RV looked at Radhika as she arrived home and spoke " Hows the day?"
Radhika gave a wistful smile "It can be as good as it can be, I need to ask you something"
RV sighed "I need to tell you something first Radhika"
Radhika nodded as if asking him to continue " Raj Purohith ji is planning to activate the alliance"
Radhika remained calm "I know"
At RV's confused gaze she continued " Rohan is my best friend if you forgot and he came to college to meet me and see if I am alright after all this fiasco"
RV nodded " This makes it easy for me, what shall I do?"
Radhika spoke calmly " You need nor fear of it, we has a solution. But what I want to ask you is who is it Mom considered as her brother"
RV sighed " I don't know, your mom is always evasive about him, but one thing I know is she held him in highest regards ever"
Radhika face palmed " My life is fully f**ked isn't it? Anyway does Bharka spoke to you anything about attending college fest?"
RV frowned "No, she didn't mention about any fest at all. Why? What happened?"
Radhika sighed "Apparently she promised our Principal that you will attend as Guest of Honour, but she didn't confirm it off late and since there is no reply from you either he is worried and with this new reveleation he asked me to convince you"
RV growled in frustration " Truly she need to stop this childish behaviour . Anyway what does you say Shall I attend?"
Radhika shrugged "You are qualified enough to attend, as long as you don't start to speak about your politics and give some nice speech that doesn't bore me , you can"
RV laughed "You know what , you are bossy"
Radhika spoke silently "What , you asked mee my opinion, and I gave you that. Why do you laugh at me?"
RV continued "You are childish too"
Radhika huffed "You are tact less , How did you survive in that politics"
RV smiled "Thats RV my ghost, this is Ram Shankar myself"
Radhika laughed "Nice meeting you Mr.Ram Shankar , this is Radhika my self , not my ghost"
He bowed and took her hand and she curtsied , they started to laugh loudly not able to stop, after few minutes RV became serious " Radhika tomorrow there is a board meeting of RV group"
Radhika spoke "So?"
He spoke silently " I want you there"
Radhika looked at him seriously now " In what position? As your daughter Radhika or Heir Princess Radhika Raghuvansh"
Rv sighed " I want my daughter Radhika Raghuvansh who also happens to be Heir Princess"
Radhika shook her head "No"
RV looked at her surprised 'What?"
"I said No, I am not interested in Raghu Vansh Property at all. Let it be Bharkas"
RV shook his head " You are the rightful person Radhika"
Radhika sighed in frustration "I can't Dad, She already feels like I took you from her, I don't want this to happen, I don't want to lose my relation with her. I am happy with my Chadravansh fortune it self"
RV looked at her fiercely and spoke calmly "Come with me" giving her no chance to protest, she took her hand and dragged her to the car, "Dad" ,he didn't listen to her and making her sit in the passenger seat he went into driver seat and started the vehicle.
She looked at him strangely and with some fear, this was the RV whom she feared, ruthless,fierce person who can go to any extent, who will not even hesitate to destroy others to get his work done, all these days he didn't show this side to her, he showed a gentle side to her, a side of him perhaps not even his mother knows of, she continued to look at him and he seemed to calm a bit. He stopped the car after a while where Radhika recognised that they were in a sub urban area which while not a Posh area, wasn't certainly a slum too.. She looked at him confused as he opened the door for her to get out, " How much land do you think this community might be in Radhika?"
Radhika looked around the area " 200 acres?"
RV gave a faint smile "185 acres, and do you know who this area belongs to?"
Radhika spoke frustrated "Obviously people who live here"
RV rolled his eyes " This belongs to our family, do you think all these people are middle-class people? They are poor people for whom our foundation got houses constructed and gave them a roof over their head."
Radhika looked confused "There's a foundation?"
RV sighed and pointed her to a bench , as she sat he sat beside her " Radhika ,since past 40 years there's a foundation named Shankar foundation, my dad established it , thousands of families, old age homes,orphanages what not? there are many things going on under it"
Radhika was stunned but confused too " But hows that possible, i mean no media coverage and yeah how did you get the funds"
RV shrugged " Radhika ! you might have read many articles about how I am corrupted, I won't speak of my dad, he had his own sources, but yes I should agree that am corrupted, but I never found any fault in taking money from rich and giving it to poor"
Radhika understood what he is saying, she has tears in her eyes ,she doesn't even remember how many times she blamed him for being corruptive and eating peoples money, but he is using that money for peoples welfare that too without any publicity, she can understand why she is showing all this to her , if wrong people came into the heir ship then things won't be this way , she hugged her dad " I am sorry Dad, I will take it"
He patted on her shoulder " I am glad that I had you . Thanks for being here "
Radhika grinned and RV became confused , Radhika spoke looking at the children playing in the field " In childhood , after dadaji died, for few years we had to struggle a lot, there's some sort of ban on properties because of quarrel between mom's siblings, yup shankar maamu, shannu massi and badi maa regarding some details on properties. At that time mom wanted to take up a job, but she too fell ill and was unable to, there are some times when we even have to go with out food. That continued even after mom's death, atleast till then she protected me from her three siblings, but after she died there's no one. Everyone have these sudden expectations on me, or something else . People never saw me for myself, and since my mom died all of a sudden I am supposed to be mature. They make me sit between them and discuss money matters with me, or else they will use me as buffer between them. That is all new to me, because I never faced it before. It made me realised how much dadaji and mom protected me. At first I wanted to hate them, at that time I even hated you, because at thirteen years of age what I know was you are a wealthy man who don't have all these problems, but since you are a murderer I can't go to you." Seeing his look she snorted "I am rather a naive thirteen year old girl you know, I am now cursing myself for being stupid. None understood me at that time even, yeah everyone think they know an aspect about me and yeah they know everything about me, like how I will do, what I will eat etc etc. I tried to blend in but found it difficult, I used to feel so constricted even. " she stopped closing her eyes. RV doesn't know any of this he asked her softly " What happened then?"
