ch 5: ''kith and kin''
back at the brownstone, preet's brothers watched him describe his day with the trespasser. it felt good to see the animation back on his too-thin face, the spark that had been doused by the miseries he had suffered over these last few years. and if keeping the spark alive meant a serious effort to get their father's pet project back on the road, then that was what they would do. after dinner, the three of them went to den to rework their schedules for the next two months.
after three hours of having gone through the old plans and proposals and narrowing them down to two, preet slumped back in his chair when john uncle brought in cookies and tea. he watched his brothers stretch and chat easily with each other, with an old familiar sense of overwhelming love. it was odd, preet mused, how tragedy could break some relationships and cement others. they'd never been distant. but over the last one year, they'd banded together, using their father's firm as the focus of their energies.
even though he was the youngest of the three, preet being the architect had become the logical face of the firm. most of their clients were used to seeing father as the architectural brains of the firm. with him gone, the firm had stood shaky for a while, with no growth in projects or client base. and while preet recovered from the multiple blows of losing first his sweetheart and then his father, it seemed like the firm might never recover. but the firm called ''
lj & sons, ltd.'' was made of sterner stuff. two quarters ago, preet and his brothers had drawn up an expansion plan. and the last four months of phone-calls and visits and wining and dining had started a small but steady trickle of potential clients again. their first two contracts after their father's death had been signed within weeks of each other, and things were back on track at ''
lj & sons, ltd.'' again.
harman dealt with the legal contracting with their clients. real estate projects were typically hell; each location coming with their own rules and restrictions. harman was always rueing that he would be the first of the three to look like his bald father -- albeit a much taller version of the same. his siblings spared him no pity; not given the beautiful woman he shared an apartment with, and who he was getting married to next year.
everyone also agreed that prem would be the last to achieve bald status -- if ever. how his parents could have produced offspring with that mane of hair was often the source of much bawdy humour among the juneja boys -- always out of the hearing of their father. in any case, the way prem juneja's mind worked with finances, there didn't seem to be a problem in the world that would dare cause him stress enough to lose his hair. after eight years of a very successful career in the field, no-one could quite understand how he had given it up so easily. but there was never even a whisper of disatisfaction that anyone could ever discern in that closed calm face, not even his family.
preet had to hand it to his father. lalit juneja had always done the best with what he had, and that included his children. among the three of them, there was an architect, a financier and a lawyer -- a perfect set of skills to run an architectural firm. preet had never been able to figure out whether it was fate that guided his brothers and him into the careers they chose, or whether it was by their father's design. all he knew was that none of them had ever felt pressured to do anything they did not want. pb seemed to have been born with the ability to break down a problem into parts, order and categorise them so that they all added up to a logical whole. harman had always walked around with notebooks filling them with facts to memorise and weave together into arguments.
he had been the bad penny of the lot, leaping from one track into another, determined to try everything before settling into a choice. while his mother had fluttered and fretted through all of his school and college days, his father had been calm and collected, letting him run as far afield as he wanted to go. preet still remembered the day that he graduated with a degree in architecture. his mother had been glowing with relief and pride. but he had had to wait five long years after, when a client had chosen his design over his father's, to see his father's eyes shine with pride. his father, who had built himself up with no privileges, built his firm in the midst of fierce competition and prejudices, and make a spot in a small and highly acknowledged set of boutique architectural firms in the city. his father had framed and given his son's first design the place of honour on the wall at the right side of his table in his office.
preet gave himself a mental shake -- these were old memories. he hadn't thought of that design in so long. the meeting with their trespasser was touching stirring everything -- the present, the future and also the past. he reached out to take a cookie, his mind absentmindedly tuning into harman's conversation with his girlfriend on the phone. ''
dad had always thought it had to be central -- either to the city, or to our family, you know. he probably would've preferred the plot with the old house as the perfect location for the cathedral -- just need to get clarity on the zoning rights of a residential block for a place of religious worship.'' nandita worked at one of the top corporate legal offices specialising in real-estate deals. ''
ya, well, worst case, we can figure what to pay for the license and then let pb work out the finances for the cathedral.''
''the home-of-light'', preet said almost to himself. but he caught the ear of the man standing by the draughtsboard silently, who was looking down at the sketches from the afternoon.
''what was that?'' preet smiled at pb's question.
''that what our trespasser calls the cathedral -- the home-of-light.''
prem grunted, squinting at the sketches. ''
well, she has certainly seemed to projected it that way. no, no, boyo.'' prem lifted his hand to stop the protest he could see were in preet's eyes. ''
you know i trust your instincts on these things. and if you think her ideas will help the design, then by all means, let's get her to work on this. if i didn't have to fly out tomorrow, i'd have met her with you tomorrow to figure out a contract. just mail me the details and i'll work it in.'' he stretched, a tired sigh escaping his lips. ''
early morning flight, children. i'll see you in three days.''
prem had nearly made it out the door when preet's voice stopped him. he stuck his head back in ''
yes, preet, i'll help with the cathedral on saturday. i'll be there -- come... ''
and all three grinned and practically sang the next words together, ''
hell or high water.'' it was the juneja boy's war cry. they had once fought and won the battle with their father to name their firm the respectable ''
lj & sons ltd.'' rather than ''
hell & high water ltd.'' the victory had been rare, but one that their father had been eternally grateful to his sons for, as the firm grew, and their reputation along with it. they had never lost a chance to pull his leg about it.
and so the brothers ended their day strangely in resonance with the girl they called their trespasser. that they would have given anything to get one more chance to see their father again, to pull his leg once again.
---------- ph ---------- ph ---------- ph ----------🥱 and my work here is done... for today. 😆
