Sleepless in Seattle : What happens in Vegas

Few days passed. Everyone in the office was excited, since we were about to start the new project. We were going to redesign an application for this client. Most of the experts who had designed the original application a decade back were located in Chicago. Satya chose Akash as our technical lead to travel to Chicago and take knowledge transfer from the experts. A decision, which was going to give him the most scary night of his decade.

Satya came to my desk on the eventful day. He was looking for Akash, who used to sit next.

“Hope you had a nice breakfast, and you are on track towards your long term & short term goals” he remarked sarcastically “now can you tell me where Akash is? I just proposed his name as the technical lead for the new upgrade project”

I did not want to tell him that Akash was drinking until 2:30 am in the night, and probably was still sleeping. Therefore, I just told, “I know he was up till late night, working on multiple things”

“Ah, I see,” mentioned Satya. Just then, Akash hurried inside the office with his typical battled look. Satya got a new verve of energy “Akash, I was looking for you. I have some great update for you”

“Sure, go ahead” Akash mentioned while turning on his computer.

“I have finalized you to be the technical lead working on the upgrade. Please catch tonight’s flight to Chicago, there is a meeting at 10 am tomorrow. The technical experts are going to conduct a workshop for 3 days. Do you have any questions?”

Akash was abrupt “yes, can’t we just have a tele conference?”

Satya looked shocked “You are going to be the face of the project. You need to go in person. Govind, the offshore team, myself – we will be joining through teleconference. Do you have a problem to travel?”

Akash “well yes. I don’t have money.”

Satya “you will get all expenses reimbursed”

Akash “But I need money to make the expenses first”

First time in the history of humanity, Satya was showing signs of losing patience “What do you mean you need money? You do not have a family, you stay with roommates. And you earn a decent salary!!”

Akash went on indifferently “And that salary goes to my bank account via direct deposit”

“So what is the problem?” Satya was almost fuming.

Akash explained, “Well, when I opened my account, I was staying in a hotel. I had given the hotel address as my current address. The bank has a security feature, if the current address is a hotel or PO Box, it sends the debit cards to the permanent address. In my case that is in India”

Satya was bewildered “You mean your debit card is in India?”

Akash declared “Cards! Not card. Every week I used to call the customer support and ask for the debit card, and every week the bank used to send a new card to my hometown in India. It went on for couple of months before I could understand the background.”

Satya was irked “So what was preventing you from updating the address? Now you stay in an apartment”

Akash kept on explaining patiently “every day I think of going to the bank to do it if I have an hour free of meetings. But every day I get pulled into some meeting or another, so couldn’t do it yet”

Satya “you can do it online as well, don’t tell me you didn’t know that”

Akash was ready “off course I know. However, this office computer is meant for project usage only. I can’t use this to browse a non-project related site like my bank account”

Satya almost exploded “I did not mean the office computer. How about personal laptop?”

Akash “they cost about $600, and as I explained, I do not have a debit card to make the purchase of a laptop”

Satya was at loss of words. He never faced such a paradox to solve. He hurried from the room. After a while, he returned with his cheerful triumphant look. “I have authorized you as an authorized signatory on my corporate card. You can use it for all your expenses for next few days till you return from Chicago” he declared.

Akash was convinced, luckily he didn’t throw up any further excuses. He booked a flight and left home by evening for the airport. That was the starting point of our sleepless night.

I got a call from Akash around 9:30 pm. All I could hear were few mumbled words like “Las Vegas”, “flight”, “cell phone” and “charge”. Then his phone dead and I was not able to reach him at all. That’s when all the fun started.

I got a call from Satya after an hour “Hey, where is Akash?”

I started safely “He must be on his way to Chicago”

Satya bursted out “He is in Las Vegas! Dining at some restaurant using my corporate card”

“Are you sure?” I had to ask.

“Off course I am sure” Satya responded indignantly. “I get email notifications for every transaction made on the card I authorized him”

I got an idea “Maybe you can track what tickets he purchased”

Satya sounded convinced and hung up. He again called me after five minutes “He purchased a ticket to Chicago with a stop-over at Las Vegas”

I wanted to give him hope “So he must be having his diner during the stop over at Vegas. In fact he had called me with few words like flight & Las Vegas before his phone died”

Satya was still anxious “But based on the ticket he purchased, he should be on his flight long back and not paying dinner bills.”

