by Juggi Bhasin
‘Okay, I get it. You have an IPO coming up. You have to drive up valuation. Smart, very smart. But friend, this is going to cost you lots and lots of money. I got a hundred kids in here. Each is personally connected with ten to fifteen thousand social media addicts. You do the math. You want your agenda spread far and wide, you pay me ten bucks a hit. Your bill will run into a few crores . . .’
‘Two bucks a hit,’ replied Suhel with a poker face.
Om laughed as if it was the best joke he had heard that day.
‘This is a specialized job. We have to create content. Eight bucks.’
‘Five bucks.’
They battled it out till they finally reached a figure both agreed on. Suhel got up and pushed the money belt towards Om.
‘We have a deal,’ he said. ‘This is an advance. I will be making weekly payments.’
‘Just a second,’ said Om. He spoke into the intercom. Manu Gujjar came in.
‘Frisk him,’ ordered Om.
‘What the hell?’ protested Suhel. Manu Gujjar pushed Suhel against the wall and roughly frisked him.
‘He’s clean,’ he announced.
‘Did you expect a spy camera under my vest?’ asked Suhel angrily.
‘Actually, I half expected it,’ Om said calmly. ‘We can’t afford to be careless in this business. Your fraternity keeps doing these exposés all the time. Let me make myself clear. If at any stage you decide to blackmail us, remember we don’t exist. My boys and I can fold up and be out of here faster than you imagine. And one last thing. I don’t forgive blackmailers. There are many others like Manu Gujjar I have on my pay. Now get out of here. Your work will be done. And never again call me Om Puri. I have a lot of respect for the actor.’
Outside the three-storeyed building, a young man on an Enfield motorcycle saw Suhel come down the stairs and walk to his SUV. He rapidly clicked some pictures on his camera phone and sent them to his boss, Simone. She opened the pictures freshly delivered to her WhatsApp inbox. She knew she was in the game.
CHAPTER 7
Simone lit a cigarette and looked around at Gurugram from the office terrace. She liked to do that when her system was shot with adrenalin. It gave her a perspective that nothing was streamlined in life. She wished all pictures in life to be in a single tone. But the grand and the ugly always ran side by side. All the best-known artists, musicians, painters, writers, actors were obsessed with shades. What happened to the single-coloured shade card? What happened to what some jerk had once called ‘the simple and good life’?
She stubbed her cigarette, climbed up to the terrace railing and spread her arms wide. The wind howled and bit her ear, and her eyes smarted. Across the highway, she saw Cyber City, made up of a clutch of good-looking, sleek glass buildings: the Mr Yin of new India. She waved at the glass facade of a building in the distance and hoped she had given a heart attack to someone looking at her. Her eyes travelled from the metro bridge to the feet of this corporate bubble.
Mr Yang ruled here. The road was dug up, water and electrical pipes with ends gouged out were tossed and thrown about any which way. An army of Zuber taxis spilled on to the highway. The grand and the ugly. Suhel and Simone. She looked down, and once again, she saw the face of fear itself. She could clearly see the face and its features. It had to be a trick. She would have to jump to it, and only then could she explore it. She closed her eyes, and the wind howled around her. It would be so easy to jump and leave everything behind. But not today. She had a fight on her hands, and she was not going to back off.
She came down from the terrace and walked determinedly past the sliding doors to her office. She fired up her desktop and typed out a simple message.
Friends,
It has come to our notice that some rogue elements in our company are planning to launch an illegal defamation campaign against Mr Navin Sikand. The senior management at Yummimages has not officially or unofficially sanctioned any such campaign. This is purely the initiative of troublemaking elements within us who seek to profit from defaming the company. We wish to assure the public at large that we have opened an investigation against these elements and will soon expose them and take strict action against them. This is for your information.
Regards,
Simone de’ Costa (Chief Content Officer, Yummimages)
She marked the mail to Rahul, Suhel, the senior management at Yummimages and important journalists in both the print and audio–visual media. She thought for a moment and then pressed the ‘send’ button. She sat back in her chair waiting for all hell to break loose.
