Devil in Pinstripes (30 page)

‘Thanks Amit. I didn’t even imagine I would be back in India so soon. Seema was so relieved when she heard of my move.’

‘Why thank me Manish? It was you who started this. Shouldn’t I be the one thanking you?’

‘Yes but . . .’

‘Had you not called me that night after Aditya asked you to fly to Hyderabad, we would never have got to this stage?’

‘Hmm . . . and to think of it, Aditya told me not to speak to anyone about my visit. He asked me to keep my visit a low profile one.’

‘Thank God, you did not listen to him and called me instead.’

‘And Amit, had you not told me how to position this to Aditya, we would not have achieved the ultimate goal.’

‘Yes. That’s what friends are for right? You called me for help, despite Aditya asking you not to call anyone, particularly me. How could I not help you? In the process, we helped each other.’

‘Of course . . . of course . . . but tell me Amit, this is something I have been wanting to ask you for, quite some time. You told me about everything that was going on in Hyderabad. I didn’t have to dig for anything else. You were bang on! If you knew all this, why didn’t you tell Aditya yourself? You were there in Hyderabad the previous day.’

‘Manish, these kind of practices, or should I say . . . malpractices, happen in every organisation. It happened when you were at the helm of collections in India, and it happens now too. The difference is in the scale of the malpractice. We had landed ourselves in a mess in Hyderabad. The question foremost in my mind was what could we do about it? Could we ensure that the organisation somehow views us as heroes? Else, how could we turn this into an opportunity?’

‘And so you decided to fix Gowri?’

‘Ha ha! We decided to . . . Manish. Not me alone. Remember we were together in it. Isn’t our dislike for Gowri common?’

‘Of course. Aditya fell for the story that we spun around Gowri’s involvement in the systemic failure of process and controls. The killer impact was on reading out the SMS which Gowri was supposed to have sent to Raman. Aditya fell for it and really thought it was true.’

When Manish said this, Amit just gave a you-are-a-genuis smile. ‘That was simply brilliant,’ he drawled while sipping his drink.

‘I knew he would fall for it. I also knew that it was important to make him believe that Gowri was central to the entire Hyderabad issue, knowing very well that he would never confront Gowri. Aditya is the one who made him the managing director. Sacking him for suspected malpractice would reflect poorly on Aditya’s judgemental skills. Aditya would never have confronted Gowri without a proper investigation and hardcore evidence. I know that. In the past I have been a witness to Moses being sacked by Aditya. He helped him along and found him a job outside the bank. Aditya is too intelligent and knows that these things happen. He would not have been unduly unfair to Gowri despite the two of us rooting for his blood.’ Amit gave a cheerful slap on Manish’s shoulder and gave a half-hug. The camaraderie was very evident.

‘It’s just that when things blow up, organisations have to demonstrate that they are taking adequate action. I was sure Aditya’s thought process was the same.’ Amit paused and took another sip of his Glenfiddich. He closed his eyes for two seconds, enjoying every single drop of the fine single malt scotch whisky. It felt sinfully divine. He opened his eyes and then continued. ‘And knowing Gowri, he has too much of pride in himself and in NFS, that he would not be willing to stand up to an investigation.’

Manish was passively listening as Amit replayed their discussion on that eventful night when Manish had made his way to Hyderabad.

‘Also remember,’ continued Amit, ‘Gowri knows that he has run NFS like a mom and pop show. If his conduct is investigated, though nothing on the collections side would get thrown up, a number of other small instances of non-professional conduct would surely get highlighted . . . the people he promotes, the increments he gives to his coterie, the expensive gifts he showers on them, the money blown away on off sites and celebrations, manipulation of expense accounts, etc. All these would get highlighted and embarrass him no end. I was sure that even though he has not made a single pie for himself in a manner which lacks integrity, he would not agree to be investigated. As you just said, it would also be a blow to his self-esteem in an organisation where he had thus far, been worshipped like God. He wouldn’t want to be seen as a devil there,’ added Amit with a wicked smile and an arched eyebrow.

‘Correct. But you could have told this to Aditya yourself. Why ask me to do the dirty job of lying to Aditya?’

‘Look Manish, Aditya knows about my relationship with Gowri. Had I told this story to Aditya myself, despite the fact that he considers me one of his men, he wouldn’t have fallen for it. He would have been convinced that I was trying to settle my personal scores with Gowri and trying to further my agenda. He would have thought that I was trying to divert attention from the suicide and collections related issue. Remember, he called you to investigate. He had to believe you and could not have possibly ignored what you told him. After all, he called you from Singapore with a few hour’s notice to help him investigate. In this particular instance you brought in credibility which I could not have.

‘And when you said so, Gowri was guilty even before Aditya gave him a chance to defend himself. The route we followed, my friend was definitely a safer one and one with a very high probability of success.’

‘Smart,’ said Manish and he smiled. ‘I would have loved to see the look on Gowri’s face when Aditya was having that conversation with him,’ he added.

‘Friend, let’s forget the past and drink to our success. To a partnership which will take this organisation to a different level. And us individually to an ever higher level . . . ha ha ha!’ and Amit burst out laughing.

