Akshara handed the car keys to the valet attendant as she stepped out of the car in front of Abhimanyu’s office building. It had been three days since the engagement party, and she spent some extra time to present the plan and logistics for the upcoming events to Anisha’s brother.
He didn’t care for the party themes or the type of party, but he wanted to ensure the guests were treated well and things didn’t go wrong when it came to food and entertainment.
At first, she was annoyed that she had to explain everything all over again, but she knew it wouldn’t hurt to explain everything and get him off her back. Maybe, he will let her manage the events the way they were planned if she answered all his questions and addressed his concerns.
She followed the instructions to his office located on the top floor and stepped out of the elevator when it stopped. The doors opened to an open area that was as big as the one in the lobby, and the glass walls offered a beautiful view of the city as the sun set over the hills at a distance.
“The view is amazing at this time of the day,” the voice of a woman brought her eyes to the large, circular desk that was set to one side of the lobby.
“You must be Akshara.”
Akshara smiled at the older lady who seemed to be in her fifties as she approached the desk.
“Yes, and I’m here to see Mr Birla.”
The older lady let out a laugh.
“Don’t call him that, sweetheart. He is not a fan of the formal way of addressing people. You can call him by his first name, and he prefers that.”
And I prefer to call him Mr Birla, even if it annoys him.
Akshara bit back a smile and said, “I will remember that.”
“Can I get you something to drink? Abhimanyu should be done with his meeting shortly.”
“Thank you for asking. I’m fine.”
Akshara sat on one of the chairs that gave her the best view of the city. As she looked at the tall buildings, her thoughts went back to her search to find her family. A connection her instincts told her she had out there, but she had not been successful in finding them the past couple of years even after hiring multiple private investigators.
She grew up in an orphanage in a different state and had moved to this city for work, but she longed to go back to the area where she grew up in hopes of finding a relative if someone was out there.
Akshara looked up when a door to her right opened, and her eyes met the dark brown ones of the man she wasn’t looking forward to conversing with but had to get it over with. She knew the areas where he would have concerns with her plan, and she came prepared, or so she hoped.
She was surprised when he gave her a nod and said, “I’m sorry to keep you waiting, but I will need a few more minutes.”
“Not a problem, Mr Birla,” she said it out of habit and saw the look of disappointment in his eyes that triggered a thrill inside her, a cheap one. She realized how much he disliked being addressed formally.
He handed the woman behind the desk an envelope and said,
“Please make sure this gets to Singapore tomorrow.”
The older woman nodded.
“Consider it done. And I left all the details for your meetings tomorrow on your desk.”
“Kamala ma’am, enjoy your days off.” He chuckled and then turned to look at Akshara. “I will be ready to meet in five minutes.”
Akshara nodded and looked at the older woman who was looking at her disapprovingly.
“You need to stop calling him, Mr Birla. He doesn’t like formalities.”
Akshara smiled. “Did I just hear him address you as ma’am?”
The older woman let out a laugh.
“It’s an old habit. You must know that I was his teacher in high school, and he chose to call me Kamala ma’am instead of Mrs. Sharma like he did back then.”
“Good to know.”
Akshara wanted to know why the elderly woman chose to give up teaching to work for her student, but she didn’t want to start the conversation. How much she loved to hear such stories, she knew she couldn’t start the conversation when she had no time.
“Akshara,” the older woman said a couple of minutes later, making her look up from her phone. “He is ready for you.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Sharma. So nice to meet you.”
“Same here, darling. I can tell you and Abhimanyu will get along very well,” the older woman mocked.
Akshara opened the door and stepped into his office.
“Please come in, Ms Sharma.” His tone was flat.
Did he just call me Ms Sharma?
“Thank you, sir.” She smiled when he gestured her to take one of the chairs that were set to one side of the office, away from his desk.
“You are welcome, madam.” He nodded. “Please tell me you have hired professionals for all the upcoming events.”
Why is he being so weird and formal? Payback? Sure, let’s play.
“With all due respect, sir, everyone we hired for the engagement event are all professionals.”
He looked at her in silence for a moment.
“My apologies, madam. What I am looking for is an experienced and professional team. Not the group of kids plating the food that was being served to dignitaries and celebrities who will be attending the events.”
The way he said ‘madam’ was getting on her nerves. He was twisting the word and making it sound weird, and his opinion about the team she had chosen for the engagement party further fueled her annoyance.
“As far as I know, my team only got compliments from our client for the effort.”
“That’s because nothing went wrong. What if something blew up because of their inexperience?”
“Rest assured, we have it all covered.”
“Give me an example.” He was becoming impatient, and Akshara knew no matter what she told him about the Plan B or Plan C, it would not appease him. She had to understand what triggered the concern.
“Sir, we have a limited amount of time, and I will not be able to cover the details of every aspect of the event. I’m happy to share the project plan we used to execute the event. So, I request that you let me know what it is that you were unhappy about at the event.”
He thought for a moment and said, “In fact, I might have something that I could show you.”
She shifted nervously when he walked over to his desk to pick up his phone and swipe through like he was looking for something specific. He walked back to her and held his phone screen in front of her. The image on the screen showed the engaged couple holding hands, standing under a beautiful marble arch decorated with flowers, while the young photographer lay on his back, between the couple’s feet trying to capture a one-of-a-kind pictures while two other men leaned over from tall ladders, one spraying water to crate the effect of mist and another man holding a white light.
The picture of the couple surrounded by the technicians looked funny, but they were doing their job.
“Do you even realize how hazardous it could be with these kinds of stunts. What if one of the guys fell and got hurt or worse, they fell on Anisha or Deepak?”
