Blog Adda Game of Blogs: Team By Lines: Chapter 6

Read the Previous Chapter V here.

CHAPTER VI

“Roohi…Roohi,” her class teacher called, while she approached Roohi in her typical strut.

Roohi didn’t hear her voice. She was floating in seventh heaven. It was the first time she had topped her class. Her teacher patted on her shoulders bringing her out of her reverie.

“Congratulations for making it to the top this time, Roohi. I knew you were always smart. But to beat the topper by ten marks is remarkable.”

Roohi was all smiles as she said “Thank You Ma’am”.

“Keep it up Roohi” said the teacher patting Roohi’s cheeks.

The class bell rang. All her classmates shouted, cheered and dragged her towards the school canteen. They were demanding a treat. And she was only too happy to spend her pocket money.While she was rejoicing, a lone girl stood near the entrance to the canteen- the ex-topper. Roohi could feel the envy in her eyes. Roohi’s pulse was racing and she could feel the hate waves emerging from the bespectacled girl. Roohi could almost read her mind. The girl must be thinking of strangling her for usurping her coveted position as class topper.

She ignored her and turned to watch the smiling faces of her friends. Roohi felt like she had been crowned as the winner of a beauty pageant. It felt nice to be on top.

Mumma will be happy with the report card. And Pa and Cyrus would surely give more chocolates..

Roohi smirked and made a mental note to talk to Cyrus that night about all that happened in school. She already liked him, he was like a brother she never had. She couldn’t wait to head home.

***

"Mumma, is dinner ready?" asked Roohi in a cheerful voice. She was bubbling with happiness.

"Yes sweetheart, get to the table & call Cyrus Uncle and Dad as well,” replied Tara. When they sat at the dining table, Roohi had brought her test papers along with her, in hope of earning some extra chocolates.

"Well done Little Einstein! Your performance in the Math test today was splendid. So, you will get two chocolates before the meal & two after it," Cyrus said, and gave two chocolates to her.

Tara sniggered while watching Roohi munching the chocolates happily. Shekhar was engrossed in his own thoughts not being cognizant of what was happening around.

"I have found a room nearby my office at Churchgate, so I will be moving there tomorrow” announced Cyrus, while dipping the soft chappatis into the dal.

"Why? Why are you shifting? Are you facing any problem living here?" Tara enquired.

"No, no there’s no problem living here. But as I said, I wanted a place to stay until I found a room of my own," Cyrus said.

"If you don't have any problem then why do you want to shift? You could live here till your internship gets over. It is a matter of just two weeks. Right, Shekhar?" Tara turned towards Shekhar for approval.

Such hospitality from Tara amused Cyrus. He knew that they wouldn’t allow him to leave. He was merely being formal.

Shekhar heard Tara’s question. He was busy analyzing those moments from last night to ascertain how his manuscript had turned into ashes. Lost in thoughts, he was pushing around the food on his plate and had not eaten anything.

Cyrus looked at him when he didn’t respond to Tara. Perceiving that he was expected to answer, Shekhar stammered "Oh y-y-yes,” without any idea as to what he had agreed.

Sensing that something was wrong, Tara stood up from her chair and went closer to Shekhar. "Are you fine, sweetheart?" Tara placed a kiss on his forehead. Sweat glittered on Shekhar's forehead even though the AC was in full blast. It worried her.

"What's happening Shekhar, are you alright? Do you have a fever?" Tara enquired while touching his forehead. His temperature was normal. What was wrong with him? She wondered. Shekhar moved Tara’s hand away.

"Don't worry, I am ok." Tara was puzzled by Shekhar's behavior, but gave him a hug.

"Darling, you are working too hard. Just give it a rest", said Tara massaging his shoulder.

Roohi had finished her dinner and was now enjoying her chocolates. Cyrus couldn’t take his eyes off the pair. He tried to interpret what was going on. His face remained stern but he kept gazing at Tara without blinking.

