Bosses are a pain in a particular part of the anatomy - Part 2

The story so far

Dakkan, who is my nomination for the "Worst Boss" award, has just cancelled my vacation so he could go to Singapore for a conference. This has really made Bhagyawaan angry. I have, as usual, left it to Ganesha to handle the situation. Now read on....

Monday morning was gloomy to say the least - I had 4 days left to cancel my tickets but had immense faith in Ganesha since He had never let me down till now but it was not a very happy Bhagwaan who woke up on that dull morning. I had to take an early morning flight to Bangalore on official work - this was when Bangalore and Hyderabad did not have the new spanking airports so when I came out Bangalore airport, it felt that I had gone thru a long train journey in a General Compartment. Dakkan had called in earlier to say that he was not feeling well and hence would not be in for the next few days! He actual words were "sick as a dog". Yeah! Right! I forgot to remind him about my Bangalore trip then said - what the hell!

Anyway, I reached Bangalore, did some hard work to earn my daily bread and went back to the hotel at around 10 pm in the night. I realized that I had to buy something for Baddu and was at a loss for options. It was pretty late in the night so I had no interest to go out and search.


Suddenly, I was watching cartoons and realized that there was shop in the hotel itself selling some stuffed toys. I went down to see if it was still open. Luckily, they were open although Walt Disney would have probably disowned the Mickey Mouse look alike that they were selling. I need a cup of coffee and stepped into the restaurant when I got the surprise and shock of my life!! I saw Dakkan with peering deeply into the eyes of a young lady who was definitely NOT his wife!! For a moment, I thought I had a seen a ghost but realized that it was not a dream. I guess I must have yelped because both suddenly both of them looked were startled and turned towards me. You should have seen the look on Dakkan's face - it was the first time that I saw a look of acute embarrassment and guilt on it. This is how the rest of the conversation went


DAKKAN: Oh Bhagwaan - I did not know you were in Bangalore


I : Ah


DAKKAN: I was just trying to remove this fly from this lady's eye


I: Ah


DAKKAN: It was troubling her - she is just a good friend of mine


I: Ah


DAKKAN: There is nothing going on between us...


ME: Ah!


You must have my notice my wide range of vocabulary in this conversation - pretty nifty, eh? It really made him nervous indeed. Sick as a dog - my left foot!! Now I was really fuming at his lies. This was when he made his last bloomer

DAKKAN: She is like my sister...

This was when the lady in question shot up - she gave him a dirty look that must have frozen him and walked out in a huff. I guess he must have suffered enough and walked out with dignity.

I took the early morning flight on Tuesday and reached office in the afternoon. I went into Dakkan's office - he was on the phone with his wife telling her that he was "stuck" in Bangalore because of some "urgent critical business issues". I could hear a lot of squawking on the phone so I guess it was not a happy party on the other end. I could see Dakkan sweating now and believe me - it was a happy sight!.

After maybe 5 minutes, he hung up and looked at me sheepishly - he had guilt written all over him. He gulped and said


"Ah Bhagwaan - I must congratulate you. You seem to have done a good job on the project - have been hearing a lot of praise from quite a few people".


I gave him my patented "I-know-BS-when-I-hear-it" look.


He tried again "I believe I owe you an explanation. Let me just say that what you saw yesterday will not be repeated again - I hope you wont talk about it to anyone. I have learnt my lesson"


I was about to retort when I realized that for the first time, I saw a semblance of truth in his statement. I guess he had REALLY learnt his lesson well. It was time to be a bigger man - I decided to let it go and was about to walk out...As I was near the door, he spoke again


"Bhagwaan - remember that vacation that you had asked for - well you can take it. I also plan to spend time with family but will be in town so you can take the time off".


I was pleasantly surprised to see his reaction and I could only mutter a thanks. I immediately went to call Bhagyawaan and give her the news. As expected, she was more than happy and said


"Remember that Mickey Mouse that you got for Baddu - he likes it so much. He has actually taken and kept it in the puja room just beside the Ganesha idol".


Then it stuck me about the connection- Mickey Mouse ->mouse->rat->Ganesha..Guess He did hear me - If I had not gone to get that Mickey Mouse, I would not have got my vacation. I need to settle the dues with Him today.

Concluded