Non hostile takeover
“Quit reading eat your dinner” Anubha ordered
The twins were on their phones and Naina was reveling in hernew found love for Papa
“Inko kuch nahi kahengi?” Viveka pointed to the twins
“Didi we don’t bring our phones everyday to dinner” Diya was all catty
They did high five
“Only sometimes?” “OK” Veev mocked them
“Diya Karuna… off… NOW”
“MA tell Di no”
“Di ko bhi kahoongi”
Viveka looked up at her Papa
“Proof kar rahi hai kar lene do Anu”
“NO… yehi sab kuch karte rehte ho aap, Mongolia ka povertyrate, women’s right to vote… she is always buried in it”
“It’s a good thing na” Naina mumbled
“TUM to baat mat karo”
“Anu” Akash gently tapped her hand
“Earring kidhar gayi?” Anu demanded of Viveka
“Which one?” she asked looking up from her paper
“Do mujhe paper”
Viveka handed it reluctantly “I have to call him again hesaid 3 things don’t look right” she was rarely “there” pretty much alwaysspaced out
“Viveka KYA hai beta?”
The couple exchanged a look
“WHAT?” she was irritated now
“Earring kidhar hai? Beta?” Anubha looked at her left earlobe
Viveka felt it lazily “Umm.. oh! I don’t know”
Anubha looked at Akash furiously
“Veev beta?” Akash intervened
Viveka just ate quietly
“I don’t know OK?” I don’t know Ma” Viveka mutterednervously
“Aapki DADI ne di aapko last year, in logon ne iphone leliya aapne kuch nahi liya, to who yeh dilaakar gayin”
“I am sorry, I can stop eating and look” Viveka got up
“drama nahi chup chaap baitho…”
The twins giggled
Naina tried not to smile
“Usne maanga bhi nahi Amma ne yoon hi dilayi, its OK” Akashtried to cover for her
“HEERE ki its OK?” Anu was shocked
“Kya kiya jaaye?”
“Dhoondegi”
“Kab pehni thi?”
“Umm.. this morning I guess…” Viveka rolled her spoonbetween her fingers distractedly
“Ph D karne jaaoogey, aapke ghar pe koi ghuskar baithjaayega aapko dikhega bhi nahi” Anubha was dismayed
“If he is cute I will notice” Viveka wise cracked
The girls started to laugh
Akash did too
“Tumhara intruder CUTE hoga” she was still angry
“I am sorry I will look but first can I please finish corrections and resend to Prof Ansari? He is part of the hiring committee atJNU”
“nashi mein hai” Anubha commented sadly
“Let her be Anu” Akash cleared his throat
“Mujhe raat taq milihoni chahiye
“Jee Ma”
“Jaipur pehankar gayi?”
“No… she wore her gorgeous nose ring… that silver flower and tiny earrings, not this one” Naina spoke like an idiot reminding Anubha what the big crisis at home was
“lets eat” Anubha rubbed her forehead
Akash and Viveka got into an argument over the New Education Policy proposal
Viveka’s eyes shone bright, her cheeks were flushed and her tone passionate, Anubha noticed
Like someone had waved a wand over her sleeping child
She worried for this one
She was unaware and clueless and nerdy, she was quick witted and smart but did not pay attention to most things
“Naina tum jao soney, kal jaana hai na office?” Akash took apot shot at her
“Papa pleaseee”
“Main agar Ma se lada to living room mein so oonga” he laughed
Anubha laughed out loud
“I can move out” Naina grumbled
“OH I AM SURE” Anubha lashed
“Di can I come stay with you? There are SO MANY FREAKING ruleshere” Karuna whined
“Yes… please do… khaana bhi achha bana leti hai…” Anubhalaughed gently
“You think so?” Naina jumped up and hugged her
“Bhindi achhi bani hai”
“Isko bhi le jao… aapki Didi neend mein chalti rehti hai”
“she is fine” Akash paused the argument
The rest left the table. Viveka and Akash yapped for thenext hour
Akash went to bed to find the text
“Thank you bhaisaab”
“Weekends free rakhen aap, invite bhejta hoon”
“Arey don’t worry… we will meet” Akash politely declined
“Kaun hai?” Anubha peeked
“Who… dost”
“KAUN dost?” Anubha blocked his view and scrolled on his tex
“Privacy please” he laughed
She playfully pushed him on the bed
“Oh well what do u know” she laughed
“Do yaar phone mujhe”
“I will absolutely not go. Good luck with the friendship”
“Mera dil na tod yaar” he mocked
They laughed together
“Main khud lene aaoonga sir” Satyen insisted kindly
“Mrs kaafi busy rehtin hain, abhi Turkey se aayin, she mightgo again”
“Bring your daughters… we will have you over again after hersecond trip to Turkey”
“Aap ne apnea ap ko Ingersoll ka CEO to nahi kaha?” he askedhis wife as she lay down by him yawning
“Kyon?”
