Agarwalla's Attempt to Secure the German Deal

Agarwalla's Attempt to Secure the German Deal is a hotel-floor confrontation in which a business manoeuvre depends on secrecy, paid intermediaries, and control over who can meet the German representatives. Karabi Guha’s decision to disclose Agarwalla’s plan brings Anindo Pakrashi into the hotel at the crucial moment. The encounter exposes the attempted diversion of the factory partnership, while leaving its ultimate outcome unresolved.

The plan and its stakes

Agarwalla has obtained the detailed plan for Industrias Madhab and intends to approach the German business representatives separately, rather than let the negotiations proceed through the Pakrashi family. Karabi explains that the Germans are indifferent as to whether they build their factory in partnership with Agarwalla or Pakrashi. That flexibility makes the proposed private approach a real commercial threat: Agarwalla can try to replace the existing prospective partner rather than merely improve his position within an agreed arrangement.

His plan depends on Anindo being absent. Agarwalla has repeatedly contacted Karabi to ask how long Anindo will remain in Calcutta and what his schedule is for the day. He called again the previous night to learn the day’s programme. Karabi says she lied, telling him that, as far as she knew, Anindo would stay until late. In her account, the concealment is deliberate: Agarwalla wants to come while the Pakrashis are away and complete his business without interruption.

A second intermediary is involved. Phokla Chatterjee supplies information to Agarwalla and has promised to arrange for Anindo not to come to the hotel that night. Agarwalla, in turn, has promised that Phokla need not spare expense, whether the inducement takes the form of an outing, drinks, or something else. The scheme therefore operates through both access to information and an effort to divert Anindo, not simply through a direct meeting with the Germans.

Karabi's intervention

The disclosure is also a turning point for Karabi. She tells Shankar that she had previously understood her loyalty to belong to the person for whom she worked. Now, she says, the situation has changed. The poems Anindo gave her have helped her recognize that she has an identity of her own and must answer for her actions. Her decision to reveal the plan is thus presented not merely as a transfer of information but as a change in how she understands responsibility.

As she explains herself, Karabi gradually loses her breath. She asks Shankar to call Anindo, then says she wants to see him immediately and hangs up. She comes downstairs without delay. The speed of her movement makes the warning actionable: rather than leave the secret as private knowledge, she brings it directly into the hotel’s shared space, where the competing parties are about to meet.

The attempted concealment exposed

Shankar goes to the counter and speaks with William Ghosh, who is trying to keep him pleased because Shankar may be able to cover for him and allow another dinner outing with Rosie. Sata Bose is also present. The narrator had not expected the confrontation to unfold in front of them. Yet Anindo and Agarwalla enter the hotel almost simultaneously, collapsing the carefully managed difference between the time Agarwalla wants to meet the Germans and the time Anindo is present to check on them.

Agarwalla is in a good mood until he sees Anindo. His shock is so evident that he has to pull up his trousers, which have slipped below his navel, before asking why Anindo is there. Anindo says he has come to look in on his guests. Agarwalla replies that the guests in his suite lack no comfort and points out that he pays Karabi well. Anindo answers that no suitable suite was available in the good hotels of the city and that such guests could not be put in ordinary rooms. He then offers a polite explanation of the arrangement, invoking the businessmen’s mutual obligation to look after one another and his father’s old friendship with Agarwalla.

The exchange briefly preserves the appearance of ordinary hospitality, but Anindo then asks why Agarwalla himself has come. Agarwalla says that he is visiting a friend who is supposed to be waiting in the bar and claims that he will join him shortly. He asks Anindo to tell him if the guests have any problem. The excuse contrasts with Karabi’s account of the planned private approach, while the request to be informed about the guests keeps Agarwalla close to the business opportunity even as he denies coming for it.

A compromised operation

After Anindo goes inside, Agarwalla heads straight for the lobby telephone. He cannot reach the person he wants, whose identity the scene does not establish. He then approaches the counter and instructs the staff to tell Phokla that he has gone to Mrs. Chakladar’s house if Phokla comes looking for him. Soon afterward, Phokla arrives at the Hotel Shahjahan and goes directly to the counter, telling Sata Bose that the situation has become too much for him and that, at his age, he would be content with a ten-to-five job.

The episode shows Agarwalla’s attempt being disrupted, but it does not establish whether he ever meets the Germans or whether the proposed partnership changes hands. What it does make visible is the machinery of his approach: a copied industrial plan, repeated schedule checks, an informant, an inducement intended to keep Anindo away, and a cover story at the hotel counter. Karabi’s intervention turns that hidden arrangement into a public encounter, where Anindo’s unexpected presence forces Agarwalla to improvise rather than proceed on his own terms.