The Deceptive Mind

Author: Rajrupa Gupta

Author Introduction

Rajrupa is whimsical in one part, carefree daydreamer and obsessive freak in another part. She suffers from nostalgia and worries about the uncertain. She has a varied range of conflicting interests - books, movies, music, travel, architecture, hacking, cooking, sleeping, gossiping, being lazy on purpose and perhaps most importantly - observing people and reflecting about life. In her head random thoughts are always rioting to come out first. She presents them to you as Riot of Random

The Story

“Get up, Arup sir. Your coffee is here.” Raghu, the office boy said as he placed the mug carefully on the coaster. Arup opened his eyes from the power nap he had mastered over the years and flashed a warm smile at Raghu. He was friendly with Raghu unlike the other top honchos who merely acknowledged Raghu’s presence when he delivered the coffee. Though Arup would never tell him, having once been an office boy himself, after his father’s untimely death, he knew exactly how gratifying a smile was.

Arup sipped the coffee silently reflecting how far he had traveled in a decade’s time. From an office boy to a senior IT technician in Aeon Business Consulting Corporation or the ABC Corp. – the biggest consulting firm in the World. He still sometimes thought of those sleepless nights when he was preparing for his CCNA exams online. Such eventful 32 years. Not that he had any idea of stopping here, he still had a long way to go and helping him, in a strange way, to achieve his goal was BattleField, a strategic war game in the virtual world of internet. It helped him va­lidate his strategic planning and decision making capability and hone them. It was not long now, Arup thought, before he crossed yet another milestone in his life.

The loud buzzing of the phone tore the fine fabric of his thought. The number flashing on the display told Arup it was from Meghana. He suppressed a sigh that rose from within readying himself for another “My-work-is-more-important-than-yours-you-must-come-immediately-to-my-aid-leaving-whatever-you-are-doing” type of monologue.

◊

The three headed dragon puffed smoke yet again - three colors of hot clouds of lava came out of its three ugly heads. Fiona moved from her left foot to right to dodge. She needed to think something very quickly if she wanted to survive. Also she mustn’t let the primitive beast go any near their fuel reservoir – one more puff there and her entire faction whom she nurtured so carefully would wipe off the face of Thrace. Muttering fiercely to herself Fiona did something drastic. She took a gigantic leap and cut one of the dragon’s wings with one stroke of the sharp sword she carried. Howling in pain the beast lurched forward to grab Fiona with its claw. But quick witted as she was Fiona started to run towards the lake of Lepcis. She ran as fast as she could, dodging the fire breath every now and then, heart beating in her mouth with the dragon trailing just by inches. Luckily for her, it was in too much pain to aim its hot breath correctly at her.

She dived into Lepcis. The foolish dragon followed suit. Surely enough, as Fiona had figured correctly from its enormous wings, it preferred the sky and could not swim. Inside the cold water of Lepcis, its hot breath did not work either and it was too heavy to float. She waited for few minutes under the water with her breath held, waiting for the beast to drown completely before she emerged on the lake surface.

She was shocked to see the Strider waiting on the land. He lent her one hand helping her to climb out of the water. Fiona felt content to see the smile on the Strider’s face. He tied a lavaliere around her neck – an acknowledgement anyone would crave for. Tonight she gets to accompany him in the epic battle to take over Bononia. The Strider put an arm on her shoulder and pulled her close. But suddenly an irksome sound came - *ENG ONG ENG ONG ENG ONG*.

Meghana started in her sleep. It took her a while to completely transition to the world of reality. She strained her eyes trying to take in the familiar room and reached for the alarm clock that had gone berserk. She yawned and stretched her limbs to shoo the last bits of clingy sleep away.

Being the head of the Strategic Client Communication department in the prestigious ABC Corp her days began with a quick consultation with her I-Phone. She glanced through her day’s agenda as she got up promptly. But at the back corner of her head a nagging thought still refused to leave – they said morning dreams come true. She shook her head and got busy in her morning chores.

She got ready in a grey jacket and trousers for the office.  She smiled fondly at her reflection in the mirror. She hated those girly girls in her office who dressed in skirts or worse salwar suits and had no higher aim than discussing about hot male colleagues. She knew they hated her as well. Last week when she celebrated her thirtieth birthday they had gifted her an all-expense paid trip to Hawaii. She knew how badly they wanted her to be out of office even for a few days. The fanatic pace with which she worked often bordered on the line of being impossible for many others.

