19th, that was the day of joining. Arathi took up all the papers, certificates, mark lists etc and obviously her letter of appointment. She made a prayer, "As I am joining at the end of the month, please don't delay my first salary as I have promised Hanuman a vadamala on the 6th of next month." She made some smiling exchanges to all the Gods and got down to join there.
There were almost all the staff in the office by 9 am.
That was the first time she saw the whole office in lights. Everyone looked busy and none of them even noticed her. She reached the end of the office where she met Anand. It was then she noticed that the cubicle has no ventilation. There were lots of boxes which was filled and over flowed with papers. it didn't look like a part of that office. She was forced to believe that it was the place where the whole office waste were dumped in boxes.
As she stood near the entrance of the cubicle, Anand walked in and asked her to sit inside. He introduced her to Nisha, who was the accountant and the person who temporarily handled her post. She was a lean and tall lady with a smile not so good on her face. She handed over a phone to Arathi and said, "you can use only this phone. Don't attend any complaints in this phone. Ask them to call on the customer care number, 2723223 or 2723222.. Don't answer any unnecessary calls. When inquiries come in, you need to describe them the plan. Here it is, for 99 rs you get 50MB and for 199, 100MB, 399 is an unlimited plan. But don't say that we have a 99rs plan to anyone. Promote unlimited more " and she handed over an yellow pamphlet which said the plans.
"Now this is the directory and this is the data I collected. You need to make calls, write it here with the response." Nisha woke up from the seat and moved to a system. Arathi stared for a moment, at the paper in hand and phone on the table. She shifted to the chair where Nisha sat earlier and looked around. A man was sitting behind her cubicle. He smiled at her. When she was suppose to give a smile, Anand called her, "Arathi, come here..Will give you the target of this month. "
Even before she could say a word, he handed over another paper, a book and a register. so now she had a table, a phone, a pamphlet, a book and a register which is going to be her world. She opened the shelves of her table to see another replica of the cardboard boxes inside the cubicle. There were umpteen forms, filled, half filled, some torn and others unused. she picked up one and tried to read it. It was a three page form in yellow, pink and white. The yellow was the first and all others were separated by carbon copies. It was the registration form for new users. She stood up and walked near Nisha with that piece of paper in hand and asked, "what is this? How do we use this?"
"Who asked you to take that form? You must not open that table. It is mine and i keep my bag there. If you want, you can use that table"she pointed out to the table at the other end where Anand sat.
But I asked you about this form?" Arathi repeated.
"Oh that's the registration form. You can take new ones from that boxes. Not this one. These are all my connections and it comes to my credits and my salary."
"What's the number of that phone?"
"3240900"
That's a fancy number. Arathi thought. She dialed her number first and checked whether the number is same on the mobile. It is. She began to sit and read the pamphlet, the book, the register and the target sheet. All she could understand is that each month she must reach a target of 10. Anything after that will make her more rich and for that these papers and book will help. The register had uneven columns, untidy pages and different hand writings. The register was named Connection register in a dirty handwriting with a red marker. She flipped the pages to see some letters which made no sense other than nonsense. It had name, address, connection and "remake". What is this remake? She had less courage to ask that to Nisha. She looked around again. The people who sat next to Nisha was Rejoy and Meera. They were busy attending calls and another phone was ringing there continuously. None of them noticed. She again looked back and smiled at the person who sat there.
She saw in his table a small name board which said Regional Finance Executive, Harikumar. E. They exchanged a Hi and as she turn around, the phone was taken away by a tall and masculine guy who tried not to look at her.
"Rinesh, she is our new tele caller." Nisha said to him. He passed a smile and said, "All the best".
Whenever Nisha mentioned about her, Arathi could see a grudge on her face for some reason. All others sat as if she is a nobody in the office. It was around 11.30 by then. A lady came in with tea and she served tea to all inside except Arathi. Then again, Nisha took the initiative to introduce Arathi. Then turning to Arathi she said, "come let us have tea".
There was a small corridor which led to the lunch room where hardly five people can sit at a time. She wondered how the sixty people who worked there had lunch in an hour. As she returned to the cubicle, Amith was seen. "Oh, Hi, I forgot that you are joining today. Had some work outside. Got settled?" He asked in his usual careless way.
"Yups, somewhat. Which is your place?"
"I belong to that section, not here." He said as he pointed out to another big cubicle where there were lots of phone, people and sound. "See you in the evening.Bye". He left the cubicle.
Back to the table, she saw all her 'property' safe and untouched. She stared at the 'remake' heading to understand that they meant 'remarks'. She corrected it with her new fancy green pen which she bought the other day.
She was reading and learning the whole plans in a way so that she can start working from the afternoon. At Lunch time she met some more girls in her profile who work in Amith's section. They surprised her by saying their achievements and told her that the boys in the office are not good and she should be careful about her manager. All she could return was a smile.
She picked up the data which Nisha gave her and took the phone to make a call. The first number was of a Col. Sunder Pandey. She made the call. A very old man picked the call from the other side.
"Hello good afternoon Sir, I am Arathi, calling from Net Data line. Can I talk to you now.?" she asked very politely.
"Ohh.at last you called. You know I lost my connection two days back. Still not reinstated. where are your people? Is this the way you treat customers? Where is that lady who promised to sent me someone with a new modem?"
He was lashing out in anger. Arathi couldn't even say a word. Before she could say anything, he disconnected the call saying,"Dirty bastards".
She sat with a lost breath for a moment. Then walked near the customer care people and said, " I called Col. Sunder Pandey for a new connection and he said his connection is lost since two days.." Before she could complete, Meera asked, "are you here to support us or create more troubles. Why did you call him? Who asked you to do that?"
"Nisha gave me the list and I called for new connection. Never knew that he had one." She tried to clear her innocence.
"Arathi, what are you doing with the customer care? Show me what have you done till now?" That was Shekhar, the BD manager.
"Sir, I was learning the plans. then checked out these register and list. I made a call and he said, his connection is lost since two days. Thought to inform it here. That's it." Arathi told as she walked back to her table.
He checked the list, turned to Nisha and said, "all these people have connections. This is for you to call, not for her".
Nisha gave a furious reddened look to Arathi.
"Now start calling from a new list" He instructed Arathi and went out.
There was a silence till a boy came in saying, " Colonel's problem was not modem, his power switch was off". Everyone burst out into laughter. Arathi couldn't hold on. She smiled as she thought "Dirty Bastards" !!
She saw Nisha getting up and nearing her.
"Sorry". Arathi said.
"Oh! It was a confusing day. You will be alright by tomorrow. Now go home". She said like a school teacher.
That first day after the first show, Arathi walked out of the office with names and faces she is going to bear for the coming days!!!
To be continued...
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