Pradeep and Mr Devgan were the only content writers in a small studio. There were two other interns as well but interns came and went, no one stayed. Afterall who doesn’t want a place with a bigger establishment. So, at this time there was none.
Pradeep had little desire to switch here from his previous company which was a recognisable brand in the field. The desire to do something of their own does make people go along with the choices they would otherwise not risk making and that is what Pradeep aimed for, a good freelance network and maybe a book or two in writing.
So, he ended up in a studio near his house. There was work but nothing that would require all his attention or potential or make him work till late, unlike the trend nowadays.
Mr Devgan had been working in the studio for the past three years. He had settled himself in a comfort zone and did not foresee any future beyond that. The studio’s tight budget and very limited options did not give it the option of finding any replacement, if anything they needed more to fill in and they found one as Pradeep.
Mr Devgan was given the responsibility of training Pradeep into what was to be done and how it was to be done and as a result Mr Devgan basically gave all the responsibilities to Pradeep adding a good amount of resting time to his own schedule. Whenever Mr Devgan was asked about the work he had done as an individual, he would simply take credit for some of Pradeep’s work.
Pradeep did not mind initially, since he didn’t want to sit idle but rather work and keep his abilities sharp and prepared, and at home he would search for any good freelance work available online. It takes patience.
The problem began when Pradeep needed leaves, mainly for attending to a work or two he had received. Otherwise, he would never take a leave for himself and his parents were living with his elder brother and his elder brother’s wife in another city, so temporarily he didn’t have to focus much on that part of responsibility.
But getting a leave had become very difficult for Pradeep with Mr Devgan valuing his own comfort above all and always finding an excuse to cancel the leave requests. In a quest to do so Mr Devgan became a habitual liar and if one spends enough time lying to people there comes a time when they cannot say almost anything without a lie.
Pradeep had no choice but to fake illness. Work was piling up, but the pay wasn’t enough to quit his regular job yet. His friend’s uncle was a doctor and thus he got a doctor’s notice written from him after explaining to him his situation.
But when Pradeep returned after his three days of leave, he found Mr Devgan’s attitude completely different towards him, after all Mr Devgan had to work properly for the first time in six months since Pradeep had joined.
“I know you lied, you were not down with fever,” said Mr Devgan in a pressed angry tone which was meant to accuse
“I have a doctor’s notice,” said Pradeep unwilling to directly lie about his fever
Mr Devgan snatched the notice and read it closely, even took a photo of it. Pradeep thought that was the end of it, but he was wrong.
When Pradeep got home the next day, he received a call from his friend saying someone from the studio Pradeep worked in had called his uncle accusing him of being a false doctor and illegally distributing doctor’s notice, even threatening with a police complaint.
There are moments when you know it’s over for all the decencies, and otherwise maturely ignorant attitude, and now an action was needed. That moment had come for Pradeep and he knew who made the call and how it had been done to ensure that a man himself didn’t have to do any work.
The next day Pradeep reached the studio early and set the digital clock as the screensaver in Mr Devgan’s system. For the next few days, whenever he could, Pradeep would take photos of Mr Devgan napping and scrolling through his phone while his monitor viewed the time very clearly.
What happens when you give content of this nature mistakenly to a person in a pen drive while intending to give him a particular movie and that person has a habit of telling everyone about everything, but it is not really a mistake.
Mr Devgan had started working again after a severe warning and few loud sessions of meeting. All his paid leaves were cancelled as well and Pradeep, well he was more focussed on his own future to think any more about this.
Written by Anuran Chatterji
The Discomfort
Early Morning Memories 