ONE NIGHT (29 page)

Bakshi.

Bakshi’s face turned white. His mouth opened five inches wide as he re-

read the email several times.

‘What is this? What the hell is this?’ Bakshi said, his hands trembling as

much as his voice. His mouth was still open and vibrated like it was battery

operated.

‘You tell us. It is a mail from your inbox, dumb ass,’ Vroom said.

But I never wrote it,’ Bakshi said, unable to hide a hint of desperation in

voice, ‘I never wrote it.’

‘Really?’ Vroom said as he lit a cigarette. ‘Now how can you prove you

didn’t write it? Can you prove it to people in the Boston office that you didn’t

write it?’

‘What are you talking about? How is the connected to Boston?’ Bakshi

said, his face sprouting droplets of sweat through the oilfields.

‘Let’s see. What is we forward Boston a copy of this mail? The same

people who you copied on the website manual? I am sure they love employees

who do, well,
fair deals
,’ I said.

‘I never wrote it,’ Bakshi said, unable to think of better lines.

‘Or we could send a copy to the police,’ Vroom said as he blew a huge

puff of smoke on Bakshi’s face, ‘and to some of my reporter friends. You want

to be in the papers tomorrow Bakshi? Here is your chance,’ Vroom took out

his phone, ‘Oh wait, maybe I can even get you on TV.’

‘TV?’ Bakshi said.

‘Yes, imagine the headline: ‘Call center boss asks girls for sexual favors

in exchange for job’. NDTV could live on that for a week. Damn, I know I could

be a good journalist,’ Vroom said and laughed.

‘But what did it do?’ Bakshi said and ran to his desk. He opened his

email and checked the ‘Sent Items’ folder.

‘Who wrote this?’ Bakshi said and ran to his desk. He opened his email

and check the ‘Sent Items” folder.

‘Who wrote this?’ Bakshi said as he saw the same mail on his screen.

‘You didn’t?’ Priyanka said, as if in genuine confusion.

‘Mr Bakshi, I held you in such high esteem. Today my faith in my role-

model is shattered,’ Esha sand and put her hands to her face. She was good—I

think she should try for an acting career.

‘No, I swear I did not,’ Bakshi said, as he scrambled with his mouse and

keyboard.

‘Then who wrote it? Santa Claus? The tooth fairy?’ Vroom shouted and

stood up. ‘You explain this to the police, the journalists and over the video

conference to Boston exces.’

‘hah! Look I have deleted it,’ Bakshi said with a smug smile is he

released his computer mouse.

‘C’mon Bakshi,’ Vroom said with a sigh, ‘it’s still in your ‘Deleted Items

folder.’

‘Oh,’ Bakshi said and jerked his mouse. A few clicks later he said,

‘There, it is gone. No more email.’

Vroom smiled, ‘One more tip for you Bakshi. Go to your Deleted Items,

selected the tools menu and choose the “recover deleted items” option. The

mail will be there,’ Vroom said.

Bakshi’s face panicked again as tried to follow Vroom’s complex

instructions. He desperately clicked his mouse.

‘Oh, stop it Bakshi. The mail is in my inbox as well. And Vroom has many

printouts,’ Esha said.

‘Huh?’ Bakshi said as he looked like a scared rabbit. ‘You’ll never get

away with this. Esha you know I didn’t do it. You wear right skirts and tops

but I only look at them from a distance. Even those jeans that show your waist

I only saw…’

‘Stop right there, you sicko,’ Esha said.

‘You can’t get away with this,’ Bakshi said.

‘We have five witnesses Bakshi, they will support Esha’s testimony,’ I

said.

‘Oh, an we have some other evidence as well. In Esha’s drawer there is

a packet with cash, it has your fingerprints on I, in case you want to get tot

hat level,’ Vroom said.

Bakshi’s fingers trembled as if he was getting ready to ply drums.

‘We also have a printout of your visits to pornographic websites,’

Radhika said.

‘You know it is not me Esha, I will finally get proved innocent,’ Bakshi

said, his voice sounding like a hapless beggar’s. His eyes looked ready to leak.

‘Maybe. But the amazing publicity will be enough to screw your career.

Goodbye Boston,’ I said and waved my hand to indicate farewell. Everyone

else raided their hand and waved goodbye as well.

Bakshi looked at us in horror and sat down. His white face had now

turned red, or rather purple—even though it was still as shiny as ever. I could

see a twitching nerve on the side of his forehead. I felt an urge to make him

suffer more. I stood up to pick a thick management book from his bookshelf.

I went up to Bakshi and stood next to him.

‘Why are you doing this to me? I will be leaving you forever to go to

Boston,’ Bakshi said.

‘Boston?’ I said. ‘You do not deserve a posting to Bhatinda. You do not

even deserve a job. In fact, one could argue you do not even deserve to live.

You are not just a bad boss, you are a parasite: to us, to this company, to this

country. Damn you.’

I banged the management book on his hard head. God, it felt head was

hollow, as the impact made a big noise. God, it felt good. Few people in this

world get to hit their boss, but those who do will tell you it is better than sex.

‘What do you want? What is it you want? You wan to destroy me,’ Bakshi

said, rubbing his head. ‘I have a family with two kids. With great difficulty my

career is going fine. My wife wants to leave me anyway. Don’t destroy me. I

am human too.’

I disagreed with Bakshi’s last phrase. I didn’t think he was human at all.

‘Destroying you is a good, fun option,’ Vroom said, ‘but we have more

worthwhile goals for now. I want to do a deal with you. We bury this issue and

in return you do some things for us.’

