And yesterday was a hectic day. Two meetings scheduled in different parts of the city. With the roads and the traffic jam (and the constant honking), it was a nightmare. The first meeting was with a client dealing with infrastructure and the second was with the real estate guys. There is history associated with the infrstructure client. I had met one of their core manager a year back and then also there was a project under discussion. I was told that ‘wining and dining’ was an integral part of ‘business development’. Hence I had invited this key person to a five star hotel (imagine!) and treated him to a couple of drinks. Of course it was a huge cost (for us that is) and despite the ‘invite’ and the ‘technology’, we did not close the project. And that was the last experiment I did in inviting ‘decision makers’ or people close to ‘decision makers’ for drinks. It was a damn expensive experiment. But it was not as futile as I thought it to be ( as the current events depict).
Anyway the long and short of it is that there is another project and the same person has contacted us for participating. We have entered very late in the bidding process (better late than never) and it was suggested that we meet the MD with our battery of experts (Irrigation and survey) at a short notice of a few hours. And with the methodology. And with the pricing. So I was scanning the database in my mind and I could zoom in on the survey expert very fast. But the Irrigation expert was another ballgame. And which expert would be interested in attending a meeting at such a short notice and that too for a small company?
The scanner in my head worked overtime. And I called up a professor from IIT Delhi who handles GIS projects. And hoped that he would know someone in the Irrigation sector. Well it was late in the night when I called up his residence(his wife was quite irritated) but he said he would work something out by the morning. And Narendra worked on the methodology. SO bingo. It all came together. I could attend the meeting with the experts and the methodology in place. So it was done. We stand a good chance of winning. But here is the catch. ‘liasioning’ ka paisa chahiye and that too in advance. Bole to ‘ghoos’ ka arangement karna padega. ??
The next meeting had been arranged by the real estate guys with the chairman of the ‘Airport Authority of India’. I had asked for it as there were a lot of technical queries. The client’s plot lies in the outer horizontal surface and I was keen to know the guidelines AAI would use to freeze the maximum possible height. The slope of the obstacle surface, the distance from ARP and the key points. The meeting had been specifcally arranged for me but I could not reach on time. So the client met the chairman and collected the technical points. I then had to meet the client in their office (in Cannaught Place) and I could reach there only by 8:00pm due to the traffic. The information collected from the chairman was transferred to me along with another set of maps and drawings. So I have to start studying ( not again!).
Appu has been feeling low. She and her troupe are getting ready for a dance performance on ‘Teachers’ day’. She is mostly coping on her own while I am trying to close some work. She is also paying the price of keeping GC alive.
I had to make a choice between paying for the inetrnet or buying fruits or rations today. So I chose paying for the net ( I guess we always have choices). After all, being ‘connected’ is more important than being ‘alive’ these days.
It has been a day of ‘meetings’.
