It had been easy to convince Shiv, beleaguered under the twin onslaught of mounting pressure on the Dinky Chips script and the impending sales conference. He had just wanted to deal with the issue in the quickest way possible and move on. And he had believed Varun and Suketu—after all, Suketu was one of the senior-most agency guys around, a long-time GF partner, reliable and trusted by all. Varun may have had his own motives for painting a false impression about me but why would Suketu do the same? Why indeed?

And that’s where Yudi had stepped in, like the quintessential knight in shining armour, all set to save the damsel in distress. Yudi had known something that nobody else knew— that Suketu, the long-time servicing guy, had been harbouring creative ambitions himself for a long time now.

After ten years in servicing, a bored Suketu had begun to indulge the desire for a career switch to the creative field, a desire he had been hiding in the closet for a long time. He knew that he would first have to prove himself with a creative success on the job, and had first tried his hand at Dinky Chips. He had failed miserably. Yudi was the creative head on Dinky Chips and definitely not the best person to indulge any creative whims Suketu may have had. But Suketu’s interference had wrecked things badly enough to delay the new Dinky Chips film and ruffle a few feathers on the brand team. Even Yudi and he were at loggerheads by now. To make matters worse Puru had jumped on to the Dinky Chips bandwagon as well, and this compelled Suketu to back off.

Simultaneously, he had been trying his hand on the Bright Biscuits project with the old creative team, but the repeated failures there weren’t helping his case either. That’s when things began to look up slowly for Suketu. The entry of a new creative team meant two new and inexperienced people whom Suketu could control completely. He could easily steal their thunder when the time came and nobody would bat an eyelid. Suketu was too influential within Blue Strawberry for someone to doubt him. It was all going well, too, with the fantastic progress we were making on the project. That’s when I dropped the bomb by telling Suketu about my own creative aspirations. Overnight, I changed from being a harmless brand manager interested in creative work to a potential threat who could ruin Suketu’s plans if I took the credit for the film myself. He had to get me out of the picture—and fast.

As the truth gradually presented itself, I found myself too stunned to react. I was unable to speak to Suketu who, in turn, hadn’t made any effort to speak with me either. Varun, seemingly unaffected by what had just transpired, projected a repulsive facade of bravado all through the meeting. But apart from a few dirty looks thrown my way he too remained silent.

It was Shiv who had done most of the talking in a contrite, subdued voice. I could see he was a little rattled by this sudden twist in the tale. And rightly so, for if it hadn’t been for Yudi’s intervention, Suketu and Varun would have easily got away with their devious plans. They very nearly had.