Update: Read the following CHAPTER VIII HERE 

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CarTrade.com: A Sudden End to Journey

In April a new clause was added in cartrade-Honda tie up that forfeited amount will go to Honda auto terrace. Due to this auto terrace managers started putting fake entries, false information, etc. to obtain the amount of the forfeiture. On the other hand, they were selling the cars through internal setting to show the sales to Honda management. Hence all the genuine dealers lost faith in the auction & our team was trying it on small garages who cannot afford to lose any sort of money.

All of my customers were either forfeited or were not getting the cars. It had become the job of creating enemies by taking the money rather than creating a healthy business relationship. It was the time, even I lost the faith in the auction. I wasn't pushing the clients to buy it, I was appealing to simply those who were interested. In April I brought only one cheque & that too dealer told me not to deposit it until there is a call from his side. I even exhibited the negative side of the auction to one of the dealers who was approached by the team as I was supposed to face everything here not they. My management was on the safe side as they were sitting in Mumbai not here in Ahmedabad. I would have been in a big big trouble if I had continued to make fake promises to dealers.

My plan was to do the job for four to five years, then I was exiting to start my own business to fulfil my dreams. I might sound bit arrogant here, but I don't think I can achieve my dreams with an yearly growth of 10-15%. Paa knew everything what I was going through so on the first sunday of May Paa & I discussed everything & on monday morning I mailed my resignation. It was quite a sudden end of the journey, but on that sunday paa told me one thing 'Let's give it a shot to your dream' & that was it for me. Then I was relieved by the company by 20th of may. I will never forget cartrade for two reasons, one they give me the freedom to play in my own way & other they showed lot of faith in me & I am grateful to cartrade management for that.

I am also grateful to the whole team of cartrade sales department in Ahmedabad specially Hiren sir, for standing by me throughout & Mukesh Bhai & Nilesh Bhai for being there to help me whenever I needed them. Piyush Bhai, Himanshu, Prashant, Kuldeep & Bhavesh Bhai also helped me in the beginning, so thanks to you guys as well. Now it's time for my own venture & I have been training for that since 20th May.

I am going to give birth to a clothing brand this year. It is not the right time to enroll into the market. The market is all time low at the moment, rotation of money has stopped due to various factors & there are no signs of boom either. The odds have always been against me, but this time I am firm on my decision & not much worried about the odds. I know I have to be extra careful at every step & I think I am prepared for that. A lot is at stake in this venture its not only my dreams, but it is going to involve my whole family. It is almost like everything or nothing so it is going to be a really hard time for me. If I failed at it, I will back to that 10% growth. But over the years cricket has taught me that 'you will be remembered for the performance you have given in crucial time.' So I am prepared for that crucial time. Hence fingers crossed & let's see how I perform in the crucial time.

The End.

CarTrade.com: Golden Period

On 30th of december I convinced that customer to register & he gave me the cheque on 31st december. What a way to end the year. I got the cheque at 5:30 so the banks were closed by therefore I submitted it on 2nd January & my score was 1. In those 4 months after the end of every month, I used to think I will be sacked this month but company kept faith in me & I am always going to be thankful to company for that. I don't think any finance company would have waited that long for me. I would have been sacked by the end of second month there.

I begun the january on high by depositing the cheque on the second day of new year. I didn't knew there is a twist in the story. On 5th of january I received a call from that dealer that 'cheque I had given you has bounced due to insufficient balance come tomorrow and take away the cash.' I went to take the cash the other day but he said he don't have cash now come tomorrow & it went on for next 15 days. I knew he is not going to give me cash by then. My score was 0 again & again I had a feeling that I will be sacked by the end of month but I was firm that I will make another sale this month. In between I blocked that dealer's account & started hunting behind another one who was interested.

Again company had some different plans for me on 23rd of january they ordered me to go to Valsad & Navsari for three days for the auction which had no future. So there was no meaning in staying there for three days. I came back next day & got the cheque from the dealer whom I was hunting for. If I hadn't gone to Valsad & Navsari I would have got the cheque that day only. This time I made sure that cheque has cleared & not bounced. Finally my score was 1 & ended the january with a sale. It was that time my hard work was paying off.

On 2nd february I collected 2 cheques in one day. One came because of my effort & other came because of Hiren sir. Thank you sir for that. I collected revenue of over 42000 in one day. It was a some kind of record, I felt of smacking those cheques on the face of that RM but I believe that actions speaks larger than the words & 42000 in one day spoke everything on behalf of me. It was a month of celebration my career touching new high, cousin's wedding, goa tour everything happened in that smallest month of the year.

