The board room was full of people when Amit walked in. There would have been sixty of them at last count. Each and every chair was taken. People were even standing all around, speaking in hushed voices. ‘What’s going on?’ he thought to himself. He had absolutely no clue. Sometimes being in a subsidiary group company had its own negatives. One had to make an extra effort to keep in touch with the core organisation. He had over the last year or so, lost contact with NYB . . . ever since he moved to NFS. The buzz around suggested that there was something amiss and he had no clue about what it was.
He joined the crowd. Some smiles were exchanged. A few of them were his old friends. He had worked with them in his past roles at NYB. A couple of them met warmly and they exchanged notes. He tried to fish for information, but nothing was forthcoming. This was probably because no one knew. The room was sounding and even looking like a fish market. At that moment the door opened and in walked Aditya. A hush descended on the room. Aditya walked to the head of the table and took the seat reserved for him. Everyone was looking at him with eager eyes, as if he was going to announce a fifty percent increase in their salaries.
‘Is everyone in?’ asked Aditya as he looked around. No one responded.
‘Shall we begin?’ still no response. ‘Okay, then I assume we shall.’
‘Sorry folks for calling all of you in, at such a short notice.’ And he looked around. No response.
‘As all of you are aware, Hari and I had been to New York for a global conference and we returned only last night.’ And then he looked around. ‘Hari? Where are you Hari?’
Unseen by anyone, Hari had sneaked into the room and was standing at the back. Amit turned back and saw him. He was surprised to see the person standing next to him too. It was Gowri, dressed in a pinstriped suit. In the last eighteen months, he had never seen him wear a tie, leave alone a formal jacket. He was standing next to Hari. He remembered Gowri’s statement to him the day he joined NYB – ‘No one wears a tie here . . . only in your bank do people wear such things.’
‘Why don’t you come up Hari, so that everyone can see you?’ called out Aditya, and Hari walked to the top of the table and took the seat next to Aditya.
‘It was announced at the global conference and something which I would like to share with you all, that the organisation structure will undergo a change.’
‘Aah . . . so that’s the reason,’ thought Amit, vividly recollecting his conversation with Aditya wherein he had mentioned to him that the organisation structure would change in about ninety days. Never mind the fact that the discussion was over 180 days ago.
‘Till recently you had a product-wise reporting the globe over, i.e. till now NFS which is an NYB-owned consumer finance company reported to the regional consumer finance head in Singapore. Similarly, our insurance company reported to the regional insurance business head in Singapore. This structure prevented us from exploiting synergies between the bank’s retail banking business and these subsidiary companies.
‘It has now been decided that globally, we will move to a geographical structure. In other words, the country management for the bank will be responsible for all businesses in the country irrespective of whether they are run through the bank or through subsidiary companies. The retail business of NYB, and the MD of NFS and the head of our insurance subsidiary will report to me, the CEO of NYB. We made a half-hearted attempt at this change a year back, but we didn’t execute it the way we should have. Now it has been mandated at the highest level. And will be effective immediately.’
‘Great,’ thought Amit. ‘Now Aditya will have greater control on the way NFS was run.’
‘There are a few other structural changes which will take effect as a result of this decision.
‘My close friend Hari [sic . . . thought Amit . . . when did he become close?], after five years of stellar contribution as the head of NFS, will move on as head of retail banking for Taiwan. The formal announcement will be released soon. Probably by this evening.’
‘What the hell?’ muttered Amit under his breath. ‘What happens to all of us now?’ he turned and looked at Gowri, who was cool as a cucumber, and smiling. Amit looked back at Hari and then turned and glanced at Gowri again. The smile was still there. This time he winked at Amit making him conscious.
‘Hari’s move gives us the opportunity to showcase one of our brightest talents . . . actually the brightest talent the group has seen in the recent past. Friends, I present to you the new managing director of New York International Financial Services Limited, Gowri Shankar!’ Amit’s jaw dropped. He was shocked. Till now, it was only Chanda who reported to him, and now he too would have to report to him. The entire room went up in applause. ‘Gowri, will you please come up to the head of the table,’ Hari called out to him.
