FACTS AND FIGURES

Sreekumar K

Malathi ma’m died of cardiac arrest today at seven o'clock in the morning. A few of us might attend her cremation at the city crematorium at 4: 30 in the afternoon. Her elder son, teaching at a university in Belgium has said he may not make it in time and gave permission to have her last rites done by his sister in his absence. His sister Mala is a well-known dancer.

Malathi joined our firm years ago at the lowest possible slot available for a candidate of her education then. She worked under me for two years and then got a double promotion and reached my level. It was mainly because of my strong recommendation that she got that post. I was sure that, with her dedication and hard work, she would be a great asset to our firm.

We were very good colleagues for another year and then I got a promotion. She didn’t get any that year but she worked relentlessly and in the next year she got another double promotion and became my immediate boss. I asked her whether we were in some sort of a race. She said it was surely a race but the winner took nothing and the stadium took all.

I was failing in my health and didn’t care much about deadlines or targets anymore. Consequently, I have been in the same position for several years now.

But Malathi went soaring higher and higher. So high that we didn’t see much of her at all.  We do remember the first time she visited Australia. On her return, she was kind enough to offer a party without mentioning the occasion, though we all guessed. She thanked all of us at the party for having helped her to become what she was then. She referred to her humble beginnings and said that she was the first person to be graduated form her native place.

Still I don’t know why, but I leaned over to Sarah and whispered to her, “That says a lot about her native place.” True, since she would have graduated only in the 80s.

Globe trotting was nothing for her in years that followed. But there was no party anymore and she unfriended most of us in her first office from her facebook account. We were sure that the management had made her do it.

  However, we were very happy about that party she had given after her first flight. There was DJ, drinks and dance. We all had a really memorable time then.

The less we saw of her, the more we heard of her. There were two very popular rumours about her health and her family life. Later, we found that the news about her impending divorce was not true. Some one commented on the FB that the reason there was no divorce was that they were not in a relationship anymore. Her man was the zonal officer of a new generation bank and wrote film reviews in a national daily every Friday. He had been transfered to a metro a few months ago.

However, the rumours about her health was true. In another year, we heard that she had lost one of her breasts to cancer. We wanted to visit her, but then we found that she was at AIMS, Delhi. Most of us wondered whether it was paid for by the company or her health insurance. If it was the health insurance, some wanted to know which card she had taken.

But soon two more items of news found their way into our office. One was that her son had married a Swedish woman, mother of two and settled in Belgium. She was his colleague. Another news was about Malthi madam's financial condition. Some said she had invested heavily in real estate and some said she had become a partner in our own company. We could not find any piece of evidence about this though we accessed the details of our company several times.

Her daughter grew up to become a famous classical dancer. Unlike her mother, she was pretty and like her father, very tall. She was different from her brother when it came to academics. She was not a scholarly person like him but, much like her father, very happy with what she was and what she had. Her brother was a gold medalist in every course he took up. Just like his mother, he was a go-get-iter and both of them got whatever they went after.

All of us who thought we knew her up close wondered how she managed to put in such an amount of work. All we heard was her groans. Our interactions with her were mostly about the huge work load she had and how much sleep she hadn’t. She always complained about one sickness or another and she would recount her visits to all those doctors. In fact, we were the ones who got sick of listening to all that. Finally, we learned to ignore her when we found that her work was never affected by her health. So, was she faking it? No, in the end, she got this cancer and now this.

We have several people among us who were risen to what they are today because they had taken her as a role model. They are very grateful to her for that. True, she was good at getting the best out of all. Those who resented work used to say that she was always under stress and, in turn, put her subordinates under worse stress.

When I think of my old subordinate, my colleague for a short while and my boss for the rest of her life, I somehow feel a pain. I think that, in spite of her achievements, life was quite unfair to her. But I don’t know what exactly makes me think so. Sure, I have been jealous of her from the day she became my boss. She was aware of that and was very careful in her dealings with me.  Like hers, my own son is settled in another country now and my daughter had decided not to work after she got married. She has taken to yoga now.

Today’s paper had  Malathi madam's photo on the very front page, with a condolence message from our chairman. Her head is tilted down a little and she is smiling her best charming smile. She was only 53, three years younger to me.

It may rain in the afternoon. If it is a heavy downpour, I don’t think I might choose to go. The road is in a mess and there isn’t enought parking space at the crematorium