Sunil scanned the main headlines on the newspaper before opening up his laptop to check his email. He was a stockbroker by profession and knew the market trends and when to buy and sell stocks. But today his attention kept diverting to one incident that wrecked his repute in the company that he worked for the past ten years. During the meeting in the central office, Adithya, the CEO of a multimillion dollar company, had insulted Sunil and mocked his studied stock report of Adithya’s company. According to Adithya nothing could shake his company and Sunil’s report was nothing but fit for the trash bin. He further insulted Sunil by offering him a hundred rupees note and asked him to find a job at a Coffee shop.
Sunil couldn’t defend himself but left the place in silent humiliation. He left the firm to begin his own company with the saving that he had in his bank. He spent an entire month studying Adithya’s company and their business practices. He set out to find as much as he can about Adithya’s personal life.
Sunil found out that Adithya had three strong points for his success in the business world. One was his closest friend who was also his legal advisor and right hand man. Two, it was his stakeholders’ confidence in him. Three was his reliance on his capability of turning dross into gold.
Sunil’s next plan of action was to find out the weakness in his right hand man so he could find a way into getting more information and thereby bring the downfall of Adithya. Adithya’s closest friend and right hand man Vikram was compulsive gambler and drinker and he frequented one of the posh gambling spot and squandered money.
Sunil was a good poker player and had learnt that art from his uncle. That night at the pub Sunil befriended Vikram and got an invitation to his home for a round of poker. Sunil spend many months getting into the good book of Vikram and slowly understanding his mindset. So one day in late March Vikram and Sunil were talking about general topic when Vikram’s cell phone rang. Out of the corner of the eyes Sunil noted that it was from Adithya. Vikram excused himself and left to talk with Adithya.
When Vikram returned Sunil stirred the conversation towards poker and challenged him to a round of games where the winner had to disclose vital information from their life. First few round Sunil lost and revealed his current state of struggle with his start-up company and his girlfriend ditching him. Vikram got really interested in the game and urged for a third round.
This time Sunil played his cards very carefully and won a couple of rounds. Sunil also made sure Vikram’s wine glass was never empty. Soon Vikram let loose the information about a company that Adithya was maintaining without the knowledge of his stakeholder and earning double the profit from it for his lover and himself. Vikram in his drunken stupor agrees to play some of his legal papers against Sunil’s company. But then he loses the game to Sunil.
The next day Sunil thoroughly researched the company and its accounting methods. He acquires the balance sheet through a friend who runs a private detective agency. Soon Sunil has sufficient information to sully Adithya’s name. He goes to one of his college mate who is a well-known journalist and provides him with evidence of Adithya’s secret company jointly owned by his lover and him.
The information gets splashed in the front page of a well-known daily, along with the story of how Adithya had usurped each new company during his earlier days as a young entrepreneur. People lost faith in Adithya and soon the Stakeholder lost faith in him. After his affairs were splashed on the front page his marriage also was in shambles.
A few months later Sunil walks into Adithya who was broke and not able to find a job to sustain him. This time Sunil gives Adithya a hundred rupees note and tells him that he would be better off taking that job at the coffee shop.
Itinerant Storyteller 