Gowri walked up to the head of the table with a swagger not seen since the time of Vivian Richards. On the way, as he crossed Amit, who was standing on the side, he bent, face near Amit’s ear . . . ‘Gotcha!’ he said slyly and walked away from him. The entire room was a noisy party after that but the only thing that echoed in Amit’s head was ‘Gotcha!’ This was ridiculous. How could Aditya do this? He should at least have given him a hint of what was coming his way. A regional sales manager job in another bank now seemed better than reporting to Gowri. As if the complications he had in his life were not enough, God had sent him another issue to deal with.
‘Friends, Gowri has been with the group for a long time and has almost single-handedly led the NFS franchise from where it was a few years back to the great institution that it is today. Please join me in congratulating Gowri.’ And the room broke out into a thunderous applause again. ‘We will be going from here to NFS to make this announcement,’ said Aditya as he disappeared from the room, followed by a serious Hari and a grinning Gowri.
Was he expected to follow them to NFS? Probably he would be better off here. He picked up his phone and dialled Chanda’s number. No response. Probably she was in a training programme. There was no one else he could call and speak with. He was wondering what to do. Life had played a cruel prank on him. Even as he was lost in this thought, his phone rang. The screen was blinking. Chanda’s name flashed on it.
‘Hi.’
‘How was the meeting?’
‘You will get to know soon.’ What else could he say?
‘What do you mean?’
‘Hari is moving to Taiwan as retail bank head and . . .’
‘And what?’
‘Gowri is taking over his job.’
‘What? Get serious. I am in no mood for a joke.’
‘I am not kidding Chanda. They are on their way there to make the announcement. And that bastard is with them.’
‘I don’t believe this. What is all this crap?’
‘I feel like putting in my papers right now.’
‘Don’t be stupid and impulsive. We need your salary to survive.’
‘What else? I can’t report to him. It’s just not possible. You know the guy is weird. And after all that happened between us . . . never! You know what he tells me while going up to the table? “Gotcha”! Bloody . . . gotcha, my foot.’
‘Don’t worry Amit. Something will work out. I am sure. God does good things for good people.’
‘Yeah. I hope so. I will see you soon.’ And he hung up. Chanda was worried. What would happen now? They had all their eggs in one basket. Now they were at the mercy of one guy. And a spiteful one at that.
Aditya and Hari, followed by Gowri, arrived at the NFS office to a tumultuous reception. Word had got around that Gowri was the new MD of NFS and there were a host of people waiting at the reception to welcome the MD designate. It was like an Indian marriage reception. Chanda did not come out. She watched the entire display of psycho fancy from the first floor.
A similar drill happened at NFS – Aditya announced the change at NFS. The new boss was to report to Aditya which was made very clear to everyone. Before he finished his speech, he invited Gowri to come in
and say a few words.
‘It is a momentous day for me. I have been chosen to head this company,’ began Gowri in a clumsy fashion. ‘It’s a dream come true for me. It is a victory of sorts for all you NFS guys that one amongst you has become the MD and not someone from the bank.’
‘Bastard,’ murmured Aditya.
‘I will ensure . . .’ Gowri went on and on with his election speech.
‘Beep-beep.’ The message tone on his phone diverted Aditya’s attention. He lifted his phone to look at the message. He pressed the read button.
‘Aditya, I was shocked when you made the announcement today. I feel I have been compromised. I don’t think I can continue to work in this environment. I need to meet you sometime tomorrow. I would like to put in my papers when I see you tomorrow . . . Amit.’
Amit’s mind was in a state of a suspended centrifuge. The churn could just not be contained. He had debated this thought in his mind and had decided to face the consequences. ‘At times in life, you have to stand up for your convictions, though the path may not be the easiest,’ his father had once told him.