Among those sales the one I made in january, I lied to that dealer that you will get the cars easily which was not true at all about Honda auction. I did it because I was in desperation to get off the mark but from second sale onwards I was very more specific & 80% truthful about the terms & conditions of the auction. I carried on well in March as well I sold couple of registrations in that month as well. So it was good going but I tried to sell banks auction registration more than the Honda Consumer Auction.

The tie up of our company with Honda stopped the incentives of Honda auto terrace managers which they used to get by selling used cars. So obviously they were not going support rather they were trying everything to make this auction a big failure. They were not allowing the cars to dealers rather they were selling them via internal setting. I had fight with those managers of Honda auto terrace as they were not giving cars to my dealers rather they were forfeiting the money of them. Some of the dealers had won over 100 cars in the bid but they didn't get even a single car. It spreaded in the market like a viral so other dealers have no trust over me.

To be continued...

CarTrade.com: Honda Consumer Auction

After the two months the score was zero. All I had found was the reasons of not registering, I was not being able to convince any of the dealers to register. Product also wasn't beneficial for dealers so that they buy or register. So the company launched a new auction which was Honda Consumer Auction in third week of october. In that auction consumers (dealers) can buy that cars which comes in exchange of new cars from new car dealers. It was already going on informally used car dealers were already buying the exchanged cars from new car dealers.

I found this auction OK & finally something good for me. I took a sigh of relief & I thought I can open my account with it but in that too I wasn't shown the whole picture. In marketing it is the rule that you have to show only the benefits of the product to sell it but I feel you should also know the side effects of the product so you can cover them up nicely. In my case clients used to show me the side effects of my product. So I use to silently listen them & use to agree with them. If I knew those things earlier then I would have prepared counter of that to cover it up but my company has some other plans with me. Every day I used to come up with a new side effect from a dealer & it went till the end of October.

This auction also brought 'Ek Villain' of my journey & that was Relationship Manager of my region. Every story have atleast one villain & the villain of my story has arrived with this Honda Consumer Auction. I have to report him daily & he was totally a nut. In the begining he gave me the format in which I have to prepare my daily report & when I started reporting he said your format of report is not proper. I didn't 'invented' that format, you gave me that format. In first week he started getting on my nerves & I was in constant touch with Hiren sir & I use to tell him everything about that nut.

A seminar was arranged for the dealers in the end of october to present that new Honda Auction. So couple of days before the seminar that nut told me invite the dealers by personally visiting them but 2 hours later he told me to stop visiting & start calling. So I did that but to prove that he was really a nut after one & half hour again he called me & said stop calling & start visiting. He touched the height of my patience that day, it was really frustrating day for me. Moreover it was the time of diwali the boom period in every market & industry & most awaited period for every one to earn some money. So the dealers were not really interested in attending it. I feel it was the worst time for any kind of seminar but it happened. AVP of our comany & head of Honda came to give that presentation & very few dealers attended that seminar. It turned out to be a good seminar for me atleast as Hiren sir there said everything to AVP about the behaviour of RM with me. It was an eventful end to an october.

November passed pretty quickly. First ten days passed into the holidays of diwali & remaining twenty days passed in getting the mood of business after that long break. It felt like straight away december has arrived after october. The score was still zero after three months. So that nut RM was behind me like anything. He used to get my on nerves every now and then but the water went over my head when on one december morning he abused me. On that day the way he talked with me like he has bought me against that salary they are paying to me. I was literally thinking of changing the job as soon as possible but thanks to Hiren sir again who took that matter to HR department & HR head shown him his limits. I feel god was watching that I was making some serious efforts & he helped me there through Hiren sir. Finally in the other half of december I found the market where dealers were purchasing banks repossessed cars & in that market some of the dealers were already our customers. So that was the actual target market for me. I visited those old customers, took refrences from them & visited new dealers in that area & finally I found a customer who was interested in registering on our website for the bank auctions.

To be continued...