Akshara nodded as she pulled out her phone and handed it to him.
“Please look at this wallpaper I have on my phone. This is the picture that was taken with those stunts.”
Akshara bit her lip to stop from smiling when she saw his eyes widen, just like hers had when she saw the picture of the happy couple. The picture was a masterpiece, and it looked like the couple was surrounded by mini rainbows from the light shining through the water droplets from the mist spray.
“That, sir, is what Anisha wanted. A unique set of pictures, a new way of executing her wedding, and she chose my team when thirty other event planning companies that auditioned for the project.”
He kept his eyes on her phone screen like he could not believe the picture he was looking at. Akshara saw how much the bride’s brother adored his little, sister but that was gone in a flash as he handed her phone back to her.
“You lucked out at the event. It was a miracle there weren’t a series of disasters that happened on that day. I need you to change the team you hired and get experienced people to work with you.”
“If you are going to replace the people I hire, you might as well replace me, sir.”
He pursed his lips, and she saw a flicker of disbelief in his eyes.
“Ms Akshara Sharma, my sister wants everything to be unique, and that’s who she is, but I can’t let the most important event in her life be ruined by your callousness to prove your business model.”
“It’s not just about my business model, sir.”
“What is it then? Is there a cheap thrill in hiring folks who have no clue what they are doing and hope nothing goes wrong?” he almost spat.
“That’s not it. It’s about bringing in fresh ideas. Like I said, that was one of the reasons I was hired for the job.”
He took in a deep breath like he was trying to calm himself down.
“Fine…This is what I want. I want to review the plan for every one of the events set up at least two weeks prior. I will have a lot of questions and you better have answers for all of them.”
Brozilla. Suits the name perfectly!!
“Sure, sir.”
“Ms Akshara Sharma, I prefer a business-casual approach, but if you insist that we keep the formalities, then I guess I will have to be formal.”
“Thank you for understanding.”
He nodded. “How is it that you are not formal with Anisha?”
She smiled, remembering the condition her client included in the contract.
“It was a note she added in the agreement.”
He let out a laugh, pride filling his eyes. “That’s my sister.”
“Anisha is a good and reasonable client.”
“And I ask that you don’t take advantage of her flexibility. I want everything she hopes for to happen, not just for the events but in her life.”
“Absolutely, sir.” An idea popped in her head, and she knew it was the right time to ask him for the impossible.
“Anisha did mention that her cousins wanted to work on a dance performance for the Sangeet, and her hope was that you would dance as well.”
“What?” He shook his head. “Not happening.”
Akshara knew her client would be thrilled if she got her brother to participate.
“Sir, I agreed to work with you to address your concerns, and all
I ask is that you participate in the dance performance with your family.”
“No. I know how much Anisha would love for me to dance with the family, but I can’t… even if I could dance, my schedule would not allow it.”
Akshara thought for a moment. “How about you keep this a complete surprise? You can practice with one of our choreographers and join as a surprise.”
“Not happening.”
She fell silent with how adamant he sounded.
“Sir, please think about how surprised Anisha will be if you were to dance.”
Something flickered in his eyes, and she hoped he would agree, but he didn’t budge.
“Ms Akshara Sharma, why don’t we focus on the upcoming events and think about the dance later?”
“Sure, sir.”
“Can you please stop with the sir? I think I prefer Mr Birla if you must be formal.” He rolled his eyes.
“Sounds good, Mr. Birla.”
“Please set up time for a weekly meeting, and we can have the review online. You don’t need to drive all the way here for the meetings. We can use technology.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Can we review the plan for all the events?”
“Sure.” She handed him the portfolio and waited for him to look through the logistic details.
“What is the taste test?” He pointed at one of the line items on a calendar.
“That’s when we have the potential vendors prepare a platter for our clients, so we can choose the right team for the event.”
“Who did the taste test for the food served at the engagement party?”
“Anisha and Mr. and Mrs. Birla.”
He nodded like he was comfortable with the idea.
“How do you make sure the vendor you chose knows how to handle the event?”
“Our vendor selection process is very rigorous. We pick upcoming but good vendors to assess. The assessment considers customer reviews and other online feedback, and we also do an on-site assessment.
“On-site?”
“Yes, for example, either me or someone on my team spends an entire day in the restaurant kitchens on their busiest days to make sure they can handle the volume for an event and also any unexpected situations gracefully.”
“Did you not assess the culinary students before hiring them for the party?”
“Mr Birla, the culinary students were on a break and were having some fun. I don’t understand what was so alarming that you found them chatting and laughing.”
“They were there on a job, and they weren’t there to discuss our guests.”
Akshara nodded.
“I agree. And you must know we only chose the students with the best conduct, and they were only admiring Anisha’s friend who is a famous actress.”
“Not acceptable going forward. Also, no pictures or videos to be taken by anyone other than the designated person at any of the events.”
“Privacy of our client is of utmost importance, and we have a policy that the staff cannot carry their personal devices.”
“Okay, but remember I will not tolerate something like this again,” he issued a warning.
“You are overreacting, Mr Birla.”
His eyes narrowed, and she knew he did not like the words nor the tone. “Then you better take care of such matters.”
“Thank you for your input. I will send the details of each event as soon as I have them, and we can talk if you have questions.”
She stood up before she said something that would make the conversation go sideways and left his office without another look in his direction.
Akshara knew it was abrupt for her to leave at that manner, but she knew he had asked her the questions he had, and there was nothing else she could provide for him to suddenly feel confident about her team’s capabilities.
She decided to take on the challenges as they showed up, even if it was in the form of an annoyed bride’s brother.
Love
Janus