A day begins in the life of the New Indian CEO

The alarm crowed. A lusty king of the farmyard cock-a-doodle-do. He shut the mobile up. One hour and five minutes was all he had before his day began. He would steal five minutes from that. Look the other way, he told that frowning creature in his soul. I do it all the time. A little corruption. A little bribery. I negotiate with the world 24 /7.So why not an extra 5 minutes of sleep? he told himself and buried his head under the pillow. And so began another day in the life of an Indian.

His wife was already up and about washing clothes and cleaning her cupboard.She wouldn't venture into the kitchen today! Not with his parents in the house. His mom who was so superstitious with definite ideas about what her daughter-in-law could or couldn't do on five days of every month. His dad who was kind and amiable and tried to make the best out of every situation.

Alas! He had to awake once thoughts filled up his half-asleep head it was no use tryingto go back to sleep. He's tried a zillion times before. He would just toss and turn. That would only wear him out. And he couldn't afford that. He had to be his freshest self today!

Today was his first day as a CEO. CEO - he rolled the word around in his tongue.Just to savour the taste of it. It had come to mean so much to him. The TOP spot. That is what he had wanted -nothing less. While he was mechanically going through themotions of freshhening up for the day, his mind went into flash-back.

His first day at "Motor", just out of college. Fresh with no ideas about what to expect and what to deliver. His main concern then had been not to make a fool of himself.Wow! He had looked up to everybody working in 'Motor" then. He felt blessed to bea part of that organisation. Stepping into a world of air-conditioned offices, dapper-looking your men and smart dressed women, had been like stepping into a whole new world!

At first it felt a bit awkward - calling somebody who was definetly elder to "Randeep Bhaiyya" by their first name! It was no longer Bhaiyya or Didi like in college where even a year of difference counted. Here decades melted away in Suman, Rajesh, Chitra and Vaibhav. Just first names.No salutations and no deference of age!

He attended his first meeting the very first day.He got to know his team.
Suman- she was the "Opinion girl". She had an opinion on each and every subject under the sun.
Rajesh -He was the "questioner". Just when you thought that everyone agreed to a decision he'd say "But what I want to know is....".
Chitra- There was a tacit understanding in the groupabout her. She is wise.
Then there was Vaibhav - he was the lead - his job was to balance it all out.

Vinish had taken many more meetings, personal interactions and gruelling work to understand them and many more others.And today he would be their leader, their vision,their negotiator to the rest of the world.
Then he thought of Manisha. "Ouch!" The razor had slipped a notch and now there was a reddening line on his right cheek above his jaw-line. Deepti had come into the bathroom and he wasjolted out of that train of thought.
"Finished the cupboard?" He asked Deepti. She just nodded , took her perfume bottle and left. "That's nncommunication for you" Vinish thought.
It had taken a lot of heartache too and now he had reached!
An hour later he stood ready to address his expectant employees.