The Bestseller She Wrote (14 page)

‘Who?’

‘A Mr Nikhil Raut?’

‘I don’t know him.’

‘He says he wants to meet you.’

Aditya’s mobile phone beeped. It was a message. Aditya read it and went back to the phone.

‘Ask them to wait. Get Sanjay to come down.’ He hung up the phone.

‘What happened?’ Shreya asked him. From the expression on his face, she knew something was wrong.

He showed her his phone. On the screen was a message from the reception desk.

*

By the time Aditya came down from his room, the crowd had swelled to over seventy-five people. Strangely they were all standing quietly. Sanjay had also come down by then. The receptionist pointed towards the largest conference room on the ground floor. Both of them walked towards it.

Nikhil Raut was a dangerous-looking man. He looked every inch a
pehelwan
from the
akharas
of Lucknow.

‘Maharashtra Rakshak Sene,’ he thundered. ‘I don’t think we need an introduction.’

‘What is it that you want?’ Aditya asked him. The door opened and Christopher John, head of branch security, walked into the room. He strode up to Aditya and stood by his side, arms crossed.

‘I believe you are sacking some 500 people.’

‘We hire based on growth requirements and let go of our employees based on business compulsions. It is a regular process. Why should it concern you?’ Sanjay countered.

‘How many Maharashtrians are there in the list of people being sacked?’

‘Looks like you did not hear what our HR head just said. We cannot confirm anything,’ Christopher stepped in, trying to take charge.

Nikhil leaned forward and read Christopher’s name off his badge and said, ‘Mr John, I would suggest you take a walk around and then decide whether you really want to answer my question or not.’ As Christopher did not budge Nikhil Raut continued, ‘There are over a hundred people patiently waiting outside for my instructions.’

Sanjay, Aditya and Chris, all knew that MRS was a local hardline political party which had taken the aggressive, nuisance-creating way to popular appeal. By espousing the cause of the Maharashtrian population, and by claiming to be the custodians of their well-being, they had appealed to the senses of the masses. They were here, supposedly, to support the cause of the employees being sacked. Clearly some disgruntled soul from National Bank had gone to them.

Christopher took the lead in the conversation. ‘Let me explain. There seems to be some confusion,’ he attempted.

‘How many Biharis are being sacked? And how many Maharashtrians?’ Raut demanded.

‘Mr Raut, we do not tolerate any external interference in our internal issues. We don’t discriminate based on regional affiliations. If at all we sack anyone, it will be as per our internal approvals and we will also be compensating people for their loss of jobs. We take care of our people, you see,’ Sanjay was curt.

‘Don’t give me this bullshit!’ Nikhil roared, prompting Sanjay to cast a worried look at Christopher, who simply nodded his head, as if imploring Sanjay to keep calm. ‘Can I get you some tea?’ he asked Nikhil Raut, ignoring his tirade. ‘We can then sit and talk peacefully.’

‘Look here, Mr John. I came here to meet you guys and tell you that even if one Maharashtrian is harmed, we will make sure that your bank is thrown out of this country.’ He raised his index finger and pointed at Aditya and Sanjay, ‘Take that as a warning.’

At that precise moment, the door opened and two people walked in.

‘Back to your old ways, Mr Raut?’ One of the two looked directly at Nikhil Raut and addressed him sternly.

‘I will not allow a single Maharashtrian to lose his job,’ Nikhil Raut said, but in a lower pitch and politer tone.

‘Has anyone got sacked?’ the man asked Nikhil. Christopher John smiled. He knew the man who had walked in.

‘Not yet, but soon. They will get sacked soon. That’s their plan,’ Nikhil spat out.

‘We will see when they get sacked. Right now, ask your rowdies to clear the main gate,’ the man said. He seemed least interested in what Raut had to say. ‘If they don’t, I will ask my team to drive them out,’ he said firmly.

Realising that the person meant business, Nikhil repeated his warning once again and walked out of the door promising to be back again.

