Date: December 9, 2008Time: 8:00 AMLocation: Salt Lake Office, Kolkata

  The soft morning light crept through the blinds of Aritra’s newly furnished office in Salt Lake, Sector V—the bustling IT hub of Kolkata. The faint hum of computers booting up and the subtle aroma of freshly brewed coffee blended into an atmosphere of quiet determination. Aritra sat at his polished mahogany desk, a cup of tea cooling beside him, while Ishita, ever composed, scrolled through a spreadsheet on her ptop, her fingers moving with surgical precision.

  Aritra gnced at her. “Ishita, book the tickets. It’s time.”

  Ishita nodded without looking up. “Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, and Pune?”

  “Yes. Make sure they’re flexible tickets. If anyone deys, we can’t afford to waste time.”

  Ishita’s fingers danced over the keyboard, confirming flights, arranging hotel bookings, and scheduling car pick-ups—all within minutes. Aritra’s team would scatter across India to hunt down the minds that would shape the future of his empire.

  Bengaluru: The Silicon Streets

  Date: December 10, 2008Time: 10:30 AMLocation: Koramanga, Bengaluru

  Arnav Basu stepped out of the cab, adjusting his thin-rimmed gsses as he scanned the vibrant streets of Koramanga—a hotspot for startups and tech talent. The air smelled of roasted coffee and ambition. Arnav wasn’t dressed like a corporate recruiter. No suit, no tie—just a pin bck hoodie and faded jeans. His weapon wasn’t appearance; it was intellect.

  His first stop was “Code Hive,” a well-known co-working space where freence developers gathered. Inside, clusters of young coders sat hunched over ptops, their screens filled with lines of code and algorithms.

  Arnav approached a table where three students from RV College of Engineering were deep in discussion, their whiteboard scribbled with complex flowcharts.

  Without introducing himself, he pulled up a chair. “What’s wrong with this algorithm?” he asked, pointing at their notes.

  The trio blinked, surprised. One of them, Rohan Mehta, tried to answer. “Uh, I think it’s an issue with the—”

  “Stop,” Arnav interrupted. “You’re thinking too slow.”

  Rohan frowned, his ego bruised. “And who are you to say that?”

  Arnav smirked. “Someone who’s here to offer you a job—if you can solve this problem faster than I can.”

  He pulled out his ptop, opened a bnk coding interface, and typed rapidly, challenging Rohan to keep up. A small crowd gathered, watching the impromptu coding duel. The tension was thick, but it wasn’t long before Arnav hit ‘Enter,’ his screen dispying the correct output.

  Rohan leaned back, defeated but intrigued. “Okay… what kind of job?”

  Arnav closed his ptop. “The kind where you don’t just write code—you change the world with it.”

  Rohan grinned. “I’m in.”

  Mumbai: The Corporate Jungle

  Date: December 11, 2008Time: 2:00 PMLocation: Nariman Point, Mumbai

  Priya Menon stepped into the towering gss building of “Global Capital Group,” a financial firm nestled in the heart of Mumbai’s corporate district. The lobby buzzed with people in sharp suits and polished shoes. But Priya wasn’t here to blend in. She was here to poach.

  She had set up back-to-back interviews in a rented conference room. The first candidate, Aniket Deshmukh, a risk analyst, entered with the usual corporate stiffness—perfect posture, rehearsed smile.

  Priya didn’t even gnce at his résumé. Instead, she handed him a bnk sheet of paper. “Sell me this pen.”

  Aniket blinked. “Um… I thought this was for a finance position?”

  “It is,” Priya replied. “But if you can’t sell an idea under pressure, you won’t survive a market crash.”

  Aniket fumbled, stammering about ink quality and durability.

  Priya interrupted, “Wrong. You don’t sell the pen—you sell the need for the pen.”

  Aniket flushed, clearly unprepared.

  “Thank you for your time,” Priya said dryly, motioning for the next candidate.

  Later that day, Maya Kapoor, a sharp-witted data analyst from ICICI Bank, walked in. Priya repeated the exercise.

  Maya picked up the pen, scribbled something on the paper, and slid it back. It read:“Congratutions, you’ve hired me.”

  Priya burst out ughing for the first time in weeks. “Welcome to the team.”

  Delhi: The Capital of Chaos

  Date: December 13, 2008Time: 11:00 AMLocation: Hauz Khas Vilge, Delhi

  Leena Roy wasn’t the type to sit in sterile offices. She thrived in chaos, and there was no better pce than Hauz Khas Vilge, Delhi’s creative hub filled with quirky cafes, art galleries, and unconventional thinkers.

  She was attending a local event called “The Idea Fest,” where young entrepreneurs pitched their wildest concepts. Amid the crowd, she noticed Kabir Sharma, passionately expining his startup idea about sustainable fashion to an uninterested investor.

  Leena waited until the pitch ended, then approached.

  “Your pitch sucked,” she said bluntly.

  Kabir looked offended. “Excuse me?”

  “But,” she continued, “your idea doesn’t. You just don’t know how to sell it.”

  “And you do?”

  “Better than anyone here.”

  Intrigued, Kabir challenged her. “Then sell me my own idea.”

  Leena smirked, stood on a chair, and shouted to the crowd, “Who here wants to save the pnet without looking like a walking potato sack?”

  Heads turned. She had their attention.

  She continued, “Kabir Sharma’s brand makes you look good and feel good—because saving the world doesn’t mean sacrificing style.”

  The crowd appuded. Kabir’s jaw dropped.

  “Now,” Leena said, hopping down, “how about you work for me instead?”

  Kabir ughed. “Deal.”

  Pune: The Digital Underground

  Date: December 15, 2008Time: 9:00 PMLocation: Koregaon Park, Pune

  Sameer Khan preferred shadows over spotlights. His recruitment ground wasn’t corporate offices but encrypted online forums where digital ghosts thrived. However, tonight he had arranged a rare face-to-face meeting in a dimly lit café with Ishaan Verma, an ethical hacker known in the cyber world as “Vortex.”

  Sameer slid a USB drive across the table. “There’s a server with military-grade encryption. Crack it in ten minutes.”

  Ishaan smirked, plugged it into his ptop, and his fingers flew over the keyboard. Within eight minutes, he leaned back, sipping his coffee. “Done.”

  Sameer checked the server on his own device. True to his word, it was breached.

  “You’re hired,” Sameer said simply.

  Ishaan grinned. “Do I get a cool title? Like Cyber Overlord?”

  Sameer deadpanned, “No.”

  Date: December 18, 2008

  Time: 6:00 PMLocation: Salt Lake Office, Kolkata

  The team reconvened in Aritra’s office, each carrying stories, new recruits, and the exhaustion of travel.

  Aritra listened to their tales, the corners of his mouth twitching with amusement at some of the recruitment antics. But when they finished, his smile faded into something sharper.

  “This,” he said quietly, “was just the first wave. Now, let’s proceed”

  And the room fell silent, heavy with purpose.