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A Story by Haritha Sivakumar
“Pratap,”
“Sir,” Pratap sound hastily.
“Please come to my cabin now,” Siddanth instructed curtly and contemplated the mail in silence while rubbing his fingers on the stubble growing back. Linco Movies, for whom Siddanth’s firm was working on a short animation movie of 25 minutes long was Ani.Tribe’s third largest project worth fifty-five lakhs. The email from the Manager of Linco Movies blaming and terrorizing his firm for unprofessional behaviour, forgery, and copyright claims were such massive claims that Siddant could not make any heads of it, except for the fact that if this news gets out into the world, his firm can be officially ruined and can potentially lead to the end of his career.
“ Did you read it?” Siddanth asked Pratap, his HR, who finally looked up from the laptop, “ Can you explain how and what is going on?”
Pratap stared in silence before answering, “ It seems-“
“It seems the graphic designs and characters which we made exclusively for Linco Movies have been used by some Spanish Advertising companies. What the hell is going on? How did this get leaked? Who did this?” Siddanth demanded.
“Sir! I heard from the Designing Head-" Pratap began speaking but was interrupted by Gauri, a young woman in her early thirties, who entered the cabin looking nervous.
“Explain this to me,” Siddanth demanded with such coldness that the room felt like hell as Gauri and Pratap looked exasperated.
“I don’t know, sir,” Gauri whimpered.
“ You don’t know?! Both of you? Then listen, your unknowingness is costing the company two crores and the threat of shutting down with defamation of plagiarism, which not only threatens Ani.TRIBE but threatens the livelihood of many people. So, please be kind to speak with honesty and with intelligence.” Siddanth stared at his colleagues, who looked perplexed, “ I am demanding an answer from you two. How come the Spanish Company came up with these exact characters?”
“I don’t know, sir, but I will try to find out what is happening,” Gauri answered as she opened her laptop.
“Then find me every detail about this company, when this advertisement started to air, and the person behind this,”
“Yes sir,” Gauri replied, as the clicking sound of the laptop keys echoed in the room loudly.
Siddanth looked gaunt as he spoke over the Linco team and requested them to hold on to their decision for the time being as they were looking into the cause of the events. Though the people sounded rude and unperturbed, Siddanth requested with hope.
“Pratap, we have to find the solution soon, we can’t afford to lose this project at any cost,” Siddanth spoke to Pratap, who looked as disturbed as Siddanth, as they both kept attending calls one after the other.
“Did you find it?” Siddanth asked, his voice clipped from his usual friendliness.
“Not yet, sir. But looking at the advertisements, I can say that the characters that are been used are the characters we planned in the first draft, which they have used by changing the hair colour and eye colour,”
“But all the other features remain the same,” Siddanth questioned
“Exactly, and the very first advertisement aired three months ago,” Pratap added.
“Three months ago??” Siddanth’s voice cracked as his eyes almost fell out of their socket.
“This means we were still in the designing stage of the characters and have not finalized the main characters,” Guari spoke, “ Hence, the currently used images though look like the main characters for the Linco Movies, however the finalized designs of Linco Movies have lot more additional features and are different,”
“But that isn’t a convincing statement for Linco Movies, because even if we go ahead it will look similar to this advertisement. We have to prove that we didn’t breach any contract, rather it was stolen from us, and if it is, then who is it? We have to find out the culprit. We have to revoke this advertisement and lodge a complaint to prove our innocence,” Siddanth and his team discussed as the rain clamoured over the window.
Minutes passed.
“Sir, we promise this is not an action taken by my team. But I promise to find the reason behind this,” Siddanth tried to reason.
“We do not want to work with a company which does not abide by its ethics and sells of creativity of another to someone for money. This is atrocious, and the very reason we condemn from working with first-timers,” The manager of Linco Movies screeched in complete contempt.
“Sir, I understand your aggression, but you cannot say such things. Whatever happened did not only affect you but involves our hard work too. Why would we do-” Siddanth’s heart was racing at a speed that anyone near him could listen to it by just standing near him.
