Chapter 6 A Room

 Yash had been working hard for two full years for this promotion. He worked overtime, tried to stand out in his team, and engaged in additional projects. He wasn’t content with his current position and believed that through hard work he could achieve something better. He wished for better pay and bigger responsibility. And finally, when he was promoted, he was so happy that he arranged a vacancy recommendation for his acquaintance - so to say - to share the happiness and split the joy. He had never done it before. He was too focused on himself. But he had to admit - it felt good, knowing that someone else (in this case Anika) would also profit from DADANTI’s success.
On his first day in his new role, his manager took him to the highest floor of the building, three floors over the production line, two floors over operations and marketing.
‘Here, there’s a desk with your computer. Over there, you have the couch, so you can take a nap. This is your private bathroom. It hasn’t been renovated for some time, but all appliances work. You can have a shower. Towels are in the closet over there. Three times a day, coffee will be brought to you. If you wish for some warm water or tea, here’s a kettle. You can order some food, but all in all, we pay for your warm meal every day from the cafeteria and it will be brought to you as well. For the first two weeks, Mehar will train you. Then you will be left on your own.’
Mehar came the same day after Yash managed to plug in his computer.
‘So you are the lucky fellow?’
‘Yes, I’m Yash’, he greeted Mehar.
‘It was me and Sadhil before. And before us, there were Rudra, Vivaan, Kairav, and Aahva. And before that, there were people in Paris. And now it will be you.’
Yash was too stressed about learning his new job, to ask any questions. Especially, the one which was bothering him so much, namely why Mehar and Sadhil had left the job.
It was a lot to learn, he had to admit. Mehar was explaining everything so fast, there were so many things to remember, so many details he tried to keep track of. He took so many notes.
‘This,’ Mehar was pointing at the table, ‘you should record every two hours. Paris will complain if you leave it blank. They will call.’
‘Every two hours? And if I wanted to leave?’
Mehar laughed.
‘Why would you leave? You have everything here. It’s like a flat. They will give you food and drinks and pay you well. With Sadhil we had twelve-hour shifts, so someone was always around. But they couldn’t pay us anymore so they decided to hire just one person.’
‘Am I doing the job of two people?’
Mehar laughed for the very last time.
‘You’re doing the job of sixty-two.’
Yash didn’t understand this joke. He had to learn so many things and was facing so many challenges.
Only after half a year, he noticed that his job was mundane, all day long he was looking at pictures of the products, their packaging, register numbers, descriptions in multiple languages, making sure that these were scrupulously added to the books (looking through countless excel tables), sometimes rechecking and checking again, pinpointing mistakes, receiving complaints.
Three times a day, coffee was placed on his desk without any questions asked. A few times a day he took a nap, but set his alarm clock every two hours, just to fill a few blanks.
At first, his friends and family wanted to meet him, but he was always busy and had to refuse.
‘Why would you leave?’ he reminded himself of Mehar’s words when he looked through the window at employees coming home from their shift.
He asked another question to himself.
‘How could he?’