Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Have I got the Romance Novel formula right?- An experiment

As she waited out the signal, in the stifling heat of a crossroads at New Delhi, her ears filled with the incessant chatter of a radio jockey, Neha Shindey realized that this was perhaps going to be the most important day of her career. For three long years after her MBA, she had battled it out with the wiliest and the shrewdest businessmen, retailers, stockists and their ilk, growing her father's small soap firm to an adequately well-known name in the Delhi suburbs. The journey hadn't been easy but she felt like a champion nevertheless.

She pushed back her soft black hair behind her ears and scrutinized herself in the rearview mirror. Petite and pleasant looking, Neha Shindey had large brown eyes and a doe like complexion. While women her age were busy tending to their role as housewives, she had remained resolutely single, and, to the perplexion of her parents, happy.

But behind her petite looks was an iron resolve to make the world her own. She loved a challenge and the bigger it got the better she felt. Perhaps, that was why she refused offers from consulting firms and huge banks that her colleagues at B School would give up worldly existence for. Instead she chose her father’s small factory. Now, after three years, she had no regrets. Most of her B School friends earned every month what was probably quite a good part of her small firm’s quarterly profits- but she was working for no one but herself and that made her feel like an achiever.
She had just finished parking her faithful Maruti in the company lot when her mobile rang.
"Good morning, Madam. A Mr.Rohan Patel has been waiting in your office to meet you for quite some time and wanted to know if you would be coming in soon". "I'll be right up, thank you Anita", she answered. As she strode into the building, respectfully greeted by her employees, she wondered what Rohan Patel, marketing manager of the most powerful players in the industry would want with her. She nodded at her secretary, Anita, and entered her modest office.
A tall, dark gentleman dressed in an expensive Italian suit rose up to greet her. "I'm sorry for having kept you so long", she apologized. "I was held up in the traffic".

She caught Rohan looking around her little office with an amused eye. Maybe, she thought, he was wondering how an almost insignificant place like this could throw up any sort of challenge to a big league player like his company. After all, she had quietly eaten off close to 2% of their market share in just 15 months.
“Let me get to the matter right ahead Ms Neha”, he said as he sat down in the chair opposite to hers in the small cubicle. “We have been observing your company’s growth for a while now and we would be extremely interested in a strategic partnership that would help us both grow together.”Neha was intelligent enough to figure out what that meant. They wanted to buy her out.