| |
––––––––
Smriti rushed to Mr. Ram Kapoor’s cabin. He was panicking.
“Smriti, what’s going on? I received a call from the company. The IPO process is over. But where is that blasted underwriting agreement that we had promised them?” asked Kapoor.
Smriti looked blank. She was gasping for breath.
“I really don’t know. I wasn’t involved in the matter. I think you had asked Amit to send you the finished agreement?” asked Smriti.
“Yah. I did. But why wasn’t it delivered on time? What’s wrong with this guy?” wondered Kapoor with his tone becoming angrier.
“I really don’t know, Sir. He is very lax about meeting deadlines. I mean he does a great job but I don’t think he can handle pressure well,” said Smriti in a sympathetic tone.
“Anyway. What’s next? Are we saying that we sent the company to the IPO process without their insurance that they have already paid for? What if their shares were undersubscribed?” queried Kapoor.
“Sir, if you let me handle this matter, I may come up with a way out,” Smriti suggested.
“Go on. I give you full responsibility,” said Kapoor.
Smriti immediately got up and rushed out.
***
At 5 P.M., Smriti came back to Mr. Ram Kapoor’s cabin to update him regarding the matter of the missing underwriting agreement.
“Sir, I spoke to the company officials and the merchant bankers. The shares were fortunately oversubscribed, so the company is safe. They really didn’t need an underwriting agreement. But their major concern was something else,” said Smriti.
Kapoor nodded looking tired.
“The company officials feared that they might be open to an inquiry if it was found out that they hadn’t signed the underwriting agreement before going ahead with the IPO. So what I did was that I back dated the agreement, as if the agreement had happened before the IPO process, and have got all the parties including the merchant bankers to happily sign on the dotted line. Now if any enquiry is ever ordered, only this copy will be seen in the company’s books,” said Smriti.
Mr. Ram Kapoor heaved a sigh of relief.
“Smriti, you have done a great job. You have once again saved this firm.”
Smriti became emotional, her eyes teary once again.
“Sir, as you know, my mom’s not well. But still I worked extra hours to ensure that everything worked smoothly. It’s a shame that though Amit has a good grasp of things but he doesn’t bother to deliver things on time. Poor fellow, may be recently he has been under a lot of stress,” said Smriti.
“Oh no doubt, Smriti. I am very impressed with your performance. You definitely deserve a promotion this time,” said Kapoor.
Smriti smiled and nodded. She wiped away a tear that was about to drop out on the floor.
“It’s a pity. I had a lot of expectations from this young man. But sadly I was mistaken,” said Kapoor, “Anyways all the best.”
Smriti thanked him and got up to leave. She had finally secured her promotion, something she had been waiting for the past six years. She knew that she had to destroy Amit’s career in order to build hers, and she had no qualms doing that.
After all, this was corporate life. She had to play dirty. At least sometimes. And what about Amit’s future? She thought that he got what he deserved. He was the next closest thing to her ‘Prince-Charming’. There were moments when she loved him for what he was.
But he turned out to be just like any other man. He broke her heart. At least others didn’t pretend to be nice to her as he did. How many times he had refused to buy her mom’s medicine citing that this was personal work, when he knew how sick her mother was. How insensitive could that be?
She had asked him to buy her dad’s birthday cake once and he refused. Once they were working late at night and she had asked him to drop her back home. He said he lived in the other direction and it was not his duty to take care of her. She begged him. She reminded him that he was a man and it was his duty to take care of women.
And what did he do? He very rudely asked her to hire a cab and go back home the way everyone did. Where was his chivalry then? He had it coming. If he needed to blame anyone, he should blame that Naina girl.
Smriti had warned him to stay away from her. But he never listened. He let her poison his mind. It was then his and hers just desserts that had to come their way.
***
A few days earlier...
It was 11 P.M. Amit and Smriti were working together in Conference Room 1101. Amit’s eyes were red. He had just polished the underwriting agreement and was going through it one last time. He made some more minor corrections and was ready to send the document.
“Smriti, I am done with the agreement. Since you were the one involved during the negotiation process, would you like to review the document to ensure everything is okay 0r should I send it off to all parties?” asked Amit.
“Yah, why not? Mail it to me and oh, don’t mark it to Mr. Ram Kapoor. You know he gets very mad reading the first, unpolished, drafts,” said Smriti.
Amit thought for a second. She was right. The last time something like that had happened, a file came flying at him. That was also a first draft that his intern had sent to Mr. Kapoor directly. He certainly didn’t like reading first drafts.
And this agreement was way more serious than that other draft. Plus it was also appraisal time. He did not want to create a bad impression on Mr. Ram Kapoor.
So Amit attached the agreement and sent the e-mail to Smriti without marking a copy to Mr. Ram Kapoor.
Smriti opened the document and cursorily went through it.
“No, Amit. Don’t send it up yet. This document still needs some work. I also want to add a few points that we had negotiated,” said Smriti.
“You sure?” asked Amit.
“Yes. Don’t worry I’ll take care of this matter from here onwards. Your job is done,” said Smriti with a smile.
“Okay. Thanks,” said Amit and smiled back.
