Now That You're Rich: Let's fall in Love!

by Datta, Durjoy

  ‘They can kick us out, too. You and me.’

  ‘What? Why me?’

  ‘We are extra staff, Sumita.’

  ‘What do you mean? I have upheld the values of the firm for so long. They can’t do that to me. I am the Head HR.’ For probably the first time, Sumita had gone soft, and she was nervous.

  ‘Don’t worry yet, Sumita. There is still time.’

  ‘When should I start worrying?’

  ‘Pretty soon. If we don’t show them performance, we are cooked. Half of us will be gone for sure.’

  ‘What? Half the staff is working nights. How can we kick them out? You can’t expect to halve the workforce and still get work done.’

  ‘I don’t care how you get work done. Show me some figures. I want the charts to go up. Bring up managers, threaten them with life. Make it work. I want man-hours, quality man-hours. And if that does not happen, well …’

  ‘Then?’

  ‘Anything can happen.’

  Earlier that month in Shri Ram College of Commerce, New Delhi.

  ‘Are you okay working nights?’ the interviewer asked.

  ‘Yes, sir, certainly,’ she said with a sincere nod.

  ‘The schedule may go into days on end.’

  ‘I have no problem, sir. This is how I will learn. I am a very hard worker.’ She gave him a disarming smile.

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Yes sir.’

  ‘You will be able to live alone? And the stipend will hardly cover your living expenses in Hyderabad. You would have come to know about that by now,’ the interviewer said.

  ‘Yes, sir. But that won’t be a problem. I can make friends quite easily, I am sure I will be able to manage it. Besides, I have some friends in Hyderabad.’

  ‘Oh, you do?’

  ‘Yes, sir,’ she said.

  ‘And where do they work?’ he asked.

  ‘One of them works in this very company. Silverman Finance. He was a great friend of mine, my senior, Abhijeet. I don’t know if you know him. He is tall, fair and wears spectacles. No, I guess he had started …’

  ‘Okay, okay! I get it. Seems like it is time to meet that friend of yours. Welcome to Silverman Finance. You will get your formal acceptance for the internship in a while. Congratulations, Riya. I like your spunk.’

  The interviewer, Udit, a known pervert, had taken the interview, shaken her hand and smiled at her.

  It had been six months since she had broken up with Arjun. More precisely, Arjun had dumped her when Riya took a stand on not sleeping with him, and Arjun had thrown a fit and called her a retrogressive bitch. Since then, she had concentrated on her studies as she couldn’t bear the sight or thought of Arjun any more. That meant no more movies with friends. Or night-outs. However, she still wore pink, slightly muted shades, though. Not to mention, her new peer group in college—the geeks—got a makeover, thanks to her.

  All the hard work had paid off. She had bagged the coveted internship at Silverman Finance, along with a few others, and she was happy about that. Although she dreaded meeting Abhijeet again, she knew she had missed him.

  Shruti was working hard. Everybody knew she was desperately hanging on to the job with all her life. She had not even once expressed displeasure at working so hard, having accepted it as her reality. It was a small price to leave her old life behind and build a new life. She always looked drained, and no matter how hard I or her friends tried to get her off work, she was giving it her all.

  Garima and Shruti spent the evening cursing Silverman Finance and all their bosses and super bosses, berating them for their arrogance, and sometimes for the high salaries they drew.

  Shruti had bought a pair of platinum earrings that evening. Her first extravagance. She had tagged along with Garima to every jeweller’s shop in town, before she got herself those earrings. By the end of the day, all Garima had for Shruti was a string of curses.

  ‘Want to eat something?’ Shruti asked Garima as they entered their home.

  ‘Obviously. I am starving.’ Shruti whipped up a parantha each and served them.

  ‘Not again,’ Garima said.

  Shruti was wearing those earrings again, for she wasn’t sure if it was worth all the money she had paid for it.

  ‘Don’t worry. I am not asking you again,’ Shruti laughed. ‘What is this?’ she asked as she found a card while looking for a newspaper to put her plate on.

