Out to Lunch

Jerry looked at Padma meaningfully. “Now do you understand? We must ask Babu out to this lunch. It is extremely important.”

Janardan or ‘Jerry’ for short, was talking to his very able and efficient secretary sitting in front of him at his huge table in his office. He was the chairman of the R&D Department of a leading optical devices firm in the country. He had joined the firm nearly fifteen years ago as a senior researcher and had worked hard to reach where he was today. But besides research, Jerry was also good in people skills, a quality that is rare among scientists. As a result, he knew how to handle people to his advantage to get his work done and clinch business deals – a trait that had contributed significantly to his professional success. His firm sold highly specialized optical instruments, ranging from the microscope to the telescope, to address various scientific and technical needs of their customers and it was Jerry’s job to make sure that these customers were satisfied and happy with their bargain. Naturally, he had to understand the subject very well and moreover he had to understand and stay abreast the rapid ongoing technological progress in the field. To that end, he was leading quite a few forefront research projects both in material development as well as in instrument design and the ample research funds provided by his firm helped him to acquire the best equipment and the best researchers to work in his laboratories. However, working in an R&D lab in a developing country has its disadvantages too and Jerry was no exception. He had to go through various bureaucratic messes when he had to import highly specialized instruments and spare parts and these bureaucratic procedures also hindered the acquisition of latest technology and knowhow. Recently, his firm had received a very prestigious and lucrative order from a top research institute to build a spectrograph for them using adaptive optics. This required the interfacing of very delicate optical hardware with very sophisticated monitoring software and Jerry was looking for some design tips and readymade software plug-ins that could be used to achieve their target.

Jerry took a sip from his coffee mug and looked at Padma again. “Babu was two years junior to me at the same college. He was a brilliant student and after college he went on for his doctoral studies at the Optical Physics Department of a reputed US university. He did well and at present he is one of the top faculty in Optical Physics in US and is conducting some forefront research in adaptive optics or AO in short. Well, he happens to be in town now as he is making a family call, visiting his old parents. But he would be returning back in a couple of days. He had called me up yesterday and we chatted on the phone for an hour. That is how I came to know that he and his team had recently developed the AO design that could make our work so much easier and take months away from this project. So, I have decided to invite him to a business lunch today afternoon and coax him to collaborate with us on this project.”

Padma nodded and smiled in approval. She was tall, dusky complexioned and slim and attired in a neat executive suit that exuded efficiency and confidence. Her luxuriant hair was cut short and cropped near the nape of her neck that looked good on her as well as saved her a lot of time. She toyed with her black pearl necklace as she looked at Jerry. “Where shall we go? To the Excelsior? That’s a five star and the food there is marvelous. They also have a swimming pool and bar. We could chill out there after lunch.”

Jerry nodded disapproval. “No, no. Babu is a different kind of guy. He is successful but does not like to show it. A bit of an idealistic fool, if you ask me. I know his temperament. He would enjoy the Pizza Corner atmosphere more, if you ask me. Just check them out and book a table for three for their buffet vegetarian lunch.”

As Padma left to fix their lunch reservations at the pizza restaurant, Jerry called up Babu and invited him over.

The lunch went well. The food was good as usual and they had velvety soups with salad, delicious pizzas, steaming pastas, baked vegetables, and various kinds of pasties. They winded it all up with tall scoops of chocolate ice-creams. Babu was visiting the city after a long time and the three of them talked happily about the weather, the city landmarks and shopping arcades. When they were half way through with their ice-creams, Jerry casually brought up the topic of his most important research project which was the main reason behind this get together. “Babu, it would be wonderful if you collaborate with us on a very exciting project we have started just a couple of months ago. You see, this client of ours wants us to develop a spectrograph for them using AO. As you are an authority in this area, we could learn and gain a lot from you and you could have something professional going here at home that could enable you to come and visit more often. We would pay all your travel costs and an honorarium if you could provide us with some knowhow, like some of your designs and the software plug-ins to go with them.” He looked at Babu inquisitively.

Babu had been eating his ice-cream when Jerry brought up his proposal. He looked surprised at first but then he recovered his poise. “What you propose Jerry sounds great. But there is only one hindrance. This knowhow is not mine alone to sell. It was developed by my team for academic purposes. And in US, people are very guarded about the research findings in optical physics as these might have defense and security applications.” Then observing the sudden change in expressions of his companions, he added affably, “However, I can promise you this much that I shall go and speak to my colleagues and team-members about your project and see what they say.”

After that they chatted some more but somehow the earlier eagerness and enthusiasm had fizzled out of the conversation. Half an hour later, they walked out of the restaurant.

About eight months later, Jerry was sitting in his office one morning, frowning deeply at a pile of correspondence in a file. His AO project was not doing well. As the head of a commercial R&D lab he did not have either the inclination or the time for conducting research for the sake of knowledge and pursued targets that sold well in the market. His AO project was running the risk of failing the test as his team was not able to come up with the right design as per the specifications even after repeated trials. This would be his first major failure where he would not be able to deliver. Maybe they would have to return the payment to the customer and make good his loss of time as well. This could bring a setback to his professional reputation and also undermine his position with the board of directors of the firm who were a profit-driven bunch of businessmen who would not hesitate to replace Jerry with a better and more up-to-date person. He had been postponing the briefing of the company’s President about the project but now it seemed inevitable. He would have to inform him and then his job would be up for grabs. He had already started looking out for positions in smaller and lesser known firms.

Suddenly someone knocked at the door. “Come in”, Jerry growled without looking up from the file. It was Padma. She nodded good morning at him and brought out a big fat envelope. “This is from Babu”, she said. Jerry kept looking at her inquisitively. “Read the letter on the top”, she said.

Jerry picked up the letter. Babu had written “Dear Jerry, Sorry I could not contact you earlier. I have been rather busy with my own research these last few months. But I spoke about your project to my own team members here and regret to inform that they did not welcome the idea of selling academic research findings to a commercial firm. However, I recently obtained some new grant fund for another AO project that uses the existing knowhow and we decided to apply for design patents. In the process we split up the designs according to the contributions and that leaves me with greater independence in deciding about my share of the work. So, I am sending you some important design drawings that were developed exclusively by me that you would surely find helpful. However, I would like to inform you that these designs are under patent application and only request you to keep the documentation of these designs clear with proper mention of their antecedents and send me a copy of your final project report. I do not need any monetary compensation in return and am sharing this knowledge out of free goodwill and my sense of duty to aid the scientific progress of my home country. Best, Babu.”