If God Was A Banker

by Ravi Subramanian

  'Oh, come on, Karuna. Nobody can hold back titles from deserving guys. Nitin is such a great guy. Why doesn't he move to Mumbai? I will give him his title. He can run my personal loans for Mumbai. What do you say?' His hand brushed against her thighs as he changed gears. Thank god! Automatic transmission cars were not popular in India.

  'I will ask him. But if he does move, Sundeep, I will also have to look for a change.'

  'You can be in my central team,' he said instantaneously, and almost immediately felt that he should not be moving so fast.

  Karuna looked at him and smiled.

  'What are you doing for dinner tonight?'

  'You had a dinner to attend, Sundeep.' Karuna was wondering what made this man change his mind.

  'I will cancel it, if a beautiful lady like you gives me company.' Karuna blushed at this compliment. Sundeep was waiting for her response. She picked up her phone and dialled a number. 'Ma, I will not be coming home for dinner. Don't wait for me,' she said and kept the phone down. 'So where do we go?'

  Sundeep took her to Indigo, a happening pub in South Mumbai. They freaked out on the floor. Sundeep was an amazing dancer and so was she. Both of them danced till the wee hours of the morning. Sundeep's hands were all over her, feeling her up in the name of dancing. Once when he tried to kiss her, she stopped him. She thought he was drunk. But Sundeep was not. He had not had a single glass of alcohol. He was drinking apple juice and passing it off as whisky. He did not want to get drunk that night. Karuna didn't want to offend him. Someone had spoken to her about Nitin's promotion for the first time.

  He didn't push his luck. He dropped her home at half past three in the morning.

  61

  While Sundeep was dancing the night away with Karuna, it was a restless time for Swami and Kalpana. Neither could get a wink of sleep. Both of them were worried at the turn of events. This was not what they came back to India for.

  Kailash was in London when Swami called him at 4.00 a.m. It was late night in London. Kailash heard out Swami.

  'Swami, I understand what you are saying. Please understand, we need someone operationally strong like you to manage the integration of BOCA with our organisation. You are the best person in the entire bank for this job.'

  All his reasoning fell on deaf years. Rather than listen to Swami's concern, Kailash was trying to convince him that this was indeed the best deal for him. Soon he realised that Sundeep had completely taped up Kailash and he was not going to get any help from him.

  When he met with Aditya for breakfast, he had almost made up his mind on quitting the bank that very afternoon. Aditya too was visibly peeved with Sundeep. He told Swami about their conversation.

  'Aditya, I will get to office and submit my resignation. I cannot take this humiliation any more. I would rather come and work with you.'

  'Grow up, Swami. Don't be stupid. You are behaving like a sulking kid. Such decisions are not made emotionally.' He pulled out a paper napkin from a stand kept on the table and gave it to Swami. He also gave him his Mont Blanc.

  'Now write,' he said. Swami was confused.

  'Write down the number of your stock options that will mature in the next two years.'

  Swami did some calculations and wrote down a figure.

  'How many more years do you have to serve the bank to start getting pension for life?'

  'Pension at NYB starts post fifteen years of work experience. I complete fifteen years of service next year. To answer your question, I have one year to go,' said Swami.

  'Assuming you live till seventy, write down the approx value of pension you will get from now till you are seventy.'

  He looked at Aditya, then took some time to do the maths, and eventually wrote down a number.

  'Great. That was quick. You are four months away from getting your bonus for the year. Write down the bonus you expect to be paid this year.'

  Swami wrote it down. He was now smiling. Aditya had his own way of making him understand.

  'How much do all these add up to?'

  'Over two million dollars.' Swami's face lit up.

  'If you want to give up two million dollars because of some son of a bitch, please go ahead and do so. Come tomorrow morning and collect your appointment letter. And now Mr Swaminathan, I am getting late and hence I must leave.'

  Swami got up too. He had got the message. He was going to have some fun.

