Carlton welcomed me and told me that I had single-handedly given the company both a problem to solve and a new global reputation. He said that he was thankful for both. In many consulting companies what I had done was ground for termination, but not in Dufresne. In this new Dufresne, he said, mavericks and thought leaders like me would be allowed to bloom and grow.

And then he announced that the partners of the firm had decided to promote me, with immediate effect, to the position of associate. I would not be attached to any one office but would report directly to Boris Nguyen, head of Asia. He wished me best of luck, told me to take the rest of the day off, go home and celebrate.

I ran into Yetch and Rajni outside the lift. At first no one said anything to anybody. The silence was very awkward. Then, just as we got into the lift, Rajni said he was very very happy for me. Yetch suggested that I should look for subordinates to help me out now that I’d been promoted. He even said something about ‘taking all our previous differences with a sporting spirit’.

I told them to prepare a 300-slide deck each on diversified multinational banking operations for my personal reference on the Lederman project. I also told them that not a single line on any slide should be the same as anywhere on the Internet, including Wikipedia. I gave them a week’s time. Then after we parted ways outside the building I sent them a text message saying there’s been a change of plans and I wanted to see it first thing tomorrow morning.

It felt pretty good.

After that I rushed to the Rediff office for my online chat session. Then to the CNBC office for my interview. It went on for forever. But it was fun. They said they’ll send me a transcript sometime later this week.

In the evening I picked up Gouri and took her out to dinner at the Taj President. It was a wonderfully romantic night. At the end of the dinner, just as I was about to tell her how much I loved her and how I wanted to spend the rest of my living days as a management consultant and strategy guru with her, I got an SMS from Megha. She is in Delhi for a shoot next week.

There was really no point in jumping to conclusions with Gouri before I had an opportunity to find out if she was okay with my newfound celebrity status. Why rush the poor girl into a decision? I decided to give her more time.

I dropped her home, we kissed and then, just as I was planning to leave, Gouri stopped me. She said that something had been on her mind for a while. And didn’t know how to broach the topic with me. I told her that my life was awesome right now and I could handle anything. Which is when she asked me how I felt about bondage and threesomes.