Sure enough, within the next hour, Rahul’s secretary Prema called her up and asked her to show up for a meeting of the senior management in the main conference room. The wheels had started moving, and she readied herself for a battle. She powdered her face in the washroom, touched up her lipstick and forced a smile in the neutral mirror. The face of fear did not make an appearance. Maybe it felt intimidated by Simone’s resolve.
Once in the conference room, she quickly looked around to see how they were all seated. Rahul was hiding behind an Apple laptop. The content, sales and finance whiz kids all sat looking frigid. The in-house lawyer had also made an appearance. Suhel sat on Rahul’s right. He looked coldly insolent. Simone smiled brightly and took a vacant chair at the end of the conference table.
‘Why so serious, everyone? People, have we been deregistered at the stock exchange?’
Rahul closed the laptop and grinned in his trademark, boyish way.
‘Simone, Simone, why did you do it? Why wash our dirty linen in public? The shit’s hit the roof!’
‘Whose dirty linen, Rahul?’ she shrugged her shoulders innocently. ‘What are you talking about?’
Rahul was at a loss for words. The lawyer filled in the gap.
‘Simone, internal differences need to be settled internally. Your mail has created a firestorm. We have been served notice by no less than twenty entities, including Navin Sikand’s office. We dropped seven points on the stock exchange in less than an hour. And we fear this is just the beginning of our problems.’
Rahul stepped in.
‘That’s not why I called for this meeting. What’s happened has happened. We will deal with all this. I don’t care about the loss of face and market share. We can make it up in due course of time. But I do want this internal bleeding to stop immediately. We must work as a team. Big things are around the corner. We are, after all, a family . . .’
Simone, out of sync with the general mood, let out a full-throated laugh.
‘Family did you say? Let me show you the kind of cousins and nephews we have in our family.’
She got up and went up to the massive, wall-mounted Hisense Chinese TV set. She plugged her cellphone to it and played the clip of Suhel coming out of the building at Khirki Extension. She gave a voice-over on the visuals.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, please bear witness to our chief operating officer coming out of this building earlier in the day. Most of you here are aware of the reputation of this building and its owner. If you are still sweetly innocent of the real world, then let me give you a short TED talk on the activities of Sahib Seth, err . . . the man and his outfit housed in the building. Sahib is an infamous hacker who has been kicked out of almost every job he took up. He has also spent time in prison. Nowadays, he’s a social media gun for hire, who fires both ways. He specializes in injecting poison into social media platforms. He is to content and broadcast companies like ours, what venereal disease is to the human body.
‘And yet, our COO thought it fit to spend time with such a character. Doing what, may I ask? Or should I answer that question myself and expose what is really going on here?’
A chair creaked dangerously in the room. Suhel was close to losing it. Simone plunged the knife deeper.
‘A little bird told me that illegal monies had been paid to defame Navin and drive up valuation. If that was not completely shocking, then maybe the hard truth is that someone gave our COO th
e go-ahead to do what he did. Care to elaborate on the last point, Rahul?’
Before Rahul could respond, Suhel took off a shoe and struck the conference table top with force. Everybody jumped at the unusual show of aggression.
‘Enough!’ he shouted. ‘You will not defame my friend! He and I built his company from scratch. We know what we are doing. How the hell do you think this company came up? Do you think it came up on free air, love, sweet morality and the kindness of our competitors? We fought and clubbed and clawed out the eyes of the opposition to reach where we are today. Do you think businesses are run playing by the rules? Yes, there is a fund called the “X fund”, which is used to influence friends and silence enemies. All companies have variations of such a fund. I was not doing something that is unheard of in our line of work. I don’t need Rahul’s permission to use the fund. You can use it, too, if the need arises. Before you pass any judgement, get a fresher’s lesson into how the corporate world works. Venereal diseases and your bullshit! You need to get your head examined!’
