If God Was A Banker (11 page)

On Monday Sundeep was hurriedly getting dressed to leave for office. He noticed that Natasha was not even making an attempt to get ready for work.

'Natasha, I have the weekly Monday morning meeting today. Got to leave early. Are you planning to go late?'

'I am not going today.'

'Why? Are you fine?'

'No, Sundeep. I'm just feeling a bit under the weather. Planning on taking an off today.'

'What happened? Should we go to the doctor? Let me call and tell Suneel that I will be late.'

'No, it's okay, Sundeep. Just feeling a bit tired. I'll come if I feel better. You carry on.'

Sundeep hesitated, but eventually said, 'Okay. Take care. Call me if you need anything.' He closed the door and stepped towards his car.

Sundeep walked into the meeting five minutes before the scheduled start. Suneel was already there. He assumed that Natasha would have come with Sundeep.

'Has Natasha come in? I need some papers.'

'No, Suneel. She is not feeling well. She said that she would call you.'

'Good,' thought Suneel. He was happy that Sundeep hadn't reacted violently. This meant that he had no clue what happened on Friday. Natasha hadn't told him. But why? Why would she not tell him? While he was relieved that Sundeep hadn't been told, he was also a touch nervous. He just couldn't figure this out. Sundeep, of course, was extremely nice and cordial to Suneel.

Swami hoped that Aditya would do something to ensure that guys like Suneel do not go scot-free. When Aditya didn't call him back, he called him up on Monday evening.

'Aditya, this Suneel thing has been on my mind for the last three days. We need to do something soon.'

'I agree.'

'Aditya, you said you would speak to someone in Singapore and take this up.'

What could Aditya say? He narrated the entire incident to Swami. 'I am helpless Swami. I tried my best.'

'I don't know, Aditya. If you do not do anything, I will have to do something. I will go to the press with this story, Aditya.' He was extremely frustrated and his middle class morality did not permit him to take this lying down.

Aditya was worried now. Swami was his guy. If Swami did something stupid, he would screw up his own career, and he did not want that to happen. He did not want Swami to take it upon himself. He had to buy time till the entire issue settled down. He asked Swami for six months. 'I have moved out of the bank, Swami. To reactivate my network and move something in this bank would take six months.'

Natasha took the week off, before returning to work. 'Behave normally with everyone, including Suneel,' Swami had insisted. 'I will surely do something to address your concerns.'

It was traumatic to be back at work. Suneel ignored her and so did she. Suneel hired another secretary to do his work. He would not give any work to Natasha. He cold-shouldered her. Natasha would go to office, keep sitting, not do anything the entire day, and then come back home. This was upsetting her no end. She was close to becoming a nervous wreck. She didn't tell Sundeep anything, as he wouldn't understand. He didn't know the context.

In the next one month, an audit was to hit the Human Resources department of NYB. Audit was a very serious issue at NYB and poor audit results could badly impact career prospects. All units that were to be audited would work day in and day out for a week prior to audit, to get their paper work, records, and trails in order.

Abhinav Mookherjee, Head of HR at NYB, was reviewing the audit preparation. He pulled out the last audit report. This audit had been done three years back. This was normally the best way to prepare for an audit—identify mistakes of the past and ensure that they are not repeated.

He went through it point by point. HR was better prepared now than they were the last time. When he reached the second last point on the audit report, he raised an eyebrow. That comment by the audit team read, 'No two people from the same family can work in the same unit and report to the same supervisor.' The auditors had then identified three such couples. In one case, the wife was reporting to the husband. These were obvious issues that had to be fixed.

'Get me a list of all employees whose spouse, sibling or child work with us. I also need the names of their supervisors,' he asked his secretary.

Within fifteen minutes, Mookherjee had a list of twelve employees whose spouse, sibling or child worked in the bank. In all but one case they were in different units and hence there was no issue. All except one.

Sundeep and Natasha worked for the same supervisor Suneel. He called Natasha. Abhinav knew that Sundeep was critical for Suneel's team and therefore Natasha had to move. He spoke to Natasha for over twenty minutes and explained his predicament. 'Which unit would you want to move to. Just checking on your preferences so that I can keep them at the back of my mind before I speak to Suneel about it.' Abhinav knew that Sundeep was close to Suneel and so he thought Suneel was very nice to her. More than what one would normally be with a secretary.

