The Bestseller She Wrote (7 page)

14

‘
C
AN YOU COME
to my room, Aditya? We need to talk,’ Tim’s voice came over the intercom.

Aditya was worried. We
need to talk
—when a wife or boss utters these words, it can only mean trouble. He ran up the two floors separating him from his boss’s office and was outside the room in a jiffy.

After letting him in, Tim shut the door and sat on the sofa opposite Aditya. ‘How is the book doing?’ he asked casually.

‘It’s doing well, Tim. It’s gone into its twenty-seventh reprint. Sales numbers look encouraging. Let’s see how long it sustains.’

‘Thanks, Aditya. I was actually referring to the Liability book—the deposit and investment book. About your writing, I keep getting updates in the newspaper and of course on Facebook.’

‘Oops,’ Aditya said sheepishly. ‘I am sorry, Tim. Yes, the Liability book is doing fine. I am putting together a presentation for you. Will complete and send it to you by evening or latest by tomorrow.’

‘Hold on to that, Aditya.’ Tim got up and walked to his table. He fiddled with his laptop. Aditya could figure out that he was just prepping himself. He turned, faced Aditya and with a serious expression on his face, said, ‘I have some news for you, sonny.’

Suddenly insecurity gripped Aditya. Was Tim unhappy with him about something? He had never hit it off with Tim, but things were not too bad between the two either. ‘Is something wrong?’

‘You are aware of the compliance and money laundering related problems the bank got into with the US government, right?’

Aditya nodded. He knew that a senate permanent subcommittee had pulled up National Bank in the US. They had been held guilty of exposing the US financial system and its stability to significant risk due to poor compliance and controls of existing anti-money laundering regulations. Along with HSBC and SCB, National Bank had been severely indicted in a report that came out three months ago.

On account of the indictment, National Bank had given the US government certain assurances on the controlled manner in which they would run their wealth management businesses across the world.

‘If we follow all that we have committed to the US government in terms of enhanced controls and consumer diligence, it will render the wealth management business unviable. Unprofitable. We won’t be able to fight competition in India,’ Aditya protested.

‘That’s true and that is why the regional office has decided that rather than build this business, we will shrink the wealth management book significantly. Stop selling wealth management services and offer it as a shelf product. Give it to people who ask for it. Don’t market it. Disincentivise customers from using us for wealth management. Have few people on the shop floor, just servicing those few customers who insist on staying with us.’

‘But why? We have such a beautifully controlled portfolio. Best in class,’ Aditya argued. ‘Other banks would kill to have these customers. This is a knee jerk reaction, Tim.’

‘I know. But the organisation wants to play it safe. It’s a diktat from Singapore. In fact it is a global diktat.’

‘So what will we tell our customers? And our employees?’

‘That’s why I called you. We need to put together a note on how many people we need, to keep the wealth management business on a ventilator. More importantly how many we need to let go.’

Aditya was stunned. ‘We will sack people for no fault of theirs? We are shutting down a cash cow!’ he cried.

‘Relax, Aditya. Sometimes we must not fret over things that are not in our control. Global diktats have to be adhered to, not argued against. Go write a few more books in the time that you will get for yourself.’

‘That was unnecessary, Tim, completely unnecessary,’ Aditya barked. He had taken extreme precaution to make sure that no one ever pointed a finger at him and accused him of his writing affecting his work. He was very touchy if anyone were to even subtly hint at that.

‘Okay, okay. Calm down. I was kidding.’

‘Kidding. Really, Tim?’ Aditya was upset at Tim’s tone yet decided not to dwell on it. ‘In any case, we have four hundred people working in wealth management. My guess is that we will not need more than hundred. Of the four hundred that we have, over seventy-five have been hired in the last three months. What face do we have to go back to them and tell them that they don’t have a job?’

‘I can understand,’ Tim said though he didn’t look apologetic at all.

How can someone be so cold, thought Aditya. ‘But,’ Tim continued, ‘it is what it is. We will keep a straight face and tell them that they are no longer needed.’

‘What about me?’

‘What about you?’

‘Do I have a job? You won’t need a person of my seniority to run the business anymore.’

‘Of course we need you. Who will manage the branches, the sales efforts through the branches, and customer service? You do a lot more than wealth management,’ Tim tried to reassure Aditya.

*

By the time he left Tim’s cabin, Aditya was worried. In one stroke three hundred families were about to be deprived of their livelihood. Three hundred families, whose only crime was that they did what the organisation wanted them to do. What got him even more worked up was that the overall job market was bleak. Many banks had stopped hiring.

He had to do something to protect his people.

He went to the cafeteria. Wanting to be alone, he picked up his cup of coffee from the vending machine and walked to a distant corner. Leaning against the glass wall, he stared out into the open. He could see traffic on the road. ‘It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there,’ he mumbled to himself. Everyone was only bothered about protecting their own job and winning brownie points. The three hundred people about to be sacked were nobody’s responsibility. They were at the bottom of the pyramid and didn’t matter.

‘Thinking about the plot for your next book?’ A sweet voice interrupted his flow of thoughts.

He had heard that voice earlier.

15

‘
S
HREYA!
W
HAT A
pleasant surprise!’

Aditya smiled and extended his hand. She walked up to him and was about to give him a hug. He deftly stepped back in a manner to make it look like a normal movement and not an offensive one. In public he had, thus far, been extremely careful about others’ perception of him.

He could smell the same heady Chanel No. 5 on her. God! Wasn’t she beautiful? He found it difficult to take his gaze off her. Her glowing skin made her look like an angel. Her long and wavy hair was smooth and silky as molten chocolate. Her deep bluish-green eyes attracted him like iron to magnet. For a moment he wondered how on earth an Indian girl could have eyes like that. He wanted to ask her, but held himself back.

