Part IV

Next morning Mr. Basu arrived at office and after sharing a few customary greetings with others around he proceeded to the meeting room and asked Vijay to join him. They sat across the table facing each other. He started,

"Vijay, even I wanted to say or rather, ask you something for sometime, but I had let it go"

Vijay said to himself, "when did you let it go! It was there in you all the while and quite obvious!"

Mr. Basu continued with his talk, "but since you have raked it up, let me mention it now. And its good that you raked it up."

"Raked up!" Vijay thought with wonder as he listened carefully preparing for the worst situation.

"I am told that you are talking ill of me to people around, that you are spreading defamatory words about me."

Vijay voiced in maintaining his cool as far as possible, "Who is telling that Sir?" Although convinced that none but Arindam could have done this mean act on the day of that unfateful Jamhedpur trip. That was the hypocrite's last weapon ' to create distrust in the boss's mind for a favourite subordinate and there lies the favourite subordinate - almost ruined.

"Somebody. You were telling you have been demotivated. But can you believe how hurt was I when I heard that. Wasn't it me who brought you to this organization?"

"Yes Sir" Vijay continued "But who told you so. How could you believe everything that was told was true? Whom have I told to? And what exactly have I told?"

"I have been told that you have said that I had been an 'useless fellow'."

Keeping in mind that it is none other than Arindam, Vijay boldly continued further, "Surprising. If somebody says so to me, I would first analyse why this person is talking all these all of a sudden today! How come he has become so loyal to me today! Could there be something else behind it!" Vijay noticed that Mr. Basu was somewhat stirred by the last statement that he made. He continued, "Would the person come and say it in front of me? That I had said so. Would you mention the name please, Sir, who said it?" Vijay turned slightly excited as he blurted out so.

Mr. Basu's face had lighted up the way as if he had discovered the clue to some mystery, observed Vijay. Probably his candid outburst had some effect on him. To his benefit. There was a silence of few moments.

It was Mr. Basu's turn then. With a deep breath he said,

"But I was very hurt. If I have some problem with someone, say my superior, I would talk about it to the person ."

"Haven't I done so Sir? I am talking to you directly now when I am having a real problem." snapped Vijay in between. He had kept all his fear aside by now and ready to be perfectly explicit, remaining true to just himself.

Mr. Basu nodded while continuing, "I even went on to ask few people about it. I spoke to Mr. Ghosh."

This was another big surprise to Vijay. Another mystery seemed to be unfolding infront of him as to why Mr. Ghosh, a senior executive in another organisation and his ex-boss and mentor and an acquaintance of Mr. Basu too, had off late been expressing reluctance to talk to him! His eyes brightened up at the revelation. Excitement became uncontrollable. He interrupted again,

"I see Sir. That is the reason Mr. Ghosh doesn't seem to be willing to talk to me these days whenever I give him a courtesy call! What did he say. That I belittled you?"

"No. He said "I cannot believe Vijay can say so""

"Then when and how did I belittle you Sir?"

"You have told to few people."

Vijay found it tough to hold back his anger, for Arindam. He wanted Mr. Basu to understand and realize this man was a hypocrite. For him he has proven to be harmful too.

He continued his questions, "Who are those few people who has heard me saying so?"

"They are from this office."

"Who Sir?"

"There are one or two people" was Mr. Basu's cold reply. Quite consciously he refrained from taking names.

One or two people had heard him disparaging Mr. Basu. That is all. Vijay felt like having moved closer to his goal. Of the conversation. By now he had gathered enough courage to speak straight to Mr. Basu as follows, "Just one or two Sir! As I had already told you, didn't you think for once why could that one person have told you so! Could he have had something against me and that is why it was cooked up! Why did not you take it up with me directly Sir?"

A small pause and he continued, "Sir, while I do admit that being petty human beings we do not have total control on our gossiping habit and that, gossips do take place among colleagues. We tend to criticise our own relatives sometime. So I might have criticised you too sometime in any of those gossip sessions though I do not remember anything specifically any more. But I have never belittled you purposefully in front of anyone ever."

There was a marked silence this time. Actually Vijay wanted to say, "Criticising a boss is the most common phenomenon taking place in any set-up. I may criticize my boss, my boss criticizes his boss, he his boss and then he his and so on. This is known to all and expected to be accepted until and unless derogatory."

