Feelings

1

If you’ve ever been to Zurich in the months of December to February , then you know how cold it can get there specially in the mornings .Zurich is indeed a busy city , a city of dreams , a city of hard work and passion , people there are passionate about their work , loyal and hard working , even on a busy day ,  you will find everyone following the traffic rules , no matter how urgently one needs to reach his or her destination , people there never break the traffic rules . It was a cold day in Zurich , it was snowing , there was snow all around , everything seemed to be white . There are a number of tall buildings in Zurich but none of them is as attractive and shiny as the building of “Horizon” , just like all other buildings , the roof of horizon was all covered with snow . Snowy days are considered to be one of the days in the year when everyone feels lazy , but inside the buildingof Horizon , the scene was quite different , inside the board meeting room , ten people wearing suits , with ties were sitting round the table , but no one in that room felt lazy , everyone was busy in preparing themselves for the big presentation  they were going to represent within a few minutes . The whispers suddenly stopped , everyone started looking  at the entrance door as now they could hear a man’s footsteps and a woman’s high heels ( tik- tok ) .

The door opens and here enters Hercules Knight , a young  , handsome  , tall and a self made billionaire , behind him enters Emily , a confident , stunning and a beautiful lady , Knight’s secretary . As soon as they enter the board meeting room , all those ten gentlemen stood up greeted Knight and sat down with smiles on their faces , knight on the other hand greeted them without any expressions , because he noticed something as soon as he entered the room , there were supposed to be eleven people other than knight and his secretary , but there were only ten of them and soon he realised it was Mr. Harrington who was missing  .

Mr. Harrington was loyal to Hercules Knight , he had served him for five years and Knight personally knew Mr. Harrington , and in the past 5 years it was the first time Mr. Harrington was late for a meeting and that too for an important meeting like this . Knight didn’t wait for Mr. Harrington , he asked the other ten people to start giving their presentations , even though everyone was busy listening to the presentations while preparing for their own , they knew Mr. Harrington was in a lot of trouble , because you see Hercules Knight is a man of discipline and he has achieved a lot at a very young age , so he doesn’t approve anyone to break the rules other than him , although as a matter of fact you won’t find anyone else more disciplined than Hercules Knight himself . The meeting starts and within a few minutes one could easily hear a man running towards the board meeting room , the steps slowed down as the man reached closer to the door , the man was none other than Mr. Harrington , he managed to quietly come inside the meeting room and sit at his designated chair . Mr. Harrington was still gasping , the meeting wasn’t interrupted by Mr. Harrington , as soon as he gets to his chair he started arranging his files , on the other hand Knight was quiet in the whole meeting , he was just listening to the presentations and at times he looked towards Mr. Harrington . During the whole meeting Mr. Harrington couldn’t even dare to look in the eyes of Hercules , because he knew what a blunder mistake he has made today . Hercules was waiting for Mr. Harrington to speak something on the presentation so he can finally have a word with him and cross – cut him . Soon , the moment came when  Mr. Harrington said a negative sentence about the product which the company was going to launch ,

“I think that we shouldn’t launch the product right now , we are in a difficult time right now , our shares are constantly fluctuating and launching a product right now may not be the best decision right now . ”

As soon as Mr. Harrington finished speaking , the most awaited moment came , Hercules cross questioned him ,

“ Mr. Harrington , how long have you served in this company ? ”

“ Five years , sir ” , Mr. Harrington replied .

“ Five years , have you forgotten that our company has always taken risks , we are never afraid , and probably that’s the reason why today we are one of the most valued company across the globe , I just don’t understand why are you afraid of taking risks today ? You aren’t as focused towards your work as you were before , you came late to the board meeting after that you aren’t even supporting the plan on which our team has been working since months , is this how you are going to manage our employees ? ” , Hercules raised his voice continuously .

Mr. Harrington had never encountered Hercules Knight’s temper before , though he knew about it but he never thought that one day , he might be the one facing this , Mr. Harrington didn’t say anything , he kept looking down , everyone in that room was scared of what might happen next .

As soon as Mr. Harrington came back to his senses , he defended his point by saying ,

“ Mr. Knight I know that our company has always taken some risks and that’s the reason why we have a good reputation in the market , but try to understand my point , the financial year is about to end and this being the festive season , I don’t think people are going to pay attention to our product as they won’t be expecting us to launch something this big right now .  ”

To this , Hercules replied ,

“Exactly ! That’s exactly what our strategy is going to be , Oh !  Mr. Harrington I wish you were the one to come up with this what I have to pitch it now .  This is a festive season and our product will serve as a surprise to the IT industry , this software might be one of our biggest launches ever .”

