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It was morning again. The breeze had started to get a nip announcing the herald of Delhi’s winter. The sky was mildly foggy. Amit knew that the fog was going to become denser and denser as winter approached. The days were also becoming shorter.
Amit decided to wear a brown handloom tweed coat and a patterned brown tie to office. He again bravely fought the metro crowd and made it to the office in one piece without being pick-pocketed or losing his backpack.
Surprisingly, Naina was already in, sitting in her cubicle, and staring intently at the computer screen. She was wearing a dark grey sweater and navy blue corporate trousers. Dark circles were appearing under her eyes or was it a hint of an eye shadow, Amit couldn’t be sure. She looked groggy. Amit could make out that she hadn’t slept well in the night.
Amit sat down to check his e-mails. Suddenly the intercom on his desk rang. It was Smriti.
“Hi Amit. I just wanted to share my opinion regarding the e-mail you sent last evening,” said Smriti.
“Hi Smriti, yes, please go on,” said Amit.
“I had asked you to follow the Firm’s Formatting Guidelines. Why didn’t you do that?” asked Smriti in a somewhat firm tone.
“Did you? If I remember correctly, you had only asked me to circulate the draft document on e-mail,” said Amit replied in a voice that was polite to a fault.
“Don’t argue back with me, Ok? Yes, I did ask you to read the Guidelines before circulating the e-mail,” asserted Smriti.
“Ok, ok, maybe you did and I forgot,” said Amit taking a deep breath.
“Okay, let’s start. First of all...” Smriti took a pause before going through the e-mail.
“The font type. Why did you use Times New Roman when we use Calibri? In future, please keep that in mind,” said Smriti.
“Okay,” said Amit.
“You wrote ‘Dear Mr. Naveen Jain’. Why did you put a dot after Mr? In this firm, we write Mister as Mr and NOT as Mr with a dot. Got it? Or do you want me to repeat this one more time?” said Smriti.
“No. No, I got it. Please carry on,” said Amit.
“You next put a comma after Jain as in ‘Dear Mr. Naveen Jain,’. May I ask the reason for this?” said Smriti.
“That’s a very common way of drafting an email. You do put a comma after the name, don’t you?” Amit was flabbergasted.
“NO, not here. That’s why I had asked you to read the Formatting Guidelines. So never ever put a comma after the name,” said Smriti.
“Alright,” said Amit, his face now falling.
Smriti paused. He knew she was scanning the main body of the e-mail.
“Anything else?” he asked.
“Yah. Many things. Look at the way you wrote the meeting points,” Smriti continued.
Amit opened the e-mail he had sent last evening and started scanning the meeting points. Nothing seemed to stand out as a potential red flag to him. In fact, they still looked pretty alright to him. He had to ask:
“Anything specific?”
“Oh yes. For example, why did you use a ‘*’ instead of numbers like 1, 2 and 3. Meeting points should always be preceded by numbers 1, 2, 3 and so on. Next time be careful,” said Smriti.
“And finally...” said Smriti.
“Now what?” Amit asked barely able to conceal the annoyance in his tone.
“You again put a comma after ‘Regards’. Why?” asked Smriti.
“Because that is the standard way of using commas in e-mails that I have been taught,” Amit said.
“NO. Never put a comma after ‘Regards’. Got it? And please don’t argue with me. I don’t like it one bit,” said Smriti testily.
“Got it,” Amit said resignedly.
“Is there anything else? Are you fine with the e-mail otherwise? Like the language, clarity of expression...if I missed any meeting points?” he asked.
“Yah, they were all ok. But it is highly irritating for me to point out some of those basic issues to you. As a newbie, you are expected to master formatting. Since you didn’t follow these guidelines yesterday, your e-mail came across as thoroughly unprofessional. What will our clients think about it? What will Mr. Ram Kapoor think about this? I expect better work from you next time,” said Smriti.
Amit kept listening.
“And yes, please, please, please, study the formatting guidelines carefully. Don’t mess again. And one more thing. Next time when you draft an e-mail, please have me vet it before sending that out,” said Smriti as she hung up the intercom with a bang.
