“From where?”

He didn’t panic. He didn’t cry. He simply leaned back, looked at the ceiling fan spinning lazily, and laughed—a dry, choked sound.

She handed it to him. Anil spent the next three hours building the P&L analysis from scratch, using keystrokes that felt like second nature. By 8:59 AM, he attached the file. He hit send.

Two weeks later, the phone rang. Sharma & Associates. “Your analysis was unorthodox,” said a gruff voice. “You used a formula we’d never seen. And you flagged the travel expense discrepancy that three other candidates missed. You start Monday.”