Another Day

It was that time of the day again. That time of the day when I hate my fiancé. When she calls on my mobile in the morning and tries to coo in my ear, “Hi honey, good morning, time to get up. Wont you have to get to office. Get ready soon, me too need to get going.” I mean, argh! Lets leave it to that. Sloppy brush swipes, razor swaps, quick browse through the headlines of the Economic Times as I emanate weird sounds from my bowels over the commode, seems to remove the lethargy quite a bit. And on the customary manner at the kitchen table, I try to empty the cereals over the cold milk of last night while Power Breakfast on CNBC blares that Asian markets are off to a north westerly direction today which means the expiry for tomorrow would be smoother, the roll over volumes higher as I try to fathom, is this chick for real? After having shoved spoonfuls of the concoction in, having a quick instruction for the bai – bhartha and roti should it be for tonight, two should be fine, am really getting that bald corpulent look too soon.

The next hour is a breeze. Queue up at the station, get jabbed in by the crowd, spare a thought for the Lord if I get to sit, snooze off or chatter with the guy with that new iphone on challengers trophy, the new Inorbit Mall, spanking Deejays coming to Navi Mumbai, real estate prices correction, narrowing career choices and if you are in an American financial institution as most people these days are – the gloom of the impending bonus season and thank heavens that we are still with a job, but such are some of the advantages of being in an emerging market. I find myself burping as I am smothered in the cab for another of those journeys where uncle on my left pats feverishly on his blackberry, while uncle on the right is really bothered about his receivables, damn it, its never aunties; better sport my blackberry as well. The only flavor of the season seems to be the fact that the India England match today is a day nighter, enough reason to leave office early.

The sardar gateman at the Oberoi always seem to be the same person to me. He looks to grow old these days, but gives his astute salaam again. These days he smiles to me and often I smile back. I really find little time in office these days, sinking under loads of investment proposals sent by various investment banks for proposed equity infusions into companies and projects at various stages, today being particularly funny. I mean how can you have outsourced recreation centers who manage and arrange parties, picnics and outings for, hold your breath, pets. My boss, a really cranky fellow, says it could mean serious business, which means, I really need to pretend to pore over it. Cynical fool inside the cabin and sarcastic thespian here doing nothing.

Shuffling between windows as I check the score of the match, my boss screams – we got a meeting for the lost mandate for last week and be ready by 8 30. These days, I can predict what his real camoflauge would be. Just around an hour before the meeting he would say, “M, I got another important appointment, I just cant afford to miss; hope you can take care of this.” Only this time I got P as fodder with me, who scowls at me in chagrin while I grin. Ok now I really need to take her down to the coffee shop to calm her temper.

The client with his entourage of one, his wife, comes in 15 minutes early today. Pleasantries, card exchanges, soft drinks and cribbing about weather, the Mumbai traffic later, we are into serious business. These are guys providing capemax and VLCC ships for cargo transfer. The promoter group is a lively young couple who have inherited the business from his father, who has successfully run the same for almost fifty years. Now that shipping rates have fallen, and most shipping companies world wide find hard to find credit, they have found a Greek shipping company dirt cheap for a really opportunistic acquisition. But the same is too much for their means and hence they want us to provide equity infusion. P seemed to have gone asleep by the time the business section had come during the presentation. But as soon as the valuation notes came out along with the Greek shipper details and its business credentials, she was right into action.

P is an expert on anything man made that floats on water. She had been a consultant to one of the largest global oil rig manufacturers and charterers for over 5 years. Post the same she had joined our fund five years ago. She is a wiz at NAV valuations for floating objects. She attentively looked at the numbers and took notes, while I looked at the watch. Yawn! “Shall we order for dinner?” I heard myself say as I saw a smile on P through the corner of my eye. “Oh its already 9 20 honey,” the promoter wife said. “We did not realize it was so late, sorry for keeping you guys back.” “Oh no, not a problem,” muttered P under clenched teeth as she showed me on her blackberry that Sehwag was really in full flow in response to the English batting. Another marauding in store at Cuttack. “Actually, we have a cocktail at the ball room. And we love the Tiffins as well, so we will pick up a quick snack. We will just head off, you guys want to come?” went on the wife.“Oh no please, we are quite ok.” said I and looked at P, still fingering her blackberry. We shook hands and pledged to come back with our termsheets for the proposed project soon as we escorted the couple to the elevator.

When the elevator came, P and I thought of joining them to have a gasp of fresh air before we came back, packed up and headed home. The promoter deliberated on how this could be an opportune time that would change business landscape forever. With huge institutions falling by the wayside, it could be the emergence of newer businesses and leaderships that could form epitomes of the new world business order. The lift kept on its downward journey 11 – 10 – 9 -. This would be the time, he went on, when newer sectors would turn out to be industry leaders and Indian shipping had the potential to be one. 8 – 7 – 6 - . With the Indian exports increasing like never before, India could become the next supply hub for global resources and talent. 5 – 4 – 3 -. And with a value driven tradition, and the will and drive to toil hard, and especially the blessings of Laxmi by our side, as he looked lovingly at his wife, no one could stop our growth path. 2 – 1 – 0 -. The only pitfalls seems to be port capacity. Ting! But with private public participation, we are sure to win it now… Whirrr.. Door Open. Rat – tat – tat – tat.

My hand went instinctively at our floor button on the elevator and I am yet to explain why. As the door whirred back, I could just see the promoter and his Laxmi separated. As his lifeless body squeezed out through the closing door, the wife lay in a pool of blood, her breast blasted, her intestines spilling out, on the floor as two more shots in between the closing door shattered the mirror behind us. 1 – 2 – 3, the journey up and I looked at P.

TO BE CONTINUED!