Read Online Sorting Out Sid by Yashodra Lal - Free Book Online

work.
    Sid became aware of someone speaking in the vicinity of his left ear. He turned and looked up to see the newest member of the marketing team, a management trainee, Ravi, whom he had privately labelled as ‘enthu cutlet’. Initially, his enthusiasm had been impressive, but now Sid found it so trying that he often felt the urge to bop him on the head with his laptop. But you just didn’t do stuff like that when you were the boss. Plus, it was hard to find people who could be enthusiastic about the toilet cleaner business. So he refrained from expressing his irritation.
    Ravi was looking expectantly at him now, and Sid realized that he was supposed to respond. ‘Good, GOOD,’ he said, hoping that it would suffice.
    Apparently, it didn’t. Ravi repeated his question, his enthusiasm undiminished, ‘Sid-boss, I said the ad-agency is here, and asked if you want to see them here or in Conference Room One?’
    Sid tried to recollect what the meeting was for while Ravi continued, ‘I think Conference Room One would be better because they have some stuff to present and will be able to spread the layouts on the table … I was also thinking of calling in a couple of other people – if you don’t mind – just so that we’ll get multiple opinions, and that’s always good when we’re looking at creatives because we may have a certain point of view on what may work but actually our closeness to the brand may deter us from risk taking and thus a different perspective may…’
    ‘Fine, FINE!’ said Sid, standing up and steering Ravi away from his desk. ‘Go and call them into the conference room. Call anyone you want!’
    Ravi trotted off with an air of importance. Sid rubbed his temple as he headed towards the conference room and stood waiting by the door, thinking hard. Agency presentation – of course, a script presentation for their lead brand, Kollinex. Sid realized he was losing track of things at work – he had always been so planned and organized. No matter, he squared his shoulders. Today was a new day, a good day, and scripts certainly always led to interesting discussions. Maybe today the agency would really present something good. Maybe it…
    He lost his train of thought as he suddenly caught sight of Ravi some distance away, in conversation with Akash who had been sauntering around the office in his usual aimless way. What was that little squirt doing talking to him now? He then saw that they appeared to have reached an amicableagreement, and with horror, he watched Ravi leading Akash towards him. He had called Akash to their meeting? Ravi was beaming and looked pleased with himself.
    As they reached Sid, who stood frozen to his spot by the door, Akash boomed, ‘Agency presentation, eh? This young man just came to tell me about it and I said, of course, I need to join in on something as critical as a script presentation.’ He then started towards the loo saying, ‘Just give me a minute, okay? I’ll see you inside.’ He looked back as if something had just struck him. ‘Might as well get into the mood, eh?’ He indicated the toilet, and young Ravi laughed loudly and appreciatively. Sid waited till Akash had turned around again before glaring at Ravi to quell him. He just wished this kid didn’t remind him so much of himself in his younger days.
    His shoulders sagged as the full realization sank in. Oh no! Akash in a script presentation? Sid had managed to convince Akash only a few months ago to leave marketing completely to him, working on him over several cigarette breaks. It had worked well, given Akash’s natural inclination to disengage from work. Pretty soon he had stepped out of marketing completely, using his freed-up time to do more strategic thinking. This, Sid had observed, apparently meant more cigarette breaks and conversations with his extramarital girlfriend. It never ceased to amaze Sid how Akash had come so far by doing so little actual work. In fact, just yesterday, while