The Bestseller She Wrote (32 page)

‘Hey. Sorry I kept you waiting,’ Sanjay said as he walked into the room. He patted Aditya and sat down in front of him.

‘What happened?’

‘I wanted to show you this,’ said Sanjay. From the neat pile on his table, he pulled out a small bunch of papers and gave it to him. Aditya looked at the papers and looked back at Sanjay.

‘Some asshole in Kolkata has filed a case against us,’ Sanjay informed him, thereby saving Aditya the trouble of going through the papers.

‘Why?’

‘He claims he has been wrongly laid off, for no fault of his. Though actually his performance ratings tell a different story.’

‘Okay. So?’

‘The court has issued summons in our names; our personal names. The Kolkata lawyer has asked for some clarifications to respond. I called you so that we can respond jointly and send it across.’

‘Okay,’ Aditya said, and started reading the papers.

‘Sir, we are ready to cut the cake,’ a junior HR officer, knocked on the open door and announced.

‘Cake?’ Aditya asked, looking up from the document he was reading.

‘Birthday?’

‘Whose?’

‘Mine?’

‘Yours? Crap!’ Aditya exclaimed. ‘Yours is not until day after tomorrow.’

‘I am not in office tomorrow and am on leave the day after. So these guys are doing the cake-cutting today.’

‘Wow! Then you go ahead. I am taking these papers. I’ll send them back once I am done. Let me leave you in peace.’ Aditya got up to leave. He looked around for one last time. ‘Wonder how you read these Baldaccis and Grishams and Pattersons,’ he said, commenting on the books that Sanjay had displayed in his room.

‘Because I don’t write books, I get time to read them. But the flip side is that because I don’t write books, I don’t get the fame which you guys usurp,’ Sanjay joked as Aditya made a face. ‘Nor do we get the adulation from women,’ he cheekily added.

75

D
IANA HAD PLANNED
a party to bring in Sanjay’s birthday. That afternoon she went to Aditya’s cabin, to chat with him about the guest list.

‘Going home early today?’ Aditya asked after she had discussed the small invitee list with him.

‘Hopefully . . . If some generous souls help.’

‘Why? What is holding you back?’

‘I have to submit the first cut of the cost control project today and Tim’s biggest business line has not given in their submissions. Unless I close it, I won’t be able to go home.’

‘Work in progress, Diana,’ Aditya smiled. ‘It is almost done. I had sent you something yesterday, more coming in today.’

‘I was planning to leave by four,’ Diana said. ‘Is it possible to send your stuff by then?’

‘Oh shit. Hold on then,’ Aditya quickly opened his mail on his laptop and scanned through them. ‘Shankar should have sent it. He is normally very particular about deadlines.’ There was a pause as both of them stared into the email inbox. ‘Aah . . . here it is,’ Aditya breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Diana. ‘Sorry, Diana, let me go through it and send it to you ASAP.’

‘If you don’t mind, we can go through it together. It’ll save me time too.’

‘Be my guest.’ Aditya opened the entire worksheet, which Shankar had sent him. There were twelve expense management initiatives listed on that sheet, which would help cut branch banking costs by 10 per cent. Aditya went through all of them and found some to be very immature.

‘If I send these to Tim, he will have me for breakfast,’ he said as he ran through the proposed cost-cutting initiatives. ‘Rubbish. What crap is this? “Reduce stationery cost by controlling distribution of pens. Programme printer to print both sides to save paper . . . Use of internal chats instead of mobile phones during the day . . .” We need to refine these,’ he said as he moved on to the page marked “Issues in Cost Allocation”.’

On that sheet, Shankar had sent him a listing of all expenses which had been allocated to Branch Banking but actually pertained to other businesses. ‘These expenses do not pertain to the branch banking business. These should not have been debited to us,’ Shankar had written as one of the recommendations.

‘These have to be reversed out from the branch banking expenses and debited to the correct business lines,’ Aditya said to Diana.

