chapter 8

Chapter 8A trip and a fallShe started on seeing Mr. Arya walking in.“And what is the secret?” he asked, having obviously overheard her parting shot.“I was just joking, Mr. Arya,” she fumbled.“Come, sit. How is it going? The site takes too long to open up. This won’t do… I was showing it to a customer,” he complained as Chintan vacated the chair for his father. Chintan quickly intervened and said, “Yes, I have spoken to the IT team about that.”“Come in, come in,” Arya said, as she continued to hover near the door. “I was meeting Mr. Tripathi, one of our customers. He is not happy with the marketing copy the team has given him.”She looked helplessly at Chintan and started saying, “Sir, really…”Chintan intervened. “Baba, why don’t we call the marketing head and discuss this? I think we had indicated to customers that we won’t do the text for them.”Mr. Arya looked at Chintan scathingly and said, “You want us to lose business? All these crappy articles going up! The editorial does not have to waste time doing that. Ask them to do the copy of the advertisers. That is our bread and butter.”“Yes, baba…but…”Mr. Arya ignored Chintan and turned to Anu. “You think your content is read? I analysed the visitor statistics. Absolutely no hits there. Why waste your time doing unproductive work? This is more important. The team you have – I see them on the phone all the time. I want accountability.” Mr. Arya started sounding angry. “The marketing guys run around, and you spoil it by not giving them support! I will not tolerate this nonsense.”“Mr. Arya,” Anu cut in. “You can decide as you wish. I have given my resignation letter and am going on leave from Monday. I will introduce you to the editorial person. You can tell her what you want.”Mr. Arya’s face contorted in anger. “Who did you give the letter to? When?”“I gave it to Chintan sometime back and have stayed back only so I can train the next person. But if you don’t want content, I don’t need to stay on.”Arya turned to Chintan. “You didn’t tell me about this?”Chintan looked at her helplessly. Anu felt sorry for him, but that was his problem. She stood her ground, intractable.“Yes baba, she did, about two weeks ago, when you were not in town.”“Why didn’t you tell me?” Mr. Arya demanded.“We have been busy getting the marketing in shape,” Chintan said smoothly.“Have you forwarded it to the board?” Mr. Arya asked. Chintan hesitated, then shook his head. “Give it to me, where is it.”Chintan and Anu looked at each other as Mr. Arya took the letter. He tore it. “You are not going anywhere. What is ‘personal reasons’?”Anu was shocked. “Mr. Arya, I don’t fit in here.”“I will make you fit. You have potential, and you want to throw it away? Where are you going? Which company?”She hesitated, then said, “It is an online news portal.”“Online news portal? Hmm…Which one, come on, tell me.”Anu felt close to tears and looked at Chintan to rescue her. Chintan said, his tone persuasive, “Baba, we don’t want people who don’t want to work here.”“Is that what you think? I have just now promised Mr. Tripathi I will send the best person in my team to write the copy for him. I am going to do this for all my customers. And if we lose her now…whom do you think I am going to send?”“Baba, we will hire copywriters. They are not hard to find!” Chintan said. “Hire copywriters!” Mr. Arya shrieked. “They cost a bomb! Where do you think money is going to come from? I don’t run a charity! Tell me,” he turned to Anu, “where are you joining? If I talk to them, they will understand.”“No!” Anu whimpered despite herself. Controlling her anger, she said, “Please Mr. Arya, I will meet Mr. Tripathi, and train some others. But I have to be off.”He waved a dismissal and said, “Tell me, now.”She looked at Chintan, who sat silently, like carved in stone. She blurted out the name and number and watched Arya talk suavely to the company she was to join. He was smooth, diplomatic, and delivered his threat - subtly dropping a line on his influence with the I&B ministry. Who didn’t know of his power? When he put the phone down, he smiled at her kindly. “That’s taken care of. You are not obliged to join there now,” he said, as if she had been fearing how to get out of that job.Anu didn’t know what she had done to deserve this punishment. She looked at Chintan who refused to look at her, and felt anger rising up. And then, she was struck by the weariness on his face. She resisted the urge to reach out to him and walked out to nurse her wound.