Aditya saw the message. A smile came on his face. He looked at Gowri who was still basking in his new found glory. The audience was swallowing every word of what he was saying and following it up with one thunderous applause after the other. With the smile still intact on his face, he brought the phone closer and began typing a response. After a few amendments to the message, the final draft was ready. He pressed the ‘send’ button and got back to Gowri’s histrionics.
Amit was on his way back home when the phone beeped. A message had just come in. He picked up the phone to read the message. It was from Aditya. Was expected of Aditya to have responded. He pressed the open button and the message appeared on his screen.
It read: ‘Shut up and get to work. Trust is important son. I hired you. Will never let you down. If you think any differently, you would have been better off in GE.’
He read the message again. And then again, and again. There was something about the message that he couldn’t comprehend. What was Aditya saying? The only thing he could read there was that he had not been compromised. Aditya had a plan for him. He parked the car to the side of the road. He had reached Mahim, three-fourths of the way to his home. The entire incident replayed in his mind again and again. The point where Gowri walked past him and whispered ‘gotcha’ in his ears was the worst moment of the morning. It had made him lose his mental balance and that provoked him to send the message to Aditya. And now this message from Aditya. He was confused. Maybe he should just trust Aditya and bide his time. He turned his car and drove towards the NFS main office. ‘I will take it as it comes,’ he said to himself.
By the time he walked into the office, the commotion had settled down. He strode confidently into the office and went straight to Chanda’s mezzanine floor workstation. When she saw him, she came up to him and said, ‘I got this weird message from Aditya.’
‘Ya. He had sent it to me. Maybe he marked it to you too for your information. It was a response to a mail I had sent to him.’ Aditya knowing very well, the turmoil in their minds, had sent the message to both of them.
‘What are you going to do?’
‘Nothing. I am going to meet my new boss.’
‘What? Have you lost it?’ by the time she could finish her sentence, he was gone.
On the corporate floor, he walked up to Suzanna, ‘Where is Gowri?’
‘Inside, with Hari,’ and she pointed towards the passage leading to Hari’s cabin. Amit walked straight into Hari’s cabin. The three of them – Aditya, Hari and Gowri – were in Hari’s cabin, discussing something, when Amit walked in. When they saw him, all of them abruptly ended their discussion and looked in his direction.
‘Hi Aditya.’
He looked at Hari, ‘Hari.’
‘And you Gowri, congrats man! Good show, great job. I am sure you will be a worthy successor to Hari. We all are with you man!’
Aditya got up and shook his hand. The smile hadn’t disappeared from his face. ‘I am sure you will make a great team.’
‘Sure Aditya. Competition better watch out for this crack team,’ he said jokingly.
After a brief and extremely courteous conversation, Amit walked out of the room. Gowri was left wondering the reason behind this sudden shift in Amit’s approach. ‘Maybe he’s now realised that he cannot fuck around with me.’ A brief moment of silence later, he muttered to himself, ‘For all that he has done so far . . . it’s payback time!’
It had been extremely difficult for Amit to put up a friendly façade in front of the entire team. It hurt his self-esteem, his pride, and his strong sense of self-belief. Reporting to Gowri was not something which he would have ideally liked to do. However, in light of Aditya’s message, there was some sense of relief in a corner of his mind. Aditya would normally not have sent out such a message.
Chanda, a bit perplexed at his reaction to the news of Gowri’s elevation, came up to the corporate floor to see if everything was okay. From a distance, she saw Amit smiling and talking to a few of their colleagues. She felt relieved. The stress signs on his face had disappeared. The look on his face was a relaxed one. She couldn’t possibly guess what had brought about this change. He saw her looking at him and smiled at her. She smiled back. Something felt really good and Chanda realised that this feeling had been missing since a very long time. The romance which had kind of disappeared seemed to be lingering somewhere in the corner of their eyes. She walked back to her desk, a load off her chest. Amit had reacted in a manner which she could never have expected him to.
The discussion between Aditya, Hari and Gowri, ended with a cake cutting ceremony. The team outside, spearheaded by Sangeeta, had ordered a cake for Gowri. It had, ‘Gowri, You are a born leader’ iced over it. Gowri’s chest swelled up a couple of inches when he saw that. He was proud of his achievement and modesty was something he had never heard of.
