If God Was A Banker

by Ravi Subramanian

  'Chetan, Tedd, Michelle, Aditya! Is this the basis for all the conversations that we are having today. Pardon me for saying this, but here is a girl who is not happy with her family life and has convinced herself that I am responsible for her screwed up life, and all of you happily believe her.' Sundeep said in a tone stinking of ridicule, and looked straight out of the window.

  Tedd was a bit peeved at this attitude. 'Sundeep, I do not particularly appreciate your attitude. Respect the collective intelligence of four people in this room. This is not it. There's more to it. Do you want to take it one at a time, or do you want to see it all at once. The choice is yours.'

  Sundeep realised that Tedd was not impressed by his belligerence and decided to apologise and keep quiet.

  Aditya was silently watching all this from his sofa by the window.

  'Can we proceed?' Chetan looked at Sundeep and then at Tedd. Both nodded.

  The door opened and Tedd's secretary walked in. 'Mona Albance is here.'

  'Send her in,' said Tedd.

  'I am terribly sorry. I was stuck in a traffic jam two blocks from here. Have I held all of you up?'

  'No Mona. Join us.' Tedd moved and made some space for Mona to sit down.

  Chetan introduced her. 'Sundeep, meet Mona Albance, our Manager, Diversity Initiatives. She works with Michelle.' She was the key player in the drama that was unfolding.

  'Go on.' Tedd was getting impatient.

  'Mona Albance was in Mumbai for a week. She met a lot of people there and investigated this whole issue threadbare. We will be showing you the findings shortly.' Chetan wanted to make it known that it was only after lots of deliberations that they had come up with the findings.

  'Sundeep, what do you know about Priya Mehra?'

  'Priya Mehra...' Sundeep pretended to be thinking. 'I can't seem to remember,' he finally said.

  'Priya was a Manager in BOCA, the BPO that was bought in India when you were working there.'

  'Oh yes. Now I remember. Didn't her husband also work in the bank?' asked Sundeep.

  'Of course, he did, Sundeep. You gave him a job. When he was out of a job and looking for one. And you extracted your pound of flesh from Priya, didn't you?' Mona Albance started off. She was too emotional about the entire sequence of events.

  'No. That's rubbish.'

  'Are you sure, Sundeep?' Mona taunted him.

  'Yes.'

  'Well, then what is this?' She handed him a few sheets of paper.

  It was the extract of Sundeep's mobile bills when he was in Mumbai. Sundeep couldn't believe his eyes when he saw it. Along with the bills was a separate summary sheet, which had been made in-house. It had a table:

  'Between November 2003 and March 2004 you have sent Priya over 2300 SMSs. If you call that normal, then my name is Mother Teresa. That's not normal. If I look at the calls you have made to her, the picture looks quite similar. You haven't got back so much of a response from her. She hasn't sent messages to you, hasn't called you so often. I have seen those messages, Mr Srivastava, and they are extremely vulgar. You have solicited her umpteen number of times. The messages were so explicit that I am a bit ashamed reproducing the same here. You not only hired Mehra but also hired him at a level he didn't deserve, all because you had your eyes on Priya. Do you want to know who gave me copies of these bills? Priya's husband. When he found out about you, he wanted an end to their relationship. You killed their family, Sundeep.'

  Sundeep didn't answer. He was staring blankly at the ceiling.

  'Do you need any more evidence, Mr Srivastava?'

  No answer. 'Bitch,' thought Sundeep.

  'Sundeep.' Tedd stepped in. Sundeep didn't answer.

  'Let's go on.' This time it was Chetan.

  'Sundeep, what's your relationship with Ram Naresh?' Mona asked him.

  'He is a vendor of the bank, who was introduced to me by Suneel Dutt.'

  'Is that all?'

  'Yes. Along the way he became a personal friend, but that never interfered with our professional relationship.'

  'Is it true that you paid him more than normal for buying out his call centre at a time when you need not have paid that? You paid him six million dollars at a time when his infrastructure was not worth more than two million dollars.'

