The Raging Storm (ARVI) - Chpt 22 - Page 98 - Page 28

Originally posted by: sashashyam

Dear Laurie,

I am not going to say all the usual nice (and entirely true) things about how well this chapter has come out and how smoothly it reads, and perhaps also about how intriguing it is. We, your greedy fellow forum members, are quite spoilt by now, and we expect all these things to be there every time, like the trick ending in an M.Night Shyamalan film.

Dear Shyamala -Thank you for the analysis. I fear I might be a bit one dimensional with these characters in the story when they are a vivid 3D in my head. 😆

M. Night Shyamalan? Wow! I can only hope! ☺️

What follows is not criticism, either of the constructive or the carping variety, but just comments.

I appreciate your observations/comments/critiques as they help me develop my ingenue writing ability. Let me see if I can shed some light on your observations below and maybe you can tell me if I'm heading down the right path?

Archana seemed decidedly odd here. Now, the point is that both she and Manav had already approved of Purvi making this business trip, and this when they had no idea Purvi's boss was going to reassure them personally that their daughter would be safe and well looked after. When he does extend them this unexpected extra courtesy, why all these ultra anxious demands that are way out of the normal?

Archana and Manav already give their consent to Purvi because of her job title. The meeting with the boss was actually Karan's idea ' not theirs. He was the one that wanted the face time as he wanted to gain Purvi's trust ' so the meeting was more for his benefit than theirs.

The absence of the plural (i.e. daughters) here is deliberate. Teju, from what we know of her, could probably look after Karan Dhanjani more than the other way around. Moreover, when Manav was unperturbed at her hanging around London for weeks and months on the rather vague pretext of tennis tournaments, where is the question of anyone having to "look after her"? She is an add on that Manav and Archana have thought of, and surely it cannot be the responsibility of Purvi's boss to look after any and all such additions to Purvi's entourage.

Tej won't be idle for too long. She is also coming into her own so maybe this will be the time she needs to discover her path in life. Karan, for personal reasons, has taken quite a shine to Purvi and wants to make her feel comfortable. He knows through his sources that Purvi is close to Teju so having her along will just make Purvi's transition easier. He has no qualms about accepting the 'responsibility' of Teju as long as Purvi is comfortable. This is more of a formality than anything.

To revert, one would expect any firm management to immediately inform a staffer's family if there should be any serious problem on such a business trip. But Archana's seeking a personal assurance from Purvi's boss that he would take care of her daughters, and make sure no harm comes to them and that they are properly looked after, seems decidedly over the top, and most bosses would react very negatively to these kind of demands. Karan might not object for reasons of his own, but Archana is not to know that. Moreover, it is a most unreasonable demand. What if Teju and Purvi were to decide to attend a rave party in London after office hours, and they get into trouble there? Is that too to be laid to Karan's account?

It's the meeting with Karan that raises Archana's hackles. Prior to that she was confident that Purvi and Teju could take care of each other without needing any other reassurances but it was during her first interaction with Karan that sparked an inkling of uneasiness. She then needed his verbal confirmation that her daughter's would be safe and looked out for. A rave? Smashing idea! Our Purvi needs some exposure!

After all, Purvi, even if she has been India-bound all her life, is not a 12 year old being handed over by her anxious mother to the air hostess for a multi-hop flight across the globe. She is at least 22/23, and is supposed to be the Managing Director of this firm (though I would have thought that is rather too much for credibility; the only 22/23 year old MDs I have knowledge of are those whose father owns the company), and normally one would have expected her to have some responsibility for the other junior team members. Instead, Archana demands of Karan that her daughter(s) should be treated like Dresden porcelain. This is unheard of. If every one of Karan's female staffers had mothers of the same kind, he would have to stick to all male contingents for any foreign trip!

Purvi is a young MD but a very capable one. Remember Arjun handed over the company to her before he left ' not just as a parting love token but with the confidence that she could run the company efficiently in his absence. Karan being the astute business man, already knew this, which is why Purvi was offered this position with his company. As she is still new (two months old), she has not been delegated the responsibility of personnel matters just yet and is still becoming familiar with the inner workings of the Karma Group. And yes, our Karan is a very understanding boss. The same courtesy would be extended to any unmarried lass in the travelling contingents.

