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DAMN INTERESTING!!
I LOVED the concept.
Headstrong Prerna
No Anurag👍🏼
Scene1 Rishabh & Prerna
I am so looking forward to reading this story now.
DAMN INTERESTING!!
I LOVED the concept.
Headstrong Prerna
No Anurag👍🏼
Scene1 Rishabh & Prerna
I am so looking forward to reading this story now.
great as alwaya. a really interesting concept absolutely can't wait to read more.
totally awesome - its better to read your stories than to watch the show where the female lead is this weak and pathetic .
Chapter 1:
Prerna was fuming as she came out of the office. That did not go as she had planned. She was expecting some mediocre middle aged man in a boxy grey suit whom she could corner. That man threw her off. Rishab Bajaj was neither middle aged, nor in a boxy grey suit. He was a muscular 30-something guy with arms full of tattoos in jeans and a white shirt under a soft leather blazer - in other words, just her type. Damn it! Why did all the cute ones have to be such jerks?
Prerna jumped as the door opened behind her.
Bajaj: Ms. Deal-maker, you left your laptop with your master-plan behind.
Prerna snatched back the laptop.
Bajaj: See you at the restructuring meeting. 10:00 am sharp.
He shut the door.
Rishab sighed behind the door and whispered to himself: What a woman.
He shut his eyes and pictured her again. What they said about Bengali women was really true. There was magic in those fierce eyes. He had to be careful.
Conference room...
Rishab entered to find that Prerna was sitting at the head of the table. The rest of the publication team had not yet arrived. It was just him and his assistant.
Rishab: Excuse me, that is my seat.
Prerna did not bother to look up at him: This is my meeting.
Rishab gritted out: I am not sitting on some side chair.
Prerna opened her laptop and said evenly: Then, you may stand.
Rishab looked at his loyal assistant who quickly went and brought him a chair for the other end of the table. The others shuffled in, including Rishab's A-team and the meeting started.
Rishab started his proposal for the restructuring of Sharma Publications, upon the completion of which, he would take 65% ownership of the company as well as 50% of the revenue.
Rishab: As I was saying, the old way of running the business was why Sharma Publications was failing. Mr. Sharma did not have the willingness to take tough decisions, which is where I come in. Cost cutting in the digital age is key and so is the use of visual data to re-frame how we present the news...
Prerna, who was unnervingly quiet through out his presentation, raised her pen.
Rishab, irritated: Yes, Ms. Sharma?
Everyone looked in her direction.
Prerna: So let me get this straight, your "brilliant" plan is to force retirements on career journalists who have been with us for decades in the interest of cost-cutting?
Everyone looked eagerly at him with baited breath.
Bengali women and their opinions...
Rishab: It is a business at the end of the day, Ms. Sharma.
Prerna: It is a family business made up of people invested in our publishing company from the start. It is not a business that leaves its most loyal employees behind.
People looked from one to another in this ping pong match of no real solutions.
Rishab looked squarely at her: Yes, ethics and morality, that's all very nice in their own place, Ms. Sharma. This happy family exercise is clearly not working well otherwise your father wouldn't have had to sell most of his shares. Now I am running this company my way and you are simply tasked with executing it.
Prerna's eyes blazed: I am not your employee, Mr. Bajaj. My family still owns 35% of the company and we are not going to turn our backs on our loyal employees in the interest of profit.
Rishab: That's great. I simply overrule you with my 65% share. Meeting dismissed.
Prerna: Everyone, keep seated.
Rishab glared at her.
Prerna: Like I was saying, the name of the company is Sharma Publications. And as Prerna Sharma, in the absence of my father, I have the power of attorney to speak on his behalf. Nothing carrying our name will ever behave in the unethical way Mr. Bajaj just proposed right now. So please don't go and disperse this ridiculous restructuring plan. Let's get our heads together and find a better alternative in the next few days and present to Mr. Bajaj's team. We will not let our loyal employees lose their livelihood in the name of profit.
Rishab was breathing fire now.
Her team smiled in relief, thanked her, and left. Bajaj's alarmed team was too afraid to look at Rishab's face for a reaction and just left.
Prerna got up in her insufferable grace and shut her laptop to make her way out.
Rishab blocked her path: Don't you DARE contradict me again in front of my employees like that! You are nothing but a spoiled princess who took daddy's seat in the publication, how dare you call my plan ridiculous in front of MY employees!?
Prerna coolly: I am filling in for my father because he is depressed and unwell, thanks to you, Rishab Bajaj. And my assessment of your cost-cutting, BASIC plan was based on my qualifications - not on the basis of any emotions or nepotism as you might call it.
Rishab sneered: Being a rich, arrogant, brat is not a qualification.
Prerna: No, but being a Harvard MBA might just make up for it.
She shut his gaping laptop and handed it back to him: Next time you make assumptions about someone, do your research on this. Just Googling me in this case would have sufficed. You do know how to use the internet, don't you, Rishab? 12 noon, Friday, be back here...(she looked back) and bring your own little chair.
Her long hair brushed electrically over his shoulder as she slid past him. Rishab was still dumb-founded as the door closed softly behind her.
That little chit of a woman! How dare she humiliate him like this!?
Rishab stormed in to his office and Googled "Prerna Sharma."
Oh great. 6 languages, two degrees from Harvard, and analyst experience working at McKinsey and Company.
Rishab cursed his folly. But that didn't mean she wasn't an over-privileged brat. He knew how it worked with the kids of the Indian elite. This was a cookie cutter resume. It still did not mean she could run a business. That took experience and time... Friday was only a few days away, let's see what the princess can really do better.
Worth continuing?
Prerna Bajaj? Or shall that be Prerna Sharma?
But wow WHAT A CHAPTER I AM SPEECHLESS. PLS GIVE US MOREEEEE
Originally posted by: WaqtZaya
Prerna Bajaj? Or shall that be Prerna Sharma?
But wow WHAT A CHAPTER I AM SPEECHLESS. PLS GIVE US MOREEEEE
LOL I was seeing the future haha, thanks for the edit.
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