Chapter 14
Before Sundar was born, I worked in a small company. There was no future there, so I was looking for another job. At that time, an elderly acquaintance used to visit frequently.
Through his recommendation, I got a job at 'Prem Sun Enterprise'.
I got this job within a month of Sundar's birth. At my previous job, I earned 175 rupees, and I accepted the Prem Sun job for 150 rupees. I had no other option.
Actually, I had worked a part-time job during my studies, earning only 75 rupees for four hours of work a day.
I was married and a father of one child. Understanding this, Shyam Lal, the junior partner of the company, told me himself at the end of the month:
"We will pay you 200 rupees as salary!"
At that time, I didn't know, but his wife, Neeta, was the granddaughter of Sita, who lived next door to me. She frequently visited our building. I had become friendly with her. We used to play together.
Initially, I didn't know this, but the secret was revealed at her younger brother's wedding.
I did all kinds of work. However, I didn't like the suspicious nature of his elder brother. Because of this, we often had hard clash and arguments .
Two or three girls also worked with me. I got along well with them. Two of the girls were from Catholic families. They treated me with great respect. They both came to my house. My family gave them the necessary respect and hospitality.
Besides them, there was another girl, also from the Catholic community. She showed interest in getting to know me. She requested me,
"I want to know a lot about you."
It wasn't feasible to talk in the office in the presence of Ram Lal and Shyam Lal. I invited her to a hotel during lunchtime, but she refused. Later, I didn't think it was appropriate to talk to her.
An old man also worked in the office. He kept grumbling about the company. The company was annoyed by his behavior, but he was useful. Even a tamed snake can be useful. That's why the two brothers kept him on the job.
I was aware of their habits, so I preferred to stay away from them.
The elder brother, Ram Lal, had good intentions. He never thought of using the girls working in the office for his own benefit.
But the other brother, Shyam Lal, was cunning. He was completely debauched. He would take the girls out on some pretext or another, feed them, and then sexually exploit them by luring them with money.
Both brothers were strange characters in their own way.
But I didn't care about them. He spoke his mind directly.
I was a writer. I had mentioned something to him in clear terms, which had shaken him to the core. He was afraid of me, but his demeanor didn't betray that fear.
The salary structure was extremely low. Everyone was struggling with the rising inflation.
Thinking about this, everyone decided to talk to the two brothers together. But no one had the courage to sit down and talk to them. I had रेकमैंडेड salary raise for an old peon, but they dismissed the suggestion.
I was a senior staff member of the company. Everyone urged me to talk to them.
But I didn't want to take the risk.
Around that time, the Ganesh festival was approaching. Every thing remains closed on that day. We wanted a holiday. We had submitted a written request for it.
Everyone had signed it.
The two brothers weren't in the office at that time. I placed the application on their table. As soon as they saw the application upon their return, they became furious.
They called the accountant and instructed him:
"Write this down: Anyone who doesn't come to the office tomorrow will be fired."
Everyone was upset to hear about it. I was also greatly shocked by his decision.
And the next day, no one had turned out to the office.
This shattered Ram Lal's arrogance.
I clearly told him what I thought of his behavior:
"By giving a threat instead of a request or a plea, you have demonstrated your intelligence. This action of yours has given proof of how low you have stooped."
"If you had said that there was some pending work to be completed in the office, I would have brought everyone to the office."
After all this, one boy stabbed me in the back. He was a good friend of mine. He had taken a loan from Ram Lal. Because of that, he was in a difficult situation. He was helpless and forced, so he had come to the office alone, which created problems for me.
And he was forced to come to the office.
Everyone else apologized.
And I was caught up in the mess unnecessarily.
Both brothers said a lot of things to me. Their brother from Dubai was also present at that time.
Ram Lal told me:
"You are being terminated from your job." "You can recover your money by going to court."
I gave him a sharply as if slapping him.
"You've given such a response to a simple request. I won't let you get away with this. I have a copy of the application."
Then the brother from Dubai, getting angry, accused me of theft.
"Write that he stole office papers."
He showed his true colors.
I told him clearly, "Am I a fool like you people? I used my own paper."
"I won't let you off the hook." Saying this, I walked out of his office.
I had been wronged. I could never forget that. I had decided to teach him a lesson.
I had joined a new job.
Around that time, I met the editor of a magazine. He also ran a weekly newspaper. I exposed Ram Lal's company through that paper.
I had introduced that sycophant to the editor of the weekly newspaper. He read the paper. He read my article and went and congratulated Ram Lal. He was the one who found the address of 'Sheth Brothers' and had a copy of the article posted to them.
Little did those fools know! Before that, I had already given two copies of the article to 'Sheth Brothers'.
In it, I had also revealed some secrets of 'Sheth Brothers'. It included, word for word, the details of the injustice done to Flora.They had underlined the entire article. I had sent it to 'Sheth Brothers', which didn't make any difference to me.
00000000000 (to be continued)
