by Vish Dhamija
'Congratulations to both of you,' Serena said, as she handed flowers to Stella.
'Thanks. How have you been, Serena?' Stella greeted Serena, meeting her for the first time since the tragedy.
'I'm fine, thanks. How are you?' Serena asked politely.
'Did you two decide on a dress code?' GK pointed out, seeing them both in pink saris. Everyone around him laughed. A boss's joke is always funny, irrespective of how perceptive or predictable it is. GK took both women's arms and walked towards the bar, like a celebrity. 'What will my darling wife have tonight?'
'Whatever Serena has.' Stella was quick.
GK looked at Serena for a response.
'Vodka with cola, please,' Serena said.
'Three large vodkas, one with orange juice and two with colas please,' GK told the bartender.
The guests were getting in the party mood by nine. Someone had brought a CD with every possible remix of Toni Braxton's Un-break My Heart after its recent success in the charts and a few versions prompted the crowd to get in the groove. People generally let their hair down after a few drinks making it interesting to watch, particularly the interaction between the singles which was ordinarily veiled in the formal office environment. With experience over the years, Serena and GK could easily predict who-will-date-who for the next six months by the dance partner one picked, the closeness of the dance and the amount of time they stuck around as the alcohol level rose. Maria was an exception; everyone wanted a dance with her — she was pretty, single and scantily dressed that night, plus no one wanted the boss's secretary to stand alone in the corner.
Serena was also an exception. GK was dancing with Stella when he saw her standing alone in the corner with a drink. It was quite bizarre that no one had picked her up for a dance yet. In almost all the previous parties that GK had attended, Raaj could hardly ever get a chance to dance with his wife as everyone else would keep taking her away from him. GK whispered something in Stella's ear and they both walked to her as the song faded.
'Is everything okay?' Stella asked.
'Yeah, fine.'
'Why aren't you dancing?' GK joined the conversation.
'It's the sari; I wish I had worn something else,' Serena lied. She was clearly missing Raaj.
'Let's sit for a while,' said GK as he sat down.
Stella excused herself to get refills for all of them.
'Thanks to you and the good work we've done in retail banking here in India, we've got a brilliant project coming up in Dubai… would you be interested?' GK asked without warning.
'What is it about?' Serena asked.
'If you are interested…'
'Stop talking shop, GK,' Stella cut him off politely as she returned.
'Let's talk on Monday,' GK told Serena, then quickly turned to Stella and said, 'Sorry darling. No more shop.'
The party was still continuing when Serena left at midnight.
***
May 1997
'Hi, Kim,' Serena called.
'Hi. Where have you been? I haven't seen you for ages,' Kim said with her usual enthusiasm.
'Let's meet this weekend. Have I got news for you, baby?' Serena sounded excited for the first time in a long while.
'What is it?' Kim couldn't wait.
'I'll tell you tomorrow evening. Why don't you bring a changeover? Let's catch up tomorrow.'
***
Kim arrived at Serena's apartment around eight. After the customary hug, they sat down with a drink and Serena told Kim about the project she had decided to take up in Dubai.
'You are leaving Mumbai?' Kim was shocked.
'Not leaving silly, it's only a short project. A maximum of six months and then I will be back.'
'When did this happen?' Kim was curious.
'GK discussed it with me in March. Initially, I had concerns, but we worked on understanding the project better before I agreed. After GK put my name up for consideration, it took a while for them to come back to let him know that I've been selected. It is a six-month secondment to the regional office in Dubai. I thought you should be the first to know.'
'I'll miss you, Serena.' Kim got sentimental.
'I will miss you too, girl, but you've been the one telling me to move on with my life for the last nine months. It would be a change of environment for me.'
'I will visit you for sure. Dubai is a great place for shopping,' Kim said with glee in her eyes.
'That reminds me, I need to shop before I go.'
'When are you going?' Kim questioned.
'In four weeks. They are processing the papers now.'
'Let's go shopping next weekend,' Kim declared, sipping her drink.
***
It took an awfully long time for Serena's offer letter to arrive, as they had decided to slash budgets in the bank and new launches were the worst affected. Weeks turned to months before she applied for the visa.
11
Dubai
January 1998
Dubai is a beautiful city. The new airport was still under construction but Serena could see that it would give serious competition to Changi and even to Hong Kong International Airport, in time. If she could change one thing about the place, it would be the weather; it was either hot or very hot. But someone in Serena's professional capacity hardly spent time in a non air-conditioned environment. From the residences, to the cars, to the office, to the shopping malls, everything was climate controlled.
