Have a great Birthday, my friend! Hope all your wishes, dreams and aspirations come true....
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Legally Copyrighted: The story and the name are copyrighted, only I have the right to change the names of the characters, story, places etc and publish it. Plagiarism of any kind, in parts or in its entirety is strictly not permitted.
Part 1
It was before the sunrise and he was up on the terrace again doing pushups, he did two hundred everyday, she counted every one of them. Then he did kickboxing against the punch bag that was tied to the protruded ceiling. After that he set out for a jog around the park. Then he came back and drank the two raw eggs that his manservant gave him, downing them with hot lemon water next. He sat in the lawn and read the paper for the next 30 minutes before going in and taking a shower. By 7:30am he went inside to take a shower (she guessed) and she knew by the gossip from the servants that he always ate breakfast at 8:00am before going to office at 8:30am.
May be he should have worked as a military man for the Indian army.
Bani wrinkled her nose and went inside, he was such a fuddy duddy, that Buddah. she was sure was a misogynist, a woman hater of the worst kind. She knew it because he only employed men in his house, a man cook, a man servant, a man gardener and a man chauffeur and even a man Friday. The only female person who she occasionally saw was an older woman, apparently she was his massi, according to her gardener.
She really didn't know what his problem was, he turned away every time they came face to face. Being neighbors it was a certainty that they would…her dad and his dad were friends, now both of them passed away. He pretended she didn't exist which irked her intensely. He was thirty eight years old, according to the gossip again. He was the constant topic of the local grapevine, amongst her sisters, amongst her neighbors and even at work. She never did understand why people went gaga over the man, so what if he was rich and so what if he was good looking? There were a lot of people who were tall, dark and handsome as well as rich. May be his charm was his arrogance, his uppity holier than thou attitude…enough of thinking about Jai Walia…She wasn't interested in him, in fact, she wasn't interested in any man.
She finished her breakfast and went in for a shower. At twenty-five, she had become one of the young entrepreneurs in the city, a manufacturer of nail polish which she marketed under 'Candied Claws' became a huge hit with young girls in Mumbai. Now she wanted to start a new venture for making a lip gloss, called 'Lip Tide' and she needed to talk to some venture capitalists for the seed capital. She had a power meeting today after a power lunch…
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"Pushkar, you know my sister! She is never going to let me out with you. She doesn't believe in dating and such. She made me write a three page oath when I was eighteen that says that I will not have a boyfriend or date till I am twenty five. I hate her, she is so bloody strict, and she is my goddamn guardian till I am twenty five!" Pia whined to the guy sitting on his bike in a flowery shirt, chewing a grass blade.
"But why, what's wrong with dating, especially in this day and age?" The man was astounded that Bani would forbid her sister from dating.
"She is a witch, she will even make me wear a chastity belt, if she deems it appropriate." Pia bitterly articulated.
"If she has a clue that I am seeing you, she will lock me up behind closed doors and throw the key away." She exaggerated morosely.
Pushkar hung his head equally morosely, "She hates men, doesn't she?"
"She is a hardcore feminist, and she thinks that men are superfluous except for procreation." Pia's eyes flashed with anger.
"God, she will make the life miserable for the man she is going to marry eventually." Pushkar kicked the stand of his motorbike.
"Pushkar, she is my di and I love her, I don't think marriage is on the cards for her. But sometimes, I wish she gets hooked up with a woman hater, they would be just perfect each other, a misogynist and a feminist. Perfect marriage made in heaven." All the pent up frustration came out as Pia pondered her future with Pushkar.
Pushkar looked up thoughtfully at Pia, he knew some one like that, his own boss, the cranky old Mr. Walia who just hated the sight of women. He grinned, his white pearly teeth flashing in his tanned face.
"Did you tell me that your sister was looking for money for her new venture?" Pushkar asked Pia gleefully.
Her eyes narrowed to slits, now what was he up to?
