Hi Guys…
Checkout my latest story…. Blogging after a long time …. Request to give away the mistakes …. !!
Prologue
1. I have been on bench for the last two weeks
2. This is what happens when you keep movie freaks like me on bench for few days. Its dangerous
3. These days .. we see an over flooding of movies being stolen from one language to another . I also stole this script from a block buster Malayalam movie (later converted to hindi, tamil and kannada) and another blockbuster English movie …. It’s the IT version of these movies…!!!
4. Read along … you will enjoy the climax…..
BENCH TIME Movies
Presents
BELL PICTURE LOCK
Directed by
Jean Kachappilly
#1
I was sitting in the coffee bay of Infy NY office building. I was sent to US by my company for a US lateral recruitment drive. Usually we HRs don’t get that much opportunity to travel abroad as these development folks do. But this was indeed a refreshing trip and I was enjoying this. Screw the folks in the morning and nights are left out exclusively for night clubs. Wow this sure is refreshing.
Suddenly, my boss walks in with a coffee mug in his hand and sat beside me. He had a worrying face. And I was really surprised to see a gloomy boss who otherwise was an extremely joyous slapstick and quick witted chap. I searched his face not so sure that he was not going to utter “you have lost your job”.
“Whats the matter Sandy..” I asked with a croaking throat.
You know “Sandy” is yet again an acronym for Sandeep Veera kulasekhara Mannadiar. We IT guys always have a nick name which is easily pronounced by the white guy. Now if the white guy attempts to utter Sandy’s real name he would end up saying something which we all would listen to with sheer embarrassment.
Sandy was one among the few sensible lot of bosses. He never beats around the bush. But on this occasion he was different. He started differently.
“Oh Nothing My boy …. We HRs are destined to travel… We don’t have an option….We don’t have destinations .. We ..”
“Cum’ on Sandy… Come to the point”. I urged.
“I am afraid you will have to end this US trip tonight . You have to travel back to India”. Sandy said without any stammer.
For a moment, it was ok but then something from within told me … There is something bad that is taking shape.
“Whats the matter Sandy?? Is everything alright???” I was apprehended.
Sandy took a deep pause not knowing what to say. After a while, he looked straight into my eyes and said …”It is a very strange Case that has come our way. It’s the one that had been creating headache for us right from its inception”
“What is it exactly” I pleaded.
“Yet another ASHI case and you have been appointed as the tribunal”.
//ASHI stands for Anti sexual harassment initiative in our company.”
“Oh…. You just took the breath out of me for such a silly stuff like this “. I was almost sarcastic.
“Its not as simple as you think. Especially when the alleged party is your closest friend Nakul Madhavan”.
“What do you mean Sandy?? He Just got married and he was transferred to Trinfy along with his wife. He is such a decent guy. A Project Manager . I mean How come he is involved in this?”
“But all these facts will not save him from being the accused. Now Your Job is to be the Tribunal and investigate this case and find out the element of truth in it. Most importantly do it without any bias”. Sandy was cold as usual.
“This is horse shit. I will not do this”. I exploded.
“You better listen to this and decide for yourself”. Sandy took his iPhone 4 and started playing a recorded message. The voice was crisp and easily identifiable. It was Nakul on the line.
“Hello… Is this HR helpdesk NY? ”
“Yes”
“This is Nakul Madhavan from Trinfy(Trivandrum Infosys). I want to talk to HR Bobby. Can you get him on the line”
“Your Employee Id Please”.
“#####”
“Hold on for a moment Nakul”
A pause ensued.
“Sorry Nakul…HR Bobby is busy with a meeting . He cannot be reached now. Woudya like to pass a message”.
“Yes”
Again a pasuse.
“Bobby. This is Nakul da. Please come over. Things are getting worse day by day. I will be evicted if you don’t prove me innocent… I haven’t done anything wrong . Please come over. Your Nakul..”
Beep… Beep… Beep….!!!!
I sat there with my hands clasped. I don’t understand what is going on. Why is all this happening. And Nakul. How come??
