02-01-2019, 03:24 PM
Ramesh
He was fidgeting in his hotel room at Singapore.
‘God! What do I need to do to convince these imbeciles!’ He banged a fist into his palm.
Two days back he had arrived in this wonderful land, whose beauty he could observe only through the car windows while commuting. Their counterparts at Singapore had taken good care of him. They had put him up in a nice hotel which faced a nightclub. A small but comfortable cubicle had been cleared for him for his work. Also, they had allotted Jim to assist him in all possible way. Jim who spoke mandarin fluently, was of immense help when he dealt with the client viz. the JHCorp or JHC for short. JHC was a multi national corporation primarily owned by Singaporeans of Chinese descent – they spoke halting English, were of old money, of lots of that, which was what mattered most.
“Damn! What do I do!” He slammed his fist again.
Yesterday, directly after lunch, Jim had taken him to the JHC hq and there he had made his first presentation before an audience of board members whose facial expressions were totally inscrutable for him. He had carried out his presentation with his usual flair and halfway through felt as if the proposal was agreed to in principle, considering the nods that he was getting all around. Later, he had been asked to wait outside, while the board mulled it over. The meeting inside had gone for over an hour and Jim had gone round the corner for a cup of coffee. He was chewing his nails, when they called him in. He was frantic for a second but Jim’s returning figure calmed his nerves. Both of them walked in.<
Inside, they were ready with the knives drawn out. Barely had they settled in when the barrage of questions started which Jim started translating for him. He was amazed at the depth and the variety of questions hurled at him. They asked him every tit bit of details on which his premises were built. What was the sample size? Which psychographic profiles had been targeted? What was the annual disposable income of the families concerned? What was the basis of the projections? What would be mid-level manpower requirement, their credentials … … the questions dragged on. He sighed. Everyone was looking at him. He could hear the pounding of his heart. He opened the backup spreadsheets and started to address a couple of their concerns. Problem was, it was his two junior colleagues who had done the spadework and they were the ones who had an answer for the missing links. The explanations he gave started to sound weak, even for himself. The sweat was building up behind his back now. He made the decision. The wizened owls who sat at the board room and who could barely speak passable English, were by no means to be taken for granted. JHC was certainly not going to cough up a million in investment unless they were completely satisfied of the soundness of his strategy. Clearly, he had underestimated them.
“Gentlemen”, he addressed them while Jim translated into mandarin simultaneously, “I completely agree with you that there are certain issues which need to be looked into with more depth. I am also extremely grateful for your having provided certain insights, without which, we would not be able to translate the strategies to reality. May I seek your indulgence for a continuation of this meeting tomorrow, where I am certain, I would be in a much better position to refine our approach to this project after consultation with our people back home.”
The grunts that followed gave no indication of their pleasure or displeasure at this request. Nor could Jim throw any light on it, on the way back. He had felt like a total idiot.
Immediately after return to office; he had a videoconferencing with his team back home. Preeti and the other two team members had observed how tensed up he had been.
“Take it easy Ramesh”, Preeti’s tone had been like a balm, “we will take care of all the issues. Expect a detailed reply in a couple of hours.”
He nodded and took another sip from a glass to wet his throat. “Thank goodness for the time difference”, he had commented. “Guys don’t let me down.”
“Even if it takes, all night, we will provide you with all the details”, one of the juniors had commented, “Just let us get to work.”
With a wave of his hand he had dismissed them. He was about to switch off the transmission when he remembered something.
“Hey Preeti, one sec. Just don’t blab anything to the boss. I will talk to him directly after tomorrow, ok.”
Preeti’s smiling face looked at him. “No issue, he is out meeting a client and said won’t be coming back today.”
“Yah ok”, he was relieved, “Say can I ask you a personal favor. Could you please call up my wife– just to see if she is ok?”
“Sure will do”, she had assured, “will do that tomorrow. That ok?”
“Yeah! Thanks.” He switched off and walked outside the conference room. Most of the work cubicles were deserted as the office staff were starting to walk out. An AVP on his way out asked him how he was getting along and if he would need anything. When he had mentioned having to stay late for the info from India, the AVP had instructed Jim to arrange for coffee and sandwiches for him before the latter left. Ramesh had returned to the conference room, opened his lappy and got to serious work.
His team members reverted later. Together, they got into serious some huddling while they sent him voluminous information. He was still in deep discussion when Preeti had interrupted and asked him to relent for the night and have some rest. With a shock, he realized that it was already 11 pm and he wound up the discussion. Picking up the remaining sandwiches, he had taken a taxi back to his hotel room. Entering inside, he had taken his office bag off and immediately opened the mini-bar and pulled out a couple of drinks. Emptying those, he had straight away hit the bed. He felt dead beat.
‘Will talk to Kajo in the morning …’, he murmured before turning sidewise and starting to snore softly.
