As it was Friday evening everybody in the office was high-spirited, chatting, gossiping and exchanging their plans for the weekend. Vineet was thinking of going out and meeting some of his friends. He would have a great time with his buddies, he thought happily. 

While he was preparing to leave for the day, his boss, Shukla, summoned him to his cabin.

“Vineet, I have never expected this from you,” Shukla said as soon as he saw Vineet.

Vineet was confused with this sudden assault. What wrong had he done?

“How could you make such a bad presentation,” his boss continued. “Our project director is very angry with this, you know?” 

Vineet understood now what he was talking about. A few days before, Vineet had made a presentation to one of their clients on the new software product the company had developed. Some problem must have come up with this. 

“What happened, Mr. Shukla? My presentation went well that day; Client even appreciated it,” Vineet said in a sincere tone. 

“But they rejected the product,” Shukla said curtly.

 Vineet’s face hung at once. “Oh! It is very bad news, Mr. Shukla. He was so keen that day on buying…”

“Stop it, Vineet,” his boss cut him short. “I know the reason; it’s your presentation.”

Vineet became flabbergasted at once and took a while to compose himself. “It must not be because of my presentation, Mr. Shukla”, he said slowly and politely. ”I am sure he was satisfied with the presentation. Maybe they should have thought it doesn’t suit their needs”.

His boss got angrier with his words. “Then this is your fault only, na? You should know what his requirements are and how to present the stuff to suit those requirements.”

Vineet was silent. He knew his boss was making him a scapegoat. In fact, Shukla had led the technical team that had developed the new product.  The new software might not have met the client’s expectations. What he had done was just presenting the features of the product to the client. ‘Most of my previous presentations were successful,’ Vineet said to himself. ‘Nobody had blamed me before if some client declined to give the contract to the company; never was there any problem with my presentations’.

Now, for the first time, he was being blamed for the fault that was not his completely. He was ready to share the responsibility as a member of the team, but he could not take the full brunt. 

“Vineet, come out of your thoughts,” growled his boss. “We have a meeting with the director on Monday. Come up with some concrete excuses to justify your failure by that time. He sounded really angry with you.” 

My failure! It’s your failure, you bloody brute, Vineet wanted to scream. Instead, he just nodded his head in silence. Shukla had already established him with the director as the responsible person for missing the contract.

Vineet came out of the office, his cheerful mood gone.

Would the director buy the boss’s theory of my messing up the project? Maybe he would. It was hard for Vineet to imagine the consequences. His performance rating would fall; his bonus and even his increment at the year end would be at risk. Management would not remember his past achievements; it would look at this single failure, which was not actually his whole. Vineet sadly remembered all his plans and expectations which would go off beam if the project director believed Shukla.

A drop of water suddenly touched Vineet’s right hand. Coming out of his gloomy thoughts he looked up at the sky. It was overcast. A cool breeze brushed his body.

Vineet felt a bit quiet, but his mind still in turmoil. All hard work he had done so far was going to be washed away because of his boss’s dirty mind. He had been nurturing a dream of becoming a project manager. Now he had to crush all his dreams and aspirations in the company. How sad! He sighed.

Rain drops began to fall on Vineet. First, slowly. Then, at a medium pace. Umbrellas in various colours and sizes at once came into view on the road. People on the street began to run hurriedly everywhere.

As he did not carry an umbrella, Vineet looked around for some shelter. But his heart urged him to move on. He was completely wet in a few seconds as the slow rain turned into a downpour. Let this rain wash away my misery, he thought and kept walking toward the bus stop.

To his surprise, Vineet was enjoying his walk in the rain. The rain-soaked buildings and trees lining the road looked beautiful; people, with their colourful umbrellas and raincoats, seemed to relish the downpour beating the earth. ‘How beautiful this rain is!’ Vineet wondered.

As if some magic had happened, Vineet remembered the words of his director. Six months ago, in a meeting, he said, “Vineet, you really doing good work! Keep up this, my boy. Maybe next year you will be leading a project on your own”.

‘How much analysis he must have done about my work to have such confidence in me,’ Vineet thought. ‘Would he loose his confidence just because of Mr. Shukla’s dirty game? Certainly not…’ This thought made Vineet cheerful again.

‘I would certainly expose Shukla’s game to the director,’ Vineet made a determination. ‘Even If the director doesn’t see through Shukla’s mean nature, then no problem; I would leave the company. I couldn’t work with people who couldn’t recognize true talent. My honesty and hard work deserve a better company’.

Vineet reached his bus stop. But he wanted to walk further to the next bus stop. He wanted the rain to sweep away all his insecurities, dependencies and miseries. He wanted the rain to instill in him more confidence and more strength and vigor. He kept walking on. ‘Mother Nature always wants its creatures to be happy,’ he thought. ‘Let this rain touch my soul’.