5:09 PM
Just a few days back Dinesh and Sumit had a talk and Sumit tried his level best to convince him to not to drink. But at the same time, Sumit had seen enough to know that nothing in the world can change a man’s mind when it comes to drinking. He had seen his father and after effects of drinking very closely and always thanked god for providing him with the best person to teach him why not to drink. EVER.
Anyways, he went along with the whole of the gang and slowly watched as one by one all his friends turned from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde.
Dheeraj already had 5 pegs of whisky in him, he turned towards Sumit and asked him, “I know, I know very well that among all you are the best person to ask this, Am I drunk, tell me please, am I?”
“No yaar! Absolutely not, why do you at all ask?”
“Then tell me Sumit, why shouldn’t I drive? Why this asshole Deepak is telling me that I shouldn’t drive. I am telling you I will hit him with this bottle and he would not be able to do anything, I am sure that you know I am a KING!!! Am I not?? Tell me?”
“Yes buddy, you definetly are! You are the king of India!”
“India? Why not world, I thought you were a true friend but I was mistaken. Only INDIA? Go to hell.”
I am king of the world !!!
He stood on the table and shouted. ”I AM KING OF THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!”
A very smooth music started playing, it was a call for Dheeraj.
“Have you ever seen the power of a shock? Shock can be described as a situation when something happens which you have never expected, not even iota of it. Like receiving a phone call from your DAD when you have 5 drinks inside you, it had an amazing effect on the king of the world. It made the KING talk to his DAD like a 5 year old.”
“Papa, ha papa, I am working on a project, don’t know papa whether I’ll be coming tonight or not. Don’t wait for me.”
Shock also has the ability to make sure that your DAD doesn’t realize that you are drunk.
Baldev is a veteran in this field. He has been drinking for the last 8 years, although very funny and most talkative person you would ever come across, the drinks that he’ll have would be inversely proportional to the words coming out of his mouth.
He was sober once and Sumit asked him why he spoke so less when he was drunk, and like a veteran of many a drinking wars he told Sumit that most of the fights that he had witnessed happened because most of the newbie’s didn’t know how to keep their mouth shut.
Then he told him that there were lot of things in this world to do, not everything is do-able, every human has a capability to do something better than the other, same goes for drinking, its not everyone’s cup of tea or rather everyone’s glass of peg. It was something Sumit never gave a thought to and seriously found it amazingly true.
Anyways, that night Baldev made sure that Dheeraj had atleast 8 pegs so that he’s not able to stand let alone drive. Baldev took on the wheels and very safely drove Sumit to his hostel.
As soon as you enter the hostel building, the 1st room belongs to Sumit and he shares it with two other people, Rohan and Nandan. Rohan is his batch mate; Nandan is junior to him, doing his graduation. Every time he saw Nandan he had a sense of relief that atleast he has been able to do something that he always wanted to do. Make someone who is very subtle and basic become a beast.
When Nandan had first come to his room he was very apprehensive, very shy, scared. But as time went by he opened up to Sumit and Rohan, and both of them in turn shared their experiences in all fields with him. In a few months Nandan became a guy with whom his batch mates couldn’t take the risk of messing with.
What was more amazing was that Nandan too had this realization.
Rohan was a guy Sumit shared a very good chemistry with. He had a good sense humour. He was good at studies and both of them taught each other something new each day.
More over Rohan and Nandan both were teetotalers.
Buzzzzzz… buzzzzzz… buzzzz… buzzzz…
This was the vibration of Sumit’s phone. He’s girlfriend was calling.
Sumit: “Hi baby! how are you?”
GF: “I am fine but why didn’t you call me up, why is it that I am the one who always has to call you up?”
Sumit: “It is because your calls are free and mine are not, remember, we have decided that we will make your calls free. So that you can call me at your own will.”
GF: “Still this is not done. You can if you want to.”
She disconnected the call.
It was 8:23 PM.
Sumit asked Rohan and Nandan that they should go and have dinner. Nandan agreed. Rohan said he would be going in five minutes.
Now there was something very special about Rohan’s Five Minutes.
It varied anything between 15 minutes to half an hour. This was followed in his study pattern as well, he did everything that counted for nonsense from Sumit’s point of view between 6 PM to 11 PM and then studied till wee hours in the night.