  ‘Oh, that? Was just making a card for Abhijeet.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Why? Because it is such a good feeling, Shruti. To feel strongly about him, knowing that he feels the same about me.’

  ‘Hmmm, I know,’ Shruti said, half lost.

  ‘Thinking of him?’

  ‘Who?’

  ‘Sachin? The guy from your college bookshop?’

  ‘Sort of.’

  ‘Don’t worry, Shruti. You will find someone.’

  ‘What if I want him?’

  ‘Then, why don’t you look for him?’

  ‘I don’t know. I don’t know if he even wants me. And somehow, I feel it was never meant to be. At least, we still loved each other when we parted, at least it is a good memory, and it will always be.’

  ‘C’mon. Now don’t get all teary. You got yourself new earrings, right? And they look beautiful. And anyway, I told you we will find you a guy, a rich, insanely good-looking guy, someone who will get you new earrings every day, and maybe even that pendant you so liked, right?’

  ‘Right,’ Shruti said, her eyes moist, but still smiling.

  Just before the next day ended, the four of them checked their mails to find what every employee of the IBD division dreaded the most. A personal meeting with Sumita Bhasin. It was sent to all four of them, along with me, Avantika and our managers.

  It spelt terror for them, disgust for me, worry for Avantika, and what the fuck for the managers. For Saurav and Abhijeet, it was their third call up in three months, and November had just started! All seven of us waited outside her room, Dinesh being the only one who was breathing a little easy.

  As my wretched luck would have it, they were called in, just as I went for a leak. Everyone waited, along with Sumita, for me to return. I entered hurriedly and the way she looked at me, I was sure she was trying to make me explode.

  Sumita was pouring over some papers, and the very next second, she almost slid them violently to Dinesh and Sameer, the only two who were sitting.

  ‘Terrible,’ she said. ‘This is unacceptable.’

  ‘I know, ma’am,’ Dinesh said. The papers were from the QC, the Quality Check department.

  ‘So? What are you doing about it, Dinesh? Five mistakes on an average? And you, Sameer? No point saying anything to you. Three years and you still don’t take anything seriously, do you?’ She stood up.

  ‘Let me make something very clear to you. Three years, five years or one. We are not here to cut any slack. You make mistakes, you leave. Do I make myself clear?’ She looked at everybody. ‘Deb? What will you do if you get fired? These guys may still manage something, but you? What will you do?’ She paused and looked around before she continued, ‘And everyone, one more report like this comes, and heads will roll. Now, get out, everybody, and I hope not to see your faces again. I hope I’m making myself very clear here.

  ‘And yes, we have made the shortlist of new joinees who will go to Singapore,’ she said. I could see their faces turning red. ‘And none of you are going. We are sending fifteen trainees; you are in the other nine. Make sure the nine of you don’t fall like nine pins!’ She laughed out like only a witch would, her voice shaking the very foundations of the office. She leant forward and stared into Shruti’s eyes, which were now red and little wet.

  ‘Shruti, you came real close. I have no qualms telling you that you were better than the fifteen who have been chosen. But the management thought otherwise, for the kind of company you keep,’ she waved her hand around the other three, ‘is very disruptive for the company. You can still make a
mends. The list still needs to be signed by Thapar. Talk to me some time. We will see what we can do. Thapar and I.’ She leant back and motioned everyone to leave.

  Shruti left the room crying.

  Tough times were ahead, and it seemed like Sumita had something planned for Shruti, for sure. Sumita and Thapar.

  It had been three hours since Shruti hadn’t been on her seat. The other three finally found her in the cafeteria, face buried in her palms, crying. The three of them were pushing each other to go talk to her first. The pushing ended with Saurav going first to sit next to her. ‘Hi, Shruti.’

  The others came and joined them. Their guilt-ridden faces contorted with the pain of seeing her cry.

  ‘I mean, we can stay away from you in the office if you want to,’ Abhijeet said, as she looked up, her face smudged with lipstick and kohl and mascara.

  ‘Shruti, we are really sorry,’ Garima said. ‘We didn’t know it would lead to this.’

