He asked his secretary to send the ‘new EA’ in. A moment later Sugandh walked in dressed in a clean but cheap suit, clean shaven and looking surprisingly civilized. Tom introduced us. Sugandh leaned over shook my hand, introduced himself to me. He told me his name was Sugandh. But that I should call him Andy.

And the bastard looks at me and says: ‘So you are one of the Dufresne guys? I hope you bring some solid change to our organization.’

Outside I was smiling pleasantly. Inside I was eating oysters.

Tom asked us to get to know each other when we had time. He told me to keep Andy privately informed of all LLTLF activities especially anything involving funding or financials. I was half expecting Tom to make some secret sign like winking at me. But he mentioned it casually like any other office business. I got up, thanked both of them, walked back to the conference room, closed the door, made sure no was listening and then screamed in frustration for between 15 to 20 minutes. After that I took a permanent marker and wrote random meaningless business jargon all over the whiteboard in a corner of the room.

Now it can never be used again.

Ok wait. Someone is knocking on the door …

It is Sugandh. Fuck. Later.

14 April 2007

4.40 p.m.

For a change, life is quiet and peaceful. Both Sugandh and Jenny are trying to make things very difficult for me. But that is partly my fault. I should have never agreed to help him get a job at Dufresne. And I should have never mixed business and pleasure when it came to Jenny. Also I don’t think anything is ever going to happen between Jenny and me any more. My feelings for her have gone away.

To me she is now just yet another chinky co-worker.

This morning she sends me an email saying that she wants to see a rough 12-month budget for LLTLF by the end of the working day so that she can start engaging with Group A. Her email did not have an opening salutation and no closing ‘regards’ or ‘sincerely’. Just one line: Robin I want you to … blah blah blah I am a bitch blah blah fuck you blah blah blah …

I got very pissed. This was supposed to be my team.

I immediately wrote back to her saying I was not her slave and she should at least show some professional courtesy when asking me to do something for her. I told her currently I was busy with Dufresne transitioning. And that I needed at least 48 hours, in a best case scenario, to revert with my thoughts on her request.

After 5 minutes she sent me the exact same email again. But this time with a cc to all the board members who are part of the Lederman CSR sub-committee.

STUPID STUPID COMMUNIST THIRD WORLD IMMIGRANT WITCH!!!