THEPROGRAM SEASON TWO EPISODE TWO : After the break, we were given another exercise to test our negotiation skills. The scenario was that there was an oil spill across the Indian Ocean and a top-secret-highly-confidential-particularly-covert government agency had been asked to procure some sort of rare seeds from a farmer, which would form part of a chemical which would instantaneously clear out the oil spill and bring back happiness and joy to all the realms of the universe. Now, if only that was so easy. We had to first negotiate terms with a private research agency, which was the only other entity in the world, which wanted the super seeds, to develop cure for an highly incurable disease. Now, I was representing the secret government agency and Shashank Bhatia was the corporate honcho of the miracle drug company. The teams were asked to prepare plans and strategies to go about it. Now, apparently being a top secret government, we were not supposed to use coercion or something of that sort, to make our point. Boring ryt?. so, hi, I believe you need the seeds for your research my friend? , I started, trying to play my part with utmost conviction. yeah we do, so I propose, we take the field, like we buy out the field from the farmer, as you are government secret agency, and this way your confidentiality will remain intact, and we will take one million and give you the seeds, as all we need is the bark, from those trees, and once we have them, we can easily continue with our research, releasing the drug by this year end, obviously you are going to help us procure license for us, as we are helping you out here to control the oil spill on the ocean, deal, deal, deal, done then! , Shashank settled the issue then and there. err.. I guess , I said feeling fantastically stupid. Yup, negotiations were never going to be my strength. As the corporate honcho, settled the deal here, he walked on to the stage, to convince the farmer ( played elegantly, with the right kind of rustic arrogance, by Mr. Ramachandrudu). And he wasnt going to be budged easily. Negotiations went on and on for a long time, and as the farmer, who was playing a part of great politico economic change that is occurring in the country, knew his worth, and won the battle of wits. Nothing mattered to him, except money. And that precisely was the way in which the world works. The world is least bothered about environmental hazards, or ecological imbalances or global warming or Kyoto protocols, all it is concerned is with the pay packets, the salaries and liquidity in their bank account they so earn to buy the next version of pseudo intelligence in the form of Android,s hyper realism or IOSs virtual subjugation. Well as they say, for everything else, theres Mastercard. The day ended with other techniques of negotiation, answering some intelligent queries and some which made no sense at all ( Sir, how do you negotiate when you dont get any benefit from the arrangement?). We being the honorary citizens of Somalia, dashed to the cafeteria to have a plate of oily sticky tasteless Aloo bonda, even before Mr. Ramachandrudu took leave. I had to track down three of my comrades, who apparently found more important things to do with life, than to scribble a sign on the attendance sheet. I being totally exhausted, got the keys from the reception and crept back to my room. Sumit was nowhere to be found. I fired up my laptop to upload pictures to my cloud drive. I got into my casuals, maroon trouser and white t-shirt, which actually looked like the uniform of a NGO working for protection and sheltering of stray dogs. As I was scrolling through the channels, I remembered that I had to copy Game of Thrones. And a name popped up in my mind. The go to guy , the chosen one ,the person you want to meet, when you want to realize that you are nothing more than a prehistoric green plankton floating on stagnant water. So, as fate would have it, I was knocking on the door of Akshay Sharma. He shouted from inside Its open, Who is it? Siddharth!! , I shouted back Which one? , he again shouted From Gotham City , I retorted Oh! the Moron, Have you any food? Yes Sir,Yes Sir, Three satchets full, One for my hunger, One for the train, One for the neighbor living down the lane I replied You may pass then , he finally agreed, after I bribed him with Oreo biscuits. I entered into a dark cave, where the three headed monster waited for its prey. I wondered if you had Game of Thrones in your laptop , I said sitting on Shantanus bed. Maybe I do, Why? , he asked munching on the Oreos. To watch the series, I guess , Who? You? Your kidding me ryt? Yeah me, why am I not qualified to watch Game of Thrones? Well Of course You are, I dont have it thats all , he said plainly whaaa.. But you just said... Fantastic , I stormed out of the room. I had to get the series at any cost now. I sent the series request in our watsapp group. And 10 minutes later, I received Jatin Gargs reply that he would be kind enough to lend me his hard drive in an hour. Once that was settled, I took my clothes to the laundry room. I opened the empty front door washing machine and started putting in my clothes Thats not working, Siddharth , someone said from behind. I turned back to see a familiar face. Its embarrassing to forget someones name, especially when that someone calls out your name. He wasnt from our batch, that much I knew. Oh is it? , I gave a smile and pulled out my clothes and waited for the adjacent machine to stop. Yeah, it isnt, from the start, so wass up with you, sid , he said. OK I needed to remember his name ASAP. nothing much boss, just going on, so how do you like the city? , I replied trying to tread away from specific details to general topics, to obviously avoid being embarrassed The city is quite good, I like how the city is maintained by the government, you cant see that in Delhi , he replied checking his mobile phone, which had just rung and stopped, a missed call, I guessed. I had to narrow down the possibilities based on the hint I had just been given. Acha who is Kejriwal by the way , I asked him expecting him to further give me some hints Its funny, Ive heard that someone is being called Kejriwal, but I too dont know who exactly that is , he replied Hmm, Acha who is the class rep for your batch then? I asked him, calculating that if he knew who the Class Rep is, I would eventually know who this Kejriwal guy is, because I remembered Vinod telling me that, Class Rep was being called Kejriwal. The guy in front of me, looked up, and gave me a puzzled look and replied You Are !....... ( To be Continued)
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 11:29:08 +0000
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