மேய்ப்பரின் கருணை - ஆங்கில மொழிபெயர்ப்பு

Devine Grace
By Karthik Balasubramanian (in Tamil) 
karthikgurumuruganb@gmail.com

Translated by Rajakumar Duraiswamy
d.rajakumar@yahoo.com




Loosely hanging pure white robe completely covered his body, rolling down the feet and spreading around the ground. A strip of red clothing was wound up on his left. The lamp closely held to his bosom, fondly licked the index finger of his left hand. Blissfully contented and absorbed completely by the immense grace of that wall painting, I was brought back to conscious world by someone honking at me.  As the signal had changed from red to green, I found the cars in front of me had moved over ten feet, I shifted the gear from neutral to first and moved forward.

It is still showering outside. Fairly good rain at the dawn has just reduced to showers. Small pools of water on the road slowed down the vehicles. My boss connected through the Bluetooth, interrupting the the song from some FM channel.

"Pradeep, where are you?", he asked me in Marathi, as he used during personal conversation, as he knew that I know Marathi. He was a native of Pune, Maharashtra. As my father was a manager at State Bank of India, we have been roaming around North India, every three years till my college days. We were stationed at Nashik for more than four years. This gave me the opportunity to learn Marathi and Hindi along with my father's language Tamil and mother's language Sindhi. But the reality is that I am amateurish with all those languages except English.

"Boss, now I'm at Thiruvanmiyur signal and will reach office in another half an hour. It still showers here."

"Not a problem, take your time. I'm on my way to a review meeting. Suddenly a pink handshake crept in. This time a big shot. I can't handle it as I am in another meeting. You have to handle it, my boy."

Among my several, "Ok, Boss", he continued, "He's Vijayaragvan, senior Project Manager. I've mailed you all the details. Go prepared, go confidently. As being a senior employee, there are chances of aggressive behavior, handle it boldly. All the best. Mail me if you come across any problems, don't ping me, I'll call you back."

Got recruited even before I got my degree in HR management from the prestigious national institute. Getting a six digit salary for the past five months. I was a little hesitant to join a IT company as HR, but on a second thought, I like the challenges here, as it makes everyday interesting. Today is not like yesterday, and I don't know what is on card for tomorrow. And this uncertainty fastened me to this job.

Hemanth, never asserted or delegated any job like this before. While daily routines are piled up before me, how can I say, "No", when my boss opted me for a job, that too is supposedly to be disposed by him.

Reaching my office, I switched on the laptop. As told, Hemanth had sent me a detailed email with the details and statistics of Vijayaragavan.

Vijay had been in this organization for the past seventeen years and incidentally this happened to be his first job. While COBOL and C ruled the IT industry, Vijay got his job through campus recruitment from a famous engineering college at Coimbatore. He survived and surpassed the economic depression of 2008.

While he was writing program codes, I would have struggled to solve my seventh grade mathematics equations. He started his career by being a member in the team which solved the Y2K problem successfully. Since then his career was in the growth graph. Meanwhile, he served on site at our organization branches at the USA for three years and one year at Tokyo.

I sent an email to Vijayaragavan with the subject line "Career Discussion" and in the mail mentioning my cabin number and mobile number. My fingers trembled unconsciously while composing the email. I gulped water from the bottle I've brought and deep breathed thrice.

"May I come in?" asked Vijayaragavan, in a heavy Tamil accent, while he entered through the half opened glass door of my cabin. Though the organization relaxed its dress code on Fridays allowing its employees to wear informal dress, he was perfectly dressed in a light blue formal shirt and a neatly ironed formal pant. He must have shaved in the morning.

"Please come in, Vijay. I'm Pradeep, Pradeep Balakumar. Hemant team."

"Oh.. Nice meeting you. Just saw your email on 'Career Discussion'. If it is on team appraisal or promotion, can we discuss it on Monday evening? We have a crucial customer demo on Monday morning. The entire team is busy with it. It wouldn't be nice, if I'm not there", he said without sitting with the expression of being engaged. A smile is permanently fixed in his face.

"Mister Vijay, you will not have to worry about it. Please, sit down first."

"I.. I don't understand what you mean". He pulled out a chair opposite to me to sit. 

"Excuse me", I replied in an indurate tone. "The management has decided to release you from its service. Don't worry, the company is not dismissing you. You can submit your resignation, instead. I've mailed you the settlement details. Please, check it. Two months salary will be credited into your account by tomorrow. Accounts department had been already informed."

