Disclaimer: The story is a work of fiction and is in no way related to any person dead or alive. The names characters and situations occurring in the story are imaginary and any resemblance to any person dead or alive is purely coincidental.
Chaos Theory.
"I don’t care if you have to put a gun on their head to make them wear our shoes, all I care about is our profits", the CEO of Prowear said to Ashutosh. "Did you understand that, now go and next time when you show me your face make sure you have better numbers with you.", he said.
It has been six months now that Ashutosh had taken over as the country head of the leading sportswear company Prowear, which was re-launched in the country recently. After a fir
st bout of unsuccessful line of products and marketing campaigns, everything about Prowear was revamped; top executives were shown the door. The company had launched a new line of shoes to capture the market of sports shoes and now Ashutosh was under pressure from his boss to improve the bottom line.
They were about to launch basketball shoes in the country. Ashutosh now had to make it a cult product to reclaim the actual position that the company and its brands had in the world market.
“You know what a cult brand is, a brand for which people are ready to die.” He addressed his team the next morning in the conference room, “and that is what we want, let’s make our Prowear basketball shoes that kind of a cult product.” “Every teenager must be wearing our shoes, and those who are not must be willing to even die to get their feet into one of the pairs.” The team applauded.
The next week Prowear launched new basketball shoes with a big fanfare. They also started a campaign to select two basketball teams from amongst the colleges of the country, which will play against each other at a stadium in New York. The CEO was happy with the campaign. At the launch party he introduced his son Sumit to Ashutosh. “Sumit is studying in SRV College and also plays for the college basketball team.” The CEO told Ashutosh. Ashutosh understood what he was trying to say.
The next day Ashutosh personally arranged to have a couple of pair of shoes to be sent to Sumit. Sumit proudly wore the shoes to the college and showed them off to his friends. A team from Prowear visited Sumit’s college and declared that they will be selecting two students from the college who played basketball for the two teams that was being built to play in New York. They also had their own coach placed in the college for a week so that he may identify the best players and recruit them into the team. They said that they were running such campaign in over 20 colleges and also on the Internet.
In spite of being priced at Rs. 4000, the sales of Prowear basketball shoes shot through the roof within a couple of days. The CEO told Ashutosh that the process of team selection should be extended to one month, to boost further sales.
Arvind was the best basketball player SRV had seen in years. He had single handedly won many matches for the college. Sumit was also a good player and was the captain of the team but everybody knew Arvind to be the real star. And when in a week’s time the Prowear coach selected Sumit as the first player to represent SRV College in the Prowear basketball team, nobody believed it.
“I can’t believe it, how can Sumit be selected when I am the star player?” Arvind said to Sadiq. Both were best of friends since school and now in SRV. “I know the reason”, said Sadiq. “What’s it?”
“Ever noticed how the chocolate boy always wears Prowear shoes to the practice”, said Sadiq. “They didn’t spend so much of money just to get us to play in New York, their main motive is to sell their shoes, and that’s why chocolate boy has been selected, because he bought them.”
“But these shoes cost more than Rs. 4000, I will never be able to afford a pair”, said Arvind. “Why don’t you ask your father to sponsor you”, said Sadiq. “He would never agree, he is strictly against me playing basketball, he wants me to start preparing for MBA. And anyways after his retirement I don’t want to ask him for any money”, said Arvind. “Then you can say goodbye to your chances of playing in New York”, said Sadiq. “Can you lend me some money”, asked Arvind. “I don’t have money to take Sana to the movies and you want me to sponsor your fancy shoes”, said Sadiq. “We will have to do something, this is a dream opportunity for me and I just can’t see it going to waste.” Sadiq knew how much basketball meant to Arvind and this actually was an opportunity of a life time for him.
In the class next day Sadiq told Arvind that he had come up with a plan. Arvind was excited and couldn’t wait for the class to be over. They went to the cafeteria after the class was over.
“You know Sunil, the guy who lives in the next building to mine”, said Sadiq. “You mean the guy who drives that new sportsbike”, asked Arvind. “Yeah, that bike’s worth 75000 bucks, you know how he bought it?” said Sadiq. Arvind shook his head. “There’s this guy, his name is Rehman, he lives in Sion, he always has some petty job for people to do and for each finished job he pays 1000 bucks.” “What kind of job?” asked Arvind. “Running errands like delivering packets, mostly drugs, to the given address, but the problem is that he gives a job to a person only once a month, you will have to wait a month to get the job again.”