But Sumit had a very powerful weapon up his sleeve. Chinchi-Minchi !!!
As soon as Sumit said CHINCHI-MINCHI was in the canteen, Rohan sprinted towards the washroom to get ready, and in flat five minutes (in literal sense), got ready from head to toe.
By the way, Chinchi-minchi is a girl. Obviously.
Good attributes. Obviously.
Beautiful. Yup.
Schoolgirl. Don’t know.
College girl. Don’t know.
Single. Hopefully.
Mysterious. Yes.
Talking about Sumit, he was an ardent ‘Bird-Watcher’, but in the back of his mind he was as sure of the fact that there is a God, his girlfriend was the one for him.
So this thought subconsciously might have been the origin point of the power that he had acquired lately in his life. It was called “deviation technology”. Whenever Sumit had this sense of knowledge that there might be a chance of some bird replying to his bird watching techniques, he made sure that from next time his bird watching vision didn’t include the replying bird.
9:00 PM
Buzz…. Buzzzzz… Buzzz…
Sumit: “Hi!”
GF: “You didn’t call me up…even after I hung up the phone. Am I nothing for you?”
Their relationship has lasted close to three years and now he knew her too well to let this get any worse.
Sumit: “Arre baba, I was about to. I was having the dinner. I haven’t had anything since morning.”
GF: “Hawww!!! Why? You should have had something. The least you couldn’t have done is to have some breakfast or something. Who’ll take care of you? That’s why I tell you to take me along with you. I’ll take care of you.”
Sumit: “And where will I keep you, in hostel?”
GF: “I’ll stay in your heart!!”
Sumit: ”Hhmmmm.. I know. Accha I’ll cal you after I finish the dinner..OK?”
GF: “Okay. Bye. Love you!”
Sumit: “Hmmm…. Me too…bye!”
Call disconnected.
By the time all three of them finished their dinner, Rohan said, “Enough yaar, I think my quota of bird watching is done.”
New birds entered the canteen.
Back to square one. They stayed there for half an hour more.
Sumit said, “I think the container that keeps your bird watching quota is leaky, come on guys lets go to the room, we all know it can never be filled. Especially where birds are in abundance. Move your asses.”
10:00 PM
Ring… Ring… Ring…
Sumit: “Hi. See I called you.”
GF: “Hmm… I know, I was just playing with you.”
Sumit: “I know very well. OK tell me how was your day. How is Chhotu baby?”
GF: “He’s Fine. How come you always asked about him and not about me.”
Sumit: “OK. So how are you?”
GF: “I am fine.”
Sumit: “Hmmm… So anything special?”
GF: “Yes, I was thinking about something. Tell me when exactly will we be getting married?”
Now again being 3 years in a relationship teaches you a lot of things, Sumit knew very well that the words that will come out of his mouth will decide the mood of the next two days, as far as talking to his girlfriend is concerned.
Sumit: “Soon baby, Very soon.”
GF: “But When?”
Sumit: “When would you like it to be?”
GF: “December of 2011…”
Sumit: “As you wish. Dec. of 2011 it is. Now happy?”
GF: “Very happy.”
Sumit: “Sweetheart now I have to study, is it ok if I do that now, you know am here to study and I am doing it for our future right?
GF: “Ha baby I know. OK. Bye. Take Care. Love you. Miss you.”
Sumit: “Love you too. Bye. Goodnight.”
Call Disconnected.
Sumit knew that their behavior was childish sometime, but he liked it that way. A childish life partner is much better than an over smart one, plus she genuinely loved him. It was not plain and simple from the beginning; she took almost 5-6 months to say yes to his proposal.
Sumit was an average as far as looks were concerned. His girlfriend was very beautiful though.
Sumit also had an elder brother, Sandeep. Very rarely did he have conversations with Sandeep. Although when the brother used to talk, it used to be anything from movies to sports. On one such conversation, his brother told him that he hated the concept of arrange marriage. According to him it was like a gamble, if your partner is good then great, but if not, life turns out to be hell. He said it was much better to have a relationship, to get to know someone before getting married to her.
