Translucence II - Complete - Page 10

Originally posted by: ninand

Thats exactly what.. an apple cannot turn into an orange over time.. lousy example i know , :)).. but that's how I can explain.. might just be me but I feel people can only evolve and the extent of that depends on their own understanding of things and circumstances ..

Originally posted by: Murlal

Very well said, Ninand! I don't think people ever change- some may evolve through coming to an understanding of themselves by working out their journey up to that point, but they basically never change.
So Aarya, my answer to your question is - no, peope do not change

Chapter 30:

"What scandal are you talking about?" Maan said looking at Maya and Dileep.

Maya and Dileep exchanged worried glances. At that moment Dileep saw a crazy calmness in Maan's eyes – the same emotion that was predominant when he had felt betrayed by his mother.

"Maan…" Maya started but trailed, looking at the way Maan was eying the two of them.

"Scandal? What's going on mom?" Geet's voice came from doorway, a step behind Maan standing next to a surprised Venkat. Maan whirled around to see a pale looking Geet with dumbfounded expression.

"What are you doing here Geet?" Maya asked her voice strangling. Geet didn't respond but only looked at her mother strangely.

The silence in the room was deafening.

Geet was the first one to move.

"We have been dealing with this for far too long mom; the secrecy, the lies, hurt and everything that is surrounding dad's suicide," Geet said walking towards Maya and Dileep. Maya watched her step-daughter approach he from under her eyelashes. She didn't dare taking her eyes off the ground for she wasn't ready to see distrust and resentment in her daughter's eyes. Geet maybe her step-daughter be she loved her as her own.

Love somehow hadn't been enough between the two; not when her daughter's eyes lacked the concordance towards her.

"Please don't make me question the affection I have built for you," said Geet her voice hard. The three men and Maya looked at Geet at the same time. It was perhaps one of the rarest moments when she openly acknowledged the role of Maya as a mother figure in her life and also distanced herself from the mother-daughter relationship itself.

Maan forgot his anger in that moment and stared at Geet.

He had pushed hard to find out truth behind his Godfather's suicide and all the associated incidents surrounding it. Not once had he conceived what the impact of unfurling of truth on Geet's psyche could be. He had always been extremely vocal about the pain induced by Pratap Handa's death but he hadn't imagined how complicated Geet's and Maya's relationship had gotten because of that or how Geet's life had changed irrevocably because of that.

When Pratap Handa died, Geet lost her father, entered into a hostile relationship with her step-sister and the trust that was building with her step-mother was completely and permanently severed.

Dileep saw that Maya was having trouble in formulating a response, thus he spoke. "Truth isn't always pleasant Geet especially when it involves our loved ones. We never wanted to burden you with…"

"Will you cut the bullshit and tell us what it was all about?" Geet shouted losing her composure. "I am really sick and tired of your bloody patronizing ways given how you were the very reason why Maan and I have such f**ked up childhood. So stop preaching about love and harping about protecting us from the truth because, really, we don't care a damn about it anymore. Please don't worry about scarring our hearts or some shit like that because thanks to you, it's already taken care of years ago." Her voice had reduced to a harsh whisper as she controlled the tears from spilling. Maan swallowed and looked away and blinked rapidly, hoping his tears would stop.

Maya sniffed and swallowed a sob and Dileep Khurana collapsed on the sofa. Venkat was next to him in a flash, checking on the old man.

"Khurana Capital was a mess." Dileep began narrating the incident. Geet looked on wearily and Maan walked forward to stand next to her.

"The capital reforms of the early nineties had made us adventurous. We took more risks and we had this extraordinary confidence to mitigate it had it come to it. Sometimes it paid us off with large margins and few times it burned. The Bank Receipt scandal was the first risk that we weren't able to mitigate. The rising Sensex put a damper in our plans and its sudden collapse along with our primary investors filing for bankruptcy had us reeling in debts and scandals of our own. It was then Pratap came up with a plan to save the company." Dileep Khurana stopped and took a sip of water. Maan noted that the old man's hand shook as he held glass and slowly sipped water.

"Legalizing your undisclosed profits or by whatever means you made money, right?" Maan asked trying to minimize venom in his voice as much as possible. Whatever it may be, Dileep Khurana was an aging man and his father; whether he would deserve forgiveness or not was a different matter altogether.

"It was the only way we could inject cash back into the company. Pratap set up various paper companies overseas, tax havens mostly, by bribing local officers of government agencies and transferred the funds via them. The companies were transferred to my name after months of establishment and I got in money as a legal investment into Khurana Capital. In two years Pratap had managed to legalize all of our off the book earnings and transferred them to my name."

"What went wrong?" Maan asked.

"Pratap wasn't happy with the whole thing. I don't know why but he said this wasn't the right thing to do," said Maya taking over the other part of the story.