  Kalpana was leaving when he bumped into her in the lift of their apartment. 'All well?' she asked him and was surprised to see him smile. 'Call me when you get to office,' she screamed as the lift started moving.

  It was 9.45 a.m. when Swami walked into office. He went straight to Sundeep's room. Sundeep was on the phone, talking to Natasha who had left with the kids on an early morning flight to Delhi. Sundeep had not got up by then. And they had left without saying bye to him. Sundeep was glad that Swami walked in. He could use that as an excuse to cut the phone call short.

  'So Swami, how do you feel about your new assignment,' fingered Sundeep, expecting Swami to plead with him to revoke the announcement.

  'Wonderful, Sundeep. It's a god sent opportunity. No doubt, a challenging assignment. Fair bit of learning for me. I have tremendous faith in your leadership and am confident that you will support me completely in making this venture a success.'

  Stumped, Sundeep's could only say, 'Yes, of course, Swami. You are the best man for this job.'

  Pleasantries over. They decided that Swami would move over to the new assignment from the first day of the next month. Since Sundeep was a very hands-on boss, Swami didn't need to give him an extensive handover.

  And so Swami moved to his new role as MD of BOCA.

  62

  Karuna moved to Mumbai into Sundeep's team. Nitin was not that fortunate. The Regional Head for North India quit around the same time that Nitin was supposed to move to Mumbai. Sundeep was quick to seize this opportunity. He moved him to Delhi, the Assistant Vice President title thrown in as a carrot. Karuna in Mumbai and Nitin in Delhi... Mission accomplished for Sundeep.

  This move upset Karuna a bit, but she couldn't complain. Sundeep had promised to move Nitin to Mumbai at the first available opportunity. Karuna bought that. Hadn't Sundeep kept his promise of giving him the AVP title?

  She became a core member of Sundeep's coterie. Sundeep involved her in every decision, every meeting. She started enjoying the power and adulation that came with being in Sundeep's team. This was almost becoming an addiction. Working with Sundeep meant regular parties and frequent night-outs with Sundeep. She was having a ball and Sundeep had his arm-candy to tout all over the town.

  'I am going to Chennai for a branch banking offsite tomorrow. Do you want to come with me?' Sundeep asked her and she said yes. In Chennai, their work got over by 6.00 p.m and they hit the bar at seven. They were drinking till about nine when they realised they had a dinner to attend. The dinner was being hosted for the participants of the offsite. Sundeep and Karuna went in late and were partly sloshed by the time they reached. The music was heavy. They started drinking again. Sundeep and Karuna were the first ones to hit the dance floor. He held her by her arm and she was willingly sticking to him. He didn't leave her for a moment. Even when he was not dancing, he didn't let go of her hand. Karuna was enjoying it too.

  The bhangra beats brought out a different animal in Sundeep. Then the music changed to a slow number, and Sundeep turned to Karuna, one arm on her waist and the other on her shoulder, and began a languorous dance. Karuna also had one arm on his waist and the other on his shoulder. Sundeep's arm moved from her waist to her back and pulled her closer to him. She could feel the bulge in his pants. A month had passed since Nitin moved to Delhi. She hadn't had a guy for thirty days and was partly drunk too. The wind was chilly. Sundeep could see that she was getting turned on. Not one to ever miss an opportunity, he suggested a walk on the beach.

  They quietly disappeared from the crowd. While they were walking on the sand, Sundeep pulled her towards hi
m and kissed her. She didn't react. Sundeep held her face in his hands and kissed her once more on her lips even as his hands wandered from her face to her back and then down the elastic band of her skirt.

  'This is not right. I am married.' She desperately tried to free herself, even though a part of her wanted to be held. She was terribly confused, scared of turning down her CEO and, at the same time, afraid of violating her own sense of morals.

  Sundeep was a smart cookie. He didn't want to force himself on her completely. He wanted her to yearn for him. 'Sex is fun if the other partner wants you. Else you can always buy it.' That was his philosophy.

