{"id":1087,"date":"2009-04-15T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-15T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/archives\/1087"},"modified":"2009-04-15T15:30:00","modified_gmt":"2009-04-15T10:00:00","slug":"partha-sarathi-mba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2009\/04\/partha-sarathi-mba\/","title":{"rendered":"Partha Sarathi MBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I am an MBA.” He announced and laughed revealing his yellow teeth. He was standing in a corner, nursing a 90 of cheap whisky along with some beer. The veins were pronounced on his hands. He pulled the sleeves of his once off-white shirt yet again; it was an involuntary, nervous reaction I guess. I offered him a smoke. “I normally smoke Marlboro sir, but today I’ll smoke my own Wills. Sorry eh?” He said. I shrugged and started talking to Sam. I ordered one more 60 of Old Monk rum. <\/p>\n

“My name is Partha Sarathy.” He continued. “Is that Godfather? Mario Puzo?”
I nodded in agreement and said “It is the latest in the series. This is not by Puzo though.” He shook his head a hundred times and took the book from me. He pretended to seriously appraise the book and placed it on the wooden ledge that served as a place to set your drink down in Sapthagiri Wines. He finished his drink even before ours arrived. There was a bench along the wall and three guys occupied it. The leader of this group was already staring at Mr. Partha with adulation filled eyes. <\/p>\n

“I helped this contractors get business worth Crores. Crores! And see what they have done to me. I told them that I didn’t want a penny and walked off. Do you see this mobile phone? This is mine. I didn’t even have money for the bus… I walked seven KM saar! Seven KM!”
He told his sad story. I was wary of him but Sam, as always, started his anthropo-neuro-psychological study, yet again. Sam introduced himself. Mr. Partha exclaimed, “So you are a doctor in Victoria? I know your chief… what’s his name again?” Sam told him the Chief’s name. “Ah yes! Same person. How is he? Don’t tell him you met me here eh?” And he laughed that psychotic laugh again and said “I normally drink only in 3-star bars. But today…” He diverted his attention to me and said “…But today because of those bastards!” He tried to muffle his sobs. He wiped the tears with the sleeve of his dirty shirt. <\/p>\n

I remained impassive. However, the trio on the bench were nonplussed and moved. The leader of the bench trio asked us in Kannada, “Yen aayithhu Saar? Ishtu Chennaga Ingleesh Maathadthaa idhaaney!” (or something to that effect) Sam explained to the bench trio about Mr. Partha and how his Contracting firm conned him of Crores. The leader of the trio immediately asked one of his gang members to stand up and make place for Mr. Partha. <\/p>\n

Mr. Partha bummed a smoke from Leader as he sat down. He even spoke in broken Kannada. “I am an Iyengar sir. I can dictate 600 words a minute you know?” I nodded as I didn’t know how the hell I should react to such a monumental statement. So I turned away and adjusted my position in that cubbyhole that was the bar behind Sapthagiri wines. I hardly had space to move my arm. With my back to Mr. Partha, I told Sam that we should be leaving. Sam nodded and he noticed that Mr. Partha was now putting a scheme on the trio. I lost interest, I mean I knew what his game was.<\/p>\n

Mr. Partha called me after a few minutes. I turned around with a lot of difficulty. And he dropped his pitch on me.
“Don’t mistake me…” He started, sipping on the whisky that he’d bummed from the trio who were sobbing now after listening to Mr. Partha’s story.
“…I have to go to Chennai to meet my business partners.” He paused as the Leader offered him some spicy Chicken.
“…I have to meet my partners in Chennai, and I left all my ATM cards in those bastards’ office…can you give me 200 Rupees?” A brief silence ensued and it was broken by Manja, the waiter-boy, shouting out an order to the Counter: ‘Half Khoday’s rummu, ondhu packet Small illi!” I stared into Mr. Partha’s eyes that were lodged in deep sockets. I smiled and said “If I had 200, why would I drink here?” <\/p>\n

He chewed on it for a little while and said “Yes yes. How about 50? At least 20?” I said no. He shrugged as if he forgave me, started to say something, and decided against it. He returned his focus on the trio and started his pitch. <\/p>\n

