Arjun Bhaskar was utterly confused. Last evening he had left the media planning meeting in a huff. He had been very upset over Robin Kamat’s stance on the bubblegum advertising where he had easily agreed to cancel Rs 1.5 crore worth of plans, and this after Arjun had painstakingly explained to Robin that it was ‘not a feasible idea’.

To recap the events until now, recently Coral India, an MNC, where Arjun was a media manager, had entered into an agreement with Ahora India, a family managed company, to buy off its candy business. Part of this complicated arrangement included seconding Robin Kamat, its vice-president, to Ahora as general manager (GM), and Arjun, too, to jointly enable the integration of the brands. For both men, the nemesis at Ahora, it turned out startlingly, was its CEO Kaviraj who was not just hard as nails, but acerbic too. Robin had, over time, developed the knack to handle Kaviraj and his own ego. Or so it seemed. But Arjun had found the whole situation unnecessary and beyond logic.

As far as Arjun could see, it was a buying arrangement between the two companies and Kaviraj being domineering was really out of place. Kaviraj continued to assert and act as CEO of Ahora, but his utterly overbearing attitude in the face of the sale, rankled. Kaviraj continued to call the shots and Robin was ‘allowing’ that. I really don’t care how Robin chooses to manage his career and Kaviraj, but it comes in the way of my work and the media strategy, which is finally Coral’s now! mused Arjun.

On a few occasions when he had tried to express his displeasure, Robin had calmed him and said, “Be patient, Arjun, no point rubbing him the wrong way… .” But now it seemed clear to Arjun that it was not just with Kaviraj, but he was on an uncertain plane with Robin, too.

Driving to work this morning, Arjun was not sure of his destination. If he went back to Ahora, he would face Kaviraj who would look triumphant. And for some reason, he did not want Kaviraj to get away with all this. Their interactions had no professional logic. If he went back to Coral, he would need to explain coherently to Saxena without sounding like a whiner. Saxena did need to understand what they had to endure at Ahora and recast the relationships, he felt. But he also knew it was going to be difficult to state the interactions in professional language!

The phone rang. Arjun pulled up by the side to take the call. It was a colleague calling to say that the meeting with a large supermarket was fixed for 3 p.m… and on the way back it would be a good idea to stop at Churchgate station to glance at the new danglers and POP material. Arjun was uneasy. By this time, he had missed his position in the morning traffic.

Twenty minutes later, on Marine Drive just opposite the health club, Arjun was on lane 3 and just as the lights turned in his favour, the car next to him on lane 2, beeped loudly and cut from the left to take a U-turn, thus blocking Arjun completely and pushing him into a new signal wait… Arjun was hopping mad, he yelled at the guy, called him names, but the chap had gone long ago. Two little urchin boys who were watching, smiled through their grime and said,“Saab, woh to chala gaya!” Arjun was even more annoyed. He said, “Mereko kya, dikhta nahi kya?!”

All too suddenly Arjun was furious. Everybody is controlling my life… my day has not even begun but one after another people are deciding what I should be doing and when! He was tired of being controlled. Tired of life taking its own course when he should know what to do next, like last evening’s meeting, where Robin had sprung a surprise, after all the effort Arjun had put in. It had annoyed him so much he had walked out of the meeting. Going back to Ahora was futile… Kaviraj had made sure his way won.

The background to what had happened until now: The bubblegum media estimates face off with Kaviraj started last week, when Kaviraj summoned Arjun ‘to discuss’. On a Monday morning when Arjun had so much to cope with, this was too much. Arjun had clucked in his head. He had a hundred different things to get done to start the day; he needed the morning, but Kaviraj’s summons was sacred. So, he had grabbed all the papers and reached his room.

The third quarter estimates were amounting to Rs. 4.5 crore over six weeks, starting in the third month of the second quarter. When Arjun met him, Kaviraj said, “You have barely been here and you already have a plan for me! This MNC style of knee jerk responses won’t work here. What have you understood of our markets, tell me? In four months, you have a plan for spending Rs 4 crore. And that too to be consumed in six weeks. Where is Robin?”

Arjun was taken aback. He could not understand what the issue was. Media planning and spending was old hat for him — he had been doing that all the time at Coral. So now, what was the issue? He tried explaining but Kaviraj busied himself indicating ‘the meeting is over until Robin is here’.

Arjun sought Robin. Robin pacified him. “Give him a few months. Our innings is long, and we have to accomplish all this over three years. Don’t force the pace. Come, let us meet him.” Together they had returned to Kaviraj’s cabin. “Any specific problem with these media estimates, Kavi?” asked Robin. “We need to approve them immediately since the deadline to book spots on some of the popular and busy TV channels is running out. We will not get any air time at good rates if we delay any more!” Kaviraj did not share the enthusiasm and said, “First of all, Robin, where is my approval? You cannot spend all this money together in month 1 and month 2.”

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