  She finally managed to set herself free and started walking away from him towards the hotel room. Sundeep followed her. 'Karuna, I could feel it. I know that you want me, desire me. I could sense it when we were dancing. I could see it in your eyes.'

  She didn't turn back.

  'Come back, Karuna! I will not say a word about it to anyone. I want you.'

  Still no response.

  'I promise you, if you do what I say, I will move Nitin back to Mumbai within the next one week.'

  Now she slowed down. Why not? The Head of Retail was pleading with her. She can now call the shots. She can extract whatever she wanted from him. Now was the time.

  'I will do whatever you want me to, Karuna. You know I can work wonders for your career. I will also move you to an AVP position.'

  Now Karuna stopped. Her back was towards Sundeep. The deal now looked good.

  Sundeep quietly moved from behind and hugged her from the back. His hands caressed the bare neck and came to rest on her breasts. She could feel his dick growing against her ass. She closed her eyes in pleasure. She didn't want to miss this opportunity and neither did Sundeep.

  She woke up the next day in Sundeep's room. 'You were wonderful last night,' said Sundeep as he made her a cup of coffee. She looked at him and smiled. The smile told Sundeep that he was wonderful too.

  Her mobile phone was on the table. It showed three missed calls. All of them from Nitin. She looked at her watch. It was six in the morning. She wanted to get out of Sundeep's room before the others got up. She got dressed and was about to leave the room when Sundeep held her hand and pulled her back. She kissed him on his lips.

  'You were wonderful. I will see you tonight. I have got to go before the others see us.' She tiptoed out of the room.

  Though it was only six in the morning, there were a few branch managers, the early risers, who were out for a jog. They saw her coming out of Sundeep's room and it didn't take them much to put one and one together, given Sundeep's reputation. The news spread like wildfire. But it didn't matter, because no one told Nitin.

  True to his word, Sundeep moved Nitin back to Mumbai as Mumbai Sales Head for Personal Loans within the next one week. He had, however, tasted the forbidden fruit, and now he wanted it more. Karuna was anyway in his team and would stay in his vicinity, day in and day out. She would be in his room almost all the while. He would take her with him on all his branch visits.

  On days she was not chatting with him in person, she would be chatting with him on SMS.

  All the employees of NYB started treating Karuna with respect. A respect derived out of fear, on account of her closeness with Sundeep. The addiction was getting into her head. She was hooked on the attention she was getting from everyone else in the bank.

  Karuna was also beginning to get emotionally involved with Sundeep now. Sex with a powerful guy was a huge turn on. Making love in weird places, by taking risks and hoodwinking people, became a favourite pastime for both of them. They even made love in Sundeep's office at 12.45 a.m., after covering the security camera with Karuna's jeans.

  Nitin noticed his wife's rising influence, but was blinded by his love for her. He thought that his wife was capable and hence was rising up the system.

  For Sundeep, this was nothing but pure, unalloyed pleasure. He was in it solely for the kick of it. The fun of feeling big and powerful. He felt no emotional connect with Karuna, just the massive ego kick of bedding a lovely, married woman. Making love to her made him feel like God—the God of Banking.

  63

  The first few days that Swami spent at BOCA were uneventful. He was trying to learn the tricks of the trade. He had never worked in a BPO earlier.

  The environment at BOCA was a lot different from the bank. The average employee age here was less than twenty-five years, while at NYB it was closer to thirty-five. The way the employees were treated and their aspirations were totally different. Swami had to struggle hard in order to associate himself with the employees of BOCA.

  The business model of BOCA was completely different from the way businesses at NYB were run. Despite being a financial wizard, Swami couldn't figure out the ways and means of making a significant profit at BOCA, large enough to justify his posting there.

  'An MNC manager is only as good as the money he makes,' Aditya had once told him. He had also said, 'if ever you get stuck in a business that does not make large profits, either change your job or work hard at making money in the same business. More often than not, the latter is the easier option.'

