Disclaimer:
If you find any character in the story similar to anyone in real life, I would
When
you go through the story you might come up with two questions. Like;
1. Am I mad? – Ans: Truly I am .
2. Drunk? - Ans: No. SOBER 100%
Hi
everyone. This is Sidharath here. I have shifted to Cochin from Bangalore last
month and joined with a reputed news channel as Senior Executive-Sales and
Marketing. Training given to the newly joined group was fair enough. As you
know a marketing executive whether he/she is ‘Senior’ or ‘junior’ has to run
across the territory like a horse and bring business. I was truly excited.
Let me introduce our team first. We are a team of three. Our Manager (Mr. Alex
Kuruvila) was an ex employee of a domestic channel. Assistant Manager (Mr.
Mintu Varghese) was working with a leading national daily and yours’ truly
Sidharth, Senior Executive Sales and Marketing. [Well had worked in many places ;-) ]
Mr.
Alex who possesses good knowledge about the Cochin market had taken me and
Mintu along with him for first two weeks, so that we could get
introduced with Ad-Agencies and major clients. Dear people, I was shocked at
the first agency visit itself. We reached an agency and got a decent reception.
We were all welcomed to the Manager’s cabin. That manager was a friend of Alex
and they had a casual chat. Then Mr. Mintu introduced himself to the manager. I couldn't shut my mouth till he stopped since he started. Mintu changed his
accent and became some Anglo Indian and acted as if he was some James Bond from
the 007 movie. When he finished I was about to say, ‘Hi, this is Sidharth’ but
I was stopped by Mintu and he went along, ‘this is Sidharth. He is from
Bangalore and other bla bla bla about me. I was taken aback and mentally shown
the middle finger to the Chuttiya. It was not for the last time. Everywhere
same thing happened. I wondered what that mother fucker wanted to convey by
introducing me as if I was dumb!
After two weeks we have started going out alone. I was thrilled because I knew at least
I could get introduced myself to someone. Days went by. I was pushing and
pushing hard to get the first Release Order (RO) but the response from market
was disappointing. One month passed by. No sign of salary!
There
is another interesting thing about these managers, Alex and Mintu. These buggers
have a wrong understanding about ‘Commitment’! They believes that staying long
in the office is commitment. Usually I finish my work around
6 Pm and shutdown my system. Then Mr.Alex would ask me to show some commitment.
Sometimes I wanted to ask ‘Should I drop my underwear and show you my fucking
commitment’. (Having said that, please don't assume on that I was in my underwear alone!). But I always chose to sit there to watch those morons. Reason why
I wanted to go my room was very simple. I don’t have a family or a servant
there at home. I have to wash my clothes and cook my food. Reaching there at
10.30Pm and doing all the above mentioned things would be a herculean task for
someone who had ran all across Cochin for a day. And I seriously believe that
you should have at least thirty minutes a day for your leisure. At least one track
of AR Rahman a day! That too was fucking denied.
Do
Smart work idiots. It is not about the time. It is about result, efficiency and
effectiveness! (Wah...Wah...Wah...Look who is giving such a gyan!)
One
month and fifteen days passed by. Salary status remained unchanged. Mr. Alex and Mr.Mintu
had never asked me about the salary. But one day after 20th of the
second month Mr.Mintu asked me whether I had got my salary credited. I said NO
and in reply he said it would take another couple of days and he is also really
struggling. I wanted to rub Mintu’s face on that Kalamassery road when I heard
from other source, that salary has already been paid to the Managers and
Assistant Managers. (I wanted to scream at him 'CHUTTTTIYAAAAA' but always chose to smile at his ugliness)
On
25th of the same month, I got a mail from the General Manager
Marketing. When I saw the subject of the mail as ‘YOUR SALARY’, I was thrilled!
But
it is not everyday you get a mail from your boss congratulating you for
‘not asking’ the salary of almost two months. I seriously wonder how they rate
the reasoning level of MBA graduates of the country!
I
mean how she could think that people would be encouraged after opening that
mail. It was obvious that she was intentionally sweetening the words and trying
to attach some fake sincerity. She might have thought it would reason those
guys who have not paid for almost 2 months. But SIDHARTH is definitely out of that box!
They
make you work, round a clock. You expect them to pay overtime. Now I have no
such luxurious dreams. When I signed the contract with them I even had no idea
that ‘Senior Executive- Sales and Marketing’ is a synonym for the word ‘SLAVE’!
Thanks
for your time
For
Sidharath
Sharath
Muthirakkal