Meghana prided herself on her aggressiveness. Since childhood she was fiercely competitive and always came first in every exam she ever wrote. Armed with an MBA from the prestigious Kellogg when she started her job hunt, there was a formidable array of employers who wanted her. She played the role of an amused spectator when these mediocre firms vied for her. But Meghana wanted nothing but the best.  So when she had nodded her head finally to the offer from ABC Corp. many of her classmates had exhaled relief.

The day went by as swiftly as any other and even before Meghana had barely finished her first coffee of the day it was lunch time.  In spite of her the weird dream from the morning kept visiting her occasionally. And every time she managed to blush pink.

She had an important meeting scheduled in the afternoon with a rich potential client. She rarely needed a second meeting to impress a client and she was hoping that this one wouldn’t be any exception either. She had spent some time quietly chalking out the strategies for the meeting earlier. What would the Strider have done? She had thought. It amazed her how she had subconsciously taken to putting Strider in her shoes of late and tried to guess Strider’s reaction in everything she did. She often caught herself thinking – “Would Strider have approved my decision?”

It all started when the lack of challenges at work drove her to this MMORPG called BattleField. As was always the case with her she found herself leading a faction called Tuitoni in no time. They were warriors and their town was called Thrace. Strider was the leader of the clan called Arenacium to which Tuitoni belonged. At first she was opposed to the idea of being part of a bigger clan and preferred battling independently. But soon she discovered teamwork and manpower mattered. As she continued to play BattleField she came in close contact with the Strider. She was awed at Strider’s brilliance. Till now none of Strider’s strategy had backfired and they won each single battle under Strider’s leadership. Meghana was sure, Strider also, like her, belonged to the upper class of corporate leadership and had an impeccable academic record.

Mira had sent an email saying that she had copied the ppt required for the meeting into a known shared location as its size was too big to be attached in the email. Meghana now tried to copy it to her laptop. She had enough time to review it and make the necessary correction before she headed for the meeting. But for some reason the network connectivity broke at 95% of the copying every time she tried. Pushed to the limit of tolerance she called up Arup – the IT guy or the Mr. Know-it-all as others called him.

Meghana could swear that the Arup guy had sounded downright bored when he answered her call and it irked her. But she kept quiet when Arup showed up. Arup worked for few minutes in her laptop and then said, “It’s not network problem ma’am. The archived file is corrupt. Please paste a fresh copy of the file.”

Meghana panicked. She didn’t have enough time and Mira was out for lunch. She asked Arup to stay back till her problem was solved. She called up Mira and persuaded her to return from her unfinished lunch after using a well-chosen vocabulary of corporate words capable of curdling anyone’s blood.

◊

Ten minutes later Meghana was satisfied after the PowerPoint presentation was successfully copied into her laptop and she opened the file and verified it. She nodded to Arup signaling that he could leave now. As Arup started to leave he blurted as though unable to help himself, “Ma’am, in leadership influence is more important than authority.”

It struck Meghana like a thunderbolt. “What did you just say?” she asked.

“Nothing ma’am. I was just leaving.” Arul put his leg forward to escape from the scene.

“No! Wait. Why did you say what you just said?” Meghana’s voice leaned dangerously on the verge of pleading.

Arup rolled his eyes and cursed himself under his breath. Why did he have to blurt out the Mantra he followed in the BattleField? “Nothing ma’am, seriously, it’s just something I tell my faction leaders to follow in this online game I play in my spare time. Seeing how you behaved with Mira, it automatically came to my tongue. It does not mean anything.” Arup finished.

“Which is the name of the game you play?” Meghana asked, now holding her breath. She was about to discover something she had been longing for a long time now.

Surprised by the sudden curiosity of this snob lady, Arup said, “It’s called BattleField. It’s a massive multi player online role playing game, I am sure you know. I lead a clan in it. Of late I am mixing virtual and real world. Sorry for that loose comment on leadership. Of course you know better.” Arup started to leave again.

But Meghana was not letting go. She asked again, “Which clan do you lead?”

“It’s called Arenacium”, Arup replied, now positively frowning.

Meghana gestured that Arup could leave now. After he left, she giggled like a teenager suddenly, Oh! The deceptive mind. Years of corporate filth had made it fallacious, it needed cleansing – immediately.

She dialed the travel agent to finalize the itinerary - she was going to Hawaii.