Sumit idolized his brother, and took note of that, and liked it very much. He decided that he would follow that too. Although it was not like as if he started looking for a relationship. CP(he fondly called his girlfriend that) was the first girl whom he had disclosed his feeling to.
Sumit was as sure about her as anything, but at that moment, the 30 Page assignment had occupied his mind, and he wasn’t feeling anything close to being romantic.
Page 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, 11,12,13.
I think it’ll do. More than enough.
Lights off.
12:43 AM
Sumit: “I think I need to find a place nice venue for the reception.”
GF: “Why? That can be done by your Dad.”
Sumit gave a very strange smile to her.
GF: “Okay, but where will you find one.”
Sumit: “How about the place where your mom and dad celebrated their anniversary?”
GF: “Don’t you think that place will be a bit small for the reception?”
Sumit: “Naah! It will work; Bhai’s friends are all busy. The crowd will be limited.”
GF: “Okay.”
Although Sumit had a bike but his girlfriend was afraid to sit on it, Sumit never forced her either. And that’s precisely why they chose to take a rickshaw and reached Dwarka, Sector 10, New Delhi.
Sumit’s mom and dad had an arrange marriage. The arrangement and everything from his maternal side was fantastic to say the least, but from his paternal side it was as crappy as it could’ve been. This was what he had heard all his life and Sumit had seen his father get very misty eyed whenever he attended a grand wedding. Thanks to all such moments, he had decided that when ever something of this sort would happen in his family, he’ll make sure the arrangement is as perfect as it could be.
“What’s the point of doing MBA if you cannot even manage your brother’s wedding!” he thought.
Although Sumit liked the place they saw in Dwarka sector 10, he didn’t say ‘yes’ to it, hoping that he might come across something better in the next few days. With this thought he reached home, only to see that a problem was waiting for him.
Well the problem was something like this.
He opened his Laptop, opened web browser and typed www.gmail.com. In user name he typed bmesumit and entered the password.
It returned
The username or password you entered is incorrect.
He again entered the username and password.
The username or password you entered is incorrect.
Now very carefully he entered his username and password for the third time.
Username: bmesumit
Password: *******
‘Enter’
Enter the correct password above and then type the characters you see in the picture below.
“My email id had been hacked.” This was the thought that forayed into his brains at that moment. He was sure that it has to be someone who knows him very well. May be one of his friends!! CRAP!!! This is not good. This was the time when he was expecting the confirmation of his summer training and in case he didn’t reply, he would be into trouble. At this moment he relieved himself by recalling that in case a password is forgotten it can be reset on request.
Once a request is send the Google account will send the reset link to your secondary email which you have provided while creating this account.
In this case the secondary e-mail ID was sumitqwerty@yahoo.co.in.
But soon his smile disappeared.
“SHIT!!!! CRAP!!! Oh God please don’t do this to me. Please help me. Please!!!!”
With prayers on his lips he typed in “www.mail.yahoo.com”
Username: sumitqwerty
Password: *******
Enter
SHUCKS!!!!
Username: sumitqwerty@yahoo.co.in
Password: ********
He was expecting this.
Both his ID’s had the same password.
It was obviously done by a person who knew him very well. When Sumit gave it a thought that how many people were capable of doing those sorts of things, he could think of only three guys.
All three were very close friends of his but still it was evident that even if Sumit talked to them seriously they would not accept it, not because they wanted to harm him, but out of shame. How could anybody tell you that he/she hacked into your email account and read all your mails?
It was obvious that a different approach was needed.
Sumit decided to meet them together.
He called them up and asked them if they were busy.
Unfortunately one had gone on vacation to his native place. This fact ruled him out because Sumit knew that he didn’t have any sort of Internet connectivity at his place.
Now Sumit called the remaining two.
Sumit: “Hey Vikas how are you man. Come inside. Tell me whats happening in your life?”
Vikas: “I am fine. So do you have NFS Carbon?”
Sumit: “Yup. Sure I do.”
Doorbell rings.
Sumit: “Hey Neerav! how are you dude?”
Neerav: “Life’s fun. So where’s the party?”
Sumit: “Did you bring the hard-disk?”
Neerav: “I did. Which flicks have you got?”
Sumit: “I don’t remember. Check out for yourself.”