After a while Vijay, by now calm and poised, once again having felt that he had been able to make his point clear to Mr. Basu, about his accusations on him and about he getting trapped into a net of hypocrisy, enquired one last time, "Cannot you tell me Sir who told so to you?"

Mr. Basu replied with a smile, "Vijay! now you want me to utter it?"

Vijay got his reply.

"Subhas is a good guy right? He does not exhibit such complexities in his conduct." Mr. Basu finally observed referring to another colleague of Vijay who was equally close to Mr. Basu. Vijay replied in affirmative.

He could not have got a better end result than this in consequence to all his blurting and snapping and retorting challenging his own boss that lasted for over half an hour. He felt elated at the turn of the events. His principle of staying true to himself made him feel much stronger that day.

Vijay's next challenge would be to clarify Mr. Ghosh, one of his most regarded persons. And to let Arindam know next time they meet, that he had been the most harmful hypocrite he had ever met. Should he?

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A big thanks to all readers for your encouragement and patience. Please forward your views on the incidents and on how the characters handled it.

Disclaimer: All the characters are fictional and any resemblance to anybody is purely co-incidental.

Part III

Vijay was well aware that Arindam was almost in the last phase of shifting into a new job while Mr. Basu decided to take him along for the Jamhedpur trip. Therefore he actually did not see a point why he needed to be taken for such important meetings. His little doubt about whether Arindam had played some new trick and that too on Mr. Basu this time was firmly established by Mr. Basu's attitude towards Vijay after his return from the trip where Arindam, for the first ever time got full eighteen hours with Mr. Basu all by himself.

Vijay could not figure out though as to what trick did he play this time to cause this sudden and drastic change in Mr. Basu's attitude. Nor did he know of a way to solve the riddle. Days and weeks passed. Mr. Basu's behaviour towards him became colder. Interactions dwindled. And ironically, increased with Arindam. Arindam started airing among colleagues that he has access to many confidential informations even of the company's top management. That some unexpected changes in the organization structure is ensuing. He would get up from his seat and go to the lobby every time he wished to speak to Mr. Basu or Mr. Basu called him up on his hand phone. And then come back and relay to Vijay and others about the high level conversation the two had had. He would also mention in between to Vijay in a matter-of-factly manner that he is unable to share every detail of the conversation as certain matters were strictly confidential.

Confidential! Vijay had become totally miserable and completely de-motivated at such exhibitions especially in absence of any communication from his boss. After enough thought, analysis, consultation with friends and soliloquy he made up his mind to confront his boss once again to find out what went wrong. For none was known to him. He planned to present the questions to his boss just after the weekend trip he was taking to a neighboring place outside the city to de-stress himself a bit.

That Monday morning Arindam put in his resignation papers! Vijay was once again surprised, though pleasantly. He wondered for moment if all the recent incidents stressing his mind were nothing but a trick of a hypocrite to simply destabilize him! But then why would his boss become cold in his approach towards him?

He dropped his plan to question Mr. Basu that day as planned. But the questions kept bouncing in his mind. Post Arindam's departure Vijay's surrounding environment turned peaceful all of a sudden. But the peace within was lost. A big question mark loomed large over his head with respect to his deteriorating relationship with Mr. Basu, of which he couldn't figure out the reason. Neither Mr. Basu provided any explication nor called upon his about anything. Quite contrary to his expectations, subsequent to Arindam's exit he was once again given due importance in an important official conference. Mr. Basu ensured his inputs on several issues and also requested him to make a small speech in front of the growing family of the organization. These gestures reinforced his confidence in himself that the distressing coldness exhibited by Mr. Basu had nothing to do with his work performances. But when an opportunity of a great training programme came knocking at his door, Mr. Basu snapped his aspirations halfway by restricting him from attending it.

He made up his mind to put an end to the increasing bafflingness.

After a month or so, when people were at the last leg of their assignments for the year, looking back happily and work pressures comparatively low, and a day before Mr. Basu had planned a visit to his city, he called up Mr. Basu and placed his concerns in front of him straightforward.

"Good Morning Sir."

"Good Morning,"

"If you'd spare some time I needed to discuss something."

There was a pause at the other end and then he replied, "Yes? Tell me,"

"Sir, I may be wrong, but I feel off late there is a marked changed in your attitude towards me. I have observed this happen since the day you happened to come back from the Jamhedpur trip. Before leaving for the trip you had confirmed you would take me along for the meeting but after your return you didn't discuss a word about it to me and left for it with Arindam instead, without telling a word to me. Thereafter also I have observed you not having open discussion with me on several occasions even when we met face to face.  May I know the reason, Sir?"