‘Thank you, sir.’ Christopher John looked at the person who had helped them take on Nikhil Raut’s aggression. He looked at Sanjay and Aditya and introduced them. ‘Meet Sanjay, our Head of HR and Aditya Kapoor, Head of Branch banking.’ He turned towards Aditya and Sanjay and said, ‘Meet Sh. Ramesh Karia
ji
, the Commissioner of Mumbai Police.’

‘Thanks for coming, sir,’ Sanjay said.

‘I was on my rounds of various police stations when the call came in. I decided to accompany the ACP to the bank,’ Karia volunteered. He then turned towards Aditya and smiled. ‘Well, who doesn’t know Aditya Kapoor?’ Ramesh Karia started off, much to Aditya’s surprise. ‘You are the person my police force needs to learn from. I keep telling them. These days it is important to learn from authors like you. What is important for the police is to start thinking creatively, as creatively as the criminals. That’s where your crime thrillers come in handy. I’ve read all your books and I am a fan, Mr Kapoor.’

‘Thank you, sir,’ was all Aditya could say.

For the next twenty minutes the five of them talked about the core issue at hand and what precautions needed to be taken.

‘As far as Nikhil Raut is concerned, if he creates any further issues, please call me directly. Cops and politicians have a lot of secrets. We need them, but they need us too. Nikhil Raut has many skeletons in his cupboard. I can get him to back down,’ he assured them. He gave Aditya his personal number, shook his hand again and left. Aditya was floored by Ramesh Karia’s humility, as were the others.

‘I think he came only to meet you,’ Sanjay said after the police commissioner had left the room.

‘Well I am glad he did. It was his presence which neutralised Nikhil Raut,’ Christopher John commented. ‘Raut is known to be a chronic trouble creator. Hope he doesn’t come back again.’

‘Well, if he does, we will ask our friend here to call the commissioner of police,’ Sanjay said and looked at Aditya, who just smiled at him.

30

‘
W
HEN WILL YOU
make sure the Commissioner reads my book?’ Shreya asked Aditya with fluttering eyelashes, the moment he told her about Ramesh Karia’s dramatic entry.

Aditya laughed, ‘I get the hint. I told you, didn’t I, that I will send your manuscript out today?’

Shreya smiled and walked out of the room.

As she left, Aditya made a few calls. The first one was to his editor at Kiwi Books, Vaishali Mathur.

‘I’m sending you a manuscript titled
The Girl from Chhattisgarh,
written by a colleague. I read it and found it interesting. It’s definitely worth a try. Would you want to look at it?’ he said after the customary greetings.

‘You liked it?’

‘I thought it was unique. Good story, nice pace and written well. The language is very good too. I would say it is much better than many of the crappy books that you publish these days.’

‘You’re forgetting we publish you too.’

‘Hahaha! You know what I mean, right?’ Aditya enjoyed a great relationship with Vaishali . She had been his editor for a few years now. More than an editor-author relationship, theirs had grown into a personal friendship. Vaishali knew Maya and Aryan, and would often visit them whenever she was in Mumbai. Professionally too, Aditya’s growth as an author had rubbed off on her stature as an editor.

‘Yes, I know. Anyway, let me read the manuscript and get back to you quickly.’

Aditya hung up and called a few other publishers and literary agents, post which he sent out Shreya’s manuscript to all of them. He marked Shreya on the mails that he sent out.

Within five minutes, Shreya was at his door. ‘Thank you,’ she said peeping into the room, ‘for sending out the manuscript. Hope something works out.’

‘It will.’

‘By when will they get back? When will you chase them up? I will keep reminding you.’

‘I don’t know, Shreya. But all I can tell you is that the publishing business works differently. Publishers are like potential love interests. The more you chase them, the more they run away from you and the more you let them be, the more they are drawn to you.’

‘Okay. So?’ she rolled her eyes.