“And how does this solve our problem, even if we both do one job we will have to wait two months to have 4000 Rupees and by that time the competition will be over.” said Arvind. “You know what Sunil did? He was given a packet to deliver to someone in Mahalakshmi, but he didn’t do it, he sold the packet to Yakub in Masjid for ten thousand Rupees and made a down payment for the bike”, said Sadiq. “How can he do that, didn’t Rahman say anything?” asked Arvind. “No, Sunil came back to Rehman, with a torn shirt and a black eye and told him that the package was stolen. Rehman thought he was telling the truth and let him go.” said Sadiq. “And this is your plan”, said Arvind. “Yes my dear Watson, we will stage this drama and walk off with cool ten thousand bucks enough for you to buy the shoes and for me to take Sana to the Multiplex and a nice dinner.”
“But this is very risky, what if Rahman comes to know, he will kill us both.” said Arvind. “No he won’t, I have spoken to Sunil. He will speak to Yakub tomorrow and then will take us to Rahman the day after. We will have to pay five thousand Rupees to Sunil, that’s his commission. See this is our only chance we will have to do it. You don’t have any other choice. You have to pursue your dream and this is the only way” said Sadiq. Arvind nodded reluctantly, a Prowear hoarding standing tall in front of him, inviting him to play for his dreams.
The next day they met Sunil in the evening after college. He gave them the directions to find Yakub and told them that Yakub would also give them a black eye along with the cash.
The third day they met Sunil again, this time in the afternoon, both Sadiq and Arvind didn’t go to the college and were very nervous the whole day. Sunil took them to Rahman’s small room in Sion and introduced them. After much interrogation Rahman agreed to give them an errand and asked Arvind to come back the next day alone at 3 in the afternoon.
The next day Arvind went to Rahman at 3 in the afternoon. This was the second day he had missed college and his basketball practice, but he knew that it was going to be worth. Rahman was not there in his room instead someone else gave him a packet and told him to deliver it to a person named Shirish in Byculla. The man also told him to come back to the room once the job was done to collect his money. Arvind left. He went to the railway station, and saw Sadiq standing at the far end. The train came, both entered separate coaches. After sometime the train reached Masjid, they both got off and Arvind headed in the direction of the place where he was supposed to meet Yakub. Sadiq followed him at a safe distance, always keeping an eye open for people around him to make sure that no one was following Arvind.
After walking for twenty minutes and asking a few people he located Yakub, and gave him the packet. Yakub gave Arvind a brown envelope in return. “Ten”, said Yakub. Arvind turned around and started to walk, but a man pulled him by his collar and landed a punch on his right eye. Arvind staggered and fell on the ground. The man who had punched him offered his hand. Arvind took it and stood up. This time the man tore Arvind’s shirt’s sleeve, and moved aside. Arvind started to walk towards the railway station again, covering his black eye with his handkerchief. Sadiq followed him keeping the same distance.
Rahman got very angry when he heard Arvind’s story. He didn’t belive it and slapped him so hard that his face turned red. After much pleading Rahman agreed to let him go. Arvind walked back home all bruised but he was happy, now he would now be able to afford a new pair of Prowear shoes.
The next evening after college, Sadiq and Arvind went to a mall. Arvind bought a pair of Prowear’s basketball shoes. He knew that now he had a chance to make his dream come true. At the railway station they met Sunil. He told them that Rahman was very angry and was looking for Arvind. Sadiq and Arvind immediately separated and they both started to walk in different directions.
Arvind was in a lonely alley when suddenly Rahman with two of his men appeared in front of him. “I didn’t do anything, Rahman bhai”, said Arvind, the packet of Prowear shoes in his hands. “Oh really, but I spoke to Yakub, he told me something else”, said Rahman, his gun pointed at Arvinds head. Sadiq watched in horror from the dark corner of the alley as Rahman pulled the trigger. Arvind’s limp body fell on the ground with a thud. Sadiq with much effort stopped himself from giving out a yell. One of the men bent down and took the packet from Arvind’s lifeless hands and opened it. “Look Rahman bhai nice pair of shoes, can I keep it”, he asked. “Yes, yes, why not, it’s a gift for you”, said Rahman without even bothering to look at the shoes.
It was a month now after the launch of Prowear’s basketball team campaign. Ashutosh was sitting with the CEO sipping coffee. The sales figures had tripled in just one month. “Soon we will have a cult brand for which people would be ready to lay their lives”, said the CEO. Both laughed, as a Prowear hoarding standing tall outside the glass window.
