mixedtea
Mixed Tea
Chapter 1
That night I almost did not sleep. Well, I must have slept since I remember waking up the next morning, but I was most certainly swinging between consciousness and sleep throughout the night. Changing a job is a disturbing phase. I had no complains about my previous employer. My work had been appropriately appreciated from time to time and I had loved it. It therefore seemed somewhat wrong to just turn my back and join a new employer overnight.
Mr. Paresh Gaonkar had spotted me in my restaurant and had asked me to meet him after my duty got over. At about 7 in the evening, we were sipping tea at a local tea stall. It was then that Paresh offered me the job of “waiting tables” at his firm. To start with, he made it clear that I will receive pay twice of what I was getting at the restaurant. I was thrilled and almost agreed before asking him where his restaurant was. When I asked him this, we stood awkwardly silent for sometime as if contemplating what to say and then said that he did not own a restaurant but was the proprietor of a small computer firm.
Mr Kunal Manjarekar and Mr Rajendra Damle were Paresh’s partners and worked in a small basement shop. All of them were worried about food they ate and were in search of someone who could feed them regularly to good quality food that could keep their stomachs in order. My duty was to not only serve food but also order it from the most appropriate places. They did not care what I did in my free time as long as I was always in time for their meals. I was skeptical about my duties but the pay was luring me to accept the assignment. I had verbally accepted over the last few drops of tea that we were sipping. Promptly after getting home, I had written a neat resignation letter and planted it in a clean envelope. After all, I had my reputation to preserve even at the previous employer’s place.
Presently I was dressed clean and ready to leave for my new office. Before that, I went to the restaurant and directly stood besides the manager’s desk. I put forth the letter and said, “I had a great time here. Thank you. I am leaving this job for another one.” My image of a resignation was simple. I was wrong. It took me three quarters of an hour to finally convince the manager that I was not making a stunt and that I had no grudge against the restaurant whatsoever. It was plain simple that I had found another employer and I was moving on. I had failed to discuss or hint at my leaving before this day since all was decided after my hours at the restaurant just the previous day. When I felt the restaurant I had to run and take a bus to avoid being late at work the very first day.
Chapter 2
I was close to the building where my new workplace was when I noticed a couple of eateries and tea stalls at the vantage points of road crossings. These were the places closest to the office and hence must have been visited multiple times by my new employers. They might know the taste of each dish that these hotels had on their menu. I will have to be creative.
At 10 in the morning, the office had just opened and all three looked up at me as I approached. Paresh had a grin on his face. I was promptly sent away to bring tea. This was my test and my opportunity. I bought 2 cups of tea from the two different tea stalls round the corner. Then I mixed the tea. I did not know what it would taste like, but I was sure it would not taste the same as that from any one of the stalls. When I served the tea, I saw the puzzled look on everyone’s face. Rajendra told me that I can eat and drink what they eat and drank. I had already bought four cups of tea, but that was to equally mix it. From then on, I could do that and drink my cup of tea too! Rajendra also told me that I could call them using their first names and not attach a ‘sir’ to the names. He said it was the norm in the computer industry.
After all of them had finished their tea, I went away to return the cups to the respective tea stalls. On my way back, I took a detour to investigate if any other eateries existed in the surrounding. I came across a small mess and another 10 table restaurant. I made a contract with the mess manager. She agreed to provide me with four people’s food in a Tiffin box. I asked her to prepare tasty food without much spices. She smiled and said that I was contradicting myself, but promised she would try.
My employers were visibly pleased with me when I severed them food from this Tiffin. They told me that all of them were interested in a lot of boiled vegetables and salads. Since none of them had time to exercise, too much heavy food had a tendency of upsetting their stomachs. I made a note of this insight and this guided my decisions about what to serve for all the time I was with them.
I had pleased my employers for the first day, but I knew this all would soon wither out if I did not continue to do innovative things. In all the spare time I got between tea breaks and lunch times, I would wander around the area to find out if any new eateries were close enough. Everyone would get bored of the similar kind of food that the one mess nearby served. To avert this problem, I had already planned to buy sweets from different sweet stores everyday. I spotted two other homegrown messes a bit farther from the first one. I made it a point to switch between these messes after about a week. It is really astonishing how a person cannot change his cooking habits even when instructed to do so, so that the food tastes a bit different, but how easy it is to get food of varying taste if you change the person making the food.
Chapter 3
As months passed by, I continued switching between messes and altering my instructions about what kind of food I wanted. The computer firm was growing and we had a few staff members and therefore more people to feed. Every now and then, these people would be elated over something and I would promptly skip the routine boiled vegetables and replace it with some dish from the nearby restaurants. Pizza, cake and soft drinks were brought in when it was someone’s birthday.
