"U turn" -- Episode 1

May 13, 2020

Damn!!

It was a usual day for Aakash, driving to office on a bright sunny day. Stuck up in the traffic , he cursed his stars, and paid visit to all the mothers, fathers through cuss words. Looked at his watch it was 10.30 am already, he had a call at 11.00 am. Things have not been the same lately for Aakash. Mahesh his boss , has been baying for his blood lately, spitting fire whenever he got the chance, actually a pain in the a**.His arm candy, Neha thought she owned the world. Had to wait for an appointment to co-ordinate with the self- proclaimed diva, if Mahesh spit fire, she was his pet little dragon 🐉 ,sometimes a bi**h, actually most of the times.

Damn you Boss!!

Aakash was post grad. In marketing from the univ of Gautemala , he was stuck up in sales ,as most of us are.He had tried a lot to get something meaningful out of his 15 years of education experience , which most of us try to do. Frankly, I have yet to see someone actually apply things they have learnt.

Last 10 years of his career , Aakash had shifted a lot of companies, trying to find a meaningful job or make some meaning out of his job. He had worked hard from doing door sales, institutional sales, handling key accounts. If not great , he had been an average sales guy. Life started looking beautiful after he got married to Priya in 2012.Their marraige was an arranged one , cause Aakash couldn't convince his then girlfriend 🤫.

Aleast Thats what they say...

Marraige's are made in heaven, On the contrary marraige is made by two people. Priya was also a working professional in HR, like most of the people Aakash also believed that HR people do nothing. I beg to differ here from Aakash , HR is one of the most toughest job in the world, Imagine handling cases of POSH, filling up positions with the right candidates/ ensuring that they join, managing egos.However Aakash was a lucky guy, his wife had bought a great amount of balance in his life.

Things looked up when Aakash had shifted to this big MNC on 22 Nov 2019. He had been recruited for a senior position , with a great package. This is my big break , this is it, he thought.Today, Stuck up in traffic, he looked at the date it was 21 March 2020. As expected, he got a call from Mahesh:-

Talking on the phone while driving is illegal, but I am stuck in traffic remember?

Aakash: "Hello"

Idiot: " Don't come to office today"

Aakash: " Why?"

Assh**le: "Dont you follow the news...its a lockdown"

Aakash: "We had a meeting scheduled"

Chu**ya: "Take the call on your phone, do I have to tell you everything?"

Bi**ch from the background " Yeah we have to tell him everything ,all the time, dont know why we recruited him?"

With a lot of thoughts crossing his mind Aakash took a U turn, to go back to where he came from. Over the next few days , there were a lot of calls, webex and zoom meetings. Strategies on how the sales targtes could be achiveved or atleast maximised. There were a few new incentives declared for the stockiest, sales guys to perform. But the lock down , knocked out all the strategies, as expected the worst was about to happen. People were asked to leave citing "performance" issues, Mahesh enjoyed this part the most, i could make it out from his excited voice everytime he and the bi**h spoke to me.Meanwhile Aakash tried everything he could for his colleagues,teammates to keep them floating, alas he too recieved an email for PIP. Thats unfair he thought, "I am going to drag them to court".How can they do this to me when there is an order from the government against firing employees.How am I going to take care of my finances , the house EMI , school fees, personal loan for the car, No one knows when this lock down is going to end , when the economy is going to be up, when will I get another job.

"I am destroyed".