CarTrade.com: Struggle

After that long training I came out of Tata Motor Finance office & called AVP for some leads but he said that 'you have to do cold calling. Moreover you will get some help from Hiren Shroff.' Hiren Shroff - senior sales manager of Gujarat who took my interview. I called Hiren sir but he said that 'I am in a meeting & I will call you in a while.' I did cold calling earlier during my internship but at that time I had an open market & here it was limited upto car dealers only. So to find those leads I used google as it always help. I found the list of dealers on just dial.

So I started visiting the dealers as per just dial & after visiting couple of dealers I reached narayanpura, hub of used car dealers in Ahmedabad. I started making calls there & four dealers one after another said that they are registered on cartrade. I knew there is different department of sales but I didn't knew that registration of both sales & auction is different as I was given very long training of 10 minutes. So I might not have remmebered it. While doing 5th call I finally met Hiren sir at that dealer's place. Hiren sir is a sindhi so he tried to bring me in my comfort zone by using it. He talked to AVP about my calling & asked what were his plans about me. It was sweet of him that he did his best to bring me in my comfort zone from day one. So this was the first day of my cold calling.

Then next whole month went just in making the script to use while approaching the dealers. I accept that I was very slow in that case. In that month I got to know that auction's registration is done seperately & it has nothing to do with registration of sales. In between I got my first salary. First salary is special for everyone it was special for me too. I can't express in words that happiness of first salary. As they say its pretty hard to earn first penny & last penny of life & after working for two and a half months I got my first salary so the happiness was on the next level altogether. It was the best part of the company that they pay to their employees on time.

It was time to know flaws in the product. In the next month as I started approaching the dealers, I came to know that from these kind of auctions dealers doesn't get any help from the banks. Moreover dealers don't even get the complete papers of most of the vehicles they buy in the auction. Ofcourse it wasn't discussed in that long training. In short there was not much benefit for the dealer in registering for the auction. So it wasn't a cakewalk as it was described by AVP. I discussed whole thing with Hiren sir as I wasn't being able to sale even a single registration.

He then adviced me to approach kavadiwalas as they will be interested in buying salvage vehicles from our auction. So I started visiting kabadi markets of Ahmedabad but there was a big hurdle in the sale of registration & that was their backwardness in the field of technology. They believe that internet is chaos as they don't understand most of it. Finally couple of kabadi walas shown some interest in registering but they kept me running around them. They had no intent to register but they used to call me thrice a week & used to give me another date. Tareekh pe tareekh was not going to go for much time. It was a learning curve that my first two prospects did this to me. Then it was the end of second month & sales was zero in this month too. All of the sudden management started new kind of auction in the third week of october which will be discussed in the next part.

To be continued...

CarTrade.com: Beginning of a new Journey

On 16th August 2013, day after independence day I joined CarTrade.com. Finally I had a job. As what I had earlier was a mere fraud. I worked in a fraudulent outsourcing firm in which they fetch money from clients to give them business in return but they give nothing in return. I think that was the worst nightmare I would ever had. On one side it was toughest phase of my career but on the other side it was a good thing to happen at the start of my career. It eventually taught me that this world is not good with good people. Moreover it gave me a push to choose the next company wisely. My life was hell, societal pressure was piling up as people were thinking that I am retrenched from this job.

In between of all this I gave the interview for CarTrade.com twice. I wanted to be a part of Automobile sector as cars always brought a sense of excitement in me & I love cars. I was selected for the sale of used cars but was posted in auction department. CarTrade.com is website of MXC solutions pvt. ltd. Where mainly the sell of used cars is done. CarTrade.com works as an agent between the used car dealers & customers. It takes commission from the dealers if their vehicle is sold through them. Similarly in the auction of banks re-possesed cars, if the car is sold through cartrade then cartrade will get the commission from the bank or financing company. Now being part of auction department I had to sell the online registrations for the auction.

This job gave a big Babaji Ka Thullu to all the people who thought I am retrenched from the job & I am going to get another one. Before pointing a finger or laughing on anyone's failure or rather an unsuccessful attempt just try to understand what he/she has gone through. Now back to the first day of the job. My first day of the job accidentally became first day at job. On 16th August 2013, I called HR head to know the dates from when I am joning & my reporting place. She said that I have to contact Assistant Vice President for that as I interviewed by him. So I called him around 10 a.m & he told me that live TATA Motor Finance auction is about to begin at hotel silver cloud & I have to be there. So in this way it became my joining day.

