The Bankster (Ravi Subramanian) (7 page)

‘Thanks,’ she smiled at Nikhil.

‘Not a problem. The wind here can be notorious.’ He smiled back at her. ‘So I hope you had a good time at the branch.’

‘Yes sir. Learnt a lot.’

‘Any feedback?’

‘Only one, sir. In fact it’s more of a compliment. We have a fabulous sales team in the branch.’

‘Thank you. That’s nice to hear.’

‘Yes sir. Who else would be able to sell an insurance scheme to a 50-year-old lady, passing it off as a fixed deposit product?’

‘Sorry?’ Nikhil was horrified. ‘Say that again?’

‘Nikhil, your car has come,’ Anand interrupted.

‘It’s okay. Ask them to park it on the side. I’ll come in a moment.’ He looked at Zinaida and asked her, ‘What did you say young lady?’

‘Did I say anything wrong sir?’

‘No, no you didn’t. I just want to hear that again.’

‘I was with Jasmeet in my first week at your branch. And I saw her sell an insurance policy to a 50-year-old widow. She never told her that it was a Unit Linked Insurance Plan (ULIP) policy. The only thing she said was that she would get good returns and her investment was safe.’

‘What did she tell her?’

‘She just told her that it’s like a deposit and that she would get a minimum return of twelve per cent, much higher than the eight per cent a fixed deposit gave her. Her control on the customer was amazing. The old lady didn’t ask too many questions and just agreed to whatever Jasmeet told her. It was an amazing experience for me.’

Nikhil couldn’t quite figure out if Zinaida was serious or sarcastic. Whatever the case, he was worried about the repercussions. He could have been in serious trouble if such a discussion had taken place in someone else’s presence.

‘Thanks for telling me, Zinaida. I will take care of this,’ and he walked towards his car. Having barely taken a few steps he stopped, turned back and called out to Anand. ‘Anand, come. I will drop you home.’ Anand didn’t have much of a choice.

Nikhil was livid and gave Anand an earful on the way back. The latter was left wondering what had happened till Nikhil replayed his conversation with Zinaida.

‘But sir, this is normal stuff. Happens all the time. How else will numbers happen? There is no way we would have reached where we have in the insurance sales contest had this not happened. Jasmeet has over-achieved her target by 380 per cent and is in the running for the best sales RM.’

‘I know Anand, all this is fine. My question is simple: Why can’t we be careful in front of outsiders? These MT idiots have no understanding of what we need to do to achieve our revenue targets. The problem is, if they say something stupid like what Zinaida said, in front of Vikram or someone else, we’ll be in serious trouble. We need to be careful so that people don’t talk about such things. I know you will manage the one-in-hundred customer who comes back and complains. For them we will reverse the transaction and pay them back, but it’s the others who will give us our profits. But that’s not the point. These things are necessary to do. . .but never to be spoken about.’

‘Yes sir.’

‘Tell your team to be careful if any non-branch person is with them. Word must not get out.’

‘Sir, can I say something?’

Nikhil nodded.

‘Every branch in this country does this, sir, to meet their insurance targets. And that day you only said na. . .customers ko chipkao? Sir, humne chipka diya. . .And from being second last branch on the league table, we catapulted to the second position.’

Nikhil smiled. ‘You haven’t had this conversation with me, Anand. You haven’t told me this and I haven’t stopped you.’ And he raised his hand, bringing the thumb and the index finger together and slid it across his face from one corner of the lips to the other. ‘My lips are sealed.’

Anand smiled as he looked at Nikhil. The car crossed the toll plaza and on to the Bandra Worli Sea Link. For a moment there was silence in the car as it whizzed past the cables holding up the five-kilometre-long bridge. Anand didn’t want to disturb Nikhil and was wondering what it was that Nikhil was thinking. Finally, as they reached the other end of the sea link and crossed over into Worli, Nikhil spoke, ‘What do you think of Zinaida? Hot chick, na?’ He was still looking outside the window.

Anand smiled. ‘Heard she is close to Vikram.’ Nikhil suddenly turned towards him. There was surprise in his voice when he asked curiously, ‘Who told you?’

‘Just heard some guys talking. I don’t even know if it’s true sir.’

‘Hmm. . .she is cute.’

‘She is apparently not a fresher. So I was pretty surprised as to how she made it to the MT programme. Guess they made an exception for her.’