He looked down at the list of expenses. First on the list was the rental of an office they had let go. The corporate bank had taken up their space. The rent was still being debited to Aditya’s team. He had raised the issue with the property services team too but no one had done anything.

‘Include this in your list. I will take it up and get it done,’ Diana volunteered.

‘There are thirty people listed here whose salaries are being debited to me. But they don’t belong to branch banking,’ Aditya said as he moved down the list.

‘Expenses pertaining to the following staff, in other units, are being debited to branch banking,’ Aditya read out loud as his eyes scanned the list. ‘Nothing extraordinary about this . . . Happens all the time.’ He moved on to the next point.

‘Hold it. Go back, go back,’ Diana called out.

‘What happened?’ Aditya asked her, scrolling back to the previous point.

‘Isn’t Shreya in your team?’

‘Don’t you know that?’ a surprised Aditya asked.

‘Why does her name figure in the list which, according to Shankar, is of people belonging to other units whose expenses have been debited to you?’

‘Aah. That’s because all MTs are on HR rolls. Maybe that’s why Shankar wants to reverse out her expenses from our cost centre to HR cost centre,’ said Aditya as he casually clicked on the expenses mentioned against Shreya’s name which Shankar had claimed to be incorrect.

‘All regular expenses,’ Diana declared as she quietly scanned it.

‘I sign off all her expenses,’ Aditya claimed.

‘I am sure,’ said Diana. ‘Who else will? Let’s move on.’

Aditya moved the cursor to go back to the earlier page, but stopped. He didn’t click. He was staring at the worksheet.

‘Aditya,’ Diana called out. He didn’t hear her.

She touched his shoulder and called out his name again, ‘Aditya.’

‘There is a travel claim of 24,000 rupees for official travel and hotel stay. She never travelled on work. More importantly, I don’t remember having approved any such bill for her.’

‘It could be someone else’s bill which they wrongly showed under Shreya’s name. Ask for the reimbursement voucher from Accounts. We will get to know.’

‘True,’ said Aditya as he moved on. His mind was still on the voucher. After a couple of minutes, he called Shankar. ‘Shreya’s travel bill of 24,000 . . . Can you please show me the copy of the bill? If you don’t have it, get it from Accounts.’

‘I have it here, sir. I asked for copies of all the contentious bills. I’ll mail it to you.’

In no time, the bills were in Aditya’s Inbox. He clicked it open.

‘Travel to Goa for recce of an off-site? What’s going on?’ he exclaimed as he scrolled down to the bottom of the voucher where the approver’s signature was. The moment they saw it, Diana froze. ‘It cannot be,’ Diana said as Aditya turned and looked at her.

‘Maybe it’s a mistake.’

‘No it’s not.’

‘Are you . . .’ Aditya began but before he could finish, Diana shook her head. ‘No. It can’t be. I may have many imperfections, Aditya, but a bad memory is definitely not one of them.’

Aditya was perplexed. He wondered what the hell was going on. He repeated his question, ‘Are you sure you didn’t approve the voucher, Diana? 100 per cent sure?’

Diana looked equally baffled. ‘Let’s confront her,’ she said.

‘Hold it, Diana. Let’s think this through. Confronting her will make matters worse. Let’s ask Sanjay. Let’s see what he recommends,’ he suggested. Diana looked upset. Aditya stared at her hand—her fingers moved subconsciously, pen in her hand. She was nervously scribbling on some paper on Aditya’s table. That’s when it struck him. The doodles! Aditya had seen them before. Despite the chaos in his mind, this time, he clearly remembered where he had seen them.

‘Have you read Wendy Doniger, Diana?’ Aditya asked calmly.

‘What?’ The question surprised Diana. ‘What does Wendy Doniger have to do with all this?’

76

T
HE DISCUSSION WITH
Diana after the discovery of Shreya’s false expense claim had got Aditya worried. He wanted to get to the bottom of this.

He looked at the phone and dialled another extension.

‘Siddharth Ananth’s office,’ an impersonal voice sounded out.

