Chapter 9
Heer whirled around, "ANU!!!! What?"
"I thought I'd come and check out the competition too. Fortunately for us, Hardy Girl has chosen an open venue. Wonder why?"
Anu didn't bother ducking, just sat on the half wall and looked at the scene.
"Are you out of your mind? " Heer hissed, "Prem might see you! Get down here!"
Heer pulled Anu down onto the wet concrete.
It was Anu's turn to hiss loudly, "PREM?????? "
"Yes, you idiot, Prem! He's working on Hardikar's shoot. I don't know what to do."
Anu sat quietly for a good five minutes while Heer peeped over the wall and ducked a few times.
"Ok, this is a waste of time. Heer, let's go get some coffee."
Anu and Heer slipped away and walked towards Fleet, frozen and shocked. A few steaming cups of coffee later, Anu found her voice.
"First of all, are we sure this is THE shoot? The November cover?"
"Yes,it has to be. Those models only get used for this type of shoot. And Prem wouldn't be fiddling about there unless this was the main session."
"Well now Prem isn't the only one who knows what their cover is going to look like, we do. Heer, we tell no one else for now. Let's carry on as normal. But we'll have to change our shoot at the last possible moment and Prem shouldn't know till he's holding a camera."
Heer had her head in her hands, "What are we doing? How the heck are we going to do this?"
"It's either this, or Hardy Girl and Fari are going to have fisticuffs at Trafalgar Square. And I frankly don't mind that but we have a magazine to publish. Hopefully we can save the magazine and our careers."
"The only two places that will hire us and they're both daggers drawn, thanks to our charming camera guy!"
"You were drooling all over him until five minutes ago!"
"I have met him a few times, that's all. Thought there was a connection, I don't know why. Anyway that bit of silliness is gone now. Well and truly."
After another half hour, Heer and Anu got back to FarOut. They told Fari what Vanilla's cover was likely to look like. The clothes, the models, they left out the photographer's name.
"So who was doing the shoot?" Fari was chewing on a pencil, deleting a hundred messages from Biru and trying to visualise Hardikar's November masterpiece. They had both started as editors around the same time. Within a decade, both were established names. It was only a matter of time before they launched their magazines. Again, it was within a few days of each other. Big names in fashion had to deal with them both and almost lost the will to live. The competition was fierce. Fari would demand a designer to be present at the shoot, give an interview,and have lunch. Hardikar would tell the same designers that they could please themselves - Fari's five minute fashion fiesta or Hardikar's Hall of Haute Couture.
Fari hadn't appreciated that unflattering comparison and had upped the ante. She published an article on Hardikar's Hats. Every autumn,in October, the magazines did a special on English milliners. Hat makers who had come up with the best look for winter and the spring carnivals. Fari chose the same hats that Hardikar had written about, and wrote an opposite view of them.
Heer had found that a fascinating study in egomaniacal fashionista wars. In fact many students of fashion had found it a useful way to judge fashion. Heer had liked Hardikar's choices but Fari's out and out attempt to discredit a fashion guru's views was gutsy. Heer had decided that Fari was her hero.
"Excuse me! Hello!" Fari was demanding attention, "Heer, focus! Is their photographer someone we know?"
"Oh it's Mark Winterbottom."
Anu choked on her donut. Mark Winterbottom? Didn't Heer know that he died last month?
With a bit of frantic sign language Anu got Heer to change her story.
"No, not Mark, it looked more like Nick Templeton. I was a good distance away…couldn't see…."
Fari relaxed, "Oh him! Did you hear how he had the lens cap on when he tried to click me once?"
With Fari in a better frame of mind, Anu got to work on the design and told Fari that they would have to change a few things.
"Change away! And that Deepu needs to be completely erased from everywhere! Hope Prem didn't click too many of her. He should either burn them or sell them back to her!"
Heer was getting models organised again. Shanu rang around for even more models, ones that hadn't been used by Hardikar's Vanilla. Now that Heer knew which designers to avoid, she invited others.
With so much to do. Heer forogot about Prem for a while.
Prem was packing up at Billingsgate. Hardikar arrived just then to check on things.
Cricket
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