‘What kind of things?’ Bakshi said.

‘One. I want to have control of the call center for the next two hours. I

need to get on the mass speaker.’

The one management is used to talk to everyone. Why do you want it?

Will you talk about this email?’ Bakshi said.

‘No, you moron. It is so save jobs at the call center. Now, do I have the

speaker?’

‘Yes. What else?’

‘I want you to write out a resignation letter for Shyam and me. Layoffs

or not, we are quitting Connexions.’

‘You guys are quitting right now?’ the girls said.

‘Yes. Shyam and I will start a small website design business. Right,

Shyam?’ Vroom said.

‘Yes,’ I said. Wow! I thought.

‘Good. And this time, no idiot will take credit for our websites,’ Vroom

said and slapped Bakshi’s face. Bakshi’s face turned sixty degrees from the

impact. He held his cheeks but remained silent, apart from a tiny dry sob. His

facial expression had a combination of ninety percent pain and ten percent

shame

‘May I?’ I said.

‘Be my guest,’ Vroom said.

Slap! I gave a slap on Bakshi’s face. The face turned sixty degrees in the

other direction. It was my most fun career moment. The shiny face turned

hot.

‘So you will do the resignation letter, okay?’ Vroom said.

‘Okay,’ Bakshi said, rubbing his cheek. ‘But Esha will delete the email

right?’

‘Wait. We are not done. Our business will require start-up capital.

Therefore, we need a severance package of six months’ salary. Understood?’

Vroom said.

‘I cannot do six months. It is unprecedented for agents,’ Bakshi said.

‘NDTV or Times of India, you pick,’ Vroom said as he took out his phone.

‘Six months is possible. Good managers break precedents,’ Bakshi said. I

guess no number of slaps could break his jargon.

‘Nice. Last thing. I want you to retract the right-sizing proposal. Arrange

a call with Boston. Ask them to postpone the layoffs to try a new sales-driven

recovery plan for Connexions.

‘I can’t do that,’ Bakshi said.

Vroom lifted his mobile phone and put it in front of Bakshi’s face.

‘I’ll make sure all of India knows you by tomorrow,’ Vroom said. ‘Listen,

you idiot. I don’t care about this job, but there are agents with kids, families

and responsibilities in life. You can’t just fire them. They are people, not

resources. Now, which news channel is your favorite?’

‘Give me half an hour. I’ll set up a call with Boston,’ Bakshi said.

‘Good we’ll bury the email. But you get the hell out of the call center,

this city, and this country as fast as you can. We need a new boss. We need a

normal, decent, inspiring human being and not a slimy, blood-sucking goofball

with fancy degrees.’

Bakshi nodded as he continuously wiped the sweat from his face.

‘Good. Anything else?; you had some questions about my monitor?’

Vroom said.

‘Monitor? What monitor?’ Bakshi said.

#33

Bakshi gave Vroom the key to the speaker room. Soon, Bakshi was on his

phone, calling Boston to arrange management meetings. I have never seen

him work so efficiently.

Vroom went to the broadcast room and switched on the mikes. I went to

the main computers bay to check for sound quality.

‘Hello, everyone. May I have your attention please? This is Vroom, from

the strategic group.’

Vroom’s voice echoed through Connexions. Every agent looked up at the

speakers as they continued to talk tot heir customers.

‘Sorry, to bother you, but we have an emergency. This is about the

layoffs. Can you please disconnect all your calls,’ the speaker said.

Everyone heard the word layoffs and a thousand calls ended at the same

time. New calls flashed, but no one picked them up. Vroom continued:

‘Idiots have managed this place, because of which we have to suffer

tonight. For their mistakes, more than a third of you will lose your jobs. It

does not seem fair to me. Does it seem fair to you?’

No response came back.

‘C’mon guys, I want to hear you. Do I have your support to save your

jobs band this call center?’

All the agents looked at each other, still in partial disbelief. Many of

them said a weak ‘yes’.

‘Louder guys, all together. Do I have your support?’ Vroom said.

‘Yes!’ a collective scream rocked Connexions.

I was standing at the corner hall of the main bay. Every agent glued his

or her eyes to the fire-drill speaker. Vroom continued, this time in a firmer

voice.

‘Thank you. My friends, I am angry. Because every day, I see some of

the world’s strongest and smartest people in my country. I see all this

potential, yet it is all getting wasted. An entire generation up all night,

providing crutches for the white morons to run their lives. And then big

companies come and convince us with their advertising to vale crap we don’t

need, do jobs we hate so that we can but stuff—junk food, colored fizzy

water, dumbass credit cards and overpriced shoes. They call it youth culture.

Is this what they think youth is about? Two generations ago, the youth got this

country free. Now that was something meaningful. But what happened after

that? We have just been reduced to a high-spending demographic. The only

youth power they care about is our spending power,’ Vroom said, and even I

was amazed at the attention every agent gave him.

Vroom continued: ‘Meanwhile bad bosses and stupid Americans suck the

life blood out of our country’s most productive generation. But tonight we will

show them. And for that I need your support. Tell me are you ready to work

hard for the next two hours?’

‘Yes!’ a collective vice cam back. The whole call center vibrated as

Vroom paused to take a breath.

‘Good, then listen. The call center will survive if our call traffic goes up.

My plan is to scare the Americans into calling us regularly. Tell them that

terrorists have hit America with a new computer virus that will take their

country down. The only was they can be safe is if they keep calling us to

report there status. We do it like this, pull out every customer number you