  'That's not true. The entire deal was evaluated and the laid out process was followed when we bought the call centre.'

  'Maybe you would remember something more when you see this document.'

  It was a print out of Naresh's bank account. Two entries were highlighted in the bank statement. One was the credit of six million dollars into Naresh's account and the other was a debit of two million dollars. The day Naresh was paid six million dollars to buy out his call centre, an amount of two million dollars was transferred to the credit of an account in the name of S Srivastava in New Jersey.

  'I do not know. That's not me,' said Srivastava. No one believed him.

  'Maybe you would like to let the group know why Ram Naresh was paid over three times the amount you would pay any other sales agent? This is obvious from the bills that Mr Naresh has raised on NYB while you were in office. The Group Audit which is currently on in India has validated this.'

  For a similar volume of personal loans originated by Naresh's unit and other DSAs, Naresh has been paid five percent as professional fees, whereas the others have been paid less than two percent. This disparity had been raised many times by the internal audit team in their reports to you, but you chose to ignore the same.'

  'The payout requests are normally put up by the respective sales managers to the Business Heads, who review it and recommend it to me. I often go by their recommendations.'

  'No Sundeep, I have a copy of this mail from Vivek Jalan to you, in which he has asked you not to pay him so much money, and you have asked him to mind his own business, stating that you are routing some other payments through Mr Naresh.'

  'I do not remember,' said Sundeep.

  Mona promptly produced a copy of the e-mail. She had laid her hands on it when she was in India.

  'Is it not true that Reena, your secretary, quit because she felt that you were making her raise bills and do things that contradicted her own sense of ethics? That's not it, she was also fed up with your making suggestive passes at her. Your financial impropriety and personal advances made her quit.'

  'That's conjecture. She quit because of personal reasons,' said Sundeep.

  'I have a statement from her. She quit without a job in hand, and that too at a time when she was going through personal stress in her family life. She desperately needed the job, but, despite that, she quit.'

  She gave him a copy of his secretary's resignation letter. It had Sundeep's signature on it. 'Received Sd. Sundeep Srivastava.'

  In that letter she had categorically stated the reason for her quitting to be a dangerous conflict with her ethics and values. She had clearly said in that letter that she was quitting because of Sundeep.

  Mona's hand went into the folder. She rummaged through the pile of papers that she had and came up with another document. 'Now read this.'

  Sundeep took the piece of paper from Mona. This was the resignation letter of Reena which was pulled out from HR records. Sundeep could make that out because it had HR notings on it. According to this letter, Reena was quitting due to personal reasons.

  'The second one is the letter that HR gave me when I asked for it and the first was the one Reena gave me, when I met her. That was her copy of your acknowledgement. And Sundeep, the two letters are different. You switched the two letters, got Anindyo Roy to document her exit interview, without even doing one, and relieved her in a single day because she had pointed a finger at you. She knew something that could have landed either you or Ram Naresh in trouble.'

  'Is this still conjecture, Sundeep?' asked Chetan.

  Sundeep didn't respond.

  'We haven't spoken to Mr Naresh because he was partnering you in your misdeeds.' Mona was in no mood to relent.

&nbs
p; 'Sundeep, we have no business to interfere in your personal life. It's your look out. But the moment it starts reflecting on your work, it moves out of the realms of privacy.'

  'We decided to act only when it became too serious to ignore. You have been with the group for over a decade and have done very well professionally. We use you as an example when we go to Ivy League campuses for recruitment, as the guy who has made his career with NYB in a short time through dedication and hard work. And here we are. Sundeep, we did not expect this from you.'

  'Do you want to say anything or should we proceed?' Tedd was getting impatient. Aditya hadn't spoken yet.

  'That's not it,' continued Mona.

  'When will this end?' thought Sundeep. He showed no emotions.

  'Nidhi Agarwal,' said Mona.

  'What about her? We sacked her for her involvement in the mutual fund scam,' Sundeep asked.

