In a strange twist of fate, Mala took her life. "Why did she do that?", you would ask. Always one with a ready smile and chirpy good morning, the partners at the big firm where she worked all loved her. The cold blue office was sprinkled with posters announcing a collage of activities - right from family day to 'paint your boss' day to 'spirit of the season' day and so many more, engaging, engrossing and infecting the whole office with a sense of glee that none could elude, right from the team leaders right down to the office boys. "Mala, are you sure about this?" was the only question the MD, Mr. Arun Bajaj, had asked 2 years back when after recovering from cancer, Mala had expressed her wish to head the presumably boring "internal motivations" team and move out of the Asia-pacific business development team which she was heading then.
She had been and he had trusted her to go with the flow. "A few months and she will be back to sales for once a sales person always a sales person", he had reasoned to himself.
She dint. Instead, the energy and passion that had led to Astar Adventures' rapid gains in Asia-Pac after Mala took over as the regional head, soon translated into crazy quirky and sometimes downright outrageous 'team-building' initiatives. At first with outrage, then indifference and finally interest, other department heads realised that somehow all 3000 of the company's employees were hooked to these crazy initiatives. Some employees had einfact, even volunteered to start local support chapters to help Mala's 2 member team central team to implement and run these in the regional offices, all on their own time!
"Are these the same guys who used to leave office sharp at 6?", one manager wondered aloud at the first semi-annual leaders meet 6 months later. "I now see them staying back till wee hours of the morning to set things up before your 'freaky fridays at 5' get-togethers", he added.
Mala grinned and added, "gentlemen, they have found a purpose! Fun too is a purpose and the joy of giving is linked directly to a person's desire to do social good, a need that is embedded in all of us. I found it when a little girl took to visiting me everyday in the hospital and reciting a prayer for me when I was undergoing chemo. She made me want to get up and get out and get a life-purpose. Everything I had done seemed so pointless and all that I had not done, promises I had made to myself but forgotten beckoned me!"
From then on, it was all a fairytale. The company was suddenly a buzz of activities. A 'Values' team was formed, common passions discovered and sunday groups created, attrition plummeted to industry lows and suddenly, after being known as the 'best paymaster in the industry', Astar earned itself the unique title of being the 'a great place to work', with BusinessOne magazine noting, "It is rare if not unheard of, for one company to hold both titles simultaneously since those who pay well rarely do anything else to motivate employees".
One year later, Astar managed to pull off a mini-coup with the Homeword Business School featuring a case study on "the organization is an ant-hill" co-authored by Maya and the chair of organizational behaviour at the Homeword University. Astar was suddenly catapulted to Recruiters hall of fame with 'Do Work' team at Astar receiving over a thousand applications from students from across the world wanting to intern!
Nine months down the line, Astar had managed to successfully launch its Tokyo office, its 10th worldwide and the death-knell for the company according to many since Japan's aging demographics did not make it a particularly viable place for a adventure company to do business. Yet the company flourished. You see, Japan maybe aging but the Japanese craved space and space island, Astar's first foray in the adventure rides world, with its zero-gravity rides, became the most popular weekend destination!
Two months later, Astar declared a bumper dividend and a profitability-after-tax ratio of 27% for the quarter ending September, a hitherto unheard of number especially after the global financial crisis of 2008 had slowed even high-growth economies to measly growth rates of 5-6% and companies crumbling under their own double-digit aspirations.
The next day, Mala unhooked herself. From life. Why now, after all the struggle and strife and finally success did she do that?
Police investigations were on. Vestiges of the past were dredged up, affairs from another life when cancer had not yet knocked on her door, financial statements analysed and her insurance nominees scrutinized. It is shocking the office muttered in hushed whispers, it cant be true, her best friend railed. Family-less, Mala's past suddenly seemed even more enigmatic to the ones who cared to dig deeper. Yet there were no answers to be found.
After a month of investigations, the DCP decided to close the case. "There is little we can do and there is no evidence of foul-play", he told the papers. The case was filed as "unsolved".
In a private dining room in the Super Gold club, the DCP said to Mr. Bajaj over a game of cards, "Arun, you and I have been friends for 30 years now. What do you think, why did she do it? After the cancer struggle and all. Things were going good professionally too, right?"
"Super-employee! we used to call her Miss Sunshine. Especially after she came fighting from the cancer which had all but guaranteed her death two years ago."
"But still...", the DGP pondered, letting the thought hang.
Mr. Bajaj smiled wrily and said, "Maybe she was done.....!"
--------------------------------------------------------
End-thought: This story does not seek to defend suicide, it is merely an attempt to highlight human choices. We can be what we choose to be - alive and optimistic despite adversity or gone despite seemingly having it all...