" No... I don't understand. Why should I resign? What do you mean?" he switched to Tamil. I saw his face had changed. Droplets of sweat formed over his forehead and neck, wetting the edges of his shirt. The permanent smile on his face was lost.

To ease him and extend a bit of comfort I also continued my reply in Tamil. "Yes, Vijay. It's an order from the top. You have two months, to find a better opportunity elsewhere."

"Pradeep, I'm working in this company for seventeen years. And, now you give me only two months to leave..."

"Vijay, you don't even have to come to the office this two months. You can start looking for a new job right from this moment. For your talent and skill, you will get a great job very easily."

"Why do you send me out, then? Who will look after the four projects handled by me now? How will you answer my clients?"

"They are something that you don't have to worry, Vijay, we will take care." I resorted back to my indurate tone quickly. "I am here to help you, if you have any questions with your relieving formalities."

He might not have expected that reply from me. In this IT company, there is no place that is inaccessible be modified or no person who is unavoidable. Some companies sacks a CEO and brings a new one within months. Customers are likely to enquiry the absence of Vijayaragavan and we will inform them that he is on medical leave for personal reasons. We will replace his position and the new person will get adapted to the environment in possibly two weeks time. From the third week the customers would have forgotten that some Vijay ever existed in the organization. Every employee knows this fact, and everyone believes that this is not applicable to them.

"No... may I know what went wrong with me? I had good rating in my previous appraisal. What happened so suddenly... I... I really don't understand." His voice is tending towards normalcy. His face still remained pale due to the sudden shock and confusion.

"Vijay, you mustn't be centric to your rating alone. You must observe your project rating too. The CSAT score we received yesterday for your projects has dropped drastically. The profit margin on your project also has decreased to 17%, which you should have maintained at 20%. Do you know the target for next year is 22%? I don't have to explain these to you."

"Profit has reduced, but this isn't loss making. It's for a new project, and for new projects we may have to wait for at least two quarters before the profits increase. These are just fundamentals and if you are not aware of them get yourself advised by your seniors, sir", he raised his voice. His hands trembled in his accumulated tension and anger. The stress he gave while he pronounced 'sir' kindled my ego in me.

"Sorry, Vijay. There is no use in talking about it and I don't have time too. Please, if you have any questions on your relieving formalities, ask me." I replied in a flat, indurate voice as if it was replayed from recorded mechanical device.

"Pradeep ... how... how can you tell me this so suddenly. I have two children at school. My son is in class eight and my daughter is only in class five. My wife is unemployed. I've to pay the school fees, medical expenses for my ailing mother,payments for my personal loans, EMIs for housing loan, credit card payments and so and so. Do you know all the payments depend on my only income?" He was talking looking at the table pretending to talk to someone without looking at me.

" Mr. Vijay, you must understand that this is not my personal decision. We have tremendous pressure on cost cutting. I am left with no options. Not only you. You should have enhanced your skills according to the present trend. Blockchain, AI, DevOps... something on these lines. Nothing. It's two years since you have undergone a training. Do you want the date?"

" You are right. Do you know, how much I have suffered in the past one and a half years to get this new project? I went back home by two o'clock and three o'clock early mornings! I never counted on Saturdays and Sundays. Even during the marriage of my wife's brother, I was roaming around with my laptop." He gasped for a while and continued, "Pradeep ... until I meet your expected profit margin, you can stop my increment and bonus, too. I am ready to give you in writing." He looked at my face eagerly with a gratification on his new found solution for his present predicament. He edged towards me from his seat with a sort relief.

" No, Vijay ... we did not offer you any options," I said looking at his eyes with extra emphasis.

For a while we never had a spell of words. He disturbed the eternal silence, "I'm ready to serve for half the salary on what I take home today, Pradeep, I'm willing to continue. Seventeen years in this company... I've been loyal even while I got many offers, sometimes ago. Can you please enquire with your superiors?" His voice crackled, while he spoke. He held the arms of the chair for extra support.

"No, Vijay ... no chance. Your position is vacant, and we can't fit you anywhere. We reviewed several options, and we are forced to to take this decision finally with no other alternative. Please understand."

He did not respond for a while,  "Thanks," he said with a forced smile and stood up. When he was about to exit opening the door, I called him, "Please return back your ID card."

He removed his ID card and placed it on my table and walked out. Depressed, I rested my head back on my chair and closed my eyes. The wall painting I saw in the morning flashed in my mind, along with the lamp licking the finger of Jesus. 

O