"Yes, but what has that to do with you and I?" Pia looked annoyed at his irrelevant question.
"A lot baby, a lot!" Pushkar whistled happily. "There is this women's charity dinner that I am supposed to organize for the Walias. Of course Jai Walia, my boss extraordinaire, the hotel tycoon and entrepreneur will the chief guest of the occasion. I will invite your Bani di as the young, up and coming woman entrepreneur. We will organize a raffle and you will encourage Susan B Anthony to buy a raffle ticket for a dinner date with Jai Walia."
"Who is Susan B Anthony?" Pia frowned.
Pushkar rolled his eyes, "Your Bani Di, Stupid!"
Pia pushed him angrily, "Don't call me stupid, dumbo!"
They fought like little kids about who is less intelligent than who. After the discourse was over, they sat down to plan the meeting between the two warriors.
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It was not too difficult for Pia to convince Bani di to come to the fundraiser. She told her sister this was one sure way of having Jai Walia all to herself to pitch her idea and ask for the venture capital money.
Bani was slightly skeptical but agreed to share the stage with Jai Walia. After all, she was a business woman, wasn't she?
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Thank you Kanta/Divan for posting this for me, I had open a new link because I can't update the title...
Here is the link that Kanta opened for me with all the comments.
URL Not Available
Pushkar, you are fired!" Jai Walia roared.
"But Jai sir, what did I do?" Pushkar looked bewildered.
"You know how I hate women, why the heck did you make me the chief guest for this function? This is Maasi's pet project, she should be the one who should be sitting at the helm, not me." Jai paced up and down.
"But, sir! I only did what I was told, Maasi said that this year, she will be at a pilgrimage and she wanted to you to chair the event."
"Get some one else to do it, may be Jigyasa or Aditya!" Jai was adamant.
"But sir, they are visiting their children in Bangalore" Pushkar was ready with the answer.
Jai messed up his immaculately greased hair with his fingers. "Darn it, Pushkar!"
Pushkar knew he won the first battle. He turned to go and hesitated at the door.
"Sir, does it mean that I still have the job?"
His sidelong look was rewarded with a fulminating stare. "Yes, but you just lost a big raise!"
Pushkar hung his head and walked out of his boss's cabin.
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"Sir, this box arrived for you!" Tony knocked on the den door and went in with a cardboard box from Amazon.
"Books?" Jai Walia looked up at Tony in confusion, "I don't remember ordering them!" he looked thoughtfully at Tony before reaching inside the box and removing the books from inside.
"The Art of War" by Sun Tzu, "The Art of War" by Machiavelli, "48 laws of power" by Robert Greene" Jai looked perplexed. He read the books when he went to Princeton to do his undergraduate school. Not that he minded reading them again, they were by far some of the best books he read. He wondered who ordered them for him. Pushkar? Probably! The guy looked a bit dejected that he was going to lose his raise for this year. He smiled, may be he deserves it after all.
He put his legs up on to the desk and started reading them.
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"I ordered those books three months ago on-line, because local book stores don't carry them, what do you mean saying that you have shipped them to me? I have checked with the DHL people, they claim that they have delivered it, I have not received them." Bani turned mottled red.
"But, ma'am, we really did send them, I have checked with the shipping department twice, I promise you they have left our shop ten days ago." The person at the other end sounded flustered.
"I am telling you that I have not got them! Let me talk to your manager." Bani cut him short as he started going into explanations again.
"Ma'am, I am the manager, sometimes they deliver the books at some neighbors if you are not home, please check with the next door people." The customer service representative tried to calm her for the umpteenth time.
"Are you telling me that my credit card is charged for the price of the books and you delivered them at my neighbor's house?" Bani screamed.
"Well, I am not saying that we did, but the shipping company might have done it by accident." The man sighed.
She slammed the receiver on to the cradle and walked to the Walia mansion in a huff.