"What do you mean?" Geet asked, knitting her eyebrows.

"Pratap had documents that supported the claim made by few financial institutions that Khurana Capital had illegal funds and questionable transactions at one point during company's operation during economic boom. The company was always under scrutiny by other investors and venture capitalists given how it was growing. Pratap felt that it was a wrong thing to do."

"Why the sudden change of heart?" Geet asked again.

"I don't know why he changed his mind given how it was his idea all along. If the documents got into wrong hands, both Pratap and Dileep would go to jail and all our assets would be frozen and not to mention fighting dozens of lawsuits along the way." Maya said looking at her clasped hands resting on her lap.

"So to ensure all our futures you took the documents that father collected and handed over to Khurana here, right? That was very noble of you!" Geet said, her lips curling in mirthless smile at her mother. Maan was taken aback at the brazen way Geet spoke. It was the first time he was witnessing the side of Geet which had been brewing with hurt, pain and betrayal for more than a decade.

Maya's eyes blazed. She had had enough. "Pratap made a decision and dragged all of us along with him Geet, what did you expect me to do? Wait for him to stop what he had started and hand over incriminating documents to regulatory departments? What would we do after that? Dileep, Pratap, Venkat would go to jail and face half a dozen convictions. Khurana Capital would go down in less than three blinks of an eye and Khurana Group would follow the suit. Vikram, Varun and Mitalee were still too young to even realize what was going on let alone help us. With asset freeze implemented we would be penniless. I wouldn't let Pratap destroy our family like that," Maya said, her voice gaining momentum by end.

Neither Maan nor Geet spoke.

"We didn't know that it would turn this way," Dileep spoke softly. "Pratap figured out that Maya had handed over the documents to me. When he met me, he was hell bent on coming clean on our financial affairs. Someone had gotten a wind of our modus operandi and had contacted Pratap about it. Scandal was about to break through so I asked him to stay put and not talk about illegality of our affairs for the moment. Before taking him back to the company I had to launch an official enquiry internally because of board's pressure. Pratap and even Maya took it in the wrong way," Dileep explained.

"However we had no idea he would do something so stupid," Maya wiped her tears and closed her eyes tightly.

"At least dad would have been alive had you bothered to support him for at least one moment, no? You betrayed him first and then he got betrayed by his best friend next," Geet spat, her eyes cold.

"Stop being judgmental about things you aren't fully aware of and the circumstances you aren't a part of Geet. The man who I married was extremely intelligent, brave and knew how to handle any crisis that was presented in front of him. None of us expected Pratap to take such an extreme step. In matter of two years, his persona had undergone a complete transformation that was completely foreign from the man we all knew. So shut up, quit throwing sarcastic remarks at us and accept that fact that your father had turned to a man with weak mind, and chose to take his own life instead of fighting a small crisis," Maya said, shouting the last part.

"How dare you," Geet lunged at her mother completely losing control, eyes on fire. Maan reacted first holding her arms back and pulling her back, while Geet tried to get closer to Maya. Maya recoiled in shock when she realized what Geet would have done if Maan hadn't stopped her and Dileep looked at Geet, his jaw hung. Geet stopped struggling and turned her back against her mother, Maan's arms still around her; holding her from lashing against her mother.

"I never hated you." Geet said in a voice barely above whisper. Maya looked up with tears in her eyes at her daughter's confession. 'Hated', she noted. What about now?

"I never forgave father for taking that extreme step. I believed that he had hurt you the most by putting you in a position that would make you face the world wearily for the rest of your life. But now…" Geet trailed, sighing. She swallowed the sob that escaped and felt Maan tighten his arms around her. She laid her forehead on his shoulder and drew a long breath.

"Now I am not sure if any of you thought of anything outside your reputations and businesses and assets. And when dad wanted to break out of that norm, you freaked out. He was a lawyer for f**ks sake and you think he hadn't realized the fallout due to the exposure? He would have realized it much earlier and maybe even had a plan to handle the breakout. Did you ever talk to him about it?" Geet turned around, facing her mother.

Maya didn't know how to respond. Geet wasn't expecting an answer anyway.

She turned around and ran out of the house, Maan following her a second later. Maya buried her face in her hands and sobbed uncontrollably as Dileep tried to calm her.

Geet ran outside the house and straight into the pouring rain, her cries of hopelessness and loss absorbed by the noise of splatter. Maan caught up with her and hugged her tight. Her trembling forum hugged him back and howled in pain of loss of father and miscalculated betrayal of mother. Maan allowed his tears to fall freely mourning for years of loss of a gentle father like figure whose untimely demise had impacted his life.

Under the heavy downpour, two time worn hearts simply mourned.

To be continued.

Music companion for the day: Hallelujah by Imogen Heap