As I was leaving with Sam, he called out and said “Don’t mistake me, ok?” I smiled and waved a bye to him. As I waited near the Counter to settle our bill, I could hear him swear at his Contracting firm and sob. I thought I also heard
“If not 500, at least 200? Yes, yes. I will transfer it online.”
“…”
“Oh you don’t have Internet okay! I’ll give you a check, yes? Wonderful… Yeah just one more 60 for me sir… can’t drink too much!”<\/p>\n

\n\n\n<\/map>\n

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“I am an MBA.” He announced and laughed revealing his yellow teeth. He was standing in a corner, nursing a 90 of cheap whisky along with some beer. The veins were pronounced on his hands. He pulled the sleeves of his once off-white shirt yet again; it was an involuntary, nervous reaction I guess. I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[70,57],"tags":[137,107],"class_list":["post-1087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bangalore","category-stories","tag-bmc","tag-slice-of-life"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"jetpack-portfolio-admin-thumb":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Suman Kumar","author_link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/author\/suman-kumar\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"“I am an MBA.” He announced and laughed revealing his yellow teeth. He was standing in a corner, nursing a 90 of cheap whisky along with some beer. The veins were pronounced on his hands. He pulled the sleeves of his once off-white shirt yet again; it was an involuntary, nervous reaction I guess. I…","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2Gbk8-hx","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1399,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/partha-aka-dabur\/","url_meta":{"origin":1087,"position":0},"title":"Dabur Partha and the Tusker (part 1 of 2)","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"March 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Someone stole Niall O' Brien's kit and that inspired me to recount this story The match was, how do I put it... ah!, tantalisingly poised. It was a 'bet' match. We were playing for money. Not for a ball or bat. The money at stake was 110 INR. Each player\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "childhood"","block_context":{"text":"childhood","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/category\/childhood\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1415,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2011\/03\/dabur-partha-tusker-part-2-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1087,"position":1},"title":"Dabur Partha and the Tusker (part 2 of 2)","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"March 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Continued from part 1 My feet refused to move. It was as if my legs had a mind of their own, and they hated me. A wave of dust blew right through me. I rubbed my eyes and opened them to the captain of the Srinagar colony team alighting from\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "childhood"","block_context":{"text":"childhood","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/category\/childhood\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1439,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/raghava-reddy\/","url_meta":{"origin":1087,"position":2},"title":"Raghava Reddy’s Turtle","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"September 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"An exaggerated version of a true story, as told to me by a friend who chose to remain anonymous. Yeah. You'll know why he did so after you have read this story. He threw our clothes, splashed some kerosene on them, and set them on fire. We stood there, standing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "childhood"","block_context":{"text":"childhood","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/category\/childhood\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":544,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2004\/05\/the-travails-of-single-south-indian-men-of-conservative-upbringing-or-why-we-dont-get-any\/","url_meta":{"origin":1087,"position":3},"title":"The Travails of Single South Indian men of conservative upbringing" or "Why we don’t get any…","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"May 27, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Sidin Vadukut Writes: Sudin's subtle humor will blow your mind (see below). Sudin: I see you man. \"Our futures are shot to hell as soon as our parents bestow upon us names that are anything but alluring. I cannot imagine a more foolproof way of making sure the child remains\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":776,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2005\/07\/we-the-people-on-screen-smoking\/","url_meta":{"origin":1087,"position":4},"title":"We the people: On screen smoking","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"July 28, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The last episode of We the people on NDTV was enchanting, for it uncovered the stupidity at the top levels and also shed light on how intelligent aam junta is. Here are some snippets:The head of a consumer rights group (consumer voice? I don't recall) thinks Sharukh Khan is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1090,"url":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/my-friend-sancho-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":1087,"position":5},"title":"My Friend Sancho – Review","author":"Suman Kumar","date":"May 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Amit Varma's debut novel My Friend Sancho is a welcome change. I say this not because of its literary merit. It is a welcome change because a) It is pop-fiction b) It does not try tricks like that IIT-MBA fellow whatever his name is (blending bollywood and cricket, well fuck\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"books\"","block_context":{"text":"books","link":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/tag\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1087\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sumankumar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}