To this , each and every member in the board meeting room agreed upon meanwhile Mr. Harrington , he just kept quiet and didn’t even utter a word after that . The meeting ends and everyone starts to leave the room except Mr. Harrington and Hercules Knight , Hercules was continuously looking at Mr. Harrington whereas Mr. Harrington was trying his best to avoid any eye contact with Hercules . A few moments later , Mr. Harrington started collecting his presentation papers and was ready to leave the board meeting room , it was when Hercules in his bold though soft tone said ,

“ May I have a word with you Mr. Harrington ? ”

“ Sure , sir ” , Mr. Harrington replied .

Hercules Knight started walking towards Mr. Harrington , one could easily tell by looking at Mr. Harrington and his sweaty face that this man is scared as hell right now .

“ Why were you late for today’s meeting ? ” , Hercules asked Mr. Harrington in a very calm voice .

“ There’s snow everywhere , the roads are not visible properly and because of it the traffic was moving very slowly and on my way one of the route was blocked because of the snow so I had to take a long route , am really sorry sir I promise you that won’t ever happen again ” , Mr. Harrington replied with his shaking voice .

“ Mr. Harrington , if am not wrong you know where I live , right ? ”

“ Yes , sir ”

“ Then you know that I have to travel a lot more distance than you do to get to the office on time  ”

Mr. Harrington didn’t say anything , he started looking downwards to the floor.

“ Mr. Harrington , from the past five years you have been a valuable and a loyal employee to the company and to me also , you have seen me from the very beginning of my career , you know my rules , and that I don’t tolerate any kind of indiscipline .  I wish you all the very best in your career , I hope you have a great career ahead , you are fired .”

It seemed like Mr. Harrington had lost his senses as he heard Hercules knight said those words .

Hercules waves his hand towards Emily , and to this Emily took out a phone and gave it to Hercules , Hercules dialled a number and said ,

“ I’m firing Mr. Harrington , I want you to clear his account and give him all his incentives and the money we’ve promised him to pay after the retirement and make sure that this man doesn’t get a job in this field after this immediate second .”

If someone other than these three people was to be standing in that room , his or her heart would have cried out loud on seeing Mr. Harrington losing everything he had in just a fraction of second and that too because he was late for a meeting because of snow . By now , you must have realised how merciless and rude man Hercules Knight is , he is a man of discipline but that implies to everyone else other than Hercules Knight himself , he says so in his own words that  no one is allowed to break the rules other than I myself , but let me tell you Hercules Knight isn’t really the man he shows to the world he is , deep down there’s a man who cares for people , is himself way too disciplined and let me tell you Hercules wasn’t the man he shows to the world he is from the very beginning .

You see , Hercules wasn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth , in his childhood he lived on the outskirts of Zurich in a very small house , his father being just a clerk in a small office didn’t earn much , Hercules belonged to a lower middle class family but you see as a child Hercules was a very sweet child , he loved playing with his father like any other kid of that age , although he never got much time to play with his father because his father worked very had and at very odd hours in order to earn his bread and butter but as a child no one expects a child to understand these things . Although his father didn’t earn much , he loved his son a lot , he used to spend his entire holiday playing with Hercules and till dayHercules remembers those days as one of the best days of his life  . When Hercules was around 13 years old , his father was diagnosed with Leukemia , it’s the cancer of blood , belonging to a lower – middle class family , the family couldn’t arrange the funds required to cure this disease and it was the first time when Hercules experienced losing someone close to him , someone he loved a lot , and as a child it’s really difficult to cope up with losing your father . After his death , Hercules , his sister Kate and his mother Jane , all the three members of the family now didn’t have a source of income , the times were quite difficult and to make it more worse , their landlord didn’t support them , he was continuously threatening the family that if they fail to pay the rent before the starting of a new month he would call the local goons and make them throw away all their stuff and make them beg on the streets . Months went by and the family worked really hard to earn bit by bit , Knight’s mother worked in different households as a maid to earn money , while on the other hand Hercules started doing some daily wage jobs . One day when Hercules was sitting in the bedroom , trying to figure out which job could he get next , the landlord rushed inside their house yelling his mother’s name ,

“ Jane ! Jane ! where are you ? ”

Hercules and his siter  got a little bit scared ,but he didn’t let Kate leave the room although both of them could hear each and everything from the bedroom . Their mother reached at the entrance and asked the landlord to calm down and come inside the house , but the landlord didn’t stop yelling ,

“ I want my rent right now , you have been paying me just a few euros from the past few months , now I need my rent right now . ”

“ But I don’t have enough money right now , we are trying our best to earn as much as possible to give you your rent ” , Jane replied with tears in her eyes .

