All's Over

Monday morning (15th September, 2008).. I got up at 6-30 in the morning … Was about to have my tea, when I saw my cell’s screen.. 3 missed calls.. one was from my team-mate Paminder.. immediately called him up .. as we were awaiting a takeover news which was due to come on Sunday night… speculations were large that Bank of America would be the saviour .. that it would take over Lehman with all its liabilities… and there was Barclays who also in the fray… I wasn’t more awake on any other morning before…
As the phone was ringing.. I was wondering what should I bet on.. Barclays or BoA. .. Pami picked up the phone… I asked “Did BoA take over ?” …. “It did.. but not us.. the’ve taken Merill… and even Barclays have backed off…. We’re gone” … I was shocked… didn’t know how to react… don’t remember what the rest of the conversation was…

Ever-optimist that I am. .. thought that we would be able to continue as it is.. as there was no buyer… and Dick Fuld would once again script a historic turnaround in few months time.. he had done that on numerous occasions .. but then the dreaded thought crossed my mind.. what if we have to file for bankruptcy … Got ready and rushed off to catch the bus.. not many in the bus knew what had happened…. Then I returned the other missed call… Ramach (G. Ramachandran … our finance Guru in Lehman) … even he wasn’t sure as to what would happen… he spelt out various possibilities… one of them being filing for bankruptcy…

As I reached office.. various talks had already started … my day started with routine mail check… Reshma (my teammate) had her engagement on the previous day.. she had got the sweets.. I told her not to open the box immediately.. it definitely wasn’t time for sweets… As we wondered what would happen next… Dick took the inevitable step… “Lehman files for Chapter 11” read the internal memo… I could see number of people with their hands on their head… it was hard to digest that the behemoth could go down in a day.. rather.. in a night.. I’ll never forget the despair on my teammates face when he said… “All’s over”.