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Chapter 3
"Oye! Where do you think you are going, girl?"
Geet turned towards the voice and said softly, with little energy, "I'm going to college, Veerji."
Geet could see that Brij veerji was not too happy, so she explained patiently, "I have to start doing my normal activities, Veerji. That's the only way to forget what happened. To put it behind me."
"Have you gone mad? How do you think you can put this disgrace behind you. Once a girl is dishonored, she is stained for life. The only way out is to find an acceptable boy to get you married with right away. Daarji is already looking for someone."
Though it was an expression of disgust, Geet finally showed some life since the terrible incident that changed her life. Glaring at her veerji, she declared, "I don't want to get married. That's what caused all these problems in the first place. I'm going to my school."
When Geet tried to turn away and leave, Brij grabbed her arm with one hand while giving her a tight slap with the other. The noise had the adult women running to see what was wrong. They were shocked to see Brij dragging a stumbling Geet up the stairs, berating her for being foolish and dishonoring the family, going against Daarji and not keeping to her place. He also declared that she would not be leaving the house until they had fixed her alliance with a good family of Daarji's choice.
"No, I don't want to get married, I want to go to school. I haven't done anything wrong and it's not fair to punish me for no fault of my own!"
"OYE!" Brij cried furiously, backhanding Geet across the same cheek he had just slapped, sending her sprawling onto the bedroom floor.
As the ladies gasped in horror, Brij screamed at Geet to stop her defiance. Then he wrenched the doors closed before placing a lock on the outside. Geet pounded and pounded on the door, begging to be let out, requesting her mother to help. Brij threatened the ladies not to let Geet out, before stalking away angrily. The women didn't want to leave Geet in that state, but were too afraid of Brij's wrath to go against him.
Geet hit her door over and over again, desperate to get out, but no one came. Her hands became red and sore, tears streaked down her face, but no one answered. She could feel the stinging in her cheek becoming worse, and soon the pain was just as responsible for her tears as the horrible feelings of abandonment engendered by her family's harsh treatment. Sitting down heavily on her bed in defeat, she cursed the man who was ultimately responsible for her predicament.
At that moment the man responsible had already left for his first official day of work, unaware of the events befalling Geet. His brother was also getting ready to go back to work. One of the servants came to Maan with a request from Savitri to have breakfast with her, but he side stepped it by leaving for Khurana Constructions' main office building.
It was never a good idea for him to be away too long. When he was gone for more than a few days, the employees seemed to take it as an opportunity to slack off, or even become downright negligent. Even those who worked hard seemed to loose much of their efficiency. His two most trusted and valued employees, Sasha and Adi, were no exception.
"Have you found me a new secretary yet?" questioned Maan as glanced over the stack of reports they had given him.
"N..n..no Sir," replied Adi nervously, pushing up his glasses.
"Have you narrowed the list of candidates?"
"Not yet, MK. We didn't think you'd be back for another couple of weeks, so we thought..."
"Sasha, I'm not interested in excuses! I gave this task to the two of you because I can't be bothered with something so mundane, but I still need someone I can work with. You both know my requirements, and I expect you to be able to shift through the prospectives easily enough, without my having to babysit you. Adi, I'm giving you the responsibility in this. Sasha will help with the interviews, but I expect you to see that I get a new secretary, and soon."
"Yes, Sir. R..right away, S..Sir."
When Sasha and Adi continued to sit, Maan glared at them, requesting to know what they were still doing there. Then he ordered them to get going, before starting where he left off reading the reports. Adi jumped up and quickly left the room at his employer's bidding. Sasha took longer to leave as she gave Maan a long look, before sauntering her way out of his cabin.
It was a good day for Maan, who took out a large part of his frustrations on the staff, much to their dismay. They were lazy, incompetent, unqualified and undeserving of his precious time. To reward all this behavior, Maan not only gave them impossible deadlines to finish pending work, but announced that the company would be going after a very important project. It was a little different than what they had done in the past, but the scale of the project was such that if they won it, the reputation of KC would increase ten-fold.
