Colourful World
By Sanjay Gora
‘Sanjay, will you come to my room please, right now.’ Maya told him over intercom, she sounded very upset and agitated. Sanjay thought he knew the reason as he walked to her cabin.
Knowing Maya and her husband Rohan before the two fell in love and got married had its pros and cons.
‘Have you met Shiba in Rohan’s office?’ she shot a question the moment he entered.
‘Yes, I have. What happened, all well?’
‘No, all is not well.’
‘Calm down, you look very tense and hassled.’
‘What is the relation between Shiba and Rohan?’
‘They are just colleagues like we are.’
‘Colleagues, my foot. Don’t lie to me.’
‘Really, Maya. They have been working together for last many years. That is all.’
‘Go on. What else?’
‘Nothing. Both are open-minded co-workers.’
‘Don’t play games with me, Sanjay. Tell me what you know.’
‘What do you want to hear, Maya? You tell me.’
‘What the hell is going on between my husband and that bitch?' Maya's patience was at its lowest ebb and she was ready to burst.
Sanjay knew that she was serious. 'Look, Maya. There is nothing going on between the two of them. Just a little bit of healthy flirting, I'd say.'
'Flirting? Healthy flirting? Really Sanjay . . .' she rolled her eyes in disgust. 'That's what you men call it? There is nothing healthy about flirting, Sanjay, not for a married man.
Healthy flirting is a term introduced by perverted men who want to lend legitimacy to their extramarital dalliances. Flirting invariably has a sexual connotation to it.' She got up from her seat and walked around the room gesticulating and muttering something to herself. Suddenly she stopped, turned back, looked at Sanjay and asked, 'Did my husband sleep with her? You are his friend. Did he ever tell you anything about it?'
‘No, he did not. Because Rohan has nothing to tell. And you are jumping to conclusions based on don’t know what, rumours?’
‘Oh, am I, am I? Then what about these photos which tell a different story.’
‘What photos, where did you get them’ said Sanjay, while glancing at them.
‘Some well wisher couriered them to me, I don’t know who. Here I was feeling lucky to be with Rohan and this is what I get for my love and care.’
‘Something is not right here. May be photoshopped.’
‘Haha. You think I am a fool, an idiot. Or you are taking side of your friend.’
Just then, someone knocked. Maya let out a deep breath and said ‘Come in.’
Her 12 noon appointment had come, informed the secretary.
She asked her to send them in and nodded when Sanjay asked to be excused.
After a series of meetings, Maya almost forgot the crisis in her personal life. But the moment she got some free time, her doubts and suspicions rushed back to her mind. She decided to sleep over the problem and confront Rohan about it when he came back from Chennai next day.
Rohan burst out laughing when she started crying while showing the photos to him.
He asked ‘Do you remember I told you about an affair I had before we met? It was with Shiba. She had posted these photos on her Facebook page and I had protested. In fact, this was one of the reasons we broke up, along with her other such acts like sharing naughty jokes and photos with male friends. I could accept a high-flying, ambitious and so-called-modern girl, as a girl-friend, but not as a life partner. Call me narrow-minded, conservative or chauvinist or what you may, but that is who I am.’
Maya hammered his chest with two tiny closed-fists and her tears of sorrow mingled with tears of happiness as she melted into his arms.
She repeated the conversation she had with Sanjay and a feeling of embarrassment dawned on her face.
Rohan patted her red cheeks and asked to forget it happened.
Maya told Sanjay next day that it was all a confusion and apologised for being harsh with him.
He managed to bring a smile to his face and said ‘Never mind. It happens.’
Things went on smoothly for some days but Maya’s luck ran out soon.
Their company auditors had come across a payment which had been made wrongly. Maya had approved the proposal as well as the bill. It was a double whammy in fact. Instead of paying due amount of Rs. 25000, an amount of Rs. 250000 had been paid and that too to a wrong party which had a similar sounding name. Maya was confident that she could never make such a blunder but she could not prove the papers wrong. It was her signature alright that much she could see for herself. One possibility was that someone might have got her signature on wrong documents fraudulently. But that did not absolve her of the responsibility and she could not raise finger on anybody without being fully sure.
