Desi Train

Chapter Seven : The Deal isn’t Closed till it’s Closed

Saturday Noon.

MK and Neha sat in front of the 3 Ms. Modi, Mahapatra and Moopanar. They were the Swiss Indian couple that Atanu had brought to the Gujarat house.

MK and Neha had been barraged with a heap of questions. Modi was trying to cover every angle in an attempt to find if there was anything amiss in the couple sitting in front of him. It was more than 12 hours since Atanu had brought in MK and Neha to Gujarat House.

Atanu sat on the chair at the corner of the room. He was nervous. This was the critical point. It would either be a smooth slide to the next stage or this thing was about to blow up in their faces. He was amazed at the cool attitude both MK and Neha were presenting inspite of the sharp needle like questions.

Atanu’s heart had skipped a beat when Moopanar insisted on calling the restaurant that MK claimed he owned in Zurich.

“Yeah sure… please go ahead” said MK as he passed the restaurant’s number to Moopanar.

Moopanar left the room to dial the number.

If there were any doubts in Modi’s mind, they had been extinguished when he met Neha and MK. He was further encouraged when MK gave him the names of other famous Indian personalities who had entrusted MK and Neha with their money.

Mahapatra had dialed Amit Khanna, a star in Bollywood, who was still desperately clinging on to playing college boy characters. But the receding hairline, the dyed hair and the ever increasing girth by the waist wasn’t helping him bag the kind of roles that he was so used to twenty odd years ago.

He was once called the Chocolate Boy of the industry. Today, it was rare that he received a call from any producer. Luckily Chocolate Boy’s late mother had kept an iron grip on his finances. The result was that today Khanna had incomes from two restaurants, a hotel he ran in partnership, a chain of stores, and three strip malls. Besides a sizeable amount of unaccounted money placed with a local Indian guy who was a Swiss resident.

“Oh yes yes… Mahapatra sahab, don’t worry about them. I don’t know them personally, but mom was very good friends with them. Your money is safe with Joshi”

Mahapatra was relieved when Khanna mentioned that over the phone. He thanked Khanna and ended the call.

Had he bothered to tell Khanna the first name of MK, he would have found that Khanna was infact talking about a M.K. Joshi – Manikchand Kishorilal Joshi and not M.K. Joshi – Manu Krishna Joshi that Mahapatra was referring to.

Moopanar came back to the room. Modi looked at him and saw Moopanar nodding enthusiastically.

“I spoke to the restaurant. It is ok.”

He looked at MK “Sorry haa, but you know we need to cross check because this is too much money here we are entrusting you with. I hope you understanding”

“Oh no problem, you should, inspite of all the organized legal steps that we are taking to ensure your money is safe.”

Atanu stepped in

“Mr. Moopanar, please don’t worry. I would not have introduced them to you if I had not trusted them. Also the declaration of money holder form, is a legal document that tells the bank who actually this money belongs to, so please don’t worry”

Moopanar nodded.

Mahapatra was busy signing the forms. As he signed one, he would pass it to Modi. Modi would check the signature and pass it to Moopanar for his signatures.

Modi was still thinking about the entire scenario of how it would take place. He was playing the whole scene again and again to check if he could find any slip or error in the whole process.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 11th, 2006 at 2:08 pm
Filed under Fiction, The MBA Gang
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