‘So we must let them be. Let’s not chase them. They are not Aditya, who is so impressed by Shreya that he finished reading the manuscript overnight. They will take their own time. Let’s wait. Chasing them reduces our ability to negotiate a deal.’

‘Oh, okay. You are the boss,’ Shreya said, making Aditya smile.

‘Do we have a plan this evening?’ he asked.

‘We can make one,’ she smiled and was leaving the room when she hastily turned and walked straight back. ‘Before I forget . . . This mass retrenchment is really impacting our staff.’

‘Isn’t that expected? If I was a wealth manager, I would be worried.’

‘I was standing outside with Sunaina at the tea shop across the road. We overheard a few of our staff standing there. They were saying that some people in the mainline branch banking team will also be losing their jobs.’

‘No one but the identified wealth managers will lose jobs.’

‘Yes, but this lady Diana Moses has apparently told some wealth managers that she will get some people from other parts of branch banking removed to accommodate them in those roles. They were saying to one another that Diana Moses has told some of them that she is going to play a key role in the realignment of people. That’s what we could pick up . . .’

Aditya was surprised. So Diana was at it again. He decided to take it up with Sanjay.

31

T
HE MEETING WITH
Tim was scheduled for two hours. The first hour was meant to be a steering committee meeting where all of Tim’s direct reports were to be present. Worried about rising costs in the retail bank, Tim had constituted a task force, headed by Diana that was to work with all his direct reports, including Aditya, and come up with a recommendation on expense reductions.

The second part of the meeting was to be on the wealth management downsizing. But because of Nikhil Raut and his gimmicks the entire time was taken up by just downsizing talks.

Sanjay and Christopher updated Tim on Nikhil Raut’s threat, and Ramesh Karia’s intervention.

‘Thank God at least there is one benefit accruing to the bank on account of your writing skills, Aditya,’ Tim commented.

Aditya chose to ignore the barb. He turned and looked at Sanjay and said, ‘No change in our plan because of Nikhil Raut or any of those jokers. We go ahead as usual.’

‘Agreed.’

‘You know, Tim, we cannot prevent these idiots from creating nuisance for us. We need to be seen as a fair organisation. The worry could be that all the three hundred who are losing jobs are middle and junior management. If we are shutting down a business line, shouldn’t we be seen as being fair to the staff across levels, and put a few senior managers on the line too?’

‘But it’s difficult to isolate senior managers who are in the wealth management vertical alone. We have to run the business in maintenance mode. We are not shutting it down completely,’ Tim said.

‘That’s why, Tim, we need to cut dissonance by adding a couple of dispensable seniors to the list.’

‘Okay, give me some names.’

‘Diana Moses, and maybe one or two others.’

Sanjay was shocked. ‘We are waiting for the right assignment for Diana Moses,’ he argued. ‘The moment we have one, she will be moved. She is a part of the Country Talent Pool,’ he finished. The Country Talent Pool at National Bank was a pool of high-potential talented employees who had been identified as leaders for the future.

‘But so are seventeen of the wealth managers who are being sacked. Think about it, Tim. She doesn’t have a critical role right now. The product management role can be done by anyone significantly junior to her. It will be easier for us to sack her and justify the fact that we have been fair to seniors and juniors alike,’ Aditya shrugged.

‘Let me think about it,’ Tim responded. ‘We have just handed her the cost control project.’

‘Till the time we agree on what to do with the seniors, Tim and Sanjay, I would recommend that the decisions on people and their movement rest with the three of us,’ Aditya asserted.

‘Fair point,’ Tim said.

As they exited the room, Sanjay looked at Aditya and said, ‘What the fuck is your problem, Aditya? Why are you messing with Diana? If in your mind she is a demon, there is little anyone can do.’

‘Well she has been going around telling people that she is the one in charge of redeployment of staff and hence people aligned to her will be the obvious beneficiaries,’ Aditya retorted.