Chapter 9
Time elapsed as Ishani came to the office at her time. Feeling nervous she collected the files and studied them one last time lest she forgets a particular detail. Mr. Khanna came and informed of everything being fine and that the time had come to finally go ahead. Ishani's heart was beating faster. Suddenly she heard a voice calling her as she turned to look behind who the speaker was. Her nervousness had made her deaf and loosened her senses that made her look stupid, she thought.
"I know you're nervous, Ms. Parekh, but don't worry. We already have what we wanted and your nervousness comes from thinking of the outcome which is not necessary at the present. Hold your confidence up and everything will go right," she heard Mr. Khanna say.
Ishani smiled, she thought her random smile at such occasion was not convincing and made her look like a little girl going to the school for the first time.
"Thank you, Mr. Khanna. I know you are right but it feels weird to be going to handle such a big project. Can you believe it'll get Papa his lost reputation back?" Ishani said, her eyes sparkling with tears in them.
"Yes, and that will be because of you. Your father, Mr. Harshad Parekh, will be very happy. I have never been to India but he always used to talk about you a lot whenever we met. He always was very proud of you and once this project gets done I'm sure you would be able to make him gain what he lost before he passed away," Mr. Khanna smiled. "Now let's go."
Ishani nodded.
Ishani came to the office of RV's company, RV Brokers & Solutions, and this time her feelings were different than had been the last time she visited this place. She took a deep breath. The sun was climbing thorough the horizon leaving a yellow trace of sunlight across the mist in the air. The air had lost its dryness since the morning and now was a bit damp but icy. Here and there in the sky the white clouds were gathering. Ishani hoped it doesn't rain and snow soon this time. Though it never snowed properly in London, and ever since she had come to live here it had not snowed at all. But the present conditions of the weather were indicating towards it making her anxious of the future problems that might occur midway the project.
Ishani finally propelled herself towards her destination with determination. She was surprised to see everyone already in the conference hall waiting for her. Everyone stood up at her arrival and greeted her with good morning.' She nodded and sat down. She noticed Ranveer still had not arrived whilst by his logic and philosophy on time he should have been here by now. Ishani looked at Puneet questioningly to which he nodded and said, "Ma'am, sir is coming. He's been busy with Mr. Zaveri for a couple of hours. There is a problem, I think. He'll be here in a minute or two."
Ishani nodded and sank back to her seat.
After some time that seemed like hours to Ishani Ranveer arrived. He was wearing the three piece suit with white trouser, white jacket and a light red shirt. A smile unknowingly crossed her face, for it still felt strange to her to see Ranveer like this; but she could not deny that at his sudden appearance her heart had skipped several beats a time. He looked at everyone and greeted generously.
The meeting started and everything went considerably well. What would be the work, how would it be achieved, how much financial support would be needed was discussed for nearly 2 hours. Ranveer agreed to help and support Ishani in every way possible. Ishani smiled in a very professional way and hoped she did not just look weird in doing so. A glimpse of Ranveer's was enough for her to lose her senses and confidence in a funny way. She cursed herself under her breath for not being able to hold up and giving into an unknown pull so easily.
Once the meeting was over, everyone left the room except Ranveer and Ishani. There was a silence for a couple of minutes that seemed to make them both feel awkward. Ishani looked at Ranveer while his lips too curved in a shape that one could make out being a distant form of smiling. He had no expressions on his face whatsoever at the moment that made Ishani harder to say anything or just walk out of the room. That would look silly, she thought to herself.
When a couple of minutes had passed and the silence seemed unbearable she finally let something out.
"Thanks," she said, feeling rather weird because thanks' was a word that she never had to use with him.
"Thanks? For what?" he asked.
"For many things. For now I can only say this for everything you did," she said shrugging her shoulders. "Whatever you have done for me in this one week, I can't return to you."
She wanted to say many things but either words or time did not seem enough for them.
"You're welcome." she heard Ranveer say through her thoughts. "My purpose is to give Mata Babuji his lost honor back to him. He has given me enough to be indebted to him for my entire lifetime; and if I do anything for him it will never surpass what he has done for me," Ranveer said.
