If God Was A Banker (27 page)

Priya must have meant that the bank had become a safer workplace in the last two years. Did it mean that two years back the bank was an unsafe place? Mona didn't know. She was too tired by the time she reached the hotel. She went off to sleep the moment she hit the bed.

T
he next day Mona was supposed to meet the HR representatives of other banks. The meeting was to extend till lunch. Karuna had picked up Mona from the hotel to take her to the meeting. As Ekta was travelling, it was just the two of them.

'Karuna, who was that girl Priya I met yesterday at your place?'

'Oh, Priya. She is a good friend of mine. She is a part of BOCA, the BPO that we acquired. Her story is a bit tragic.'

'Why, what happened? She seemed to be a sweet girl.'

'She got married only two years ago and is now divorced. Her husband works in the bank. In branch banking. He is a cluster manager. Manages three branches in Mumbai. They made a nice pair. Even their careers were going great guns, and then suddenly one day she comes and drops this bombshell. Don't know what went wrong with them,' said Karuna.

They reached the hotel, where the HR heads of all the foreign banks and a few BPOs were waiting for them. Ekta had lined up this meeting for Mona, for her to get a perspective of women working in banks and BPOs, and the challenges they face. They moved to the conference room, which had been blocked for this meeting. The discussion centred on how to make banks a better place for women to work in. How to provide them with essential services so that they don't feel the stress? What do women look for at their workplace?

It was a good discussion and by the end of it, Mona had accumulated enough knowledge about the Indian work environment from the point of view of women. She could now write a book on it.

On the way back, she again tried asking Karuna about Priya. But Karuna couldn't say much. That afternoon Mona sat down with the list of women who had been promoted in the last two years. She went through it name by name. Her eyebrows, which were fairly static all along, went up as she read one name there: Priya Mehra. Priya had been promoted twice in the last two years. Something which was not too common in NYB. She decided to meet Priya separately.

She went through the balance list and came across seven names whose cases she wanted to investigate further. She handed the list to Karuna.

'Can you ask Abhinav to get the appraisal documents for these seven employees to be faxed to our office here? I will not be heading to the storage this evening.'

'Sure.'

'And also ask Priya to meet me at two this afternoon.'

'What should I tell her if she asks me why?'

'Never mind that. I will tell her. You just ask her to come and see me.'

Priya was slightly nervous when Karuna told her about Mona wanting to meet her, but she didn't have much of a choice.

That afternoon, Priya knocked very nervously on the glass door of the room that Mona was using. Mona looked up from her laptop, smiled, and got up from her chair.

'Come in, Priya. It's excellent to see you again.'

'Oh, thank you, maam.'

'Mona. Call me Mona. And by the way, you were looking gorgeous yesterday,' she said, trying to put Priya at ease.

'Is there a coffee shop close by, Priya? I am missing my daily dose of Starbucks caffeine.'

'Yes, Mona. There is one outlet of Café Coffee Day, the Indian Starbucks, just a five-minute walk away.'

'Why don't we go there and chat? That is, if you are fine with it.'

'Perfectly fine, maam,' said Priya.

'Give me five minutes. I just need to send this mail in a hurry. We can leave immediately after.'

In five minutes both of them were walking briskly towards the nearest outlet of Café Coffee Day, unwary of the summer heat. 'Mona is quite a sport,' thought Priya.

At the coffee shop, Mona ordered a Cappuccino and Priya asked for a cold coffee. They settled down at a table in the corner. The coffee shop was not too crowded as it was lunchtime and not many Indians like to have coffee at that hour. There weren't many people who could overhear their conversation.

It took them over an hour and a half and a few glares from the coffee shop executives, before they decided it was time to leave. They walked back to their office.

'It was a long discussion. What did she want to know about?' Karuna asked her when Priya was out of hearing distance of Mona.

'Well, nothing much. She wanted to know what should the organisation do to make this place more attractive for women to work here. She was enquiring about what other organisations in India do in this regard.'

