Logic on Exception

Then

Arun was a 12 year old boy. A brilliant and obedient child is what his teachers said during PTA meetings. His sister Tanu was 10 years old. Inattentive at class, picking fights with fellow students, very in-disciplined. Not completing any exercise on time.

Arun would hardly ask for anything from his parents. He made it with what his parents had bought for him. It was strange that neither of them knew what he wanted, because he never seemed to ask for anything. He was well aware of the income and expenses in the household.

Tanu was very demanding. She would ask for almost anything that came about, irrespective of its cost or worth. She could embarrass anybody, asking to buy them things for her. Their parents dreaded her tantrums and to avoid, would buy what they could pay for. She never seemed to care about those costs and the holes she made in her father’s pocket.

Many a times Arun chided her sister for her irresponsible behavior and embarrassment she caused to the family. Most of the times, he grudged the special allowance made to his sister. When he sometimes questioned on why they heed to all of her demands, father would say, “let go Son, she is the younger one”. Unwillingly, he would then “let go”.

Arun grew up with a constrained outlook, and kept to himself all his needs. He chose his studies too in a way that they were the most inexpensive ones, with a better “yield”. Wherever he went, he seemed to carry his brilliance and obedience with him. Did well in his academics and made sure he got picked up from the “Campus”.

Now

Arun in his mid-twenties, a young and energetic Team Lead, known for his highly innovative solutions for the problems in hand and preemptive of the problems that might come later. His entire team is very motivated and cheerful, for which the entire credit goes to Arun. Together, they outdid their targets and went way beyond to bring in more comforts and engagement with their customers.

Aarthi, in her mid-thirties, is handling a team as Team Lead. She is known for adherence to process and targets are conditional to her IFs and ELSEIFs, which mostly slipped out of her ELSEs. Knowledgeable but slightly disoriented. Her team-mates are in disarray. Some, who chose to stay close to her, who are good at discussing things that has no relevance to work, flourished. Others, perished. Her team has the biggest churn of resources.

Arun is seriously inclined to his work and obsessed with thoughts and ideas related to it. Many a times he would be found-lost in his work, not noticing that his Boss is standing at his desk. He seemed to respond poorly or awkwardly, to praises and became too sensitive when it came to criticism.

Aarthi joined a year earlier than Arun and had a knack of catching up with each and every senior member in the organisation on all informal meetings and events. Arun slipped to insignificance on this social arena.

Arun is a very resourceful person to everyone, including Aarthi. He helped her cope up with her Communication and taught her on what he was good at. He had better degrees and experience than her but yet, was paid much lesser than her. He had a grudge on her, on this count. He was always at loss of words, when it came to expressing his achievements.

Unlike many others, he cannot tom-tom his feats, whatsoever change it may have ushered in. But he continues to do his magic in his circles of control and influence. While he did grumble about being ignored for any reward, he never failed to surprise with his innovations. To his agony, all his seniors had shown more attention to Aarthi and it seemed they never took notice of him. When he once confronted his Boss with this question on why such a disparity is shown between them, the Senior said that it was just his perception. Arun could never agree to that and neither could he voice his differences anymore. He chose and continued to grudge from the insides and work harder and longer in a sort of revenge.

Until recently, he was sure that the intellectually ill-equipped ones like Aarthi or his sister Tanu, who made the world spin around them were Exceptions, that weren’t handled well. It was Mano, the new Human Resources head, also an expert on Psychology, who analysed Arun on his behavioural traits and concluded that he was suffering from Depression and Low on Self-Esteem and that he was “The Exception”. Now, Arun seemed to have found some Logic in his Exception.