MBA for the Mafia Page 4

Hit the Ground Running

  You are to report at 9 AM on Monday at our Nariman Point Office. As discussed, your designation is Senior Associate within our Technology, Media and Telecom practice.

  Nakul went through the offer letter and recalled the last conversation he’d had with Viraj about 3 weeks ago. Back then, he had asked if there were any prerequisites from his end, with regards to joining formalities.

  Viraj had said, “Hmmmmm....ya, I want you to join in 3 weeks, have to start delivering soon my friend...make that happen, ok? ...and you do have suits...some good suits?”

  “Sir, 3 weeks is enough time to have a couple of custom suits stitched.”

  Finally the wait was over. Nakul was shining for his first day on the job. He walked past some unenthused looking faces, his colleagues. He was seated in the conference room, and was staring at the same books that had drawn an awe from him a few days back. Most of them still looked as though they had never been opened.

  “I hope I didn't keep you waiting for long,” said a very frail looking woman as she entered with a soft gait. Juggi, Nakul’s friend who was known more for his street smarts than his soft skills, would have called her “sleek.”

  “Hi, I am Raima, the HR.”

  “…And the lone eye candy in the office,” thought Nakul.

  Nakul couldn’t help but observe the extra make up and a clear attempt to add an accent to everything she said while running the employee onboarding drill with Nakul. He stared blankly at Raima while she recited the joining formalities mechanically.

  “All HR people, everywhere . . .” thought Nakul as he was handed his laptop and blackberry.

  The 'HR' then pointed Nakul to his desk and disappeared.

  “Hi, I am Samir,” said a smallish, fair looking chap. Nakul saw a smiling face, very different from the other faces he had seen in the office...everyone else had just looked kind of forcibly busy.

  “Good to meet you,” said Nakul.

  “Well, I am going to be here for just a few weeks more but let me know if I can help you in any way,” said Samir.

  “Thanks! How has it been working here? How many deals have you worked in?” said Nakul before realizing that he'd blurted out too many stupid questions, too soon. His desk was near the printer so Nakul felt lucky that the constant sound of printing filled the awkward pauses in conversations.

  “It has been good,” said Samir. Something in the way he said it made Nakul uneasy, maybe it was the mechanical matter-of-fact kind of delivery. Nakul thanked him and proceeded to switch on his blackberry.

  Next, as a mark of courtesy, Nakul went up to Rohtaj’s cabin. Rohtaj had interviewed Nakul, he was the head of the technology, media and telecom practice, and Nakul would be reporting to him.

  Rohtaj didn’t even look up from his desk, “I'll see you later, something’s...just come up..”

  “No problem! thanks!” said Nakul.

  As he scanned the hall, he observed that everyone just seemed really busy with their laptops. Every once in a while Nakul saw a face reluctantly scanning the newcomer as if to say “Here we go again.”

  “So this is how bankers are...grim...,” thought Nakul, interpreting the uneasy grimaces he witnessed, now and then. About just before lunchtime, 2 serious looking guys went inside the conference room. They looked like they didn’t want to be spotted even though that didn’t seem to be impossible from the way they dressed. Both of them were in tight jeans and colorful shirts. Obviously, they couldn’t elude Nakul’s prying eyes. The shorter of the 2 looked as if he was disappointed at something, but then Nakul thought that maybe the scar on his face was causing that expression. The taller guy was also leaner and definitely didn’t look like he worked for anyone. At the same time, he didn’t look like he had anything to do with the corporate world.

  Nakul’s phone rang. “So you are a banker, huh?” said Rohtaj. Before Nakul could think of anything, he said again “Come over, need to talk to you about this deal we are on.”

  After what seemed like a couple of hours during which Rohtaj went on and on about the Taiwanese company that was trying to raise capital to survive in the price competitive Telecom market, Rohtaj said he was going to send Nakul a couple of documents to be read over the weekend.

  On his way back home, Nakul had mixed feelings about the day... “do I feel different now that I work at an investment bank?”

  The first couple of days at the new job were mostly about finding the way round the office. Nothing much apart from a couple of document reviews and maybe a little research came to Nakul. Rohtaj called him to his cabin once and had asked him to go through a document. By evening, Nakul’s phone set off.

  “Come over,” said Rohtaj.

  Nakul had not even entered the meeting room when Rohtaj said “Did you read what I sent you earlier.”

  “I was on it.”

  “It should have been done, like, yesterday…I'll call you later. Take your assignments seriously, I can’t stress that enough, ok?”

  As Nakul eased into his chair, he almost felt the same way like he felt about 15 years ago when Bhandari, his class teacher, had shouted at him for sleeping in class. He had felt particularly bad at that time because Nakul's object of affection was in the audience, he could never forget the reluctant look on her face. Reluctance, though, was what he had witnessed in his colleagues’ face at PanAsia too right since the time he had entered the hallowed halls of business. This time he was upset because the incident set him wondering if he truly was deserving of the job. His colleagues were glued to their laptops like they were watching porn. “Bankers take their job really seriously, how much would I need to speed up?” Nakul was bewildered as he thought about this. Nothing else happened during the day except that another VP, Hirani, asked Nakul to read a memorandum and point out any inconsistencies.

  The next day, Nakul was a bit apprehensive as he entered office. He was soon to learn that he was going to feel that way almost everyday when he came to work. As he approached his desk, he could hear the phone ring. It was Rohtaj.

  “Come here with Prashar.”

  Prashar was an Associate at the firm. He used to nod his head for everything. Nakul will later find out that the condition, called essential tremor, is caused by stress and the faster the nods, the more stressed they are. Otherwise, Prashar looked like a football defender, and his chipped incisors rather enhanced the burly look on him.

  “There is this company that makes materials for semiconductor manufacturers; we need to gain information about semiconductor processes, what is the market like, who can be the buyers...”

  “Is this a downstream process…” began Nakul.

  “Wait let me finish. We need to make a few slides on the trends as well and make sure you do the comps. I need this in the next few hours.”

  Prashar turned to go. Nakul followed him.

  “Let me take up the market trends, if that’s ok with you?” asked Prashar. Nakul thought that apart from Samir, this was the first conversation of sorts with a colleague in his first couple of days of joining.

  “Sure, I can write about the processes in the value chain, make about 3 slides, should we catch up after an hour to see where we are?” said Nakul.

  After about 2 more hours of work, Nakul thought they had put together a good deck of 7 slides that talked about the operations, the market scenario and the competitors in the semiconductor industry. As they approached Rohtaj's office, Nakul felt Prashar trailing him. Was it because he was an Associate and wanted to let the Senior Associate talk about their combined effort?

  “We thought of beginning by talking about...” started Nakul

  “Shutup, let me see,” said Rohtaj, “This is not good…not the way I meant this to be done. I need you both to go fix it,” said Rohtaj, flinging the bunch of papers towards Nakul and Prashar.

  Stunned for a second time, Nakul felt that he was having to avoid the glares of his colleagues as he walked to his desk. Prashar didn’t seem to be effected a lot by
the mental Olympics. In fact, he was looking a little relieved, as if this was kind of what he expected. Nakul thought that Rohtaj was having a terrible week, maybe his dog ran away? Maybe his wife? He just went to his desk and looked out the window at the Nariman Point buildings and the sea.