Once they got inside, while exchanging the movies Sumit told them about his problem and asked for suggestion from them. They gave some but none were logical.
Sumit had once read a book on psychology, in fact a part of it. In one of the chapters he read that if you have to manipulate the action of the person in front of you, make sure you point a finger at him without his knowing about it, the result will be instantaneous and effective.
He never understood what it meant.
How could there be a result if the person doesn’t realize you have pointed a finger on him.
Today he was going to test the theory.
Sumit: “I know very well I can not harm that son of a bitch, but am telling you only if that asshole can see me. How important my ID’s are for me. I am seriously telling you Vikas. An important mail can come anytime, only if that asshole realizes, it is about my career. You know Neerav what I am going to do? I m going to learn from Internet how Voodoo magic is done. I will surely try to kill that asshole’s mom with voodoo magic”
They both laughed at it.
But Sumit attacked a very sensitive point there. Couldn’t have done it any better.
Only thing that was missing was the result, but he knew that this action will definitely have a reaction, may be good, may be bad, but a reaction will be coming for sure. Than again a sudden realization struck him, what if both of them had a genuine laugh. What if none of them actually did anything. He couldn’t be sure that one of them did it. Nope. He couldn’t.
Once he realized this he went on with his work. The sky was dark, gloomy.
There was one thing from the previous night’s meeting that came as a bright source of light. One of them told him about a very nice place in Sector 12, Dwarka. He thought he would give it a shot and see what it was like.
CP was busy. Sumit went alone.
He always liked it alone, Other than the travelling part. He liked shopping alone, which was rare. He liked taking Decisions alone, which was rare again. He enjoyed those days when he could shop alone, and today was one of those days. He visited the place. As soon he entered he was taken aback. “This place is miles ahead compared to the one in Sector 10, where the hell was this place hiding, why didn’t anybody tell me about it before?” he thought. He then has a talk with the manager and asked the necessary questions about food options, decorations, accommodation, prices etc.
After talking to the manager, he found that this was exactly the place he was looking for. “Bravo!” he wanted to shout out loud, but he checked himself with a smile. “This is perfect. Couldn’t have found anything better”.
He left the place promising the manager that he will surely come back to solidify things.
He went home, switched on the computer and checked his original ORKUT account through another fake account he had created. There was a scrap in there.
“I have restored your old password for you, make sure you don’t disclose it to anyone ever”
The day just got better.
12:42 AM
Sumit and Vinod were having a talk in hostel room.
Vinod: “OK tell me what exactly you feel is the shortcoming in me. According to you what should I work upon?”
Sumit looked at him and smiled.
Sumit: “Nothing that I can think of.”
Vinod: “Come on dude, I am not perfect, there is loads of stuff that is not good about me. I know that there are over a 100 things I want to change about me.”
Sumit: “May be you are being too critical about yourself.”
Vinod: “Not really, I guess you don’t know me that well.”
Sumit: “Yes, may be that’s the correct answer, I don’t know you that well.”
Now Vinod smiled back.
Sumit: “What?”
Vinod: “I know you extremely well Mister and with your answer I have just become sure that I was so very right.”
Sumit: “Then tell me!”
Vinod: “You are afraid that if you tell me the truth you might hurt me, so according to you its much better to lie rather then to hurt me because you simply can not say anything negative. Ain’t I right?”
Sumit: “No this is not true…I am not like this.”
Friend: “Ok then tell me how many times have you said "YES" to a thing you didn’t want to do?”
Sumit gave it a thought.
Sumit: “Lot of times.”
Vinod: “There you go. Do one thing, try to say ‘no’ more often. Try to be a "NO MAN" for a while. Things will became a bit interesting. You will realize that there is more to world then just pleasing people.”
The Last Line "Pleasing poeple", pinched him, why??? He didn’t knew, but it did. He kept on thinking about it for a few days, it never happened to him before, not like this, nothing stayed in his mind like this for so long, three days!!! that was a huge time for sumit to kept thinking about something, but it lingered on with him, he has lost his strength, his power to keep every things which he did not like in a closed corner of his brain. He hated it but wasn't able to get away from it.
Few days after the incident, Somehow Sumit decided that he would become "NO MAN" and will be an asshole or at least will try to be one.
