Dining with a Rape Accused

This write up is inspired by Manish jee s todays The lunch blog! It was as if some where it was stored in my memory lane and popped up reading his very interesting lunch incident. . …. …….As mentioned many times i was sent as a trainee to Hindustan lever ice cream division at the age of 22 just after graduation and a post graduate diploma in sales and was absorbed as a permanent employee with in 6 months, the team of my colleagues ( all men of my father s age at 45 to 50) had been working in the company since 25 years.For them to accept a young employee that too female at same salary package was a big shock aswelll resentment and displeasure towards the Management. Since they were the old ,casual ,lazy aswell as negative attitude lot who dint make as much efforts as their capacity, we the young lot were attached with them. THIS would have solved Management s problem that now the old employee has no choice but to work hard to train the new employee. I was the incharge of catering division which handled ice cream supply at Hotels, restaurants, banquets ,airports and Railway station! So my co employee in vengeance only kept sending me to Purani dilli railway station almost each day to collect company ice cream stall s daily earning which were around 3,000 rs a day back in 1997 but in denomination of 10 rs notes! It was extremely tough to climb so many station stairs each day in Delhi Summers with no a.c,no accecslstors and no water coolers for parched lips and then counting those clumsy full of Sweat currency which was stuck with each other was the toughest job you could give a new bachaaa employee! On one such occasion when our company contract with Indian railways was about to expire and Mother dairy ice cream with better fat content and lower price was about to take over our share of ice cream on Railway station, my boss guided me to meet the North Indian railway catering head Mr Atiq and convince him to continuing with us ,our forte was great cold chain and international brand. As i entered Mr Atiq s railway station based office ,he kept me waiting for 2 hours before even exchanging pleasantries, he said i have a lunch lined up ,u can join me and i ll discuss your company proposals there.Since it was a prestigious contract aswell i was hungry i said ok ,never knowing how and where we would go for lunch! As we moved out of his office towards parking of railway station, he took out a Two wheeler scooty explaining that his car has gone for servicing and he got a Scooty! Anyways i kept my big folder between us to cover a distance of 10 kms to Chinaar restaurants in Kirti nagar to have a discussion on lunch with Mr Atiq.He seemed to be a decent man though in his early 50s with not as fair complexion, pimple marks on his face, tall and lean wearing a check shirt with khaki trousers and eating paan.On the way he told me his native place Itawa in U.p and his recent transfer from there.As we reached the restaurant we took a table for 4, 2 of Mr Atiq s freinds were to join us for lunch! As soon as we were served daal makhni ,malai kofta and Naan ,the 2 freinds of Mr Atiq came with a Hindi news paper in their hand smiling and loudly congratulating him ! Aap sab rape ke aaropo se bari ho gaye( u have been acquitted from all rape charges) ,The water in my throat which i had just had got stuck and i was frozen ! I had travelled on a two wheeler alone with a Rape accused aswell was now dining with him! I just managed to have half a naan not discussing anything about company contract but rushed within 15 minutes from restaurant pretending i was late for a pre decided meeting! Later when i confronted my senior colleague of why did he send me to such a questionable charactered man ,he just grinned cunningly!