Santanam smiled, thumped the table and then, horror of horrors, said that Jenson had the attitude that it took to make associate in March and that we should all learn from him.

I felt like puking and tried to hide my disgust of Jenson’s unbelievable ass-licking.

Thankfully, after we all got up to go for dinner I was able to personally meet Santanam and express my displeasure at what had just happened. I told him that Tony had been acting funny for a few months but I had been so busy with my analysis and deck-making—in order to win more work from Mishra—that I hadn’t had time to chat with him. I told him that as an analyst who was well used to picking up responsibilities beyond my rank, and almost as much as that of an associate, I would be more than glad to fill in for Tony on the project. Santanam thanked me for my support and told me that he was too experienced and professional to take this outburst seriously. He then asked me if I would send an email outlining what had just happened to HR so that they could block paying any pending salary, bonus or severance pay to Tony on disciplinary grounds. I assured him that I would do so as soon as possible.

Halfway through the very quiet and tense Dufresne dinner that followed Tony called me on my cell and asked me if I would join him for a drink later. I whispered at him to meet me in the hotel coffee shop after a couple of hours.

It was almost 1 a.m. when I finally went downstairs to meet Tony. I knew that the poor fellow had screwed things up. He would be in pieces, regretting his impulsive behaviour and probably just wanted my shoulder to cry on. Tony probably wanted someone to ask for help and assistance. Tony was a friend and since everyone from Dufresne had left the hotel, and no one would see us together, I was prepared to do anything and go to any lengths to help him cope or even mend his ways.

I walked into the coffee shop half expecting to see Tony in tears.

But instead the bugger was sipping a glass of white wine looking as pleased as could be. I figured he’d drunk too much. Trying to forget.

I sat down next to him and told him that this was not the end of the world and that given a little time and humility he could get his job at Dufresne back.

Tony told me to shut the fuck up. And then he handed me a letter.

It was from Kohlmann, Krishnakumar, Rajubhai and Roberts. KKRR was the number one name in private equity in the world. They’d recently opened an Indian office and bankers everywhere were working their asses off trying to get a job interview.

KKRR had just picked up Tony as a senior associate at a 32.5 lakh per annum package with a 200 per cent potential bonus. If all went well Tony was looking at a take-home of over a crore!