I Am A Girl, Not The Flesh Part 6
The Solicitor's Wife
After recovering from the shock of facing the lady accountant, I confined myself to my home for a month. It took a month for me to get out of that depression. Then I started looking for something. After spending around two months searching for something suitable, I joined a law course and, after a couple of years, secured the much-needed job in a local law firm.
It was one of my teachers who appreciated my seriousness and referred me to a senior advocate working in the High Court. He had four juniors. The senior interviewed me and recruited me as a trainee assistant. Since my residence was not far from his office, he asked me whether I could start and finish late, starting late in the afternoon and finishing at 8 pm. I agreed as it would have given me time for self-studies in the mornings.
It was a quite busy office where many employees, mainly lawyers, used to visit the courts every day, with the senior spending almost the entire day there. He used to come to the office by 5 pm and needed one assistant to work with him in preparation of briefs, and I was chosen for the job as the previous assistant had moved away. Other advocates, and the clients too, used to come to the office in the evenings.
Other advocates used to leave anytime between 5 pm to 7 pm, depending on their work, but clients at times used to be in the office till 8 pm, though the frequency was not very high. I used to leave the office between 7:30 pm to 8 pm.
Other office staff used to leave the office by 6 pm. On most days, I used to be the only girl in the office after that time, but I never felt concerned about that. The atmosphere in the office was very good, truly professional, and there was no discrimination among the staff. The senior-most lawyer was a paternal figure to all and knew about details of the families of each of his juniors and other staff.
I did not realise that a problem was brewing in the office, and in my life also. The office was on the ground floor of the building, and the first and second floors were the residences of the boss. Entry to the upper floors was separate, and anyone entering the upper floors did not have any connection with the office on the ground floor.
When the boss returned from courts or clients, he would come to the office and generally did not go upstairs to the residential part. Other lawyers and office staff were always there in the office, and he would take the reports from all.
Every day, he would sit with other lawyers, those who were in office and after around two months of the job, I became an essential part of all such meetings.
It was my job to note each and every proceeding and also instructions of the boss, prepare minutes and take up with all concerned persons all follow-ups as directed. I might not have understood a lot of content at that time, but my job was to carry out the instructions meticulously and that part I was doing reasonably well, with the confidence and trust of seniors too. With the passage of time, I started understanding the notes and instructions also, and my eagerness to know prompted me to ask my seniors and increase my knowledge.
I was also given the authority to manage the non-professional staff according to the directions in the meeting. The first time I felt odd when one day when no lawyer was in office and I was answering some personal call on the mobile outside the office, the lady of the house, the wife of the Boss asked me why I had chosen to stay in office till 8 pm and why my parents were not objecting to my late working with a man when he used to be alone. I was confused and could manage an evasive answer at best.
After around six months, I started going to his chamber in his court on some days or to the client meetings. I was assisting the other advocates, also. While coming back from such meetings or from his Chamber in the Court, he used to return in his car. Normally, he used to bring staff working with him in his car while returning to the office in the afternoon or going to court in the morning. Those who had their bikes, however, used their bikes. Not only me, but other lawyers also returned with him when it matched the timing.
On some days, I noticed that his wife used to watch when we would reach the office in the afternoon, and she used to display an unhidden expression of anger on her face. As I was normally not alone, and there were usually one or two more people getting out of the car, I did not bother much. Still, at times, I felt as if she were isolating me as the target of her unexpressed curses, looking at me menacingly.
As there was nothing expressed, I had to curtail my feelings, but spoke to the boss of my willingness to work in the court chamber rather than his office. He agreed, and my visit to his office cum residence came down drastically.
On such a day, when I was in the court, there was a call from the office to my residence, which my mother picked up. The caller said she was the wife of the solicitor, my Boss, and told her that I should stop coming to the office from the next day. My mother sent a text message which I could read, but only when we were out of the court. The boss was in the chamber, and when I showed him the message. He was disturbed but told me that he would take action. He said, "You ignore her messages and continue in the office. I will handle her and stop her from interfering in the office."
I was shocked, but relied on the Solicitor, and continued working, praying that everyone should see the logic, nothing else.
I told him that I may resign with immediate effect, and he should consider paying me the full month's salary. I did not go to the office that day in the evening and reached home early.
When I was still trying to solve the puzzle of the call, I received a call from the wife of the boss that I should continue to work and ignore the call to my residence, which she had made. I could hear the angry voice of the boss saying something in the background. The lady said that she was not well and did not know how she had said such things to my mother in the morning.
