The Bestseller She Wrote (4 page)

‘Well, I am stuck behind the desk the whole day, you see,’ Aditya smiled. ‘Maybe you didn’t realise, I have legs underneath,’ he started laughing. The wealth manager beat a hasty retreat.

‘Poor girl,’ Sanjay Narang, the head of Human Resources, commented when Aditya walked up to him. ‘You were mean to her.’

‘Nonsense!’ Aditya tapped Sanjay on his back. ‘Flirting with your super boss is just not on.’

‘Says who?’

‘Being in HR, you can’t ask that question,’ Aditya responded.

Sanjay smiled. ‘At least this one day, don’t judge us. Allow us to let our hair down. We in HR are human too, aren’t we?’ he said. ‘After all, when all the girls fall for you, we don’t complain.’

‘Human? You guys are dogs,’ said Aditya. ‘At least you are, for sure.’ He laughed even as he hugged Sanjay and led him towards the bar.

Sanjay and Aditya were classmates at IIM Bengaluru. Best of friends on campus, they had stayed that way ever since. Despite going through some trying times, the friendship had survived. Sanjay’s first marriage to another batchmate of theirs had ended in divorce. He was secretly dating the product manager of National Bank’s Premier Banking Proposition, Diana Moses. Aditya was one of the few who was in on the secret. And he was not happy about it.

Diana and Aditya, both reported to Tim, the head of Retail Banking. Aditya always felt that Diana went to Tim, behind his back and often undercut him, because she aspired to Aditya’s job. Sanjay had often tried to convince him that this was not the case. All his attempts at making Aditya understand that even if his presumption were to be true, professional aspirations could not form the basis for disliking someone, had been in vain. The good thing was, both of them had been mature enough to ensure that Diana’s relationship with Sanjay did not in any way impact their friendship.

‘And now, it’s the time of the evening that everyone has been waiting for,’ the emcee took over. Both Aditya and Sanjay turned towards the stage.

‘The National Bank Annual Awards!’ she exclaimed loudly into the mic. The proceedings began. A few individual awards were announced before moving on to the team awards.

‘Coming to Retail Bank Team Awards, the second runner-up for the Best Team in Retail Bank goes to . . .’

Everyone waited. A few yelled out their team names.

‘Goes to . . .’ the emcee continued, ‘. . . Personal Loan sales team! Put your hands together for the Personal Loan sales team!’ The entire team led by their head went up on stage and collected their trophy.

‘And now for the runner-up . . . Who do you think will walk away with the runner-up trophy for retail banking this year?’ she said as a cacophony erupted from the crowd.

Aditya was standing there with Sanjay and a few others. He was quiet. ‘The runner-up trophy goes to . . . the Branch Banking team!’ The people standing around Aditya went wild. They threw their hands up and jumped around in joy.

Sanjay was silent. He was looking at Aditya who quietly turned around and started walking towards the bar. The Branch Banking team and the four regional heads went up and took the award from the CEO. They waited on stage for some time for Aditya to join them.

Aditya reached the bar. ‘A whisky, please,’ he ordered.

‘What happened?’ Sanjay had caught up with him.

‘Losers,’ Aditya said.

‘Losers?’ Sanjay expressed surprise. ‘Come on. They have won the second prize. It’s your team. You should have been up on stage with them.’ He shook his head in disapproval.

Aditya looked straight at him. ‘As far as I am concerned, they lost the winner’s trophy, Sanjay. To me that’s what matters. Whether I write a book or lead a team. I need to be . . .’ He picked up his glass of single malt and sniffed the heavenly fragrance before he sipped at it. ‘I need to be like this.’ He held up his glass of single malt. ‘Like this peg of Laphroaig. The best. My team needs to be the best, Sanjay. Nothing else is acceptable.’

‘Slow down, Aditya, slow down,’ Sanjay said as he patted him on his back. ‘Learn from Maya. Enjoy life,’ he said and held his glass up to Aditya. ‘Cheers.’ Aditya didn’t respond.

