the Storm
A Panchatantra of Pitches, Poets, and PowerPoint
(Told by the Theta who shape-shifts across minds and margin notes)
Mudichoor Road, 6:02 AM
Somewhere between the second crow’s caw and the first inverter sigh, the narrator—me, Theta—logged in.
I occupy the bodies of copywriters. Today’s vessel?
A man with a dying laptop, a living anxiety, and a head full of metaphors. Let’s call him Mr. Murali. The world sees him as a Work-from-Home IT Copywriter. I know he’s really the turf where Dr. Jaykil and Mr. Murali wage their morning war.
Jaykil is the melancholic word-purist who thinks slide decks should come with disclaimers and footnotes from Plato.
Murali is the over-caffeinated caption-slinger who believes deadlines are divine.
And together, they have to write the “Vision Slide.”
📩 Task from Omega: Smriti
Omega—real name Smriti—the kind of woman who leads without noise. Knows what’s missing from a deck just by reading the file name.
“Murali, please send three tagline options. Make it poetic, public-sectorish, and urgent.
Sanjay wants it to smell like digital sovereignty and read like progress. Sumit might ask for playground vibes.10 AM client call. Let’s land this.”
She always says “let’s”—as if we’re all in this together. She’s the reason the wolves still hunt in a pack.
🌐 Quick Primer on the Pack:
- Alpha: Aabha Nair. Conducts client calls like orchestras. Charismatic, razor-sharp. Her words don’t pitch; they pounce.
- Beta: Prem. Lieutenant to Sanjay. Sparse in words, precise in intent. A “hmm” from him means stop, go, and rethink your career.
- Gamma: Kumar Gair. Pixel poet. Thinks in gradients. Once built a microsite inspired by a lemon. No one got it.
- Delta is on sabbatical. Long story.
- Epsilon: Neeraj Pandey. Lead Designer for Pre-sales. The kind who sees line height as emotional balance.
- Sigma: Andreea S. Romanian art-thinker. Music, history, poetry—and a gameface that frightens poor PowerPoint.
- Omega: Smriti. The Eye of the Deck. Calm. All-seeing. Finisher of chaos.
- Theta: Me. The Narrator. The shapeshifter.
- And one more…
- The Five-Star General: Nitish Kumar. Don’t ask. Don’t name-drop. Just know—he walks into the room, and silence sits down.
🕗 6:45 AM: Jaykil vs Murali
Murali’s first draft:
“India moves best when data stays rooted.”
He likes it. Dr. Jaykil rolls his eyes.
“Rooted? What are we, a banyan tree with Wi-Fi?”
Murali ignores him. Opens ChatGPT. Opens LinkedIn. Opens Notepad. Closes Notepad. Opens Fridge. Writes tagline two.
“India’s future is not imported. It is imagined.”
Jaykil weeps. “Such slogans are how republics decay.”
🚨 7:10 AM: Enter Ms. Avasaragadhi
She’s an executive category unto herself. Always typing. Never quite sent.
“Quick update—Mariana and Anuradha had thoughts. Can we rework?”
Attached: 47 tracked changes.
Body text: “Trust this helps.”
It doesn’t.
✍️ Mariana & Anuradha: The Left-Brain Chorus
- Mariana Arul: Her comments are passive, aggressive, and apostrophe-correct. She doesn’t hate your idea. Just wishes it didn’t exist.
- Anuradha Sriram: Calls at 2x speed. Voice notes that begin with “Listen, this is NOT what we discussed.” She believes every slide must weep with strategy.
Together, they form the Content Audit Chakravyuha. Once you enter, you question not just your lines—but your lineage.
💼 Enter Sumit Agarwal: VP, Market Oracle
Sumit doesn’t arrive. He looms.
“We need playground vibes up top. Also, what’s our hook for the semi-urban administrator? The guy who thinks digital is for the elites.”
He wants meaning before metaphor. Insight before incantation.
He drinks economic data like tea, and makes decks that move ministries.
Murali adds a line:
“Smart mobility for a sovereign tomorrow.”
Jaykil grunts. “You mean nothing.”
Murali replies, “That’s the point.”
🧘 8:11 AM: The Monk Logs In
Voice note from Bruce Wayne, the Singapore monk who wears digital transformation like a prayer shawl.
“In the jungle, a goat once sang to a lion.
It was not afraid, because its song had truth.
The lion ate it anyway. But the goat was remembered.”“Make it sing, Murali. We’ll deal with the lions later.”
He always sends riddles. They always land.
🔒 9:55 AM: Deck Locked
Sarjeant Manwinder Chadda closes the folder. The gatekeeper of final form. Once he presses upload, no gods, no Jaykils, no Mariana Aruls can touch it.
Murali exhales.
Three taglines. One sunrise.
No breakdown. No blackout. No deleted lines. Not yet.
✍️ Postscript, 12:42 PM
New file. Blank doc. Titled:
“Episode 2: The UI That Spoke in Haiku”
Jaykil whispers, “You’ll ruin it.”
Murali whispers back, “That’s why I’m writing.”
And me?
I’m Theta.
Still here. Still listening.
Next episode soon.
⚙️ Filed under:
Dr. Jaykil, Mr. Murali, and Other Internal Stakeholders™
#PanchatantraPitch #CopywriterChronicles #TambaramTales #PublicSectorPoetry #LakshmiSharp #LakshmiSatire
Would you like Episode 2 to shift into a Gamma spotlight (Kumar’s poetic Figma mind)? Or keep Theta’s roaming perspective across a UI design pitch saga with Smriti, Epsilon, and Mariana in the fray? Let us know in the comments.
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