with a stranger. She thought about what Lucky would say - “You went on a date?” She smiled thinking about her friend’s stupid questions. She was still thinking about her weird day and how she would share her experience with Lucky and what her reaction would be when Siddharth interrupted her thoughts.
“What are you thinking about? Can you share it?” he asked, smiling at her.
What could she say? Could she tell him about gossiping with her friend about going out for lunch with her boss on her first day of work? No, she definitely couldn’t tell him her thoughts.
“It just seems a bit weird to go for lunch with your boss on your first day. I mean I expected some new colleagues and….” she stammered.
He broke into a smile. “Please don’t make it sound as if I’m an old man,” he said. “I just asked you so that you don’t skip your lu
nch. I don’t want you to assume I’m a strict boss. As long as you do your tasks well, I don’t have any problem. As for colleagues…. Well, we will hire more people as the company grows.”
She nodded and agreed to go out with him for lunch.
The restaurant they went to was like so many others around the city. Most of the people at the restaurant were with white-collar jobs. She wondered if she would be able to pay the bill. She had only a small amount of change in her purse. She would have to make sure that she brought her lunch with her from home.
She watched him smiling and talking to the waiter, “Thanks, boss. The food looks tempting. I can’t wait to eat.”
The waiter went away smiling. The short conversation between them made her aware that he was a regular visitor to the restaurant. She thought again, ‘what a nice person he was, not boring at all.’
They had just finished their lunch when a young woman wearing a long yellow top and low waist jeans approached him. “Where were you?” she asked. “I’ve been calling you since this morning.” She looked at Esha, and said, “Would you mind if I take him away and speak to him for a minute?”
Esha didn’t know how to react when Siddharth walked away to sit with the young woman at another table. Their conversation was over after a few minutes. Before leaving, she overheard the young woman say, “I hope you call your Dad soon. Be a bit more responsible. Bye. See you, Esha.” And then she gave Siddhartha a small peck on his cheek.
Esha waved goodbye and soon they returned to the office. She didn’t ask him about the young woman nor did he say anything about her. She guessed she shouldn’t wonder about his personal life. However, it gave her a sense of security that he had someone in his life. So, she needn’t be too scared to work alone with him in the office.
At about three in the afternoon, he received a call from a client. She listened as he dealt with the client in a very professional way and within 5 minutes, he had won the contract.
Smiling at his success, she took another critical look at him. He dressed well and spoke well. He seemed to have a perfect English accent. He didn’t mix Hindi in between when talking to her or to a client. She remembered that when she had gone to job interviews at other start-ups, they seemed to have spent a lot of money on office interiors and furnishings. She couldn’t help but compare that with Siddharth, who was using a normal computer and whose office had furnishings which were just the minimum that was required.
‘Perhaps he didn’t want to waste his resources on these things,’ she thought. She began thinking she should stay in the job as she became more aware of the fact that Siddharth was indeed a smart entrepreneur.
And by the end of the day, she had half-finished calling prospective clients, and had found some who agreed to start working with them. Siddharth was happy with the progress she had made. He also suggested that they did not need to be so formal with each other. She shouldn’t take the boss/employee relationship too seriously. He said they were a team, working together to build up the business. These words made her feel more relaxed and almost as if she was working for her own company.
Before leaving for home, she stuck a note on her desk of things to do the next day. When she looked up, she saw Siddharth smiling at her.
***
While travelling back, she was again stuck with crowded trains, but that didn’t stop her from getting on them. She felt stronger. “This is my own personal battle,” she said to herself.
Having to travel daily on the train made her come face to face with reality. In order to take control of your life, you needed to fight for what you desire.
As she reached home, Lucky opened the door. “Hey, how was your meeting? Did it go well for you today?” Saying this she moved away to light the diya in the temple.
“Yes, I’ve got a job and he actually asked me to start right away,” said Esha, placing her bag on the table and sitting down on the sofa. The cosy sofa made her relax and she curled her legs under her to feel more comfortable. It had been a long day.
“Is it a one-man operation?” asked Lucky looking concerned and coming to sit next to Esha.
“Yes, it is. Is your prayer over so soon? Just the diya and a minute of silence,” Esha laughed, thinking of how impatient Lucky was.
“I don’t think it takes long to thank God. A minute is enough,” replied Lucky.
Esha raised her eyebrows and said, “You don’t recite any prayer or ask for anything? Hmm. I suppose you don’t have to... you have everything you need!”
