2 States The Story Of My Marriage (21 page)

face as his wife and daughter won’t be there to witness.

‘Why is she telling you all this?’ His hands clenched on the steering wheel.

‘Actually, I had helped my boss make a business plan,’ I lied.

‘Really?’ His expression softened and he looked at me.

‘MNC banks make presentations all the time,’ I said.

Uncle released the brake as the car moved again.

‘Do you want me to sit down with you?’ I offered as we reached closer to the

Citibank signal.

‘You take tuitions for Manju already. Why are you helping us so much?’

I thought hard for an answer. ‘I don’t have anyone in Chennai. No old friends,

no family,’ I said.

His eyebrows went up at the last word.

‘Of course, you are also not family,’ I said and his face relaxed again. ‘But it is
nice to go to a home.’

I had reached my signal. I opened the door slowly, to allow him time to

respond.

‘If you have time, come in the evening. I will show you what I have done.’

‘Oh, OK, I will come tonight,’ I said as uncle drove off. The Fiat left behind a
fresh waft of carbon monoxide.

DX @ www.desibbrg.com

26

‘I think it is a great idea,’ Bala said. We sat in our priority banking group team

meeting. Mumbai had proposed a ‘raise spirits’ dinner event for our private

clients across India. Despite the economic slowdown, they had approved, they

had approved a budget for all major centres. Chennai needed it most, given the

adventure banking we had subjected our clients to.

‘So, we need to brainstorm on which event will work best for Chennai

customers,’ Bala said.

‘An art exhibition,’ one executive said.

‘Again, we are selling something,’ another executive said. ‘The focus should

be on fun.’

‘A fashion show,’ said the earlier executive.

‘Too bold for our market,’ came the counter response.

The discussion continued for ten minutes. All ideas form movie-night to

inventing a Kollywood celebrity to calling a chef to prepare an exotic cuisine were

discussed.

However, for some reason, none of the ideas clicked. I felt quite useless

having nothing to say. But I didn’t know what would work for Chennai customers

apart from giving them their money back.

‘Krish, what do you think?’ Bala asked, breaking my daydream of walking

hand-in-hand with Ananya in a peacock blue sari.

‘Huh?’ I said, and realised everyone had turned to me.

‘Would you like to contribute?’ Bala said. Even though he had cut me slack, on

occasion the repressed boss in him came out.

‘Music, how about music? Say a musical night?’ I suggested.

Excited murmurs ran across the room. Finally, we had an idea without any

strong negative objection. However, within music there were a dozen ideas.

‘Kutcheri, let’s do a kutcheri,’ said one.

‘What’s that?’ I said, turning to Saraswati.

DX @ www.desibbrg.com

Saraswati was a conservative Tamilian agent who spoke only once a year and

never waxed her arms. (I admit the latter point is irrelevant but it is hard not to

notice these things.)

‘Kutcheri is a Carnatic music concert,’ Saraswati made her point and drifted

back to being part of the wall.

‘Hey, I thought we wanted the evening to be fun,’ I said.

‘Carnatic music can be fun,’ said Ravi, another supervisor.

Yes, as much fun as wailing babies in a crowded train, I wanted to say but

didn’t. Political correctness is a necessity in Chennai, especially when everyone

hates you for being an outsider anyway.

I turned to Bala. ‘We want to raise spirits. Isn’t Carnatic music too serious?

Why not have an evening of popular music. Good popular music.’

‘A.R. Rahman, can we get A.R. Rahman?’ said one person.

‘Or Ilaiyaraja,’ said another.

Bala shook his head and waved his arms to say ‘no’. ‘We can’t do such big

names. The budget is not that high. And these people attract the press. Last thing

you want is some customer telling the press about their losses and us wasting

money on such concerts. Mumbai will kill me.’

After two hours of further deliberation that took us to lunch break, we made a

few decisions about the event. The concert would be held in Fisherman’s Cove,

an upmarket resort on the city outskirts. We’d have three to five singers of

reasonable fame, provided we kept to the budget of two lakh.

‘All set then,’ Bala said as we ended the meeting at six in the evening. I

realised I had to leave. After all, I had a big date with the big daddy tonight.

DX @ www.desibbrg.com

27

‘So, this is almost done?’ I clicked through the slides. Uncle had given me a CD of

his work. I had uploaded it on my laptop. The unformatted slides had paragraphs

of text, no bullet points and font sizes ranging from eight to seventy-two.

‘Yes, I spent three weeks on it,’ he said.

We sat at a work-table in the living room. Manju studied inside. No one else

was at home. Ananya’s father and I hunched close together to see the laptop

screen.

‘These have no figures, no charts, no specific points even …’ I said, trying to
be less critical but truthful as well.

‘Figures are here,’ uncle said as he opened his briefcase. ‘I still have to learn
that feature in PowerPoint.’

He took out three thick files with dirty brown covers and two hundred sheets

each inside.

‘What’s this?’

‘Our last year business data,’ he said.

‘You can’t put it all,’ I said. ‘When is this due?’

‘That rascal Verma wants it in a week,’ uncle said.

The rate at which Ananya’s dad was going, he couldn’t deliver it in a year.

‘One week? This is only past performance data. Don’t you have to make a plan

for next year?’

‘I was going to do that, soon.’ He swallowed hard.

I kept my left elbow on the table and my palm on my forehead. I flipped

through the slides in reverse to reach the front.

‘What?’ he said. ‘Anything wrong in what I’ve done?’

I turned to him and gave a slight smile. ‘No, a few finishing touches left,’ I said.

‘So, how do we do it?’

DX @ www.desibbrg.com

‘Let’s start by you telling me what exactly you do at the bank. And then take

me through these files.’