The best thing of all this was that I could eat the same food that I had ordered for them. This was so drastically different from my previous job that I started feeling great about my job switch. Simple everyday food and regular parties was a very good way of living! With growing number of people at the office, I had made provisions for someone from the mess to deliver warm food to the office directly. My duty was then reduced the calling everyone for food and laying the plates and then clean everything up.
The firm expanded in leaps and bounds. I had never seen such expansion. Within the one year that I was at the firm, we had bought the adjoining shop and converted it into a second office internally connected to the main office. There were about five more people working in the other shop and I heard plans of shifting to another building. At this, I had to ask if the place to shift to was fixed. I had to look around that place and make arrangements for food. I was unduly concerned for the new building would come up about a year from then and our firm was buying a part of a floor. It was large enough to house a small canteen in addition to three cabins and other cubicles. With this, it was unclear for me what my duties will be. No one had indicated any risk to my job, but I was frightened all the same.
Paresh had once said to me, “You are very innovative in how you manage our food problem. Innovation and creation of work to do is a sure shot way of always being able to do the best job. All the expansion you see in this firm is an output of some or the other innovation. People working here are producing things that others have not thought.” Remembering these words, I was determined to keep my place intact even in the new setup. I had been able to attract appreciation from my employers through creative thinking and that was exactly what I was also going to do now to keep myself employed and required. I jotted down things that I would like to see in the new office. This included water coolers, a snack counter, the dining room and the kitchen. Inspired by my enthusiasm, I was shown the plans of the new building. My limited education came in between understanding the details of that plan, but I got a good idea of what should be where. Later I went to the site myself and inspected the size of the rooms. I had no estimates of the dimensions shown on the plan and this was the only way I could have enacted on my planning.
My list of things to be done now also included buying plates, cups, kitchenware and other items. I made intricate plans of food timings and how to keep supplies coming in when required. Pleased by my work, Kunal and Rajendra said to me, “You have an entire food protocol underway here. The only thing missing is a contingency plan.” The word was new for me. Both Kunal and Rajendra proudly explained to me how contingency plans were very important and a part of most of the software systems they have been building. It, they said, was a single point on which they almost always beat the competition in their software products. I promptly started thinking about possible disasters in the food region. It included a rat raid on the food storage, a strike by the cooks, a strike by the food suppliers, acute shortage of essential commodities like milk, sugar, tea leaves and so on. To top it all, I had also added a plan to house a two fold increase in people for an entire night. This was to help with probable floods, earthquakes or other natural disasters.
Ideas were forming the basis of my existence in this firm and my efforts of these few months before we finally shifted into the new place made my existence a necessity. I almost self appointed myself to the position of Chief of Housekeeping and Provisions. I have no idea if any firm in any industry boasts of such a position.
As the CoHP I had to keep a constant eye on the operations in the kitchen and the general cleanliness of the workspace. Personal grudges and gossip are very common in the kitchen and housekeeping staff and I had to make an effort to prevent this from reducing their productivity. Such things might have been a part of what the other people in the firm did, but keeping a tab on them was out of my duties, of course!
Chapter 4
The firm had grown multifold, but the old cozy atmosphere was long lost. Paresh, Kunal and Rajendra became more and more inaccessible not only to me but also to the other working staff in the office. Ranks were introduced among the fifty odd people in the firm. Only a few of them were supposed to meet with the three bosses. I knew there was probably no other way things could be managed in an expanding organization of this size, but it was disturbing nonetheless. But the firm as a whole must have been doing great since the intake never seemed to stop.
The firm now occupied the entire floor in the same building. Client visits became common. They had to be served special food brought from some big hotel. These people from other countries did not eat with the rest of the staff in the canteen. They had a special room that should have been used only for conferences, but was now more often used for luncheons. I would look over the waiters serving in that room. They had to be meticulous in their behavior for much depended on everything progressing well in that room.
Twice in a year, we would have a bash—a grand gathering of all the staff members and their families. Paresh, Kunal, and Rajendra had all married beautiful women soon after the new building was up and running smoothly. Their wives seldom came to the office. They had their own jobs and were busy. This quite surprised me in the beginning. I would have thought the wives would take up active part in the functioning of the growing business. They never did so. Maybe it was the correct way in this software world. This way, their family lives were distinct from their office lives. Of course, years earlier, when the firm was very small, I never knew these three to have any other life except to work in the small room for long hours. It was not required now. There were other people to work nights and create profits.
