Suddenly Anis burst out in tears, “What have I done? Afreen what have I done?”
Kuddus was surprised to see this change, “If you loved your daughter so much, then why didn’t you spare her life.”
Anis was struggling to hold his tears. He took a while to calm himself and replied, “She would be the next target and I couldn’t let her live a life of a slave. It’s much better being dead than being a slave.”
Kuddus turned around and yelled, “Chotu bring a glass of water.”
A while later Chotu enters the room and puts the glass on the table. Everyone could see the anger in his eyes. As if he was disgusted to serve this maniac.
Anis drinks the full glass of water with one sip and looks down. He has seen this look for the past three years. It doesn’t bother him anymore. He has lost everything and there is nothing that he can lose from the moment his family died.
He is not saying anything but his lips are moving.
Kuddus is thinking this might be a very different issue than the type of cases they are used to.
Kuddus asks, “You are saying you were being bullied because of the overload of work, but isn’t this natural if you struggle to cope with work every employee will treat you badly.”
Anis replies, “But in every sector, it becomes very difficult to work when no one is cooperating with you. And we all know the effects of bullying. If you are bullied, it will definitely reduce your productivity.”
Kuddus could not understand why an employer should hack the mobile of an employee of such a low level. This truly doesn’t make any sense.
Kuddus asks, “It seems like you know a great deal about how you were abused, but why aren’t you telling their names, so that we can make sense of what you are saying. Other than that this would only be false accusations and nothing else.
Anis replies, “If I spill out their names, you all will be scared and I won’t even get the chance to express my last words. But I assure you I will tell their names once I am done.”
Kuddus looks at his wrist and thinks he will surely be late for his daughter’s birthday. He looks up, “But how did you know that your mobile was being hacked, when they hid many things from you.”
Anis continued, “Actually, they didn’t use my name, but they would express the scenario in 3rd person so that I couldn’t ask them directly about what they were plotting. Like ‘we have finished him’ or ‘now everybody knows’. The work was mostly done by the director's cousin who worked in the IT department.”
Anis stopped and looked at Kuddus to be sure if he requires any further clarification. Kuddus nodded.
Anis carried on, “So, you can understand that I was facing hell out there, and even after being confirmed that there is no chance of getting another job anywhere I felt relief after resigning from that company. I was finally at peace with myself. Oh sorry, I missed the main part in all of that. You must be wondering how did I know that I won’t be getting any job anywhere. The answer to that is whenever or wherever I went from the office I could hear people talking about me, but never mentioning my name. It made me more aware of the fact that I will never get another job. Now, the most dangerous impact about this is that I could hear people talking about me even I am on a bus or in an auto-rickshaw. The thing never hit me that no one can see who is in the passenger seat in the auto-rickshaw.”
He pauses for a bit to gather his thoughts and carries on,
“After leaving that job I had to be unemployed for about a month and I made a promise to the god that I would distribute a goat to the villagers for getting another job. So, I went to my village and on the next day of arriving there, I had sacrificed a goat and distributed the meat among the villagers. It really didn’t give me any assurance, but it gave me the peace of doing a good deed. Now, the most interesting fact is that the moment I was done and was on my way to my father-in-law's place where I was staying, I received a call from an ex-colleague of mine from that company. He only asked me where I was and if I got another job or not.
However, we came back from my village and within the next ten days, I had received two great news that my wife was pregnant and I was called for a job interview from my father’s friend’s office. It seemed like my luck was changing. I went to that office sharp at 9 am and had to wait for 2 hours for being called for the interview. But, the most shocking news came later. They were looking for a Manager and I came for that position. This was really surprising for me and to be frank I was quite scared of taking such responsibility.”