* * *
Today had been entirely different. He had woken up slightly disoriented. Stretching his arms, he felt the lingering tension of the previous day in his limbs. Suddenly, he remembered the previous night’s discussion. He jolted out of the bed and hurried to the bathroom.
After a hurried breakfast, he had returned to the office. Setting out his papers, he had immediately started digging into the back-up material that his team had sent. Brows knit deep, he had made notes, cross-checked references and mentally made up his defense; all the while the coffee had gone cold. By the time, he had his lunch with Jim, his old confidence was back. He felt reasonably surefooted with his own presentation. He had made the mistake of taking JHC for granted.
‘Today he would be cautious and today he would secure the deal.’ That is what he had said to himself before setting out.
‘Damn!’, it was evening now and he slammed his fist again for the umpteenth time. He looked at the mobile screen, wondering why Mr. Rao was not taking his call. Had he got scent of today’s happening.
Despite himself, his mind played back the happening at today’s client meeting. Brimming with confidence he had addressed all their queries and misgivings of the day before. There were cheerful nods from most of them. It was then that the carnage had begun. Mr. Ching, a frail looking man, who had posed no questions yesterday and who he later found out to be their marketing head had started making his speech. He spoke slowly, in an even cadence but there was no mistaking his authoritative assertions. Bit by bit, he explained, why the project would not work. He was versatile with both facts and reasoning. In the half an hour that he proffered his views; the room had fallen completely silent. Even as a drop of sweat started trickling down his sideburns, Ramesh felt his whole proposal being stripped off its logic base and being reduced to a cipher. Instinctively he had started to protest, to give his side of the logic and Ching had listened to him politely before dismantling the points with the acumen of a zen master. A couple of more injunctions from him and at that point the Chairman had stepped in and saved him from complete humiliation.
“Mr. Ramesh”, he had spoken kindly, “I believe, this proposal, we need not to have, what you say - rush, yes rush. Let all of us think a little more.”
That was the suckerpunch delivered. There was no mistaking what he had meant. In simple words they had told him to fuck off.
Jim had dropped him at the hotel. The first thing that came to his mind was to call up Mr. Rao and appraise him of the developments. It was his first independent assignment and the results were for all to see.
From his hotel room, he put the call to Mr. Rao. Surprisingly, he didn’t answer even after a couple of tries.
“Damn, damn, damn!” He punched at the nearby pillow.
He was fidgeting in his hotel room at Singapore.
‘God! What do I need to do to convince these imbeciles!’ He banged a fist into his palm.
Two days back he had arrived in this wonderful land, whose beauty he could observe only through the car windows while commuting. Their counterparts at Singapore had taken good care of him. They had put him up in a nice hotel which faced a nightclub. A small but comfortable cubicle had been cleared for him for his work. Also, they had allotted Jim to assist him in all possible way. Jim who spoke mandarin fluently, was of immense help when he dealt with the client viz. the JHCorp or JHC for short. JHC was a multi national corporation primarily owned by Singaporeans of Chinese descent – they spoke halting English, were of old money, of lots of that, which was what mattered most.
“Damn! What do I do!” He slammed his fist again.
Yesterday, directly after lunch, Jim had taken him to the JHC hq and there he had made his first presentation before an audience of board members whose facial expressions were totally inscrutable for him. He had carried out his presentation with his usual flair and halfway through felt as if the proposal was agreed to in principle, considering the nods that he was getting all around. Later, he had been asked to wait outside, while the board mulled it over. The meeting inside had gone for over an hour and Jim had gone round the corner for a cup of coffee. He was chewing his nails, when they called him in. He was frantic for a second but Jim’s returning figure calmed his nerves. Both of them walked in.<
Inside, they were ready with the knives drawn out. Barely had they settled in when the barrage of questions started which Jim started translating for him. He was amazed at the depth and the variety of questions hurled at him. They asked him every tit bit of details on which his premises were built. What was the sample size? Which psychographic profiles had been targeted? What was the annual disposable income of the families concerned? What was the basis of the projections? What would be mid-level manpower requirement, their credentials … … the questions dragged on. He sighed. Everyone was looking at him. He could hear the pounding of his heart. He opened the backup spreadsheets and started to address a couple of their concerns. Problem was, it was his two junior colleagues who had done the spadework and they were the ones who had an answer for the missing links. The explanations he gave started to sound weak, even for himself. The sweat was building up behind his back now. He made the decision. The wizened owls who sat at the board room and who could barely speak passable English, were by no means to be taken for granted. JHC was certainly not going to cough up a million in investment unless they were completely satisfied of the soundness of his strategy. Clearly, he had underestimated them.
