The presentation man faces music.

A particular gentleman was fond of presenting papers in seminars and conferences. Unfortunately, he could not do the hard work to prepare the presentation material. He relied up on his subordinates for this.

The subordinates were exasperated by the work load of collecting topical information, drafting, re-drafting, re-re-drafting (the presentation man can do only one thing better - finding faults) and preparing the final presentation material.

After some time, the subordinates got together and decided to pull a faster one on the unsuspecting paper grabber.

The much awaited opportunity came, in the form of an international conference. They gladly agreed to prepare the presentation material and had a well-planned strategy. One went on an emergency leave, another pleaded forgetfulness and yet another person misplaced prepared notes and had to start it all over again.

It so happened that the presentation man had to be away for a considerable time on a family emergency. Yet he took time to contact his subordinates (whoever was available near a telephone) and tried to hasten up the preparation work.

With all these, he could not get time to even see the first draft. As bad luck would have it, he did not get a chance to see the prepared material till he opened it for presentation.

No words could describe the shock he felt after reading the title.

He was supposed to present a paper on “Cascading effect of errors in industrial production” and the material on hand dealt on “Cascading effect in musical productions”

Seasoned he was, the presentation man was not deterred by this mix up. He calmly read the paper and summed up like this:

“As in music, industrial production gets affected in two ways-

(1)        Synergic errors lead to quality in industrial production and

(2)        A-synergic errors lead to casualty in industrial production”

Accustomed to standing ovations, the presentation man was seething inside for the stony silence that greeted him.

[The narrative though set in a specific environment, could have taken place in any Private or Government organization. This setting helps the reader spin their own yarn :)]