Ravi just shook his head and looked at the floor, avoiding eye contact with the others. Akash mentally filed away the little but important detail - going strictly by non-verbal language and group dynamic, Ravi seemed like he was not yet part of the group. Had he discovered the slip - up earlier but hesitated on account of not waiting to tell on the others? Had he even been a part of the discussions about whether or not to use the picture? Going by the events, it did not seem so. Was his "MBA-but-no-industry-experience" tag at odds with the "Graduate-but-have-earned- the-spurs" approach of the others? Akash decided to tackle this a problem later.
He wondered - was this really the team he had been so proud to work with? In the last four years of working together, Akash had not spotted a "cutting the corners to get work done" approach Just five months earlier, working on very short notice, the team had pulled out all the stops to create a customised list of value-add services for one of the reputed clients of PFL. To celebrate the inking of the contract, Ashok had treated the team to a dinner at a trendy restaurant "Akash" he had said, "you're lucky to be working with this bunch - they have the brains, the right attitude and the drive to excel." Akash couldn't have agreed more.
And now, his team seemed unable to realize that there was a problem with their choice of a picture. Akash realized that to some his concerns might seem over-stated, but to him these