26. Slicker tricker

We were three different kind of guys. I'd actually like to make it two guys and another one at a distance from us

Tom used to be the guy who stood first in his class, conduct crash courses for the entire hostel the day before exam, and obviously sleep walked over the sleep walked through the placement program into the job he wanted.

I on the other hand huffed and puffed through the routines, managed to scramble through courses without much scratch and by luck end up in the same company as he did.

Then there was Joel, he was not ‘Tom’ but not me either. He planned meticulously, buttered the right profs, slipped through with good grades, and touched down to the same job by sweet talking the entire placement panel.

Honey Dew:

Before I reveal which approach is good or who came on top at the end, let me explain an incident. Anita aka Honey (she isssss a ‘Honey’) is the fourth member of our small team of freshers that joined together, and was always good at using the resources available with her (that includes getting help from droolers like Joel)

So one day when she wanted some issue to be clarified, she made the obvious choice and approached Tom. And Tom was gaga about it the whole day “Finally I spoke to a girl for more than five minutes continuously and that too she approached me and not the other way around.”

“You know she approached me even when our boss was nearby, and he wasn’t even that much busy” he continued in the dinner table

“Then you better watch out for her” warned Joel “Bosses get upset by these things, and he might even try to jeopardize your career due to this. And Anitha might have guessed this and approached you intentionally, cos she knows you are her prime contender”

Had it been me I’d have just said “who cares, it’s worth the dribble with ‘Honey’” But it was Tom, and he didn’t speak, literally stopped speaking with Honey before our boss

Joel had told Tom to say that he was ‘busy’ or ‘I don’t know’ when Anitha approached him, but Tom did not want to be rude, and never can feign ignorance. But Joel’s ploy worked when he’d told Anitha that he was working on something and later caught playing ‘minesweeper’ minutes later.

So this is what happened in the end. Joel called Anitha while she was waiting for our boss, and offered to help her. “Our boss is always busy with one thing or other, being the star performer he has been given more responsibilities by top management” he spoke louder so that even the deaf office help at other end of the floor could hear him.

“And he had explained this to me yesterday. He did it in a neat and sophisticated way. I may not match him, but will atleast try to make you understand” and I could watch our boss ebb with pride as if he had overheard something that was not addressed to him.

And that evening he had the tutor session continued at the coffee shop in the campus. And it’s anybody’s guess who’ll rule the roost for the rest of their career.

Or is it that straightforward ????

inky pinky ponky

It was a few days since we had settled down to our respective roles. Whatever Joel had said about our boss, he was considered a little brainy and a task master, and I’d always envy my friend Tuffy who used to have a ‘cool’ boss

“It’s not like we don’t do any work, he doesn’t make much fuss about what we do and lenient on many of those corporate rules” he’d say

I had met his boss once, when I & Tuffy were eating together in the food court. “Guys in our team say that they are lucky because he teaches them every step. Is this a school?” I vent out my frustration about a colleague of mine

Tuffy later told me that the senior looking person who sat beside as was his boss, and I think he smiled at me when I made that ‘school’ comment

“And when there’s not much work, he doesn’t mind me chatting for the whole day with Neha” he continued, to remind for the n^th time that he has a pretty girl in his team, whom he gets to flirt with.

And I got to meet her few days further when we had Tuffy’s birthday bash

“So you’re in Joshua sir’s team?” she had worked with my boss during her internship it seemed. “You must be really a bright chap…”

“Yup… inky pinky ponky….” I quipped

“What???” she looked puzzled

“You have a cool boss yourself to boast about…” I returned the compliment

We really hit it off that day. She seemed to agree with almost everything I said, and looked like we had similar interests almost everything.

