01 Feb A colleague who sizes you up
“How do you know Sanjana?” Adi heard a rushed whisper thrust into her right ear. Before she could look up from her laptop she felt her colleague standing over her shoulders. “Are you sure you know Sanjana,” she rephrased her hushed query with an urgency that called for trepidation and a look that warned of compliance.
Working at the place for the past three years, Adi knew her colleague enough to understand that when she made an unscheduled visit to anyone’s desk it was either to reveal some discomforting news or to confirm one. Good news held no fizz, it was an open dewormed bottle for her to care.
A senior manager and self-proclaimed socialite, she corked herself up only until she spilled over social media. She maintained her fiefdom by letting just a selected few physically share her office hours. The selection process lasted one lunch date – usually the new recruit’s first day at work.
Adi was swept clean off her personal data at her first noon in office three years back. After which it was just a smile; a how are you; when are you taking leave; where are you going; or bye see you tomorrow.
So gearing up for some rancorous talk, Adi saved her file and leaned back on her chair to give her senior the undivided attention she came seeking and replied, “Why do you ask?”
“You are tagged in a photo with Sanjana,” she asked seemingly irritated with a query for an answer.
“Yeah, I met her over the weekend at a book launch,” Adi said by way of explanation.
“How long since you know her?” she asked pulling a chair and readying herself to settle down.
“I met her there. We shared a table and got talking. And the photographers there clicked us together.”
Half-way towards lowering herself, she straightened up, pushed the chair back heaving a huff, “Ooo! OK. Carry on. Sorry to bother you.” She was walking away, when Adi called out, “Excuse me, but why do you ask?”
“I was wondering how YOU know her! Sanjana’s dancer and her husband is the chairman of the golf club. And you know, her elder son is studying in…anyways…it doesn’t matter. I was shocked because you don’t roam around in such circles!”
And she was gone. Later Adi saw her comment on her FB picture, “Looking fab as always Sanjs!”
PS: Do you know her?
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