‘
Jai ho
!’ screamed Manish as he raised his glass in a gesture of everlasting friendship.

Claang! Clang! As their glasses melodiously clanged against each other and a chorus of ‘Cheers’ rang the air, a quick-paced rhythmic jingle of a bell was heard. Both of them turned and looked towards the direction from where the sound came. Across the road was a temple where the priest was doing his last pooja for the day. He had rung the bell as a part of the normal ritual.

‘Divine intervention. May your words come true,’ said Manish even as he shifted his hand holding the glass of whisky behind his back, as if hiding it from God and bowed his head as a mark of respect.

‘My friend, you are like that priest in the temple,’ said Amit as he pointed to the temple down below. ‘Every day hundreds of devotees gather in front of God and make thousands of offerings. Even God can’t collect all the offerings that are thrown at him by all of them. Else the priests wouldn’t be there . . . right? God only accepts offerings from the priest at anointed times during the day. Aditya, after all is human. You made him the offering at the right time and he accepted it. In return he granted our wishes. Ha ha ha!’ Amit guffawed.

‘Well said my friend. Well said. Gowri paid the price for something which was his own doing. He had grown too large for his boots. Let’s not celebrate his downfall. Together we drink to our success . . . cheers!’ and they gulped down the last dregs of the smooth malt and walked down to get another drink.

T
he Tulsiram issue in Hyderabad blew into a full-fledged crisis for most of the banks in the country. Collection practices of banks were critically examined by the media and the regulators. NFS thankfully escaped with just a few bruises. However, a clampdown by the regulators and stricter debt management laws ensured that debt collection became difficult. This led to deterioration in the loan book quality of many organisations, some of which had to completely shut down their loans business.

NYB did make it to the front pages of
Wall Street Journal
– India, again after a decade. It was not viewed at kindly by the global management team and Aditya was shunted out. His plea of having brought in a management change in NFS, by moving out Gowri, the incumbent MD, was met with dismay and disdain. It didn’t fly. He was moved out of the country within the next five months and replaced as CEO by Rahul Gupta. The latter came in from Singapore where he was the head of wealth management for the group. Aditya is now the Regional Head – Retail Banking, Middle East Cluster for the bank. He was lucky that his job was intact; probably the number of years that he had served at NYB came in handy.

Amit is now the managing director of NFS – a job that had become his through a complex manipulation of sorts, which in the final analysis seemed relatively easy. He had swung the deal without getting himself involved in the granularities. Smart that he was, he had ensured that had anything blown up, it would have blown up on Manish’s face and not his. He is now dealing with the impact of the regulatory clampdown and an emerging credit crisis in the country. The chaos of the deteriorating credit environment is becoming too stressful for him to handle. NFS is today faced with problems of high delinquency and consequent high losses. This has lead to reduced and cautious growth, which has impacted his business and hence NFS’s income streams. NFS has quickly turned into a loss making entity, as the company was unable to collect from hordes of delinquent customers who seem to have invaded their books. Amit realised that Gowri had milked the cow in its best years and had left him to hold the baby in a troubled environment. He is now contemplating quitting and moving on to a different vocation completely.

Chanda made the best of her move into the bank. NYB inherently paid more than NFS and hence the move meant higher pay, and of course a better designation. She has now become a vice president, and is away from the politics of Gowri and Amit. Away from bull and bear within NFS, life has become a lot more peaceful. With the interpersonal stress at work coming down by phenomenal levels, Chanda and Amit have rediscovered the spark in their lives. Their family is now complete with the entry of a cute little angel in their lives. Chanda has lots to look forward to, both at work and home, after the torrid time she had at NFS.

Manish moved back from Singapore into India in what was probably the worst period for a credit professional. High inflation, tumbling stock markets, crashing real estate and a rapidly deteriorating credit environment was what he had to deal with. ‘It’s good to manage the business when the economic cycle goes through a downturn,’ he told many friends. ‘I am learning to collect from defaulting customers in an environment where even God can’t collect!’ But does learning come without the associated pains?

Gowri moved to head the asset management company. Though he had not expected great kicks from the new role, he found out, on moving there, that the job was far more exciting than what he thought it would be. With the loans business going through a lean patch, every bank including NYB shifted its focus to investments and asset management business. Even the new CEO of NYB, Rahul, who replaced Aditya, was an ex-wealth management professional. It helped Gowri, because Rahul was extremely passionate about Gowri’s business and wanted to see it grow. He got the investments required, the focus and the resources and managed to go about building a large and solid business. Gowri’s stint at NFS was soon forgotten and he was talked about as the king of asset management . . . the rising star of the mutual fund industry.

Would Gowri, Amit, Manish and Aditya, the so-called kingpins of New York International Bank, ever change themselves and make NYB a better place to be in? Only time will tell. They were all humans and it was evident in the way they approached their challenges and relationships.

However, as a banker myself, I often wonder how different it would have been, if God was a banker? Would he have been any better or would God have joined these guys and just become another devil in pinstripes?