‘And now, finally we have the winner of the award for the Best Team in Retail Banking,’ the emcee could be heard in the background. ‘And the winner is . . . the Premier Banking Product team for the excellent work they did in the relaunch of the high-end Premier Banking Proposition!’ she yelled in high pitch. The entire Premier Banking team hooted in glee. Diana walked up to the stage. ‘And let me also add that they have won this award, by beating the second best team by just one vote. It was a tough fight, a very tough fight. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s hear it for the Premier Banking team,’ the emcee’s voice screeched over the PA system.

Aditya hurriedly gulped down the whisky and looked at Sanjay, with anger in his eyes. ‘So,’ he said, his voice dangerously low.

‘So? So what?’ Sanjay asked him.

‘So this is what it had to come to. Right. You made sure the HR vote went to your girlfriend. To the Premier Banking team despite knowing that we deserved it more.’ He raised his voice just that little bit. He was not happy. It didn’t matter to him that his team came ahead of twelve other teams to win the runner-up position. What mattered was that they lagged behind one.

‘Is that what you think, Aditya? After so many years . . .’

‘Well, years of friendship don’t matter, Sanjay. When you had to demonstrate your loyalties, you chose the woman instead. You decided to think not with your brain but with something dangling three feet below your brain . . .’

‘Don’t talk rubbish, Aditya,’ Sanjay interrupted his tirade. ‘I have never done anything that would impact our relationship. Never ever; you get me? There have been enough reasons in the past. Yet I have always been fair.’

‘Oh come on,’ Aditya screamed. A few people had gathered around. ‘You always wanted that woman to go ahead of me. Always! And when you got a chance, you played your card. How could you be so weak, Sanjay? That’s not the way you were on campus. That’s not the way you were all these years. You kept your mind in control and ensured that your head ruled. But now? I never expected you to do this. Never.’ Aditya banged down his glass and walked out in a huff.

‘What happened?’ Diana walked up to Sanjay, just in time to see Aditya walk away.

‘Congratulations, Diana.’ Sanjay hugged her as formally as he could.

‘Thanks, but what just happened?’ Diana repeated her question. ‘Nothing. Come. Let’s go.’ Sanjay held her hand and started leading her away from the bar. Diana looked around.

‘Kapoor sir was extremely upset that his team didn’t win the award, so he screamed at Sanjay sir,’ one of her team members who was around the bar when the argument happened, blurted out.

Diana looked at Sanjay. ‘Me?’ she asked. ‘Was it because of me?’

‘What else could it be?’

‘What was it this time?’

‘He felt that I ensured HR cast its vote in your favour, and that single HR vote took the award away from him.’

‘Did you tell him the true story?’

‘What’s the big deal, Diana? He would never have believed me.’

‘You should have told him the truth, that HR withdrew from the voting, because my team was in the running. And true to the spirit of the awards, there was no partiality whatsoever. He can be upset that he lost, but he has no reason to be upset with you.’

‘You know him. He will come back once he recovers his senses. This is not the first time he has fought with me about you.’

‘Then why is your face looking like a roasted brinjal?’ Diana asked.

‘Because this is the first time he did it in public. All our fights have been in private, away from everyone,’ Sanjay said, angrily. ‘He could’ve exercised some restraint, if not for the sake of our friendship, at least for the fact that I helped him resurrect his career by getting him this job.’

Diana patted him on his back to calm him down. The two of them, left the party venue and drove back home. On the way back, Sanjay’s phone beeped. He looked at Diana. She smiled at him. On the screen was a notification. Sanjay opened his inbox and read the message.

Diana smiled when she saw the message. Sanjay was sternly looking ahead at the road.

‘Let it go. He is apologising,’ Diana said. Sanjay lifted her right hand to his lips, kissed it and smiled back at her.

The next day, both Sanjay and a slightly shame-faced Aditya, hugged and put the issue to rest.

