One Indian Girl(60)

‘Have you tried yoga?’

I shook my head. ‘Maybe at school in India,’ I said, ‘when it was compulsory.’

Neel laughed.

‘Check out Pure Yoga. They have a great studio. I go sometimes,’ Neel said.

‘Okay. My birthday is coming up next week. Maybe I will treat myself to a membership.’

‘Oh, great. Happy birthday in advance.’

‘Thanks. So you do yoga too. How do you do it all?’ I said.

‘If you love yourself, you will take care of yourself, right?’



I counted the twenty-six pink roses. The bouquet on my desk had a maroon ribbon wrapped around it. It came from Armani Fiori, located in Central. Part of the Armani brand of Italian designer Giorgio Armani, the bouquets in the shop would be no less than 200 dollars at least. I removed a small white envelope tied to one of the roses. A card inside said, ‘Happy Birthday—From the team.’

I sat back in my seat, surprised. The hard-nosed and tough Distressed Debt Group isn’t known for affection and flowers. Bianca passed my cubicle.

‘Happy birthday, Radhika,’ she said.

‘Thank you,’ I said, ‘and thanks for the flowers. The most beautiful bouquet I have ever seen.’

‘You are welcome. We don’t normally do it. But you are new. Maybe that’s why Neel wanted it.’

‘Neel?’

‘Yes, he told me to order it. He even selected the arrangement.’

I thanked everyone for the birthday wishes in the team meeting.

‘The flowers are an exception. Don’t get high hopes,’ Josh said.

‘Mostly we gift each other bad loan documents,’ Simon said. The team burst into laughter. I looked at Neel. He smiled at me.

‘A team from the Metropolitan Bank of Tokyo is in town. They want to meet for potential co-investments,’ he said, making it clear that the bouquet and my birthday didn’t warrant any more discussion.



‘That’s Tanaka-san, Shin-san and I am Sugimula,’ said Arai Sugimura, head of the Distressed Debt Group at Metropolitan Bank of Tokyo, as he introduced his team. In Japan, the tag ‘san’ is applied out of respect, sort of like ‘shri’ in Hindi. We exchanged business cards, held in both hands, as is the norm in Asia.

‘La-dhi-ka-san,’ Arai said. ‘Do I say youl name light?’

‘It’s fine,’ I said and smiled. The Japanese bankers bowed to us as they sat down. Bianca asked us if we needed anything. Everyone agreed to have Chinese tea.

‘It’s an honour you came to visit us,’ Neel said, turning on his client-charm button. ‘How can we do business together?’

‘Gupta-san, it is plivilege for us too,’ Arai said. ‘Goldman Sachs is ples-ti-gious bank. Youl gloup has good leputation in malket.’

Bianca came back with teacups and a kettle of tea. She placed them on the table and left.

‘Thank you. It’s all due to my great team,’ Neel said, waving his hand at us.

Neel poured tea for himself. As did Josh and Peter.

‘La-dhika-san,’ Arai said.

‘Yes?’ I said.

‘Would you mind?’ he said and pointed to the kettle. I realized he wanted me to pour tea for his team. I looked at Neel and Josh. They seemed confused, but gestured that I do it anyway. I poured tea for the Japanese team and a cup for myself.

Arai explained his desire to co-invest with our group. Nobody else from Arai’s team spoke a word. In Japan, when the boss talks, you remain silent.

‘So what kind of deals al you looking at?’ Arai said. ‘Any polt-folios?’

Arai had the typical Japanese problem of being unable to speak the R sound, which he substituted with L.

‘Radhika bid for one recently, maybe she can talk about it,’ Josh said.

‘La-dhika-san?’ Arai said.

‘Yeah, I can tell you about this local Bank of East Asia auction. . .’ I began to speak but Arai interrupted me with his laughter.

‘Excuse me?’ I said, wondering if I had said anything wrong.

‘Solly. I thought La-dhika-san youl secle-taly. How can lady do dist-lessed debt?’ Arai continued to laugh. His minions also grinned, taking their boss’s cue.

Neel pursed his lips. He looked at me once and turned to Arai.

‘The young lady here is one of our best distressed debt analysts,’ Neel said.

‘Yes, yes, of coulse. By the way, I lemember a joke when you said lady,’ Arai said.

None of us responded. He continued, ‘You know what they say about lady?’ He turned to Josh. Josh didn’t answer.

Arai continued anyway, ‘When a lady say no, she means maybe. When she says maybe, she means yes. When she says yes, well, she is not a lady.’

His colleagues found the joke extra funny and laughed out loud. Peter, Josh, Neel and I looked at each other.

‘Arai-san, I understand this is amusing to you. But frankly, this makes us quite uncomfortable,’ Neel said.

‘Solly. You may continue,’ Arai said.

I took a deep breath to regain my composure. I spoke again.

‘Yes, so I was saying,’ I said.

Neel stood up.

‘Actually, no,’ Neel said and paused before he spoke again. ‘No. This won’t work out.’