Me1 (to myself): Well, well, well! It must have been rather an eye-opener, watching me make this report!
Me2 (in reply): No, I’m used to these bouts of brilliance! This is splendid!
Me1: The simple straight forward method never fails, remember!
Me2: And the analysis, particularly impressive!
Me1: The charts and graphs, what do you think?
Me2: They charm the audience nearly as much as the analysis!
Me1: A well-made strategy report, made with care and attention is one of the most appealing expressions of human ingenuity I know of: a compact, neat, satisfying slice of human intelligence, a pleasure to look at, to present, to own!
Me2: It beats me, sometimes, why a girl with such a genius, is satisfied to hang around here! With half your brains, one would have a shot at being the president or something!
By this time, we, err..I mean I, arrived at the third floor (that’s where the big guys sit). I cleared my throat and went into the conference hall, well content, looking sharp!
Now, in this hall, many a genius had been insulted, mocked at and jagged with contempt for five hundred years, and the flavour still lingered. The air is always sort of heavy and languorous, if you know what I mean. I don't know if you have ever seen those pictures of dictators with tilted chins and piercing eyes, inflaming the subordinates with fiery words on the slightest occasion! Now, you know what I mean!
Our VP, my boss, who was sitting with a bevy of the company nibs around him, sighted me as I entered and waved to me to join them, but I was too smart for that. I wedged myself in among the standees at the back, some HR guys who had come to ask for an appraisal, I think!
Me1: The essence of strategy on these occasions is to be as far as possible from your boss, ahem!
Me2: Superb stra…
"Srilakshmi! Are you ready then!"
Yes, of course!
Me1 (to Me2 as a quick note): The initial atmosphere of uncomfortable restraint is only because I’m too well-equipped for this!
Well..
Me (jested with Me2 as a last minute note): There cannot be a thing better than dictate the spending of somebody else’s money!
I’ve had my embarrassing moments; and in the one that occurred now it came home to me that now I was not talking to myself, as I had imagined, but confiding intimate personal 'gyan' sessions to the august gathering!
I checked myself abruptly, and with a slight decrease of amiability and with a sense of urgency slipped into a brisk incisive style of speech. This one, I had practised in the mirror some six times last night, so it came out effortlessly.
Everyone seemed attentive, and my presentation, rallying after an embarrassing start, was plainly going to be the success that I hoped it to be!
“We must take note of what resources and options are available to us and what is on the horizon. Over the past year we have focused a great deal..”
As I finished the “Thank you so much for your patient hearing,” I was only to trying to look dispassionate and not too impressed with myself.
Suddenly!
“Very opinionated. See…(yada yada),” said another vertical VP, gruffly and without geniality.
Time to correct some misapprehensions, I thought.
“Sir, doling out funds cautiously in small amounts..”
“Nonsense! I don’t know where you got these figures…”
“Not at all. Absolute, cold facts.”
This another VP turning to my boss, “She is too young…”
At the other end of the table, there was a cough, a stir and jerking of the chair on the floor..
I interjected, “No, no..you are going about the matter without precipitation…”
My VP throws me a quelling “it’s okay, cool it now” glance.
“Thank you. I shall mail across the report to all of you.”, I said.
Me (to my boss, almost evangelically): "I wish I could get him to see my point of view"
Boss: "I see your point of view. Even he does! But you see, his own takes up such a lot of the foreground.."(smiles). "Excellent, kid! Real good! Keep it up"
Me1 (to Me2): May be, I’m better off having a stub at being the president or something!
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P.S: In the pink coloured nostalgic pages of my blog, I’ve met fabulous people; with fictional names and real. Thanks to all of you for making my blog so really fantastic!