She gave a lifeless smile " I fell in love one day. But I got rejected by him just because he thought I act over anxious and over ambitious. I never even understand why did he think as such. I used to think that he do as such because of my eye problem and all . I wrote it in my diary and know what my f**king uncle read my diary without my permission and they started to treat as if I did a grave wrong. Thats final straw for me you know, Yes I am dependant on them but that doesn't mean I don't have my own mind or even my feelings should resemble what they wanted them to be. From that day onwards I changed, outside I do try to look like I love them, but inside all those feelings for them died that very day. Its nothing but business between them and me. Only Amma is the one for whom I have at least an ounce of feelings for. She never did any wrong you know, she is always cordial with me, and loved me. Perhaps she was the only one who truly loved me. None in that family even know that I have the ownership of chandra vanshi family now. They all think the documents are still under hold. "
RV asked her hesitating "What about the luxury you are enjoying now"
Radhika smiled 'Shannu got lucky in her business. She atleast had some morals enough to regain all that lost property. Among all mum's siblings, she was the only one I can tolerate you know."
Radhika looked back at him " Do you don't like me now?" before she even complete the sentence she found herself in a hug "Never. You did nothing wrong. Self-preservation isn't wrong you know."
Radhika closed her eyes letting his embrace relax her, last time she got hugged like this has been by her mom, none hugged her after her mom apart from Dev, but Dev's hugs are different, they give her strength to do what she should do, while RV's hugs made her relax like her moms used to. She let her-self fade away in that feel. She may not forget anything happened with him, but atleast she can come to love him as a father. Sighing to her self she got herself untangled and spoke " When should I be there? "
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11:00 AM RaghuVansh Industries HQ...
RV sitting at the end of table surveyed everyone present, Bharka is already there as one of the major share holders, and RP is also there not to mention his mother and sister. He was waiting for Radhika to arrive to start the meeting and get it done with , but apparently she is late for some purpose, he didn't think she could be late because she is lazy that girl is the type who will be there at 10:30 if meeting starts at 11:00 . Also she left home by 9:00. He is cursing whatever ill fate there that made her late when RP spoke "Its time for meeting to start , don't you think RV?"
RV resisted his urge to roll his eyes when Bharka spoke " May be he is waiting for some one? Am I right taavuji"
As he was about to start the meeting , door suddenly opened and some one came standing beside him, he need not look who it is because if Bharka's expression doesn't say it , the voice following next say it all. " Sorry I am late by a minute. But I have some important documents to collect. Now where shall I sit?" Radhika made a sweet innocent face that RV resisted the urge to laugh. Sadly Soniya broke it " From when did people barge in board meetings just because they are family members."
Radhika smirked as she looked at Soniya " Soniya Raghuvansh , or shall I say Mrs. Soniya Rishikesh Bharadwaj ? Any way whatever it is I am here officially considering I am also one of the major stock holders. " Saying that she looked at RV and asked again about her seat, to which RV amusedly showed the chair at other end of table which is place of second largest stock holder. She smiled to him and went to other end of table sitting in the empty chair and looked around to every one who is looking strangely at her . She shrugged "You please carry on, don't let me being here disturb you."
RP looked at her silently and asked " May I know who you are? and on what right you are here ?"
Radhika looked at him and again smiled " Oh... Raj Krishna ji! How are you. Seems like you are forgetting who I am ? Its really sad dadaji, Rohan will really be upset you know. Anyway considering people who are present here I am Radhika Raghuvansh , daughter of your esteemed Managing director sitting there and my lovely mom Vydehi Raghuvansh. Now to all those people who unfortunately are too slow minded to grasp why I am here, My mom is the second largest stockholder of this company accounting for about 20.5% which my dad was gracious enough to transfer on my name. So unfortunately you have to bear me." Saying that she opened her laptop and continued to type something. Everyone looked at her in shock when RV smirked and cleared his throat .