‘Helps if you know the big boss, doesn’t it?’ said Nikhil, still looking out as they drove onto the Worli sea face enroute to Parel.

Nikhil reached office early the next day. Vikram had asked for a conference call with the cluster managers and branch managers to announce the results of the insurance contest. Though most of the branches knew their standings in the league tables through informal channels, Vikram wanted to formally announce the winners himself. The call was at nine and Nikhil was already in his cabin at 8.30 a.m., looking at the previous month’s Management Information System report and trying to pre-empt any question Vikram might ask. He liked to be prepared, especially at a time when his cluster had done well and when every single graph, on every parameter, was showing a positive trajectory from the time he had taken over. He felt proud of himself.

The call began at sharp nine. Vikram started with a lecture on sales effectiveness. He spoke about the contest, the need to drive results, about what the organization had achieved and went on and on for ten minutes. He loved to talk; it gave him a feeling of control. Not only did he love to speak, but he also got quite irritated if someone contradicted or interrupted him.

Finally he came to the contest results. Vikram had just started giving the preamble when Nikhil’s phone rang. It was Anand. Putting the conference call on mute, Nikhil picked up the phone.

‘Your call couldn’t have come at a worse time. . .Vikram is about to announce the results of the contest on the call. . .someone had better died for you to be calling just now.’

‘Sir. . .I was also on the call too. Had to log off because it was urgent. . .’ Anand told him what had happened.

‘What the fuck? Are you serious?’

‘Yes boss.’

‘When did this happen?’

‘I don’t have the details. I was only informed a minute ago.’

‘Any idea how this happened?’

‘No one saw it happen. There weren’t any witnesses.’

‘Alright, give me a minute, I will be down there. Let me inform Vikram first.’

‘Okay boss.’

Nikhil cut Anand’s line and returned to Vikram’s conference call.

‘Vikram, my apologies for interrupting the call. There is a small crisis here.’

‘Crisis is never small, my friend. Had it been small, it wouldn’t be a crisis.’ And he started laughing. Vikram’s laughter was dutifully followed by hesitant laughter by almost everyone on the call—everyone except Nikhil.

‘Vikram, we have had an accident. Pranesh, our cashier, is dead. He lost his life in a hit-and-run accident on Eastern Express highway last night.’

‘What?’ It was a shocked Vikram this time. There was pin drop silence on the call; no one was laughing anymore. ‘Are you serious? How and when did this happen?’

‘No one knows, Vikram. It happened sometime last night. All I know is that his body was found by passers-by on a bushy stretch of road between Mulund and Thane. The impact was so great that the bike had rolled off the road into the bushes. The cops saw the ID card on his body and called us. That’s all the information I have. I’m going down to the branch but I’ll update you once I have more information. You’ll have to excuse me.’

‘No issues, Nikhil. You manage the issue at hand. That is more important. Call me once you’ve taken stock of the situation.’

‘Yes Vikram.’ Nikhil hung up. He ran down to the ground floor branch and straight to Anand’s cabin. Two uniformed cops were there. The look on Anand’s face was that of a pained man, partly on account of the grief of losing a colleague and largely on account of the stress of having to deal with the situation.

The Powai Police Station, under whose jurisdiction the accident had taken place, had deputed two smart-looking cops. Probably the fact that they were dealing with foreign bankers influenced the choice of who was assigned.

‘Nikhil Suri. I’m the cluster manager.’ Nikhil extended his hand even as he introduced himself.

‘Myself Sub-Inspector Kailash Nath More from the Powai Thana.’

‘How did this happen, sir?’

‘Hit and run. Some big vehicle hit Mr Rao’s motorcycle. We find body in morning.’ It would have been easier if Inspector More spoke in Hindi, but he persisted with broken English.

‘Do we know who, or rather what, hit him?’

‘No. How we will know? It happen middle of night.’ More suddenly took offence to the tone Nikhil used. The irritation in the policeman’s voice was quite evident. Wasn’t he supposed to be the one asking questions?

‘Sorry sir, I’m extremely sorry. That was not what I meant,’ Nikhil quickly corrected himself. Nikhil looked at Anand. ‘Family? Have they been told?’

‘No boss. He stays alone. We haven’t spoken to his parents yet.’

‘Do you know where he was going that time of the night?’ It was More. He wanted to take charge of the conversation.

‘Oh. Thane is where he stays. I think he would be going home at that time,’ Anand responded.

