Geeta's Ambitions vs Values

Dressed in her wedding attire Geeta was firmly holding the pistol, her left palm was holding the right palm, and right palm was holding the pistol. With her eyes were wide open she had taken the aim. Aim was an elderly looking person, he was her inspiration, he was her role model and he was her father.

Known for her ambitious outlook, Geeta was always the envy of her fellow students and professionals. Be it her school, college or work place, she has always been a go-getter, ready to take on challenges and deliver. Geeta’s attitude was partially God-gifted, and partially fuelled by her equally ambitious father. Mr Parekh was a very renowned stock broker at D-street in Mumbai. He was influential yet honest, wealthy yet grounded and ambitious yet kind, qualities that he always wanted her only child to inherit.

Geeta grew-up in Mumbai under the watchful eyes for her father. Her mother was very religious and always believed that the wealth that Mr. Parekh accumulated was purely a result of her rigorous religious practice that she did over the years. She left everything to God, from pain of running the business to the dedication of upbringing her child, everything was left to God. Nevertheless no one ever complained about her being so dependent on God, after all both Mr. Parekh and Geeta could live their life happily without any interference.

As Geeta grew, she started observing her father more, learning the professional way of talking, dressing up, behaving and getting involved in discussions with partners. Everything that she could get she took, except the honesty, modesty and Kindness. She did her master’s in economics and joined at a very prestigious bank. Within a decade Geeta progressed to top rank in the bank. Geeta never got married, she had few good friends and relationships, but none matured to marriage. The reason was simple, she was too ambitious to hold someone’s hand and pause her day.

It was summer of 2017 when it all begun. Geeta was working on a very lucrative looking business deal. It was a business proposal from a business conglomerate of reputed family who wanted to expand their billion-dollar business into multi-billion-dollar business. Geeta took this as her life time opportunity and started working on it. Mr Raman Deewan was chairman of ‘Great Deewan Industries (GDI)’, he was in complete control of his business and family. At the age of 65 ,he was very active in business and a known socialite of the mega-city.

Geeta was exploring opportunity, not just to expand the business of her bank but also for herself. She wanted to leave a mark in business world which otherwise was dominated by men. Her dedication towards the work and her ambitions was remarkable as she spent weeks studying the proposal from GDI. She not just studied the proposal but also the details GDI business and that of other investors in GDI. After weeks of hard work, she concluded that investing into Mr. Deewan’s proposal would be a suicide as there were many loopholes, inaccuracies, short-comings and risks which were smartly hidden in the business proposal. Her first judgement was, ‘No. We should not invest in this business’. But then as I said, honesty was not too native to her thoughts. Geeta had some other plans for which investing in GDI was essential.

Rahul was third child of Mr. Raman Deewan and his only son. He was in his early 30s and still an eligible bachelor. Rahul was highly focused on business and has always been away from parties. Rahul is well known face in the business circle and he was no stranger to Geeta. Both had few good meetings and discussions on the investment options. There will always be limit on what Geeta would earn and spent being on the job. However, with Rahul on her side, getting into the board of GDI will be easy and then Geeta will have sky as her limit. Being family member of Deewan’s would take her social stature to new highs. With many more possibilities in her mind, Geeta prepares two reports, one a manipulated favorable reported and second an honest report dismissing the idea of investing into GDI.

Geeta than fixes an appointment with Mr Raman Deewan and talks with him on reasons why her bank would not be investing in the GDI proposal. Not only this, once the news of her bank not backing GDI hits the market other investors would run away soon. Mr. Deewan knew that Geeta has credibility in the market and through her sources she has learned some secrets that a banker must not learn. Mr. Deewan quickly realises the situation and offers some hard cash, foreign holiday and property to Geeta. They all summed up to a figure that Geeta would never ever earn being on the job. But then Geeta was ready with her counter proposal and the plan was that Rahul weds Geeta, and Geeta ensures that GDI’s proposal is revised to have much greater value that will lure investors from across the business world. Frankly, Mr Deewan had very limited option and having Geeta on his side will only strengthen his sinking billion-dollar empire. So, the deal was done. Rahul’s opinion did not matter much, he was a good son and too good to say no. Geeta’s parents were happy too, Mr Parekh was proud of her daughter’s choice and wished her good luck.

It was a perfect plan that Geeta executed. She submitted a favorable report to Bank’s board and moved on. Based on her report board took the decision to invest in GDI. News of bank opting to invest in GDI hit the market the very next day, it was everywhere, GDI shares touched record new highs and soon other investors too opt to invest in the GDI’s proposal. Geeta was now serving her last few days at bank and was busy getting things ready for her wedding day.

It was her wedding day and just when Geeta thought that she had taken care of all the cards and things were in place, she remembered the other report. The report that was honest and had dismissed the idea of investing into GDI. Geeta remembered that the report was last left by her in the study and it would be imperative to destroy the report. However, she could not find the report. It was neither at her office nor in her study. So where did it go, it should not fall in hands of anyone or else all her plans would go for a toss.

‘Here it is, it’s with me. What you are looking for is with me dear’. Geeta turnaround to see her father holding the report, his eyes were wet, and hands were shaking. Deep in pain he could not speak much. Mr. Parekh told Geeta that he got access to this report on the vary day Mr. Raman spoke with him for the alliance. He was happy, but he knew all in business and it was difficult to palate that all was so good. With little effort he could get access to the truth. Mr. Parekh studied the report, understood the risks and verified the numbers. It all looked so true. He knew that if investment firms invest in the GDI’s business they will all soon lose money, sooner or later share prices will crash, and thousands of investors will lose money. This can potentially jolt the market to an extend that small financial companies might have to wind-up business. ‘How could you not submit this to the board, this will be the biggest scam that I can think. I will not let this happen, I am going to speak with banks and if they do not pull out I will speak with the media. But this will not happen’.

Geeta was shocked but it was her ambitions that would not allow her to bend. She took her pistol from the drawer and asked her father to hand over the file to her or he will be shot. But an honest Mr Parekh did not agree, he asked Geeta to shot, he turnaround and started walking out of the room.

Geeta knew that come whatsoever her father would never be part of her manipulation and would reveal the truth to media. This will ruin her plans, her life, everything that she was hoping for. Her wonderful future would be ruined by stupid honesty of her father. So she took the decision.

A shot was fired, it was heard loud and clear by all the guests at home, music was stopped, and everyone ran towards the study on first floor. Those who reached first started screaming looking at the blood on the floor, hearing the scream someone dialed policy while some called an ambulance. Soon police and ambulance were there, marriage was called off and hearing the news a shocked Rahul fell on his knees. It was not love, but still was a sincere effort towards a happy life.

Few days later snippets from autopsy were published in all leading newspapers. It read, death was caused by a bullet injury on the head. Shot was taken from a very close distance, less than 2 inches away which caused the death of Geeta.

Geeta was ambitious but on that faithful day, her values won. She could not fire at her father but at same time could not imagine the day when the report would be public. It was her plan, her decision and so were the consequences.