Written In The Stars by Divya Anand; An Excerpt

Divya Anand: Written in the Stars by the author Divya Anand is a romantic story set in an e-commerce start-up gives the reader a sense of the workplace dynamic of a tech start-up in India. An excerpt:

The team shuffled out of the room as soon as the words were out of his mouth. I saw the entire group head towards the elevator and knew they were going to get their post-meeting coffee. Meanwhile, I was stuck in this freezing conference room with two of my least favourite people and Ash.

Harsh stood up, wanting to take control as was his typical style when Ash was around. He loved to act like he was in charge. The minute Ash left the room, Harsh would immediately tune out since he was no longer trying to parade his ‘excellence’.

‘So,’ Harsh said, ‘if the concept isn’t ready, we should start by taking a step back.’

I cringed. ‘Taking a step back’ was one of those typical corporate moves that Harsh adored. He liked to pretend that we were zooming out and looking at a problem from all perspectives, but all it meant was that he would write a bunch of random keywords on the whiteboard and take credit for anything that came out of anyone’s mouth.

True to form, he went to the whiteboard and began writing in block letters—CORE CUSTOMER PERSONA. I groaned internally. Just last month, we had paid an external consulting firm a bomb and they had spent weeks telling us about Glam’s ‘core customer persona’—a woman in her mid to late twenties named Tania who worked at a corporate much like ours.

The concept had struck Ash and ever since he kept asking us, ‘What would Tania do?’ Tania was now the mythical beast that roamed the halls, trying to get us to guess her whims and fancies.

As soon as Harsh wrote ‘What would Tania want’ on the board, Ash nodded sagely. This encouraged Harsh. He began listing out Tania’s likes and dislikes, needs and wants and so on. I resisted the urge to ask him why he was listing this information out when all of it was listed out in a giant poster that was stuck on one of the walls of the conference room. The only thing the whiteboard was lacking was the photo of Tania herself, which was also on the poster in its grinning, stock photo glory.

‘The thing is, Sitara,’ Harsh said, turning around and looking pointedly at me, ‘you need to channel Tania. Think like a working professional, a woman around twenty-five to thirty years of age.’

Ash nodded in agreement as if this were the wisest thing anyone had ever said. I bit my tongue to stop myself from reminding them that I literally was Tania. I was the same age, had the same demographic profile and was the real-life embodiment of that poster minus the toothy grin and shiny hair.

I wondered how I’d got myself in this mess. Ash’s tacit approval seemed to embolden Harsh even more.

‘I think the key question here is what women really want,’ Harsh announced.

Commissioning research at Glam isn’t going to solve your dating issues, I thought ungraciously.

Harsh seemed to think that working on a woman- centric category would somehow make him magically attractive to women. I had to put a stop to this nonsense before this group of men told me what women like me wanted out of our app.

‘Harsh, a beauty box is exactly what the customer wants! It’ll help them discover new brands they can add to their beauty routine,’ I jumped in to stop the conversation from disintegrating.

‘I don’t think you’ve got into the mind, heart and soul of this customer,’ he dismissed me. ‘This is a woman who’s moved away from home and lives alone in a big city like Bangalore. We need to understand what her key need is. For instance, if she were taking a cab, her key need would be safety.’

I wanted to scream out in frustration. We had already identified all our key customer needs with our quarterly research, which Upasana had presented to both of them barely a month ago. I wondered if Harsh appreciated the irony of what he was saying.

‘I think we need more research,’ Ash announced. He leaned forward and helped himself to a cookie from a plate that was kept in the centre of the table.

‘We already have all the research,’ I tried again. ‘Our last insight study clearly suggested that customers are looking to discover new brands.’

‘She’s right,’ Abhimanyu said. I’d almost forgotten he was in the room, because he’d been so silent. ‘We have the research but we need to think beyond the same old ideas.’

He looked at me meaningfully. I bristled. Was he saying my beauty box idea was old?

‘We need to consider the impact the project needs to deliver,’ I said. I stared, willing him to back down.

‘OK. We have twenty minutes left,’ Abhimanyu said. ‘Let’s hear your idea.’

Whoops. I wasn’t expecting him to put me on the spot! I chewed on my fingernail, wondering how I could buy time.

Carried with due permission from the author and the publisher Penguin India. 

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