Once Upon a University Campus

More of The Love Story

"Ek hi Chingari se Shuru hua hoga? O knows about that Lohri party thing between you and Shivaay Bhaiyya?" Rudy going off on a tangent, whispered to Annika.

Annika awkwardly nodded to indicate her innocence before Om continued.

"So when did the spark fly?" He asked Shivaay.

"I know, I know" Rudy rose, lifting his hand with excitement. Annika held him by his wrist, pulling him down to his seat and gestured him to stay quiet. Rudy settled down only to squirm where he sat and asked Shivaay to continue.

"Spark? That is far off.. Respect, camaraderie is what happened. " Shivaay continued.

"I was exploring my options to fix my ailing Delhi circle. But one of the two choices was acquiring a synergetic mid sized competitor. Acquisition are different. My experience was mostly in start-ups and strategic investing. Since this was my first acquisition, I consulted with Bade Papa and he asked me to hire this big consulting company to help me. I did and when they submitted their preliminary report, I felt something amiss. I did not have the expertise to explain what it was but something did not add up, just my gut feeling. I reached out to Prof McMillan, my professor at Yale with my problem. Unfortunately, he could not help much since he did not know the Indian market well enough. Fortunately, he suggested that I consult Professor Phatak who was the leading expert in India. When I contacted professor Phatak, he asked me to meet him at his residence, late in the evening. It was strange. I was expecting him to invite me to his office. Eventually I would learn that industry collaboration was not as prevalent in this university as was with Yale or other western universities. That evening, I had a quick dinner and reached Prof Phatak's residence, which turned out to be a red brick quarter on campus. There was a consolation that in case of the collaboration not materialize, at least I could meet Om. Mrs Phatak and Prof Phatak were very welcoming and pleasantly informal. After the usual pleasantries, Prof Phatak summoned his research assistant who would work on the project under his supervision. Guess who it turned out to be?" Shivaay smirked.

"Annika? " Om exclaimed.

"Annika Didi" chimed in Rudy.

"Too easy to guess. It was her, the same irresponsible girl who had drenched me in water, chutney and had thrown her footwear at me too. It was awkward. I had no idea that this girl was Prof Phatak's student or that he had high opinions of her or that she was any good. I had a general poor opinion of her and the only saving grace was that she had helped Om. That couple of minutes, I did not know how to read the situation, what to make of her abilities. My problem was unique, complex and needed an intelligent solution. Can a person who could not balance a bowl of chutney manage to find that intelligent solution for me? As such I was venturing into uncharted territory. My own team, including Khanna thought it was wasteful to rope in a bunch of university folks. That being the case, I doubted my judgement and wondered if I was wasting time involving these university folks. But I had positive collaborations with western universities. My Professor at Yale could not have been dead wrong in suggesting Prof Phatak. Besides I was already there. So I made a split second decision to go ahead and at least present the problem to Prof Phatak in good faith. If the collaboration works, it works. If not, I was not going to lose much. I presented my case to Prof Phatak. I tried to be civil to Annika but my focus was Prof Phatak. I was convinced at that point that if at all anything fruitful came out of this collaboration, it would be from Prof Phatak. Soon it was obvious that Prof Phatak understood the problem. It was to be seen if he could come up with a solution. My hopes for any positive outcomes from this collaboration got discouraged the moment Prof Phatak assigned critical responsibilities to Annika. All the while I was hoping Prof Phatak would do it himself with ancillary support from his research assistants. But then I had set the ball rolling. I could not have gone back. Worst come worst, I could dump it, if garbage is what they produced. But to get there, I had to provide the Prof Phatak's team with everything they needed. I did that as formally as possible and took leave of Prof Phatak. Disappointed how things have turned out, I decided to make the best out of the rest of the night by spending some time with Om. The path was dark, I tried to find my way when I stumbled against uneven surface of the barely paved road. That stumble, gave me an extra minute to contemplate. As I felt my shoes for any damage, I could hear Annika and Mrs Phatak chatting at a distance. But what if my initial assessment of this girl was wrong? What if I was prejudiced just because the circumstances of our initial encounters. Prof McMillan would not recommend Prof Phatak for nothing. Similarly Prof Phatak would not recommend this girl for nothing. Maybe I should give her a fair chance. I walked back to Prof Phatak's residence and decided to wait at the gate. It would be unfair to take the rest of the Phatak's evening. It was only the girl that had to know the details. She took some time to finish her tet-e-tet with Mrs Phatak. Finally I heard the door close and soft steps approach the gate. I realised I was in dark spot, that she had not noticed me when she closed the gate behind her and started walking away briskly. I had to holler to stop her. She sounded startled. I fidgeted not knowing how to begin this awkward conversation. Thankfully, she did not see that under the cover of darkness. It was not easy, especially convincing myself to give her a fair chance. When I did, it became relatively easy to speak to her. What else could I start with but a word of thanks for her help with the stray dogs? I started with that hesitantly and got it out of the way. Now for the problem at hand. If I were to give her a fair chance, I had to give her a patient hearing and my time.I did that. She was full of questions, some interesting, some very obvious. After our conversation that night, a faint hope glimmered at a distance, that this collaborating might, after all, end up fruitful. That is all I remember of the night. I had bet on a game with low stakes. If nothing else, I won't be losing much. I sought Om's company for the rest of the night."