ONE NIGHT (22 page)

is her?’ Vroom said.

‘Maybe he’s in the toilet?’ I said.

‘Executive toilet, it is a different feeling,’ Vroom said as I nodded in

agreement.

We sat around Bakshi’s conference table. All of us had brought

notebooks to the meeting. We never really used them, but it always seems

necessary to sit in meetings with an open notebook.

‘Where is he?’ Priyanka said.

‘I don’t know. Who cares,’ Vroom said and stood up. ‘Hey Shyam, want

tot check out Bakshi’s computer/’ he walked over to Bakshi’s desk.

‘What?’ I said. ‘Are you crazy? He will come any minute. What can you

see so fast anyway?’

‘Just for fun. Do you want to know what website Bakshi visits?’ Vroom

said and learned over so he could reach Bakshi’s keyboard. He opened up

Internet Explorer and pressed Ctrl+H to pull out the history of visited

websites.

‘Have you gone nuts?’ you’ll get in trouble,’ I said.

‘Come back Vroom,’ Esha said.

‘Okay, I’ve just fired a printout,’ Vroom said and sprinted across the

room to Bakshi’s printer. He fetched the printout and leaped back to the

conference table.

‘Are you stupid?’ I said.

‘Okay guys check this out,’ Vroom said as he held the A4 sheet in front

of him. ‘Timesofindia.com, rediff.com, and then we have, Harvard business

review website, Boston weather website, Boston places to see, Boston real

estate—‘

‘—What with him and Boston?’ Esha said.

‘He is going there on a business trip soon,’ Radhika reminded her.

‘And what other website?’ I said.

‘There is more. Aha, here is what I was looking for: awesomeindia.com—

the best porn site for Indian girls, adultfriendfinder.com—a sex personals site,

cabaretlounge.com—a strip club in Boston, porninspector.com… hello, the list

goes on this department.’

‘What’s with him and Boston?’ I repeated Esha’s words.

‘Who knows?’ Vroom said and laughed. ‘hey check this out: the official

website for Viagra, visited six hours ago.’

‘I’ll try and ask him about Boston,’ Priyanka said.

We heard Bakshi’s footsteps and Vroom quickly folded the sheet. We

turned quiet and opened our notebooks to fresh blank pages.

Bakshi took fast steps as he entered his office.

‘Sorry team. I had to visit the computers bay team leaders for some

pertinent managerial affairs. Si, how is everyone doing tonight?’ Bakshi said as

he took the last empty seat at his conference table.

No one responded. I nodded my head to show I was doing fine, but

Bakshi was not looking at me.

‘Team, I have called you today to tell you about a few changes that may

happen at Connexions. We need to right size people.’

‘So, people are getting fired. It wasn’t a rumor,’ Vroom said.

Radhika’s face turned white. Priyanka and Esha had a shocked

expression.

‘We never want to fire people, Mr Victor. But we have to right size

sometime.’

‘Why? Why are we firing people when clearly there are other things we

can do,’ vroom said.

‘We have carefully, evaluated all the plausible and feasible alternatives,

I am afraid, ‘Bakshi said and took out a pen. Everyone moved back nervously.

The last thing we needed was another Bakshi diagram.

‘Cost-cutting is the only alternative,’ Bakshi said and began to draw

something. However, the pen did not work. He tried to shake it into action, a

pointless thing to do with a ball pen. The pen refused to cooperate, perhaps

sick of Bakshi’s abuse.

I was going to offer y own pen but Esha, who was sitting at my side,

sensed the movement and quickly pulled at my elbow to stop me. Bakshi

continued to lecture us. He spoke non-stop for six minutes (or ninety-six

breaths). He went into various management philosophies, schools of thought,

corporate governance methods and other deeply complicated stuff that I know

nothing about, his point was that we should make the company more

efficient. He just did not have an efficient way to say it.

Vroom had promised me he would not mention the website to Bakshi

tonight, at least until the lay-offs were over. However, this did not stop him

from taking on Bakshi.

‘Sir, but cost-cutting is useless if we have no sales growth. We need

more clients, not non-stop cuts until there is no company left,’ Vroom said,

after Bakshi had finished his speech. I guess somewhere within him was a die-

hard optimist who really thought Bakshi would listen to him.

‘We have though of every alternative,’ Bakshi said. ‘A sales force is too

expensive.’

‘Sir, we can create a sales force. We have thousands of agents. I am

sure some of them are good at sales. We talk to customers every day, so we

kn0ow what they want…’

‘But our clients are in the US, we have to sell there.’

‘So what? Why don’t we send some agents to the US to try and increase

our clients base. Why not guys? Vroom said and looked at us, as if we would

furiously nod our heads in approval. I was the only one listening, but

remained quiet.

Radhika was doodling on her pad, drawing a pattern that looked like

this:

Priyanka was making a table of numbers on her notepad. I think she was

making a calendar to figure out the day she was getting married. I felt like

ripping her notebook to shreds. Esha was digging her pen’s nib deep into her

notepad so that it came out at the other end.

‘Send agents to the US? Move them to Boston?’ Bakshi said and laughed.

‘Well a few of them, at least on trial basis. Some of them are really

smart. Who knows, they may get that one client that could save a hundred

jobs. Right Shyam?’ Vroom said

‘Huh?’ I said startled to hear my name.

‘Mr Victor, as a feedback-oriented manager I appreciate your inputs.

However, I do not think it is such a good idea,’ Bakshi said.

‘Why not?’ Vroom demanded with the innocence of a primary school

kid.