Sandy said as if he has read my mind.“I understand your worries son. But I have more bad news for you. This ASHI case has been raised by a fellow HR from Trinfy. Her name is Sreedevi. Now, the most intriguing part is that she herself is denying having raised a request all by herself. Nakul says that this lady HR is mentally unstable since she has been divorced right after getting married. Her Family hid the fact that she is a CRR 3 from her would be’s before their wedding . Whatever be the case You have to either save your friend or he will be out of Infy in 30 days counting down from today”.
I sat there dumb for few moments. Then I took the blackberry from the pocket.
“Hello Tina. I need a ticket to Trivandrum, India. Tonight. I just don’t mind sitting next to the pilot.”
Sandy gave a wry smile with his thumps up and emptied the room.
Here I come Nakul…..!!!
#2
Nakul and Ganga had come to receive me at the airport. It was late evening in December and it was cold. I was meeting Ganga for the first time. I couldn’t attend their wedding coz of my official stuff in the US. She is also a Team Lead with Infy. They didn’t have a love marriage. That was very much unusual in the IT world for a gorgeous beauty like Ganga and a handsome PM like Nakul. I always thought Nakul had an affair. But I was actually surprised to hear that he had an arranged marriage done.
They were both working at Bangalore and a short while after their marriage they took a transfer to Trivandrum. Peacefully settled. It was all fine when this tragedy struck Nakul in the form of an ASHI request.
“30 Days and I am done”. Nakul was driving me to the guest house and he sounded really worried .
Ganga pacified him. “Don’t worry dear…. Now That Bobby is here . he will save you from the clutches of that demon HR hag. Look my baby have become dull….” She caressed his cheek. I was watching this from the back seat of the car. I was feeling a bit shy. Thank God I am still single…!!!
Our guest houses are in the same campus as that of the offices. On the way to my cottage, Ganga showed me the place where HR Sreedevi was living. Very next to her, was mine and hundred meteres from my cottage was Infy’s Office buildings . Nakul and Ganga lived in a cottage after the office building. Nakul and Ganga helped me with the luggage. After unloading everything at my cottage, they were about to leave. That is when Ganga gave me the security PIN that was used to login to our company’s intranet.
“Bobby we will meet tomorrow in the office. Your Tribunal meetings starts tomorrow itself. Hope you are ready”. She added with panic in her voice. I smiled and bid them Goodnight. I had a nice shower after they left and wrapped myself in a towel. The heat from the geyser was good. I felt better. I was about to get out for my dinner at the nearby restaurant and that is when I had the calling bell ringing. It was a nice short bell. I had this feeling right from the childhood that you can read the personality of a person at the gates by just listening to the way he presses the bell. It may sound silly but it has worked for me many a time. I pulled on a shirt and sprang for the door and opened it slowly.
At the first look, she was an ordinary woman. A moment later, she was not-so-ordinary. After a few seconds she was really not ordinary. In fact it took me a few seconds for me to really understand that she was ‘THE’ most beautiful woman that I have ever met. I almost swallowed my tongue just by gazing at her. In fact I had lost my senses.
“Hi. I am Sreedevi Ramaswamy” she uttered in a meek cute voice and extended her right hand. I was not totally back to my senses but somehow my hand took that of her and shook it loosely and my lips gestured to say “Bobby Eapen”. May be an instinct from the many meetings that I am part of.
She looked at me top to bottom. Its only then I understood I had a Zodiac shirt with buttons half open on my upper half and a mere transparent cotton towel on my lower half. I felt that glee of shame spread across my lips. Still I managed to be a good host.
“Welcome in Sree…I mean Sreedevi”
“No. Thanks. I know you are the Tribunal who have come to solve the case that I am part of. I just wanted to say that I am no way involved in this and I don’t know who the hell is doing all this from my ID.” Her meek voice was a bit stronger this time.
“Well… I have just come in… We can discuss all this in office. That’s the right thing right??” I asked a bit playfully and she of course dint like it. She turned to leave and stopped and turned to say a very harsh “Goodnight”.
Is she all right ?? I was left thinking.
#3
“I met Sree.. I mean Sreedevi yesterday night”. I said lighting a cigar.
Nakul had a dropped jaw when I said that. “She came to your cottage???” He asked with total disbelief.
