A call to nurse the wounded ego

DISCLAIMER

This is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all the names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents in this Story are either the product of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental and unintentional.

“Yes Sir!” said the eager voice at the other end.

And I gloated and beamed at the other.

“Oh course Sir, all you have to do is just click on the link and we will take care of the rest.” said the soft feminine voice at the other which was almost a sweet melody to my ears.

My ears….which had gone almost deaf today…………listening to all that loud abuses.

“What else does your company offer?” I asked her gruffly, trying to sound too busy and a bit disinterested at the same time. ‘A sure sign of an important man’, I had noted.

“Just give me a moment, Sir………..” she said most respectfully and I could hear that she was leafing through some papers while I continued to stare at my laptop and looked at the shut bathroom door, with a kind of relief.

She had been silent for only a little over a second, but I still shouted at her “What is taking you so long? Your company advertises proudly that your company provides the fastest service and you call this an efficient service?” I demanded, my voice pitched at an all-time high, over-playing my part of a thankless and over-demanding customer.

While the young girl on the other side, dutifully, as per my assumptions, fumbled and apologized profusely “Sorry Sir………. I mean…….I am a fresher………today is my second day………..please don’t complain to my boss……….my boss….err….he….err….he will surely kick me out………..I need this job…………" she continued pleading with me, calling out to me ‘Sir…please…Sir………don’t……I beg of you……..Sir” she went on and on calling me Sir and Sir in her pitiful voice over again and over again, stroking my ego, which had taken a very bad beating just minutes ago when my loud-mouth wife Sarita had yelled at me and called me deserving names like rascal and ‘good-for-nothing’ and a lazy-bum and the entire house had thundered with her shouts and abuses and was silent now only because it was her time for a bath.

So, I, an ‘out-of-work’ man, who had to put on a show of trying to ‘find work’, had opened my laptop, searching for sites where I might get a decent job, while my wife fumed and boiled like hot lava and to cool herself down had decided to do the best thing possible –take a bath and then do an elaborate pooja. 



And I, who was nursing a wounded ego, had decided to do the best thing possible-I received the call from the call center executive and talked to one of those girls who are paid to speak politely to rascals like me and treat me with great respect, which is in sharp contrast to how my wife speaks to me or treats me, resulting in my ego getting bruised black and blue!