“Being a writer doesn’t mean you recite your resignation letter to me,” Amaal grinned. “Word for word.”
Iram’s lips curled abashedly. “Yes, actually, I have never done this before. The last job I had, many years ago… it was well, very informally taken. And left.”
“Hmm,” Amaal threw her head back on the swing’s backrest, taking another sip of her tea. She straightened and looked Iram straight in the eye — “Tell me everything. And tell me the truth. All of it.”
“Amaal there is nothing to tel…”
“I know what happened yesterday.”
“You… what?”
“Samar came and informed me as soon as he left Atharva’s office.”
“That’s why you came between me and Atharva?”
Amaal laughed. “I thought he was firing you left, right and centre. But when I got there, it was a different story.”
Iram looked down, silent.
“Ok, back to the issue at hand,” Amaal asserted. “Here are the facts, Iram — Atharva and Samar saw you in the wrong place at the wrong time, they didn’t know about your publishing, you didn’t want to reveal much because that’s just your nature. They jumped to conclusions and scared you…”
“I wasn’t scared. They accused me wrongly.”
“And at the same time,” Amaal continued, “you were borderline unethical in not informing me that your publisher’s office is near Awaami Party’s.”
“I didn’t know myself! I never noticed.”
“That’s a little impossible, but I’ll still give it to you. Did you go inside their office?”
“No.”
“Did you speak to any of their members?”
“Just a salam. I don’t even know his name. He asked me that he hadn’t seen me in the building before and I mentioned that I was visiting the publisher’s office. That’s it.”
“Did he know you? Know your name?”
“No… as I said, it was just a salam. I was standing on the street waiting for a rickshaw and he was going inside the building.”
“Ok. Now, tell me, why do you want to leave?”
“I can’t work in such a place. I haven’t done teamwork before so this was way out of my zone anyway. But the way they… would you work somewhere they don’t trust you?”
“No.”
Iram nodded.
“But yesterday wasn’t about mistrust,” Amaal softened. “It was about misunderstanding and lack of communication. I should have informed Atharva about your book publishing.”
“Atharva Singh Kaul and Samar Dixit don’t want me to stay.”
“I have on good authority here that Atharva Singh Kaul wants you to stay.”
“He said that to you?”
Amaal blinked her assent.
“If you still wish to leave, Iram, I am nobody to stop you. But, on a personal level,” she got to her feet and crossed the terrace to her. “This is a good place. A happy place. I have seen you happy working with us. Your work so far has made me hopeful, and a lot saner after the last string of writers that came and went. You have the potential of becoming so much better here. Stay. I want you to stay.”