Even as the cake was being cut, Aditya nudged his way through the excited staff members and stood right behind Amit. Amit didn’t know of it till he actually felt someone’s breath on his ears. Startled for a moment, he looked back. ‘It’s me idiot. I am always behind you. Remember that. See me for dinner at 9.30. Out of the Blues, Carter Road, Bandra. If you feel like it, get Chanda along. Else it is fine.’
And then he looked the other way and began to clap again joining the chorus. He left soon after.
‘Gowri is calling you.’ Suzanna came to Amit soon after Aditya left.
‘I will be there in a while,’ said Amit while intently gazing at the computer screen.
‘He wants to see you now. Says it is urgent,’ Suzanna almost immediately came back to bug him.
‘Okay. Coming.’ Saying this and giving a sigh alongside, Amit got up and walked back with her.
‘Come Amit. Take a seat.’ Wow! Already behaving like a CEO. ‘Maybe he wants to make conciliatory overtures,’ thought Amit to himself.
‘Thanks!’
‘So what do you think?’
‘About what Gowri?’
‘Do you think you will be able to work with me?’ Gowri was fairly direct. He was staring directly into Amit’s eyes. His tone and expressions seemed like throwing a challenge rather than asking a question.
‘Why not?’
‘I thought you didn’t want to . . .’
‘Says who?’
‘So, you are fine with it?’
‘Yes, of course. I am a professional guy and if my organisation demands that I work with you, I will.’
‘Look Amit, there have been problems in the past. And this has been the issue with you guys from the bank. You think everybody except you bankers are idiots. If you want to work with me, you will have to visibly change that approach. I am a guy who does not like insubordination. If I ask for something, I am not particularly democratic in my approach, and you know that.’
‘Ya Gowri,’ he said, while in his mind he felt ‘once a dog, always a d
og’.
‘When I had conflicts with you Gowri, you were a peer. Now you are the boss. So things will happen, the way you want them to.’ It was very difficult for Amit to say these things with a straight face. He, however, did manage that.
‘They better be that way my friend. I will ask Suzanna to fix weekly update meetings with you and Sangeeta. I want her here too, because she will formally take over as network head after me.’
‘Sangeeta as network head?’
‘Yes, she is the only one who has the credentials. There is no one more qualified than her.’
‘Sure. She is a brilliant lady.’ Amit was beginning to feel nauseated.
‘Thanks. That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.’
Amit got up and walked out of the room. ‘And by the way,’ Gowri called him back, ‘Chanda would now report to Sangeeta. I will tell her. Thought I would let you know too.’ Amit cringed when he heard this. Chanda’s dislike of Sangeeta was legendary and so was the reverse equation. He just nodded and left.
Back in the safe confines of his room, he was pissing mad. He did not like the way Gowri had spoken to him. Almost bordering on condescending. ‘What does he think of himself?’ Had it not been for Aditya he would have put in his papers. He dialled Chanda. ‘I am going home. Will you come now or later?’
Chanda looked at the watch. It was only 4.30 p.m. ‘It’s fine. You go ahead. I will come by auto rickshaw.’
‘Just thought I would let you know that your current boss and my next boss told me that you would be reporting to Sangeeta, the new branch network head.’
‘Oh wow! The beginning of my end, is it?’ and she let out a chuckle. ‘I will wait for it to be announced.’
Amit went back home early. He was very dismayed by the way things had shaped up during the day. In the morning, when he had left for the de-briefing session which Aditya had called for, he did not expect this change to happen. Now it had left him high and dry. His only hope was Aditya. Why did he call him for dinner? He decided to wait and watch. Internally, he had set himself a deadline of forty-five days. He would endure Gowri and his sadomasochistic attitude for the next six weeks. If nothing happens during that phase, he would quit. That was his game plan as he went into the meeting with Aditya.
Devil in Pinstripes Page 16