Half Win

Today Atharva reached office on time. He greets Narmada in the lobby.

"Narmada, did you prepare the presentation."

"Yes" Narmada replied.

He asks her to add latest product sales figure in the presentation.

Narmada agreed on points.

"Narmada, you have become more productive."

She exchanges the smile with her boss.

She left. She thought that her boss needs the presentation to reach him in the next couple of hours.

She was constantly stunned by the boss for his leadership skill. He knows everything, his staff deliverables, skills, birthdays, events, and he cares about team members. He was a man of moments. Her boss was a genuine leader. The way he communicates any thought to peers or his seniors. That impresses others. It's acted as a confidence booster for his team. Nothing but a halfway mark for any assignment. The remaining half part he carries on his shoulder by distributing work to the right people. He is the right person at the right time at right place. He was an environment-friendly person. Infrequently, his peers call him eco-friendly manager. 

Pratham was the top performer of Vedika's team. Until that time, the relationship between the top managers was all right. But all hell broke loose when Pratham moved from Vedika's to the Atharva's team. Vedika was not happy with this move. She totally relied upon Pratham to keep a healthy relationship with the customer for repeat orders. He procured good business deals for her. Even though it was an internal transfer, his exit from the team was a big shock for Vedika. It created an animosity between Vedika and Atharva. Both of them used to work for the marketing department in the bank.

Pratham described Vedika to his new boss. She was the combination of aggressiveness, greedy, smart, hard work, and talent. She manages all her projects with great speed. Speed and good planning are Vedika's USP. Her team members always try to avoid her anger. She always wants the best performance from staff for an assigned task. In other things, she was smooth to deal. If she plans anything, then she does everything to execute it.

Now Vedika searched a suitable replacement for Pratham from Atharva's team. But she failed to convince anyone from his staff which added fuel to her anger. Atharva tried to avoid to confront Vedika. But she always tried to invoke him into combat. In chess, when two kings are involved in the battle, their knights may engage in oblique moves. They never lose any chance to grab each other's customer base. Sometimes she used Atharva's ideas to impress the senior management. At that time, she used to look at Atharva's face and tried to tease him. But he was such a calm and composed person, he never responded. But sometimes he lost his cool and prepared strategies to counter-attack Vedika. That made him more vulnerable towards Vedika. Now the two were neck and neck to win customers from each other's base for the company.

Company internal politics added fuel to their fight. In a long shot, Atharva always beat Vedika's estimate. Your status will get a big boost when you win against a great competitor. They never waste any single chance to overpower each other. To become successful, they studied a lot and always were ready to take the extra step to get an edge on each other.

Their boss was the only commonality between Atharva and Vedika. Their manager knew techniques to handle this type of situation and always wanted to fetch best possible outcomes from his people. So he never disturbed their egos. Atharva was always busy to plan a counter strategy to beat Vedika.

Unknowingly, Atharva brought home the tensions involved in the office. Business mixed with family can be a deadly combination. Atharva was already knee deep into that. His family suffered a lot due to the stress in his professional world. Especially his wife Chitra was unhappy about it. She needed to support two children and handle her office work. It created differences and lots of tension in their relationship.  Both of them were physically and emotionally drained out due to their clashes. His health took a toll because of constant pressure and lack of any physical exercise. He was unable to spend time with family, and his busy business schedule made it even more challenging. His relationship with family started to strain due to this reason. The once famous person for his ice-cool temperament was now involved in bitter arguments on petty issues.

Chitra was an emotional and demanding person. She worked for the insurance company. She dealt with the office as well the household chores. The primary problem between Chitra and Atharva was a lack of communication. Both of them were busy in their respective jobs and did not spend quality time with each other. That was the reason why their relationship became boring and rotten.

One good thing happened with Atharva. He got a promotion in another department for his outstanding work and practical leadership skills. It made Vedika get out of his working horizon, and his approach got mild towards her. In the corporate world, nobody is your permanent enemy.  Now Atharva was involved directly with the senior management. He could easily influence the management. So Vedika wanted him to forget all ill battles and become friends again.

Initially, he suspected some trap behind this move. But soon he realized that it was mandatory for her to align with the new management. So he did not hold any grudge against her. After a few years, they became good friends. She led a new project for the company, and she was doing well in that. Sometimes Vedika invited the rival-turned-friend to her home for lunch. Her family knew very well about him. On one such occasion, he gifted mango tree samples. Both of them were very excited about their friendship, and they planted it as their symbol of friendship. Sometimes when they met in the office, they discussed the mango tree.

Atharva was on the top of the world for his success. But soon perceived that he was all alone out there. Nobody was there from his family to celebrate his success. That added woes to his existing set of problems. Everybody has an aim in their life. There was none from Atharva's family with whom he could share his accomplishment. Besides, he ignored his health problems.

Suddenly Vedika got the news that Atharva's car collided with a divider on the road. He was admitted to the hospital, and his health degraded steadily. Every morning she prayed for Atharva's well-being. In the hospital, she heard the bitter truth, i.e., Atharva and his wife had arguments over his new trip to overseas. His boss assigned him the new responsibility to look after business in a foreign branch in New Zealand. He wanted to move to the foreign country as soon as possible. But Chitra opposed this idea, and they had a bitter argument on this issue. All these thoughts occupied Atharva's mind while driving the car that collided with divider. This accident resulted in the unfortunate death of all his family members. Former and current associates of Atharva shocked over this incident.

Vedika called the hospital staff, and she received the sad news about Atharva. He died after a week's battle with his injuries. Vedika was very disturbed by this news. Even though she was the former enemy of Atharva, his death was a tremendous loss for her as well as the company. Now she understood that she lost a good human being too. She was unable to bear the loss of a dear friend.

The situation was critical for Vedika. The old hatred for Atharva turned into a feeling that she had lost a part of herself. She held herself responsible for this incident. Her heart was heavy and burdened. She was ashamed of her involvement in the corporate battle. Even though the contest was played a few years ago. She left the battlefield long ago without caring about win or loss. She wanted to repay the loss. As she thought that she was one who started all of the corporate episodes. She wanted to go that extra mile to salute her friend and to repay her debts.

She decided to resign from her current job, and she did it. She faced lots of struggle and competition in all her duties and each role she played. She thought that many people suffered due to the same. Some people lost their cool and argued on small issues which were unnecessary. Some people are unable to handle the complexities of professional assignments. They quit early and face troubles in their lives. Nobody can stop such things, but she decided to help such victims. In life, everybody wants to win, and nobody wants to lose. To become successful, you need to be mentally and physically fit.

Vedika started an NGO, which promotes awareness about healthy stress management and yoga techniques to cope with daily stress people bear in the workplace as well as in family. Narmada also joined an NGO later.