After the event, I requested the boss that I will have to leave the job or totally stop visiting his residence cum office.
While I did not get an alternate job quickly, the boss vacated the office space in his own residential building. He took office space on rent in a commercial complex and dismantled the office at his residence. I was shifted from the Court Chamber office to this new office. We expected some peace at the new office. However, that was not to be.
The lady, as I and even other staff realised, became obsessed with me. By that time, the office had another girl. The lady will call up the office and start talking to other staff from time to time. She used to be too nosy to bear with, seditious, if I can use the word. She will inquire about who are in the office.
The lady who never visited the office when it was in the residential building started visiting the new office quite frequently. She chose the time of the day when her husband used to be in the Courts.
Her alibis were always flimsy. She would come to the market and then come to the office on some pretext or other. Sometimes, it would be to have a glass of water; at other times, she would say that she had run short of money and ask anyone for any amount to do her purchases. She would always have reasons. Her prying inquisitiveness started affecting the office, and those who had joined the new group all left slowly.
Once when she was in office, the secretary of a client called, and she picked up the phone, almost snatching it from my hand. The client was intending to speak to the boss or me, but this lady did not allow me to take the phone and continued arguing with the secretary of the client as to why she was calling the office and what the purpose was. The conversation curtailed on a sour note. That evening, we lost the client and had to return all the files. It was a significant loss for the office, but it came to be a psychological loss as well.There was no stopping of her tormenting behaviour, increasing with every passing day. I resigned in between, getting certainly a better job, but was sad for the degeneration of this office, which once looked very promising.
The continued irritating interference resulted in the departure of the majority of the staff, even the junior lawyers also left. The lady would sometimes call them and ask whether I or any other girl was in the court, or whether the boss was really in the court or somewhere else. Even after I had resigned, sometimes she used to call the office and ask for me.
I am nobody to judge about her rights to create disturbances in her family, but she certainly did not have any right to create disturbances in my life the way she did. She might have the right to destroy the office of her husband, which she did with perfection.
She again made me conscious that I was a subject of feminine flesh to her. She forgot that if a woman is only a piece of flesh, then not only she, but her daughter, her mother, every mother and sister were the same flesh. But she did that, looked around only for men and women, possibly.
*****
The next chapter follows shortly.
Look for it
I Am A Girl, Not The Flesh Part 6
The Solicitor's Wife
After recovering from the shock of facing the lady accountant, I confined myself to my home for a month. It took a month for me to get out of that depression. Then I started looking for something. After spending around two months searching for something suitable, I joined a law course and, after a couple of years, secured the much-needed job in a local law firm.
It was one of my teachers who appreciated my seriousness and referred me to a senior advocate working in the High Court. He had four juniors. The senior interviewed me and recruited me as a trainee assistant. Since my residence was not far from his office, he asked me whether I could start and finish late, starting late in the afternoon and finishing at 8 pm. I agreed as it would have given me time for self-studies in the mornings.
It was a quite busy office where many employees, mainly lawyers, used to visit the courts every day, with the senior spending almost the entire day there. He used to come to the office by 5 pm and needed one assistant to work with him in preparation of briefs, and I was chosen for the job as the previous assistant had moved away. Other advocates, and the clients too, used to come to the office in the evenings.
Other advocates used to leave anytime between 5 pm to 7 pm, depending on their work, but clients at times used to be in the office till 8 pm, though the frequency was not very high. I used to leave the office between 7:30 pm to 8 pm.
Other office staff used to leave the office by 6 pm. On most days, I used to be the only girl in the office after that time, but I never felt concerned about that. The atmosphere in the office was very good, truly professional, and there was no discrimination among the staff. The senior-most lawyer was a paternal figure to all and knew about details of the families of each of his juniors and other staff.
I did not realise that a problem was brewing in the office, and in my life also. The office was on the ground floor of the building, and the first and second floors were the residences of the boss. Entry to the upper floors was separate, and anyone entering the upper floors did not have any connection with the office on the ground floor.
When the boss returned from courts or clients, he would come to the office and generally did not go upstairs to the residential part. Other lawyers and office staff were always there in the office, and he would take the reports from all.
Every day, he would sit with other lawyers, those who were in office and after around two months of the job, I became an essential part of all such meetings.
