The CEO clapped his hands, reached over and shook my hands vigorously. His eyes were damp with joy. He said it was the most amazing story he had heard ever.

And that the story would help him very much to cope with Hiphopper’s passing away.

By the time I left his room even my pulse was racing. Phew. What a scene that was. Wow.

Two hours later he summoned me to his cabin again. As I walked over I quickly made up a scene with Copernicus, me and an out-of-control hijacked navy helicopter from the Cochin naval base which ends with a daring rescue from the top of a coconut palm tree. I must write this down sometime. It’s very awesome.

Unfortunately he wanted to speak about Hiphopper’s post-mortem report.

Let me say right now that it pains me immensely to say what I am about to. My conscience is burdened with grief, Diary.

When the CEO told me what Hiphopper’s cause of death was … I was heartbroken.

Apparently the dog had successfully consumed twenty-three entire ball bearings and then choked to death on the twenty-fourth. The CEO told me that he could only think of me, as another dog lover—who would take any risk to save the life of a puppy—to share his pain with. He said he had no idea how Hiphopper would have access to so many ball bearings and that there may be foul play involved.

He swore me to secrecy and then told me how a competing factory in Mysore had been trying to win over clients from JHA’s portfolio for the last two years. But thanks to JHA’s annual ‘Wonder Week in Bangkok’ programme for purchasing managers at client companies, the Mysore guys had never had a chance.

The CEO suspects that this unprovoked attack on Hiphopper must have been part of a plan on the competition’s part to undermine his leadership. I told him that I had no doubt at all that this was the case and that, according to my data, there was close to a zero per cent chance that the ball bearings had anything at all to do with JHA staff or members of any other organization currently on the JHA premises in a full-time or part-time consulting capacity.

I further hedged my position by telling him that I never touched ball bearings after an incident in engineering college when I developed a life-threatening allergy to them.

Then he spent an hour telling me some very boring stories about Hiphopper. Unbearable. But I had to smile along and make up some of my own about Copernicus. By the end I ran out of ideas and told him modified scenes from Tintin with that white dog.

Finally, when he let me go he asked me if I had any ideas for a small shrine or grave sculpture for Hiphopper to be put up somewhere in the factory grounds as a memorial. I told him I’d tell him in a day or two.