Apparently Jenson, psycho bastard, had made a list of every partner, principal, manager and associate who attended the off-site. With notes and everything. According to him, this way he can impress them whenever he runs into them. He said that the two suits in the conference room were new to him and hadn’t come to Jaipur. He said that Vineet might be trying to score brownie points with them and we should go and meet them too.

I told Jenson that he was just being paranoid. Vineet probably knew them from before. And there was no such thing as brownie points in a company. I showed him the paragraphs from Dufresne Reach OUT: Handbook on Performance and Remuneration where it clearly states that ‘Employee performance is purely on the basis of project performance and client deliverables. Dufresne is a politics-and intrigue-free organization.’

Jenson laughed at me and went back to filling his forms.

Honestly! I hate people like Jenson. He is the sort of guy who gives MBAs a bad name. I made a mental note to avoid hanging out with him as much as possible. He could be a bad influence.

Lunch was a subdued affair. All of us new joinees went to the canteen together except for Jenson who said he wasn’t hungry. When we came upstairs after lunch, I saw him go down to eat with the two suits. Bastard.

Some time later Shailesh told us to assemble in the conference room for a meeting with Jerry Kapoor. The head of Indian operations, remember?

We all went in together. Once we were all seated, I discovered that I was the only one without a notepad and pen. I was among the first to come in and the room was pretty crowded so there was no way I could sneak out to grab some paper and a pen without causing a commotion. I waited uncomfortably. All of us sat in the chairs around the table, leaving four or five empty ones at the head of the table for Jerry.

He walked in ten minutes later, looking super sharp in a shirt and tie and shiny shoes. He smiled at everyone and sat in one of the free chairs. He said nothing.

In fact no one said anything for a while till Shailesh walked in and asked Jerry whether he should get refreshments for everyone. Jerry asked him to bring the usual. Shailesh went away. And then Jerry looked at no one in particular and asked us why we had asked him to come to the conference room.

Vineet looked at me. I looked at Jenson. Jenson smiled at Jerry nodding his head vigorously.

Finally Vineet spoke up and told Jerry that, in fact, we’d been asked to come and meet HIM.

Jerry was quiet for a while and then got up, told us that the meeting had been adjourned and that we were to assemble back in the conference room at the same time the next day to continue our discussion. Jenson got up and thanked him for the great meeting.