chapter 2

2We were on the sixteenth floor of one of the new concrete behemoths that were springing up, almost one a week, in our neighbourhood. Our building was on Valley View Road and as one of the founders I had got to pick the corner office on one side of a large open-plan floor, right next to the archive rooms, which gave me a fantastic view of the road and the valley, and lots of privacy.I had kept my room simple: A long wooden desk on one side perpendicular to the glass wall. A 50-inch television screen on the opposite wall, with shelves on either side filled with books, music and a Bose Lifestyle home theatre. There were comfortable sofas, a bar and a whole wall just for my kit. We were very clear when we moved into this office that we were going to splurge and pamper ourselves since we spent most of our waking hours in this space and sometimes – often, for some people – our nights too. We also had a small kitchen that made very good coffee and was capable of dishing out simple breakfasts.Alpha wasn’t one of the big five of the ad world but our strength was photography, video and still, and we often worked with the big five. I led a team of six photographers who shot assignments across the board, around the world – commercial, fashion, product, automobile and a lot of advertising stock.Alpha was my dream come true. Once I had mustered up the courage to go solo, I hit on my dad’s best friend, Chittaranjan Das (whom we all called CD). CD was a senior partner with E&Y for more than two decades before he decided to hang up his boots. His years in consulting meant he knew virtually anyone who’s anyone in any industry or had access to them. He was affluent too, wealth both inherited and created, coupled, fortunately, with a certain flair for trying new things. One Sunday morning he sat me down, heard me out and said, ‘Yes, let’s do this.’ He offered to fund us for the first three years, at the end of which I would return fifty per cent to him, replacing the corpus with either profit or my own money, and we would convert Alpha into a partnership company. We managed the business together but he let me call the shots on almost everything – what we did, where and how we did it, and even, sometimes, who we worked with, and who we definitely wouldn’t. We kept the organization lean, which meant our lifestyle was good – and we liked it that way.I had returned from an outdoor shoot that morning. It was going to be a long day sorting out my memory cards,archiving, editing and finalizing the shots for the review group, which was usually a team of four. Turnaround times were limited and quick considering everybody seemed to want things yesterday.The review team consisted of the creative director, the account manager, me and, because it was my shoot, Roy. He was the only other photographer whose opinion I valued because he was ruthless. We kept it small but the decision- making was fiercely democratic; no shoot was finalized or canned until all four were happy. Occasionally we would ask for another opinion, especially when we were dealing with an easy client who didn’t ask for much. It was our way of ensuring we weren’t taking the lazy way out and delivering subpar work.As I walked towards my room I kept an eye out for Cara; I thought I saw her in Nat’s room. Natasha managed the lifestyle portfolios and a few key accounts but in a short time had become central to our success. She had spent many years with JWT and thought we were a good bunch when we had announced Alpha, and moved in with us, bringing in valuable long-term business. Most important, Nat was fun.As I settled into my chair I thought of Cara again. I briefly toyed with the idea of walking over to Nat’s on some pretext and getting an introduction, but remembered I had a deadline looming and settled back to work. There were fourteen memory cards to sort. It had been a long shoot for a life insurance company with three children. The kidshad tired quite easily, naturally, but the tiger moms around weren’t about to give up – ‘Sasha has had only six shots,’ one of them reminded me – and so it had continued through the day. I finished downloading the images, made a copy of the raw images and had just begun sorting them by theme and colour when Roy walked in.‘Hey!’‘What’s up?’ I asked.‘I’m off to Goa, the Four Seasons project. How did your shoot go?’‘Good. When are you off?’ ‘Tomorrow morning.’‘Okay, then do me a favour and take a look at this before you split,’ I said, pointing at my screen. ‘Swing by for a drink this evening, and if you like these I’ll pass them on to the crew.’We called the post-process guys the crew. They cleaned up, retouched and resized the images, catalogued them and had them filed away in the right disks to pass on to the agencies.‘Sure, I’ll see you at five,’ Roy replied and left the room.I turned back to my screen. Moments later a chat box popped up.Natasha: there’s a new kid I want you to meet when you have the time.Finally – Cara! Yes!But I didn’t want to seem too eager. Me: OKNatasha: she’s smart, you’ll like her.And she’s hot! I exulted while I thought about what I wanted to say to Natasha.Me: OKNatasha: looks like you are busy. I’ll bring her over sometime. Bye!Before I could reply, Natasha had logged off. She was always in a bloody hurry. And then the phone rang and Aanya put through a client. Cursing my luck, I picked up the phone for what ended up being a very long conversation. One thing led to another and before I knew it I was in the thick of a busy afternoon.Roy swung by at five-thirty.‘Okay, take a look at those,’ I said, nodding at my desk and walking over to the bar. ‘Drink?’‘Yep,’ he replied. He seldom said no to a drink.I poured us each a large drink of rum, and as he began to comment on the photos, my mind drifted back to Cara. She was an incredibly beautiful girl (it seems silly that I keep telling you guys this again and again, with an almost limited vocabulary, but she truly was), beautiful in a stunning, drop-dead gorgeous way. But I had seen other gorgeous women before, so why did I find myself wanting her so much. It had been a long time since this had happened.‘What do you think?’ I asked Roy.‘Good stuff, but I think you are better off dropping the girl. She’s cute but that pout on a six-year-old is not going to look good.’‘Okay, that just leaves the two boys. What do you think the client will say?’‘We can handle that, not a problem. There are too many campaigns out there with girls,’ Roy replied.Nat walked in at that point. ‘Hey!’ I waved back.‘That new girl is good, I really want you to meet her,’ she said.‘Too many things to do today, Nat, sorry,’ I lied. ‘Later, then. She came in today just to say hello and signup.’WHAT!? I wanted to scream but just kept staring at Nat instead.‘Her name’s Cara,’ Nat said over her shoulder as she walked out. ‘Bye!’‘Shit! Shit! Shit!’ I cursed.Roy looked at me quizzically. ‘Nothing, I forgot something,’ I fibbed. Roy frowned and went back to reviewing the pictures. He stayed for another hour, while I sat on the couch reading a magazine, and then left. I waved goodbye, adding, ‘Thanks, man!’I felt like a moron. She had been here in the office and I hadn’t met her. Served me right for sitting on my ass hoping it would happen by itself. After Roy left I poured myself another drink and sat down to sift through his choices and then went over the whole lot again just so we could show the client a good portfolio even without the girl. Someone elsewill have to handle her mom, I thought to myself. Maybe Nat could call them.Before I knew it I had spent over two hours in front of the screen. I got up to stretch my legs. Walking over to the glass wall, I looked at the concrete jungle that extended beyond the dark valley and marvelled at how an entire city had sprung up almost overnight. As I downed my drink the long day suddenly hit me and I ambled to the sofa and lay down, thinking I’d shut my eyes for a bit. As I slowly fell asleep thoughts of Cara flitted in and out of my mind.C-a-r-a-C-a-r-a, I kept repeating in my head, feeling silly but unable to stop.