“Gentlemen”, he addressed them while Jim translated into mandarin simultaneously, “I completely agree with you that there are certain issues which need to be looked into with more depth. I am also extremely grateful for your having provided certain insights, without which, we would not be able to translate the strategies to reality. May I seek your indulgence for a continuation of this meeting tomorrow, where I am certain, I would be in a much better position to refine our approach to this project after consultation with our people back home.”
The grunts that followed gave no indication of their pleasure or displeasure at this request. Nor could Jim throw any light on it, on the way back. He had felt like a total idiot.
Immediately after return to office; he had a videoconferencing with his team back home. Preeti and the other two team members had observed how tensed up he had been.
“Take it easy Ramesh”, Preeti’s tone had been like a balm, “we will take care of all the issues. Expect a detailed reply in a couple of hours.”
He nodded and took another sip from a glass to wet his throat. “Thank goodness for the time difference”, he had commented. “Guys don’t let me down.”
“Even if it takes, all night, we will provide you with all the details”, one of the juniors had commented, “Just let us get to work.”
With a wave of his hand he had dismissed them. He was about to switch off the transmission when he remembered something.
“Hey Preeti, one sec. Just don’t blab anything to the boss. I will talk to him directly after tomorrow, ok.”
Preeti’s smiling face looked at him. “No issue, he is out meeting a client and said won’t be coming back today.”
“Yah ok”, he was relieved, “Say can I ask you a personal favor. Could you please call up my wife– just to see if she is ok?”
“Sure will do”, she had assured, “will do that tomorrow. That ok?”
“Yeah! Thanks.” He switched off and walked outside the conference room. Most of the work cubicles were deserted as the office staff were starting to walk out. An AVP on his way out asked him how he was getting along and if he would need anything. When he had mentioned having to stay late for the info from India, the AVP had instructed Jim to arrange for coffee and sandwiches for him before the latter left. Ramesh had returned to the conference room, opened his lappy and got to serious work.
His team members reverted later. Together, they got into serious some huddling while they sent him voluminous information. He was still in deep discussion when Preeti had interrupted and asked him to relent for the night and have some rest. With a shock, he realized that it was already 11 pm and he wound up the discussion. Picking up the remaining sandwiches, he had taken a taxi back to his hotel room. Entering inside, he had taken his office bag off and immediately opened the mini-bar and pulled out a couple of drinks. Emptying those, he had straight away hit the bed. He felt dead beat.
‘Will talk to Kajo in the morning …’, he murmured before turning sidewise and starting to snore softly.
* * *
Today had been entirely different. He had woken up slightly disoriented. Stretching his arms, he felt the lingering tension of the previous day in his limbs. Suddenly, he remembered the previous night’s discussion. He jolted out of the bed and hurried to the bathroom.
After a hurried breakfast, he had returned to the office. Setting out his papers, he had immediately started digging into the back-up material that his team had sent. Brows knit deep, he had made notes, cross-checked references and mentally made up his defense; all the while the coffee had gone cold. By the time, he had his lunch with Jim, his old confidence was back. He felt reasonably surefooted with his own presentation. He had made the mistake of taking JHC for granted.
‘Today he would be cautious and today he would secure the deal.’ That is what he had said to himself before setting out.
‘Damn!’, it was evening now and he slammed his fist again for the umpteenth time. He looked at the mobile screen, wondering why Mr. Rao was not taking his call. Had he got scent of today’s happening.
Despite himself, his mind played back the happening at today’s client meeting. Brimming with confidence he had addressed all their queries and misgivings of the day before. There were cheerful nods from most of them. It was then that the carnage had begun. Mr. Ching, a frail looking man, who had posed no questions yesterday and who he later found out to be their marketing head had started making his speech. He spoke slowly, in an even cadence but there was no mistaking his authoritative assertions. Bit by bit, he explained, why the project would not work. He was versatile with both facts and reasoning. In the half an hour that he proffered his views; the room had fallen completely silent. Even as a drop of sweat started trickling down his sideburns, Ramesh felt his whole proposal being stripped off its logic base and being reduced to a cipher. Instinctively he had started to protest, to give his side of the logic and Ching had listened to him politely before dismantling the points with the acumen of a zen master. A couple of more injunctions from him and at that point the Chairman had stepped in and saved him from complete humiliation.
“Mr. Ramesh”, he had spoken kindly, “I believe, this proposal, we need not to have, what you say - rush, yes rush. Let all of us think a little more.”
That was the suckerpunch delivered. There was no mistaking what he had meant. In simple words they had told him to fuck off.
Jim had dropped him at the hotel. The first thing that came to his mind was to call up Mr. Rao and appraise him of the developments. It was his first independent assignment and the results were for all to see.
From his hotel room, he put the call to Mr. Rao. Surprisingly, he didn’t answer even after a couple of tries.
“Damn, damn, damn!” He punched at the nearby pillow.
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