Simone matched Suhel’s reply in a manner that the others would never forget. Her hands shot behind her back and she unhooked her bra and took it out without removing her top. She threw her bra on the table, and a collective, shocked gasp went up in the room.
‘You fucking toad! Three decades ago, my sisters were called “bra-burning feminists”! Their spirit runs in me! Let me tell you what this hard-nosed, “fresher” feminist has done for this company. Yeah! You thought about the company and built its shell. But my team and I filled it with oxygen. There are hundreds of jerks like you running around with start-up ideas. But only one in a million succeeds. I created the original idea of clean, in-your-face fun, which proved to be a hit. How long do you think they will tolerate your sleaze as the idea of fun? I will be damned if I let the likes of you pervert my idea with filth, simply to drive up valuation.
‘How would you feel, arsehole, if I jiggle my braless tits in this room? Is that the kind of fun you are looking for, haan, pervert!’
Rahul, with astonishing speed, pressed his hand over Suhel’s mouth, bidding him to keep quiet. The next moment, he removed Simone’s bra out of sight.
Everybody tensed up knowing that the meeting was at a point where something had to give way. Rahul came towards Simone and gently pressed her hand. He smoothly pushed her balled-up bra into her pocket. If there was anyone in the room who doubted if the two were dating each other, here was confirmation.
Rahul tried to restore sanity. ‘People, a lot of words have been said. A lot of the anger has come out. It’s been a dramatic afternoon. I respect feelings on all sides. But I would like us to forget this episode. So, here is the thing: if we continue to debate in such a tense atmosphere, we will in all likelihood pile up on the big mistake we just made. Both Simone and Suhel are dear to me. Their sacrifices in creating this company are not debatable. I cannot afford to lose either of them. My role, as your CEO, besides other things, is to come up with out-of-the-box ideas and solutions. We all have benefited in the past from some of these ideas. So, trust me when I propose that we meet at my place this Saturday. I will pull out all the stops to give you a real, fun-filled party. We will drink and laugh and make merry, and hopefully we will reconnect with the reasons why we all came together in the first place. The answers to our current situation will come from that clarity.’
A murmur went through the room in response to this unusual peace offering. Simone charged out of the room, and Rahul ran after her. She was too fast for him, but somehow he managed to reach her office door before she could slam it on his face.
‘Let me explain myself . . .’ he offered.
She turned towards him, her face a mask of fury.
‘What kind of a man are you? Are you Hamlet, who keeps debating whether to be or not to be? I would respect you if, for right or wrong reasons, you remain loyal to your friend. Let go of me. I will resign today and end your pain.’
Rahul held her from behind as she fiercely tried to shake him off. He persisted and kissed her behind the ear. ‘Please don’t make me choose. I am vulnerable right now. Have some faith in me. I will sort it all out at the party. I need to talk to Suhel. Simone . . . Simone . . . . give me some rope, please! You can hang me later if I disappoint you. But not now. For God’s sake, not now. I can feel the weight of the whole world pressing against me . . .’
Simone stopped struggling, but her reply was cold. ‘You are weak and indecisive, Rahul. Today, you showed me that you are also afraid of your friend. The man is a monster. He’s already come between us. I can’t see you standing in front of him with a straight spine . . .’
‘Call me anything you like,’ he said with passion. ‘Weak or strong, I am what I am, and I am all yours. Accept me as I am.’ He kissed her back, and his hands undid the buttons of her top.
‘Rahul, don’t, don’t . . . weaken my resolve . . . ’
He opened her top and his hands played with her breasts. She closed her eyes. Then his hand slid into her pocket and pulled out her bra. He covered her breasts and clasped the bra from behind.
The door to the washroom was open. The washbasin mirror reflected her face. Her eyes were unnaturally wide. It did not appear to be her face but someone else’s. She cursed her situation. She was conflicted. Nothing made sense any more. She opted to lose herself in the magic Rahul was weaving around her breasts. She didn’t feel like disturbing that. There was something still to be said about the healing power of passion, even if it lasted for the shortest possible time.
