“You walked out in a cast 3 weeks back, feigning a fracture. We’ve been getting zeroes the last 3 episodes from the judges for the no-show. You have to dance this time. Come on”Chandni’s impassioned pleas seemed to be falling on deaf ears. Samit didn’t lift his eyes from the paper he was reading
“We are leading the pack in audience votes. There are just two episodes remaining. We are winning. Get that into your thick head. I don’t have to dance on that stupid show anymore. Winners. Understand? 5 lakhs.”
Samit’s mind was made up.
“Just try to move your feet na baba, what’s wrong with trying?”
Samit glared at her and that silenced her temporarily. The woman just failed to understand that he hated dancing and never did have a dancing bone in his entire body. He would not go on stage ever again. He had promised himself this after the third round, when all the three judges, including the usually approving Kabirbhai had a go at them. Chandni didn’t seem to mind but Samit made some harsh decisions. He didn’t have to take this humiliation, all for a paltry 5 lakhs. He went out - foot in cast, the next time, and didn’t bother going at all, the next. The votes kept coming in, though. The sympathy thing, the media said.
3 lakhs, he corrected himself. He still had to pay off that cocky stuck-up IIM-graduate Arjun.
“Maybe I went too far. But I had promised Neha I would. Bachchi pehli baar naach rahi hai stage par. She wants to win at any cost.”
“She’s not going to win. Your nasty remark about Chandni and Samit’s dancing ability has in fact been a lucky break for them. They got thousands of votes that episode.”
Kabir nodded ruefully. Mallika was right. His protégé in film making, Neha Kumar, had approached him with a request a day before that fateful episode - to go after this couple and humiliate them. Because they seemed to be in a cinch to win. He had obliged, but much to his and Neha’s chagrin, this had had the opposite effect on the unusually sympathetic audience.
“I was following the service sector boom keenly, and one fine day, quit my boring corporate job to start a BPO”. Arjun was always comfortable talking about himself.
“What service does your company TalentGuru Inc. offer?”
This was the tough part.
“My firm has 200 employees at present. I need to take you through the genesis of the idea, for you to understand my firm. There were, at one point, 56 talent shows on Indian television. These were mostly in the contest format, and you would see 10-15 untrained participants fight it out for the audience’s SMSed votes which would decide the winner. I saw a market gap there, scope for a formal organization that would use the talent of the country - the thousands of graduates that the country churns out, to send SMSes by the millions to such shows. The service is chargeable on a per-SMS basis”
“Isn’t that unethical? That’s like rigging the results of the show!”
Arjun smiled. He was waiting for this one.
“Why? We aren’t breaking the show’s rules, we aren’t breaking the country’s law. I’m creating employment for many hundreds of people, in fact. And it makes me feel good that I enable some participants to win who otherwise would have struggled in life because of their lack of talent. Isn’t that a kind of service to the needy? Don’t ask me to name them though, I’m under a strict confidentiality agreement.”
“So the winners share their prize money with your firm?”
“No. As I’d already mentioned, we charge on a per-SMS basis. See, we understand that we are making money solely because we were the first in this business of SMSing. We do have skilled SMSers but it’s not a unique capability. There will be others in this space soon, especially since I have gone public with the idea after two years of covert operations. So we cannot guarantee victory as such, anymore. We only promise you an SMS vote for every 5 rupees you give us.”
“I still think the transaction is illegal. Take the match fixing scandal, for instance.”
“Sir, with due respect, I have retained the services of one of the best legal firms in this country to look into the legal implications. I assure you I will shut shop as soon as I get adequate proof that we are breaking the law in providing this service.”
“Hmmm. Very interesting, Arjun. Thanks for being on our show. That’s all for tonight, viewers…”
Arjun realized he was sweating. The thought of becoming richer by 3 lakhs calmed him down. 1 from that scheming Neha and 2 from Mr.Irritable, Samit. He hadn’t watched a single episode of these mind-numbing shows so far, but he had to admit he was eager to watch the one that night.
Also by Hafta
- A walk in the clouds - February 26th, 2007
- Off the beaten path in Toledo - February 26th, 2007
- Lazy French Holiday - January 22nd, 2007
- Mumbai Votes - January 15th, 2007
- Full House Mumbai - December 4th, 2006