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Tony opened the door after the second knock. When he saw the pretty young lady from next door, he smiled politely but did not let her in. He knew the golden rule, that no woman is allowed in the Walia mansion, other than Aditya Sir's mother, Jai Sir's Maasi and Jai Sir's sister Jigyasa. Even they were grudgingly allowed. Tony was fond of his job, so he did not dare to invite the woman with the flashing eyes into his master's house.
"Ma'am!" He politely nodded at her. "Can I help you?"
"Yes!" Bani was stunned at the butler's rudeness at not allowing her inside. "I am looking for a shipment that might have been delivered here a few days ago, it had three books in it." Bani tried to peer beyond Tony's muscular form, but failed to see anything past him.
"Those are yours?" Tony's eyes widened with shock.
"Yes, they are!" Bani looked relieved. "You have them?"
"Mr. Walia has them." Tony looked back furtively inside.
"Well, go and get them!" Bani tapped her foot and crossed her arms.
"Just wait here!" To her shock, Tony stepped inside and shut the door on her face.
Bani's anger hit the roof, but she had no choice but wait for Tony to come back.
A full ten minutes later, Tony opened the door again, at the insistent knock on the door.
"Here!" He dumped the books into her hands and went back to close the door again on her face. "My employer thought that they were meant for him, he said that next time, you need to give the correct address to the vendors!"
She opened her mouth to cut him down to size but closed it sharply as she knew it was of no use.
Her ire rose like swirling fog on Scottish moors as she saw the annotated marks and comments on each and every book! The pig, he not only read all her books but he commented on them with a yellow highlighter.
She gritted her teeth and left, knowing that she could not afford to pick a fight with the man from whom, she wanted investment for her company.
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The auditorium was packed. All the local businessmen, the ones that made it, the ones who are wannabes, the ambitious, the aspiring, the jaded and the egoistic were all there. It was more of a publicity stunt than a charity event, Bani pursed her lips, especially if Jai Walia, her fuddy duddy neighbor was chairing it; after all, every one knows the man has no love lost for the female gender. She maliciously thought, whoever the girl is who dumped him did the right thing - the man looked like he deserved being dumped.
She smiled graciously as she too the chair next to him and frowned as he pulled the chair away from her without even glancing at her. She pasted a smile on to her face and seethed inside.
After all, all warfare is based on deception, so better to pretend she didn't see that small action by Jai Walia.
When Jai Walia got up to talk, she listened intently, but with each word he spoke, her face started flaming with anger.
"I am so under qualified to come here and talk about women's welfare in front of my esteemed fellow men. It is said that all women should come with instruction manuals, unfortunately I haven't read any of them, so you could say that I am illiterate in that respect." Weak smiles hit the auditorium from the women folk and some male sycophants clapped enthusiastically.
"In the old days it was easy, men kept women bare feet and pregnant. Now the women want a closet full of shoes and would rather keep their figure than getting pregnant." He smiled to soften the blow. "Now you here about Sunita Williams in the space, a woman president in India, possibly a woman president in US in November, it does look like women are taking care of the world!" the women applauded energetically as the sarcasm went over their heads.
"A dean at Stanford University got fired because he talked about the size of brains in men and women, he apparently alluded that women's brains are smaller than men. I think he had a small brain, because even if it were true, I would never say that in public." Again a charming smile appeared on his face. Bani couldn't believe the utter nonsense he was saying.
"Changing the subject a little, Golda Meir had said women's Liberation is just a lot of foolishness. It's the men who are discriminated against. They can't bear children. And no one's likely to do anything about that." Again, the cheers rambled in the room.
"The traditional men's jobs are being taken over by women, and the world order is changing dramatically!" a wistful expression crossed his face.
"Women are becoming a major workforce, and of course, the grouse of most women is that they are still not getting equality in terms of pay and job positions. So of course, my maasi wants me to correct that, this instant!" his eyes turned sorrowful.