  Shruti looked at them, flicked a few strands of hair out of her eyes and said, ‘You really don’t get it? Do you? I am finished. I am not getting through this programme and neither are you. But how does it matter to you? Saurav, you are an IITian, you have nothing to fear. You will go back to Delhi to your big cars and your big house. Abhijeet and you can go back to your families, get a job and settle down. What am I supposed to do? Haan? You have any idea what I go through every day when I am there? I am locked up. I can’t go out and I am made to work in the kitchen, and wash clothes, and every day is like the worst day of my life. You know what? I would have got married by now had I not got this job. They lie nowadays that I am at my grandmother’s place. Why? The man I am supposed to get married to doesn’t want me to work. And when I lose this, I’ll have nothing left. The paan-belching bastard! It doesn’t make a difference to my parents if he sleeps with a million prostitutes or treats me like shit. You know why I am doing this job? My parents want the money so that they can stuff his filthy mouth with it. So that there is some chance that he doesn’t hit me after I become his bed whore. So that he doesn’t burn me with his cigarette after he finishes beating me blue. You don’t believe he will do that? But you will, when you see his previous wife. Why? Why? Why do my parents still want me to marry him? Because I am nothing but a whore, a prostitute whom they are selling to him. To get my father’s sins paid off. Are you still sorry?’ She finished, tears streaking down both her cheeks, and went running to the girls’ washroom.

  While Garima was openly crying, Abhijeet and Saurav’s eyes were filling up with unshed tears.

  All this time, they had known about how important this job was for Shruti, but the gravity of the situation hadn’t hit them until now. They looked at each other, blank-faced. Saurav assured a crying Garima that he would take care of Shruti.

  Sumita’s outburst had everyone riled up, so while Shruti was in the cafeteria, I was working my ass off. Little did I know what Sumita and Thapar had planned for me the next day, and that my fate was already sealed.

  The next day, I found my termination letter on my table. It was not a surprise as to how and why it had reached there. I had always expected it to come my way some day, but still, I was overwhelmed by anger and disgust when I saw that letter. I stormed into Thapar’s room, for had I gone to Sumita, I would have knocked her down, and bashed her face with a table lamp.

  ‘What the hell is this?’ I asked and sent the letter flying into Thapar’s face.

  ‘That is it, Deb. Rash behaviour. You are a negative influence. The Human Resources department has given you numerous informal warnings and now they feel they have had enough.’

  ‘What do you mean? I have everything in place, sir. I haven’t fucking missed any target ever,’ I bellowed.

  ‘It is not about targets. Your style of working does not suit this office.’ His calmess about the matter made me want to grab him and throw him headlong out of the window, and then go downstairs and stomp on his limp body.

  ‘What bullshit is that?’

  ‘See, this. Your language, the way you take things so lightly! It is even affecting the kids under you. Have you seen their performance? It’s horrendous.’

  ‘But they are doing well under me.’

  ‘Not as well as the ones under Avantika or the other mentors.’

  ‘But, sir. This is just not fair and you know that. I will not take this lying down. I will fuck you up,’ I said, now losing my head.

  ‘Deb, I have a meeting. You have to leave. Talk to Sumita if you need any clarifications. And what’s more, it’s your manager who signed on your termination letter. You can talk to Sameer if you want clarifications.’

  I left for I knew it was of no use.

  Sameer would have had no choice but to sign on it. The manager’s permission to fire anybody was just a sham, and it was a part of the protocol so that the upper management could wash their hands off a firing. Just as I was leaving, Thapar said to me, ‘You are lucky, Deb. You have more time than the others to look for a fresh beginning.’

  ‘Whatever.’

  I left and slammed the door behind me. Still fuming, I called up Avantika and we met up in the cafeteria. Avantika chided me for being so rude to Thapar and screwing my case further. But then, she kissed me, ran her butter fingers on my face and my mood changed for the better. She assured me that we would be together, come what may, and that I would get a job which would be better than this one. I wasn’t in a mood to talk to anyone else in the office before leaving.

  I met the security guy on my way out, someone I was often involved in small talk with, and someone who had had his fill from the half-empty vodka bottles that I gave him often enough. He was a friend and I knew it was time for him to pay me back for all the times I used to treat him like one.

