Vimana

She did not answer, and Aaditya wondered if she was pissed with him. He couldn't blame her. From her standpoint, he had hung up on her mid-conversation and then not bothered to call her or answer her calls and messages.

Figuring out that she was either too busy or too pissed off to talk to him, Aaditya whipped out his PSP and was soon lost in a sortie. He had just evaded a missile and shot down two fighters and was on the tail of the bomber, downing which was the chief objective of this particular mission, when he was interrupted by a tap on the shoulder.

'Sam, I had the frigging bomber in my sights, man!'

He heard a cough followed by a voice that most decidedly did not belong to Sam.

'I'm sorry to have interrupted your sortie, Mr Ghosh, but I did want to meet you urgently.'

Aaditya whirled around to find himself face to face with the principal, Dr Bakshi.

Oh shit! First he was caught gaming in class and now he had just sworn at the principal. Could things get any worse? Dr Bakshi sat down next to Aaditya at the foot of the stairs overlooking the basketball court. Actually, Aaditya was a bit relieved that it was in fact the principal and not Donkey or one of his other professors. Dr Bakshi was known to be quite chilled out, and thought nothing of hanging out with his students to get to know what was on their minds. What he said next though totally stumped Aaditya.

'You, Mr Ghosh, are a man of hidden talents.'

Aaditya had no idea what he was talking about. The principal must have thought he was being modest.

'Don't worry, it's great to show initiative like this, and if you have connections that you can use to get us such major sponsors for our college festival, we'd be only too happy to oblige.'

Aaditya was getting more and more confused and alarmed that there had been some misunderstanding.

'Dr Bakshi, I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about, and if something has gone wrong, it's not something I meant to do.'

Now it was the principal's turn to look baffled.

'I assumed you knew the guy since he came in saying his company was willing to put down such a large sponsorship because you had approached them.'

'Which guy?'

Now Dr Bakshi told him that he had got a call that morning from someone claiming to be Vice President, Corporate Communications for a firm called DSI.

'DSI? Never heard of them.'

The principal scratched his head, realizing that what he had thought was an easy new source of sponsorship was now getting more complicated.

'I hadn't either, but then he told me that they are a privately held conglomerate, with interests in many industries. I checked their website and it seemed very impressive. He said that they wanted to sponsor our college festival, including refurbishing the auditorium. All they wanted was some promotional activity and branding in college, which was obviously cool with me.'

So far, it did not sound very unusual. Aaditya knew that when festival season came around, the college would be canvassing for such sponsors. The unusual thing was where he fit into all this.

'Its great we have a new sponsor, but what does it have to do with me?'

'He mentioned that he wanted to meet only you. He asked for you by name and said that he wanted to thank you. That's why I assumed you knew him or something.'

'Sir, I have never heard of the company before, but what did he say his name was? Maybe he is connected to me in some way.'

'Ask him yourself.'

Aaditya started in surprise.

'He's here?'

'Yes. He's waiting in my visiting room, and says he wants to meet you.'

'Shit!'

Dr Bakshi smiled.

'Now that you've started attracting sponsors with your celebrity status, go and charm a few more rupees out of them.'

Aaditya looked to be on the verge of panic.

'Who is this guy and why does he want to meet me? What's his name?'

'Here's his card. As for the rest, I'm afraid I know as little as you.'

Aaditya looked at the gold embroidered card the principal had just handed him.

The name printed on the card was N.Muni. Wondering what was going on, Aaditya set out to meet this mysterious sponsor.

THREE

Admittedly, Aaditya was still a fresher and yet to see his first college festival, but he had never imagined a corporate sponsor could look the way this one did. Even before he entered the room, he saw the man sitting at the table through the partially open blinds. He had long hair that was tied in a thick ponytail, he seemed to be in his forties, thin to the point of being gaunt. He wore jeans and a loose-fitting T-shirt. As Aaditya entered the room, he noticed something even more odd. The man had a long black case next to him. From its shape it looked like it contained either a guitar or some other similar musical instrument. All in all, this sponsor who had insisted on meeting Aaditya looked more like an aging rock star than a Vice President of any corporation.

When Aaditya greeted him, to his surprise, the man stood up and folded his hands in greeting.

An aging rock star who believes in traditional values.

This new sponsor seemed to get weirder and more interesting by the minute, but weird or not, he was a potential big contributor to the college, so Aaditya got down to business.

'Mr Muni, it's a pleasure to meet you. I was told you wanted to specifically meet me, so please do let me know how I may be of assistance.'

The man looked Aaditya over, then he smiled back and nodded.

'Yes, you are indeed the one I was told helped my colleagues.'

Aaditya had no idea what he was referring to. He had never had anything to do with the organization Mr Muni claimed to belong to, and while some of the senior students may have approached companies for sponsorships for the festival, as a fresher, Aaditya had nothing to do with it. He began to guess that it may just be a case of mistaken identity and tried to clear it up.

'Mr Muni, I'm afraid I don't have much background on your organization but I guess someone from our college must have approached one of your colleagues for a sponsorship. I'm not sure where my name came in, but I would be more than happy to help in any way possible or perhaps get you in touch with one of the students on the organizing committee for the festival.'

'We are a global entity with diversified interests, and as for how you could help us, I would prefer to talk outside the college.'

That was a strange request, but considering how unconventional this Mr Muni had been so far, Aaditya agreed to play along.

'Where would you like to meet?'

Mr Muni got up, gathering his case as he replied. 'Let us talk over a coffee.'

So far Aaditya had remained pretty detached from what happened in college, other than hanging out with Sam and iPod, but now that the principal himself was involved, he didn't want to screw this up and cost the college lots of money in potential funds. So he readily agreed, and followed Mr Muni's taxi on his bike. For some reason, Mr Muni seemed to want to meet at Connaught Place. This was fine with Aaditya. Once the meeting was over, he could loiter at some bookstores before going home. As things turned out, Mr Muni led Aaditya to Oxford Bookstore, and they were soon seated at the café.

'I love the smell of new books. So invigorating, so inspiring. What will you have?' Mr Muni asked politely.

Aaditya ordered a juice, while Mr Muni got a tea. Mr Muni chattered on about books he wanted to read, and gradually Aaditya tried to steer the discussion back to the subject at hand.

'Mr Muni, do let me know how I can help you and what you had in mind in terms of sponsoring our festival.'

'Aaditya, I actually have no interest in your college or in your festival.'