The night was getting long. The giant antique clock at the far end of the long room where Shailesh has his cabin chimed 1 am quietly. At the office reception foyer unopened dinner packets ordered by a few employees were lying unattended. The exceedingly sexually attractive receptionist with an appropriately seductive husky voice, over whom most men in the office would fantasise and wank at night, had left office at 6 pm, but no one missed her now. She was Shailesh's find. And Shailesh suspected that many men in the office settled for a lower pay simply because they were so enamoured with her. And those guys who left the company for a salary hike of even as low as Rs1-lakh were mostly gays. He could be partly right.
The expansive foyer was empty as retail and corporate customers were expected only during office hours. It's the frenetic pace with which deadlines and insurmountable targets were being met behind the reception area that could take a visitor's breath away. The buzz in the office even past midnight with bosses still at work would have really made a lot of competing foreign banks uncomfortable.
And the king who was overseeing his turnaround kingdom was Country Head Shailesh Kamdar. He did not show any kind of anxiety or fluster in most situations. At IIM Ahmedabad where he lectured on financial marketing he made it clear to students that he believed in a simple dictum and that is, "don't exhult in your success, even as you should not get too perturbed by your failures." But his foot soldiers were not as suave as him. They were vocal about their sleepless nights, stressful work pressures and unhealthy compulsions imposed by the their career in this foreign bank. That was, Shailesh knew, the most common topic at the coffee machine.
At the other end of the room was a cubicle that belonged to the most successful sales team chief Ravi Menon who was the secret behind the bank's incredible growth story in the last three years. Most people working with Shailesh would concur that Shailesh was just a cog in the wheel, Ravi was the star performer. Shailesh was only too aware of this and would treat Ravi with kid gloves. But today Ravi would have none of it. He was exuberant, and loudly so. He was speaking to someone on the phone when its about 01:16 am, and his colleagues wondered why would any of his friend be taking his calls at that hour. But Ravi's secret was far from the usual corporate gossip orbit, he was a bi and morally challenged at the same time, which was a dubious combination for any company to tolerate. Till now as the cat was still in the bag the board had not taken any objection, but there were a few higher ups in the company who were aware of his sexual predilections, because some of the IT team members had spilled the beans to the head office in Singapore over his internet browsing activities. Not that pornography was not the most popular pastime for people working in the bank's headquarters, it is simply his preference that was objectionable to many.
Ravi had a different take on these personal matters. His IT friend Vishwas Matre had over drinks explained to him that everything everyone would do on the internet was being tracked by the company for any deviant behaviour. But Ravi had this devil-may-care attitude that even rattled his seniors. Ravi knew well that his company cannot afford to lose him, and money makes the mare go!
When it was close to 3 am most people in the office were planning to go home and lay off for a full day. Shailesh had left office and Ravi sat in his reclining chair to take a nap. He closed his eyes and was having a strange dream of fighting for life in a ship that had capsized and another huge ship was about to overrun him in the water. Suddenly when his mobile phone on the desk rang he woke up with a start. He took some time to get accustomed to the strangeness of the place before he leaned forward to pick up his Blackberry. It was an unknown number calling him at 3:18 am. But he was not surprised. He picked up the call. The lady at the other end was speaking to him in Marathi.
"Is this Ravi Menon?"
"Yes, it is."
"Sir, your friend Vishwas Matre has got into an accident. I am calling from Sri Mohite hospital at Chakala, Amdheri. Can you come here quickly."
Ravi froze for a minute. Was this part of the bad dream that he was having and will he wake up from this soon, he thought.
"Yes, madam. I will be there in 10 minutes."
Ravi swung out of his chair, grabbed both his phones from the desk and scooted out of the place. No one in the office even noticed him disappear. It took less than 20 minutes for Ravi to reach Sri Mohite hospital. When Ravi reached the hospital he was met at the reception by a lady who was going through a thick pile of papers, which made Ravi wonder why should receptionists be rummaging through thick files. Those were the discharge papers, and she was doing the final round of checks. The young patient who was discharged was looking sprightly and eager to get out of hospital. Ravi looked at him for a long while and thought he must have been the hospital for at least a month. He had grown a lot of beard even though he was in his early 20s. The patient was still wearing the patient uniform which was light blue in colour. From the look of it, he was sure the patient was not wearing anything beneath the pyjamas and shirt. He wanted to fantasise over the young man who was recuperating but looked healthy and full of verve. A doctor along with two assistants walked towards him in quick strides and spoke in quiet considerate tones.
"Are you Ravi Menon?"