"Little does she know that women make better hunters, Men enjoy being thought of as hunters, but are generally too lazy to hunt. Women, on the other hand, love to hunt, but would rather nobody knew it. Of course, I didn't say this, a famous guy said it." Bani was annoyed at the laughter in the auditorium.
The guy was getting away with all kinds of women put downs, and no one seems to know it.
He donated a few lacs toward rural family planning centers, child nutrition centers and amidst incessant clapping sat down and smiled genially at every one.
When Pushkar announced that Jai Walia would award the new young woman entrepreneur award to Bani Dixit, Jai Walia looked irritated.
He stood up at the podium and waited for the woman in a black business suit to walk gracefully toward him. He noted the curves on her body as she glided to the front. He quickly slid a glance toward the woman's face and his body stiffened. She looked like a little girl pretending to be a grown up, but why did he feel a kick in his gut?
She accepted the award from him, and he flinched at the electric touch. She extended her hand to shake hands with him, and he withdrew to fold his hands in a namaste, and she bristled at the high handedness of the man.
But she politely smiled at him and took the mike from his hand, carefully making sure that their hands didn't touch this time.
"I would like to thank Mr. Walia for chairing this important event and donating the money for a worthy cause." She smiled at him, and for the reasons that were completely not understandable to him, his heart started fluttering madly under his inexpensive suit.
"When I was growing up, my mother always told me that as woman I should always hide my brains because I might end up scaring away all the eligible men. She was wrong, I think it takes a strong man to accept a worthy woman with brains, I don't believe in the saying that Brains are an asset, if you hide them." Her eyes darkened with remembered pain about all the men who she scared away.
"I am where I am today because I disregarded my father who told me to marry young and sire a few children, in Mr. Walia's words, he too believed that women should be bare feet and pregnant." Her mouth twisted bitterly.
"My poor mother, just believed whatever my father said. She refused to believe that she was born with brains of her own." Bani's facial expressions hardened with the bitter memories.
A infamous American evangelist said that "I know this is painful for the ladies to hear, but if you get married, you have accepted the headship of a man, your husband. Christ is the head of the household and the husband is the head of the wife, and that's the way it is, period." Boos resounded in the room. "Well, I refuse to accept it, and so should all of the women who are sitting in this room." Bani looked around to see women agreeing to her words. Jai Walia rolled his eyes, making sure that, he didn't get snapped by the photographers.
She ended her speech on a high note, encouraging the women to do their best in life and use all the opportunities they get.
Then Pushkar announced the raffle, and the prize. A dinner date with Jai Walia in one of his best hotels. Jai's eyes turned glacial at the announcement. He looked ready to kill Pushkar. For once, Pushkar developed a thick skin and crossed his fingers hoping that his butt wouldn't get roasted after the event.
Bani paid the money for the raffle ticket and hoped that she would get a chance to pitch her new venture in front of Jai Walia.
When her name was announced as the winner of the raffle, she was stunned, and to her consternation watched Jai Walia fume and fret. She looked guilty because she had an inkling, that her sister was involved in some kind of scam to make her win this lottery.
She was sure that Mr. Walia had no idea that she was his neighbor and she was trying to sell him an idea. She squashed her guilt by convincing herself that if it was a man, he would grab the opportunity just the same way she did.
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Hello every one, please leave your comments - would like to hear from you whether you like this FF so far....
Part 3
https://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=843428&T PN=6
Part 4
https://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=843428&T PN=11
Part 5
https://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=843428&T PN=16
Part 6
https://www.india-forums.com/edit_post.asp?PID=15311389&T PN=20
Part 7
https://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=843428&T PN=26
Part 8
https://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=843428&T PN=31
Part 9
https://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=843428&T PN=36
Part 10 (End)
https://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=843428&T PN=40
Epilogue
https://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=843428&T PN=46
Seher Hone Ko Hai
CID
Indian Premier League