Vijay put forward all his points at one go without allowing the other side to interrupt in between lest he fumbles and forgets later on what he wanted to say. Obviously he was nervous. Not having confronted anyone in this fashion ever in his life. And here he is taking head on with his boss! He knew, this might result in losing him his job. But he wanted to come out of the lingering confusions. It was time to either do or die. He chose to do and then die if at all required. He was ready to face the odds in case he really deserved it.

There was a longer pause at the other side this time.

Vijay repeated, "Hello."

"Yeah see.. I also wanted to speak to you on this, I had been told certain things about you .I mean.. about your trying to defame me! I am coming to your city tomorrow. May be we can discuss then?"

Vijay wasn't too surprised at the revelation made by Mr. Basu. He prepared his mind to face everything coolly as far as possible.

"Ok", Vijay said "I'd look forward to the discussion for this is troubling me for quite some time, I am not able to concentrate on my job. Its been quite demotivating to me."

"I see .so yours is a demotivated soul!" He seemed to have told with sarcasm, "Fine. We shall discuss tomorrow when we meet."

"Fine" he said and terminated the call and eagerly waited for the turn of the day.

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To be continued.

Part II

Vijay was chosen to work in this organization by Mr. Basu himself three years back. Over the years he has been able to win the confidence of his seniors out of his good work and responsible persona and shared a good rapport with them. Arindam, an young man in his late twenties, had joined in a year later.

Arindam had given an interesting introduction of himself to Neha, another colleague of Vijay on the first day they met one another.

" .I possess a keen observation skill."

"Probably you are not getting me ?" continued Arindam with a mysterious smile on his face, "suppose I notice a girl passing by, I will not just notice the girl pass by. I would also notice what costume is she in, what is her hair style, what type of footwear she is wearing, whether she is wearing nail enamel on her nails, and if at all whether it is still intact or the edges have chipped!"

Not quite impressed with such an unique first day introduction by a young man Vijay and Neha simply observed that the young man was clumsily smart.

"Hope we'll get to see some exceptional productivity out of such penetrating observation skills. All the best to you", is all that Vijay could say with some irritation expressed on his face. Arindam did not seem to be expecting such a reaction from another young man of his age who, he didn't know then, would turn out to be his one level senior colleague!

Just two days after he had joined the organization, Arindam made the first complaint against Vijay to Mr. Basu stating he is not co-operative enough. The ground was' Vijay took some time to respond to some of his queries owing to some other engagements. The incident did not have any adverse impact on Vijay, for the guy was just two days old in the company and Mr. Basu simply observed the young man to be a little impatient. But within, Vijay felt for the second time that the guy was smart enough to create trouble! He chose to remain silent, as it was a first incidence.

Days passed by. Vijay observed that there was a continuous attempt from Arindam to magnify himself and to subdue Vijay in front of other colleagues in the office rather than playing a co-operative team member. He would keep declaring to Vijay about the head-hunters calling him up thus trying to prove to Vijay that there is enough job opportunities available for him in the market. Vijay, being a quiet and reserved person, simply ignored Arindam's such claims intended for show-off.  In their bilateral relation he demonstrated effusive friendship to him. But when it came to taking responsibilities, he was not as prominent. After a year Vijay got promotion. Arindam aired views like he was not given proper attention by management. Neither he congratulated Vijay. However, post this he turned out to be somewhat polite and respectful towards him. Vijay was curiously surprised.

It did not take long for his speculation to come across a ground reality. He had left his computer accessible to Arindam one day for him to work on some files while he was away for couple of hours. He hoped the machine would be duly utilised. Alas! When he returned he found not much to his utter surprise that several other items in the machine had been tampered with! He took it up with him straightforward as this was no more a first incidence of creating trouble.

"Could you finish your work, Arindam?"  Vijay enquired.

"Yes. Long time back", Arindam replied with a smile.

"What about the changes in these files?"

"Which changes? Which files?"

"These here!"

"I don't know. I worked only on the required one", he replied with an effusive assertion.

"But somebody has tampered with these. Who else used the machine? A power point presentation has been deleted too!"

"I didn't notice Vijay. I had gone out after finishing my job." Arindam replied showing least concern about the episode.

Helpless, frustrated and red with rage he couldn't control and blurted out, "Too much of smartness is not desirable!"

