“Adil?”
“I won against Samar."
“Congratulations.” Atharva deadpanned. “What happened to the server you were building?”
“Built and ready. Why do you think I was playing football outside?”
“Is it working?”
“Go check. Laptop is in the adjacent room.”
“Then start on the website.”
“Designer hasn’t gotten back yet.”
“Follow up…”
“Already did.” He droned, solving a Rubik’s Cube in his hands. “Wireframe is coming by 2 pm.”
Atharva folded his hands to Adil. Samar had half a mind to do that, too. The nerd could frustrate the hell out of you and you’d be ready to murder him before he coughed up his redemption.
“Samar?” Atharva’s eyes turned to him. He did not spell out the question.
“Done.”
“What done? Where have you been since Monday?” Qureshi turned in his seat.
“Here and there.” Samar stepped inside the room. A knock sounded and Shiva walked in, tray in hand. Cups of kahwa were distributed and he retreated. Samar closed the door behind him. They had run background on each of their employees but you could never be too sure.
“Hmm?” Qureshi frowned, sipping from his cup.
“Cleaning up.” He stopped in the middle of the room with his feet apart, hands behind his back. Qureshi’s cup halted midway. His dark beard twitched, and his brows rose — “Thatcleanup?”
“Hari Singh High Street and Rajbagh are now open to us for campaigning for SMC.”
“But how…” Qureshi set his cup down. Samar glanced at Atharva, his look blank, then back at Qureshi — “Awaami’s web is extensive but not strong enough. A few coercivedrills and they…”
Zorji coughed, making him pause. “Need-to-know basis,” he repeated what he always repeated when this topic came up.
“Cleaned up,” Samar reported, ending the update.
“Good then,” Atharva took over. “Srinagar Municipal Corporation election is two years away but we have the edge, because Awaami thinks it is indomitable. They will be starting their campaigning only six months before the election. We have the balance eighteen months to penetrate Srinagar. Before we breach their state, their city will be ours.”
“Jammu is earlier, Atharva,” Zorji reminded.
“All his.” Atharva nodded, his eyes whirling to Samar.
“You are taking Jammu Municipal Corporation?” Zorji turned to him. Samar nodded.
“I will be moving to Jammu by May. I’ll come back with JMC ours.”
“Je baat!” Adil slapped the desk in front of him in his best Jammu Jatt accent. “Daaxsaab ka ilaka hai.[25]”
“A compounding of city, district and panchayat victories should be good to establish our grassroots,” Qureshi remarked. “But we need the showmanship. The entire media circus with press conferences, press releases and all those things regularly. We also need to appoint our spokesperson and start fielding him on debates and shows.”
“Nobody would entertain him, though,” Adil sputtered.
“That is why major budget allocation to building the media team this year,” Atharva pointed. “It will be our most expensive investment to date, but if we get it up and running within the next year, we establish ourselves as a major J&K political party.”
