Ragheb pulled the scooter's rear view mirror so that he could
observe the raggedness of his beard over the “objects are closer
than they appear” text and being content each hair was in its
place, he drew the curtains in and latched the door of room 13 on his
way out. He involuntarily fixed his crumpled suit as he skipped down
the flight of stairs deciding to walk to work on a pleasant Bangalore
morning. There was a spring in his step, after all it was not another
regular day but his first day of his promotion. He stopped at
Narayana's blue cart that doubled up as “UK Fast Food” in the
evening for roadside Indo Chinese fare. Ragheb picked up a bread
omlette to eat on his way to work. As he unwrapped the newspaper from
the omlette, he noticed a small piece on how the board room in India
was growing younger and younger every day. Stuffing the bread omlette
into his mouth, he uncrumpled the soiled paper to read the article.
The article made perfect sense to him. He too had to break through a
glass ceiling to get to his present position. He did have an
advantage that he started earlier than most of his peers, but he too
had toiled long hours as everyone else, and he had converted
opportunities where there were none and helped in the firm reaching
its top line revenue targets year after year.There was a streak of optimism that any bystander would notice when they first saw Ragheb. Yet like every other
conservative firm which was steeped in tradition and heritage,
hierarchy almost always got the top draw over meritocracy. All the
plum posts usually went to the senior folks. Ragheb remembered how
his friend Damu cribbed that the only skill that mattered was having
white hair to get you into the board. Ragheb crumbled the paper and
threw it into a pile of garbage at the corner of the lane narrowly
missing a stray dog that had finally decided to call it a day after a
wild night out of karaoke singing, skirt chasing and drag racing. The
firm had been kind enough to add him on their payroll when his father
had died in a horrendous car accident , an unfortunate case of a hit
and run. His thought bubble of his greenhorn days being pushed around
to do menial jobs was burst by a blaring horn. An auto rickshaw
veered in dangerously close to him missing him by an inch but not the
splash of water on his heels from the pot hole the auto couldn't have
missed. He spat on his shoes and rubbed it against the back of his
pants but all he could get his shoes to be were designer not cleaner.
It was a happy day and such events barely mattered in the scheme of
grander things. As his uncle said, “Its not who will let you, but
who will stop you (from achieving what you want) “ that should be
his worry in life and he had loads of those to get here. For a
change, it wasn't religion that kept him back but it was his youth.
His detractors felt he was too young for this job and was better
utilized elsewhere in the enterprise. Those indifferent felt that
signs of age and wisdom would be better suited on his personality for
him to be most impactful in his client facing role. But Ragheb had
proved them all wrong, he had against all odds continued to deliver
on firm targets come rain or sun. He agreed it came easier to the
older folks with their decades of experience and he felt people were
partial to the women at times, but those were his battles and not
anyone else s. He picked up his pace as he realized rush hour would be
dawning soon on the city as those IT and BPO wallahs made their way
to their ivory towers. He soon spotted familiar faces as he reached
Sony World signal with the trademark KFC and Taco bell signage at
the junction. He then set eyes on his spot, the most coveted corner
office that he had fought tooth and nail for and earned. It woke up
his nerves as he suddenly realized the magnitude of his promotion and
the expectations that came with those. The envious eyes of his
colleagues soon seemed to weigh heavy on him and he felt a limp as he
dragged his feet across . One pair of eyes had genuine warmth in
them, which put him at ease. Sanskruti's. Though she always shied
away from interacting with him , he knew she believed in his
capability. Or maybe she liked supporting the odd underdog. His line
of thought was interrupted again by the Car Horn Orchestra performing
the 10 o'clock symphony. His day had officially begun. He settled
into his corner, cleared his throat and shouted “ Allah ke naam pe dede baba!”