CHAPTER 8
The entire top brass of the company turned up at Rahul’s party, trying to understand which way the wind was blowing. Simone came dressed in a flowing black skirt and a black sleeveless silk top with a silver pendant. She looked light and relaxed as if she had just returned from a holiday. She was in high spirits and made it clear to everyone that she would be more than partial to the pink champagne being generously served during the course of the evening. She was a far cry from her bra-burning feminist avatar of a few days ago and more like an elegant socialite.
In sharp contrast, Suhel confined himself to a chair in an inner room, drinking whisky. He looked more like a mafia consigliere than an operating officer fighting for his turf.
Rahul, very much like Simone, looked charged and met the guests with unusual bonhomie. After a while, everyone got into the spirit of the party. Nobody thought much about why the party had been called in the first place. All they knew was that Rahul would make a grand announcement at the end, patch things up and life would continue as usual. Yummimages was like the Roman Empire, and Rahul was a benevolent Caesar. They knew that behind his sensitive exterior there ticked a sharp, ruthless business brain. He was a chief executive who brought people together rather than dividing them.
The decks were cleared for someone to bring out the brown stuff. As soon as the hash was passed around, Rahul mockingly declared, ‘Saw no evil, inhaled no evil!’ The decibel level of the hip-hop music went up, and the lights were dimmed. The living room soon became a dance floor with loud music and feet in motion. Hash joints made an appearance and the sickly, sweet smell of the opioid filled the room.
If there was something like a Yummimages spirit, then it rose like never before as people loosened up, smoked up and drank and danced as if possessed. The pain and tension points began to close, and all the people wanted to do was to have fun.
At one point, someone took off a shirt, and the first of many rushed to one of the two bathrooms to puke. A girl staffer, completely smashed, came up to Rahul, held him and tucked a flower behind his ear.
‘You are beautiful, Rahul,’ she whispered. ‘You have such a beautiful mind. We are so lucky to work with you. Half the girls in the office are in love with you. I would never dream of leaving my job for another one . . .’
Rahul smiled and let her hold him for a bit before gently releasing himself and patting her on the head. ‘I am so glad, Pankhuri, that you are happy. The idea
was that everyone should loosen up a bit. We have all been caught up with things that weren’t in our control. Now, I have to go find my girl.’
She smiled and left him alone.
Rahul waded through the crowd reeling from intoxication. He found a drunk Suhel sitting alone in a corner. Suhel held up his finger and Rahul, with great hesitation, joined his friend.
‘What?’ he asked, the impatience in his voice coming through.
‘It’s my job to counsel you. You are making a huge mistake here.’
‘Really? Well, let me tell you, mistake or not, I am disturbed by your behaviour. A lot of people here are under the impression that you are a law in yourself. You never once consulted me before planning to bring in that scumbag Sahib. Who asked you to do that hit on Sikand? It’s my job to worry about valuation, not yours. I am a man with great patience, but I think you have stretched all the limits.’
Suhel responded by drinking straight from the whisky bottle near him. He wiped his lips with the back of his sleeve and looked at the ground, talking to Rahul.
‘So, it’s happened. She has come between us. I could never have imagined it. You speak a different language now, my friend.’
‘What do you expect?’ Rahul shot back. ‘I told you once before that I was not having a fling with Simone. She means a lot to me. But you kept disrespecting her. The days of the Stone Age man walking around with a club and knocking the women down are over. It’s time you grew up. I won’t always be by your side to pick you up when you skid.’
Suhel looked up to meet Rahul’s eyes.
‘I think we are drinking different spirits tonight.’ He pushed the whisky bottle towards Rahul. ‘Care for this?’
Rahul shook his head.
‘Just as I thought,’ replied Suhel philosophically. ‘Let me not keep you from the party. Just one more thing though. I have paid an advance to the bogeyman. Since you have killed that project and the advance is lost, you can deduct it from my stake.’
