The Bestseller She Wrote (3 page)

‘Upset with me? Impossible,’ Shreya replied.

‘Well, you showered so much love and affection on Aditya Kapoor that you didn’t leave the Diro with much of a choice, did you?’ Sunaina continued, ignoring Shreya’s cold look. ‘He thought, and rightly so, that your tone and objections were unwarranted. Aditya Kapoor must have felt extremely insulted. After all he was our guest. And what did you say? Balls! Right!’ Sunaina rolled her eyes.

‘Rubbish,’ Shreya dismissed it with a flourish of her hand.

‘Yeah, that too. “Rubbish”. That’s what you said the first time around.’ Sunaina was quick to pounce on her.

‘Come on, Sunaina. You know I didn’t mean it the way it eventually turned out,’ Shreya said. She wanted to sound indifferent, but was clearly a bit rattled. Almost immediately she looked at Sunaina. ‘Did the Diro say something to you?’ she asked sheepishly.

‘Not to me. But to the student council at the discussion, after the event.’

‘Storytelling is an art and Aditya was trivialising it. That got me worked up. He upset me. I upset him. So we are quits now. The Diro should stay out of this,’ Shreya exhaled. She turned to the other side, rolled over, dug her face into the book and said, ‘Now if you are done, I want to read. Have you seen how cute John Green is? I am beginning to get a crush on him.’

Sunaina smiled. ‘You are impossible, Shreya. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that the Diro was telling these guys that he will speak to you tomorrow. Be prepared for it.’

‘I am scared . . . ooooh!’ Shreya rolled her eyes and made a face.

Sunaina was not amused. ‘This bravado is counterproductive, Shreya,’ she warned with a straight face. ‘Remember you are in line for the Chairman’s gold medal. After Melwin left the course midway, you are the only one in the race. Why do you want to tick off the Diro at this stage?’

Shreya had to admit that there was merit in what Sunaina was saying. Melwin, the only other student who was running neck and neck with her till the end of the first year had left the course abruptly, midway and gone back to his home town. The institute had graciously granted him leave for a year and so he was now out of the reckoning. In such a scenario taking a risk would be stupid.

Shreya now had a nervous look in her eyes. ‘What should I do?’

Sunaina just shrugged her shoulders. ‘Make up a story that will satisfy the Diro.’

‘Shut up. I can’t fake it.’

‘Then deal with it,’ said Sunaina as she walked out of the room. ‘I am sleepy. I am off.’

‘Wait!’ Shreya yelled. ‘Wait wait wait wait wait,’ she continued and ran out of her room. ‘Hey! Wait.’ She stopped Sunaina, just as she was about to enter her own room. Sunaina turned in mock irritation. With one hand on her hip and the other on the doorframe she looked at Shreya. ‘Whaaaat?’

‘What if I read his book tonight?’

‘Tonight?’

‘Yup.’ Shreya jumped a bit, rubbing her hands in glee.

‘Where is the book for you to read?’

‘Here,’ she held up her iPad. ‘I will buy the e-book right away and read it.’

Sunaina was confused. ‘How will reading the book help?’

‘You will see,’ Shreya smirked.

4

T
HAT NIGHT
S
HREYA
stayed awake and read Aditya Kapoor’s fourth book—a 250-page novel—from end to end, without a break. When she kept the iPad on the side and looked out of the window, she could see light. It was 5.45 in the morning. A few early risers were out on their morning jog.

She walked to her table, opened her laptop and logged into her mail. She started typing.

A few kilometres away, Aditya had just woken up. He was checking his office mail on his BlackBerry when his iPhone beeped. A mail had just come in on his personal id.

Dear Mr Kapoor
,

After our interesting but not so welcome conversation last evening during your lecture, I picked up your book to read. I am writing to you immediately after reading the 254th page. I got your email id from the author bio in the book
.

While I consider myself to be a voracious reader, I have never ever finished a book in one night. This is the first time. The book just did not leave me with a choice. It is simply UNPUTDOWNABLE. I am cursing myself for not having read your books earlier. You have brought me back to reading Indian authors. As long as people like you write, reading will never go out of style
.

I have become a fan. I will order all your books and read them. You have just got on to my “authors to watch out for” list
.

You rock
.

Best wishes
,

Shreya Kaushik

(The one who asked you the question last evening)
.

Aditya smiled to himself. So he had a convert. The day couldn’t have started better. He started to type a response—an arrogant dismissive message—but something within him protested. He deleted everything he had written and began afresh.

Dear Ms Kaushik
,

Thanks for your lovely mail. You cannot imagine how thrilled I am to see that you liked the book. It means a lot to me, especially given the fact that you were completely anti-Indian authors
.

Thanks for promising to read my other books too. I nervously await your feedback
.

While on the subject, back in my hotel room, I was thinking of our brief conversation from last evening. I think you are partly correct, to the extent that treating a book like a product can be demeaning to books and the trade. While selling a book aggressively is the need of the hour, I suspect you may be right. Books are a bit more private and personal and that needs to be respected. I will keep that in mind whenever I write or promote my next book
.

Keep in touch
.

Cheers
,

Aditya
.

The moment Shreya saw the mail from Aditya she clenched her fist and let out a muted scream. ‘Yesssss!’

*

As expected, the Director called for her that afternoon.

‘Sir, I realised that my conduct yesterday was inappropriate and hence I stayed up all of last night and read Mr Kapoor’s book. I even wrote to him. This is his response.’ Shreya handed a copy of Aditya’s mail to the Director. In the message trail was her mail to Aditya. ‘You know I will never let you down,’ she added, finishing off with a seductive, ‘sir.’

