When Swami walked into the café last weekend, he looked as though he had pulled an all-nighter. His eyes were puffy, his shirt half-tucked, and he sank into the chair opposite me like a man returning from battle. “What happened?” I asked. “You look like Raichand made you work the night shift.” “No, yaar. It … Read more
Look Rahul, we really like you. Well, you have been running this company for six years, and unless we liked you, you would not have been around so long. We have got so used to you by now, that our families go on vacation together. Our kids have fun together. Most of the members of … Read more
Last weekend when we met for coffee at his house, Swami looked grim, as though the world economy had collapsed overnight. He dropped into the sofa with a sigh. “What happened now?” I asked, while we waited for Jigneshbhai to arrive. “The price of onions,” Swami said, his voice low, as though delivering bad news. … Read more
The other day the weather was good, and we decided to walk after lunch instead of meeting in a café in the evening. I met Jigneshbhai and Swami just outside their apartment complex, and we decided to stroll along towards the park nearby. A car slowed down next to us while we were walking. The … Read more
“Choose enemies that give you energy, not drain your energy,” Jigneshbhai said as we met for our coffee last weekend. He was reading from a book that he seemed to have picked up. It said ‘Choose Your Enemies Wisely: Business Planning for the Audacious Few’. Swami and I peered into the title with curiosity as he … Read more
On 15th March 2047, Jack and Jill sat on the two ends of a big table. It was awkward. They tried hard, but they were not able to talk to each other. No words spilled out of either of their mouths. They had met at a dating site a month back and they had never … Read more
It was one of those evenings last weekend when Swami arrived at our café table looking as though he’d wrestled with a tiger. Except the tiger was invisible, and possibly digital. “I wasted an entire hour last night,” he began, even before ordering his coffee. Jigneshbhai did not take Swami’s exhaustion seriously. I thought Raichand … Read more
“Can we move to the next slide?” Swami yelled while sipping his coffee the other day. Jigneshbhai and I could see that he was in a bad mood. We didn’t stop him. “Let us get straight to the insights!” Swami howled. “Come on, who is the time-keeper? We don’t have all day,” he shouted. “Was … Read more
When Chandrakant Parulekar turned fifty-three, his boss of ten years laid him off. The boss said the store wasn’t doing well and needed to cut costs. Chandrakant regretted tolerating this profligate boss for so long. He liked the father more. The late father had been the original smart businessman. Chandrakant had learnt everything from him. … Read more