‘Suketu,’ Shiv said, as if on cue, ‘will continue servicing the Bright Biscuits account. We need someone from the old team to maintain continuity, and Suketu with his vast experience and knowledge of the brand is a valued resource. After all, he has been working on the biscuits portfolio forever. Right, Suketu?’ He directed a warm smile at Suketu.

‘Right, Shiv!’ Suketu smiled back, looking hugely relieved and happy at the same time.

Trust Shiv to say all the right things. He had managed to take a tough call without hurting any feelings—the creative team was grateful because their load had been considerably lightened; Suketu was feeling valued and happy; and the future of Bright Biscuits looked hopeful again!

The rest of the meeting went by in a buzz of what-happens-next and plans of action. Suketu was assigned the responsibility of getting a new creative team on board as soon as possible. We would start from scratch on the project with fresh, new work, and hopefully this time round we would get somewhere. Life had begun to look up again! I began to feel a little better. When the meeting ended, I walked back to my desk with renewed enthusiasm. My optimism was short-lived, however. In less than ten minutes, Vile Varun descended on my desk like the proverbial pall of gloom and summoned me to a meeting room.

‘I hope you’re feeling worried, Megha,’ he began before I’d even shut the glass door behind me. ‘A change of creative team is no joke, and it speaks very poorly of the brand team in charge. Basically, what it says is that the brand team is incompetent and incapable of providing strategic direction. This episode speaks very poorly of you, Megha. In fact, I’m thinking of having a word with Shiv to discuss whether you should be handling projects of such importance at all!’

‘Just hang on a minute, Varun!’ I snapped, feeling a familiar hot flush of anger beginning to course through my veins. My sister Sammy’s oft-repeated advice—‘Don’t act when you’re angry, Megha! ‘—flashed through my mind but I threw caution to the winds. There was no way I was taking this lying down! Varun had been downright insulting and worse, unfair. ‘Let me remind you that this project has been anything but easy so far,’ I continued with as much politeness as I could muster in my tone. ‘You heard Shiv say so yourself in today’s meeting. And, in addition, the creative team was overburdened with work. It’s really unfair to blame me for everything that’s gone wrong so far. You know I’ve been giving a hundred per cent to this project. Besides, we’re supposed to be working on this project together and you’re my boss. If you really thought I was slipping up so badly, why didn’t you point it out earlier? Anyway, failures happen, and I think we should learn from them and move on.’

I stopped to catch my breath, and also because Varun had turned a peculiar shade of purple and started spluttering wildly. He didn’t like being stood up to in general—and by me in particular. Well, he’d just have to get used to it, I thought wryly, bracing myself for some more scathing repartee, but just then the door swung open and Shiv walked in.