The Director read the mail and smiled. ‘Good,’ he said. ‘Not only is it important to realise one’s mistake, but also to make amends. I’m happy that you did what you did, Shreya. We cannot have our prospective gold medallist losing out in life on account of indiscretions. I’m proud of you, Shreya.’

*

In the evening, on the way to their classes, Sunaina asked Shreya, ‘Why did you have to stay awake the whole night? You could have written to him without reading the book. There is no way he could have known.’

‘I don’t lie. You know that.’

‘Yeah right!’

‘Shut up, you bitch,’ Shreya hit her playfully. ‘Actually the book didn’t let me sleep. I just couldn’t put it down. There are moments in life when something comes and blows your mind. This was one such moment. I read the entire book and after finishing it, I cried. Buckets. Such a moving story it was. I couldn’t hold myself back. The best I have read thus far by any Indian writer. Forget Indian writers, this is the best I have read in a while.’

‘Hmm . . . And it does help that the guy has the looks of a rock star. No?’

‘He is cool. Real cool. But watch . . .’

‘Watch what?’

‘One day I will write a book which will beat his books hollow. A book far better than anything he has written.’ Shreya looked at the sky. ‘I will be all over the place. Bookstores, launches, events, media, readers . . . everyone will love me.’

‘Oh . . . oh . . . oh . . . Stop, stop,
desi
John Green! Stop dreaming. It’s not easy to write. Even if you write rubbish, it takes time, effort and skill. Do you realise that?’

‘One day, Sunaina, I am telling you . . . one day. I will be a world-famous author. You will be proud of me.’

‘Even if you don’t become one, I will still be proud of you,’ Sunaina retorted as they entered their classroom.

Their final job placements were to begin in a couple of months.

5

T
HE
K
APOOR RESIDENCE
was in a chaotic state that morning. Aditya was getting ready to go to work. Maya was running around fixing Aryan’s tiffin box. The maid had not arrived.

The doorbell rang at the most inappropriate time.

‘I will get it,’ yelled Aditya as he rushed to the door. He knew that Maya got extremely hassled if anything disturbed her morning schedule. The maid not turning up had already messed up her morning. She was going to be late and she hated that. Fearing a backlash, Aditya was trying to keep her calm and at the same time, stay out of her firing line. The driver was at the door. Aditya handed the car keys to him and got back to helping Maya.

On a normal day he would drop Aryan at school. Occasionally, even Maya would join him and he would drop her on his way to work. Today, given that Maya was a bit hassled, he decided to drop her. Whenever he did that, the driver followed in Maya’s car.

After dropping off Aryan, they were heading towards Maya’s school, which was a mile away.

Maya looked at him and smiled. ‘Thank you,’ she said.

‘For what?’

‘The morning.’

Aditya raised his eyebrows. He had a naughty grin on his face.

‘I don’t say anything doesn’t mean I don’t notice,’ Maya smiled.

‘Aaah . . . that’s an interesting confession,’ Aditya teased her. ‘You must try not to get so stressed, Maya.’

‘It’s just the morning. I don’t want you guys to get late because of me and I want you to take food from home. Stress is inevitable.’

‘Once in a while we can manage by eating outside.’

‘That’s what I don’t want you to do. Stressful work, sedentary lifestyle, inadequate sleep, zero exercise . . . All my pleading and prodding for you to work out falls on deaf ears,’ she complained.

Aditya looked at her and flexed his left bicep. ‘Naturally gifted with a great body,’ he joked.

‘Be serious, Aditya. I don’t want to add outside food to the list of problems that you have. That’s why I am so insistent that you take home food. Remember, you are not getting any younger. You are the one in the rat race. It adds to your stress levels,’ she argued.

‘What to do, Maya? I am forty; reaching the midway mark of my corporate life. Another twenty years and we will be gone, wiped from people’s memories. What have we achieved? What will we leave behind?’

‘What’s wrong with you, Aditya?’ Maya cried. ‘You have such a great career; from Junior Executive to Director—Branch Banking, in fifteen years. Not just that, you also have a successful alternate writing career. And to top it all, we have Aryan, a nice little family. People would kill to be in your place. Do you even realise that?’

Invariably in such situations, Aditya would just smile and the discussion would end. He knew that Maya was a contented soul, happy with what she had. But he was different. He wanted everything from life, not only for himself, but also for Maya and Aryan.

They reached Maya’s school. As she was getting out of the car, she looked at Aditya and said, ‘I forgot to tell you yesterday. The school trip to NASA is on.’

‘Oh. But I thought that’s still some time away.’

‘Yes, but I have to tell them if I am taking a vacation around it. I can’t just dump them. There will be 60 kids with us. Someone has to herd them and bring them back.’ Maya was hopeful that they would be able to take a vacation around the same time.

‘Okay, baby. We will close it out this week,’ he said before waving at her and driving off to work. He had a National Bank Annual event to attend that night.

6

S
ELDOM DOES ONE
see bankers letting their hair down. But the occasion that evening was clearly special. It was the year-end event, where winners were identified and teams were rewarded. It was a complex combination of team performance; voting by heads of select support functions like Operations, HR, Compliance, etc; and the judgement of the segment heads that was used to pick the winners. For National Bank, this was the biggest awards night of the year, which saw almost 100 per cent attendance. To be a winner here meant getting noticed by the entire top brass of the bank, propelling one’s career to the stratosphere.

Aditya was the cynosure of everyone’s eyes. His deft moves, his jigs, his expressions left everyone spellbound. When he got off the dance floor, his partner, a wealth manager from his Bandra team looked at him with eyes dripping with admiration, and said, ‘Never knew that you could dance like that, sir.’