From that day he started saying ‘no’ to people a bit too often; he followed the same even with the people who were dear to him.
After a few days (a week or so) Sumit again gave this concept a serious thought and WOLLA!!!!
He found it very stupid to begin with, what happened is not known exactly but Sumit regained his powers and strenghts which made him what he believed to have lost somehow, but in the back of his mind he still had this realization that once in while its good to be a "NO MAN".
Sumit later shared this fact with one of his friends, Shweta, who in turn told him there was nothing wrong with him.
“I guess you should be thankful to your friend to have made you realize all of this. I think if you keep saying yes to everything, people may feel pleased and you may feel pleased to have made THEM feel happy but trust me, you lose the value of your opinion. Saying 'No' to things you don’t like or you don’t agree to is a trait I admire in people. I personally find such people more dependable in cases when i need an unbiased opinion.
Another thing, I have seriously not noticed any kind of change in your behavior as you claim to, but since you tell me that there IS a change, I am happy to tell you that this is for good. Moreover, it’s not only about being a NOMAN or a YESMAN, infact it is about being one at the right time and at the right place”
3:34 PM
From beginning Sumit used the most cliché concepts for own benefits, like writing letters to tell a friend how he felt about a particular thing or a doing but then he was made to believe that these are much better options to choose rather than plain talk.
His letters had always worked. Always.
The interesting fact was that he was using the same tactics for convincing the companies to allow him summer training in their “prestigious organization”.
Respected Sir/Madam,
My name is Sumit and I am an MBA student of ***** International Business School (****, Noida). Since a very early age I have been intrigued by the creative aspect of advertisements. I really want to learn more. I know very well Creativity cannot be taught, but I am just seeking to be taught how the things are done. I do consider myself creative, but I also believe that by Brainstorming sessions one can make an idea worthy of a Golden Lion then just being called a good one.
I really want to learn the nitty- gritty details of how the things are being done. The know-how of the process. Please do have a look at my Resume and also my own portfolio (see attachments), which very shortly describe the things that i have grabbed up until now.
My summer training will be beginning from this May and I will be highly obliged if I get a chance to work with an organization as prestigious as yours.
Hoping for an affirmative response from you.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/****************
The number of mails that he sent up until then was 83,
Responses: 7
Only 1 is worth mentioning.
“You are most welcome to my office to discuss about the industry and how it works. My address is **** (basement), ********* East, New Delhi 110013. You may contact me on my direct line; 46******. Just give me buzz before coming”
Sumit jumped in the air. “Finally”.
His letter worked!
He told his friend Amrish about it and both of them decided to visit the person responsible for showing them Ray of Light.
They reached the place. There were lot of things that Sumit learnt everyday, from life, from experiences, but the day in mention was somehow special, that day he learnt how one can make a stranger comfortable and make him feel relaxed from the word go.
Aswini Tayal taught him that.
Sumit took a note of this “I gotta have this skill to make sure everyone at the wedding reception feels comfortable.”
Coming to Aswini Tayal. He was a Sr. Manager - Advertising & Marketing. He told Sumit few insights about the industry, how it operated, what were the pressure points. Sumit was more interested in media, specifically in the advertising-creativity arena. Aswini Tayal told him that it should be easy for him to reach out to people as he was a Bengali and the creativity department in media is presently overflowing with Bengali people. He also suggested Sumit to use his mother tongue to communicate with the movers and shakers of the advertising department.
“It always works. It always does”, said Aswini Tayal.
After the meeting Aswini Tayal literally came out with them to see them off and there the talks became a bit formal, he smoked and told us that when he started out it was all hard work, how he started smoking, why shouldn’t we do it.
On the way back Sumit and Amrish felt like flying, they felt so light from within.
There feeling at that moment could be compared to a father who had just married his daughter to the world’s best man.
Sumit had heard the stories that industry was very tough. A B-School, more than studies, teaches the students what exactly an industry is all about. It prepares him for the gang-bang that he would have to face once he is in the industry.
He also had heard that starting from the scratch is very tough, but he was happy that he had proved all of that wrong. He didn’t have any personal contacts in the industry but still he managed to meet a hot-shot from the industry, all thanks to his individual efforts.