It is even odder for a staffer's mother to barge into the owner's room and question him about "what my Purvi means to you". Laurie, it is simply not credible. It leads to the presumption that Karan Dhanjani is (a) extra interested in "my Purvi", and (b) that this could be for less than acceptable reasons.

Even if Archana had felt the above, it would be very strange (and embarrassing, subsequently, for Purvi) if she were to ask Karan this outright, and this when there is absolutely no indication that anything could be amiss, in fact quite the opposite. It is quite different from the time she barged into Arjun Kirloskar's room and shouted at him for having, in effect, fired Purvi (though even that would, anywhere else, have got Archana fired, and rightly so).

Archana went back to his office only to satisfy her unanswered questions and lay her creeping suspicions to rest. She did knock this time and waited for permission to enter. Purvi is not just going to Pune but another country so her 'mama bear' instincts went into overdrive. This was her first meeting with Karan and probably her last before Purvi left so she had to address her concerns then. She knows Karan is more than he seems to be and she won't let her daughter go without getting answers to those questions.

Lastly, it is the strangest of all when Archana, after having had the famous feminine instinct warn her that Karan Dhanjani "wasn't all that he appeared to be", actually goes and asks him "Who are you really?"

Now, we know that Karan might be a mystery man, but for Purvi and Archana, he is just a regular company owner, and a very successful businessman with a spectacular professional track record. He is thus a real person, and not a shady fly by night operator. What then is the sense of Archana's very odd question? Normally, such a query would hardly be well received.

That Karan is unperturbed, and makes an answer worthy of the Delphic oracle, does not make what Archana does any more understandable or acceptable.

Archana doesn't know Karan other than his name so it irks her in a way that he has shown such a keen interest in Purvi. She is not bothered with business norms and customs as she wants to protect her daughters from any possible unseen dangers ' especially after all they have been through.

As for DK, he must not have seen Purvi for at least 2 months, that is ever since she joined the Karma group. Nonetheless, Arjun asks him about her, and he responds as if he had met her just recently. One should perhaps not quibble about what seems to be an excess of sensitivity on the part of DK when he describes Purvi and her reactions, but it seems a bit out of character. Perhaps the answer is that it is not just Arjun who has mellowed! DK has even started calling Arjun beta! Not even Aashana does that.

DK went back to India with Manav after their trip to London and has been in the shadows there all this time. He only just left for New Zealand on Monday (the day before his conversation with Arjun) so he's been aware of Purvi's condition and has kept a distant, yet watchful, eye on her for his son. DK is softening in his old age. Remember he was far older than Aashana (15 years I believe) so he is anxious to see his son settled already.

None of the above should be taken to mean that I did not thoroughly enjoy Chapter 7. I did, very much so.

To conclude, I am not going to indulge in speculations, wild or otherwise, as to what lies ahead, for the simple reason that an author has more unbridled power than the most autocratic of dictators, and he/she can do just about anything. Purvi might end up as the lost daughter of (no, not a Russian Grand Duke, that favourite parent of romantic fiction) a billionaire business family, perhaps even the Dhanjanis. There could be any number of other offshoots to your central tale, and it is fruitless to try and second guess such a fertile imagination.

There is however one thing that has been promised and which I eagerly await: Laurie's official entrance into The Raging Storm as the young woman who will tame Karan Dhanjani. Now that would be something to make me forget even Arjun-Purvi!

'Laurie' is busy prepping for her role as we speak. Hopefully she can make just a big a splash as Karan.

Shyamala

Originally posted by: sashashyam

Janhvi,

I know I did say that I would not indulge in fruitless speculations, wild or otherwise, but what is a resolution for except to be broken? So here I go with my two pennyworth.

I think the address is that of the same building in which Arjun has his bachelor pad. You would remember that his flat too was a duplex, and he had to go downstairs from his bedroom level to open the door to DK and Manav.

This alone is of course far from conclusive, as there must be any number of such residential buildings in London. However, the fact that Manav recognises the address, and that, Manav not being a resident of London, there would not be too many addresses to which he would react in this fashion, would seem to point to this solution.

Now if this should happen to be correct, it opens up a number of other obvious possibilities, the foremost of which is a kind of tacit collusion between Manav and Karan about this matter. You would be able to fill in these blanks in your inimitable style.

However, Laurie being a devilishly mischievous creature, her sleeves must be amply equipped with red herrings, of which this may very well be one. Sorting out the red herrings from the salmon, for want of a better comparison, is more than half the fun!

Shyamala