That night Maan waited for every one to leave the office. He had to wait much longer for Geet to leave as she seemed to be studying some reports. She wanted to be ready for more demands from her new boss the next day.

Finally when she also left, he made a call and got CCTV cameras fitted in every nook and corner of the factory. He did not wait to think how wrong it was to fit those cameras without the workers knowing about it. He had couple of them fitted even in Geet’s office. He was thinking of nothing and nobody other than Geet. And he did not realize the irony of it all.

—

From the next day, Geet had prepared herself to work hard. She had realized while looking at the reports that the supply was pending on many of the orders for several months – the oldest orders being delayed by as much as five months. The customers were cancelling the orders and that was not a good sign for factory’s future. She spoke with Gurcharan and other senior workers and they decided to get things back in order. Geet, herself, joined them on the shop floor. But the workers were chivalrous and they did not let her do any of the dangerous work involving chemicals or heavy-lifting.

Geet set up the target of clearing one month’s backlog at a time. It turned out that production was not so much behind the schedule. But the packing and delivery had been delayed. At her request, even the production workers chipped in for the packing work and to everyone’s surprise and the packing for the orders from the oldest one month was finished the same day by 8 ‘o clock in the evening. Everyone had worked overtime for the day and Geet thanked them all. But they did not need that. They were happy to have the ownership back in their hands. Geet found out from Gurcharan that Yash’ brother would let the workers talk directly to the customers to take and deliver the orders, which the supervisors coming later had forbade. They did not think it was appropriate for the shop-floor workers to talk to the customers. Geet decided to let the original owner’s tradition continue. Romeo was the person assigned the work and he happily took it up. He was to call up all the customers the next day and arrange for the delivery of the orders.

Maan was watching the day’s activity through the CCTV cameras. He could not hear their conversations, but it was clear from the activities on the shop floor that everyone was working hard. There were no signs of the disruption in work that Adi’s report had told him about. Geet was going around in the factory and was being treated with a smile by everyone. And in between he could not help noticing how Romeo was stalking her at every possible opportunity.

Maan wondered for a moment about what he was doing. What had he come to prove? But his anger did not let his sensibilities prevail for long. Laughing around with the workers was not going to make her win. She would have to come to him for help. And he would ensure that. He left some instructions with Ramesh for the next day.

—

Maan was leaving for the day. As soon as he settled on the driver’s seat and put on the seat belt, he heard her voice, “Maan!”

He turned to look at the passenger’s seat to see her sitting there smiling, “Mujhe pata tha aap mere bina nahin rah paayenge. Aap mujhe dhoondhte hue yahan aa pahunche hain na?”

“Geet. Tum yahan kya kar rahi ho?”

“Pahle sawaal maine poochha tha.”

“Main akela rahna jaanta hoon Geet. Mujhe tumhari nahin, tumhein meri zaroorat hai. Aur ye baat tumhein jald hi maanni padegi.”

“Theek hai. Ye bhi dekh lete hain.”

“Geet!” He was enraged but she suddenly disappeared.

“Geet?” He looked around confused and then realized that he was dreaming with open eyes. He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and started driving.

—

The next day Ramesh came to Geet’s office as soon as she had come there and gave her a letter from the boss.

She glanced through it and looked up at Ramesh incredulously, “Ye kya mazaak hai?”

Ramesh just shrugged and started to leave.

“Boss apne office mein hain?”

“Jee. Par woh busy hain…”

“Kis cheez mein busy hain? Thoda time aa kar shop floor par bhi bitayen, taki unhein samajh mein aaye ki factory ki halat kya hai. Office mein baithe-baithe hukm chalane se kaam ho jaata to yahan logon ke kaam karne ki zaroorat hi kya thi?”

She ignored everything Ramesh was saying and walked furiously towards Maan’s office. She, of course, had no idea whom she was going to encounter.

She did not even bother to knock and directly ran into his office. Maan was facing away from the door when she entered, “Excuse me Sir. Kya main ye jaan sakti hoon ki aapke hisaab se kaam kissi jaadoo ki chhadi se hota hai kya, jise ghuma diya aur saara kaam ho gaya? Aapne reports padhi bhi hain? Poore paanch mahinon se orders ka backlog hai. Production ka backlog kam hai isliye humne ek mahine ke orders kal pack karwa diye hain. Lekin saara backlog do dinon mein kaise khatm ho sakta hai? Aur agar ho sakta hai to aap hi karwaiye ise?”

Maan turned around, “To aapko meri madad ki zaroorat pad hi gayi Ms. Geet Handa?”

Geet was so stunned to see him there that she did not notice the sarcasm and bitterness in his voice.

“Maan?”

“Sir!” Maan corrected her, “Maan Sir kaho. Main is company ka owner aur tumhara boss hoon.”

“Aapne ye company…”

“Khareedi hai. Lekin woh tumhara sar-dard nahin hai. Tum backlogs ke baare mein kya kah rahi thi?”

“Ye kya mazaak hai?” Geet tried to bring herself back to the matter at hand, “Do dinon mein saare order backlogs poore nahin ho sakte hain.”

“Tumhari marzi. Ya to tum woh kaam poora karo jo tumhein diya gaya hai. Ya phir maan lo ki tum meri madad ke bina ye nahin kar sakti. Ya phir tum naukri chhod bhi sakti ho, agar tumhein challenge manzoor nahin hai to!”

Geet was almost tempted to resign on the spot, but she bit her lips and controlled herself. She had a huge responsibility on her shoulders and she could not go around changing jobs everyday. She did not say anything to Maan and started to leave.

“Aur haan! Tumhein thodi tameez seekhne ki zaroorat hai. Boss ke kamre mein aane se pahle knock karna hota hai aur permission maangni hoti hai. Aage se main permission doon tabhi tum andar aa sakti ho. Yaad rakhna.” Maan didn’t realize how childishly mean he was being. Geet did not look back to reply because then he would have seen the tears forming in her eyes.

—

To be continued