7

‘
H
ELLO?’
A
DITYA PICKED
up the intercom on the first ring.

‘Free on the 8th of February?’ Sanjay asked.

‘I don’t know what I am going to do tomorrow and you are asking me about 8th February, Sanjay?’

‘Well, we are kicking off our campus placements at IIM Bengaluru, on the 8th. I was wondering if you would like to be a part of the interview panel.’

‘What will I do there? Campus interviews are fucking boring.’

‘Can you imagine my plight? I have to go to ten colleges this year.’

‘You are paid to do that, Sanjay. I am not,’ Aditya said cheekily. ‘Give me a day, I will get back to you,’ he muttered and hung up. For him, it was a zero value-add activity. He was in the finishing stages of his next book. That demanded time. And he didn’t want to waste his days travelling on some non-productive work. That’s when he remembered the invitation.

He went back to his inbox and searched for a mail from Vani Mahesh, who ran a quaint little library in Bengaluru—EasyLib. Patronised by the large corporate executive crowd in Bengaluru, EasyLib was a preferred destination for book events in town.

Vani Mahesh had requested him to visit her library. She wanted him to do a reading session and promised to make the visit worth his time by doing a classy event, which would get adequate media coverage. And that was a carrot he found difficult to refuse.

He picked up the intercom and dialled Sanjay.

‘You wouldn’t mind if I did a book reading event on the 7th, would you?’

‘Why are you even asking me?’

‘In the interest of full disclosure my friend. I don’t want anyone coming back to me later on this.’

‘Not at all. Be my guest. If I do get into Bengaluru on the 7th, I would love to attend it.’

‘And we can go on a drinking binge after the event, like old times. Life was so much fun on campus, wasn’t it? You, me, Maya, Shefali and all the others . . . the drinking binges, the late nights. Best two years of my life,’ Aditya reminisced.

‘Yes, it was a great time. Let’s plan something,’ Sanjay hurriedly agreed. Any discussion about Shefali, his ex-wife, irked him.

8

S
HREYA WAS IN
her hostel room preparing for the placement interviews, which were to begin the next day. She had a packed schedule over the coming few days. Citibank, Hindustan Unilever and BCG—three interviews on day-zero of the placements. And then there was National Bank and ITC, the day after. Landing a job, early in the placement cycle was about pride. After all she was the most likely recipient of the Chairman’s gold medal.

‘Coffee,’ Sunaina called out. She was returning from the hostel’s night canteen, with the coffee that Shreya had asked her to grab for her. Sunaina made herself comfortable on the couch in Shreya’s room and they began to revise all the possible interview questions. Shreya had lost count of the number of times they had done that. The questions were standard fare.

What is your ambition?

Where do you see yourself five years from now?

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Why do you want to join our company?

After a point, Shreya got fed up with the entire preparation. ‘If they ask me why I want to join them, I’ll say, it’s because you pay the most, damn it! It’s sexy to see my name next to the logo on the company visiting card. Isn’t that why you are also there, you idiot . . . How nice it would be if we could say this.’ Shreya frowned.

‘Ha ha! Say this to your friend. He will be there day after I think.’

‘Who?’

‘The one who you have a history of messing up with,’ Sunaina chuckled. Seeing Shreya’s blank look, she volunteered, ‘Aditya Kapoor. Who else?’

‘Really? When? Where? For what?’ Shreya was surprised. She suddenly got up from her chair. ‘How do you know?’ she demanded.

‘Relax, relax. Aditya Kapoor is in town tomorrow for a book event. There is an event poster down in the mess. If he is in Bengaluru a day before the campus placements, isn’t it logical to assume that he will be here too?’

‘Fair assessment.’

‘Correct. But it worries me. It reduces the placement options for you. If he interviews you, you stand no chance. Authors never forget anything,’ Sunaina cautioned Shreya.

Shreya sat upright on the couch. ‘You are forgetting that I made up with him. So the probability of him remembering me for the right reasons are extremely high.’