“ I don’t care how hard you are trying all I know is that by now you owe me 30 euros , and I want them right now  ” , the landlord kept on shouting .

( In those days , 30 euros meant a lot .)

“ All I have right now is 10 euros and I need this money to feed my kids , please try to understand  ” , Jane replied .

But the landlord didn’t listen to her he tried to snatch those 10 euros but he couldn’t get them , it was when he gave Jane two options , he said ,

“I give you two options , either spend a full night with me in my bedroom or give me my 30 euros right now . ”

Jane couldn’t think straight when she heard those word from the landlord , she was scared , she couldn’t control her tears , it was the most devastating memory of Hercules’ childhood after his father’s death because he could hear each and everything properly from his bedroom . Jane never thought that there might come a day when she will have to sell herself for the sake of her family she was about to agree with the landlord when Hercules came out of his room with tears in his eyes , he came out with a watch in his hand , it was the watch that Knight’s father gave it to him on his birthday , it was indeed an expensive watch and probably that watch was Knight’s favourite and also one of the last memory of his father left with him .

“ Please take this watch for now , I know that it’s not sufficient but its in good shape and is a worthy watch  ” , Hercules said with tears in his eyes .

The landlord looked at the watch and it was indeed an expensive and worthy watch , so he snatched the watch from his hand and started laughing and left the house . Jane , Hercules and Kate , all of them hugged each other and started crying , Jane and Kate knew that the watch meant a lot to Hercules , but they had no other option , Jane was proud of Hercules on that day , he wasn’t much old to understand things but he didn’t let his mother sell herself for the sake of money .

More months passed by , the family was still struggling to earn a proper living ,Hercules had found a job as a newspaper delivery boy while his mother was still working at various households as a maid , his mother had to go through a lot of harassment , at some of the houses in the absence of the main lady of the house some men tried to touch her without her consent and some of them even beat her for if she had missed a spot while cleaning , and several other silly excuse to harass her . Hercules knew about all this because even when his mother was a strong woman and was quite good at keeping things there was one thing she couldn’t hide , it was the bruises left on her face and her body when she used to return home . Hercules wasn’t much old by then but as they say it’s not the age which makes you mature , it’s the circumstances that makes you mature , Hercules started understanding things better ,  but with maturity his anger was growing inside him day – by – day , but he never got angry on his mother or his sister , he kept it all inside him with just a question , “ why me ? ”. Whenever he saw bruises on his mother’s face or on her body , he always wanted to teach those people a lesson but back then Hercules was just a small boy , with no power and no money , so he promised her that one day all these people were going to pay for taking advantage of us , his mother on hearing this always used to pat his head and said “ Do whatever you want to do but just don’t be poor , son .”

 Out of all these evil people , Knight’s school teacher never asked his mother for any tuition fees , because they knew that it was a tough time for their family and Knight was indeed a bright student , they taught him well and as the time passed by Knight graduated and by then he had learnt a lot in life as well as in education and most importantly he developed a new love towards technology , as soon as he graduated , he developed his own software which got him money as well as recognition in the IT sector , with the money he earned from his first software , he made a partnership with the same company he sold his product to , and step by step , it was the beginning of a new era , Hercules made his own empire  .

The first thing he did as soon as he got enough money in his bank account , he went back to the same landlord from his childhood , he bribed the government officials and made them file a case against the landlord for illegal construction , this made them destroy the landlord’s house and made him go to the prison and one day in the prison , the landlord was given a note with the words “ Now laugh while looking at the wristwatch you are wearing right now , oh yeah you can’t because you’re not allowed to wear one in a prison . ~ the boy who cried . ” and in this way Hercules took his revenge from the landlord .

Well now you can’t blame Hercules for what he had became today , you see when someone has to face such things in his childhood , the person develops a personality which yes is not acceptable in the society . As I said earlier Hercules isn’t the man he tries to show to the world , where he remembered how his landlord had tortured his mother for the sake of money he also remembered his teachers who supported him when he had nothing , when he was unable to pay them their fees , how they refused to take anything from them and even when he became successful they refused to take even a single euro from him , Hercules offered them paid jobs even after their retirement , to this they agreed . So you see , Hercules had developed such a personality because of his ugly childhood but he isn’t that bad .

So , do you think a person like Hercules with such a rude and arrogant personality deserves to have a partner in his life ? well definitely not , but can someone change this man ?