I reached at hotel by 11 a.m & auction was not started by then. As the auction was not started AVP sir explained me that we organise the open auction for Tata Motor Finance every month. He introduced me to the Tata guy & told that he will train you & guide you about how to approach the customers, the benefits the customers get from us & where to go in rural gujarat as per the auction. I still was ambigous about it so I asked a brief introduction until the auction get started. The way sir explained me it looked like a cake walk & suddenly my chest became broader with confidence. One of the most important thing I came to know in that briefing is that CarTrade doesn't have office in Ahmedabad. Finally auction began at 12:45 & it was first auction I was witnessing live. Before that I had only seen IPL auction & ofcourse I was comparing both the auctions for the time being. Auction went on till 7:30 p.m & AVP has to catch 8 p.m flight. So he was in lot of rush & in that rush I asked him about what I have to do next day & he said 'call that Tata guy' while signing off. So this was my first day at office not knowing what I have to do next day but I was happy that finally I have a job.

Next day I called that TMF guy & he said that he is going at yard auction today & I was instructed by AVP to go with him. I went him & yard was out of Ahmedabad in some village which was surrounded by various industries. It was totally different auction from what I witnessed on the first day. So from first two days I made a perception that I have to visit rural gujarat only when auction is organised there. Next day I met that Tata guy at his office to get some training & I thought it will be a proper training a person will be standing by the board & will make some drawings to make me understand the structure, target customer, approach to those customers, benefits of them etc.

On the contrary that Tata guy just showed me one piece of paper, it was a letter pad of Tata Motor Finance & on that No Objection Cerificate was written & he said 'this is the biggest benefit we give to the customer'. That's it! My training was over. I asked him about how online auctions happen but he doesn't had even an access to those. In total I was trained for ten long minutes. After that training I knew that I am not going to get any help from this guy, I am on my own. Can I ask for a better start to my career.

To be continued...

Anything for cricket

For a cricket maniac like me cricket is above everything & IPL is a carnival of cricket where cricket is celebrated to its fullest by the players of all the nations with unity & equality. IPL gives very heavy dose excitement to me as I love to see my favourite players from different nations playing together. So I remain quite excited for every season of IPL. Moreover I have done some crazy things to watch every single moment of IPL.

It is an incident of this year only. Till last year I was pursuing my MBA so I used to be at home to watch each & every ball of IPL but this year it was different I was at work but the excitement was same as it used to be in earlier years. On 16th april 2014, I was at work & IPL 7 was about to begin. At 6 pm pre-match show begun & for the first time I was missing the opening ceremony of Pepsi IPL in 7 years. I never missed opening ceremony of IPL in last 6 years no matter if I had exams or any other important work I watched every bit of it.

Here I was doing my work & there was no tv around to watch it. So I missed the opening ceremony. I finished my work by 7:30 pm & I was dying to watch Pepsi IPL but my timings of factory were till 8:30. I decided to watch it on starsports.com using its 'deferred live' feature where I could see the live match with 5 minutes delay only but my phone's battery was about to die & unfortunately I forgot charger at home that day. My phone's battery died at 7:50 & match was about to begin in just ten minutes.

I was only left with one option that to go home & watch the match but I was alone at factory here as chachu was out with some work. I was waiting for chachu to come so I can leave for home. My wait was of 15 minutes & those 15 minutes passed like 15 years. Chachu came at 8:05 & the moment he entered I was ready to go home. I took the permission from him & left for home. It normally takes half an hour to reach home from factory but on that day my excitement was at such a high level that I wasn't been able to drive at normal speed. I touched the speed of 110 km/h on my bike where normally I never go beyond 60 km/h. I took crazy ride that day to reach home just to watch Pepsi IPL. By god's grace I reached home safely that day & watched whole match calmly after that. Thank god I had 'Deferred Live' feature on starsports.com & the charger to watch the Pepsi IPL from next day.

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