“Yes. She did. She is very beautiful. Are you sure you guys haven’t done anything naughty”. I was really expecting a slap. But Nakul was a nice Idiot. So he didn’t slap.
“Com’on man. I am happy with Ganga. Why should I be searching other women??.. Leave that … what did she say??”
“She said she dint care a bit about this and she doesn’t know anything about it.”.
“And you believe her??” He was angry now.
“Well … I don’t know…” a huge puff this time.
“Dude … that lady is nuts. Her family hid the fact that she is a CRR3 and married her off to a CRR1+ hr. He left her out when he came to know about this. She is frustrated about her screwed up life and she is not mentally stable. She is venting her frustration out by raising ASHIs across all the men in the company. She is crucifying me for the stuff that her moron Ex did to her”.
“Well . We HRs are insensible most of the time. But here I need to get an answer for my question. Why you?” I retorted.
“How the hell do I know… All I want you to do is … solve this and drive that bitch out of the company.” Nakul was in the best of form.
“I have a meeting with the boss here and will let you know the details. Catch you soon”. I Said and left.
#4
I went through the draft. To summarize the ASHI request , it goes like this…
“This ASHI request is raised against Nakul Madhavan(Emp No. #####) by Sreedevi Ramaswamy(Emp No.#####)”. He has requested me multiple times to go out with him which I have denied. I have already expressed that I am not interested in him as he is already married. Still, this man doesn’t seem to understand. He keeps on proposing to me. I don’t Understand what is wrong with this man. Off late he has also started abusing me through sensual talks while we accidently meet somewhere outside our work stations and once he even tried to physically abuse me. I cannot take this anymore. I know that ASHI is something very serious but I have no other options. I request the management to investigate this and take necessary action.”
This request is raised from Sreedevi’s ID and she denies this. And I am here to solve this knot. This is why I hate my job.
I kept a close watch on Sreedevi and Nakul for few days. Both of them were not even interested to get out of their desks all day long. I kept a log on the mails that each of them had sent and received to their IDs. I didn’t have any catch. I was searching for a clue and there was nothing worth finding out to establish a link.
#5
It was the fifth night that I was in Trinfy. I was at my cottage and it was 1.30 in the night. I was downloading few torrents(porn of course). I was already connected to intranet on the Laptop. It was then a strange pop up came on the communicator. “Sreedevi Ramaswamy is available” and the Green dot appeared against her name in the Office Communicator.
“What the hell… She is also awake to download porn…” was the first thing that came to my mind. But neatly suppressed.
Without much thinking I issued a “Hi ” in the chat window. No Reply .”U there??”. No Reply.
Then something strange struck me. I pulled my jacket on and headed straight to her cottage. There were no lights. Everything seemed so damn still. I slowly rang the calling bell. No answer. Again I rang the bell. After few minutes of waiting ,the door opened and there I saw a sleepy.. Sreedevi.
“What do you want ??” She asked furiously…
“So which one did you download??” I asked quite freely.
“Are you alright Mister . Should I raise a real one??” She asked .
“Don’t worry. I wont tell anyone…. I know that Girls do watch Porn… “ I said softly…
“Get the hell out of here … You Monster…” She slammed the door behind her.
When I returned to my Cottage, My jaws dropped just by seeing my Screen. Jesus Christ …. Someone has tried to hack my computer and there were weird symbols appearing on the Command prompt on my screen. I immediately took a screen shot of the Command prompt screen and saved it into a personal folder. By that time, Sreedevi Ramaswamy was offline.
So That’s it. Someone has hacked into her machine and that person/ people also wanted to know something related to me as well…and I was sure of one more thing. Sree…. I mean Sreedevi was downright innocent and stable.
#6
I showed the screen shot to Nakul and Ganga. They were naturally amused by the developments. But neither of them had any clue to what the symbols on the screenshot were referring to. I approached the Computers and Communication Division(CCD) with the valuable piece of link that could probably solve this. But hardly any luck. Then I thought about the global encyclopedia …Google. How about googling hacking?
I got thousands of links and I tried multifarious keywords. My Hopes were slowly finding its end. Then very surprisingly, in one of the links, I happened to read about the Hex editors used for hacking the ROM. It took nearly the effort of my life time to decode the weird letters and after the humungous effort , a piece of the code in plain English read … B E L L P I C T U R E.