“Do you like classical music?” she asked me as we were about to leave

“Don’t have much patience for that” I replied without recollecting that there was a concert scheduled in our office premises that weekend

 “Ya… me too, meet you soon” she said, and it was a while since she left when I realized that she might not actually dislike classical music & might have been meaning that we could go to the concert together

Slicker tricker

“You know she agreed to everything I said, as if she wanted me to feel that we think alike” I could not control myself boasting to Tom

“You know she wanted to be in our team” Joel barged in

“Is it? She told me she interned with our boss”

“She was asking me if there’s possibility of swap between teams. May be that’s what she’s buttering you for” he was trying to pull me down from elated state, and despite knowing his sly tactics I kind of felt insecure and having doubts

“She doesn’t seem that sort of person, and It’s not worth that much just to shift to a team cubicles across” I proclaimed

“She’s a girl, and girls would act more for much less, you can trust me on that” he spoke like he knew what he was speaking “and you don’t realize how lucky you are to get into our division do you? I know people who hound behind the HR to somehow get into our division”

That was news for me. May be that’s why she thought I should be a bright chap

I eventually decided to go to the music concert, and since I couldn’t bring up courage to call up Neha to reinstate the schedule, I tagged along with Anitha & co, so that I could bump into her ‘accidentally’

Even nerdy Tom could say that it was a stupid move, and lack of any warning & an unusual subtle encouragement from Joel confirmed that it was a stupid decision

“I came only because my friends compelled me to…” I told Neha when I did accidentally bump into her, and she realized that ‘friends’ included only Anitha

“Your friends compelled??? You begged me to let you tag along…” Anitha pulled my leg, “He doesn’t even know the difference between swara and raga” she complained about me to Neha

“You’re not my Maths teacher and she’s not my mom, why do you quetch about me to her?” I couldn’t tolerate my friends betraying me when I need their help the most

Smooth & shiny

I somehow managed to delink the Anitha bogey from our train, and Neha was more than willing to my offer for a treat, only that she shifted the location from the café I had in mind to her ‘favourite’ chaat shop nearby

But I couldn’t tolerate for more than a while her agreeing with whatever I said, and constant allusions to my intelligence. “Am not that brilliant as you think, not all people in Joshua’s team are”

She was still trying to hold on to her captivating smile as I continued “that’s what ‘inky pinky ponky’ means. I got here by luck”

“Am not that dumb not to realize what that means, but you should know he doesn’t pick up his team that way” she interjected

“Your boss is not bad either” I tried to console her

“You know what he said when I complained that he doesn’t teach stuffs? ‘This is not a school’. You know how mad I became that day?” I did not intend to let her know from whom he might have got that phrase

“It’s not that bad as it seems, he is really cool. As a matter of fact I’d have liked it better if I were posted in his team”

“That’s why thought you’d like to swap”

“So that’s why you hang out with me?  To cajole me to swap places with you?” May be that came out wrong, might be right logically, but wrong by societal norms

“You know what? I changed my mind, if I have to choose between having an arrogant boss like him and a teammate like you, I’d choose the former” she left

She came back, kept the money for the bill on the table and said “And now you can’t even complain how I managed not to pay the bills by throwing up tantrums” I never thought that way, but can’t guarantee I wouldn’t have in sometime future

Ad lib

It was about a year since that happened. Joel continued to play his sly tactics. It turned out that even my boss was cool in his own arrogant sort of way. And by the way she moved along in her cubicle I could see even Neha was enjoying her office time.

But I was happy that life had served its own form of justice. No matter how deceptive he was, Joel could never overshadow Tom’s pure talent. And despite his overly sweet talks neither Neha nor Honey could consider him a hang out buddy, and he was more of a loner other than few other guys in similar shades like him.

And one day Neha herself approached me during tea break “Hi, hope you don’t remember our little hassle” she reminded me the only thing that comes to my mind whenever I saw her

“Leave it yaar… it spices up our lives” I tried to act cool, wondering what she was up to this time

May be I was acting too suspicious, may be Neha really was acting friendly, may be what Joel had said had got to me,  may be what he does is not all evil as it seems... these are questions that may not be answered at all, but that's how life is... incoherent, illogical, and with many loose ends...

And one thing's for sure, slicker or tricker.. you are responsible for whatever you do...