It was my job to note each and every proceeding and also instructions of the boss, prepare minutes and take up with all concerned persons all follow-ups as directed. I might not have understood a lot of content at that time, but my job was to carry out the instructions meticulously and that part I was doing reasonably well, with the confidence and trust of seniors too. With the passage of time, I started understanding the notes and instructions also, and my eagerness to know prompted me to ask my seniors and increase my knowledge.
I was also given the authority to manage the non-professional staff according to the directions in the meeting. The first time I felt odd when one day when no lawyer was in office and I was answering some personal call on the mobile outside the office, the lady of the house, the wife of the Boss asked me why I had chosen to stay in office till 8 pm and why my parents were not objecting to my late working with a man when he used to be alone. I was confused and could manage an evasive answer at best.
After around six months, I started going to his chamber in his court on some days or to the client meetings. I was assisting the other advocates, also. While coming back from such meetings or from his Chamber in the Court, he used to return in his car. Normally, he used to bring staff working with him in his car while returning to the office in the afternoon or going to court in the morning. Those who had their bikes, however, used their bikes. Not only me, but other lawyers also returned with him when it matched the timing.
On some days, I noticed that his wife used to watch when we would reach the office in the afternoon, and she used to display an unhidden expression of anger on her face. As I was normally not alone, and there were usually one or two more people getting out of the car, I did not bother much. Still, at times, I felt as if she were isolating me as the target of her unexpressed curses, looking at me menacingly.
As there was nothing expressed, I had to curtail my feelings, but spoke to the boss of my willingness to work in the court chamber rather than his office. He agreed, and my visit to his office cum residence came down drastically.
On such a day, when I was in the court, there was a call from the office to my residence, which my mother picked up. The caller said she was the wife of the solicitor, my Boss, and told her that I should stop coming to the office from the next day. My mother sent a text message which I could read, but only when we were out of the court. The boss was in the chamber, and when I showed him the message. He was disturbed but told me that he would take action. He said, "You ignore her messages and continue in the office. I will handle her and stop her from interfering in the office."
I was shocked, but relied on the Solicitor, and continued working, praying that everyone should see the logic, nothing else.
I told him that I may resign with immediate effect, and he should consider paying me the full month's salary. I did not go to the office that day in the evening and reached home early.
When I was still trying to solve the puzzle of the call, I received a call from the wife of the boss that I should continue to work and ignore the call to my residence, which she had made. I could hear the angry voice of the boss saying something in the background. The lady said that she was not well and did not know how she had said such things to my mother in the morning.
After the event, I requested the boss that I will have to leave the job or totally stop visiting his residence cum office.
While I did not get an alternate job quickly, the boss vacated the office space in his own residential building. He took office space on rent in a commercial complex and dismantled the office at his residence. I was shifted from the Court Chamber office to this new office. We expected some peace at the new office. However, that was not to be.
The lady, as I and even other staff realised, became obsessed with me. By that time, the office had another girl. The lady will call up the office and start talking to other staff from time to time. She used to be too nosy to bear with, seditious, if I can use the word. She will inquire about who are in the office.
The lady who never visited the office when it was in the residential building started visiting the new office quite frequently. She chose the time of the day when her husband used to be in the Courts.
Her alibis were always flimsy. She would come to the market and then come to the office on some pretext or other. Sometimes, it would be to have a glass of water; at other times, she would say that she had run short of money and ask anyone for any amount to do her purchases. She would always have reasons. Her prying inquisitiveness started affecting the office, and those who had joined the new group all left slowly.
There was no stopping of her tormenting behaviour, increasing with every passing day. I resigned in between, getting certainly a better job, but was sad for the degeneration of this office, which once looked very promising.
The continued irritating interference resulted in the departure of the majority of the staff, even the junior lawyers also left. The lady would sometimes call them and ask whether I or any other girl was in the court, or whether the boss was really in the court or somewhere else. Even after I had resigned, sometimes she used to call the office and ask for me.
I am nobody to judge about her rights to create disturbances in her family, but she certainly did not have any right to create disturbances in my life the way she did. She might have the right to destroy the office of her husband, which she did with perfection.
She again made me conscious that I was a subject of feminine flesh to her. She forgot that if a woman is only a piece of flesh, then not only she, but her daughter, her mother, every mother and sister were the same flesh. But she did that, looked around only for men and women, possibly.
*****
The next chapter follows shortly.
Look for it
Amazing your stories based on realities!!
ReplyDeleteThumbs up for this book. Keep the good job sir ๐