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Thursday, February 08, 2007

The Thiru-Thani story

Thanigaachalam was standing before the mirror in the Men's Restroom at his office. He splashed water on his face. He felt the cold drops streaming down his face. He smirked at the satire of the later half of his name sounding like jalam, which meant water in his mother tongue. The wrinkles that he had recently developed were a clear sign of the stress he had been under. He thought about everyting - the torrid time he had been having under his rude manager, Thirumoorthy. Its been 4 full years, he thought. He had worked his heart out without rewards. "Attention to details is missing" would be the standard remark from his manager. I deserved more, he thought. I always did. He instinctively wanted to break the glass in the mirror. But the thought of the last hour stopped him. He felt happy.

There was a vacancy for a position that matched his profile in a competitor's organization. He had seen the ad in the jobs section of "The Daily Siren", the local newspaper and had hurriedly applied for it. He made the job quite easily. The new location was closer to his home, saving him a full 4 km travel daily and the rise in salary was highly appreciable. Everything is going to end. No more invidious remarks from the manager. He took out paper napkins from the dispenser nearby to clean his face.

Thanigaachalam entered the posh building of his new organization. The relieving process in his old firm was surprisingly smooth. He was surprised when Thirumoorthy offered minimal resistance in releasing him. "The fact that he does not like me made it easier" he thought to himself. He spoke with the receptionist who guided him to the 7th floor to meet his new manager and team. He could feel the anticipation brimming inside him. He had never felt better. He took the elevator and walked up the floor briskly and asked the security "Where is the cabin of Manager, Operations". "Fourth one on the left saar". He located it and was surprised to see no Name plate on the cabin door. "Strange" he thought. On stepping inside, Thanigaachalam almost fainted. There he was, Thirumoorthy in all his glory.

"Welcome Thani. It is great to see you here." Thiru smiled
"Sir, How come you are here?" Thani blurted out
"I am Manager, Operations for this company Thani. I joined yesterday. There was an ad on The Daily Siren which directed me here. I wanted to keep it a secret from you since I wanted to give you a surprise. I am very happy and consider myself fortunate to get to work with someone I know already. Isn't it?"
"Err. Yes sir. Me too"
"You look so tired. I think you can do with some water. By the way, did you also make the job through the ad on The Daily Siren. I saw a vacancy for your position right above mine"
Thanigaachalam remembered water and jalam, but was not amused. "If only I had read the contents of the ad properly. Attention to details" he thought.

4 comments:

Ashwin said...

Will have to make it a point to browse through all job postings, in addition to mine and make sure none of them matches my manager's skill sets :)

WhO ElsE said...

@Ashwin: hehe.. Hope ur manager does not read this blog ;)

Anonymous said...

Good one da Sai... I always scan for openings matching my skill set.. now need to consider my mgr too... :-)

- Arun

WhO ElsE said...

@Arun: Nanri hai :)