Serena was to stay in a service apartment as getting an apartment to rent had its own complications. For one, it was difficult to find a short-term lease without paying an unnecessary premium and, secondly, finding an apartment for a single woman in Dubai was not straightforward. She was quick to understand that Dubai was a living paradox caught between conservatism and Western modernism. It wanted to portray itself as a society with high morals, but one could see all kinds of promiscuous and illicit trade happening on the streets. The semi-clad, heavily made up women who lined all neighbourhoods soon after sunset were definitely not there to provide tourists with information. As a result, most decent professional single women, like Serena, found it impossible to find accommodation. The bank was aware of this and it was recommended that she did not even look for it to avoid an awkward situation.
Serena was fine as the bank was picking up the tab. As it was a short-term assignment it was much easier to live in a service residence, where everything would be taken care of. The apartment she finally moved into could best be described as an IKEA showroom; the sofas, the bed, the lamps and even the prints on the walls were sourced from there.
Serena's bank had been in Dubai since the early 1970s when the country formed the United Arab Emirates with six others and opted for a unified local currency: Dirham. Prior to that, like some of the other banks, even her bank had managed the region from India, because the Reserve Bank of India was the one issuing currency in Gulf-Rupees. Cab drivers and many traders, still, referred to the local money as rupees.
Until now, the sole focus of Serena's bank had been on corporate business. It now wanted to make a foray into the retail side, which was becoming immensely lucrative for competitors. Serena had proved herself in re-launching the image of retail banking in India and was therefore a logical choice. She knew retail banking and could speak the language, as a majority of the task force in Dubai spoke both Hindi and English. The reward would be grand if she could repeat her Indian success in Dubai. It wouldn't be easy but, at least, she knew where to start.
On her first day on the job, Serena met her new manager. He outlined the objective, timeline, team and budget and wished her luck. He clarified that he would not be able to provide Serena with day-to-day advice, but would like to have a fortnightly status meeting, and if something required escalating up she could contact him. Serena had known from the very beginning that this would be different from her regular job at Mumbai. This was an autonomous project: to deliver a new product in the market with all the responsibilities that go with it. She would ha
ve to work with various other departments within the bank, and outside it, to deliver results. What she needed was to be self-motivated; at all times she must lead from the front.
She had a meeting with her direct reports later in the day to oversee the status of the project so far. The five people on the team were as multicultural and colourful as one required for a Benetton commercial. Syed a senior Pakistani gentleman looked after all the marketing and communications. Ravi, an Indian, was responsible for retail — property, look and style. Recruitment was assigned to Elena from Spain. A Dutchman called Tony headed operations, and the responsibility of technology was given to Adam, an impossibly good-looking Afro-American.
This needs reorganisation, Serena thought.
She regrouped the team and made a retail report into marketing to establish a single brand identity, be it communications or customer touch points at retail. The other change was to combine operations and technology into one team under Tony. Recruitment, being a staff function, was made to report to both the groups and her. She was clear that in order for this project to succeed, it needed the right people in the right jobs. There was no ambiguity that she would be directly involved in the communications and selection of retail locations, which were the first impressions to the consumer. Ravi was not averse to the changes. In fact, he welcomed reporting to Syed who came with a vast knowledge and experience. He was young and ambitious and he understood that if they were successful in the retail-banking launch in Dubai, being part of the core team would be a boon to his career. Adam, on the other hand, was not a happy man. He did not appreciate working under Tony, but he recognised he was helpless at this point in time. The launch of retail banking was the sole focus of the team and Serena was the guardian, so he did not voice his discontent.
The team was convinced that they could deliver a class leading retail bank. Everyone was motivated to deliver. The advertising agency was appointed and briefed. The recruitments were taking place and training plans identified. The properties were being short-listed for final selection. Everything was progressing fine, and on time.
Two things about Dubai annoyed Serena. One was the weekends. They had Sunday as a working day and Fridays and Saturdays off. It took her some time to get used to the routine, but given the short time she had, she was working most of the weekends anyway. The other frustration was the lack of wine stores in the country. Dubai had a strange system where one registers oneself for a liquor permit to go to one of the state owned warehouse stores with a limit to how much one could buy in a month — a ration shop. To add insult to injury, she found out that the law forbade women to hold liquor permits. She had carried two bottles of vodka from the duty free at the airport when she came in, but they were all but empty now. Only restaurants in hotels had a permit to serve alcohol and since she did not have much company, she rarely went out to them.
Months went by. She had a review with her manager and he was glad at the pace the team had progressed. The whole team had worked relentlessly with a single aim, without giving themselves any personal space. Others in the team might have been active in their personal and social lives, but Serena had her head buried in work alone.
***
It was late Thursday evening when Adam walked into Serena's office to invite her for a night out. 'Some of us are planning to go clubbing to The Lodge tomorrow night. Do you want to join us?' He asked casually.
'Of course,' Serena responded immediately as if she had been waiting for it. It had been quite a while since she'd had a drink or danced a bit. 'What time?'
'We'll meet after dinner so let's say around half-past-nine?'
'Fine… How many of us are going?'
'I've invited about fifteen people. More than half of them should turn up.'