'Can we talk about this tomorrow morning. If that's fine with you. I would like to consult a few other people as well.'

'I am travelling for the next one week, so let's talk next week. I will call you once I am back.'

'Sure, Abhinav.'

When Abhinav called her ten days later, she had her answer ready. 'I would be fine moving to Treasury. The secretary's position there is vacant.'

'Let me see what I can do.'

Over the next couple of days, Abhinav spoke to Suneel and also to Sundeep. Suneel was more than happy to relieve her and let her move to another unit. Within a week, Natasha became a part of Swami's team. Swami had managed to pull Natasha out of hell. What Natasha did not know was that it was a behind-the-scene manoeuvre by Aditya.

Aditya had created a vacancy for Natasha in Swami's team. He had hired the current incumbent in his new company at double the salary and had insisted that she join within one week. Swami released her almost immediately. Once the vacancy was created, they shoved it right under HR's nose asking for the job to be given to Natasha. HR was more than happy to oblige as they were only four days from audit. All this while, Sundeep, as usual, was oblivious of everything.

S
undeep's trips to Calcutta became a lot more frequent. He rarely missed a visit to Naresh's office. Once he was sitting in Naresh's room, while the latter was showing off the mini golf strip that he had laid out on his floor.

'Reshma,' Naresh shouted out for someone. Sundeep raised his eyebrow. He had only heard Naresh call out for Monica.

A young girl walked in, barely nineteen years old.
'Ji,
Naresh sir.'

'Have you met Mr Srivastava? He heads loans with New York International Bank.
Wahan pe
Assistant Vice President
hain. Jao inke liye ek cup shakkar wali special chai bolna.'

Sundeep couldn't take his eyes off her. She had a body to kill for. When she turned, Sundeep's eyes lit up. She had the best bums he had ever seen. Naresh again smacked his lips and said,
'Yeh degi.'
Sundeep smiled. He was already thinking about his evening.

Naresh had already set up a large team for selling home loans for NYB.
'Yaar Srivastava, chaar mahine ho gaye. Kuch aur karte hain.
A
isa kuch karte hain ki mazaa aa jaave.'
Naresh was bored and was looking for something more exciting. 'Mera
ek call centre khulva de.'
Naresh wanted to set up a call centre for New York International Bank and explained the entire deal to Sundeep.

'Look Sundeep, I will invest in this call centre. You give me the business. I will manage the complete customer service for New York International Bank in India.' At that time there was no concept of phone banking in India. Even the now-thriving BPO industry had not reared its head. Naresh was smart. He knew how to get his work done. He knew that Sundeep could swing the deal for him.

When Sundeep started thinking, Reshma came back with the tea. Sundeep's thinking went for a toss. Then Naresh threw in the sweetener. 'I will run the call centre on paper, but we will actually own it.' Sundeep looked at him questioningly.

'Yes,' continued Naresh, 'it will be a sixty-forty partnership between us. Sixty mine and forty yours.' After a pause he said, 'Think how many Reshmas we can hire in the call centre. Everyday, someone new to fuck.'

Sundeep didn't react. Naresh knew he had won.

Naresh dropped Sundeep off at the hotel after dinner. Sundeep went up to his room and had a quick shower. He was sipping his whisky when the doorbell rang. He jumped to open the door. He was pleasantly surprised. At the door were Reshma and Monica. One look at them, and Sundeep was immediately aroused.

'Sir, I came to give a handover to Reshma,' said Monica, as she ran her fingers teasingly over Sundeep's dick. The door banged shut and the
Do Not Disturb
sign came up. Reshma was even better than Monica, and, for the first time in his life, Sundeep fucked two women in a single night.

Naresh had got his call centre and Sundeep his double fuck.

L
ouisa was back in Sundeep's room. 'Mr Srivastava, your wife on the line. Should I tell her that you will call her back?'

'I will take it,' said Sundeep.

He had been thinking of his life ever since he became a banker. Even though the incidents were more than a decade old, they came back in front of his eyes, as if they had taken place only yesterday.