‘He travel everyday from Thane to Bandra?’

‘Pranesh was earlier in the Thane branch. He got transferred a few months ago to the Bandra Branch. I had told him a couple of times to shift closer to Bandra, but I guess he was waiting for the lease on his house in Thane to get over.’

‘That makes sense, sahib,’ the constable spoke up, looking at the Sub-Inspector.

‘Hmm. . .’

‘Where is the body now, Mr More?’ Nikhil forced his way into the discussion.

‘It is in the government hospital waiting for the doctors to do post-mortem.’

‘By when do you think they’ll release the body sir?’

‘What can we say? It can take two hours, it can also take twelve. Depend on when doctor comes.’

‘What do I tell his parents? I am sure they will ask when I call them.’

This made More frown at Nikhil, then ignore him. He asked a few more questions and left. On his way out, he promised to call Anand the moment the post-mortem was over and they were ready to hand over the body.

After they left, Nikhil looked at Anand. ‘Will you call his parents or do you want me to call?’ Seeing Anand hesitate, he added, ‘Alright, I’ll call them. Give me the number. Ideally someone senior from HR should be calling them. But all of us know how our HR is.’

The call to Pranesh’s parents was the most traumatic call Nikhil had ever made.

‘Yes sir. Our people have been sent to the hospital to coordinate everything. . .Yes sir. . .No, no. . .you don’t need to do anything sir, our Branch Manager in Vizag will make all the arrangements to get you to Mumbai. We will take care of it sir. . .we are with you sir, in this hour of grief. . .Yes sir. . .I will see you at the airport.’ Nikhil hung up.

The next moment he pulled out his mobile and dialled a number.

‘Arre Venkat, what’s up?’

‘Nothing, you tell me. Hope all is well? After you logged off, Vikram called off the call. He said we’ll do it later.’

‘Oh okay. . .listen buddy, Pranesh’s parents are in Vizag. I have already told his father that you, the branch manager of Vizag, are on your way to see him. Can you go now? It’s important, my friend. I feel sad for his parents, they are quite old. And in this age to be put through all this. . .’

‘Oh ho! I am in Tirupati now, Nikhil. I would surely have gone had I not come here for a branch review.’

‘Oh, shit. . . What do we do now?’ There was a pause on the line. ‘Okay, let’s do this,’ Nikhil suggested. ‘You ask someone from your branch in Vizag to go and meet his parents. Let him say that he is the manager-in-charge, else I will look like an idiot. Ask him to put them on a flight to Mumbai today.’

‘That’s definitely possible.’

‘Okay, thanks. And let me know which flight they are coming by and I will arrange for their pick-up and stay.’

‘Will do.’

That night Nikhil, accompanied by Anand, went to the airport to receive Pranesh’s parents. Both of them waited in the car in the parking lot, while the driver went to the arrival area to keep a watch on flight arrivals. There was an uneasy calm in the car. For long, no one spoke. Nikhil was wondering what and how to speak to Pranesh’s parents. He had limited experience in offering condolences to anyone. Vikram had told him that he would come to the airport with him but, as usual, had ditched at the last moment.

Nikhil’s phone rang. It was the driver. He held the instrument close to his ear and, without saying a word, disconnected.

‘This air traffic congestion at the Mumbai airport is the worst. The flight’s been delayed by another thirty minutes. Now I’ll have to spend another half an hour staring at your dirty face.’

‘Why boss? Would it have been better if that other babe were here?’

‘Which one?’

‘Zinaida! That girl who went all out to impress you yesterday. And from what I could make out, it worked.’ Nikhil went red with embarrassment. ‘Haha, very funny.’

Anand smiled. The silence returned. Nikhil fiddled with his BlackBerry for some time, and sent out a few messages, none of which were important. Then he returned to the unfinished conversation with Anand.

‘Tell me Anand, why can’t we get her as a relationship manager in our branch?’

‘In the Bandra branch?’

‘Right.’

‘How boss? One thing is for sure. If she comes to the Bandra branch, branch mein raunak aa jaayegi.’

‘Week after next, they will be allocated to various departments for their final postings. I know for sure she wanted to be in Retail Banking.’

‘How do you know, sir?’ Anand had a mischievous smile on his face.

Nikhil chose to ignore the taunt. ‘She’s fabulous looking. If we put her on the front line, no customer will be able to resist her charms. We will rock, month after month. If only we had more RMs as pretty as her.’