Chapter 5
The 'Tough' Boss
The sun shone pleasantly over the Delhi sky from among the clouds, as the mild showers that had adorned the dawn and the early hours of the morning had now ceased. The scorching hot summer had slowly died out, and the monsoon winds braced themselves for their final song of the year. The rays penetrated gracefully through the slightly wet, crystal glass windows of the tall, proud looking office building of the Marvel Constructions, making them glitter in delight. The building, which was quite a marvel by itself with its elegant looks and exuberant architecture, must have looked calm and pleasant to an observer outside, but the insides had a different story to tell. The hushed, barely audible whispers that hardly qualified to break the silence around, the tension that stung the air like humidity, the apprehension and nervousness on the faces of the staff-all implied the same thing- that Mayank Sharma, the boss was back.
"Yes Mr. Mehta, the blueprints will reach you at the earliest, I'll see to it. Sorry for the delay. And yes, I'm looking forward to this project with you, Mr. Mehta. Yes, thank you."
Mayank hung up the phone angrily, while signing his secretary to come immediately, as he pushed open the door to his cabin and walked briskly inside. His one week of absence from work was already showing its effects, he thought with a sigh as he sat down on his black swivel chair while picking up a couple of important files from his desk, and started going through them. This was his longest period of absence from work till date, ever since he had completely taken over the company after his father's death. Work was like an addictive drug for him, and he would never have taken an off if it hadn't been for Maa. He had no choice but to succumb to Maa's emotional blackmails and accompany her to Mussoorie to her elder sister's place. Well, he couldn't deny that the change was quiet refreshing; the serene atmosphere and the scenery of the hill station had managed to calm him down a little, though Badi Maa's matchmaking efforts had irritated him beyond limits.
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Dia took in a deep breath, before walking nervously towards her boss's cabin. He does look furious, she thought as she peeked in through the glass doors that led to the cabin.
"Calm down Dia, you have faced this before," she whispered to herself in an attempt to pacify her heart which was now hammering hard against her chest. It had been more than two years since she had joined the company as Mayank Sharma's secretary, still, the prospect of facing her boss when he was angry scared her to no limits. Chanting a quick prayer under her breath, she pushed open the door and walked inside cautiously.
"Sir, you called me?"
Mayank looked up at the voice of his secretary, "Oh, so the great Ms. Secretary decides to show up finally? It takes you fifteen minutes to walk up to my cabin from yours?" asked Mayank sarcastically.
"S..Sorry sir. I was just looking through your schedule for today. Three important meetings, at 10 am, 12.00 pm and another at 2.30 pm. The Builders' Conference at Hotel Le Meridian, at 5.00 pm. Anything else, sir?"
"Well, yes. Why haven't Mehta's blueprints been sent till now? They were supposed to reach there yesterday, weren't they?" Mayank asked as he put down the files in his hand.
"Ermm... voh sir, the blueprints weren't ready until yesterday, and they are pending approval from the Executive Engineer." replied Dia, "Sir, actually we have a shortage of staff in the engineering section, so the processes are a bit slow."
"What do you mean shortage of staff?" exclaimed Mayank, "Then why do we have an HR manager here? Tell him to come and meet me now."
"But Adhiraj is on leave sir; his wife gave birth to a baby girl. He'll join back tomorrow."
Great! First that Mehta, now Adhiraj! What a wonderful start to the day, thought Mayank as he ran his fingers through his hair, now genuinely frustrated.
"Fine. In that case, just call and inform him that I need all the vacancies to be filled immediately," said Mayank " And tell him to start the recruitment process as soon as he joins back; I don't want any more projects delayed. You get that? Okay, you can go now."
"Okay sir," said Dia as she turned back towards the door to go.
"And yeah Dia, don't forget to send Adhiraj a congrats note on my behalf, and buy the baby a gift too, will you?"
Suppressing a smile, Dia merely nodded in agreement, as she pulled the glass doors open, and exited the cabin.
Edited by phoenixgirl - 14 years ago
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