Free Devil in Pinstripes by Ravi Subramanian

the managing director of NFS, who was sent by NYB to oversee the integration, was too weak to take on the NFS coterie and soon, he too fell in line. Rather than take on the militant staff in NFS, he too joined them in the crusade against NYB.
    Gowri was in one of those defiant, anti-NYB moods, when he got a call on his internal line. It was the receptionist.
    ‘Yes Neelam?’
    ‘There’s a lady waiting to see you at the reception.’
    ‘Does she have an appointment?’ The call came to him because his secretary had not come in by then. In the normal course she would have left a printout of his schedule for the day on his table.
    ‘Yes Gowri. She says she has an appointment and that it was lined up last evening.’
    ‘What’s her name?’ A silent pause at this end, ‘. . . OKAY. She will have to wait for some time. Send her after about ten minutes.’
    ‘Sure Gowri,’ and the receptionist hung up. Gowri got busy with his emails.
    ‘Knock knock!’ his concentration was disturbed by someone at his cabin door. Through the glass, he could see a pretty young girl standing there holding a brown leather file in her hand. He looked up and nodded, asking her to come in. The girl was nervous and did not understand Gowri’s nod. This made him get up, walk to the door and open it for her. ‘I asked you to come in.’
    ‘Thank you sir,’ she said sheepishly.
    Gowri, held the door open till the lady had crossed him and then stretched his neck, looked outside in the direction of his secretary, who had not come in by then. He looked towards Manish’s secretary, who was normally quite punctual and shouted,
‘Do chai bolna
’. A second later, he looked at the lady seated in his room and asked her, ‘Will you have some tea?’ The demure thing didn’t have a choice and just nodded her head.
    Gowri came back and settled in his executive swivel chair.
    ‘Aditya had called me yesterday. Spoke to me about you. He obviously thinks very highly about you.’
    ‘He is just being kind sir.’
    ‘I know. I know . . . he is very kind,’ he said cheekily.
    After about thirty minutes of sarcastic conversation, he finally asked her, ‘So young lady, what kind of job would you like to do?’
    ‘Anything which is challenging and gives me an opportunity to learn new skills.’
    ‘Even a secretary’s job is challenging.’ When he saw that the comment was not appreciated, he softened. ‘Just kidding. Give me five minutes. Just wait outside my room, I will call you in.’
    When the girl had stepped outside, he picked up the phone and dialled a number. ‘Come to my room. We have to hire someone.’
    ‘Now?’
    ‘Yes, now. Please come quickly Sunil. I have lots of other stuff to catch up on.’
    He kept down the phone and dialled another number,
‘Kakke yaar, yahaan aana’
. Kakke was what Manish Kakkar was called in NFS.
    Kakke and Sunil (the head of HR) were in Gowri’s room in five minutes.
    ‘
Yaar, yeh bank walon ne toh is company ko dharamshala samajh rakha hai,
’ NYB was referred to as ‘The bank’ in NFS circles. Gowri was implying that the people from NYB were under the impression that NFS was like a free guesthouse, where they could park anyone they wanted to. He was irritated that the NYBankers had sent someone to him to hire and he did not have a choice.
    ‘Sunil, please hire her and give her a job.’ After a pause he added, ‘Any job, else that bastard Aditya will be after my life.’
    After another short bitching session about the bank, Sunil came out of the room. He looked around the office and called out loudly. ‘Chanda! Is Chanda here?’
    Chanda was sitting on a single-seater sofa on the other side of the hall. Hearing her name being called out, she stood up and started walking towards Sunil. ‘Yes sir, I am Chanda.’
    ‘Great. Chanda, come with me.’ Chanda quietly followed him to his office.
    By the end of the day, Chanda was hired by NYB Financial Services as a product executive in the personal