She was now repenting the trust she reposed in her team and the way she used to sign the papers after a quick glance. It was not that all the juniors were corrupt or careless, but anyone could make a human error. That is why there were three layers of passing and approvals. It was her bad luck that she was the highest approving authority.
Rohan was once again a pillar of strength and comforted her that since her intentions were not wrong, things will work out. She could not forgive herself for such a foolish mistake and was worried for several hours at a stretch.
Her good relations with Finance team came in handy. Her counterpart in Finance asked her to trace the phone number of party to whom payment had been made and they went to his office to explain the situation. The client turned out to be a friend of the Finance guy. He readily agreed to return the payment on the spot.
Maya could not believe her stars. A few hours back, she was in despair and gloom, stressed about punishment that will be meted out to her and now the problem had almost dissolved in thin air.
Her mind then shifted its focus to another problem she was facing for last many days. Since the audit issue was so complex and big, she had been engrossed in it completely. Before the audit began, she was getting the impression that her work plans and targets were not secret anymore. For last couple of months, she was barely able to maintain her number one position in sales, which was a cake walk for her earlier. Other teams were getting close. Someone was passing on their strategies and goals to competing teams. She tried to investigate the matter in her own way but could not reach a conclusion.
Maya then entrusted Sanjay to help her with this issue. He assured her that he would find out the culprit soon. But after some weeks, he surrendered and said, ‘I tried my best but the cheat is too smart.’
Maya was confused so she asked a way out from her honorary consultant at home, Rohan. He knew of her audit problem and the current imbroglio. Rohan asked some questions about the leaking of documents, thought for almost an hour and told her in a pensive manner ‘I have got half solution to your problem. You tell Sanjay that you would be forced to escalate the matter to the level of CEO if the leakage does not stop soon.’
‘But he has already confessed that he can not find the person?’ asked Maya.
‘So? You are not asking him to find the person. Just push him to spread the word to all team members. Hopefully leakage will stop as the cheat will have a fear of being caught in case of formal investigation at CEO level.’
‘Oh, now I get it.’
Maya did as was told by Rohan and wonder of wonders, the leakages stopped.
But fate had more in store for her.
On a Sunday, the CEO called her to work for an urgent assignment. She reached office at around 11 a.m. and started working on the project. Midway she realized that she needed some papers for the report, which were with Sanjay. CEO had given her a deadline of 2 PM and it was drawing near. She tried calling Sanjay at his cell and home number but could not reach him.
In panic she called Rohan to help reach Sanjay. He tried but could not. Rohan then suggested that she break open the drawer in Sanjay’s room and take out the papers if it was that urgent. She was not sure she should do it. What would Sanjay think.
‘Do you really have a choice?’ asked Rohan.
She realized she did not. So she asked the peon to break open the drawer so that she can look for papers.
He did as asked and went out. While frantically searching for the papers, some sheets fell out of her hands and as she bent down to pick them up, she was stunned. Spread on the floor were the photos of Rohan and Shiba, like the ones she had got in courier. Her hands started shaking, she steadied herself and got hold of armrest for support. After a few seconds, when throbbing in her temple slowed down and her heart beat normalised, she shuffled the papers and found the copies of bills which she had originally signed with right amount and right party name. So she was right all along that someone had framed her.
Suddenly the pensive look on Rohan’s face came flashing to her mind when he had told her that leakage will stop after she tells Sanjay.
She gathered herself and finished the assignment as she wanted to speak to Rohan in person asap.
She rushed home and narrated the whole incident to Rohan. He was listening calmly.
Maya then threw that question to Rohan which was troubling her since she saw the photos, ‘Tell me the truth. That day when you suggested that I tell Sanjay about escalation of leakage to CEO level, had you guessed by then that Sanjay is behind all this?’
‘Well, it was just a hunch.’
‘But then why didn’t you tell me?’
‘Told you na, I was not 100 % sure.’
‘But Sanjay? Why did he? He was your friend, damn it.’
‘He was not very happy when you were promoted and he was not promoted. He did not tell me directly but I could see that. Maybe he was nurturing revenge since then.’
‘But what about trust, friendship, ethics?’ Asked Maya.
To which, Rohan replied with a line from the Hindi song ‘Yeh duniya badi rangili.’ (You will get to see all varieties in this world)