  'She produced a mail in which you had asked her to go ahead and transfer funds from deposit to mutual funds without the customer's consent. She did what you told her to. When it became too hot to handle, you sacked her. But that was an act meant for public consumption. You gave her a raving recommendation and helped her get a job with ABN AMRO Bank.'

  'Your indiscretion screwed up the bank's reputation in India and had it not been for Swami's efforts, we would have had to exit the Indian market. I am sure you remember what happened to Citigroup in Japan. The CEO of the group was called to testify in a case in Japan. All this because they were indulging in certain advisory services without having the license to do so. They had to shut shop in Japan because of that. We came very close to that in India. You instigated your team to sell 'at any cost' and they got you the results. But, at what cost?'

  'Someone is framing me. Nidhi is disgruntled with me for having sacked her from NYB.'

  'Here's the mail, Sundeep. It has been taken out from the company's server wherein we have a record of every e-mail in and out for the last eight years. And your mobile phone records show that you were in touch with Nidhi Agarwal even after she was sacked. You would not be on phone from 11.00 p.m. to 1.00 a.m. with an employee who you sacked a few days back. Not normal behaviour, I must say, Mr Srivastava.'

  Sundeep retorted: 'Do not forget that I managed to deliver a 124-percent growth in one year when I was the Head of Retail Bank. I am sure that counts for something.'

  'That's the reason why we are even sitting and talking to you.' Tedd was beginning to get irritated.

  'We have evidence of many more acts of indiscretion. June 2004. Offsite at Goa. You got a stage artist to do a risqué private show for you. Anindyo Roy, Mohit Bakshi and you billed the bank forty thousand rupees for it. When your relationship manager managing the offsite raised a bill for that, it was turned down by the Financial Control unit. You got Anindyo Roy to raise it and signed it yourself. Ravi's audit detected this impropriety. The issue is not the amount, but the way the money was spent and the way it was billed to the bank. The bank is not here to satisfy your libido, Mr Srivastava. You pay for your personal quests.'

  'And the worst is yet to come.'

  Sundeep had almost slumped in his chair, overwhelmed by the multiple exposures. He had no choice but to resign himself to his fate.

  'Karuna, the pretty girl you moved to Mumbai from Chennai. Do you remember her? You met her at a Chennai party and shifted her to Mumbai and her husband to Delhi so that you could have a free run?'

  'Yes. But we moved her husband, I think his name was Nitin, to Delhi because the regional sales person in Delhi had resigned.'

  'That's what everyone thinks. You got Vivek to terminate him so that you had an excuse to move him to Delhi.'

  Sundeep was quiet now.

  'Three days back Karuna tried to commit suicide. And before she attempted that, she sent me an e-mail. She had become a good friend when I visited India.'

  Sundeep had his head in his hands now. Not knowing what to say or do.

  'Do you want to know why she attempted suicide?' Silence.

  'Come on, read this.' She handed him an e-mail print out. Sundeep knew what the mail would say, because she had called him earlier on the same day and he had ridiculed her.

  Mona,

  When you were here two weeks back, I was trying to tell you something. But I couldn't. I could sense that you wanted to ask me something, but you never asked till the last day. And when you asked me, I lied. I did not tell you anything. Maybe I should not have lied. But life doesn't give you a second chance.

  If there is one person who has made my life miserable, it's Sundeep Srivastava, the current Retail Business Head of emerging markets. I was happy in Chennai, when he brought me to Mumbai and enticed me into a relationship with him. He sent my husband off to Delhi and took advantage of my being alone and him being a senior.

  It didn't take Swaminathan more than a week to bring Nitin back to Mumbai and help me settle down in my life again.

  Within a few weeks I realised I was pregnant. With Sundeep's child. When I spoke to him about it, he chided me saying how can one be so sure. Why will a girl lie on these things?

