He stopped to give me a withering look, clearly implying that I was as far from a mature professional who understood her core competency as Puru was from a size-zero physique. As he opened his mouth again to continue, the office intercom went off: ‘Please proceed to the cafeteria for the GF Category Update scheduled to begin in fifteen minutes. We request everyone to please be seated before the address commences.’

‘Damn it!’ said Varun, looking extremely frustrated at having his thunder stolen like this. ‘I had forgotten about the Category Update!’

I was just about to politely ask him if ‘damn it’ featured on the list of non-offensive words that could be used in his august presence when he caustically told me that we would reschedule the appraisal for a mutually convenient time and swiftly exited the room, probably to bag front-row seats in the cafeteria from where he could pay obeisance to Shiv and the other GF luminaries who would take centre stage for the Category Update.

Everyone in office was trooping downstairs towards the cafeteria in happy hordes when I emerged from the conference room. I joined the fray. The GF Category Update was a quarterly affair to update the masses on the latest in business results, new launches and successful new commercials. It was also a time for awards and recognition and a select deserving few from among the ranks would be called upon stage to receive a prize for a recent work-related achievement. But the grand finale of the programme—the one thing that everyone looked forward to with barely suppressed anticipation—was the high tea that was set forth at every update, after all the speeches and awards were done with. It was a high tea straight out of an Enid Blyton midnight feast, replete with macaroons and waffles and fruit tarts and paper-thin cucumber-tomato-cheese sandwiches that melted in your mouth, all to be washed down with copious quantities of freshly brewed Cup o’ Cheer tea, GF’s number one tea brand. At the end of each Category Update, the GF cafeteria would see its devoted workers staggering out, stuffed to the gills with the good stuff, their senses comfortably numbed by an overdose of the munchies—it was for this very reason that the Category Update was always carefully scheduled for Friday afternoons.

I sat down on a corner seat among the last few rows, partially obscured by a pillar, and surveyed the crowd. It was mandatory for all GF employees physically present on the office premises to attend the Category Updates and any agency employees who happened to be around could join in as well if they wanted to. I spotted Suketu in the front row as soon as I walked in and I could now see a few other familiar faces from Blue Strawberry and Media Blaze, GF’s media agency, amongst the crowd. Yudi was there too, a few rows away, saying something to Priyanka who was sitting next to him and ardently hanging on to every word escaping his lips.