700. How Did This Happen?

When Sundaram, the Manager of the firm, went to the cabin of Proprietor Vedamuthu, responding to his summons, Vedamuthu was furious.

Vedamuthu, who had been following the practice of first offering a seat to Sundaram, whenever he entered his cabin, didn't ask him to sit. The moment Sundaram stepped into his cabin, Vedamuthu started taking to him, venting his anger.

"Mr. Sundaram, I have entrusted the running of my firm to you. How can you be so irresponsible?"

"What did I do, sir?" asked Sundaram, perturbed by the Proprietor's words. 

"Ram Enterprises have been paying our bills, with a lot of delay. They arbitrarily deducted some amount from some of the bills, claiming that the quality of our product was not good. So, I took a decision to stop supplying our product to them and apprised you of my decision. But, you have supplied the product to them, defying my instruction!" 

"Sir! When Ram Enterprises made a request for supplying our product to them, I declined their request, stating the reason. But, I when I came to the office this morning, I found that the product was supplied to them yesterday, when I was on leave. I thought of bringing this to your notice, soon after your coming to the office. But, before I could do so, you called me" said Sundaram.

Vedamuthu thought for a while, called the peon and told him, "Ask Kumar to come to my cabin."

After a few minutes, Kumar entered Vedamuthu's cabin, seated himself on a chair and asked Vedamuthu, "You wanted to see me, uncle!" 

"Get up from your seat, first. Don't you see that the Manager is standing? How can you take your seat, before my asking you to?" flared Vedamuthu.

He then looked at Sundaram and said, "Please have your seat. In my perturbed state of mind, I forgot to ask you to sit. I am sorry" he added, apologetically.  

"It is fine, sir!" said Sundaram and took his seat.

Kumar got up from his seat, startled by Vedamuthu's display of anger and asked him, "What has happened, uncle?"

"Stop calling me 'uncle.' This is my office. You are an employee here. Sundaram is your boss. Other employees are your colleagues. I have heard that you have been trying to command every one in the office, as if you had the authority to do so, taking advantage of the fact that you are related to me. I wanted to call you and reprimand you, in private. But, before I could do so, you did something worse. You misused your authority and committed an irregularity" said Vedamuthu, his tone indicating that his anger had still not subsided. 

"No, uncle...I mean, no, sir! I didn't intend to..."

"The Manager has given clear instructions to all the staff that we should not make any supply to Ram Enterprises. He gave that instruction, in compliance with the decision taken by me. But, yesterday, when the Manager was on leave, goods have been delivered to Ram Enterprises. Was it done as per your instructions?"

"They begged me over phone that their position was precarious and that they desperately needed the product. That's why I agreed to their request." 

"Who gave you the authority to decide to supply the goods to Ram Enterprises? The other employees would have told you that the Manager had instructed that we should not supply our product to them!"

Kumar nodded his head, silently. 

"You have taken this decision, knowing that it was in violation of the instructions given by the Manager. Considering that you are my relative, the other employees did not want to disobey you and carried out your instruction. If you want to continue to work here, you should understand your responsibilities and know your limits. You should be aware that you are like any other employee working here in the same rank as you. If you cannot accept this and conduct yourself appropriatey, you are free to look for some other job" said Vedamuthu.

"Please forgive me, sir! I will not act this way again" said Kumar, in a feeble voice. 

Thirukkural
Section 2

Materialism

Chapter 70
Getting Close to the Ruler

Verse 700 (in Tamil):
pazhaiyam enak karudhip paNballa seyym
kezhu thagaimai kEdu tharum.

Meaning:

Taking advantage of proximity to the ruler and acting out of character will bring ruin.

(This is the English version of the Tamil story 'idhu eppadi nadandhadhu?' by the same author.) 

Verse 701(Soon)
Verse 699