Amit covered his face with his hands. He could feel his heart beating faster. All his expensive training in London getting a Legal Practice Course and qualifying as a Solicitor of England and Wales was coming to a naught.
He had tried his best to draft the e-mail. He was careful with the language. He had ensured that no point got left out. He had then proof read the e-mail thoroughly to ensure that it had no typos.
And yet, his boss didn’t appreciate it. Not even a bit. She could only find faults, with commas and full-stops!
Amit had come in a chirpier mood looking forward to start his new day on a good note, but now his spirits had plummeted to his toes.
Suddenly he was startled to hear loud trumpets playing. Amit got up from his chair to investigate and found that the sound was coming from Naina’s cubicle. It was actually Naina’s annoying ring tone. Amit signalled her to turn down the volume. Just then, Naina picked up the phone giving an embarrassing look.
“Hi Sameer. What’s up?” Naina said.
Amit was watching her. He saw the colour of her face changed to red. Her expressions hardened. It looked like she was about to explode.
“You can’t even fix a date. What’s wrong with you?” said Naina.
“I don’t care. Just look up the calendar and go for any date, goddamn it,” Naina said, her voice becoming harsher.
“Sameer, Sameer, Sameer. You can’t even do this much?” she was almost shouting.
There was a brief pause. “Okay, I don’t give a s**t,” Naina said and hung up.
Amit realised that it must be Naina’s boyfriend and felt a little bad for him. He thought that Naina was treating him like an imbecile. He thanked himself for not being on the other side of the phone. It would have been too much to bear especially after the interaction he just had with Smriti.
He heard those trumpets again. It was maddening as hell to him. He wondered why anyone needed to choose a ring tone like that, especially for an office environment. Naina was behaving as if she was still in her bedroom!
Naina picked up the phone. Amit thought that the boyfriend was really persistent or had a really thick hide, which you certainly needed if you had such a demanding girlfriend like her. But no, this time it wasn’t the boyfriend.
“What’s it Mom?” Naina asked.
After a moment of pause she continued with a sigh, “Mom. Why the hell are you trying to control my life? Just leave me alone.”
“I don’t give a damn....,” she added.
“For God’s sake, just let me live in peace,” Naina said and disconnected. Amit saw her then flinging her poor mobile phone on the desk, which landed with a violent thud.
Amit didn’t want to be judgemental, but it was apparent that Naina was a brat. She spoke to everyone like that. It didn’t matter who was on the other side, mom, boyfriend, colleague, any one. Amit felt that his first impression about Naina was spot on. She was highly uncaring, self-wrapped and overall a frustrated Bi**h, with a capital ‘B’.
Suddenly Amit heard someone sobbing and sniffling. The sobbing sound was soft but the intermittent snorting was quite alarming. Amit turned around to see if it was Naina who was crying but that was too much to expect.
Naina was alright. The weeping sound was actually coming from behind. Amit turned backwards and saw that a girl in her early twenties was sobbing right behind him. This had caught Naina’s attention too, who immediately rushed towards the girl.
“What’s the matter?” Naina asked in an extremely gentle and compassionate tone that surprised Amit.
The girl wanted to say something but her voice was choked with emotion.
“I don’t think I will ever be able to make it,” the girl said.
“Hey, what’s the matter? Control yourself,” Naina said reassuring her.
Amit watched Naina quietly. She looked like a completely different person now.
“But tell me what happened and I’ll try my best to help you,” Naina said.
“I had worked extremely hard. I got good grades in law school and had succeeded in getting an internship here, with Singhania & Co. I thought I’d be making a good impression but I don’t think they like me. I don’t think I’ll be offered a position after I finish my internship. All my dreams have come crashing down,” the intern said, her voice croaking and becoming fainter.
“You shouldn’t worry about that. And never give up on your dreams. Even if you don’t get an offer here, apply to others. Have hope. Believe in yourself and nobody will be able to stop you,” counselled Naina.
She then gave the girl a hug.
“Come with me. We can discuss all this over a cup of coffee,” Naina said. The intern nodded and went out with Naina.
Amit was impressed. Naina certainly had another side to her personality that he had completely missed so far.
