Aha! First day on the new job! The king of the cubicle sat gazing at his computer, his mind, blanker than the screen before him. It was boring but peaceful day. in a moment filled with dullness, Espana's old phone lying in the corner caught my eye and i got curious. Why was she so careful with that piece of junk? What was in it?
I began to browse through the contacts. There were no names but only single letters and initials. ‘D’....... ‘A’........ ‘ I.R.’........ ‘H.L.O.’....... ‘A.G.’...... i was really tempted to call someone and find out who they were, But then came a call from the eccentric Espana.
“Hey, just a little favor man, take that magic phone and call ‘A’. Ask him for an appointment, help me get an interview na please! I will edit it and give a part you for your news!” “fine” it was my first day and i had no work anyway.
“Good morning sir, i am calling from our great news channel. I wanted a small byte of yours regarding illegal mining scam. “Our great news channel eh?” boomed ‘A’. “Fine”
“ I will send our reporter Espana over in a few minutes.” “ok”
I spent the next hour having fun online after which i had to go meet Espana at the usual restaurant. “oi JJ! You just made my day man!” Oh my god, The last time she had said that sentence, i had ghostwritten her project. The sentence had since then been our codeword for ‘sigh, it’s finally over.’ Yes, we had been in soup so many times before that we designed a codeword to signal each other that we were safely out of a tight spot.
“What did you just get me to do?” “Ah, i will tell you, but first, make one more call na please!”
This time i dilled ‘N’ “good morning sir....our great news channel...mining scam Interview tomorrow at 4? Thank you.”
Why couldn’t she just tell me who i was calling? “JJ, its a tricky situation, trust me i can handle it and i will tell you everything on the fifth day of working on our great documentary.” “our?” “well, you’re arranging the appointments!”
Over the next two days, i called one C.A., one I.R., one D.S., complying with espana’s instructions without complaint. On the last and the fourth day, my patience ran out. “Today you make only one call.” Espana said. “To D.K.” “Today is the fourth day Espana. I reminded her. Tell me who DK is. Tell me everything. “no. make the call first. “no, i will ask DK who he is.” “trust me JJ, you dont want to be in soup with Dk, not with DK.”
“Aaah, so much concerned are we?” her extreme caution was annoying me now. “I will ask him no matter what. “Oh, alright but one condition. If he demands your identity, you are Denzil Rodregues.”
“Good morning sir...mining scam interview? No comments? Hey, every other guy we called gave the details. Why are you not complying? Who are you man?”
“do you have any respect for my position?” DK questioned me. “if i say no, it means no. who are you? What are you working as at ‘our great news channel’?
“i am denzil rodregues. I sit at the reception desk.” “OK denzil. I guess i will take your case up with your boss.”
Damn. Who is this guy?
I learnt about DK’s position within minutes.
“JJ, please see me in my cabin asap. “Announced a stern editor on the intercom. What i faced in editors cabin was not music. It was thunder.
“It seems you called up the chief minister and demanded an interview regarding illegal mining.”
“CHIEF MINISTER?”
“Are you on drugs or something JJ? You call up a person, schedule an interview and dont know who he is? And what was your purpose behind giving a false identity? ” i could not reply, having gone numb out of fear. “Now, i have replied to the minister stating that Denzil Rodriguez no longer works at our great news channel. I will keep you in service as your little tricks have given us some quality news. Now get out of my cabin and end this drama within 24 hours.
kay challay kay? :P
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