Take It With A Pinch Of Salt!

Priya so hated Sam for being so insecure. And then there was a part of her which said that she had no right to decide who should be what. "Just because you have a strong and fair core, you cannot expect the world to be like that", Priya said to herself.

A day before the final presentation the rehearsals were going on within the group. Priya, Sam, Kelly, Falguni, and Paul. All of them were sitting uptight in the conference room of the four floored LIS building where Priya was taking them through her slides. It was a routine for the fundraising team to have a mock presentation before any candidate pitched the deal to the client ensuring that any mistakes were not pointed out later. Today, it was Priya's turn.

Their team leads Vark and Seema were about to arrive and observe Priya's performance in a while. Priya was 25, Sam; 27, Kelly;28, Falguni; 32 and Paul; 30. Although they were their team leaders, Vark and Seema were not much senior to the team age-wise, being 27 and 34 respectively. Only after Vark and Seema had approved of Priya's performance would she make a final presentation to Mr. Jaron Beider, the chairman and founder of LIS who hailed from Hertfordshire.

Liverpool Insolvency Secretariat (LIS) was very well known in Merseyside, England for their focussed efforts in alleviating poverty in the United Kingdom. The firm which comprised of a total of 800 employees had various departments neatly distributing the different kinds of responsibilities to ensure a streamlined workflow. That and Mr. Beider's leadership were the secret ingredients of LIS's sustainability and progress year after year.

As Priya started projecting her slides, the team members got their critical hats on because she was working on the most difficult task of understanding the causes of recurrent poverty in a group of ten chosen regions in the U.K. namely Westwales, Cornwall, Durham and Tees Valley, Lincolnshire, South Yorkshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire, Northern Ireland, Lancashire, East Yorkshire, and North Lincolnshire. She had meticulously worked on collecting preliminary data for a good two years alongside her routine responsibilities in the team and now she was to handle this project independently.

Priya's presentation was so impressive that the team sat in pin-drop silence admiring the perfection in her thought process. There was not a single lacuna in the background study and the chosen means of implementation which formed the basis of her proposal. Kelly, Falguni and Paul had always admired Priya for her focus and no-nonsense attitude but Sam was always indifferent to her and her work progress and mostly remained engrossed in himself. Vark and Seema were a different breed altogether. They both had a slightly twisted mindset which could have actually fit them well in a corporate setting where people just cut through the line. But as fate had it, they were at LIS and unfortunately, Priya had to report to them, they being her immediate seniors.

Within no time the presentation in front of the team got over without any criticism and then Priya took a small break before showcasing her work to Vark and Seema. Even there, not much questions were raised. For a change Seema genuinely praised Priya for her efforts and so did everyone else, but for Vark and Sam. That day Priya got a sort of a confirmation that Sam was deeply insecure of himself and feared that in no time Priya would be at the same level at which he was in LIS. As far as Vark was concerned, everyone knew that he was too critical and it was normal for everyone to face a blow from him.

What Vark did in the course of the presentation was not something very obvious. He was smart at acting dumb while pulling the rug beneath the other person's feet. As Priya was going through her slides he gently nudged at Seema indicating to her that the project was too ambitious and that it would take many years for Priya to complete it thereby questioning the immediate benefits and applicability of Priya's work. Seema felt Vark was giving a genuine suggestion but Priya knew that she had to take Vark's word with a pinch of salt. What was interesting was that Sam, who would be otherwise very indifferent, supported Vark’s stance when in fact he knew nothing about Priya’s project. Priya very well knew that Sam was jealous that the project could not only help her gain recognition in ILS but also open up bigger and better avenues for her in the outside world. So instead of getting affected, Priya just gave a single neutral nod and then moved on with her presentation and completed the formalities.

 

The next day, Priya made a mind-blowing presentation in front of Mr. Beider and the proposed clients for the funding. Vark did not attend the presentation. But Seema made it a point to be supportive towards Priya and just be present during the process so that in case any difficult questions were posed and in the least possibility Priya was not able to answer them, she would help her through. At the end of the presentation, seven of the ten clients agreed to give funds to ILS and support Priya's work and that was huge!

When the clients departed, a tired but contented Priya went over to Mr. Beider to thank him for the opportunity that he gave her. He smiled back and congratulated her for all the funds that ILS would be getting thanks to her hard-work and effective presentation. Just as Priya started moving out of the conference room she came across Sam. There he was with a sly smile on his face. The one which was difficult for others in the team to fathom, but not for her. Priya ignored him and made her way to the cafeteria where the other team members were waiting for her with a cake that they had ordered to celebrate her success.