His words hit her with a new realization. The way he said this Ranveer did not seem angry with his Mota Babuji, and nor was there any contempt in his voice rather she got to see a tiny glimpse of old Ranveer who she had known for the longest time. His words affected her differently now, and Ishani found the contempt that she held in her heart for him had vanished.
"I know you are nervous," Ranveer said changing his tone this time. "It happens when you're doing something as big as this, but feeling this way shouldn't come in your way of achieving your goal."
Ishani was again surprised. Ever since she met him Ranveer had been behaving this way; but now she found herself quite used to it. She knew after his preaching he would again go back to his unknown zone. So she nodded and left the room. This time not feeling awkward.
*****
Ranveer sat idly in his cabin looking out of the window instinctively. He loved the view of the outside world where the birds could sing merrily, the trees could flutter freely, and the world could laugh like there is no tomorrow; while he found his own heart and soul imprisoned by the monsters of loneliness and darkness that seemed to capture him for ever. The dimly visible afternoon sun was rising high covered with fog whilst air blew faintly. Ranveer stood up and came towards the entrance of his cabin; and looking at the most beautiful view of his life a quiet smile crept over his face. He saw Ishani working on some mini-projects as her fingers tapped the surface of the laptop softly; her dark hair made their way towards her shoulders while the hair locks fell on her pink cheeks that she irritably tried to sway away while her simple white dress glittered in the dim radiance of the golden light falling on her. Her eyes were ablaze with a tender zeal and her lips curved in a content smile.
Ranveer had not smiled this way in years the way he did while looking at her now. He found himself in a beautiful reverie where there were no boundaries holding him back in the pit of gloomy abyss of painful emotions. He wished the moment to stop there eternally, but it came to an abrupt end when he saw Ishani suddenly looked at him. Ranveer turned around with a gasp hoping she did not find him looking at her and think anything wrong about him. Not daring looking back to see her Ranveer came back to his table and busied himself in phone calls of various clients.
****
Ishani was startled to see Ranveer looking at her, for he had a very different look in his eyes- neither angry nor cold like she had witnessed so far. She saw him going back to his table; his head drooped low as if in some disappointment. Not knowing why she gave a sigh of relief but found quite hard to focus on her work again. Every time Ishani brought her focus on the laptop placed in front of her she could only remember Ranveer looking at her and feel uncomfortable from the thought. However, she forced to look at what was more important and not act like a little girl.
"May I come in, Ma'am?" a voice on the door called. Ishani looked upwards to see Puneet was standing there.
Ishani nodded as Puneet entered the cabin.
"Sorry to disturb you, Ma'am, but here are couple of documents that have just arrived. It'll be good if you have a look on them," Puneet said.
"Thank you, Mr. Puneet," Ishani said throwing a polite smile. "By the way, I have some files that need Ranveer's signatures. Would you please get them now? I'll keep them aside once it gets done," Ishani asked politely while Puneet was looking at her open mouthed.
"Is there any problem?" she asked when found no response from him.
"No. I'll just do that. I was surprised to see you calling RV sir by his first name. No one ever does so. No one knows what his name is but you do," he said a bit puzzled.
Ishani realized what she had done and felt embarrassed.
"I'm sorry. I need Mr. RV's signatures on these," she said giving him the files.
Puneet took them and turned around to leave when he heard Ishani asking him to stop.
"Yes, Ma'am? Is there any problem?" he asked.
"I need to know something. Would you tell me, please?" Ishani said.
"Sure," Puneet smiled.
"Look, my father was the King of Dalal Street before your boss RV, and I'm sure he has a story of his own on how he got here. I want to know that," Ishani tried to sound casual, though she herself did not understand why she was so curious to know of RV all of a sudden.
Puneet looked confused and replied in a polite tone, "I'll tell you for sure. But I myself am not aware of him because he never told me and I met him when he was already a big name in the market. For now I'll get his signature on the documents."
Ishani nodded. She wanted to know about her friend who she always desired to see on the heights of success; also despite all the confusion in head she was happy for him and did not deny this truth.
Edited by Elvish_Hobbit - 10 years ago
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