Hello, All!
Thank you for your patience... and your warm welcome… doesn’t feel like I’m resuming this story after years!
Big hugs!
Part 13
“Hi, Di! Khushi Bhabi, Payal Bhabi!” Pooja laughed, “ Surprised?”
“Ji bilkul! Lekin achchiwali surprise”, replied Khushi, as Anjali asked, “NK Bhai ne toh kuch kaha hi nahi, subah. Tum yahan achanak kaise?”
Sitting down near Anjali and taking her hand in hers, Pooja smiled, “Woh Nanduji ne tabhi mujhe bataya, jab ki aapko call aayi thi aaj subah, ki aap media briefing karenge, upcoming feature ke liye. Toh maine socha ki Abhilaasha ke self-appointed brand ambassador main hu hi, par Raizada parivaar ke pyaar aur commitment ke sarvottam udaaharan bhi mai hi hu! To maine apne boss se chutti maangi aur aa gayi, apni Di aur Bhabiyon ko moral support dene.”
“Kya baat, hai, Dewraniji, aap toh kamal hi kar diya!” Payal smiled, looking at the exhuberant girl fondly, who had been, a few months before, living an entirely different life, and had reached here by sheer willpower, fath and resilience.
“Arre Payal Bhabi, aapke liye kuch bhi…” she smiled back and got down to work, assisting them in getting their pitch ready.
Taking out the minutes of meeting that Akash had given her with a grin and flourish as she left, Anjali revised it with her sisters-in-law, making sure they did not miss out on anything. It was in the middle of this discussion that, on the dot, at 10.55, her assistant called, “Anjali Ma’am, News India team is here.”
“Thanks Neeta, unko conference room me laayiye, please.”
“Okay Ma’am.”
Khushi and Payal were about to get up when Anjali lifted a hand to halt them. Thinking back to something that Arnav used to say in the early days of AR, years and years ago, she smiled.
“Di, never, ever walk into a conference room before your opposing team is seated, irrespective of whether they are your partners or your adversaries, if they are on time. Them sitting and looking up at you when you walk in gives you a psychological advantage.”
With his patented ASR smirk, he had continued, “But if they are late, be seated and engaged in some other work when they walk in, and wait until you finish your work before looking up and acknowledging their presence. Let them sweat a little.”
Khushi looked on in wonder at the expression on her Di’s face. The resemblance to her Arnavji in one of his shaatir moods uncanny, Anjali Di was in front of her eyes transformed into Ms. ASR.
“Hum do minute me jaayenge, unko baithne do.”
Exchanging intrigued glances with her Jiji, Khushi sat back, deciding to record everything that happened in her memory, to relay back to her Arnavji. He loved hearing stories of Ms. ASR!
Once Neeta called to say that the team was seated, Anjali looked at the clock, and noticing that it was a minute to 11, gathered up her papers and her team and marched off for the meeting.
Walking in at 11am sharp, Anjali looked around the conference room with a benign smile, before her eyes came to an arrested stop at the person sitting at the foot of the table.
Leaning back, completely at his ease with his trademark half-smile, Raghuveer Singhania looked back at her, his gaze steady and assessing.
Non-plussed for a second, Anjali stood still, not having expected Raghuveer himself to be a part of the debriefing team, but regained her composure just as quickly. Giving a slight nod to him in acknowledgement, she walked to the head of the table and stood, looking down the length, her cool eyes taking note of every person sitting there, while Khushi and Payal came up flanking her on either side.
“Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your time. Without delay let us get down to discussing the feature being planned. Let me first introduce to you my partners, Mrs. Khushi Kumari Gupta Singh Raizada and Mrs. Payal Singh Raizada.”
Turning to the door with a smile, she held out her hand to call Pooja in, “And this is Ms. Pooja Yadav, a core member of the AR Hotels division, who will also be joining us today.”
Sitting down, she fixed her steady gaze on Raghuveer and said, taking the bull by its horns, “Thank you, Mr. Singhania, for respecting the word you gave and for your incredible kindness in coming here yourself. Aapke ijaazat hai toh, aapke team shuru kar sakte hai, feature outline. Aur humse aapko jo bhi information chahiye, aap pooch sakte hai.”
Nodding once, he replied, “Thank you, Ms. Raizada. We have an outline prepared, par pehle hum aapse sunna chahenge aapke operations ke baare mein, if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all,” Anjali replied, before turning to Neeta and gesturing for the slide show to begin.
“Let me first give a summary of how our Event Management Company works. It is not a division of AR, it is owned and operated by my sister-in-law and I. We have a catering division, headed by her, that is Mrs. Khushi Kumari Gupta Singh Raizada. I handle the Event Management part, along with the help of an organization called "Prateeksha" and its sub-division "Abhilaasha" managed by my second sister-in-law, Mrs. Payal Singh Raizada, who handles the boutique part of the business.”
Thus progressed Anjali’s presentation, her eyes lighting up as she mentioned each member of her team, and the events they managed, as well as how it was all started as a way to bring the underpriviledged inmates of Prateeksha and Abhilaasha into the mainstream and to empower them.
“... and that concludes my introduction, ladies and gentlemen. Aapko kuch bhi poochna hai toh poochiye, “Anjali said, winding up her presentation.
As the team from News India looked down at the notes they had made to review them and see if any detail was missing, Raghuveer, who had sat back the whole time, his gaze steady on Anjali, not on the presentation, leaned forward to steeple his fingers and asked a single question, “Why?”
