Not Likely

Monday Morning Blues

"Dhriti. Dhriti. Dhriti", Maya trilled as she caught my nervous look.

"Good morning Maya", I said with a big smile, sitting down opposite her. "You look lovely."

"Thank you."

"New dress?"

"No, no."

"Well, you could've fooled me."

She gave me a look as she opened my file.

It was the most annoying part of my job. Budget discussion. As soon as I went back to work, Maya's sunny email about discussing my budget greeted me on Monday morning, darkening the rest of my day even further.

Maya was an A-class friend. She can also be an A-class bi-

Ok no, not today, she might cut my budget to the bone.

"How was Switzerland?" she asked as she opened my file.

"Oh it was awesome," I said brightly. "It was nice and snowy, we had a great time, the shoot was fantastic-"

"Why did we go $100000 over budget?" she enquired politely, her dark eyes narrowed.

Well, shit.

Here's the thing. Inspiration strikes these Italians at the absolute last minute. We were on day 3 of our shoot when the director had a splash of 'creative vision' to add 'powerful oomph' to the campaign.

Was this a good call? Yes- marketing-wise.

Not so much- finance-wise.

"You see Maya, the thing with ad shoots is that it's- a- its not all cut and dry, you know", I hastened to explain. "It's more like you see what you like and then you just make something out of it- and in a real, non-creative sense, that takes money."

"Oh I know", she said dryly. "Got the email with the Subject: Urgent- Need Approval. Life or Death. Tell me something."

"Yes?" I asked nervously.

She closed her file and looked at me. "Was the shoot good?"

"Oh yes," I said fervently.

"Will you be able to vouch for it?"

"Yes for sure."

"Okay. Now I have to write this up to the CFO- you know that, right?"

My shoulders slumped. "Yes."

"And you know he's a goddamn miser."

"Your entire team is full of misers" I shot back.

Her eyebrows rose. "You sure you want to speak your mind today, Ms. Kumar?"

I gave her a sweet smile. "I wouldn't dare to."

Her answering grin was as naughty as it was attractive. "Good. I am sorry but I should do it. You know, na?"

"Yes yes", I said airily. "Now can you approve the rest of my budget or not?"

Half an hour later, I gloomily got out of the room, mourning the loss of my many great schemes. After she told me that money doesn't grow on trees, she made me make 'realistic' decisions for the coming quarter and that resulted in many fantastic ideas being outright rejected.

I swear finance people are the worst.

Still gloomy, I made my way to the cafeteria, where I gloomily took a sad bite of a cold roll, rubbing my eyes sleepily. I had reached Mumbai the early morning and had just an hour's worth of sleep. I dashed to work because I couldn't see Dad's passive-aggressive 'Hmph' and Ma's big I-am-sorry eyes.