I met a friend from school after a very long time. I got hold of his phone number from our school’s alumni network on yahoo groups [till about a week ago I didn’t know it existed]. Anyways, we decided to meet at a fast food restaurant near the Connaught Place. I felt exhilarated at seeing him after years. Imran looked just the same, thin frame, bushy eyebrows, buck teeth, ready smile and dimpled cheeks. And I always used to think that people change drastically in ten years.

During the course of conversation we started talking about our respective work. I meekly tried to explain mine, which he listened with a bored look and muttered ‘pseudo’ at the end. Now it was his turn to bare his working life. He had become a banker. He works with a major multinational bank in the personal loans department. He is a team leader. He shepherds some twenty men. With a monthly target of two crore, he works under a constant pressure to perform. The jobs entail checking on everybody on the team, by the hour and hound him to get the daily targets. He chuckled and said, ‘my philosophy is, worry about the day and the month will take of itself’.

I got curious. How does he know whom to approach to sell the bank’s product? He said that it isn’t difficult, his ‘boys’ know of a few dealers at Nehru Place, Punjabi Bagh, and Pallika Market, who trade in what is known as ‘database cds’. For a hundred rupees one can avail of name, addresses and phone numbers of clients. The clients are further categorized as lists like retailers, distributors, dealers, car owners, TV/Fridge/ Washing machine owners etc. Once they get hold of a list, they divide the area of Delhi according to zones and start calling people or meeting them.

It’s been three years since Imran completed his MBA. He has changed four banks. From housing, auto finance, industry finance to personal loans, he had consciously stuck to loans to build on his portfolio.

I urged him to tell me more about the work. Just as he was explaining the intricacies of personal finance, his cell phone received an sms message, he smiled and said, ‘even these buggers know whom to message’, and with that he passed the cell to me. I scrolled the message, it said- HINDUSTAN COMPUTERS the data base people...offers Latest/Updated DELHI, NCR Databases, Indl, Biz, Prof, Resi CDs. 100+ Titles. 01120311622.