When You Are With Me

Chapter-25

The moment Srikanth came near his cabin, Jai motioned him to come to the nearest meeting room.


‘I’m Sorry dad. I know you wouldn’t like me doing project here and eventually working here. When Evolution came for summer placements , I applied to see how far it goes. But out of 120 applications I was the only one selected. I never used your name during interview process.’ Srikanth blurted out.


‘Dammit. You have been living a lie since last few months. Don’t you know where it places me? I have been against immediate family of leadership team working in the same company. You pretty well knew this and did the stealthy work? Never in his life Jai has shouted at his son harshly.


‘Sorry dad. I knew you are so much against it, that’s why I was hiding it.’ Srikanth replied in a calm tone.


‘Fantastic. When were you planning to tell me?’ Jai shot back.


‘I was figuring out how to go about it. I thought I should wait till I get the pre-placement offer.’


‘I will make sure that you don’t get such offer from this company. You haven’t revealed to the company that you are my son, which you should have done during hiring process. We can terminate your summer placement now. That’s what I’m going to do next.’ Jai shouted in a harsh tone.


‘Dad.. I personally spoke to your chairman on this and he gave his approval.’


‘You can do all those sneaky works than informing me is it?’ Jai was completely at the point of getting burst.


‘Dad we knew you wouldn’t like it. That’s why we had hidden it from you..I’m extremely sorry.’ He came near his father.


‘Whom are you referring here as we?’


Srikanth remained silent.


’I asked you a question?’


‘Priya and Sriram’


‘Wonderful. I’m super proud that all of you close to me had chosen to deceive me. ‘Jai said sarcastically.


‘Dad this is a small issue…’


‘Srikanth two things 1)Stop calling me dad here 2)Get out’ Jai pointed towards the door.


When Srikanth remained in the room he asked ‘Which part of Get Out you don’t understand Srikanth?’


Jai remained in the room till he calmed down. He felt deceived. He couldn’t come terms with Priya hiding this information from him. Didn’t he share his worries about Srikanth this morning?


Sometimes the ripple effects of small thing will be huge. Jai didn’t know ripple effect of this incident will be huge.

 

Thank you Stayblessed. Have a nice day.

 

Thanks Agnesia77. Welcome to IL.

 

Thank you Peddadas

 

Thank you Sun Pa. Next episode on Monday.

 

Chapter-26


When Jai was about to come back to his cabin he found the lights in chairman’s room were on. Chairman was visiting the office more frequently these days. Jai smiled at chairman’s assistant who waved him in. She knew Jai was second in command in the company and chairman always had time for Jai.


When Jai opened the cabin door, he could hear chairman saying, ‘This is a highly sensitive issue and I want to handle it in an appropriate way.’ Jai could see chairman was talking with company’s lawyer.


‘Good evening Chairman.’ Jai also greeted the lawyer and said ‘ I want to discuss with you on an issue. Can we meet later today?’

Before the lawyer could reply chairman interrupted, ‘Sorry Jai.We are discussing something important, can you just wait for five minutes outside.’


Jai was at a loss for words and left the cabin immediately. Jai was aware of all the things happening at the company and in chairman’s absence he took decisions. What’s there to discuss with the lawyer without Jai’s knowledge.

‘Something is really wrong.’ He told himself.



Part of his work is to detach the emotions and carry on the work. He entered the cabin to find Srikanth sitting along with Rajib and Sagar.


‘Who is this?’ Jai shot at Srikanth.


‘He is Srikanth. This is the Project trainee who found out about penalty clause. He has investigated further in this.’ Rajib told proudly.


Srikanth came forward to shake hands with Jai who ignored it.


‘Do we need him here? This is confidential information and I don’t think we should discuss this with a project trainee.’


‘He says he has analyzed on this issue further. So can we hear him out?’ Rajib answered. While connecting to the projector, Srikanth accidentally knocked off a photograph from Jai’s table.


Srikanth picked up and saw it was a stunning photograph of Priya. ‘ You touched his weakest spot.’ joked Sagar. Jai’s face remained glum.


‘I’m sorry da.. Sir.’ Srikanth looked at Jai and knew that his dad is fuming inside.


‘We have no time to waste. Start off with your analysis.’ Jai yelled at him.


‘ You are scaring him , chief.’ Sagar replied to Jai ‘Srikanth, relax. You are just helping us with your analysis. ‘


That moment Jai realized that he is behaving in most unprofessional way. ‘My apologies. I have seen better days.’


They were interrupted by knock in the door and chairman entered the cabin.


‘Shall I join your party Jai ?’ chairman smiled.


Sagar explained to the chairman what they were discussing in the room and introduced Srikanth as project trainee. Chairman shook hands with Srikanth and winked at him.


‘I sat with the project delivery and found out why it is severely delayed. If you look at the events you would find a definite pattern. First time our team went for gathering requirements, client delayed it stating bank holiday. Next time they said one of their head is on leave and pushed it to a later date. Finally our team went there and all of them were sick due to food poisoning.’ Srikanth continued.


‘This is ridiculous. You mean to say client food poisoned our team.’ Jai interrupted angrily.


Chairman looked at Jai and smiled. He could see Jai was worked up with Srikanth.

Rajib interrupted Srikanth,’ Srikanth present these details in a report. Just tell the very important things’


‘Point is this project has been delayed by the client many times…’ Srikanth said.


‘Beats me. Would they do it just to collect the penalty? What if we could prove it was delayed by client?’ Jai asked. He then looked at Sagar and asked ‘Was the new deadline negotiated? Was any of these concerns outlined in a mail or in meeting?’


Before Sagar could respond, Srikanth interrupted. ‘ Client handled this project through a consultant firm and someone very senior from the consultant firm joined the client firm a month ago. Currently he is responsible for the project.’


Jai asked in an irritated tone’ How does it matter to what we are talking about here?’


‘It matters when he was an ex- director of Evolution. His name is Mithun.’