The Guy in the checked shirt

Chapter 2:
I never even remembered the guy after that, even though he was in the same bay as me. It was a huge office and we were occupied with work most of the time. Then it so happened that I had requested for a change of project to a different team and my Team Lead had agreed. In spite of my best efforts, I did not have a good rapport with my team though I’ve been with them for nearly 3 years. So when the day to move came I was gladly packing my collectibles adorning my desk into my bag only to find the seat allotted to me in the new project did not require any change of location. So I was browsing through the cubicles trying to find my new place when I met him again. He had a corner cubicle beside the corridor and was casually browsing something on his ancient mobile (really kanjoos boy? You couldn’t even get a smartphone??) when I crossed him. I was wondering if this guy ever works, and quickly found my new place and my new team-mates. After the usual team meeting and quick round of intros I started setting up my place when I spotted Mr.Thaadi again. He sat on the desk right opposite to me and was casually laughing about with a girl. What a flirt! I thought and didn’t give him much thought.
Over a period of time, I noticed that he was much sought after in this new team even if he did look like a thug from North Madras. From managers to peers and even people from other teams…they consulted him for a lot of queries and reports and work clarifications. It was weird to see Mr.Thaadi being the center of attraction in this new team. Out of curiosity as to why he was so popular I started monitoring him (also because I had no work since I was only getting started) what I did learn was that he’s a senior, a year older than me and was very very knowledgeable in his field of expertise and had several teams already reporting to him and possessed the widest possible range of checked shirts not just the formal, small-checked ones…the big square ones which we’d usually find on a rowdy guy from the movies and hence it looked out-of-place in an IT firm and on a Team Lead. I had never once seen him wearing something formal, in spite of the corporate rules and he’d always seemed to get away with it, which I could never understand why.
So this was all the knowledge I gained about thaadikaaran and my curiosity only seemed to increase with everything I came to know about him. One fine day I noticed him sitting in my chair and was initially scared. Had he noticed that I was spying on him?? But when I came close to my desk, he got off my chair and gave me such a dazzling smile and moved to another chair. I was momentarily stunned, he had such a killer smile J When I was about to sit down, he spoke “Where’s Ragini?” Oh..so he was waiting for my team-mate…’She should be on her way…It’s not her shift time yet and she’s always a bit late!’ I winked at him. He too gave me an all-knowing wink and got up from the chair. Don’t go…I was pleading him inside, alas he went back to his corner cubicle and started typing away.
Quite a while later Ragini walked to her seat, I dutifully updated that Mr.Thaadi had come in search of her…’Oh Krish, you mean??’ ..She laughed. I had blurted out his nickname instead of his real one. I smiled sheepishly….’what’s in a name…’ I said. I had to step out to the IT team to resolve quick issue with my PC and in that auspicious time Mr. Thaadi had chosen to come to see Ragini so by the time I came to my place he had finished his work and was getting up to leave when Ragini stopped him…’Hey Krish, you have a new name from my colleague!!’ Both of us were shocked, him in a curious way and me in a sheepish way. ‘she calls you Mr.Thaadi’ Ragini completed and was laughing. I smiled my best ‘Please don’t hurt me, I’m paavam’ and noticed that he had started to laugh too. ‘Good one Madamji’ he said and left the place.