Chitragupta was worried. He was going through the business figures of the past few years and saw a depressing trend. He was at his wits end as to what to do. He called up his secretary and asked her to fix an appointment with Brahma, the Chairman and Managing Director. The CMD would be available at his house for an hour between 2-3 that afternoon. Chitragupta looked at his watch. It was 1:15. He locked his computer, picked up his jacket and started moving towards the exit. Chitragupta decided to walk the 40 minute distance and use the time to think.
Background
Chitragupta was the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at 'Heaven, India', a subsidiary of the multinational conglomerate Heaven Corp which had its headquarters in the Kingdom of Eden and operations spread across most of the countries in the world. Each subsidiary had unique culture and Standard Operating Procedures of its own. Recently, the Indian subsidiary was witnessing an increased influx of great businessmen and MBAs from some of the best business schools across the world. The expected effect was a more aggressive move towards corporatisation and professional management. Even Chitragupta, who was a loyal employee for the past 4000 years, was not spared by this wave of modernisation. He was also asked to undergo a crash course in business management at the newly established Heavenly Institute of Management, a brainwave of the eminenent educationist Sir Vikram Sarabhai. As
Chitragupta took a turn briskly he thought about the inaugrating speech by Mahatma Gandhi. "I have a dream that each and every Indian has a place in heaven and can live out his existence in peace here." Chitragupta shook his head sadly. What would the mahatma think if he knew that things were not quite progressing as per plan. He opened the gate and went up to the door. The door was opened within seconds and he was ushered to Brahmas office at the back. He always felt overwhelmed in this house. The ceiling was tall and you could see the planets rotating slowly around the house. Each wall was adorned with some of the greatest artworks of all time which were not released during the artists existence on Earth. He walked through the passage covered in petals which changed with the time of day. Morning, afternoon, evening, night. Now it was daffodils. The entire house was awash with a rare perfume that made you feel blissful and nostalgic at the same time. Chitragupta paused in front of the office for a moment before knocking. The door opened after a few seconds on its own accord and he walked into the most powerful office in India. Brahma was standing near the wall to ceiling window that had a moving view of the entire world which changed every few minutes. The lord was looking at the peaks of Himalayas at the moment. "Come in Chitragupta, make yourself comfortable." The lord never had to shout to make himself heard. Sometimes he didn't even have to speak. A look, a gesture was enough. Brahma stood near the window for a long time before the phone rang shattering his reverie. He walked slowly to the table and picked up the receiver. It was his secretary, confirming his appointments for the day.
Chitragupta used this oppurtunity to reflect on his problems. Recently, Heaven India had seen a paradoxical twist in the kind of people it attracted. To get a better idea of this, it is essential to understand the business model of Heaven. Heaven was a totally profit oriented company. Exactly five years before the death of an individual in India, a memo would be created and circulated among the different departments of heaven. This memo would originate from the seperate lead generation team headed by Yama. Greed, Morality, Ethics. These are the three departments and each had its own system of accounting. All the transactions of an individual that he/she did from birth till the last accounting period is automatically feeded into the huge database that heaven maintained. These transactions were then sorted amongst their nature and then sent to any of the applicable departments. Once the departments get the memo of an individual from Yama's team, they start preparing the final balance sheet of the individual. These are then sent back to Yama, who makes a consolidated statement of accounts and comes up with a cumulative death score (CDS). This CDS decides the amount that may be sanctioned as a maximum bid for that individual. Once Heaven wins the bid, the individual is absorbed into the organisation by a detailed indoctrination and training process. Whatever good the individual does in improving the social aspects of the kingdom is considered as profits.
The main competitor of Heaven is Hell, India. But normally both of them follow a symbiotic relationship while bidding for people. For example, if Heaven has sanctioned a lower bidding amount for an individual, Hell would have sanctioned a higher amount. So both the organisations know what kind of people they would get well in advance. Even though Heaven was a more profitable corporation, historically it has been observed that the Earthly per-capita income of the individuals in heaven is much lower than that of Hell. Brahma and Chitragupta took pride in that fact.
However, this was changing slowly during the past 10 years. Chitragupta had noticed that slowly, the per-capita income was improving and the average CDS scores were decreasing. This had led to a change in the demographics of the kingdom and maybe explained the slow rate of growth. Chitragupta was worried that if this trend continues, it may have serious repurcussions for not only the profits but also on the overall image of Heaven, India. But what had forced Chitragupta to call for this emergency meeting with Brahma was the alarming trend in bidding for individuals. It seemed as if Yama was actually sanctioning higher amounts for people with less CDS scores. Chitragupta was appalled at this proposition and wanted some answers.
Brahma replaced the receiver and took his seat behind the huge oak desk. He directed his piercing gaze towards Chitragupta and smiled.
"So my dear boy to what do I owe this surprise visit?"
(To be continued...The conversation)