‘Because if it was such a good idea, someone would have thought of it

before. Why didn’t it strike me for instance?’ Bakshi said.

‘Huh?’ Vroom said, completely flabbergasted. I had heard it all before so

it did not move me. I was aware of every red, white, and black blood cell in

Bakshi’s body.

‘What’s the plan sir, when do we find out who gets fir…I mean right-

sized?’ I said.

’Soon. We are finalizing the list, but we let you know by this morning or

early tomorrow night,’ Bakshi said, his forehead showing relief as I had not

challenged him.

‘How many people will lose their job, Sir?’ what percentage?’ Radhika

said, her first words in the meeting.

‘Thirty to forty is the plan as of now,’ Bakshi said in a practiced, calm

voice as if he was announcing the temperature outside.

‘That’s hundreds of people<’ Vroom said. As if it was such a difficult

calculation.

‘Such is corporate life, my friend,’ Bakshi said and got up, indicating

that the meeting was over. ‘You know what they say. It is a jungle out there.’

I don’t know who said that, but when I looked at Bakshi, I realized there are

buffoons in that jungle as well.

The girls collected their notebooks primly and stood up. Vroom sat

there for a few more seconds. He crushed the printout of websites visited by

Bakshi and put it in his pocket.

‘Thank you, Sir,’ Esha said.

‘You’re welcome. As you know, I am an ever-approachable manager.

Here or Boston, you can reach me anytime.’

We were at the door when Priyanka asked a question.

‘Sir, are you going to Boston soon/’

Bakshi was back at his desk. He had picked up the telephone but paused

when he heard Priyanka’s question. ‘Oh yes, I need to tell you about that. Not

that it’s very important. I am transferring to Boston soon. Maybe in a month

or so.’

‘Transferring to Boston?’ Vroom, Radhika, Esha, Priyanka and I all spoke

together.

‘Yes. You see I do not like to blow my own trumpet. But looks like they

recognized my contribution in the value-addition cycle of the company,’

Bakshi said, a smug smile sliming across his shiny face. I though of toppling the

entire bookshelf on his head.

‘But details will come later. Anyway, if you do not mind, I need to make

a call. I’ll keep you posted later if we have more news.’

Bakshi signaled us to shut the door as we left. As I closed the door, I felt

like somehow had slapped my face. In slow motion, we walked away from his

office.

#25

We returned to WASG after our meeting with Bakshi. Calls flashed on

the screen, but no one attended to them. I sat at my seat and opened my

email. I could not read anything as my mind was having a systems overload.

I looked at the time, it was 2.45 a.m.

Vroom sat at his desk and mumbled inaudible courses. He opened the

internal web page of Connexions on his computer. it had the map of the US on

it. He held up a pen and tapped at a point on the US east coast.

‘This, this is Boston,’ he said and clenched his fist tight around the pen.

‘This is where or boss will be while we are on the road looking for jobs.’

Everyone stayed quiet.

‘Can I ask why everyone is so bloody quiet?’ Vroom said.

‘I think we should start picking up some calls,’ I said started fumbling

with the controls on the telephone.

‘Like fuck we should,’ Vroom said and jabbed his pen hard on the

monitor. A loud ping startled everyone on the desk. Shattered glass made a

nine-inch wide, spider-web pattern on Vroom’s monitor. The rest of his

screen worked as if nothing had happened.

‘What happened,’ the girls said and came around to Vroom’s computer.

‘Damn it,’ Vroom said and threw his pen hard on the ground. It broke

into two pieces. Some people break into tears when they are upset. Some

break whatever is around them.

‘Oh no. the monitor is totally gone,’ Esha said. She put her hand on

Vroom’s shoulder, ‘Are you okay?’

‘Don’t you dare touch me, you slut,’ Vroom said and pushed her hand

away.

‘What?’ Esha said. ‘What did you just said?’

‘Nothing. Just leave me alone, al right? Go pray for your jobs or

whatever. Bloody bitch on her way to becoming a hooker,’ Vroom said and

moved his chair away from Esha.

For a few seconds the girls stood there, stunned. Then, slowly, they

walked back to their seats.

‘What’s wrong with him?’ Priyanka asked Esha in a whisper, which was

audible to us.

‘I told you he proposed again. Maybe he’s not taking my rejection so

well,’ Esha said to Priyanka.

‘Oh really?’ Vroom shouted and stood up. ‘You think this is about the

proposal? Like I don not know about your escapades. Everyone here knows it—

Shyam, Radhika and Priyanka. You thought I would not find out? I wish I’d

known before I proposed to a certified slut who’ll bang for bucks. I feel sick.’

Esha looked at all of us, shocked. Tears appeared in her eyes. She

started shaking, and Radhika helped her sit down. It is way more elegant to

cry sitting down than standing up.

Priyanka went up to Vroom’s seat. She stared at him, her face red. Slap!

She deposited a hard slap across Vroom’s face.

‘Learn how to talk to women you say one more nasty thing and I’ll screw

your happiness, understand?’ Priyanka said.

Vroom stared at Priyanka, his hand over his cheek. He was too stunned

to retaliate. I inserted myself between the two of them. Guys, can we have

some peace here,’ I said. ‘Things are already quite messed up. Please let’s sit

down and do some work.’

‘I can’t work. I don’t know if I’ll still have a job in a few hours,’

Priyanka said and moved back to her seat. She continued to flare at Vroom.

‘At least sit down,’ I said.

‘I want him to apologize to Esha. The idiot has to watch what he is