Besides, relations between us weren’t exactly rosy either. We had concluded the midterm appraisal session on an acrimonious note a couple of weeks ago, with Varun insisting that I was incapable of handling important projects, and me continuing to be defiant. The ad film’s success, which showed me in a rather flattering light, was probably a little too much for him to digest.

‘It’s celebration time, guys!’ I heard Shiv say and I turned towards him, resolving to banish all thoughts of Vile Varun from my mind. I had worked hard for this day and now that my film was a smash hit I was determined to enjoy every minute of it. Vile Varun and his problems could go take a walk!

Shiv and Puru wanted to take the entire Bright Biscuits team out for dinner to celebrate. After deciding on an upmarket restaurant near our office as the venue, we wrapped up the meeting and headed back to our workstations. I had been at my desk for less than a minute when I felt a tap on my shoulder and saw Shiv smiling down at me. ‘I wanted to congratulate you yet again for a fantastic job, Megha. Very well done!’

‘Thanks, Shiv. Coming from you it really means a lot!’ I smiled back at Shiv, feeling like I would burst with pride any minute. Accolades from Shiv were a big deal. He was recognized both within GF and among the larger marketing community as an ace marketer and had been credited with taking GF towards greater heights of glory ever since he had taken over as vice-president of marketing a few years ago.

‘I think we should showcase this film at the upcoming Annual Sales Conference next month,’ Shiv said, still smiling. ‘Will you put together a presentation on the Bright Biscuits launch? We can project Bright Biscuits as our showstopper for the next quarter. Try and create something impactful when you work on the presentation—you know, jazz it up a bit, so that it fires up the sales team. What do you think?’

I beamed at Shiv, feeling excited at the prospect of getting a platform to showcase our work on Bright Biscuits. ‘Sure thing, Shiv. That’s a fantastic idea. I’m on it!’

I called Suketu excitedly as soon as Shiv left to give him an update. Most new launches just got a slot to air their films at the GF Annual Sales Conference; the longer presentation sessions were reserved for the bigger, more established brands to showcase their performances. If Shiv was giving us the opportunity to do more than just air the new Bright Biscuits ad, it could only mean that he had really liked the film!

I hung up the phone after agreeing to meet Suketu in fifteen minutes. The rest of the team had already left but we didn’t really need anyone from the creative side for a business presentation. I planned to do some quick brainstorming with Suketu and then prepare the presentation on my own, but I was definitely going to have the entire team with me on stage when I presented. They were as much a part of this as I was, if not more, and I knew that being up there on stage in front of the entire GF sales and marketing teams would be a huge morale booster for Neil and Shubhra.