As John was ambling along the sea shore …roaming, guarding the periphery of land and sea and watching the sun take a plunge in vast grey expanse, refusing to sink just yet as if it had some miniscule chance of being rescued …… like hope in the hearts of men that refuses to die.

“Hope” for john was none. It was long dead and buried. Like a mirage in the desert though it kept him going for long. But as his affections changed; the thing that he had achieved turned into dust and withered away

John had walked long and hard. From being a fearless striver living by the clock to a hopeless despot living at the mercy of others on the scraps thrown by them.

For long john had fought this condition of hyper sensitivity. He had taken tests, consulted doctors, the problem was not lack but excess. He could see everything around him…He could see that slight deepening of the voice, sudden blinking of eyelashes, a cursory glance at the article on the table; And it didn’t make him a detective or a sales man or a poker player. Not because he did not have the skills but because he was far too good and innocent at heart to investigate a murder or gain undue advantage out of a client or for that matter even win a hand in poker. But what instead it made him was an anomaly. It made him a quirk. It made him a bull in a china town.

The thing is…. He would just know things about the person that others won’t notice as he explained to is friend Gini and it would either draw him towards the person or drive him away. In his world he would either be repelled or attracted by the person because of some innate quality that the person possessed. As he explained “In my world they are all magnets and I am either attracted or repelled by them depending on which qualities take precedence in them –positives or negatives”. Gini retorted –“and what are you positive or negative?”. That’s the thing he said “there’s No scent of my own” n what in the world does that mean. To Gini it was nothing more than some deep psychobabble that john would venture into from time to time.  “Is he sane today?”.He thought in his mind.

He had roared in a team training session at BCom seven years back “Your system wants you to compete but keep one thing in mind staying together will help you walk further. And if you will walk alone your paths will intersect and you will become a prey of the system.”

And Boy he was right! The company had the worst HR policy that he called “Rolling Heads”. The company would fire people at will or reach a mutual understanding with their employee whenever the top brass thought that it is time for them to go. There was no culture. No Values .and only mission they seemed to be on was to save their own hide.

The place was ridden with such vibes. People talked in hushed tones and there were so many non-verbal cues to wrap your head around. This was a real corporate jungle.

In real jungle animals are not driven by survival instincts, they are actually driven by their nature.

While the leopards and tigers would hunt with swagger and strength…pouncing at their prey in sheer scorn and devour without any pre-pondering and afterthought. Hyena and jackals would lie in the trenches waiting for the hunter to depart with the meat so that they could make merry with the leftovers without having to go through the entire ordeal of going to the kill themselves.

Cooperate jungle was called so for more ways than one …while there were the obvious tigers and leopards; there were Hyenas and jackals that would just scavenge to get their fill.

John was on the other hand was a young fledgling learning to fly uninitiated to the ways of the wild. He was merely driven by survival of himself and of those he cared for. He was young. Far too young.

But john was not just another soul lost in the wilderness of B com. He was gifted in more ways than one. He was the most articulate speaker in the lot. And he had eyes. He never missed a thing.

It’s not as if they were needed in the company for their skills …Not in B Com. There were eight of them when they had joined in the company from three different management colleges. All of them were taken in at half the salaries they were initially offered as a last ditch effort to accommodate these people in rather turbulent economic times. That being the only good thing that the company did for them.