Collateral damage!
This is not at all the Hollywood movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger that was released in early 2002 and did not do very well at the box office as it was unfortunately badly hit by collateral damage from the sequels. of the 9/11 terrorist attack. . If so, it would be an extremely unnecessary and unwarranted exercise to write a review at this irrelevant time. So, let’s remove the sad memories of the terrorist attack that inadvertently slipped from our minds and focus on the “lighter” side with this piece that is about a normal office, but filled with a considerable number of employees occupying two floors. of a building in the best location in a city, on a normal day.
Routine activities were going on since the morning without incident of that normal work day as if it had been going on for a long time. Files moving to top executives’ desks and moving in due time; the steaming cups of tea arriving at various desks on two floors with a few hungry or greedy souls ordering the hot sandwiches available outside at cheap prices and the empty crockery being removed in due time; and, of course, some business or passing visitors had been in and out of various rooms or chambers. It was absolutely a normal day with no signs of any problems.
In a routine exercise, a junior executive walked into a senior executive’s chamber around noon with some important files for approval. The two were always on friendly terms and the younger, ignoring the gloomy face the older had at that particular moment, greeted him warmly and sat down in one of the chairs lined up in front. The upperclassman who seemed to be immersed in a pile of documents abruptly looked up and almost shouted, “Who asked you to sit down? Keep standing until I say otherwise!”
The surprised young man stood up abruptly, managing to stutter, “Is something wrong, sir?” though she didn’t normally use ‘sir’ and often addressed him by his name which, by the way, was Ramesh.
“Mind your business… Now! Give me the damn files!” Ramesh was looking at him like a demon.
The young man decided to remain silent until the job was finished; however, he couldn’t prevent an equally grim countenance from taking full control of his face. Ramesh never asked him to sit down and he kept yelling, unnecessarily while the young man reasoned in silence, for about fifteen minutes at the end of which he finally signed the approval with a sullen face. The young man felt insulted and humiliated enough, and was relieved that no one entered during the storm. He nearly ran into his room and flopped heavily into his chair, his face contorted as if he had terrible indigestion.
At that very moment, the jovial and ever-smiling accountant came in with a few more files to jot down his comments before sending them to the higher authority. Now, the underling glared at him demonically without even asking him to sit down and continued to find errors in the accountant’s notes in the files, absolutely unnecessarily while the shaken accountant silently reasoned, and kept yelling dismissing him in rapid fury. The accountant nearly ran into the staff room, sat grimly in his chair, and rested her distorted face on her folded hands on the desk, avoiding looking at the other staff members in the large room filled with cubicles.
An assistant noticed the gloomy mood of his immediate boss, the accountant, and jokingly asked if he had been suddenly possessed by a ghost. The accountant nearly yelled at the poor attendant to shut up, and the large room instantly became louder and more unpleasant with more questions pouring out from other members, turning the accountant into some kind of adult demon. At that moment a farmhand entered smiling holding a tray of tea in paper cups. He had to face the profane chorus that took him by surprise: “To hell with your bloody tea!” The pawn slammed the tray onto a nearby empty table and escaped in one piece.
The gloom built up and spread like a virus, infecting the entire two floors of the office. In a passage on the upper floor, she found an executive lady crying uncontrollably to her colleagues, complaining in a hoarse voice about something. Only the overlord sat impassively and benevolently in his swivel chair in the rather large chamber, enjoying his lunch with unusual relish.
The peons always ate lunch together in the downstairs lounge, near the chambers of all the important executives. At that lunch hour some were offended while others proceeded calmly. However, the usual casual chatter was absent and absolute silence reigned. One of the reassuring peons broke the silence as if he thought it was his sacred duty to do so.
“Guys! I think I know why our office has suddenly become so gloomy with all the yelling and temper outbursts!”
They all looked at him expectantly. He narrated, as our intelligent readers must have guessed long ago, that when he entered the overlord’s chamber with the usual morning cup of tea, he found Ramesh standing before the chief’s desk, shocked and shaking uncontrollably as the chief . he kept firing him for the delay in cleaning up an important file. The shooting hadn’t stopped until the pawn did his job and left. “Obviously, Mr. Ramesh was even more insulted that he came at that time!” the pawn added, smiling now.
Everyone started giggling and out loud, now finding a reason to enjoy lunch, the usual small talk took over. The news spread like wildfire through the office in the post-lunch hour and the laugh virus began to infect most of the staff and executives, but obviously Ramesh and perhaps a handful of other officers. that were still uninfected. Normalcy would be fully restored the next day, though the hierarchy’s filter chain would still be there unbroken for eternity; the enlightened ones waited.