Not Likely

I'm All About Profershanalism

Wishing for mental peace, prosperity, happiness, and health has been a long-term staple prayer of mine. The man above (or woman), has answered this prayer with varying degrees of accuracy in my 25 years of existence.

Sometimes it's one out of four, sometimes it's 2 out of four, and on rare occasions, it's even reached three out of four.

Then, in the next three weeks of my life post the Brunch Issue, the person above straight-up offered all four.

I was quite stoked, not going to lie.

Ma would've gladly made things very difficult for me, if not for Dad springing a surprise 3-week trip to celebrate their 28th Anniversary (cue the tears of happiness). Dad had been plotting and planning to whisk her away for a getaway to Manali and who am I to stop the two love birds from enjoying the fruits of their marriage?

Ma wanted me to come along, no doubt to use this downtime to give me all of her opinions, but I made it a point to get out of that with haste. All I had to do was corner Dad and tell him that this is the time he makes right on his duties as a husband and not a father.

So off they went, giving me peace, happiness, and (mental) health all in one go!

As for prosperity, it did come knocking with a particularly glowing review of our recent product launches. The customers were showing a stark preference for our brand and if that didn't prove to my jerk of a boss that I knew what I was doing, I don't know what will.

Speaking of said jerk...

I am happy to report that the last two weeks and a half of the third one have been a non-Dhruv Razdan workplace. Week 1 and 2, he had disappeared to USA and Brazil to bro down with the Marketing heads there. Week 2 he was back in India, constantly in between meetings with the Luxury brand launch, the finance team, the board, and the social media team, on the whole, keeping away from us.

And the days have been so productive.

"You're glowing", Farida commented after a particularly good meeting with the Italy team. "I would ask an inappropriate question right now, but knowing you, the answer wouldn't be that."

I gave her a look. "I am happy because things are going well. I finally feel Zen."

"It's scary to see you Zen" Jai commented, frowning at the uncharacteristic smile on my face. "Its like watching a zebra with no stripes."

I rolled my eyes. "Thanks for the support guys. Love it."

"Listen, no. We were going through the Market research report. There's a scope for vanilla flavor in biscuits. Do you want to try it with Yum?" Prashant asked.

Yum is a biscuit brand that is owned by Kleitos. It's in direct competition with Britannia and is one of the best sellers in the Indian market. I didn't touch it so far because it's been one of the stars of the company.

"Pull up the report; let's take a look."

He obliged and we spent some time pouring over the metrics.

I wrinkled my nose at the findings. "Vanilla is such a weird flavor. Why would people like it?"

"Its very under-represented in biscuit flavours- you have chocolate, the fruit flavours- Britannia did Vanilla a while ago, but the taste is resurging."

"Ugh, fine. Let's set up a call with the Product team first thing on Monday. I want to hear their take." I said, writing down my questions. I had an odd feeling that they were hovering over my desk. I looked up to see the three with varying expressions of We-are-not-done-yet on their faces. "Anything else?" I prompted.