It is 9 am. Somebody is carefully scanning the entire street from inside the Coffee House. You can see his face behind one of those large glass windows of the coffee House, his eyes searching from right to left, left to right.He is looking for a man called Gullajani. His intentions are not good.
Gullajani is given to long walks. He walks to his office in the morning. On his way he passes this coffee house.Through the large glass doors and windows, he can see the manager sitting in a high chair at the counter very close to a window. Sometimes their eyes meet. The Coffee House is always full of people relaxing in those comfortable green cane-chairs, sipping coffee. This is a great place to relax and was my usual lunch-time haunt until Gullajani messed up matters one day.
Something happened that day which resulted in three developments. One, Gullajani gave up the long walks. Two, a man always watches the sidewalk from one of the Coffee House windows at around 9.00am, looking for Gullajani. And three, I abandoned this lunch-time haunt.
Here is the story.
It so happened that one day our chief wanted coffee and sandwiches to be served to some important officials who were coming to discuss a project. He asked K.K. our administrative head to have this arranged. It was a routine matter. We had our own canteen.
K.K. had then just joined the office on transfer and had a very bad habit of going out of the way to please his bosses. He telephoned me.
" You know ofcourse about tomorrow's 4 o'clock meeting. I would like the Coffee House to serve coffee and sandwiches in the chief's chamber. Can you put somebody on this job ?"
"We have our own canteen and they will do everything. No need to go to the Coffee House " I said.
"No No, let us do it in style and get it from coffee House", he said, " The waiter will be a tall, smart one wearing a fresh uniform...and the crockery brand new".
"This cannot be done for the simple reason that this Coffee House does not do any outside catering business", I said.
When K.K. persisted I felt disgusted.
" I think you should talk to mr. Gullajani. May be he can do something". I suggested and banged the phone.
So he called Gullajani.
This silver haired burly middle-aged fellow with a carefree friendly demeanor was a distant relation of the chief. He was a sort of go-getter with no fixed duties. He had ample time on himself and could waste it on talking to the Coffee House chaps.
Gullajani told the admin head that the Coffee House would not do this.
"Now mr. Gulrajani, you have a reputation for getting things done. Don't say 'No'. You have to find some way", K.K. implored.
Gullajani said he would give it a try.
I was in the coffee house at lunch time that day when Gullajani entered, puffing his big cigar.He did not notice me and proceeded directly to the manager's desk .The manager was missing from his counter.
"Call the manager immediately", he ordered a waiter. "Very important work"
The manager came rushing, abandoning his lunch.
"Look here mr. manager", announced Gullajani, " You have a great chance of geting a good raise in your salary if you follow my instructions. Now listen carefully. Some foreigners are coming to our office tomorrow afternoon and they are interested in importing coffee to their country. You have to serve the best coffee to them using brand new crockery. There will be photographs of the waiter serving coffee so the waiter has to be smartly dressed. These photographs will be published in the leading magazines all over the world. Your name will also be mentioned.
The next day a handsome young well-dressed waiter attended to the job. When no photographs were taken he was intrigued. He did not see any foreigners either. And there was no discussion in the meeting about export of coffee.
He went to the chief's private secretary afterwards to clarify these matters and found that the Coffee House had been taken for a ride.
When he reported this to the manager, they came rushing to our office looking for mr. Gullajani to have a show down. Somebody alerted Gullajani and he quickly disappeared. When the manager tried to create a scene, I firmly told him that the office had nothing to do with what went between him and mr. Gullajani and warned him that if he entered the office premises again I would call the police and have him arrested for creating disorder in a government office.
To further confound the matter Gullajani came to know that the manager was a local goon and would not spare him. He was now very scared and proceeded on a month's leave out-of-town. Meanwhile he approached the Head Office and managed to get himself transferred to another town!!
But the Coffee House blokes are still continuing with their vigil. A face appears behind a large window-glass-pane at 9 am and a pair of eyes keep scanning the sidewalks!!
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(Photograph for illustrative purpose only)