Amrish and Sumit were both hoping that this might be a beginning of a new chapter in their professional lives, they didn’t care about whether there was something in store for them or not, they were just happy to have tried.
Sumit was happy because he could see a very bright chance of his being able to do summers from a real reputed company and also because he was able to make inroad without many problems, after all the only hard work he did was typing those letters for the email.
6:54 PM
As mentioned before Sumit always did what was considered to be a cliché, like he used a lot of dialogues from the movies in real life and why shouldn’t he? They always worked for him after all.
3:53 PM
Sumit followed Aswini Tayal’s advice and tried to contact Bengalis from the media industry. It seemed Aswini Tayal was sure of what he said, because the results were instantaneous. Sumit got himself a meeting with Dibankar Banerjee, another significant personnel from the corporate world
He quickly mailed Aswini Tayal and thanked him for showing him the way.
5:02 PM
Sumit: “May I come in sir?”
Dibankar: “Yes, come in.”
Sumit: “Hello sir, I am Sumit.”
Dibankar: “I was expecting you, how are you Sumit?”
Sumit: “I am fine sir, how are you?”
Dibankar: “I am doing good, thanks for asking. Would you like to have something?”
Sumit: “No sir, I am fine.”
Dibankar: “Oh don’t be formal, make yourself comfortable, whatever I’ll be ordering will not be coming from my pocket!”
Sumit wanted to laugh at it but he didn’t.
“Damn it!! I should have !!! ” He thought.
Dibankar: “OK Sumit tell me, why are you here.”
Sumit: “Sir I have been trying to contact the industry for the past 3 months, very few people responded, in fact you are the only one.”
He lied. But then that was just an attempt on his part to make Banerjee feel important.
“I do consider myself very creative, this is what I have written in my mail too, but then I can’t help it. This is my last shot to do what I want to, this is something which I really feel am up for. I am willing to learn new things, but lately it’s becoming tougher and tougher to find someone who is actually willing to teach me something. I am hoping in you and in this organization, I might find what I have been looking for.”
Dibankar: “So you want to pursue summers from my organization?”
Sumit: “Yes sir. This is precisely what I meant.”
Dibankar: “Sumit tell me why should our organization choose you among so many people who want to pursue internship from here? Even they are too wiling, in fact some of them are more talented too. Why should I even think about giving you an internship in here?”
Stop!!!
Now you need to understand that this was not a question, rather it was a key to open the box, which contained his summers confirmation letter. A right answer will open the package. A wrong one will not.
Few days back he had seen the movie ‘Marley & Me’. He remembered that this is almost the same question that he had heard in the movie. He also remembered that Owen Wilson gave a very interesting answer to that.
Sumit: “Yup, its absolutely true that there are lot of people who are more qualified and very consistent in what they do, but you see this is where I feel I am good at, this is what that makes me different. I have this tendency of surprising. You can give me a job and be sure about the fact that I will definitely finish it, but what you don’t expect is that I may overdo myself, but a lot of times I do. There have been innumerable cases where I exceeded my own expectations. I surprise myself, I don’t go crazy over work, but that doesn’t mean I don’t work hard.
&
I am a Bengali!”
Sumit did exaggerate the dialogue that was used in the movie, but he nailed it!
6:33 PM
Four rounds later.
Dheeraj: “Sumit, I know amongst all you are the best, tell me you are my best friend. Aren’t you?”
Sumit: “Yeah, sure buddy, why do you ask?”
Dheeraj: “You are a friend na? You said yes, now you can not change it. Have a small one.”
Sumit: “No yaar, you know I don’t drink.”
Dheeraj divided the content of the glass in two parts
Dheeraj: “Ok, Ok, then a very small one. Please for me. You are my brother. Look everyone will laugh at me if you don’t. For me. Please!!!”
Sumit: “I can’t!!!!!”
Dheeraj: “I thought you were a true friend, but you are not, go to hell!!! Get out!!!”
Baldev took over the situation and brought things to normal.
Buzzz… Buzzz.. Buzzz…
Sumit disconnected the call, instead typed in the message.
“Nt nw, its bettr if v tlk later.lv u” & Pressed the send button. Upon receiving delivery report he put back the mobile phone in his pocket.