'Okay. See you there.' Serena closed the conversation and got back to work.
On the way back from work, Serena realised that she had nothing to wear to a dance club, but she could go shopping for it. It dawned on her that she hadn't gone out shopping without Kim for a long time.
'How are you, Kim?' She called Kim that evening.
'I am fine. How are you… haven't heard from you for quite some time now.'
'I know… just been busy. I have to go shopping tomorrow without you after so long.' Serena sounded low.
'Cheer up, girl. Any good guys around?' Kim tried to cheer up Serena.
'There's an American in my team. He's very good looking — he's of mixed race certainly, though I haven't asked. He's organised a clubbing night for us and we're meeting after dinner.'
'Just you and him?' Kim sounded excited. At last Serena was trying to live.
'No. A lot of us from the team are going.'
'Damn. Tell me more about him.' Kim was anxious.
'He is much younger.'
'That shouldn't matter.'
'That wasn't what I had called for. I wanted to know what I should wear.'
'Nothing.' Kim laughed.
'Shut up. Tell me.'
'Is he tall?'
'What should I wear?' Serena ignored Kim's question.
'That was a genuine question, Serena. If he is tall, you'd want to wear a short dress to make you look taller,' Kim advised.
'What do you want me to look like?'
'A sexy, single woman.'
'What if he…'
'Go with it, Serena. You have to move on in life after Raaj; he's gone and you haven't taken an oath of celibacy, have you?' Kim pre-empted Serena's hesitation and responded to assure her friend. There was a minute's silence before Kim continued. 'Do not let any unnecessary inhibitions or redundant morals hold you back girl.'
'Thanks for the reassurance Kim. And how are you doing? Have you found someone yet?' It was Serena's turn to question.
'No. But I am looking.'
'Keep in touch,' Serena said. 'My mobile phone is ringing. I'll talk to you later.' She disconnected the phone to take the other call.
Serena went shopping on Friday morning. Every time she liked or tried something, Kim's words echoed in her ears; you'd want to wear a short dress. She finally zeroed in on a short black dress, which ended about half a foot above her knees. It was a classic design with a halter neck and cut-away shoulders that had a stand-up collar with a zipper running all along the back to fasten it. As it was made of viscose and lycra, she was conscious that it would cling to her body and she was at ease with that. The next thing to buy was footwear. Calf leather knee-high boots would have looked great with this short dress, but Dubai weather does not grant someone that joy and she discarded all other shoes. As advised, she wanted to add a bit of height so she went for a sleek and stunning, strappy open-toe sandal detailed in black, with glittering crystals to shine on the club floor, and a metal-tipped heel.
'You've got very beautiful feet, sweetheart,' Raaj had always pointed out.
'Are you saying that's the only beautiful thing about me?'
'You're gorgeous, my precious.'
Serena wiped away her tears.
She spent the rest of the day at a hair and beauty salon, as she felt that she deserved a treat after such a long time. The little black dress snugly hugged her petite perfect body, flaunted her toned arms and showed her lovely legs that made her look exceptionally sensational. She wore a posh, but subtle make-up in a style she had learnt from Kim years ago, and enhanced it with light pink nail polish.
She hadn't partied for a long time now. It was about time.
12
The cab dropped Serena outside The Lodge, a little after nine-thirty. A few people from the office had already arrived and were waiting for others. As she got out of the cab and walked towards them, Adam stepped forward to give her a ceremonial kiss.
'You look hot, Serena,' he whispered.
'Thank you.'
A few others complimented her too. Most were equally well groomed. All the guys wore jeans and smart shirts, but the girls were definitely dressed up.
The Lodge had first opened in the eighties and had be
en updated a few times since then. It had very a large indoor space with a few bars with music playing. Outside there were several bars, fast food points and an enormous dance floor where the DJ mixed some great tunes. They opened a tab on the bar and ordered the first round of drinks. Serena pulled a packet of Bensons from her bag and lit up.
'Could I have one?' asked Adam and Ravi and Elena and…
'How come we don't see this glamorous side of you in the office?' Adam asked all the girls, looking directly at Serena.
'Because… it is the office so we dress formally, like you guys don't wear jeans there,' someone from the crowd responded.
'All of you look dashing.' He still hadn't removed his stare from Serena.
'Thanks,' everyone said in unison.
'Could I have a dance with you, please?' Adam extended his hand to Serena.
'What's the rush? Let's get a few more drinks before we hit the floor,' Ravi intercepted, looking for approval from everyone.
'Okay.' Adam didn't sound convinced.
As Adam walked away to get the next round of drinks, Elena warned Serena, 'Watch out, he's got the hots for you tonight.'
'I have been watching him; he doesn't seem to stop staring at me. It's kind of eerie,' Serena agreed.
'I don't blame him. I am sure a lot of men here would want to dance with you and take you home tonight. You look dazzling,' Elena complimented.