That evening Karuna offered to drive back Mona to her hotel. On the way Mona asked her about her relationship with Nitin. She was testing the Indian family fabric. From the discussion, Mona could make out that Karuna was extremely fond of Nitin and her kid. They were her family and she had no qualms about throwing away her budding career for the cause of her family. Hats off to Indian women, she thought as she entered her room and switched on the lights.

The next day at work was a little different. When Karuna came in, Mona asked her for a telephone with an interstate dialling service.

'Karuna, you be at ease. I will call you in case I need anything. I guess, I will be able to manage pretty much on my own today.'

She called up a few people from the list of those who had quit NYB and moved on, a list that HR had provided. She focused on those who had got a promotion and then quickly moved.

She called seventeen people. All through this, she kept taking serious notes in her diary. By the time she was through with her calls, it was three in the afternoon. She had an evening dinner which Swami and Kalpana had planned for her at their residence. She had lots to finish before that. She thought about it and immediately left for the Bandra branch. She had an appointment with the cluster manager.

Everyone in NYB was wondering what she was up to.

Swami hadn't called many people for dinner. It was only Swami, Kalpana, Aditya and Mona. The latter two hit it off very well.

Swami was a man of simple tastes. His house was done tastefully, and not extravagantly. No expensive furniture for him. Everything was purely functional.

Aditya knew a number of people who worked with Mona, and that was a good starting point. Mona took pains to explain how she was in love with India and that it is a great country with great people.

'She must be giving this speech in every country she goes to,' thought Aditya.

After a long time, Mona had attended a party at a residence of someone senior in the bank, where no liquor was served. Swami never felt the need to indulge himself or others to move ahead. He had stuck to his principles and this was something that even Mona had come to appreciate over the past few days. She had started admiring Swami and Kalpana.

'Swami, I am cutting short my visit by one day.' She took Swami by surprise. 'I will be leaving tomorrow night.'

'Why is that? Are my people not taking good care of you?'

'No Swami, that's not the reason,' said Mona, 'the work that I came here for is more or less done. I just need to go back and complete what I had set out to achieve.'

'And what is that?' It was Aditya this time.

'You will get to know soon,' she said and smiled.

After dinner, Kalpana brought out a nice piece of Bidri work which she had bought that morning for Mona. Mona was moved by the love and affection showered on her. Swami and Kalpana were an awesome couple.

Kalpana also gave her another packet. 'Can I take the liberty of requesting you to hand this over to Natasha, Sundeep's wife, once you get back.'

'Oh sure.'

'If you get a bit tight on your luggage, please don't hesitate to leave it behind.'

Mona nodded.

When Aditya offered to drop her back, she didn't refuse.

On the way to the hotel Mona asked Aditya, 'Are Sundeep and Swami great pals?'

'Well, they are adversaries. Sundeep is forever competing with Swami. But Swami looks at him as a friend. More importantly, Kalpana and Natasha are great friends. They are bosom buddies. One good thing which I would hand out to Sundeep is that he did not to interfere in his wife's relationship with Kalpana.'

'Aditya, you have worked with two of the brightest guys we have, Swami and Sundeep. Do you see any difference between them?'

'Oh tons. The key is short-cuts. Swami will never take a short-cut. Sundeep will always find reason and method to beat the system. Swami is a horse for the long race.'

'Who will you back, if you had a choice.'

'Undoubtedly Swami, because he has virtues of CHILD.'

'Child,' queried Mona.

'Yes, because of his Commitment, Honesty, Integrity, Leadership and Dedication. I would rate him higher than Sundeep on most of these,' elaborated Aditya as the car drove into the lobby of the hotel.

'Thanks Aditya. I will speak to you later. I might need some stuff from you. I'll call you. Good night.' She walked into the hotel as Aditya drove off.

T
he next morning, the Group Audit team walked in. This fifteen-member team was led by an Indian, Ravi Subramanian. Ravi had worked in India before moving out about eight years back. His path had often crossed Swami's. And their interactions had not always been cordial.