Arindam remained silent. But Vijay's convictions about this man being a hypocrite and that too a harmful one, got stronger with this incident. He treaded very carefully after that. It wasn't easy to dwell in a state of constant suspicion in absence of trust with a co-worker. He just had the confidence that since he was always true to his job, no hypocrite can ever cause any substantial harm to him.

Though both of them were well aware as to who did what, Vijay had no proper evidence. And therefore chose not to complain to his boss and over time forgave Arindam too. Probably that was a wrong decision he took which he realized much later. He continued to remain an efficient contributor and was conferred upon with more responsibilities, while Arindam got few in spite of all the tricks he played to subdue Vijay. Gradually it became obvious that Vijay would become his reporting boss the next year.

Arindam started slandering Vijay in the office gossips to which Vijay remained quite oblivious. At the same time he kept looking for other jobs demonstrating resentment which but, to Vijay was quite obvious.

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To be continued

Dear Friends,

This is my first effort to describe in detail a somewhat offbeat story. I have picked up my plot from 'office', bereft of the ardour of life, where many of us tend to spend about two-third of our waking hours. I am not sure whether I am actually writing a story or a case study. It will consist of four-five chapters. Anyway, please do not forget to leave your critical comments in whichever chapter you wish.

Part I

Vijay won his battle versus hypocrisy. Finally. Thanks to his clairvoyance and convictions. And to the two principles he has decided to stick to in his life come what may. First, being true to himself and second, being explicit in all that matters.

He was stunned by the act of Mr. Basu, his boss the day after he returned from the trip to Jamhedpur with Arindam, another colleague of his. Initially, he was supposed to accompany Mr. Basu for the trip. But since Mr. Basu insisted to take Arindam also along, he saw no point why three persons should go and therefore excused himself from going as he had some other demanding work at station too. Vijay happened to be the senior most in his department in the office. Mr. Basu seemed to have taken his point in the right note and agreed. Before leaving he scheduled an important meeting on the day following his return from the trip where Vijay's presence was required. Understandably, Vijay did his homework well for the meeting. He went to office a bit early on the day of the meeting as the meeting was scheduled in the first hour and waited for Mr. Basu to come so they could proceed for the meeting. In the mean time his colleague Arindam, who had accompanied Mr. Basu on the Jamhedpur trip, went out of office with his business folder in hand. Unlike other days he didn't bother to share a word with him before leaving. This sudden change in his attitude surprised Vijay a little bit though he did not ponder much on it as he was anxiously looking forward to the scheduled meeting. 

After almost half an hour had elapsed since the scheduled time of meeting, "Boss is getting too late", he said to himself. "Could he forget! Should I call him up? The other party must be waiting; better we inform or reschedule the meeting."

But he did not call him up. A voice from within, he didn't recognize fully, dictated him there was no need to call, instead it indicated him to wait and watch. 

He sensed something was wrong somewhere. 

After a confusing wait of another hour or so, Mr. Basu appeared in office, declaring the meeting was good as he approached Vijay. Standing behind him was Arindam, not looking straight at him! Vijay felt a sharp contraction of his muscles of facial ex-pression. He couldn't smile at either of them. Nor make any comment. He lay still for a moment and completely at a loss. He could not believe Mr. Basu deceiting him this way. Or could he have simply forgotten he had asked him to be present in the meeting! Could it be possible in moments of stress? But he was senior to Arindam and Arindam had no business attending that meeting. He did not handle those stuffs. Something was terribly wrong.

Being explicit in his conversations, as always, Vijay took no time to speak to his boss immediately after he recovered from the initial shock, though greatly perturbed.

"I understood I was to join in the meeting Sir "

Mr. Basu did not seem to be expecting to be confronted in that fashion. Least by Vijay, a subordinate. He seemed to have become uneasy at Vijay's inquiring statement as he glanced at him for a moment and then took away his eyes. Unable to avoid the situation, he said softly without looking towards him,

" Yes you were but probably you had other works as you said the day before while choosing to stay back in station."

"But I am always available when its an important meeting", Vijay clarified. Mr. Basu remained silent as he pressed few keys on his laptop and seemed disinterested to answer Vijay at that moment.

"This can be no reason", he said to himself as he took a deep breadth. He almost came to a conclusion that Mr. Basu had been beguiled by somebody. And that had to happen while he was on the Jamhedpur trip, for he did not observe any abnormality in his attitude towards his until the evening prior to that trip. 

He felt trapped in a net of hypocrisy.

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To be continued