The three bosses frequently went away on foreign trips to bring in new clients or to consult with other firms. They always made sure that all the three of them were not out at the same time. Nothing in the company fell apart in the absence of any one of them. It gave me chills when I first understood this fact. If everything really works fine without one of the bosses on the chair inside his cabin, then was he dispensable? Much less would work the same without a supervisor inside a kitchen, or on the housekeeping front. This, I thought, was a stark difference in the way staff on temporary wages works and how the staff on permanent salaries works.
Chapter 5
The picture perfect I had painted earlier about the employees of the firm fell apart on that fateful day when I heard that Paresh was leaving the company for good. Through internal gossip I heard that differences had cropped up between the three bosses. They had distinctly different dreams for progress form then on. Arguments had become heated and Paresh had offered to remove his share out of the firm. Both Kunal and Rajendra agreed after careful thought.
It was a particularly emotional moment when Paresh left his office. All the staff gathered to bid him goodbye. A small speech was delivered congratulating Paresh for the acute effort he had put in the company and how the company would always remember his part in building it up. It is all very simple to give a heartfelt talk. But for a person to leave his entire life’s work just like that is no joke. He seemed to be distant with almost no expression on his face. I felt like I ought to resign that very moment. After all, it was Paresh who had hired me. However, it would have been insane to do such a thing. With enormous experience behind him, Paresh was sure to do great in his life ahead. I, on the other hand, had great experiences, but nothing to write on my resume. I had handled many people and looked after the provisions quite well, but no one would have noticed it. It is only if you are sloppy in your housekeeping duties that you are noticed. No one knows that layers of dust would accumulate on every keyboard over a weekend if it was not for my men to clean everything early Monday morning. All the employees were completely transparent to the mini-war that took place everyday inside a kitchen when one or the other supplies do not reach in time. My cooks are never noticed except if they make a bad dish one day.
I felt a sudden hollow in my stomach. I was so afraid to change my job from the restaurant to this firm. And now, when I am well set in this job with much more experience behind me, I am equally scared to shift job again. Paresh, on the other hand, was unemotional about an irreparable loss—loss of his proprietorship.
Chapter 6
A month and a half later, I left the firm. I decided to do so on the day Paresh left. But it took me all this time to write down the activities that must take place on a regular basis in all the small parts of the kitchen and in the housekeeping jobs. I also hired a new person to take over my duties and taught him all that I could.
During this month, I also kept an eye for any sign of change in the firm’s working after Paresh left. There were no changes. Just like I had thought when one of the three bosses went abroad, I again thought that at least Paresh was dispensable. This thought was disturbing. If Paresh was dispensable, then so was everybody else. All the dedication that I know of, all the traits of a good person, all the traits of a good manager was present in Paresh. If he was dispensable, then so was everyone else in this room. And so was I.
When I finally left, Kunal and Rajendra thanked my for my great service all these years and wished me luck for my future. They also gave me a very good recommendation letter. I knew I would never use it.
I went to Paresh’s house and saw how devastated he was. His wife had resumed her job and Paresh would be left alone in the house and would just think of his past days. I stayed with Paresh for some days taking care of the kitchen and the housekeeping on a much lesser scale than earlier. It was during this time that I understood he would not want to reenter the industry. I made a very bold suggestion to which Paresh laughed for a long time. I said, “Why don’t you take up a job as a Professor in some nearby college? You have much knowledge in your field and an enormous experience.” After finishing his hearty laugh, he finally said, “Your suggestion is not bad. In fact, when I was in college, I used to think that someday I will return here as a professor. Now that you mentioned it, I remembered that and felt stupid that I did not think of it myself. Thanks. You have shone a lamp over my path ahead.” His wife was slightly skeptical, but agreed to the idea since it would at least keep Paresh busy for few hours in the morning.
Later, I went on to construct my one catering business near to the same college where Paresh now teaches. Paresh is a favorite teacher among the students. He tells them a lot of stories from self experience and also uses his profound knowledge of the subjects he teaches to make them interesting. A lot of students visit my mess and a few firms close by also order food from my mess on regular basis. I use the same techniques of innovation to keep my students from switching to other messes. I do not change my cooks of course, but have taught them how to transform the food completely after a week so that the taste is completely different the next time.
Incidentally, Kunal and Rajendra could not handle all the growing business by themselves and were quickly looking for a third partner. Their firm is still standing but the employees are less enthusiastic. I do not know if a person, after all, is dispensable or not!
Yesterday, I received a note from the college nearby saying that some students wished to do a case study of my catering business. I do not think there is much to do a case study about in my business. Keeping your eyes open and changing with the circumstances seems to take you through the right course automatically. Still, I am glad to be noticed. I will get one more position in days to come--inside the library of that college as part of one of the case studies!
The End.
Ashutosh Dhekne
