The servant was also wary of the new friend that has been staying with his master over the last few days. The gentleman had looked familiar but unrecognizable at the same time, with the only discernible thing was his unusual overeating. Entering the room with breakfast, Vinod Rai was nowhere to be found but the servant saw the friend sitting on the bed waiting impatiently for him to come.

All the things came rushing to the servant’s head. Everything was falling into place. The friend was Rahul Johri! He had last seen him a few months back during a party but he was way thinner then. Staring at Johri with disgust for a while, Rai turned to his master, “Sir, I’d brought your regular omelette but Mr Johri gobbled it. Would you want me to get you another one?”

“When is the meeting today and where?” a message flashed from Diana Edulji. Things had spiralled out of hands in the last month or so and Rai has been borderline mental as a consequence. To further compound his condition, he couldn’t refuse his friend Rahul when the latter asked for a stay in his abode for a week.

Rai was thinking what to reply and didn’t realize that Johri had already come and stood behind him to see the text. As their eyes met, Johri blurted out, “Don’t meet the woman. She will poison your life, as she has done of Mithali and me, of course. My condition today is because of her!”

Though Rai didn’t reveal it to Johri, he could make it out by the developments that happened over the course of the day. A big sofa and two bean bags were brought into the big room with a long list of dinner items being prepared too. Johri understood Edulji was coming but he didn’t know the other guests.

By 6 pm in the evening, Edulji was sitting on one of the bean bags. The sofa was mostly empty but she opted not to share the same space with Johri. 

Even before Rai could reply, Johri, who was munching on a patties staring right at her, said, “What else? You will be fired… I mean I can’t see any other options.”

A furious Edulji started a rant, “How dare you speak to me like that? You leach! It is for people like you that working places are not safe for women. I am warning you Vinod, the responsibility rests upon us to take an exemplary step that would be looked up to, by other boards. Don’t make BCCI just another place of toxic patriarchy that is ruining the country.”

Rai was scared his colleagues would start fighting again and he quickly intervened, “Rahul, please let me handle this. Please give him some more snacks,” he asked his servant, who was waiting at the door.

With Johri occupied now, Rai continued, “Diana, we’ve to assess the statements both Ramesh and Mithali have made. The skipper has blamed you as well! It was shocking to hear. Why would you indulge in such things?”

Before Rai and Edulji could react, Mithali Raj and Ramesh Powar entered the room, and everyone was silenced. They weren’t expected by Johri and Edulji. Fearing that Powar would come and sit beside him, Johri quickly took his plate from the table and placed it beside him on the sofa. There was some space left for a normal-sized person, hence Mithali took that spot. Powar, in his attempt to place himself on the bean bag with ultimate sophistication, lost his balance and kind of fell on it making an awkward thud.

Giggling loudly, Johri took another samosa into his mouth. The room was silent for some time now, with everyone looking at Powar from the corner of their eyes as he sat in the softly lit room wearing sunglasses. Both Edulji and Powar wanted some snacks but neither could ask Mithali or Johri out of ego. Rai took a good fifteen minutes to realize that and asked his servant to offer them.

Before he could finish, Mithali interrupted, “For the last time Ramesh… This discussion cannot be ‘leaked’. No cameras here! Stop sugarcoating things for once.”

A confused Powar looked here and there trying to make eye contact with Edulji while hiding it from the other three in the room. Seeing that it was not possible, he continued, “I am being framed by the legend of the game. I am terribly disappointed. But, I’m sure I will overcome this obstacle...”

Seeing Rai and Edulji staring at him seriously, Johri was quick to defend himself, “This is one of the comments from his twitter post. I ain’t making this up,” he stretched his phone at Rai’s face.

Intervening the non-sense going on in the room, Edulji spoke up, “I have no idea how such an immature man is holding such a high post of Indian cricket. Can we exclude him and discuss the issue at hand?”

“I think there should be an investigation put into place,” spoke up Mithali “It would constitute me, Ramesh and the team manager. And we have to make sure that no one is under any kind of pressure from anyone. I know there are higher officials involved here.”

“Don’t be childish Mithali,” said Edulji and before she could continue Mithali finished the argument off by stating, “I’m not talking to any two-faced snakes in this room, who changes sides like a see-saw, so please…”

She calmly continued, “I agree that elimination from the World Cup was a terrible thing to happen. But, we cannot question the team selection as that would set a bad precedent and everyone from hereon would do the same thing in future. It is normal human behaviour to put the blame on someone or something and I completely agree with Powar, Mithali didn’t look fit for the T20 format,” said Edulji.

Powar, so far, was out of Rai’s vision as his bean bag had gotten behind the sofa. Seeing this as the proper chance to second Edulji’s opinion and gain credibility, Powar attempted to stand up swiftly and deliver a strong defence to his opinions. However, it wasn’t easy and he lost his balance while getting up and fell on Edulji with his shiny sunglass smashing against her cheek and making a deep cut.

“You’re so done! You’ll never get a coaching role even for a school cricket team in India! I’ll see to it!” Edulji blabbered holding an ice-pack on her cheek.

Seeing Johri not reacting to this, Mithali turned to him suspiciously, only to realize that the food was over and Johri looked quite concerned. The discussion was going nowhere and Rai realized it. He had to take a decision but he couldn’t do that with all the other three inside his room. He brought an end to the meeting even before the dinner arrived and asked everyone to leave, but not before giving Mithali a stern warning.

Mithali’s glowing face had turned dull as she, Powar and Edulji walked in a queue to exit the room. One of the most fruitless official meetings in history was finally over as everyone left the room except, of course, Johri. 

He had finally found something to eat. It wasn’t until half of the bottle was emptied when Edulji realized and screamed, “That is my medicine you’re eating, you moron!” She snatched her purse from Johri and left the room.

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