  Now I am at a crossroad. My husband has stumbled on a few mails that I had written to Sundeep during my pregnancy, which, by the way, Sundeep never responded to. Nitin now knows that Ayush, my son, is not his child. He is extremely hurt and has stopped talking to me. I have been living like this for the last one week. This feeling of guilt has been killing me every single moment. I cannot continue to live like this and have decided to end my life. By the time you see this, I may not be alive. But please ensure that devils like Sundeep are eradicated from this system. I knew you came to India on a mission. Don't know whether you accomplished that. But please, please, help me achieve my mission. Ensure that Sundeep is punished.

  Sd

  Karuna.

  'Sundeep, you nearly killed that sweetheart. How could you? You are nothing but an animal.' Tedd was extremely upset.

  'You can do anything to be successful. I did not suspect anything when Ram Naresh kept calling me to recommend you, but now I know. You were paying Naresh a price for taking care of you, or, should I say, NYB was paying Naresh to be a spokesman for you. I am ashamed that you are a fellow Indian.' Chetan's voice thundered across the room.

  Aditya had never seen Sundeep in such a position. Cornered from all sides. He was known to fight his way out of situations. Here, he was being clobbered and could not do anything whatsoever. The Sundeep he knew was a very confident mercenary. He was aggressive, pushy, and would have his way at any cost. But today he was a broken man. Sundeep was struggling to hold back the tears that were coming out of his eyes. His past was catching up with him, and there was no place to run and hide. There was no Ram Naresh to save him. There was no Joseph Fernandes to push him up the corporate ladder.

  He did not know what to do. He got up, excused himself, and went to the washroom. He locked himself in and wept. Wept like a child. If he had the option to relive his life, he would have lived it differently. He would have been loyal to Natasha and the kids. He would not have fallen a prey to Naresh's temptation. He would not have indulged in a reckless pursuit of success, fame, power and money.

  When he was finally able to control himself, he went back to Tedd's room. No one had moved.

  'Sundeep.' It was Tedd's turn to speak. 'Our initial thought was to terminate you and put this out in tomorrow morning's press briefing. But we were forced to hold back our decision.'

  For the first time, Sundeep looked up. Was he going to keep his job? Were they not going to sack him after all?

  'You need to thank this gentleman,' Tedd pointed to Aditya Rao. Aditya figured for the first time in the discussion.

  'He flew in this morning with two pieces of paper. The first one is a request from Karuna, who is at Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai, asking for her mail not to be made public. And she has been nice enough not to press charges against you, Sundeep. And the second is from Swaminathan, who has sent in an e-mail, a copy of which Aditya carr
ied with him. He says that you have been drawn into your deeds by uninhibited passion for growth and your interactions with a suspect set of people. He has also said that it was Suneel Dutt who led you on in your relationship with Naresh, without you really knowing what you were getting into, and that once you got stuck, there was no getting out. He has stressed, which we also agree with, that you have been a different person once you moved out of India.'

  'Why did Swami do all this?' Sundeep couldn't help wonder.

  'So Sundeep, based on Aditya's request and Swami's report, we have decided to give you the option of an honourable exit. You will put in your papers today, and you will cease to be an employee of this bank from close of working hours today. You will not work with any competing organisation in the financial services business in India or abroad for a period of eighteen months from today. You will give us a written statement that you are resigning of your own free will and you have no issues pending with NYB.'

  Tedd paused. 'Is it acceptable, Sundeep?'

  No answer.

  Tedd waited for half a minute, letting it sink in. 'Sundeep, is this acceptable?'

  No answer.

  'If this is not acceptable to you, Sundeep, we will terminate you with immediate effect and, as per the terms of our contract with you, you will be paid a month's salary in lieu of the notice period.'

  'Tedd where will I go at such a short notice. I have worked in this organisation all my life. I don't even know how other organisations look like. Everyone makes mistakes. Can't I be given an opportunity to correct what I have done? You yourself mentioned that I have changed in the last eighteen months. I deserve one last chance, Tedd. My family will be devastated.'