“Quadhar. I spoke to you regarding my leave right?”

“Yes Yes. I do remember that one. I spoke with our Senior Manager.”

“What did he say?”

(02:37 PM)

Quadhar noticed Uthrani’s face. She is tensed a bit. “Don’t worry Uthrani. It’s good news. He accepted your leave request.”

Uthrani literally jumped out of joy. There were no limits for her happiness. “Thank you so much Quadhar. I am so so happy right now. I was so tensed that I may need to send my mom alone in the train. Now I can also take 4 days vacation and come back strong.”

“There is only one condition Uthrani.”

All of a sudden her happiness came down and started getting tensed when she got word that sentence from him. “What condition Quadhar?”

Quadhar smiled at Uthrani seeing her getting tensed. “Nothing Uthrani. I just made it to see how you would react to that. Have a wonderful time at home and don’t forget to bring a pack full of homemade dishes with you.”

“Thank you so much Quadhar.” Saying these lines, Uthrani left his cabin and went away with a smile on her face.

She is completely filled with joy and happiness and almost felt like dancing but then backed-off as it is ordered.

Ishanth saw Uthrani coming out of Quadhar’s cabin happily and asked her the reason.

“Hello ma’am. What happened there? Why are you dancing?”

“Hey Ishanth. I am going home.”

“What? Quadhar approved your leave?”

“Yeah.”

“How is it possible? You completed the task?”

“Yeah. I completed.”

“You are lucky.”

“Hmm. I can say yes for that Ishanth. I was actually so tensed from last 4 days. After Quadhar gave us a shocking update on the project, I thought I should drop out my leave plan even this time. I don’t mind that because I got used of dropping leave plans many times. Even sometimes I booked tatkal the morning and then by evening we used to get some update or mail which forced us to cancel our trip and work late nights and weekends. The same repeated from last 4 months. But now, I decided strongly to not to give up as this is something which I had to deal with my mom. She came all way from Gurgaon to spend some time with me. I dint even spend time with her as I was staying late nights here at the office. My mom used to stay awake for me without even having her dinner. All that is fine. But, the one thing that made me worry a lot is how do I send her mom if he dint approve my leave. She has never travelled alone. And also I dint travel to home from last 4 months.”

“I do understand that Uthrani. Now your leave is approved. Go ahead and have a wonderful time! All this is routine for us and it will never change. What time is your train?”

“07:00 PM”

“Okay. I wish you a happy and safe journey. Have a nice time at home.”

“Thanks Ishanth. Where is Meher? I dint see him since morning.”

“Even I dint see him. I just left it thinking that he will be coming late.”

“Yeah even I thought the same. Yesterday I left at 11:00 PM. That time he is still working. Don’t know when he left.”

“I will call him and update you.”

“Okay Ishanth. I will call him once I am free.”

“Okay Uthrani. Bye.”

“Bye Ishanth.”

(04:00 PM)

Uthrani left office by 04:00 PM and reached home. She made sure that everything is packed and booked for a cab and reached Bangalore railway station by 06:30 PM, traced out the platform number of the train, reached it and got seated.

(09:30 AM – Monday morning)

Ishanth reached the office and started working at his desk. In the mean time, his mobile started ringing. It was Uthrani who is calling him.

“Hello Uthrani.”

“Hey Ishanth. I need a help from you.”

“Sure Uthrani. Tell me.”

“I want you to try tatkal for me.”

“Tatkal? You dint start from home?”

“No Ishanth. I am starting today evening. I got a ticket till Mumbai. From there I have to catch another train. You will have to book tatkal for tomorrow.”

“Okay. I will definitely do that. Why are you starting today? What happened?”

“I will explain you all that after coming. Can you please try tatkal please?”

“Ok I will try. Don’t worry.”

“I will also try here so keep your mobile tuned so that we will not overlap.”

“All right.”

“Ishanth. Can you message me Quadhar’s mobile number? I need to call him and tell that I will be coming on Wednesday. I don’t know how he will react.”

“Whatever may be his reactions? You cannot do anything now. Just call him and give a heads-up so that he will not be surprised tomorrow.”

“Okay sure. Thank you Ishanth. I will call him once this tatkal is over.”

“Yeah. That’s fine.”

(10:37 AM)

Quadhar was called by Thyagarajan to his cabin.

“Hi Thyagarajan. Good Morning.”

“Good Morning Quadhar. Please be seated. Can we discuss on the project updates?”

“Yes Thyagarajan. We are ready to release it to QA by this weekend. And as planned you can go for demo next week.”

“That’s really good. What about the other project?”

“That we kept on hold as the whole team is busy working on this.”

“What? We have to deliver that in 4 more weeks.”

“Yes Thyagarajan. But, we completely concentrate on this working late night and even on weekends as you told that this is of high priority.”

“Yes Quadhar. I agree with you on that. But, the other one also is important. We cannot put in on hold. You have to make sure that is running.”

“All our resources are putting on their complete time and even extra hours on this Thyagarajan. We don’t have time to work on the other project Thyagarajan.”

“I never expected this from you. I was in a thought that you are managing both. So, from last one week there is no progress.”

“Yes Thyagarajan.”

“No Quadhar. This is not the right way to manage. I want to know what all the resources are up. What are the tasks they are doing and the progress on each task?”

“Thyagarajan. Ishanth and Meher are working on the current project which you have planned to demo with clients next week.”

“What about Uthrani.”

“Uthrani completed her module and submitted for QA. We are waiting for the results.”

“So, now she is free until we heard from QA. Then why don’t you assign the other project to Uthrani.”

“She is on leave. She will be coming tomorrow. Once she is back I will ask her to go with this.”

“Leave? How did you approve leave in this crucial period?”

“I spoke to you before confirming her leave request.”

“I thought it’s for some other week.”

“But, Thyagarajan, I have sent you mail with the details and then only we had a conversation.”

“I receive hundred’s of mails every day. Do you want me to sit and read each and every individual mail top to bottom? I don’t know how you will do, what you will do. I want update on that in 2 days.”

Quadhar was totally disappointed when he heard that kind of reply from Thyagarajan. After the discussion, Quadhar stepped out of Thyagarajan’s cabin. As he is walking out, he received a call on his mobile. It was from an unknown number.

@Unknown

Guess the story: Who is calling Mr. Quadhar?

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