Apologies for the delay. I was neck-deep in work 😊🍁
Link to the previous parts –
Chapter 8
Virat slowly leaned behind, resting against the backrest of his chair, stretching one of his legs under his desk, and folding the other near him as he slightly rocked his chair. His eyes sized up the speaker with the keen focus of an eagle. One of his hands was on the table while the other held the pen rotating it between the fingers. He did not speak anything for a long time. The three-member delegation meeting him got the cue that their presentation had failed to impress the decision-making authority. The speaker, a man in his late twenties, with a clean shave and gelled hair, wearing a neatly ironed business suit closed his laptop and asked in a low tone, “Give us another chance, please? We’ll prepare better next time.”
Virat replied politely but firmly, “I do not believe in second chances if something is not working for me. Next time, either you will adjust your vision according to us or expect us to do so. None is good for a healthy business relationship. Your ideas are good. Just not for us.”
The team stood up. “Thank you for listening.”
Virat nodded but did not speak after that. The team was shown the door and Virat’s manager Robin walked out with them to complete some formalities. Virat straightened in his chair and dragged his laptop forward to check his emails but his mind took him back to the presentation. Were they really that bad? Or did he speak out of his prejudice towards people trivializing the world of designs? Whatever it was, he had never thought about any meeting or presentation after the discussion was over. He was proud of his people-reading skills and business acumen. For the first time, he felt like walking on the grey cliff of confusion in business dealings. He rubbed the first two fingers of his left hand to ward off the nagging ache growing inside his head.
He picked up his office phone to call Niyati’s cabin. When she didn’t reply, he saw the time. It was fifteen minutes past 7 pm. It was time to go home. He remembered Niyati leaving the office early to deal with an urgent issue at the factory. He had been busy with a row of meetings after lunch, so he didn’t know the details of it but was confident about Niyati’s skills to deal with all sorts of emergencies at the office or factory. In the last four years, Niyati had proved to be one of the most capable assets Zenite had. Virat was proud to have her in his team.
Virat asked Robin to wrap up the day’s work and get the driver to bring his car out of the parking. He picked up his laptop, pens and diaries, stuffing them in his deep brown faux leather bag and walked out of his room. As he stepped out of the elevator, Virat took out his cell phone to call Niyati. The phone kept ringing but she didn’t answer. He tapped his foot impatiently before his car was out of the garage. The driver gave him the keys and left. Everyone knew that Virat drives his cars and there was no exception to this rule until he specified.
Virat took the keys, threw his bag on the rear seat and sat inside the car, calling Niyati. She didn’t reply again. He started driving, wondering if she was still at the factory. He checked the GPS on his phone to see where she was. Long back, he had connected the GPS of their phones so they could always check where the other was, at any moment. The signal showed her to be somewhere near Petite Pont.
‘What is she doing there?’ he wondered, taking his lower lip under the upper, bringing his brows together in a frown.
Now and then, Niyati’s words swam back to his mind. He refused to believe even a bit of her doubt that they were drifting apart or maybe on the way to it.
What made her feel so? And why did he never feel that? Is she not happy with me? For a small moment, his heart sank remembering how he had never bothered asking her if she was happy. He had simply assumed she was. Maybe because she looked happy to me, he thought to himself.
Virat expertly manoeuvred the car at a parking area near Petite Pont and walked on foot from there, following his phone to track the GPS signal to Niyati’s location. It was almost 08.30 pm, the time when she was usually home. Taking quick steps from the Pont, he turned to take the stairs down towards the ‘quay,’ a narrow passage nestled between the bridge wall and the calmly flowing river. With a quickened heartbeat, he hoped she was fine. The crowd thinned at this serene area, away from the noise and commotion of the bustling city, making these secluded pockets into cosy sanctuaries reminiscing the soul of the city. As he moved forward, the dimmed lights cast a shadow of the trees and the bridge, and reflected from the flowing river to the wall as if a striped fabric running through the wall. A soft silhouette on the parapet by the riverside with a faint sound of violin relieved him. He heaved a deep sigh and slowed down for he recognised the melody and the notes. When he was sufficiently near her, he stopped and leaned against a bench without disturbing her or making any sound of his presence. It had been more than four years since she had learned to play the violin. Virat had always admired how she learned like a child and played like a maestro. Her finesse was beginning to be evident with time. Regular practice had breathed life into her music and Virat found himself eternally captivated whenever she played. He could lose himself listening to her playing for hours on end, he was sure.
When she stopped playing, he clapped for her and walked ahead to sit on the parapet beside her. Snow had melted by this side but it was still cold. She turned her pretty neck to look at him and smiled without even a flicker of surprise in her eyes or expressions.
“Aren’t you surprised to see me here?” he spoke, rubbing his hands with each other to warm them.
She nodded with a soft chuckle, “No. I was expecting you here.”
“No wayyy!” he spread his hands in the air, nodding to dismiss her claim.
She sighed, with a huge, visible vapour escaping her lips as she spoke, “I did! Really. I knew you would check the GPS and come here. You usually find me wherever I am.”
He was flabbergasted. “Do I? I never realised how often I did it that it became predictable.”
“It is,” she smiled, scrunching her nose.
He began to get irked by now, “Aren’t you feeling cold? It is super freezing here.”
“I am! But I didn’t intend to stay for long.”
He was far from being pacified. “This place is not even safe. Don’t you know some goons or miscreants might be lurking in these dark corners at night and may attack you?”
She tried to appear reasonable, stressing on every word, “I told you I was waiting for you. I knew you would be here in some time. I didn’t call you before leaving because you were in meetings. So, I assumed that you would automatically find me.”