“Maybe he wants a non-hostile takeover”
They laughed again, Akash did not respond they turned offthe lights, karuna was assigned to sleep in Naina’s room
Not sure why Anubha bothered, Naina was back to texting andface timing literally behind Karuna’s sleeping back, She showed Inder her lovebite and made him coo over her
Viveka cleaned up the table and went looking on her bed for5 minutes and quietly snuck to her computer, with her balcony door open shestared out rolling the pencil between her fingers as she rewrote parts ProfAnsari recommended, struck it out rewrote it
Anubha peeked “Mili earring?”
“Umm.. no… I know where it mightbe, I will look tomorrow” Viveka pushed mother off her back and and startedtyping her penciled edits
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Somewhere in delhi in a large opulent bungalow, Raanav Parashar washed his hands furiously at his bathroom sink
Looked up at his reflection and found something sparkling in his greyish graphic tee… he thought it was a droplet of water… finished up wiped his hands in a towel and looked again
A tiny diamond earring with a U shaped hook like clasp hung from under his left pec
He pulled it out and stared at it confused
Held it in his palm and looked down at it
It sparkled in fury under the custom bath lights, he stared at it for a few minutes and hung it on the edge of his tooth brush cup, its wayed side to side before settling in.
As he made his way to the garden he wondered if he should bring it to his mother and ask her, if it belonged to the help that ironed his tee shirt
“Rakshit aur tum chale jao beta” Smrita urged him even before he could get the scoop
“where?”
“Who Aspen, Colorado ja raha hai”
They had factories across Maharashta Yavatmal, Aurangabad and Amravati
Aurangabad was the automobile shocks/struts manufacturing plant in partnership with a US company called Motocraft
Yavatmal and Amravati had farm equipment manufacturing plants, shredders, thrashers, harvesters, mechanical ploughs
“He is barely back”
“You Dad will send him away again to Aurangabad” Smrita mocked
The siblings gave each other a bro hug
“All good?” Rakshit enquired
“Hmm… he wanted me to go help his new friends so I am being good” Raanav informed
The sons talked about their recent work
“Be proud” Satyen smiled fondly
“I am” Smrita bristled
“Di u notice that.. gentleman last night his eyes were likebeacons” Satyen recalled wistfully
“His daughter went with Inder to Jaipur” Smrita began poisoning him
“THAT one?” he was purely shocked
“He has so many I doubt even if HE remembers”
Satyen smiled but shook his head at her caustic humor “where do u come up with that stuff”
“I am not kidding, ask Raanav”
“Was it that girl?” Satyen could not believe it
“Which one are you talking about
“Jo umm… office mein, Raanav se, she was in a feisty argument over income inequality or something”
HUH” Smrita knew EXACTLY who that was but pretended to not remember
“Could have been anybody Satya” “Their house is half the size of ours and they keep doing dinner parties”
“Achhe log hain bhai”
“Uh”
Satyen went on his phone and asked for Akash’s number from Kamal Shrivastav and texted Akash
But there was no response
“Akriti ki family se sab milne chalogey?” Smrita cooed
“Itne pyaar se baat kar rahi ho to zaroor koi baat hogi, “
“They are classy people”
“UNLIKE?”
“Koi bhi to nahi” she looked at him innocently
“Do hafte lag jaayenge mujhe to go to every factory, comeback sit down with Raanav talk about that fiber optic thing”
“Rakshit is the President, he manages the Operations let himdo it”
“You do understand the difference between CEO and President don’tyou? President is Ops, CEO is strategy, direction, future… Raanav should begroomed soon”
“Dono full time kaha karenge”
“they have to, I did it…”
“Unki chaar betiyan hain” Satyen reminded his wife
“Kinki? Vermas? (Akriti’s parents)
“Arey nahi… Kamal ji ke saale saahab ki”
“I don’t even know who that is”
“If you are done fussing over him, can Inder go back?”Raanav walked over to ask
“KAHAN?”
“Just… back… you know… Mauritius… London… Mamaji might want him back” he spoke silkily
Not letting his mother on any secret
“Arey… let him be here” Satyen yawned
“He was saying something about leaving” Raanav spoke coolly
“Ruko, aa gaya phone Karmakar hai, ek second (Satyen’s assistant, man Friday)” Satyen got off the fine rattan chair
“Is he going back?” Bhai ne to kuch kaha nahi” Smrita was curious
“I think its better for him”
“Why?”
“Umm.. just sayin… “
“Is it about the girl that spent the week with him in Jaipur? (IT WAS THREE DAYS AND THREE NIGHTS)
“Hmm”
“Does she want to come over HERE?” smriti sat up alert as if Naina was a homeless orphan
“Well… can you blame her? I mean look at this house” he let his eyes wander the gorgeous bungalow, the property lit with enough lights to illuminate a stadium
“Of course I can blame her… they wander around rich people’s homes claiming rishtedaari… and now look… “Yayy.. I won my prize… Inder Dhamija!!” Smrita spoke in an affected mocking voice
Book Talk
Shiv Shakti
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