I shut the laptop. For the next three hours I understood what a deputy district
manager does at a public sector bank. Actually, there is a lot of work, contrary to

my belief that government bank staff did nothing. However, a lot of the work is

about reporting, approvals and maintaining certain records. It is more

beauraucracy and less business.

I yawned as he finished explaining how the staff-recruiting process works in

his Egmore district. I looked at the wall clock. It was nine-thirty.

‘Sorry, I didn’t even ask you for dinner,’ Mr Swaminathan said.

‘It’s OK, keep going. I’ll wash my face,’ I said and pulled back my chair.

I came back from the bathroom and uncle had brought two steel plates and a

bowl of lemon rice. He put the bowl in the microwave to heat the food. ‘Sorry, I

can’t give you proper dinner tonight. I told the maid to make something simple,’

he said.

“It’s fine,’ I said as I took the plates off him. I went to the kitchen. I picked up
the curd and water. I saw the spoons but decided not to take them.

‘Manju?’ I asked as I returned to the table.

‘He ate already. He wakes up at four so he has to sleep now,’ uncle said.

We ate in silence. For the first time in their house, I felt welcome. Sure, they’d
give me breakfast and a lift to work three days a week. However, today was

different. Uncle refilled my plate when I finished and poured water for me. We

continued to work after dinner until he couldn’t keep his eyes open.

‘It’s eleven-thirty, I’d better go,’ I said. I shut down my laptop and stacked all
the papers together.

‘Yes,’ uncle said as he looked at his watch. ‘I didn’t realise this would be so
much work.’

I came to the door and outlined the agenda.

‘Here’s the plan,’ I said. ‘Tomorrow we make a structure, so we at least have a
title for all fifty slides that need to be there. The next day we will put the text. Day
after we will start on the figures and charts.’

We came out of the house.

DX @ www.desibbrg.com

‘It’s late. I will drop you?’ uncle said.

‘No, there are autos on the main road. Good night uncle, tell Manju I will see

him day after.’

‘Thank you, Krish,’ uncle said as he waved me goodbye.

‘Anytime,’ I said.

DX @ www.desibbrg.com

28

I spent the next three evenings in the company of Mr Swaminathan. The Bank of

Baroda Egmore district business plan had become the focus of my life. I brought

some of uncle’s work to my own office and worked on it in the afternoon.

‘What are you working on?’ Bala said as we met near the common office

printer where I had come to collect a printout of uncle’s presentation.

‘Personal research,’ I said as I clenched he sheets in my hand and ran back to

my desk.

It is uncanny, but I could tell Ananya’s call from the phone ring.

‘Hi hottie. How is it going?’

‘Did you know Bank of Baroda had no ATMs four years ago, but now there are

over a dozen ATMs in Egmore alone,’ I said as I opened the twelfth slide of the

presentation.

‘What?’ she said.

‘And in two years, there will be thirty,’ I said.

‘What are you talking about?’

‘I am working on your dad’s presentation, in my office,’ I said and swiveled my
chair to turn away from the monitor.

‘That’s why you are such a sweetie,’ she said.

‘I am stealing a talented MBA’s time paid for by Citibank. I could go to jail for
this,’ I said.

‘How exciting! My lover goes to jail for me,’ she chuckled. ‘Manju told me you

are there every evening until late. And today you took Manju’s morning tuitions,

too. Take care of yourself.’

‘I’m fine. I rest in the office. And the presentation should be done tonight.’

‘Cool. How’s the bonding with appa?’

DX @ www.desibbrg.com

‘Well, it is pretty business-like. But let’s just say, I saw him smile. I bit a whole
chilli at dinner and ran to the kitchen. When I returned he smiled for three whole

seconds and I created it.’

‘With my dada, that’s huge,’ Ananya said. ‘He didn’t smile in any of his

wedding pictures.’

‘Well, he had to marry your mom,’ I said.

‘Shut up,’ Ananya said.

The peon came to me to say Bala had tried my extension and couldn’t reach. I

told Ananya to hold

‘Well, he had to marry your mom,’ I said.

‘Shut up,’ Ananya said.

The peon came to me to say Bala had tried my extension and couldn’t reach. I

told Ananya to hold.

‘Tell him I am with a prospective new client. Inviting them to the concert,’ I

said. The peon nodded and left.

‘Concert?’ Ananya said.

‘It is a private client event. At Fisherman’s Cove,’ I said.

‘Fisherman’s Cove is nice. Can I come?’ she said.

‘Only if you have ten lakh to spare,’ I said.

‘Sure, my husband will send the cash,’ Ananya said.

‘Yeah, right after I execute my bank robbery. OK, now should I humour you or

make sure your father doesn’t get laughed at in five days?’ I said.

‘Daddy first,’ she said. ‘I am back in three days.’

‘How is Thanjavur?’

‘Temples, Tamilians and a temperamental mother. Care?’ she said.

‘Maybe next time. What’s causing the temperamentalness?’

‘Me, me and only me,’ Ananya said and laughed, ‘as is always the case.’

‘Really? What’s your crime now?’

DX @ www.desibbrg.com

‘I don’t have time for her. Which is true, as I’m all over the district in meetings
the entire day. Of course, she also feels saying no to Harish is like declining the

Nobel Prize. And so, that’s the dinner appetizer. Main course is a lecture on how

I’ve abused my privilege of being allowed to study further. Dessert is usually

tears. I have to go to Pondicherry next week. No way I am taking her.’

‘You have to go?’

‘Just a day trip.’

‘Hey, isn’t Fisherman’s Cove on the way to Pondicherry?’ I asked.

‘Yes, why?’

‘Good, I should take the initiative and check out the venue. I’ll come with you
that day,’ I said. Anything to get out of office.