I Bought The Monk's Ferrari (2 page)

Five days back, on last Friday, I was in a classroom, not too far from the airport, in Golden Enclave, a posh residential-commercial building. It was the last day of the month-long induction programme for the latest batch of MBAs at Tata-IBM. Naren Aiyer, the head of the PC division and Dick Richards, the training head for the company were in the room with thirty-one MBA passouts, who had newly joined the company.

'Friends, we have now come to our last session. I am sure that all of you are eager to know your postings.' There was pin-drop silence in the classroom. No one spoke. On the day they had come in for their induction, they had been asked for their location and functional preferences and everyone had given in their first three choices. Now on this fateful day, every soul in the room, was waiting to hear if he or she had been allotted the preferred location.

It was 1993 and IBM was returning to India after fifteen years of hibernation, after being thrown out of India along with the Coca Cola Company, by the Janata Government in 1978, because they refused to dilute their ownership of hundred percent of their subsidiaries in India. It was a coveted company and had got the 'Day One' position in all management institutions—a position, every MBA would know, is only given to the crème de la crème among the recruiters.

There were thirty-one freshers in that room, thrilled to have got an offer from IBM. All of them knew that irrespective of their posting allocations they would stick to the company.

Gajananam, bhuta ganathi sevitham,

Kapitha Jambuphala, sarabhashitham...

A small prayer escaped my lips. Secret prayers were being chanted by all, to their own private gods.... So, I prayed even harder.

Dick went on, 'Naren, will you please pass me the list?' The wait was unbearable.

'OK, here we go...'

All the anxious thirty-one faces eagerly leaned forward and rested the elbows on the desks in front. The backs of the seats were gloriously divorced from their occupants.

'Sridhar Rajagopal ... AS/400 Product Team, Mumbai.'

'Priya Mathew, Sales, Mumbai ...' and then another frustrating pause.

Dick stopped, pulled out his slim-framed glasses ... they were, in fact, rimless spectacles ... for the first time those minuscule ones made their presence felt in India and glanced at everyone in the room.

'I wanted to tell you all that in these allocations, we have given priority to the location preferences of women and to those who want to join the sales department.'

'Vijay Krishnan ... RS/6000, Delhi.'

He was sitting next to me.

'Shit!!!' Exclaimed Vijay. 'I am ... Sooo ... oorry,' he said out loud when he realised that everyone in the room including Dick and Naren were staring at him. He wanted to be in Bangalore.

'Mukul Mathur ... Delhi.'

'Sudarshan Chakravarthy ... Chennai, PC Sales.'

'Sapna Agarwal ... Training, Bangalore.'

'Ravi Subramanian ... System Sales, New Delhi.'

My heart sank. Dick went on for another ten minutes, but I did not hear a word.

I did not want to go to Delhi. The preferences I had given were, Chennai, Bangalore and Mumbai, in that order. And now, I would have to go to Delhi. Though I had relatives in the city, I had never stayed there and the metropolis scared me. But I did not have a choice.

This was how I ended up at the Bangalore airport, waiting for the boarding call for the Indian Airlines flight to Delhi. But why would anyone perspire the way I was? In the cool Bangalore weather, inside an air-conditioned airport, my shirt was almost drenched with sweat. I was going to a new city, an alien city, but that was not the reason. The reason was completely different and had no connection whatsoever with Delhi....

This was the first time I was going to travel by air. Yes, this was my first flight. I was excited and nervous. Worried, too. What if the aeroplane crashed? What if I felt dizzy at over thirty thousand feet above the ground? Earlier in the morning, after we had reached the airport, putting on a brave front I sent back my mom and cousin. But here I was, nervous like hell.

'Passengers travelling to Delhi are requested to complete their security check, identify their baggage and proceed toward the aircraft through Gate No. 2.' I ran towards the gate the moment I heard this. Unaware of how the process worked, I was apprehensive that in case I was late the flight might take off without me. However, I learnt only later, that once the boarding pass is issued, the flight normally does not take off without the passenger.

After the security check, I walked towards Gate No.2. It took me some time to find it, as I was not familiar with the airport. Walking out of the gate, as I approached the aircraft, I stood wonderstruck at the sight of the colossal machine before me. On its both sides, written in large fonts, was the name ... Indian Airlines. I had always seen these aircraft in the sky. This was the first time I was seeing one from such close quarters.

I chanted a small prayer as I climbed up the iron stairs with a jeep beneath, something which people call a mechanical ladder.

As I stepped into the aircraft, a matronly lady greeted, 'Welcome to Indian Airlines,' and I smiled back. My chest swelled with pride. I was entering an aeroplane for the first time in my life! No one from my family had even ventured close to an airport, leave alone travelling by air.

Ahead of me, I saw two rows of seats with a passage in between. I was thoroughly baffled.

'May I help you?' The lost look on my face was too obvious, and it made an air hostess come to my rescue. She took the boarding pass from my hand, glanced at it and said, 'Seventeen Alpha ... sensing my blank look she continued, Seventeen A, Sir ... further down, on your right.' I walked down the aisle and ultimately found the seat. It was a window seat. In fact, all seats with suffix 'A' are window seats in all aircraft, but I did not know it then. I hadn't asked at the check-in counter for it would make my ignorance too obvious.