Ravi and Swami often had very acrimonious discussions, mainly on audit findings. Ravi was a very tough-nosed auditor, clerical at times, and Swami would normally take him head on, and, as you would expect, Swami would win those arguments. But the best thing about this relationship was that they would go back home together to the warm idlis and sambar that Kalpana would make for them.

'Swami! Wonderful to see you again.' Ravi grinned as he walked into Swami's room. They hugged each other. 'How are you Ravi?' Swami asked fondly. Despite the various professional disconnects, they liked each other. The entire audit team waited in the auditors' conference room as Ravi and Swami caught up with each other and their coffee.

Just as they were to step out to meet the rest of the audit team, Mona walked in.

'Hello Ravi.'

'Hey, Mona darling. How are you? What are you doing in India?'

'Ravi, I knew you were coming in today. I came in early so that I could get out by the time you get in.'

'Are you here for long?'

'Got in last Sunday, am leaving tonight. I need to have a word with you. Need some time and it is urgent.'

'Swami?' Ravi looked at Swami, wondering what schedule Swami had planned for him. Swami shrugged his shoulders and said, 'Ravi, you have been through many of my audit opening speeches, and they are all the same. I can handle it without you. Why don't you go ahead and finish it with Mona. You can join us after lunch.'

Ravi went with Mona to her room.

'Yes Mona, how can I help you?'

'Ravi, Global HR knew that India is going to be hit by an audit from today. That's the reason why I was sent four days before you arrived. I was asked to prepare some groundwork for you. To give you some specific areas that we would want audit to focus on.' She started narrating all that she did in the last four days. Ravi had a shocked look on his face. He didn't utter a word.

Mona kept on talking and Ravi was listening. When Swami came back from his introductory session with the audit team, and tried walking into the room, he was asked to stay out. 'What the hell is going on? Why doesn't someone tell me anything in my own company,' thought Swami as he walked back into the corridor.

Finally when they came out of the room, it was well past lunch hour.

'Is there a problem?' asked Swami when he saw them. Ravi didn't say a thing.

Mona looked at both of them. 'No Swami, I just wanted him to cover something from an HR perspective in his audit.' Swami could make out that she was lying. If that was the case, she wouldn't have asked for fifteen minutes with Ravi and taken over four hours.

Swami didn't press the issue, but there was something at the back of his mind. There was something that these guys were hiding from him. He was hoping that Ravi would tell him about it once Mona was gone.

M
ona was back at the NYB Global HQ in New York the next day. She was to meet Tedd Bridge and Michelle in two days. She was both excited and worried about the findings from India.

She spent the next two days documenting all her findings and preparing an interim report. The final report would not be out till the audit team came back with their findings, and that would not happen before at least three weeks from now. However, the interim report was to be presented to the management ASAP.

On the morning of 6 October 2005, Mona's heart was pounding as she walked into the boardroom. She was going to make a presentation to Tedd Bridge for the first time, and he was known to be a very sharp guy. He could rip apart any hypothesis to shreds within minutes. She was prepared.

Michelle called on Mona's mobile at around 8.00 a.m.

'Should I get Tedd in?'

'I am ready, Michelle,' said Mona even as her knees became jelly. She wanted to leave everything and run. 'God, am I nervous?' she wondered.

By the time Michelle and Tedd Bridge walked in at quarter past eight, she had regained her composure. For the next forty-five minutes Mona spoke to them on her findings and what she thought had happened in India. Her findings were inconclusive to the extent that she wanted the Group Audit findings also to come in before making any serious inferences.

'I will need three weeks before submitting my final report. Group Audit report will come in by then.'

'I will be off on my annual vacation from the first of November. I need to close these outstanding issues before I leave. Please ask the audit team to prioritise these and send in all the information that you need by then.' Tedd gave her a fortnight to put together her final report. If Tedd Bridge said fifteen days, it had to be fifteen days.

I
t was ten minutes to six. Sundeep got up and walked into the rest room. He had a meeting with Tedd Bridge at six. He washed his face. Work had taken a backseat. No e-mails, no conference calls, nothing.