I kept wondering what BELL PICTURE could mean. Is this a dead end ….!!
#7
I had lunch with Ganga as Nakul was not free. She was a chatter box. But I knew that she was sensible. After the lunch she said she wanted to head to a server room for some testing. I said ok. After some seconds she had left, I recollected what she had said.
I ran behind her and finally spotted her walking down to the southernmost corner of the building.
“Ganga … Wait ….” I ran behind her screaming.
“Where did you say that you were heading to ?”.
“The Bell Picture … ”she was amazed to find me gasping for breath.
“What is that?? ”. I asked suppressing my disbelief.
“It is Trinfy’s Main Server room. It is located at the southernmost corner of the building on the top floor. What’s the matter Bobby?”. She asked totally unaware of what is going around.
“Can I come with you??” I asked.
“I am sorry Bobby. I am in Charge of the Server Room. I am the only one having the access to the vault”.
I was left stunned with what she had just uttered. I just stood there not knowing how to respond.
“But you can come in once till the porch hall that forms the entrance to the Server rooms. I have to show you something ...” She had an unidentifiable glee over her face.
On the first look , The Bell Picture is just another hall with few boxes stacked in there . Just like an ordinary library hall. But this is the place which forms the hard disk for this division of our company. Mail Servers, Data Exchange servers, Mainframes. All connected by innumerous number of cables lined up in that big hall.
“You stay here ….” asking me to wait in the porch hall, she went inside the vault and I saw her plugging some cables into a server box at the far end of the hall. Porch hall forms the entrance to the server vault and Server rooms are separated from the porch hall by 16 mm unbreakable fiber glass. The temperature inside the vault is maintained at 18 degree Celsius. Any change in the temperature setting will alert the concerned officials.
She came out and switched on one of the systems in the porch hall.
“Come and sit here …” she commanded. I sat on a chair beside her.
“Just See these Bobby. These are never published BoKs of an erstwhile employee of our company. Her Name is Anandavally – a tamil girl. Years and decades before, She was the admin for this server room just like me. She had written these BoKs when she was in charge of this. She was an extremely smart coder. Look what she has done. She has even proposed the hacker plan to any of the Machines or servers.. I recently found out these and have kept this as a secret till date. Only Nakul and I knows about this. I don’t understand how that moron HR Sreedevi got hold of this. ”
// BoK stands for Book of Knowledge.
“Why didn’t she publish this… ” I asked with maximum curiosity.
“I don’t know what made had her from not publishing this but anyways she was smart”. Ganga seemed pretty clueless.
“Ok . I just wanted to show this priceless collection to you. will catch up in the evening for coffee”. She said.
I turned to leave. But paused. I turned back and asked. “What happened to that girl. Is she still with our company?”.
“Oh … That’s a sad story Bobby. Her’s is a complete tragedy. When she was here she fell in love with her colleague in CCD. His name was Rahul Ramanathan But she had a very cruel PM who had interests in her. Once he came to know about their affair, the cruel PM sent the guy to Mozambique on an onsite where he died of cholera. This stupid PM tried to convince her. But she wouldn’t agree. After umpteen trails, the PM lost hopes and he became ferocious. In her next CRR cycle, Anandavally got CRR4 and she was removed from the company since it was a time when Recession was in in its best form. Nobody knows where she is. Some says she also have committed suicide. But there is another school of thought which believes that years later, she came back to give her lateral interview as a Delivery Manager to avenge her former PM. She became a lateral DM and drove her formal cruel PM (who was just an SPM by then) out of the company by awarding him CRR4. These are just folklores. No one knows the truth. ”
“Ok Ganga.. See you later ….. ” I Said and left the room… !!!
#8
I met Nakul over coffee. He was placid.
“I need your password to Infy Network”. I Said plainly.
“Why”.
“I will tell you later”. He gave me the password.
I had no other job other than to wait for 1.30 tonight. I was anxious. I waited for the green dot to appear in the communicator against the name “Sreedevi Ramaswamy”.
After a long wait, at about 1.45 AM, the green dot appeared. I logged into the communicator with Nakul’s ID. The following conversation ensued between me(Nakul) and the person using Sree.. I mean Sreedevi’s ID.
