Gopal 's Story

Preamble: During Blogchatter's A2Z challenge during the month of April 2024, I am writing mini stories on various subjects and characters on each day of the month except on Sundays. The name of the protagonist shall begin with the alphabet assigned for the day.  

Gopal had been serving in a public sector  telecommunications company for more than three decades . Over the years, he rose steadily in the corporate hierarchy and had become the GM of HR.  He was now on the verge of retirement with a couple of years to go. At this stage of his life and career, an incident happened. 

There was a lot of Buzz in the company. A new person Ms Lalitha Jayaram had been appointed as the chairman of the company. She was a dashing go getter, a tough task master who proved that she could  deliver results. She had transformed her previous loss making company in to a profit making one, in under 3 years. A lot was expected from her in the new assignment as well. 

Gopal and three other officers of the HR department were present at the airport to welcome the new chairman. Although he was running a high temperature, Gopal went to the airport as he wanted to greet the chairman on the first day. The plane was however running late. They had reached the airport at 3 PM in time for the 3,30 PM arrival. However, even at 5.30 PM , there was no clarity as to when the aircraft would arrive . Suresh one of the HR team members looked at Gopal and noticed that he looked very tired and exhausted. He said " Sir, this flight is likely to be inordinately delayed. You go home and take some rest. We will handle it." 

Although, he initially declined the offer, the body pain and tiredness got the better of him and Gopal decided to leave. " Take care of the chairman and explain the circumstances to her." were his parting words as he left for home. When the plane reached, the first question that the new chairman asked was " Where is your head of HR?" The answers given were not satisfactory to her. She felt that the GM had taken her lightly because she was a woman and deliberately avoided welcoming her on arrival. 

The days that followed was an ordeal. Gopal had started out on the wrong foot in the relationship and the impact remained until his retirement two years later. The chairman frequently slighted him publicly ignoring him when he spoke. She often resorted to 'Subverting the chain of command', going straight to the juniors for information and instructions thus embarrassing Gopal. 

Although Gopal tried his best to remove the misunderstanding, he could not change the mind of a person, a very successful administrator but in whose head was lodged a deep rooted idea  that " Men tended to disrespect women, given half the chance!"   

Today, as he looks back at his career, Gopal prefers to think of the last two years as a bad dream. Perhaps it was inevitable, a price to be paid for a bad karma in a previous birth, he consoles himself. 

NB: This post is a part of  challenge #BlogchatterA2Z