‘Put me through to Ananth please.’

‘Sure, Aditya.’ The secretary’s tone changed to a very pleasant one, the moment she figured out that it was Aditya.

‘Hey, superstar! When is your next book coming out?’ Ananth came on the line. He was the corporate banking head of National Bank.

‘Some time away, boss. The last one came out only a couple of months back.’

‘Oh yes, I read it. The one based on your own love story—yours and Maya’s—was fabulous. I loved it.’

‘Thanks, Ananth.’

‘Tell me. What can I do for you?’

‘Taj Hotels.’

‘What about them?’

‘They are a large account for us, right?’

‘One of the biggest.’

‘I need some information from them,’ Aditya said and then went on to outline what he wanted.

‘Not sure if they will oblige but I will try,’ Ananth said. ‘Promise me that you will not make me a character in your book,’ he added, laughing.

‘Haha! If you are good to me I might consider this request.’

‘Bastard,’ Ananth laughed and cut the call.

In twenty minutes Ananth called back. ‘They will take a day to get the information you wanted. Will that be okay?’

‘Should be fine, Ananth. Thanks a ton,’ Aditya said and disconnected the call.

The same afternoon, Aditya was in his cabin, thinking of the discussion with Diana and Ananth.

His phone rang. The name Ram Kumar flashed on his screen.

‘Can you pick me up in the evening today? I don’t want to land up with my hair in a mess.’

‘Sure. At nine?’

‘Done,’ Shreya said and hung up.

The moment Aditya hung up and kept the phone on the table, it hit him like a bullet. How did he miss it? Hurriedly he went back and checked the call log on his iPhone. The night that he had called Maya to discuss the divorce papers—the calls pertaining to that night was what he wanted to see. He had not made more than a hundred calls after that night. The log was still on his iPhone.

His eyes grew wider as he checked his phone. He started sweating. Unable to fathom what was happening, he kept the phone down on the table and leaned back on his chair and shut his eyes.
What was going on
?

After a lot of thought, he opened his eyes, reached out for his mobile phone, and dialled a number.

‘I have a hypothesis,’ he said on the phone. He went on to lay his entire theory threadbare.

‘Can you prove it? Evidence?’ The voice on the other side asked.

‘Circumstantial at best,’ Aditya confessed.

77

S
ANJAY’S BIRTHDAY PARTY
was a very personal affair. There were about twelve people in all—Aditya, Shreya, Diana, a couple of Diana and Sanjay’s friends, Sunaina; who had accompanied Shreya, and a few others.

Sanjay was thrilled. Diana had bought a Bose music system for him; something which he had been planning to buy for a long time.

Aditya picked up Shreya and Sunaina and came in around ten. He had not discussed the details of the expense voucher with her. He had agreed with Diana that they would decide the next course of action only after speaking with Sanjay.

Shreya was wearing a dress. Flaunting a smokey eyeshadow comprising shades of black and grey, she looked gorgeous. A fair complexion darkened a bit by the bronzer, added to her sensuality. A single strand pearl necklace around her slender neck and hair parted in the centre, she looked every inch a stylish corporate executive in party mode. Sunaina in comparison was soberly dressed.

Music from the seventies was blaring from Sanjay’s new sound system. Everyone was having a good time. Sanjay, who was a good singer, took to the microphone and sang along with the recorded music. The karaoke was an instant hit. Shreya hung around Aditya and enjoyed her drink, occasionally chatting up Diana and the others.

At 11.45 the doorbell rang. Diana ran to open it. When she walked back into the room, Aditya was stunned. Shreya stood up from where she was; the glass of wine almost slipped from her hand. Standing at the door, next to Diana, was Maya. She was looking her gorgeous self in blue denims with a white designer shirt, tucked in. With minimal make-up and her hair tied up in a pony, she looked beautiful. Sanjay took the lead and walked up to her. ‘So nice to see you, Maya,’ he said as he gave her a hug. ‘You are looking lovely.’