'Hi Natasha. How was the zoo, sweetheart?' asked Sundeep.

'The kids loved it. Though I was a little bored,' she said. 'Now they want to go to the dome for a movie. Just got a couple of minutes. Thought I would call you. Louisa told me that you were not feeling too well.'

'No, I'm fine. Just feeling a bit tired. That's all,' he lied.

'Why don't you come home early? We will ditch the movie,' said Natasha. 'I must tell you, your secy is taking good care of you, eh.'

'No sweetheart. You know...' Natasha quickly interrupted him, 'No honey, I was just kidding. You are the most caring husband anyone can ever get. I have no complaints. Even if Louisa is up to something, I am sure, I can trust you.' Natasha's words pierced Sundeep's heart.

'Wait till she gets to know everything,' something inside spoke to him.

'I will see you in the evening, babe.' He blew a kiss over the phone and disconnected.

How could he possibly tell her what he had already done with his career?

S
undeep was just leaving for a review when the phone rang.
'Kya kar raha hoi, yaar.
You haven't come to Calcutta for over two weeks now. My secretary keeps asking me about you? Here, talk to her.' Naresh gave Reshma the phone.

'Sir, what happened? Monica told me that you came to Calcutta every week to see her. You do not like me?' Reshma asked him in her trademark seductive tone.

'I will be there this week,' said Sundeep.

He kept his promise. Naresh's limousine picked him up from the airport and took him straight to his den. Naresh came down from his office to meet him. Then they went to Naresh's house for lunch.

The lecherous Naresh kept talking about his secretaries and the fun he had with them.

'Sundeep, please change your hiring policy. The way your team hires is painful,' said Naresh.

'Why, what happened now?' asked Sundeep. 'Did any of my sales guys managing your teams screw up.'

'No,
yaar.
Your problem is that you only look at motivating your sales guys. What about my motivation? Shouldn't you be looking at that too? I must also feel happy to meet your sales managers. Today none of your managers fits the T & A criteria.'

'T & A criteria?' Sundeep didn't understand what he meant.

'Don't know T & A criteria, tits and ass, my friend. Basics in life. If they don't meet that criteria, then you should not hire them, irrespective of how good they are.'

Sundeep burst out laughing.

All this was supposedly in jest. However, Sundeep's hiring criteria did change after this. T & A criteria was informally applied to every candidate he met.

Interactions with Naresh had started shaping his behaviour. Slowly but surely Naresh was becoming an integral part of Sundeep's bank. He had grown so big that seventy percent of the business in eastern India for New York International Bank was originated by Naresh's team.

The Naresh factor had begun to impact Sundeep's personal life. He was spending less time with Natasha. He had started neglecting her. Natasha found emotional support in Swami and Kalpana.

Naresh also had a great relationship with Suneel. With secretaries like Monica, relationships were not difficult to build. Sundeep used Naresh smartly for insights into Suneel. Naresh fed him all the relevant information. If Suneel said anything good about Sundeep, he would get to know. If Suneel had a negative view on anything, Sundeep would know. This helped him to quickly fix any perception issues with his boss. Riding on Naresh, Sundeep's equation with Suneel was on a high.

It suited Naresh too. Sundeep was constantly reminded of the fact that Naresh knew his boss better than he did. If he didn't take care of Naresh, his career with NYB had no chance of taking off. Obviously, Suneel had Naresh's ear more than Sundeep had.

Business was growing. Perceptions were great. Career was galloping. Things were going fine. Till one day...

On that day Sundeep had come to Calcutta on one of his many Naresh trips. After a hectic day at work, Naresh dropped him to his hotel. Back in his room, he showered and as usual waited for Naresh's secy. This time it was Linda, a hot babe in her early twenties. Reshma too was with her, supposedly to give a 'handover' to Linda.

The next six hours were full of moaning and groaning. Sundeep spent the whole night in bed with the two women, having the time of his life.

It was five in the morning when Sundeep opened his eyes. Linda and Reshma had just got up and were wearing their clothes. He looked at Linda, stretched out his hand and pulled her down on the bed. After twenty more minutes of ecstasy, Linda wore her clothes again and prepared to leave.