Radhika listened to every thing going on, she continued to frown through out the meeting and she typed in her laptop at a furious rate as every minute passed. As the last update about the months marketing completed she stood up and called for a secretary and giving her a cd saying her some instructions. Then she looked at people present there and spoke " I don't even know what to say about this so called farce of meeting" hearing the murmers around the table she all but growled " Be quiet for a while people" then she looked at RV and spoke " Do you people call this a meeting? " and then she looked at one of the managers and spoke "Mr. Ranveer , you said there is an increase in sales by 20% in last ten days in your region?" He nodded and then she spoke " when you are so gracious enough to tell us about them why aren't you equally gracious enough to tell about the fall in sales in first ten days or what about overall growth rate?" then she looked at another person " Mr. Prakash while you kept on spouting about how there are a lot and lot of customers to our hotels why aren't you even bothering to tell about all those bad reviews we get." saying that she turned back to all the board members and spoke " You people sit here in these board rooms believing every nonsense these managers spout. Just go out and see what normal people are saying. As you people are busy enough atleast see this" saying that she signalled to the secretary who started the presentation. She proceeded to show various reviews by people and situations in restaurants and all. At end she ended it " Raghuvansh group always stood for its excellence of quality , I just want to remind you people to maintain that. We don't need the profits we get by lowering our standards of quality, we get enough profits without that." saying that she sat down and everyone remained silent for a while after which RV spoke " From next week , there will be quality checks in every industry, every restaurant we own. And to all those who fail to meet the standards will be given time to correct their mistake by next month. If not get ready to pack your bag and leave the company. " Seeing some one speak he spoke again " No one are exempt from this including family members." saying this he gave a look to Soniya and RP . RP spoke after a while " Don't you think one month is a short span?" Before RV even speak Radhika snorted and started to laugh a lot confusing everyone " I am sorry... but .. don't you think its ridiculous to say one month is a short span. He is asking everyone to do what they should be doing and do these people had their heads buried into soil that much that they even forgot how should they work?" she almost shouted the last word .
RV while enjoying what Radhika is doing also is getting worried , and his worry got proven when one of the board member stood up and shouted " What do you think of yourself girl? Barging here and lording over all of us. All of a sudden you get hot headed because you are declared as RV's daughter? "
Radhika sat relaxed in her chair giving him a disinterested look " Mr. Lokesh Sarwanand! if I remember correctly you got into a scandal 6 months back for using drugs but got escaped because your reports said your blood levels are normal. Who knows IM injections are so helpful ,isn't it?" seeing him splutter she smirked " Or shall I say about the evidence I had regarding a certain large lump of money being deposited in Dr. Trivedi's account the very day he tested you. " he stopped speaking and immediately sat in his chair. She looked at everyone present there and spoke " Lets make a deal, don't get in between my work ,I will not get into your personal lives" she stood up giving them a sweet smile and left from the meeting after passing some files to RV.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Soniya looked at the leaving form in disbelief , she looked at her brother whose face is expressionless and looked at RP sitting infront of her and he is equally livid as her, Bharka sitting beside her is also angry. They can hear murmurs among some of the older members who are truthful to RV's father , one of them even spoke out loud "Its like seeing Shankar Prasad Raghuvansh again. She is really talented. Ram shankar got a good daughter even if its late. She just had the charishma which was said to be associated with Vydehi even though I never met her. " Bharka stood from her chair angrily and left from the chambers without even speaking to any one.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
" How did it go?" Dev asked Radhika as she came down the lift, she grinned "It went fine."
Dev asked her in concern " Did anyone say anything to you, or did you get confused anywhere. Dad made me learn about board politics in my childhood since he had some stocks in some minor companies. So did the vultures try to bite you?"
Radhika smiled " No, my mom taught me never to even give the vultures a chance at all."
Dev laughed and spoke " Aunty is really wise to even have the fore sight to teach you about all this."
Radhika sat beside him "Now that I think about it, she always raised me to be the perfect heiress when time comes, I doesn't know why?"
Dev hugged her from beside seeing her lost "She did the right thing no matter why she did that." Radhika smiled to him and spoke " Hows Pari and Birju doing?"
Dev sighed " They miss you and mum,dad . Especially Pari, she keep on saying that she had none to confide in. "
Radhika smiled sadly " Hari sir and Chaya ji will arrive by next week na"
Dev nodded "They will, so shall we wait here for your dad or shall we leave"
Radhika sighed "Lets wait. "
Dev shrugged and they waited for RV to arrive in cafeteria. Looking Dev lost Radhika asked him concerned "What happened Dev?"
Dev sighed "It all feel strange, I mean all of a sudden your father finding you, you coming here. I can't help but fear what happens now that the social distance between us both is a lot."
Radhika looked at him sadly " Dev, please never even think like that. "
Dev spoke "Radhika do you think your dad will let us marry or for that purpose do you think my dad will let me marry to a rich heiress. Practically over night you became most eligible girl in country. There will be a lot of pressure on us."
Radhika can understand from where he is coming , for a person like Dev who is dominant its sorta difficult to think that his lover is of a higher status than him, but the truth is he is a Purohith which keeps him on par there with her but she cann't say him that. She sighed "Dev, please never think like that. We both are equal in every way. I am always that crazy Radhika you liked and loved. You will always be my Dev for me. Screw all these social titles. " She grinned looking at him "if it happens to that I will grab your handd and run away to the never land" He laughed and they sat there .
Anupamaa
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
317