It was that time of the year when there was not much of work to work
in office, as such it was one such boring day in office, when we all
were lazying around, idlying around with computers, playing some games,
intermitently checking mails, both official & personal. However,
when, you have nothing worthwhile to do, time passes with snail pace.
Everything just stood in its place that day.
At around 2.30 pm in the evening, when we were back from our lunch
break. A call came on the Office intercom, one boss in hurried voice,
inquired about another boss, whether he was in my room. I answered in
negative, hearing his concerned tone, I inquired what had happened. The
boss said that the person in question was nowhere to be seen, his cell
was out of range and he heard that he fell down on the road with an
heart attack while he went to the Bank during the lunch break. The boss
added a note of disclaimer though, he said he was not sure whether what
he heard was true and hence he was checking up with all the concerned
divisions where he usually visited.
Suddenly, things electrified, I told my colleague, who was playing
some brick games on the pc, the breaking news, shocked, he too, joined
me and we went outside the room and saw colleagues searching for the
boss on that floor. His room was empty, with the creepy fan revolving
with disconcern as ever. One colleague even checked the toilets. Soon
the crowd of around 10-15 staff members, after confirming the absence of
the boss on the second floor assembled on the first floor, where the
scene was of similar chaos. People were acting on their own instinct
that day. Some peons rushed to the road to check up whether the boss had
indeed collapsed. One of the peon further rushed to the bank to see
whether the boss was in the bank.
Just everybody came back with no clues. Increasing the fear, the
curiousity and the tension. In between just everybody devoutly tried
calling the number of the boss, which was continously out of range.
Everybody assembled near the chamber of our Director, to give him the
bad news. We all started guessing games, as to what exactly might have
happened. However, even the hushed tone in unison was loud enough, for
the Director inside to overhear.
All of a sudden, we heard a familiar voice “kya bhai, kya baat hai
sab log ya ikattha kya kar rahe hai? “, which mean, what’s the matter
friends, what are all of you doing together here. The voice was of the
same boss whom we were told had collapsed on his way to the Office. We
all were in a state of confusion. Now, who will tell him that he had
collapsed on his way to office that lunch hour. Somehow, somebody
assembled enough courage to tell the entire happening. The boss who
heard the tale was equally shocked to hear. He went to the boss who
broke the story. Nonchalantly the boss, welcomed him and said, ah, here
you are, and I thought you fell down while coming from the bank. I was
concerned about your health, now that your wife has entrusted me the
responsibility of taking care of your health. And he erupted into wild
laughter. The poor boss was red faced. He could not express his protest
to this cruel joke. Nobody had any inkling how to react. The prank
played was a notoreous one to say the least. The person on whom the
prank was played was equally hurt. But, he did not register his protest,
atleast verbally.
The good side of the story was that the entire office suddenly came
together in that period of fabricated crisis. It had done so in the
past, the camaraderie was displayed aplenty only during crisis, and all
the times the response was unequivocal, of which I feel proud.
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