‘Your calibre is not what is being questioned here, Megha,’ Shiv said coldly. ‘You don’t seem to be getting my point. You said yourself that the end result has been good and you’re right. But that’s exactly what I meant when I said earlier that the end is not as important as the means. We could have success in the market tomorrow if our sales team bribed the distributors or if our brand managers made false claims in our ads. But would that really be true success? You have been successful too, but by focusing only on creative work to the detriment of everything else. I have spoken to the rest of the team you worked with, Megha, and it is clear that you were excessively involved in the development of the creative work—something that is not even really a part of your job! Your role there is to supervise and give critical inputs, not get involved in the nitty-gritty of scriptwriting and film-making.’

‘But it was not to the detriment of everything else, Shiv!’ I said in a dangerously high-pitched voice. I felt like my head was about to explode. This couldn’t possibly be happening to me! It had to be a bad dream or somebody’s idea of a nasty joke. I took a deep breath. ‘I was involved in the creative work, Shiv—I admit that. Maybe it was a mistake. I’ve always loved creative work and when I got the opportunity to get into it on this project, I did. But I can swear it was not at the cost of the rest of the project! I have not slept properly for the last two months because I’ve been working my butt off for the launch!’

‘Please learn to watch your language, Megha,’ Varun said pompously and leaned over to say something in Shiv’s ear as I stared at him wildly. ‘And please don’t be so melodramatic,’ he went on, turning to Shiv. ‘Boss, as you know that while I was not that involved on the film because of my severe ill health, I have very much been an integral part in handling the launch after that. And I noticed that while the creative work was excellent, and it had to be—after all, Yudi was involved in this project—there were several loopholes in the rest of the launch plan. I have spent the last two months tightening the screws—and just in time, too. If Megha had put in that effort earlier and not been so, er, distracted with her love for creative work, that would not have been required.’

I looked at Varun in disbelief. How could he just coolly sit there and blatantly lie like that? He had just said that not only could I not take any of the credit for the ad film, because all the creative brilliance had happened courtesy Yudi, but also that the rest of the launch’s success was thanks to his own involvement! All he had done was make my life miserable and breathe down my neck as he tried to boss me around! The jerk hadn’t even attended any of the launch conferences, even though I had requested him to because they were scheduled close to each other and attending all of them would mean that I would pretty much be working around the clock. He hadn’t obliged, of course, and I’d nearly killed myself with all the travelling, early morning flights and back-to-back launch presentations. And now here he was, shooting his mouth off in front of Shiv.