I took my seat and belted myself... then carefully watched all the instructions and demonstrations given by the air hostess. Everything was new to me, so much so that when the air hostess said that in case of an emergency landing on water the seat cushions can be used as a flotation device, my hands automatically went below the seat trying to figure out as to how the seat could be removed and used. When I could not figure it out, I raised my hand to ask for a clarification. No one noticed. Embarrassed, I pulled my hand down. The demonstration ended, the equipments were carted off to the overhead bins, the air hostess disappeared somewhere ... where? I had no clue. It took me a good fifty minutes to realise that all you are required to do is to press the button above your head, and someone would attend to you. If only I knew....

The aircraft taxied on the runway and stopped. A minute later, it started jogging, then galloping, then sprinting till it finally flew. I looked out the window like a small child as the ground ran in the opposite direction and slowly as it went into a free fall below the aircraft. As the flight started gaining altitude, before large buildings started turning into small insect-like objects and everything on the ground started fading away.. .something caught my attention.

Cruising on the road below, fading fast from my vision, leaving a puff of dust as it sped on an early morning empty highway, shining exquisitely in the morning sun was a bright red car ... then the plane hit a cloud ... a thick cloud and everything disappeared from my sight. A mammoth, thick white blanket stood between the plane and the earth below ... between me and the immaculate, bright red
FERRARI.

My flight of life had begun.... And, it was some kind of a divine intervention that just as the aircraft soared above the clouds, for an instant, I caught the glimpse of a Ferrari.... A car I had always dreamt of, I had aspired for, I had promised myself to own one day.

I was twenty-three then, and a month out of IIM-Bangalore.

The flight from Rio landed at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai, at midnight. A twenty-four hours' journey, intermeshed with an excruciating wait at the Paris airport, had taken its toll on me. I was exhausted, wanting desperately to reach home and hit my bed.

When I reached the immigration-queue my heart sank. Ahead of me was an ocean of humanity, awaiting their turn. Will things ever improve in this country?, I thought hopelessly and joined the queue. I didn't have a choice. I pulled out my mobile phone to call home and tell Dharini, my wife, that my flight had landed. But my phone went dead. I tried switching it on and it defiantly refused to show the slightest of response to my futile efforts. The battery was dead—an obvious outcome of the innumerable games that kept me occupied during my long journey.

Reach high, for stars lie
hidden in your soul.

Dream deep, for every dream
precedes the goal.

R
ALPH
V
AULL
S
TARR

Somehow the queue managed to move and I crossed the immigration check and then made my way to the conveyor belt area. As luck would have it, my baggage was the last to appear on the rail. I collected my bags and walked out of the airport. Hundreds of drivers stood there, holding large boards with names of passengers they had come to pick up, half of them were wrongly spelt, I could tell even without knowing their correct names. Had an attempt been made to lay down all the placards side by side on the ground, they would cover an entire football field.

My miserable luck continued. I could not find any placard bearing my name. Those who travel regularly would be aware that these days the travel agents SMS the driver's contact number to the passenger. This helps to trace the driver.

However, that was of no use on this fateful day. Anything that could go wrong, was going wrong. A phone charging booth I spotted, already had four or five people crowding around it. I considered, albeit for a fleeting moment, the thought of waiting there but eventually discarded it.

I cursed my secretary under my breath and walked back to a phone booth hoping to call her and ask as to where my pickup was. Maybe, it was not her fault after all. How could she be held responsible if the cab does not turn up! I changed my mind and walked back to the exit point looking around with the hope that I might have missed the placard with my name, but I could not see one.

Dharini had offered to hold back our driver and send the car, but I did not want to pay him overtime and had asked her not to. However, that would have been a much better alternative than this harrowing wait.

I stepped out on the pathway leading to the taxi stand. Finally, I reconciled myself for another fifteen-minute wait in the pre-paid queue for getting hold of a yellow-top taxi to take me to my Bandra residence. You've got to sit inside one to understand for yourself as to why people avoid them like the plague. They are not vehicles. They are a conglomeration of wheels, seats and engine, all put together to take the form of a rickety machine in motion.

Barely had I reached the middle of the road, when I froze. All eyes, including mine, turned from the airport exit point to the road which I had to cross to reach the taxi stand. I looked in that direction and my eyes popped out.

I could hear 'Oooh's' and 'Aaah's' emanating from the crowd behind me, but I could not turn back. My eyes were riveted on the main road ahead, and there she was....

Dressed in red, gleaming under the lights, demurely, she turned into the road that lead to the airport entrance and sashayed onto the black tarmac. She was heading towards me, but I just could not move. My legs were rooted and my mind was blank. She came to a halt a few metres from me. If she moved any further, she would have run over me. But heartless as she was, she did not.

Everyone crowded around to admire her. Even the cops came and stood around her, guarding her from groping miscreants. That did not work. A few gathered courage and touched her. She hardly seemed to mind. Neither did she scream, nor did she shout. She just stood there patiently, allowing everyone to admire her, touch her, and feel her!!!