Nakul(N): Hi
Sreedevi Ramaswamy(S): //No response
N: Hello Anandavally
S: Who are you….???
N: I am Madhavan Thampy. Your PM.
S: You wretched Moron. You killed my Rahul. You sent me out of the company. I will avenge you. In another week we are having the CRR .I am your appraiser.. I will screw you this time….!!!!Watch out you Beast…!!
N: ok… Now get lost with your revenge. I am unassailable. You cannot act down upon me… Now get lost and come back on the CRR day.
S: I am leaving you now… you sardonic bugger …. You better watch out on the CRR day… You will be done for ever.
With this “Sreedevi Ramaswamy’s” ID became offline…. !!!
Now… I was cold with terror…. I have just come inches close to the person who is the real mentally unstable one that we had been searching all over these days. And I was devastated with my finding. I fell loosely on to my bed and fell asleep.
#9
A few days later, I had to meet Nakul. I pinged him and asked him to come to the top floor where we could speak freely.
He came to the roof top with eyes filled with full of questions. I knew that he wants answer to one and only one question. And I had a very disappointing answer.
“Any Clues dear….he asked promptly”
I was silent . And It was natural that he read something wrong on my face.
“Nakul, I want you to listen to me with maximum patience. Ok…. ??”
“Whats the matter Bobby. Is everything alright….” I could see the panic rising in his eyes.
“Nakul….. The mentally unstable person who sends across ASHI request to you, who have created havoc to you and me … the one whom with we all had been searching …. is not Sreedevi as we all had thought……. Its …. Its your Ganga”. I said with at my maximum calmness.
Nakul couldn’t speak anything … He stood there frozen…. His gaze fixed on every word that fell off from my lips….!!!
“What do you mean …Bobby?”… His voice was too very low….. !!!
“I mean it Nakul…. She is the one who has raised the ASHI by hacking into Sreedevi’s Laptop”
“How come … why” He was beginning to collapse….!!
“That was what even I was puzzled at a couple of days back. But now I know the reason. Now there is one more person who knows about this in Trinfy. Its HR Sree… I mean HR Sreedevi… !!! I told Sreedevi about the whole thing and she was in total disbelief. Sree and I went on a trip to the college where Ganga did her graduation. The principal of that college vividly remembers her being suspended for hacking the digital exam portal of the college… She is a born hacker…. She was interested in network hacking right from her childhood which grew as a maddening addiction. She found pleasure when each hacking assignment was a success. Not until she was caught and suspended she knew the seriousness of her hobby. This is the start of her illness. She became neurotic. Her parents had taken her to a local psychologist. He treated her with some readily available drugs and she was temporarily Cured. Nothing surfaced until she started her work in the Bell Picture Lab in Trinfy. Here what awaited her was an invaluable set of hacking BoKs written by an erstwhile employee of Infy. Her Name was Anadavally. She had a tragic life in Infy. She had a cruel PM who sent her BF to Mozambique on an onsite assignment to separate them because they had an affair going and he had evil eyes on her…. This guy was found dead there. A hostile Anandavally was awarded with a CRR4 and was driven out of the company. To avenge this she gave her laterals and got in back as this PM’s boss. In the next cycle she screwed him up with a 4 and drove him out. Once I went to the Bell Picture along with Ganga.. There she showed me the invaluable BoKs written by Anadavally years back. The shine in her eyes was more than enough for me to get a deviating psychic vibration from her..!!With pain.. I recognized that… the mentally unstable person whom I have been searching for is Ganga and not Sreedevi…!!
Now the most intriguing part here is that …. Ganga is affected with a strange mental disease called Multi level Split Personality. In our HR language this disease is called ..ASHI Quicko Terminatica. The peculiarity of this disease is that she transmutes herself into different personalities. At one point she feels that she is the erstwhile Anandavally who was facing a tragic life in Infy. At this point you become the Cruel PM who was the cause of her suffering in Infy. She has vowed to avenge you. Once I talked to the patient in Ganga over Communicator. She was with such powerful vengeance. Regarding the ASHI… it’s a different story….. at some other time the patient in her empathizes too much with Sreedevi’s ill fate as a wife and she thinks she herself is HR sreedevi…At that moment you become Sree’s Moron Ex who left her out just coz she was a CRR 3. The ASHI is raised by HR Sreedevi in Gnaga to avenge her husband which in turn is you and at same time to drive her revenge on Anandavally’s Ex PM who again turns out to be you in her view. If you are found guilty, you will be naturally thrown out . So that’s what the patient in her is thinking.