Maan also kept updated on Dev's situation, relieved when the Guragon's branch manager indicated that things had gone well. He was under no illusions that Dev had suddenly changed, but he hoped that at least he hadn't made a mistake in putting his wayward brother to work. He really had come to the end of his tolerance for his brother's misdeeds.
However, he had never had any tolerance for Naintara's machinations at all, and knew she played a big part in leading his brother into wrong paths. Maan had felt a great deal of pleasure when he cancelled Naintara's credit cards, and he had also had Munshiji contact all of the stores where they had credit accounts to inform them not to accept any orders or purchases from her. He didn't care if his methods would be considered too harsh, he was Maan Singh Khurana. He did what he felt like, when he felt like it.
This was all too evident to Naintara, who was waiting for Maan to return from work, fury very evident on her face. She had slept in quite late that morning on the excuse that she was still not recovered from the recent journey. When she woke, she found that not only Maan, but Dev had also gone to work. That suited her fine, allowing her some time alone with Dadima to butter her up, before she left to go shopping with her friends. That was when she discovered the revenge her brother-in-law had taken.
"Naintara," drawled Maan when he entered the outhouse main room and saw her waiting, "to what do I owe this not so pleasurable pleasure of your presence?"
"You know perfectly well why I am here, Maan veerji," she replied, her eyes widening with suppressed fury. "Thanks to your highhanded revenge tactics in canceling my credit cards, I was totally humiliated in front of all my friends. If the shop girl had cut up my card in front of everyone, I couldn't have been more embarrassed. You did all this without informing me anything on purpose, just to see me shamed in society, and I promise that I will not forget it."
"It's impossible for such a shameless creature to feel ashamed, so don't be under any illusion that I expected such a thing to happen. As for doing it without informing you, I spoke with Dev about this two days ago. It's not my problem if he didn't have the courage to inform you of the new reality. Now please don't waste any more of my time in these useless histrionics."
When Maan turned his back on her, Naintara burst out with, "I know why you haven't said anything to Dadima. She would be devastated if I went right now and told her everything that Dev has done. I don't know what effect it would have on her health, but I'm sure it wouldn't be good."
Maan stopped, and Naintara thought she had him. When he turned around, it was clear he was furious, but she knew that Dadima was his weakness. That was why she had planned on brainwashing the old woman, and why she was threatening to disclose Dev's deeds to her now. Though she would be dead if looks could kill, but she wasn't going to back down in front of Maan, not this time.
"I knew that your shatir dimag wouldn't rest from coming up with more plans, but it is not possible to blackmail Maan Singh Khurana. Go ahead and tell Dadima the truth. She won't believe you so easily, so she will come to me for verification. Then I will naturally tell her whose plan this marrying for dowery idea was, and who did all the bribing and encouraging to bring about the fake marriage. How long do you think Dadima's support for you will last after that? She'll see to it that you're thrown out of the house herself."
Naintara stuttered at Maan's calm rebuttal to her threat. "N.n.no, Dadima wouldn't throw me out. I'm the Khurana Bahu, she can't do that, society will gossip about the family if she does that."
Crossing his arms impatiently, Maan said, "You really don't know Dadima that well, if you think society is more important to her than her family. If she comes to know what you convinced Dev to do, comes to know what a vicious viper she has been supporting for the last one year, you will not even recognize her. It's true that I didn't tell Dadima what has been happening due to her health, but if she finds out from some other source, I WILL tell her the truth. Yaad rakhna!"
Naintara left after that set down, even more embarrassed and upset than she had been over the credit incident. Maan had correctly pointed out that she couldn't reveal anything to Dadima without risking her own involvement coming to light. She was sure that Maan was paying close attention to all the Khurana property and assets now, leaving that avenue closed to her also. Yet she was Naintara Rathore! She could not be this easily defeated. It seemed that Dev had caved to his brother, so now it was up to her to discover some other way out of this dilemma, some way that would be totally unexpected.
Precap
Daarji looked once more at the paper in his hand and announced, "There is only one way to handle Geet's situation and restore our honor in front of our neighbors."
