Hey people! This is a story that I had in mind for sometime now. But it took me so long to just put it all together. I am a huge fan of the Obros, especially Omkara and this is sort of the storyline that I had imagined for him. So this is the first part. It may be a little weird, but bare with me, as I'm still contemplating a bit about the storyline and the characters. The parts in italics, are the girls thoughts.
Since the story was conceived earlier, it starts back in time when Shivaay was shot and was admitted to the hospital.
What about us?
Prologue
The young female associate had just finished briefing the partners on the updates of the Thompson-Raheja acquisition deal. She was gathering her things from the conference room, and trying to reflect on the conference that had just taken place, when one of the partners, Ajay Bakshi smiled at her and complimented her for the work. She thanked him, she was glad that the partners seemed to be impressed with the research she had done and the due diligence report that she had put together. She had been an associate with the firm for about a little less than two years now, and was really hoping to make an impression on the partners. Although, her boss, Cyrus Irani was a good mentor and she had a pretty decent team, she often longed to be noticed more for her work. With her time at the firm, and her prior experience, she would be due for a promotion as a senior associate in a few months time. But to be promoted she would have to be approved by all the partners at the firm, and she had worked with only 20 out of the 35 partners. This deal that she was working on, involved 4 partners, out of whom she had worked with only 2, and now apparently, Ajay Bakshi was also impressed with her, the other partner, Manas Rathod, however was a tough nut to crack. She cringed at the thought of trying to impress him. Throughout the presentation, he had had a straight face, like he always had. She could actually count the number of times she had seen him smile. Three, maybe four if you counted the half-smile, when the firm was awarded the Indian Deal Firm of the Year', last year. She had tried to get herself on a few cases with him, but it was usually handed over to someone else with more experience or, if she did get the case, the case would be a piece of cake for a paralegal.
She headed over to her desk in the bull pen, to collect her things and then head home, she checked her watch, it was 10:15, and considering it was a Friday night , it would take her even more time to reach home. Of all the things in the world, she could never get used to Mumbai's traffic. She was just about to leave, when she saw Ajay Bakshi talking to Manas Rathod, who seemed to look worried. She went closer to see what the discussion was about, when she heard them talk about some papers that had to be delivered to a client.
"What do you mean she left? She was supposed to take these papers with her, and drop them of personally at the Oberoi Mansion. This is a bloody emergency!", he snarled.
"Well, she did leave, and now she isn't answering her calls. Damn, I would have dropped it off myself, if I didn't have to take Mr. Thompson out for dinner. "
" I promised to take my wife out for dinner, and it's already late", said Mr. Rathod lookinng at his watch, "she will kill me if I cancel again. But I need a lawyer from the firm to personally hand this over to the Oberois. Mr.Tej Oberoi has specifically instructed for these papers, and we need to keep them happy", he sighed. He seemed to be getting impatient by the minute, "may be I will go give it to them myself."
The associate had heard, the conversation and she understood that some important papers needed to be dropped off at the Oberois house. But she didn't understand why the partner wanted some lawyer from the firm to do it. As per the firm's general practice, any documents, once prepared would be either collected by the client, or be sent to the client with the firm's clerical staff. They were people in the firm who were specifically paid, for making such deliveries. "The Oberois?" she thought, that surname rang a bell in her head, it sounded familiar to her, and that was when it struck her. One of her colleague was working on some documents for the Oberois that evening, and she seemed all flustered about it. They were apparently one of the biggest business families in Mumbai, and since she had moved to Mumbai only two years ago, she didn't really know a lot about them. But by the behavior of the partners she figured out that, they were important for the firm, and she obviously wouldn't miss the opportunity, to impress the partner.
"I can drop it off, if you'd like", she offered.
Mr. Rathod turned around to see, the young associate, who had just given a presentation on a multi-million dollar deal.
"Are you sure?", he asked, "Do you know where they live? Or do you know what these papers are for?".
"Man! He really is desperate about these clients and these papers" she thought.
"Well, I'm pretty sure, I can read the papers on my way over there, and I'm sure I can find the address on the clients database, that we keep", she replied with a soft smile.
The partner seemed to hesitate, and was about to say something, when he saw that his wife was calling him. She was probably throwing a fit, and would kill him if he tried to cancel, or reschedule their dinner date.
"Well they live in Pali Hill, are you sure that wouldn't be out of the way for you? Not to sound sexist, but I wouldn't really like a girl travelling out of her way to drop these off, and besides I'm guessing you don't drive around."
"Pali Hill? Damn! That would be out of my way, but now that I have offered my help, there is no way I will back out. "she thought. "No sir, I have to go around that place, to meet a friend, and then I can head home", she lied.
"Well! It's sorted then, you can drop these papers off and meet your friend, I will go to dinner with my wife before she roasts and eats me, and Bakshi will take Mr. Thompson for dinner", he said while heading out and smiled. She was surprised to see him smile, that makes it five times, she counted mentally.
"Give me your number, I'll text you the address. Hand them over to either Mr. Tej Singh Oberoi, or Mr. Omkara Singh Oberoi. Make sure you go through those papers before you hand them in, just in case the Oberois have any questions about the papers, and do let me know or if you need some information, or have any problems to deliver these papers. ", he said getting into the elevator.
He saw that his driver was waiting with the car outside, and before he got into the car, he called out to her, and said, "by the way, that was a nice presentation today. You did some really good work on the due diligence. Good job!".
"Thanks sir!", she exclaimed.
"These Oberois seem to be lucky for me!", she thought, "all these months that I have been trying to catch his attention, nothing has worked out! And I offer to drop these papers of with the Oberois, and he's finally noticed that I exist. May be I should try to get myself on to their file" she thought and smiled to her self before she hailed a cab to go to the Oberoi Mansion'.
NOTE- Okay! So let me know how you liked it. There are a few things that I wanted to put across.
Disclaimer- I am not a lawyer, so my knowledge with respect to the legal world, is really limited, to English legal fictions(TV shows and Books), the news, and one of my friend who is a lawyer. I don't own any characters except the girl', Mr.Irani', and Mr.Rathod'. I know there are too many characters. But, don't worry about it since, all of them are not important.
I'm not sure if you guys noticed, but the young female associate' , who is going to be Omkara's love interest hasn't been named in this part. That is because, I'm still not sure, if it should be Ishaana or Ridhima or a completely new character. Like I said, I had thought of this story earlier, but had been too busy/ lazy to get it started, so it's difficult to place either of the present female stars in mind to write it. I should be able to decide pretty soon. Do you guys have any suggestions? Let me know what you guys think. Any suggestions for a name will gladly be accepted. For now, I'm planning a SS, but if I think I can devote more time I will make it an FF.