‘How are you, sir?’ she asked, and then cheekily bit her tongue, ‘Oops . . . Aditya.’

‘Good, good,’ he smiled. ‘What brings you here today?’

‘You don’t seem too happy to see me.’ Tilting her head to one side, she made a show of displeasure.

‘Not at all,’ he spluttered into his coffee. ‘Not at all. In fact you just managed to cheer me up,’ Aditya confessed.

‘So you are happy to see me, right?’

He smiled. And then as if he just remembered something he asked, ‘But you guys were not expected till the beginning of next month. That’s when the MT programme begins, isn’t it?’

‘I had nothing to do. I am a very restless soul. I can’t sit at home and I have no friends with whom I can go on a holiday. I wrote to Sanjay sir asking if I can join early and he agreed. I formally joined today.’

‘Wonderful. Welcome on board. So happy to see you here. By the way, what happened to the Chairman’s gold medal?’

‘Could it have gone to anyone else?’ she asked, the sparkle in her eyes telling a story.

‘Oh wow! I knew you would get it. I hope you have a wonderful career with National Bank.’

Shreya smiled. ‘Thank you. To work with someone like you is a dream come true. Sanjay sir told me that he will be speaking to you and place me in your team till the other management trainees join.’

‘You’re going to work with me?’

‘Yes,’ Shreya began and then realising her faux pas, she hurriedly added, ‘But I guess I jumped the gun. He said he will talk to you about it.’

Aditya was super thrilled. The three hundred people getting sacked were forgotten for the time being. While he wanted to be upset with Sanjay for not having told him, he just couldn’t be. The favour was bigger than the complaint.

‘So, how is your writing coming along? Are your writing dreams intact or have you sacrificed them at the altar of your career?’

‘Not at all,’ she said nonchalantly. ‘I expect the dream to take flight. Now that I am with you, I want to spread my wings and fly. Will you help me?’

‘Surely. In these uncertain days, it helps to have an alternate line of revenue,’ Aditya said, his mind forced back into the reality of the three hundred people he would soon have to sack.

‘Uncertain . . . why uncertain?’

‘It’s okay. Let it be,’ he said. ‘This is not a discussion to have on your first day here. Let me quickly chat with Sanjay on what’s the plan for you. We can then decide on our course of action,’ he said casually as they were walking down the steps. They reached the HR floor. Sanjay, who was in his room, saw them coming and peeked out of his room.

‘I called you,’ he yelled from across the corridor, ‘but you were with Tim.’

‘Thank you,’ Aditya said as he walked up and shook hands with Sanjay. ‘Can we step into your room?’ He turned towards Shreya and nodded his head. ‘Wait for me on the first floor. I’ll be there in ten minutes.’

Once they were inside the room, he waited till the door shut firmly and asked Sanjay, ‘Why couldn’t you have told me earlier, you prick?’

‘I wanted to surprise you. You wanted her desperately. The management trainee induction doesn’t start till next month. I thought it might be a good idea to let her float with you till then.’

‘Thank you for that.’

‘See. I do take care of people’s motivation.’

‘Doesn’t Tim have to be told?’

‘A mail has gone out to him five minutes back. He knows. It’s all at HR cost. So dude, you will be having fun at HR’s expense.’

‘Shut up. I am a nice married man.’

‘Nice?’ Sanjay rolled his eyes. ‘At least that’s what she thinks, I guess,’ he smiled. ‘If not her, that’s what Maya thinks.’ The smile grew wider. ‘Wonder what she saw in you. I would have surely been a better option for her,’ Sanjay sighed deeply. ‘Woman too make mistakes, Aditya.’

‘You are impossible, Sanjay.’ Aditya rolled his eyes and walked out of the room. Just as he was walking out, his eyes fell on a set of books arranged neatly behind Sanjay. He couldn’t recall having read any of them. Next to them was a copy of their IIM student journal—
iimpressions
. It had a write-up on every student along with a candid picture. It took him back in time. He flipped through it before putting it down. His hand hit the bookend which moved from its spot. Hurriedly he set it right and looked at Sanjay. ‘These are nice,’ he commented, admiring the carved wooden bookends on either side of the books.

‘Diana gifted me those. So I had to put them to good use,’ Sanjay shrugged.

‘Aaaah . . .’ Aditya nodded as he admired them.

Amongst the many books stacked was James Patterson’s
Private
series. It was in the news because Ashwin Sanghi, one of India’s leading writers was co-writing a book with James Patterson in the same series. Aditya knew about it because being India’s leading thriller writer, it would be embarrassing for him to sound ignorant if any journalist asked him about it.

‘James Patterson’s latest. Nice!’ he said as he picked up one of them. ‘Can I borrow this from you?’

‘Keep that book down if you don’t want your hands chopped off,’ Sanjay thundered.

Aditya smiled and turned towards him.

‘You know how possessive I am about my books,’ Sanjay replied as he took the book from Aditya’s hands and placed it back from where it had been picked up. When he turned back to face Aditya, he saw him furiously flipping through
iimpressions
. On opening the page that he wanted to, Aditya started reading out from it:

‘
The deceptively serious looking self-proclaimed fitness freak,

would struggle through jogging, gym and ten hours of sleep.

After crunching all available novels in a sleepless night,

He would awake sleeping wing-mates and give gratuitous advice.

His room gave you the feel of an old bookstore,

You would be hit instantly with a sense of vellichor.

Books are his solace, books are his zone,

Never lending them to others, for that he is known.

In the first year, romance took his life by storm,