Top Drawer/Charolette Lester

Charolette Lester rues the unavailability of a basketball hoop in her matchbox-sized cabin. quot;I just don8217;t get to practice,quot; she says dryly. The director of Good Relations India, Charolette completes a happy two years in the country sometime now. quot;I love it here,quot; she sums up. As for her office, there8217;s really nothing you could write home about, she8217;s candid enough to tell you. quot;My office is really a very impersonal place. I find it easy to compartmentalise, and so it8217;s quite simple, really. And I also believe that the office is very much like me,quot; she says, adding that this could very well make a candidate for the padded cell.

Difficult to imagine, really, that a vivacious woman with laughter that booms across the room is as spartan and colourless as her space. A single file cabinet, two phones, a computer and the usual assortment of papers and files make a neat clutter on her clear-topped table, which has no top drawer. Charolette looks into a drawer by the side and comes up with a shrug. quot;There8217;s reallynothing in here,quot; she says. quot;I keep things that I don8217;t want to see on the desk in here, so it8217;s bare. And nothing of any significance ever finds it8217;s way in here,quot; she smiles.

In an attempt to scrounge something that goes for the general gadgetry that a corporate head should be surrounded with, all Charolette can come produce is her mobile phone and her pack of cigarettes. quot;Afraid I can8217;t live without either of these for too long. In fact, I actually spend a couple of hours with the phone switched off on Sunday, just to reassure myself that I can live without it,quot; she laughs.

quot;Maybe,quot; she says, quot;If I had a family, I8217;d have kept little mementos and pictures. But then, no such luck.quot; There is a picture of Charolette standing next to Sunil Shetty tacked on the soft-board, alongwith a picture of the entire office staff on a holiday in Goa. And that8217;s about how personal it gets.