I was not sure how to pacify him “ It can be a timing issue. Maybe the transaction posted after some delay”

Satya seemed convinced and hung up. I wasn’t sure what to do though. I knew he was responsible in terms of project work, but at the same time we knew how whimsical he can get at times. Anyway, I had to get ready for the early morning workshop, as I was the only technical lead other than Akash. Just as I was settling into a slumber, I got a call from Satya.

“Your buddy is still in Vegas” Satya sounded depressed “I have tracked his latest transactions. He has taken a cab somewhere in Vegas, instead of a cab to take him to hotel from the Chicago airport”

I was curious “Any idea where he is?”

Satya was assertive “Just now I got another email, he is sitting in a pub at the heart of Las Vegas Boulevard”

I tried to be defensive again “maybe he is eating something” I suggested.

Satya got furious “he ate dinner somewhere at 11 pm worth thirty bucks. Now its 1:30 am, are you saying he got hungry in 2 hours?”

“I heard it’s a desert like place. Maybe he got thirsty and stopped there to drink some water” I tried to explain.

“Well, whatever water your buddy drank in that pub, its worth $45. I should have sent a camel on this project, it would have drank less water” he retorted. “And why is he drinking water in the pub instead of taking his connecting flight from Chicago? The flight had unlimited drinking options too”

I did not know how to defend him. I reminded Satya that if Akash is still partying in Vegas then we need to ensure that we both turn up to the teleconference on time and not dozing from a sleepless night. Satya kind of agreed and went off. But he was having a tense sleepless night. He called me again around 3:30 am to inform me that he has taken a cab and he was hoping it took him to the airport. We both tried to be as happy as possible. But then his hopes were dashed when another email announced a purchase from a liquor store at 4 am in the night. Satya made me google the location of the store, and I found it to be 12 miles from the airport. 

After couple of hours, I found myself dodging sleepily towards the bus stop, cursing Akash as best as I could, as I was trying to reach office for the 7:30 am teleconference. Satya had told me that there were no further transactions since that 4 am transaction. I had assumed that he was still lying drunk somewhere in Vegas.

Finally our workshop started. Satya, looking visibly upset, angry and worried. He kept mumbling to me that he would take all possible disciplinary actions against Akash after this meeting. He opened the conversation with a profound apology. He explained everyone that the technical lead Akash had a personal emergency and could not travel to Chicago. “I really love your sense of humor” replied the client manager with a chuckle. 

Satya looked bewildered and just then the conference room camera at Chicago showed us the full room. “I understand the personal emergency,” he continued “you made this guy travel in such a short notice, that too on a red eye flight” he said patting the shoulder of the guy next to him. 

With great amazement, we identified that person to be Akash. Suited in a navy blue blazer, clean shaved, calm and composed, looking as professional as possible. 

We had no idea how that guy ended up in the conference on schedule. It was only after he returned back from Chicago we got to know the details. He missed his connecting flight to Chicago that night and he tried to spend the night as best as he could. His logic was if he slept, he would not have woken up for the 5:30 am flight, and if he was up all night, without drinking he would not have energy to participate in the workshop properly. “But how did you manage to reach the office without any further transactions?” I had asked. Aki explained that he had taken a bus to the airport instead of cab to kill time. And the airlines didn’t charge him anything extra for the next flight. I still had a question on how he reached the Chicago office without using the credit card. He explained that he befriended a co passenger who was going the same way, and he had dropped him to the office. “Thus” he declared “I may have spent few bucks eating and drinking that night, but I have saved close to $220 in the cab and night stay expenses”.

Satya was elated. The workshop was a success. The client was impressed and we were through. He was so happy with Akash he gave him the blanket “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas” pardon, and out of his happiness he forgot to remove him as the authorized user of his corporate card as well! Never mind the "What happens in Vegas" gave us a "Sleepless in Seattle" night, but finally it was "All is well".