  ‘I am sure that bastard did this,’ Sumita said, as she looked unsuccessfully for any activity in the security tapes in the parking lot. For a few minutes, the security camera videos had gone offline before coming online. In those few minutes, her brand-new CRV windscreen and side mirrors were smashed, the tyres were slashed open, and the word bitch was scratched over the bonnet. For finishing touches, the words ‘ugly slut’ were spray painted all over the car’s chassis.

  ‘Where the fuck is the video? Give me that footage, you filthy rat,’ she threatened Naresh, the head of security, who had no idea about the missing hour of the footage.

  ‘The videos go to Thapar every day and sometimes he deletesportions of it, citing security reasons. I think you should ask him,’ Naresh said.

  ‘Security reasons, my foot! That bastard pervert! But how the hell did Deb know about this?’

  ‘I don’t know, ma’am.’

  ‘Of course you know,’ she said and stormed off.

  Trashing her car with a baseball bat, and then spray painting her car was one of my most exhilarating experiences ever. I wouldn’t have given that up even if Sumita came begging to me, giving my job back.

  Though, as I had left the parking lot, the prospect of not seeing Avantika every day and seeing her less than usual saddened me. That day, I realized the only reason why I was still there was Avantika. She meant everything to me, and I had always imagined us together.

  15

  Days after I left the office, Riya joined Silverman Finance as a winter intern, and she looked over her shoulder to spot Abhijeet but could not. She did not think he would talk to her anyway.

  Saurav was hanging around the reception, trying to see if Silverman Finance had picked out anyone cute to join their winter internship programme.

  Not surprisingly, Riya stood out in her shiny pointed heels, chunky glittery watch, streaked hair and undeniable good looks. Her smile was only too noticeable to miss, and she lit up the place with her beamer. He asked a few people around about her and lost his mind when people told him she was from Shri Ram College of Commerce, and then rushed to the cafeteria to ask Abhijeet if he knew her.

  ‘Abhijeet!’ Saurav called out from a distance.

  �
�Yes?’

  Saurav pulled him away from Garima and asked him, ‘Do you, by any chance, know Riya? Your college junior?’

  ‘Why? Why do you ask?’

  Abhijeet didn’t remember telling him about Riya. And Garima, for sure, hadn’t mentioned her either.

  ‘She is downstairs. At the reception! And God! Is she cute!’

  ‘What? What is she doing here? Did she ask about me? Did she ask about me?’

  ‘And that means you know her?’

  For just a second, Abhijeet thought that she had probably come all the way to apologize, but then he realized she had nothing to apologize for.

  ‘Abhijeet? Do you know her? Will you please tell me that?’

  ‘Yes, but why? Did she say anything to you? Why is she here?’

  ‘I didn’t talk to her. She is in the batch of new interns who are joining for two months. Will you introduce me to her?’

  ‘No, I can’t.’

  ‘Why? Not close enough?’

  ‘No. We were friends, but …’

  ‘Brilliant! Superb! Old friends’ reunion. Please let’s go downstairs,’ Saurav said and started to pull him towards the lift.

  ‘Please, Saurav, it is of no use. I will not talk to her. I don’t want to, and please don’t force me to.’ He jerked his hand free and walked away, leaving Saurav bewildered.

  ‘What just happened between the two of you?’ Garima asked Saurav.

  ‘Nothing. Some old friend of his has joined as an intern, and I just asked him to introduce me, and he got all worked up. You have to see her! She is so cute and hot at the same time! She is wearing pink stilettoes to office. Can you beat that? I wonder how Sumita would react to that,’ he said excitedly. ‘By the way, where is Shruti?’

  ‘She is at her desk. We are bad company, you see. She will join us for lunch, though. No, but seriously, we have to stay away from Shruti. I can’t be the reason for Shruti losing this job.’

  ‘Okay, but you’ve got to see that girl. I think I am already in love with her!’

  ‘Oh, c’mon! You’re in love with every new girl you see, and it lasts till the time the girl doesn’t reject you. What was her name?’