A normal
office day began with 'what to do today' lessons by Anand and ended up with 'what not to do' lessons by Meera. Arathi never understood why she developed a hatred towards Meera when there are umpteen reasons to hate others. By the time she got her first salary, there were lot of familiar faces inside the office. Her lunchtime company extended to Networks manager Unni, Gokul and Dhanya from accounts and Nisha. There were laughter and noises like a school and she began to like the office in spite of all the boring lessons and complaining customers. Day by day there was a certain level of confidence that developed in her. Now she know the name and number of the electric posts through which 'Net Data Line' cables passed. She could memorize numbers so easily which made her a "how do you do it?" person among the other girls who did her same job. She knew that the modems can be installed in a customer space if and only if it was registered at "KNOCK". Till the moment she saw a mail from NOC which is the short form of Network Operating Center, she believed that the modems were "knocked" from sides by a machine which can automatically register the modem numbers. Thus she was almost thorough with the process and people.
Though she got attached to the office, the place where she sat still looked like a big waste basket. Initially she counted the boxes, then the tables, unused broken chairs and other storage spaces. The whole boxes was a convenient home for many cockroaches and mosquitoes besides the unused application forms and brochures in striking colors. As she moved it to one side, all of them fell down together, scattering the forms all over and inviting Shekar to the cubicle.Rejoy and Nisha too joined her. Thus with some time and effort they turned it out as an office. The scattered application forms were numbered and filed, old brochures found its place at a common dumping area and the cubicle had a fresh look. But the phone calls had the same dialogue to say and the power cuts were more frequent.
By this time it was June and rains started to hit the lives of people inside in an absolutely bad way. One fine morning, Shekar came in with the news that Vice president is coming in to check the office. All of them felt like a Tsunami hitting the office. K.N as he is called, was said to be an IIM product with less ears and a mouth full of words which meant bastard! Arathi was asked to keep the register up to date, her daily call sheets to be presented on Shekar's table by afternoon and to keep the filled application forms out of sight.
During lunch, Unni came in with a smile and said, "Tomorrow there is a special show by K.N here. He will make you cry with his looks."
"Why me? I am the last one to meet him, there is Anand, Shekar and all others. After all i am a contract staff. I will resign if he embarrass me. Mind it!!" Arathi said it in spirit. But unfortunately the next day she was the first one who was called. He asked about the less number of calls at month ends and in almost all days.
She stood like "Mary had a little phone and that phone rang all the day". All she could say was, "As you say sir. I will make calls from today." With she completing that sentence, the power went off and there was a killing silence inside the room.
"So what were you doing all these days? why didn't you make calls?" He asked again, this time in a higher tempo.
"Sir, I come here in the morning. then the phone will be engaged as the cable team and others will be making calls. Then by ten, customers who have lost connection will start calling. After answering them and asking them to call the customer care, when i make a call to a customer, they simply kill me over the phone for our poor services of TV connection. then like this power goes off and the phone is dead. Please tell me how to make calls from a dead phone."She expressed all her helplessness.
K.N was silent for a moment and then all she could hear was, "Dong Ding Tang ting dum, bum" and finally "get out". she walked back to the cubicle where she could see faces raising from the accounts and other departments. She smiled and muttered, "It was just a round, more to come". The executives from all nearby places were called up the next day and they came up with registers, sheets and books. Then again there was bomb blasting inside K.N's room and later he was seen out terrible and irritated.
He came up the cubicle and asked aloud, "how do you manage to sit here without power? Don't we have generators?" With that he walked near Unni who said, "generators don't work and we haven't got new ones". Everyone expected a bomb blast, but nothing was heard. K.N left the office this time with a warning that, "The killer will be back in another few days". Shekar shared a common relief with his sub ordinates.
Next day, a new face, a handsome guy, gave her a warm welcome to the office with a good morning wish. She too wished him back. He just said, "I am from Head Office." Arathi had an anxiety to know who he was, but there was nobody in her department to ask. She got into her work and could see her being noticed by the H.O. guy.
"Hey Rohan, when did you come?" It was Rejoy who broke the silence.
"O, an hour back. But she was a very bad company" He said looking at her.
"She don't know you and K.N was here yesterday. Probably BDM and Anand will be on leave today. And she is Arathi, our new complaint recorder.Arathi, this is Rohan, he is from NOC."
She literally wanted to drool down into the earth and kill Rejoy at that moment. How dare he call her a complaint recorder when her profile is Telemarketing & Customer Relations Executive. Though what he said is true to the core, she didn't want the 'handsome' guy to know it. Then when she raised her eyes from the phone, she could see Rohan sitting in front of her.
"So how do you record complaints? let me see." he said with a smile.
She wanted to say something, but there was a road block inside the throat. Voice was not coming out."Hope you are not deaf & dumb" he was provoking.
"Nnn...Oo "I was not ok after the meeting with K.N. he literally threw me down. Sorry, what did you ask?" She somehow managed to ask.
"He does that every time, but he is the most respected officer in this company and the most paid one. I was just kidding. Do you get that many complaints?" he eased the situation paving her some room to talk.
She was well equipped to face any question from anyone soon after joining here. But there was something special or wrong with this guy. His looks were haunting and she wanted to avoid a conversation. With less interest she said, " i am into sales, but all i hear is the abuse from poor customers".
"Can I help you for a day?" That was an offer, she couldn't reject. He called up a number from the list even before she could say a word and spoke to the customer.
The loudspeaker was on and she could hear from the other end, "Your connection is good just inside your office. please keep it with you. I still have that useless modem with me. if you can sell it for a good price and compensate the loss i had, i will be happy. don't call me again with any offers." She skipped her giggle with a cough. But his face was still calm and cool. He took the next number, called the next prospect and repeated the whole dialogue. Then the answer was, "we don't have a computer. then why do we need a net connection?".
Rohan said, "this place is not right. Your database is not prospective. You need to change it and give a try. Take some numbers from the BSL website. (BSL is the telephone department of government). Sort it out by area and then make calls. Even if you don't do it, I liked the way you escaped your smile and handled me. I will be back in the evening. Hope you get some connections by then." He walked out of the cubicle leaving behind a confused Arathi.
The day was good and there was ten connections in her kitty. That was the first time she got these much connections in a day. Unni credited K.N for that, but for her it was Rohan's advice. By evening he was back in the office and she pretended as if she is busy with calls. He checked the register and said aloud, "why don't you give Arathi a big hand? she has ten connections today." Everyone raised there heads to see her. There was a stillness for a moment and then she could hear the word of appreciation. He came near and shook her hands for a while and said, "well done".and there was a "thank you" from her side which he never heard.
As she walked out from the office, there was a call from behind and that was Rohan."I was just waiting for you." Walking along he asked, "Do you stay nearby?" "yes".
"i will be leaving tonight.9860802050..this is your number right? I will give you a missed call. save my number. will give you a call sometime soon. Just wanted to tell you something, you look pretty". "Thanks" that is all she could say.
While sitting inside the auto on that rainy eve, she was happy for all the reasons, for the ten connections, for the apprecaition from colleagues and lastly for the "you look pretty" from Rohan. after all she was a girl at teens!
To be continued....
