Devil in Pinstripes by Ravi Subramanian Read Free Book Online Page A

the sequence of events. He did not like being told to do things. Everyone knew that. On his part he would normally make sure that situations are not brought to a head in such a manner that they put him in a spot. He did not like being asked difficult questions. In this case he clearly was under pressure. An unexpected turn of events, not completely his doing, had put him in the limelight. He was wondering what to do when it dawned on him that he had company in that room.
    He quickly dialled his secretary’s number, ‘Melinda, please get me Moses. Ask him to come to my room now.’ Moses was the collections head for NYB. He was the one responsible for collecting money from the customers who did not pay back their loans. Quite a thug he looked. Six feet something, muscular and brawny, the story was that he had eight eggs for breakfast, followed by a jug full of apple juice. Nobody had seen him feasting in office though. Probably at breakfast he ate for the full day.
    Looking at Amit, he smiled. It was clearly one that was put on. Amit could easily tell. ‘Amit, I am so sorry. Something urgent has come up and it needs immediate attention. Can we meet some other time? I will ask Melinda to line up some time with you next week.’
    ‘Sure sir,’ Amit couldn’t have said anything else. He took the hint and walked out of the room, pitying Naveed Bilal, who had his car taken and bones broken for no fault of his. On his way out, he stopped at Melinda’s desk to thank her. It was not necessary, but Amit was just being courteous. From her table he could make out that Aditya was again having an animated conversation with Martin. It was a discussion which was surely going to last long. He turned and walked back to his desk. He had taken a few steps when Aditya walked out of his room and looked at Melinda. ‘Melinda, can you ask Prabhat to come in right now, before Moses.’ Amit didn’t understand the implication but was not naïve enough not to understand that it had everything to do with the call that Aditya received sometime back from New York.
    Prabhat, the head of Human Resources (HR), walked in within the next few minutes. He did not have the slightest inkling about why he was in that room. Aditya took some time and briefed him on his conversation with Martin. Moses joined them in another five minutes.
    ‘Go right in. They are waiting for you,’ chirped Melinda as he walked in.
    ‘Hi Moses,’ said everyone in chorus. Moses did not like the tone of the people present in the room. The drag was obvious. The mood was tense.
    ‘Something wrong?’
    ‘Yes,’ said Aditya, coming straight to the point. He shoved the printout of the WSJ article under his nose.
    ‘What’s this?’
    ‘What the fuck is this?’ said a shocked Moses after quickly glancing through the article.
    ‘That’s what I am asking you Moses.’
    ‘I know about this case. This customer’s car was wrongly repossessed. We had apologised and returned the car. The agent has been sacked and the agency which did the repossession has been warned. We even sent Naveed Bilal a cake and some flowers to his wife, along with an apology.’
    ‘Well, Mr Moses, clearly, that was not enough. This would not have happened otherwise.’ Aditya was furiously waving the copy of the article at him.
    Moses was a tough no-nonsense guy. ‘Aditya, these things have to be managed. In the collections line, if everything we do starts hitting the press, then all the pages of the daily newspaper would not be enough.’ And as an afterthought, he added, ‘You seem to have forgotten the days when you were in collections, Aditya.’
    Aditya looked at him. Moses had a wry smile on his face. The sarcasm was not lost on Aditya. What Moses was saying was right. What Aditya had done during his earlier days at collections was nothing different from what other collectors do. Mistakes do happen. It was an entirely different issue that ninety percent of the mistakes do not get