  Swami was getting stuck in the BPO. He somehow pulled through the first three months, trying to understand operations, financials and process flows, but soon started getting frustrated.

  God came to his rescue. In the form of Aditya.

  After quitting the bank, Aditya himself had started a BPO. His experience came in handy.

  'Don't just depend on Sundeep for your business. Make it an independent profit centre,' Aditya advised Swami.

  Swami sat down with all the business managers in the bank and individually worked out all the processes that could be migrated to BOCA. He also went and spoke to such outfits of competing banks. He went and personally visited the Citibank Operations and Processing Enterprise in Chennai to figure out how they managed their processes and made money. He made every effort to understand the financial dynamics. He finally realised that he will not make enough money by migrating bank processes alone. The core intention of banks in migrating these processes was saving of cost and they would never pay him enough to make a decent profit. If he had to make money, he had to bring in business from overseas and transition processes to BOCA from various other countries where New York International Bank operated.

  For that he needed resources. He needed people who would go and sell the outsourcing concept to various other countries. He needed a guy who would be 'his guy.' Someone he could trust. He went back to Sundeep and asked him to move Vivek to BOCA. Sundeep was only too happy to oblige and so was Vivek.

  Vivek became Swami's hit man for selling the India BPO proposition to other New York International Bank countries. Vivek and Swami went together to make presentations to the CEOs of various countries. They put their heart and soul into it. They would travel for over twenty days a month. Kalpana lost track of Swami and which part of the world he was in.

  In the next three months they were able to convince people from across the globe to transition to India two back office operations and one outbound calling activity from UK, four processes from the US and three more from Argentina. They were in business. They delivered these transitions within ninety days of getting the orders. Revenues started flowing in.

  In no time the gross monthly revenues of the BPO started crossing ten million dollars. The business was operating at a margin of thirty percent. BOCA became a star, the biggest and the best performing business for New York International Bank in India. Swami was again a hero.

  The phenomenal run of BOCA left Sundeep wondering what went wrong in his assessment. He had sent Swami there to make life miserable for him, but Swami had actually turned it into a golden opportunity.

  When he saw BOCA taking centre stage in the India business, he wanted his share of the pie. He started interfering in the day to day running of BOCA. Swami was not one to get into a direct conflict and tolerated this interference for some time, till he received t
his e-mail from Sundeep's secretary.

  Swami,

  Sundeep has scheduled a full review of BOCA, this Saturday from 9.00 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. He has asked me to request you to be present with the BOCA management team at the conference room #2 on the third floor of NYB HQ.

  Regards,

  Reena

  Two things about this mail pissed off Swami. First, it came from Sundeep's secretary. If Sundeep felt that it was important, he should have called himself. Secondly, the least Sundeep could have done was to check with him if he was free on that day for a review. He decided to take Sundeep head on. He decided to send this e-mail to Sundeep.

  Sundeep,

  The senior management team of BOCA would be glad to discuss their progress and success with you on Saturday. Any inputs for running this business or improving its current traction will be really appreciated. However, I would like to make one thing amply clear: BOCA is an independent business and, in this company, I am the boss. The final word rests with me. If you keep that in mind when you meet my team, that will help. Look forward to seeing you on Saturday.

  Regards,

  Swami

  64

  BOCA became one of the largest BPOs in the country and Swami one of the most sought after individuals in this space. His turnaround experience was worth its weight in gold. Swami was inundated with offers from other BPOs, and at times he contemplated starting his own, but he was wedded to the bank. He would not and could not leave it under any circumstance, irrespective of whether it was Suneel Dutt or Sundeep who tried to push him out.

  Sundeep didn't like it one bit. But he was the one who had moved Swami to BOCA. And Swami had made a mockery of him. The business grew to such an extent that the NYB board under Kailash Advani decided to divorce it from Sundeep and spun it off into an independent business unit. Swami now reported directly to Kailash. Sundeep went crying to Naresh, but in this case even Naresh couldn't do a thing.