“Mr. Sen?”

Siddhartha’s one unfailing strength was his ability to accurately read people’s body language. And this woman’s tone and posture conveyed that she was utterly distracted and confused. Although this friend of Sunidhi’s – his baby sister – had taken him by surprise since she appeared so different from his flamboyant, flippant sister, her uncertain demeanor put him right back in the foul mood he had been in since his sister had started pestering him for this meeting.

“Dada! Karishma was a brilliant student and she is in need of a job now. Can’t you do this to oblige me? Just a little bit?”

What did the spoilt brat think a job involved? What job could he give to a woman who had graduated six years ago and hadn’t held any job in all these years. She would neither have the keenness and enthusiasm of a fresher, nor experience of years.

But Sunidhi wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Siddhartha took another long look at Karishma and couldn’t help wondering if his sister was really friends with this plain-looking nervous creature. She didn’t look to be one of Sunidhi’s circle at all.

At last, when he found her fidgeting growing more uncomfortable in his silence, he spoke, “Yes. Ms. Gupta, I presume?”

She looked even more confused for a moment, then seemed to gather her act together. She came forward and shook his hand.

“Thank you for agreeing to meet me, Sir.”

‘Sir’ always made Siddhartha flinch. He would have told her to call him by name, but what was the point? He wasn’t really going to offer her a job and perhaps would never see her again.

“How can I help you?”

“As you perhaps know, Mr. Sen, that I am looking for a job. Under usual circumstances, I wouldn’t try to approach someone at your level for this, because it is an entry-level job we are talking about. But since I am looking for it 6-years too late by conventional standards, I get filtered out in the regular recruitment channels. Somebody needs to take an unconventional decision to give me a chance. And a person at a lower level can’t take such a decision. That’s why I grabbed the opportunity of taking Sunidhi’s help in meeting you despite knowing how unusual it is.”

Siddhartha found himself listening intently. The annoyance her initial demeanor had produced disappeared. At the very least, this young woman was far more sensible than his own sister.

“And why do you think I will take that unusual decision?” he asked.

She sighed, “Perhaps only because Sunidhi insisted that you should help me. But you will not be disappointed. It has been difficult for me to prove that I deserve a job. But I definitely need it. Which means that I would do anything to keep it.”

At this Siddhartha flipped through her short resume for the first time since Sunidhi had handed it to him. Her academic record was enviable.

“Why are you looking for a job after six years of graduating?”

She hesitated for a moment, but then decided to speak, “I will answer that honestly. But please know that I am not saying it to gain sympathy. Only that lying is unlikely to get me anywhere. I have come out of a six-year old abusive marriage just now. I have a daughter. My father is too ill to work or support us. I have to take care of myself and my daughter.”

A thousand questions popped up in Siddhartha’s head. But he refrained from asking them. She had obviously revealed something she wasn’t comfortable talking about. It would be inappropriate and cruel to dig more into her story.

But what job could he offer her?

“My brother needs an assistant,” he blurted before thinking it through. Soumen was no better than his twin Sunidhi when it came to taking responsibilities. But with the privilege and expectation parents tend to accord to a male child, their father really wanted Siddhartha to ensure that he got involved in the business. And Siddhartha had not been able to even make him stay in the office for any length of time, much less do any work. What would Soumen need an assistant for? From where did the idea even enter into Siddhartha’s head? And then he realized that he had just asked one of Soumen’s batchmates to be his assistant. One who had done so much better than him in academics. Damn!

But Karishma didn’t look offended. “Would you give me that job?” she asked, looking hopeful.

“I would, but I am afraid it isn’t going to be an easy job. Before assisting him, you would have to make him work.”

She seemed uncertain, as anyone would be, but what she said confirmed her desperation for a job, “I would do whatever it takes.”

“Okay then. Please wait at the reception. I will ask my assistant Mrinal to coordinate with you and take care of all the formalities.”

She nodded, and got up, but continued to linger instead of leaving.

“Yes?”

“There is something else I was hoping to discuss with you.”

“What is it?”

“Salary,” she replied quickly, “I would need at least–”

“Entry level positions come with nothing above 25k a month–”

“That would do!”

Siddhartha chided himself. Had he just blurted the upper limit in a negotiation situation, instead of starting at the lowest he thought he could get away with? How on earth did he commit such a blunder? But he calmed himself down. This girl making a few thousands extra was not going to sink his company. He would make sure he didn’t lose his mojo in the negotiations that really mattered!

“Please wait outside at the reception.”

“Yes Sir.”

Damn! He hadn’t asked her to call him by name.

—

Mrinal had helped her with the formalities of joining, given her an orientation to the company and explained the role of the assistants. But he had a puzzled look on his face throughout.

“When do I meet my boss?” Karishma asked in the afternoon, after all of this was done.

He sighed and gave voice to what was puzzling him, “That’s what I don’t know. I hardly see him in the office. Siddhartha keeps trying to get him interested in the business. But he doesn’t seem to care. It isn’t my place to say anything more about Soumen, but I have no clue what your job is.”

Karishma gulped hard. So that’s what Siddhartha had warned her about. He had obliged his sister by offering her a job, but perhaps it was one she wasn’t supposed to survive.

She had to try though.

“He doesn’t know he has a new assistant, does he?” she asked.

“I don’t think so.”

“Could you introduce me to him at least? Over phone?”

“I will try calling him.”

To both their surprise, when Soumen heard that he had been assigned an assistant, he said he would come to the office right away. He did, saw Karishma, uttered a disappointed ‘Oh!’ and then left after saying hello.

Mrinal’s ashen face confirmed Karishma’s suspicion of what had happened. Soumen had made this trip to the office in the hopes of seeing a ‘hot secretary’ and Karishma wasn’t exactly that. Humiliating as it was she couldn’t help wondering if she would have had a better chance in succeeding at the job if she was what Soumen came looking for and hence could have held his attention for a while at least.

“Before assisting him, you would have to make him work,” Siddhartha had said. But how on earth was she supposed to do that if he won’t even grace the office with his presence?

—

To be continued