"Oye! Where do you think you are going, girl?"
Geet turned towards the voice and said softly, with little energy, "I'm going to college, Veerji."
Geet could see that Brij veerji was not too happy, so she explained patiently, "I have to start doing my normal activities, Veerji. That's the only way to forget what happened. To put it behind me."
"Have you gone mad? How do you think you can put this disgrace behind you. Once a girl is dishonored, she is stained for life. The only way out is to find an acceptable boy to get you married with right away. Daarji is already looking for someone."
Though it was an expression of disgust, Geet finally showed some life since the terrible incident that changed her life. Glaring at her veerji, she declared, "I don't want to get married. That's what caused all these problems in the first place. I'm going to my school."
When Geet tried to turn away and leave, Brij grabbed her arm with one hand while giving her a tight slap with the other. The noise had the adult women running to see what was wrong. They were shocked to see Brij dragging a stumbling Geet up the stairs, berating her for being foolish and dishonoring the family, going against Daarji and not keeping to her place. He also declared that she would not be leaving the house until they had fixed her alliance with a good family of Daarji's choice.
"No, I don't want to get married, I want to go to school. I haven't done anything wrong and it's not fair to punish me for no fault of my own!"
"OYE!" Brij cried furiously, backhanding Geet across the same cheek he had just slapped, sending her sprawling onto the bedroom floor.
As the ladies gasped in horror, Brij screamed at Geet to stop her defiance. Then he wrenched the doors closed before placing a lock on the outside. Geet pounded and pounded on the door, begging to be let out, requesting her mother to help. Brij threatened the ladies not to let Geet out, before stalking away angrily. The women didn't want to leave Geet in that state, but were too afraid of Brij's wrath to go against him.
Geet hit her door over and over again, desperate to get out, but no one came. Her hands became red and sore, tears streaked down her face, but no one answered. She could feel the stinging in her cheek becoming worse, and soon the pain was just as responsible for her tears as the horrible feelings of abandonment engendered by her family's harsh treatment. Sitting down heavily on her bed in defeat, she cursed the man who was ultimately responsible for her predicament.
At that moment the man responsible had already left for his first official day of work, unaware of the events befalling Geet. His brother was also getting ready to go back to work. One of the servants came to Maan with a request from Savitri to have breakfast with her, but he side stepped it by leaving for Khurana Constructions' main office building.
It was never a good idea for him to be away too long. When he was gone for more than a few days, the employees seemed to take it as an opportunity to slack off, or even become downright negligent. Even those who worked hard seemed to loose much of their efficiency. His two most trusted and valued employees, Sasha and Adi, were no exception.
"Have you found me a new secretary yet?" questioned Maan as glanced over the stack of reports they had given him.
"N..n..no Sir," replied Adi nervously, pushing up his glasses.
"Have you narrowed the list of candidates?"
"Not yet, MK. We didn't think you'd be back for another couple of weeks, so we thought..."
"Sasha, I'm not interested in excuses! I gave this task to the two of you because I can't be bothered with something so mundane, but I still need someone I can work with. You both know my requirements, and I expect you to be able to shift through the prospectives easily enough, without my having to babysit you. Adi, I'm giving you the responsibility in this. Sasha will help with the interviews, but I expect you to see that I get a new secretary, and soon."
"Yes, Sir. R..right away, S..Sir."
When Sasha and Adi continued to sit, Maan glared at them, requesting to know what they were still doing there. Then he ordered them to get going, before starting where he left off reading the reports. Adi jumped up and quickly left the room at his employer's bidding. Sasha took longer to leave as she gave Maan a long look, before sauntering her way out of his cabin.
It was a good day for Maan, who took out a large part of his frustrations on the staff, much to their dismay. They were lazy, incompetent, unqualified and undeserving of his precious time. To reward all this behavior, Maan not only gave them impossible deadlines to finish pending work, but announced that the company would be going after a very important project. It was a little different than what they had done in the past, but the scale of the project was such that if they won it, the reputation of KC would increase ten-fold.