Lucky turned her head towards Esha and said, “It’s nothing like that, but let’s leave it. Everyone has their own special way to communicate with God. Mine is short and sweet.” Flashing a bright smile, she said, “Ok, let’s put that discussion aside for another time. Tell me, what’s your boss like? Is he hot or is he an old man?”
“He is hot for sure and smart too,” said Esha, smiling at Lucky, whose eyes showed that she was already entertaining certain thoughts from the naughty glow in them.
Patting Lucky’s shoulders, Esha said, “Don’t think so much. He’s already in a relationship and not my type. He’s quite fashionable and smart, unlike me.”
Lucky smirked and said, “You always assume things too soon. Leave something for later and stop saying you are not worth it.”
That night, when she went to bed, even though the soft mattress was very comfortable to sleep on, she couldn’t fall asleep. Her mind was occupied with all the things that had happened during the day. Finally, when she had closed her eyes, she dreamt about someone holding her hand as they walked along the beach.
She felt at peace with him, talking about everything in her life. They were dancing, singing and laughing together and she felt so happy. Suddenly, a loud ringing sound woke her up. It was the alarm clock letting her know it was already eight o’clock.
She dozed for a few more minutes, then jumped out of bed. She wondered what Siddharth would say if she arrived late on her second day at work. She didn’t want that to happen and dropped her plans to prepare breakfast and pack a lunch. Taking a packet of biscuits in her bag, she hurriedly got dressed and left the house.
Rushing from the train, she took a rickshaw close to her workplace, then ran as fast as she could into the office.
“Sorry,” she said, “I hope I’m not late?”
Siddharth looked rather busy reading his emails and responded with a nod. There was a difference in the way he was sitting. He looked stiff, as if he was worried about something.
She went towards his desk and asked, “Is everything ok?”
Without thinking, he spat out what was on his mind. “You should have been cautious when calling those potential clients. You should have at least asked me before you made the calls. Now everyone knows Yashodha Garments called them. You know how cheap that looks, taking a survey to get clients.”
“But you only said to call them, and how was I supposed to know that the telephone number shows up the company name!” she exclaimed.
Siddharth slouched in his chair, and said, “Never mind. I shouldn’t have expected so much from you on your first day, but I do expect you to come on time. I don’t like latecomers.”
Esha hadn’t expected such a response from him on her second day at the job. She silently moved back to her seat and did not look up even for a second.
She focused on one thing - how to correct her mistake. She was not ready to let someone assume that she was not good at her job when this was only the second day she was working there.
She started checking the services that were provided by them, listing the benefits and comparing the prices with other garment providers. She created an email template, which listed everything in detail. She paused, thinking about whether she should send it or not.
Her finger was still hovering over the enter button on her keyboard when Siddharth asked, “Shall we go for lunch?” His stern voice had changed to a soft one but she was in no mood to go with him. She replied, “I have some work to do. You carry
on.”
She was still making the last entries when he came over to her desk and lightly tapped her hand saying, “I am sorry. Let’s go.”
She looked up at him and said, “I brought my own tiffin today.”
He asked again and when she replied the same thing, he went out on his own. She looked back at her screen only to realize that the send button had been accidentally pressed when he had tapped on her hand. She let out a cry, “Oh no!” She should have asked him, she thought and started cursing herself for being so careless.
Her stomach started to growl with hunger and she took out the biscuit packet from her bag and started eating hungrily as if it was the only meal of the day.
“Oh, nice... I didn’t know you had such a delicious tiffin,” said Siddharth with a soft smile lingering on his lips.
“You want some?” asked Esha and offered him the packet.
“I should have told you before - eating here is not allowed. We don’t have maids so we need to maintain some cleanliness,” said Siddharth and went over to his desk and picked up a file.
Esha was taken aback by his harsh words and thought ‘I haven’t had anything to eat today because of him and he is thinking of cleanliness!’
She thought of telling him that she had not dropped a single crumb on the floor. Instead, she chose to keep the packet inside her bag.
Siddharth turned to her. “Can you please bring your notebook and a pen? We need to go for a meeting now,” he said, and walked out of the office.
Esha looked in his direction and wondered, ‘Couldn’t he see that I have not eaten? All he is thinking about is the meeting.’ But she realized that she couldn’t say anything. After all, he was her boss. She picked up her bag and notebook and followed him out of the office.
They got into his car, which was parked outside. He drove in silence and this made her feel a little better as she was in no mood to talk either. They stopped near a restaurant and she looked at him in surprise, assuming he had brought her for lunch. She quickly wiped the surprised look off her face when he said, “The client will be here anytime. Can you walk a little faster?”
Rhythm Of Love Page 3