Collateral damage!

This is by no means the Arnold Schwarzenegger starring Hollywood movie that was released in early 2002 and did not do very well at the box office, unfortunately being negatively affected by the collateral damage caused by the sequels. of the terrorist attack on September 11. . 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 unintentionally slipped from our minds and focus on the “lighter” side with this piece 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 from the uneventful morning of that normal work day as if it had been going on for a long time. Files being moved to the desks of top executives and moved in due time; the steaming cups of tea arriving at various desks on the two floors with some hungry or greedy souls ordering the hot sandwiches available outside at cheap prices and the empty crockery being cleared away in good time; and, of course, some business or passing visitors had been going in and out of various rooms or chambers. It was absolutely a normal day with no indication of any problem.

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 grim face the older had at that particular moment, greeted him warmly and sat down in one of the chairs lined up in front. The senior who seemed to be immersed in a pile of documents looked up abruptly and almost yelled, “Who asked you to sit down? Keep standing until I say otherwise!”

The startled young man jerked to his feet, 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 stop an equally grim countenance from taking full control of his face. Ramesh never asked him to sit down and he continued to yell, unnecessarily as the young man reasoned in silence, for about fifteen minutes at the end of which he finally signed off with a sullen face. The young man felt insulted and humiliated enough, and he was relieved that no one got inside during the storm. He almost ran to his room and plopped down heavily in his chair, his face contorted as if he had terrible indigestion.

At that very moment, the jovial, ever-smiling accountant came in with a few more files to jot down his comments before sending them off to higher authority. Now, the underling demonically glared at him without even asking him to sit down and kept finding errors in the accountant’s notes in the files, absolutely unnecessarily as the shaken accountant reasoned silently, and kept shouting dismissing him in swift fury. The accountant almost ran to the staff room, sat grimly in his chair, leaning her distorted face on her folded hands on the desk, avoiding looking at the other staff members in the large, cubicle-filled room.

An assistant noted the gloomy mood in his immediate boss, the accountant, and jokingly asked if a ghost had suddenly possessed him. The accountant nearly yelled at the poor attendant to shut up, and the large room instantly became louder and nastier with more questions pouring out from other members, turning the accountant into some sort of grown-up demon. At this moment a laborer came in 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 banged the tray on 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 inconsolably to her colleagues, complaining hoarsely 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 cameras of all the important executives. At that lunch hour some were offended while others proceeded calmly. However, the usual casual chat was missing and there was absolute silence. One of the calming 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 gotten 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 in front of the chief’s desk, shocked and trembling uncontrollably like the chief. . he kept firing him for the delay in cleaning up an important file. The shooting hadn’t stopped until the peon did his job and left. “Obviously, Mr. Ramesh felt even more insulted that he came at that time!” added the pawn, smiling now.

Everyone started giggling out loud, finding a reason now to enjoy lunch, the usual small talk taking over. The news spread like wildfire through the office in the hour after lunch and the laughing virus began to infect most of the staff and executives, but obviously Ramesh and perhaps a handful of other officers. who were still uninfected. Normalcy would be fully restored the next day, though the hierarchy’s filter chain would still be there unbroken from eternity; the enlightened were waiting.