One Indian Girl(55)

Why did he unfriend me? I cried even more. I switched off the hotel room lights, opened the minibar and found little whisky and vodka bottles. I drank four of them, bottoms up, and lay down in bed. My head hurt as it sifted through images of Debu. Will I ever get over him?

I closed my eyes. I slept, or passed out, as weeks of sleep deprivation caught up with me.

I woke up as my phone rang. I had a bad headache. I opened one eye and saw the caller. It was Neel.

Damn. Damn. Damn. I switched on the light, ran into the bathroom and splashed water on my face. Only then did I pick up the call.

‘Hello?’ I said, my voice unclear.

‘Sorry, were you sleeping? Is it too late?’ Neel said.

I checked the time. It was only 8.30 p.m.

‘No, no. Just took a nap. I am sorry. I left office early today.’

‘You deserve the rest. Sorry to wake you up.’

‘It’s fine. I needed to anyway.’

Focus, Radhika. It’s a partner on the line.

‘I just called to ask if you could come to the office tomorrow at 7.30 a.m.?’ Neel said.

‘Huh? Yes, sure.’

‘I can brief you on the Philippines deal. Better we talk about it before everyone arrives.’

‘Of course,’ I said.



‘El Casa Seaplane and Resorts,’ I read the tasteful aquamarine-coloured cover of a brochure Neel handed to me.

He took a sip of his black coffee and put the cup aside. He played with one of his blue sapphire cufflinks as he spoke to me. ‘You know much about the Philippines?’

‘One of the Southeast Asian countries, right?’

‘Yeah. Seven thousand-plus islands. Couple of main ones though. Manila is the capital.’

‘Okay,’ I said. I took notes in my notebook.

‘The company is El Casa Seaplane and Resorts. They borrowed too much. Business nosedived due to a cyclone. Trouble. Hence at our desk.’

I scribbled down whatever I could. Neel continued to speak.

‘Palawan is in the south of the Philippines. Often voted as one of the most beautiful islands in the world.’

‘Sure,’ I said, jotting down at a frantic pace.

‘Around Palawan there are tiny, super-exclusive, privately owned islands. El Casa operates ten resorts, each on one of these private mini-islands.’

I flipped through the brochure. It had stunning aerial pictures of the boutique tropical island resorts. The brochure said that none of El Casa’s resorts had more than ten rooms.

‘It says rooms are 1,000 dollars a night,’ I said, surprised.

Neel smiled.

‘Yes, so it is mostly super-rich foreign tourists. Locals can’t afford it.’

‘How does one even get there?’ I said.

‘You fly from Manila to Palawan, and then take one of the company seaplanes to the resorts.’

‘Expensive operation,’ I said.

‘Yes. So when business takes a nosedive it gets really tough,’ Neel said.

Neel told me that Typhoon Haiyan, one of the deadliest tropical cyclones, had hit the Philippines last year. It had left thousands dead. The country had still not recovered from it. High-end tourists still avoided the Philippines, making El Casa suffer. I took notes as Neel continued to talk.

‘Owner is Marcos Sereno. Fifty years old, first generation, liquor baron. Tough businessman, respected in the community. El Casa is a passion project for him. So he is touchy about the world finding out it failed.’

‘You have the financials?’ I said.

Neel slid a five-inch-thick set of documents towards me.

‘This contains everything. The existing lending banks want to get out. Marcos wants to cooperate, as long as his reputation stays intact.’

‘Understood,’ I said. ‘I will go through all this.’

‘Good. And let’s go to Palawan next week and meet Marcos.’





23


‘Orange juice or champagne?’ a Cathay Pacific flight attendant said. She offered Neel drinks on a tray.

‘Orange juice, please. Too early for champagne,’ Neel said.

I took the same. We sat next to each other in the business-class cabin of the morning flight to Manila. I was on my first real business trip, travelling to a different country. I looked out of the window as the plane took off, making Hong Kong’s skyscrapers look like Lego toys down below.

‘So what did you think of El Casa?’ Neel said.

‘Oh, wait,’ I said and opened my laptop bag. I took out the printout of my financial model.

‘Keep this aside for now. Tell me your gut feeling on the business,’ Neel said.

‘My gut feeling?’ I said, surprised. I was just an associate. Why would a partner care about my gut feeling? Wasn’t it my job to just make the financial model and rattle out the numbers?

‘Yeah, I’d like to know. Do you even like the business?’

I took a few seconds to collect my thoughts before I spoke again. ‘In some ways El Casa is a rare asset, so quite valuable. In other ways it is a pain, as there are limited buyers for this thing. Also, I can’t imagine Philippines law being the most investor-friendly,’ I said.

‘Good. I like how you think, in several directions at the same time,’ Neel said.

‘Thanks,’ I said, embarrassed by his praise. I fumbled through my sheets.