“I am done talking to you, Mr. Siddanth. Just pay the advance and wait for the court order. We are not going to let this go easy on you. You will get the court order in a day or two,” The phone went dead, and Siddanth sunk deep into his chair with a sullen face.
The news had already spread across the entire office like wildfire, huge upheaval soared as lawyers and meetings, one after the other trailed in. Two hours later, Lalit looked up from the laptop, “Sir,”
“Can you all leave me alone for a few minutes? I need a moment to think through these matters and trace down the person who sold our materials,” Siddanth addressed his team, and all of them left the cabin in complete silence.
Siddanth felt his body growing numb and cold, head vacant with emotions except for an unnoticeable weight that made his existence feel heavy and bulbous.
“You should quit,” Siddanth heard his inner voice gnaw, while he articulated the thoughts to himself, “ I wish I could cease to non-existence and escape this. I wish I could swim and drown and die. I am such a loser. How did I not see this? Oh my lord! What will happen if he really files a complaint? What will I do then? But how did this happen? Who did this?” Siddanth brooded, “ This is all your fault. You were so careless and ignorant these days, loitering around, distracted from your real purpose. This was bound to happen. Siddanth, you are the worst business- person ever. You are a failure,” Siddanth saw his reflection mouth the words and he exhaled loudly. “ What should I do now?” Siddanth turned around from the reflection but his memories played loud.
‘You are doing business? What do you know about business?” Siddanth heard his father’s perfect voice pinch him in shrill melody, ‘ You hear it loud and clear, this is wrong. It’s not your thing and you are doing wrong. Wrong matlab wrong, this isn’t going to get you anywhere. If you have the fancy to run a business, be more active in helping your mother run the hospital, but please dissuade yourself from these fanciful ideas like animation, and do not spoil your life.’
“Don’t listen to this. You need to think of an action, so do not distract yourself,” Siddanth repeated to himself, “Concentrate..puff,” He puffed out air, trying to calm his mind. It was past 2:30 pm when Siddanth finally answered his mother, who kept calling him.
“What is it, Ma?” Siddanth almost snapped at her when he answered her.
“Hey, where are you? You are late for your birthday lunch,” Leela asked cheerfully.
“Ma, I am busy now. Can I talk to you later?”
“No. You are late for the lunch,” Leela ruled out.
“Ma, the party is in the evening. What do you want me now there for?” Siddanth demanded, his voice clipped with irritation.
“Are you deaf, I said you were late for your birthday lunch,”
“ And I am busy,”
“But we all are waiting for you, even Mamu from Delhi came down here to celebrate your birthday, and you are sitting there in the office showing tantrums,”
“Ma I am busy. I have loads of things to do, so, please, you guys carry on. I will meet you later,”
“ Siddu!” Leela’s voice came out all cold and loud, a sound and a name she only uses when she wants to scold Siddanth, “ I am your mother, and I am reminding you this- this is a tradition I do not want anyone to break when it is about spending time with your family, you do that. Okay? We ask for only an hour of your valuable working hour, and if you can’t even give that to your own family, I wonder what for you are working,”
“Amma!”
“Shut up and come, and that’s an order,” Leela ordered.
“What is up with this newfound obsession with following this birthday tradition? It did not exist for the first ten years of my life, during which I celebrated my birthday all alone with Dadi and Dadu in Leh. None of you bothered to visit me, and why now? All of a sudden, you won’t have lunch without me because it is my birthday? I do not understand this double standard,” Siddanth fumed hard, that he did not hear a voice similar to his answer back, rough and curt.
“You come home now,” Tsering Nurugu ordered, “ And don’t you dare use that tone against my wife. Ever. AGAIN.” the voice fell silent, followed by a beep and the call disconnected.
“SHIT!” Siddanth ruffled his hair in vexation,
“This is the worst birthday ever.”
(To be Continued Tomorrow)
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