A pin could be heard dropping in the silence that ensued. As everyone looked on in confusion, Anjali met his gaze, and replied, “Why not?”
Raghuveer, with his slight smile, nodded his head in acknowledgement of her accepting the gauntlet he had thrown, said, “Mai usme interested hoon, Ms. Raizada. Aur yakeen maaniye, public bhi isme hi interested honge. So, please explain… Why?”
Suddenly realising with clarity what had been missing from her presentation, and that Raghuveer had pointed out the single factor that would establish the biggest connect with the audience, Anjali smiled, one of her heartfelt smiles, in thanks and stood up again, to speak, without any prepared notes.
While Payal looked up at her Di in non-comprehension, Khushi, who had spent the time Di was talking, watching the News India team to gauge their reactions, and having noticed Raghuveer’s unbroken perusal of Anjali, looked over at him, a slight smile on her face as she took in the half-dazed expression on his face at being on the receiving end on Di’s smile. She had understood from Anjali’s face that she had decided to speak without reservations.
Deciding that this needed to be shared with her husband, she took out her phone, to record what Anjali was going to speak, and quietly told Neeta to turn the CCTV towards the visiting team, so as to record the News India team’s reactions.
Looking straight at Raghuveer, Anjali started, “AR Group hamesha se apne CSR initiatives seriously lete aaye hai. Lekin humaare parivaar ke liye ye ab sirf ek CSR initiative nahi rahi. Saalon pehle jo haadsa hua tha, yahan, Dilli me, ek maasoom ladki ke sath, uss din se humare poore parivaar samaaj ke unn logon se dil se jude hue hai jinki awaaz nahi hoti. Prateeksha me society ke marginalised, exploited, misfit logon ko sahara di jaati hai. Unko rehne ki jagah, counselling, rehabilitation, and vocational training and financial support to enable them to re-enter society as independent, productive, self-sufficient members.”
Taking a deep breath at the intrigued expressions she saw on the faces around her, she continued, “Ek example doon, toh hum apne Bhai ke khaas kaam ke baare me batate hai. Aap sab jaante hai ASR ko, aur unke business empire ko. Unke paas khud ke kaarobaar sambhaalne ke liye waqt ki kami rehti hai. Phir bhi, har hafte, kam se kam ek din, woh Prateeksha jaate hai, autistic aur special needs bachchon ko padhaane ke liye. Unhe saalon pehle iss mamle me training mila tha, ek personal reason ke liye, aur ab bhi woh ye nek kaam karte aa rahe hai.”
Turning to send a smile full of love to her sister-in-law, she gestured to Khushi, “Aur ye, unki Patni, na sirf iss me unke saath dete hai, balki unki catering company, jo kisi bhi tarah AR Group se jude hue nahi hai, Prateeksha ke nivaasiyon ko employ karte hai, har job profile me, from chef to manager, aur toh aur food material and agricultural produce poora Prateeksha ke farm se source karte hai.”
A soft smile on her face as she took in the impressed expression on her listeners faces, she went on to explain Payal’s work, and that was when Pooja spoke up, her voice choking at how the work Payal had done for her engagement joda had led to the founding of Abhilaasha and that naturally led to her briefing about how she came to be a member of the family. The warmth, love and mutual respect between the women palpable, and the genuineness and commitment with which they ran their enterprises evident from their heartfelt words, it was an emotionally invested team of TV reporters, producers, and the channel head who sat down to outline the feature they would be doing.
As for Raghuveer, having noticed every emotion in Anjali’s voice, her joy and her empathy in the people who work with her, and the absolute love with which she spoke of her brother, sisters-in-law and the inmates of Prateeksha, it was as if he had gotten a glimpse of her very soul; and it had shaken him up, the strength of his interest in her, his need to know everything about her.
Within the hour, the entire feature was outlined, with every demand of the Raizada women being agreed to uncontested, and it was decided after a discussion of their schedules that the shoot would begin the coming week, and would be covered in five sessions, incorporating the activities of all segments of their ventures, be it Prateeksha, Abhilaasha or Annapoorna, with a final coverage of an event jointly handled by the teams.
******************************
Much later, in the evening, after the family dinner, which had stretched over a couple of hours with every detail of the meeting rehashed, exclaimed and approved over, Arnav sat in the terrace, waiting for Khushi to come up after her daily rounds. Hearing soft footsteps, he looked up from his phone with a smile, that took on a different sheen as he saw his Di walking up to him. Getting up and leading her to her usual chair, he too pulled up his chair and sat as close to her as possible, and taking her hands in his, said, “Di, I want you to know how proud I am of you! The way you handled the meeting was absolutely spot-on.”
At her pleased laugh, he smiled again, “Khushi ne mujhe video dikhaayi thi shaam ko, jisme aap woh last wali unscripted talk de rahi thi, about our CSR initiatives. It was heartfelt and the perfect pitch to kick start the feature. No wonder the media people were hooked.”
Smiling fondly from where she had been standing, leaning against the patio door, watching her Arnavji and Di talk, Khushi said, “Di toh sach me kamaal hi kar diya, Arnavji.”
Looking up at her with his soft smile, Arnav watched his wife come closer and sit in her customary pose, leaning against Di’s legs, and sat back, content in listening to the two most important women in his life discussing their upcoming shoot, his pride in how professionally they were handling the whole business evident in his expression.
Edited by AparnaRenu - 4 years ago
Bade Achhe Lagte Hain
Anupamaa
Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon
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