Deep Dasgupta 

03/02/2021

This kid was a nightmare. And 4 years is a long time.

The room stank from the moment he walked in – the little interview room lit up like a candle from his body odor. The HR person gagged.

He looked barely 18 years old, thin, frail, but the strangest thing were his totally dead eyes… he had perfect vision, yet no matter what happened, his eyes would remain flat without changing their expression. He never blinked throughout the interview, and I don’t know how a human being could do that. But he had the skills. He was good.

He got hired, and in the days and weeks that followed, I got endless flak from his colleagues and supervisor for approving his employment.

Because he had weird habits. He would wear the same clothes to work every day – a worn tee and dirty jeans, and stank like hell. He never shaved, and got scruffier by the day. His body odor was so bad that no one would step into an elevator with him. He did not eat real food. During the day, he would only grab the free cookies or crackers from the pantry, and for dinner, he would get some street food with one boiled egg that cost around Rs. 8. That was his protein. This continued for weeks, he became a pariah from his colleagues, who continued to give me grief for hiring him. Dirty looks, mumbling in the lift about me.

After a month of this stuff, he got his first paycheck. The next day, he came in showered, shaved, smelling good, in a crisp cream shirt, dark trousers and polished shoes. And went down to the cafeteria for lunch and ordered a huge palate of chicken biriyani, with vegetables and yoghurt to boot. People were stunned. They started to ask questions, gentle feelers about the abrupt change… the social feeling transformed within days. 

What emerged was that he had come to this town with only the clothes on his back and no money. He had had no place to live, and had been sleeping on the streets. After his first paycheck, he rented a place to live with a shower, and got a new wardrobe, all within 24 hours. 

But his eyes were still dead. He never blinked.

He never reported to me directly, and I lost him in the sea of humanity over the years, forgot the nods and smiles when we’d see the other across the common zones. Time passed like memory.

Yet yesterday, I was waiting for a cab and heard an eager “Sir, Sir!” A man was sprinting to me through the rain... it was him! He ran to me and shook my hand, then gave me a huge bear-hug. His eyes were moist.

I looked at him. He had filled out, dressed immaculately in a pressed white shirt and black trousers, clean-shaven with a military haircut. He gasped, “Sir, I wanted to thank you for that interview when you hired me. My first chance was with [24]7.ai. See, it’s only been 4 years and I’m the Assistant Manager today… and I’m only 23 years old!! And for the first time in my life, I have a girlfriend now... Thank You!!” I hugged him back.

But the most interesting things were his eyes. They had changed. They were bright and alive, sparkled, blinked, glanced all over the place, and danced like his soul. 

It was a cold and clammy night, chilly, drizzling a bit. The moon hung low. The close handshake had made my eyes moist too. And I felt strangely warm all the way back home.