In the nights, she wakes ups as Anandavally . She can measure the depth of beer in your belly and hence she knows when you will wake up. She goes to the Bell Picture and she voraciously does the UTP work for the hacker plans she has made. Its been a routine she has been following for at least a month now.
Nakul…. It’s the most complicated case that I have ever attempted. If you look at the outcomes of the ensuing events, its very gory. If the company finds out that she is the one who have hacked into HR Sreedevi’s account … she will lose her job. If she has to be saved I will have to sacrifice you dear. ”
Nakul was crying helplessly and he down with what he had just heard.
I tried to pacify him ..”Nakul we can make this alright buddy …. I promise you … I will give your Ganga back without her getting any ASHI Quicko Terminatica again. For that to happen, the most important thing now is that … don’t let her know that she is a patient”.
In the Following Days, I had regular meetings with HR Sreedevi and my boss here. We HRs were facing the toughest challenge of our life time…We need to work a plan out in a way both can be saved. Finally we embarked on one.
#10
It was the night that followed the CRR day. We got special permissions from CCD and set up a meeting room in the porch hall of “The Bell Picture”. We awaited Ganga to come along and start her proceedings. The waiting continued. Still no signs. I tried to be patient.
After an hour or so, I heard the footsteps fast approaching the porch hall. I found something strange about the sound. It was not that of a lady. In fact it was that of a man. I eagerly waited to see Ganga appearing at the door of our make-shift board room. But breaking all my expectations, I saw Sandy standing there at the door. He slowly walked in.
“Sandy…. Jeezz… How come you are here …. Come over and hide here … we are expecting something really important to take place here …. Come over .. quick…” I Whispered.
“Bobby …. There is nothing that’s gonna take place here …. Its just your CRR meeting that’s happening here” Sandy was calm as ever…
“What do you mean .. nothing is gonnna take place .. and its my CRR meeting?? …. We are expecting Ganga to walk in any moment… if you don’t believe me … ask Nakul .. he is around here … Nakul… Nakul…” I shouted for him …
“Bobby … Relax….There is no Nakul … No Ganga… No one around here … Its just you and me….”
“What the …” I felt the panic rising ….
“listen to me carefully Bobby …. Everything … EVERY THING is your imagination … Nothing is real….”
“What the crap are you saying … we met in the US ,..Its you who referred the ASHI case to me … what do you mean ….nothing is real…. ”
“what i said is absolutely true .. Bobby …. Nakul and Ganga are still in Bangalore …. They were never transferred to Trivandrum … There is no HR Sreedevi …. And there is no bloody ASHI request raised … and you have never been out of Trinfy for the past two months…. Its all your imagination…. “
“But this bullshit … what the f***…. I cant take this…. ” I roared.
“Last cycle …. You got a CRR3 and you had been expecting a 1+. This triggered the illness in you…. YOU ARE NOT STABLE …”
I saw Sandy becoming a blurred figure and his voice getting reduced to micro decibels … I FAINTED.
#11.
Some Strange voice was trying to wake me up. The intensity of the sound grew larger … I dint know what I was saying ..
“Who are you …. .. Tell me .. who are you … “
“I am Bobby..”
“Tell me your full name ….. “
“Bobby Eapen ….. ”
“Your Employee Number please”
“#####”
“Your pass code has been accepted ….. Now Joining the conference …. Bobby Eapen”
“Bobby …. Bobby…..” I Woke up almost throwing the phone away….
“What are you doing Idiot…..where is the deliverable mail that you promised to send yesterday ?”
“Sorry Mahesh…. I just slept late yesterday …. Watching Mani-chitra-thaazhu and Sutter Island…..”
Yet another day at office begins….. !!!!
Written and Directed by
Jean Kachappilly
