So Jerry decided that he would have lengthy personal interviews with both Kart(h)iks before making up his mind. Then, when he had decided, he had Shailesh type up letters to both candidates. He decided that one would be made senior associate and the other would have to wait for another year.

Shailesh, unfortunately, lost track of that extra ‘h’ and forgot which Kart(h)ik was which. And he mixed up the letters.

Jerry, meanwhile, decided to announce the promotion at a team meeting in the Mumbai office. He stood up, made a small speech, and then asked everyone to welcome the newest senior associate. The wrong Kart(h)ik stood up. Jerry was bewildered. Shailesh disappeared to arrange for snack boxes.

After three days of meetings, several resignations and two conference calls with Bangkok, Jerry decided to cancel the promotion altogether. Both Kart(h)iks agreed to stay back in the firm provided they would be allocated exactly the same projects, to maintain a level playing field, and at the end of the year the better performer would be promoted and the other one let go.

I swear I am not making all this up. I found it all a little hard to believe too, Diary, but Tony says its awesome fun to be with them on a project because they keep trying to outdo each other.

I asked him how teams with both the Kart(h)iks worked. How did you address both of them without getting confused all the time?

He told me that the short, spectacled one was called Yetch, because he is Kart-H-ik, and the other one, slightly taller with the crooked parting in his hair, was called Rajni because he was a huge fan of the Tamil superstar.

I have decided to always accompany Tony on every smoke break henceforth. The guy is a treasure trove of company gossip and information. And ‘knowing your colleagues’, according to Professor Kuber, is one of the most important things for a manager aspiring for fast-track growth in a company.

After that I spend some time chatting with Yetch and Rajni. They are both nice guys, very quiet and very serious about their work. They told me to pay special attention to Panchatantra because it was my first project and I had to make a very good first impression. Otherwise, Yetch told me, other analysts would outshine me and then I would have to wait even longer to get promoted to associate. And then I would always be behind everybody else.

Rajni told me that Panchatantra was too easy a first project but I should not become complacent. I should take it not as a job but life itself—complete focus on my work. Everything else should be secondary.

Both of them told me that Tony was a bad influence and that I should interact with him only on a professional basis.

I asked them how Santanam was like to work with. Yetch and Rajni both said that he was one of the best principals in the company with a strong work ethic and very good project management experience. They told me that I was lucky to start work with him.