Maan also kept updated on Dev's situation, relieved when the Guragon's branch manager indicated that things had gone well. He was under no illusions that Dev had suddenly changed, but he hoped that at least he hadn't made a mistake in putting his wayward brother to work. He really had come to the end of his tolerance for his brother's misdeeds.
However, he had never had any tolerance for Naintara's machinations at all, and knew she played a big part in leading his brother into wrong paths. Maan had felt a great deal of pleasure when he cancelled Naintara's credit cards, and he had also had Munshiji contact all of the stores where they had credit accounts to inform them not to accept any orders or purchases from her. He didn't care if his methods would be considered too harsh, he was Maan Singh Khurana. He did what he felt like, when he felt like it.
This was all too evident to Naintara, who was waiting for Maan to return from work, fury very evident on her face. She had slept in quite late that morning on the excuse that she was still not recovered from the recent journey. When she woke, she found that not only Maan, but Dev had also gone to work. That suited her fine, allowing her some time alone with Dadima to butter her up, before she left to go shopping with her friends. That was when she discovered the revenge her brother-in-law had taken.
"Naintara," drawled Maan when he entered the outhouse main room and saw her waiting, "to what do I owe this not so pleasurable pleasure of your presence?"
"You know perfectly well why I am here, Maan veerji," she replied, her eyes widening with suppressed fury. "Thanks to your highhanded revenge tactics in canceling my credit cards, I was totally humiliated in front of all my friends. If the shop girl had cut up my card in front of everyone, I couldn't have been more embarrassed. You did all this without informing me anything on purpose, just to see me shamed in society, and I promise that I will not forget it."
"It's impossible for such a shameless creature to feel ashamed, so don't be under any illusion that I expected such a thing to happen. As for doing it without informing you, I spoke with Dev about this two days ago. It's not my problem if he didn't have the courage to inform you of the new reality. Now please don't waste any more of my time in these useless histrionics."
When Maan turned his back on her, Naintara burst out with, "I know why you haven't said anything to Dadima. She would be devastated if I went right now and told her everything that Dev has done. I don't know what effect it would have on her health, but I'm sure it wouldn't be good."
Maan stopped, and Naintara thought she had him. When he turned around, it was clear he was furious, but she knew that Dadima was his weakness. That was why she had planned on brainwashing the old woman, and why she was threatening to disclose Dev's deeds to her now. Though she would be dead if looks could kill, but she wasn't going to back down in front of Maan, not this time.
"I knew that your shatir dimag wouldn't rest from coming up with more plans, but it is not possible to blackmail Maan Singh Khurana. Go ahead and tell Dadima the truth. She won't believe you so easily, so she will come to me for verification. Then I will naturally tell her whose plan this marrying for dowery idea was, and who did all the bribing and encouraging to bring about the fake marriage. How long do you think Dadima's support for you will last after that? She'll see to it that you're thrown out of the house herself."
Naintara stuttered at Maan's calm rebuttal to her threat. "N.n.no, Dadima wouldn't throw me out. I'm the Khurana Bahu, she can't do that, society will gossip about the family if she does that."
Crossing his arms impatiently, Maan said, "You really don't know Dadima that well, if you think society is more important to her than her family. If she comes to know what you convinced Dev to do, comes to know what a vicious viper she has been supporting for the last one year, you will not even recognize her. It's true that I didn't tell Dadima what has been happening due to her health, but if she finds out from some other source, I WILL tell her the truth. Yaad rakhna!"
Naintara left after that set down, even more embarrassed and upset than she had been over the credit incident. Maan had correctly pointed out that she couldn't reveal anything to Dadima without risking her own involvement coming to light. She was sure that Maan was paying close attention to all the Khurana property and assets now, leaving that avenue closed to her also. Yet she was Naintara Rathore! She could not be this easily defeated. It seemed that Dev had caved to his brother, so now it was up to her to discover some other way out of this dilemma, some way that would be totally unexpected.
Precap
Daarji looked once more at the paper in his hand and announced, "There is only one way to handle Geet's situation and restore our honor in front of our neighbors."
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