My newly acquired business sense !

 Ratan came in the morning with the cheque from Rakesh who had taken our flat on rent. He has been staying in that flat pretty long and paying the same rent. My wife was not happy about this status quo affair of rent.As usual i had to bear the brunt for my lethargy.

I was reading the morning newspaper when Ratan entered with that cheque and with a big smile handed it over to my wife.i looked up from the newspaper at  Ratan,

"Ratan,why don't you ask that Rakesh guy to increase the rent." somehow i feel awkward while directly talking about money with my tenant who is a much younger guy so tried to use Ratan as middleman.

"Sir,the other day he was telling his friend that if my landlord ask for increase then i will leave the flat."

Now after my retirement i am working in a private firm and have learnt a few tricks about bringing people around by using the money trap.

"Ratan,here is a deal for you,if you can get the rate increased then you will get 10% monthly of that increased amount." I patted myself for thinking up this devious method to address the issue.

The problem with people in Bengal is that they are not born with business sense, i thought to myself.Here i have learnt this trick or two from the business community i associate with in office as well as in golf course.

Ratan had no clue of how to go about convincing Rakesh, by the way Ratan is the security guard of that complex where our flat is located.I could sense his helplessness.

"Look here,it is very simple,you take some dummy house hunters and show that flat.Then Rakesh will get worried thinking that we will not renew his lease.This action will worry him and then you propose the increase." i said brightly and winked at my wife.

Ratan nodded his head and left.

Well that was one year back ,i have been busy and my wife also somehow forgot the issue, the rent remained stagnant. 

I asked Gopal, my driver to check with Ratan the progress of the assignment "Increase rent" given to him. Gopal is quite a clever cookie and i knew that he will get at the bottom of the affair.

Due to golf,blog,travel etc i again forgot about the affair.So another year passed.

I caught Ratan next time when he came with the rent cheque,"What happened?"

"I told Gopal"

"What?"

He started shuffling his feet and started giving me a guilty look.

"Hey,what are you up to?"

Suddenly it stuck me, let me tell you all these clever thoughts have started appearing in my mind after i joined this private company and learnt the tricks of the trade. In public sector we were bound by rule books so no working between the lines, there we work in " go nogo modes".

"Did you make a deal with Rakesh?"I shouted at him.

"Babu,when i went to Rakeshji for the increase then he straight away offered me 100 rupees per month extra and asked me not to bother him,so i kept quiet."

"Ok,then i asked Gopal to check with you."

"Sir,now Rakeshji pays 100 to me and 100 to Gopal every month.'

My ego got punctured,i was gaping at Ratan ,he was shyly grinning at me and my wife gave a look of "i told you, you are not that smart as you think yourself", 

My ego got deflated,all these time i was thinking that i have mastered all the tricks of the market.

Disclaimer: nothing has really happened as mentioned in the story .I have used real names but the whole episode is figment of my imagination.