chapter 17
1064 Words
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is CyberSafe’s patented triple-layered
safety protocol system that we plan to implement in your bank. The most
secure safety solution in the market today' I said, concluding my
presentation. The group of eight men and women continued to sit
motionless in front of me. Forget applause, I would have settled for a small
grunt of approval or a one-wo rd comment like ‘interesting’ or even ‘okay’.
No such luck. People who work in corporates have every bit of lifeblood
sucked out of them. They don’t react with enthusiasm. They simply exist
and breathe, as if waiting for their eventual funeral.
‘I finished my presentation, guys' I said, in an attempt to bring the eight
frozen faces in front of me back to life.
The oldest person in the client group, a gentleman with a French beard
called Mr Nandy, finally broke the silence.
'That is all very good, but what would this package cost us?’
‘My colleague, who has been budgeting this, will answer that' I said.
I turned to Saurabh. He was engrossed in his phone.
‘Saurabh?’ I said. He continued to type a message with both hands.
‘Saurabh?’ Jacob, our boss, who was sitting next to Saurabh, spoke up.
‘Present, sir' Saurabh said in reflex, as if in class. He looked up from his
phone.
‘The client wants to know the annual maintenance budget on this' Jacob
said, and then hissed, ‘The client, Saurabh.’
‘Yes, yes, sir' Saurabh said. ‘One second.’ He opened his laptop.
‘Sorry, what was the question again, sir?’
‘What the hell were you doing?' I said to Saurabh.
We were in a shared Uber taxi. We had just left our office in Cyberhub
Gurgaon for the Porsche showroom in South Extension. No other rider was
in the car with us yet.
‘Fixing a meeting with Namrata. And trying to locate Neeraj Arora.’
‘In the middle of a client presentation?’
‘I don’t care. I am obsessed with the case. I have to find out who did
this to Prerna. Anyway we are meeting Namrata this Friday.’
‘What did you tell her? Why are we coming?’
‘I told her I’m quite disturbed. Want to talk to people who knew Prerna
well, etc.’
I looked at Saurabh with disapproval.‘What?’ he said.
‘Did she buy it? Sounds a bit strange.’
'What else could I have said? I can’t say we are investigating. I can’t say
I want to hang out.’
'Did you try the “we want to pitch CyberSafe” thing?’
'That’s even more unbelievable. My fiancee and her co-founder died
two weeks ago and I want to pitch business to her? Had to be an emotional
reason.’
The driver pulled up on the side of the road. A girl in her early twenties
got into the taxi. She sat in the front, but her three big shopping bags full of
clothes wouldn’t fit there.
‘I’m sorry, can I put them in the back?’ she said.
'Sure,’ I said and smiled.
'Thanks. I’m Ruchi, by the way,’ she said, brushing back a lock of hair
from her forehead.
‘I know,’ I said, pointing to the Uber app on the driver’s phone, which
showed the names of the riders.
'Oh' she said and laughed. ‘Good to meet you.’
‘Keshav,’ I said, and extended my hand. ‘Big shopping day?’
Over the last year, I had perfected a method of talking to women. Play it
cool, show some interest but don’t be too keen, and pitch a date fast.
‘Yes,’ she said. 'Going on a holiday with friends to Goa soon. And I had
no clothes.’
‘Or rather, you needed an excuse to buy new clothes? I grinned.
‘True. But a girl doesn't need an excuse to buy clothes? she said with a
laugh. I noticed she had the cutest nose.
Saurabh gave me a dirty look. Sure, I had deviated from our discussion.
But a) he had booked the share cab as he is cheap and wanted to save
money and b) why should I leave an easy score?
Our cab reached Ramesh’s Porsche showroom and stopped outside.
‘You here to shop too?’ Ruchi said, surprised by the stop at the luxury
car showroom.
‘A man doesn’t need an excuse to buy cars? I said and winked. I think
she believed it for a second. I guess it hadn’t struck her yet that a supposed
Porsche buyer had arrived in a shared Wagon R taxi. We exchanged smiles.
I pointed at my phone, to check if she wanted to exchange numbers.The driver seemed to be in a hurry to leave and began to move the car
as soon as Saurabh stepped out.
‘RuchiWanderer on Insta? she shouted as the driver sped off.
‘Wrong. So wrong? Saurabh said. We walked towards the showroom.
‘What’s so wrong?’ I said.
‘Bhai, she is young. Seems to be in college?
‘Don’t discriminate on age. As long as they are adults?
‘And I know you are not serious. This would be another of your flings?
‘Hook-ups, yes. She isn’t looking for anything serious either, Golu. Just
timepass.’
‘What has happened to you, bhai? You used to be all about everlasting
true love?
‘I was stupid. I don’t believe in all that anymore?
‘What?’
‘True love doesn’t exist. The world is selfish. Nobody really cares about
anyone?
‘Really? What about Prerna and me? Why are you giving so much time
to this case? You do care?
‘I like solving riddles?
‘That’s not true, bhai. There’s more.. ?
‘Shh. Now where in this parking can we can find Anwar? And why do
they have so many security guards all around the showroom?’
- Writer