“Goshh! You are crazy. What if my meeting continued till late? What if I hadn’t checked your location and reached home? What if my phone was discharged?”
She shrugged innocently, making him huff and roll his eyes.
“So? Tell me, do I play well?”
“Out of the world!” he replied proudly, without being subtle about it.
Her smile grew wider. “I’m so happy.”
He shifted closer to her, their legs touching each other, dangling down the parapet over the river. He asked, “Now, you tell me, why are you here? At this time of night?”
She rolled her eyes, pressed her lips and smiled more.
“Come on! Chuck the suspense.”
“I don’t want to go home.” She whispered, sheepishly.
“What happened? Did someone…uhh…” he tried to think of the reason why she was avoiding home.
“Dadi!” She broke his chain of thoughts, spilling the beans, “She asked me to take her to shopping today. I had a meeting with the new designers.”
He continued, “So, you refused? What’s the big deal about it?”
“Exactly! That’s what I said. But she didn’t take it well and was slightly mad at me.”
He smirked, “What’s new in that? You and Dadi are not really the best of friends.”
She whined, “She hates me.”
“I’m not sure of that. If she hated you, she wouldn’t have asked you to go shopping with her. She trusts your choice as a designer, so she wants you with her. But she also thinks that she is the most important person in the family, so she wants you to give her your time and attention as per her requirements.”
“Which is not fair,” Niyati said.
Virat pressed his lips and shrugged, thinking about the entire scenario. Then, he asked, “Do you want me to talk to her.”
“Of course, not! I can speak for myself. You don’t need to intervene. Moreover, I don’t want her to be mad at you. Let her wrath stay on me.”
“It’s not exactly ‘wrath’…” he said.
“It is! She harbours a certain dislike for me since the day we were married. We might have patched up after we returned to Paris but something is stuck in her chest like a thorn. She isn’t able to love me like she loves everyone else.”
“Why do you want everyone to love you?” he asked.
She nodded, thinking about it, and said, “I don’t. I’m not looking forward to Maya Chachi and Dadi hugging me and loving me wholeheartedly. But… I don’t know… I would have appreciated it if they tried to understand me.”
“Why? That’s what I am asking. Why will anyone try to understand you? And why does it even matter to you? Ni, this world is a cold dark place and people will never go out of their way to make you feel comfortable. Either you naturally get along with some people or you can make efforts to be in the good books of others if they fulfil your interests. Everything else is a lie.”
Without blinking, she looked at his face, once again bowled by his thought process. He was a complicated man himself. She smiled, “I wish I was as sorted as you. You don’t even care if someone likes you or not.”
“And you do.”
She shrugged, thinking about it deeply, while speaking, “Uhh…I try not to… but… I wish Dadi liked me more. So… maybe yes… I think I do care what people think about me.”
“Don’t bother wasting your time. People are bad investments,” he said, standing up and giving his hand to her. She took his hand and stood up too, dusting her trousers.
Grinning at his example, she asked, “Since you talk mostly in business language, I wonder what is marriage for you? Good investment or bad?”
He chuckled, “Marriage is not an investment. It’s a merger.”
……
They ate dinner at one of the restaurants at Latin Quarters and reached home late. Slowly and quietly, they sneaked inside and tip-toed through the stairs, hoping that Dadi would be asleep by the time they entered their room.
Finally, they shut the door from inside.
“For how long are you going to avoid Dadi?” Virat asked, pulling out his track pants and T-shirt to change.
“Just a few days, until she forgets I didn’t go shopping with her,” she smiled, giving him his towel.
He held her hand instead, “Why don’t you be straightforward and tell her that you don’t like to go jewellery shopping with her and you have pending assignments at the office since it is year-end?”
With a sad face, Niyati said, “I told you, I said that to her. She became angry. And to be honest, I feel bad for her. Already, Dadu is avoiding her and going to a ‘timeout’ place to be away from her. I wish I could help her…”
“Don’t!” Virat immediately corrected her, “Stay away from their issues, Ni. They don’t need our help.”
“Of course! I understand. I’m not going to interfere. I was just worried.”
“Dadi has Maya Chachi to keep her company. Both women have nothing much to do in life except shopping, partying and clubbing. Let them sort their issues themselves.” Virat left her hand and walked away towards the washroom.
Niyati’s jaw dropped, “That was so rude, Virat.”
He stopped at the door of the washroom and turned around to reply, “Harsh fact, as clear as it sounds. You know, Ni, that I don’t sugarcoat the truth.”
He closed the door of the washroom behind him and Niyati stood there for some time, staring at the door. He wasn’t wrong. Dadi and Maya Chachi were two complex people who liked and disliked people according to their convenience. They loved their family, but that included Virat, Yash and Dadu. It had been four years but Niyati was yet to make a permanent place in their hearts. Sometimes, it seemed to her that they liked her. They asked her to be part of important occasions, took her opinions on designs and jewellery, and cared for her when she was not well. But at other times, they became angry very easily, especially when she did something they didn’t like. When Virat refused them for something, they would simply laugh about it but when Niyati refused, they took it personally and made it an ego issue. They gave most of their work to Niyati and never disturbed Virat. Virat was off-limits for them. Moreover, Virat’s work at the office was always more important than Niyati’s. It had become a routine tussle for Niyati to explain to them how she worked as hard as everyone in the office. They didn’t care. Dadi had once suggested that Niyati too could sit at home and join the kitty party with them because she didn’t need to go to the office.
Still, Niyati felt bad for both of them. She didn’t know why but she wished they liked her more and she could do something to make them happy. She sat down on the bed, thinking so deeply about the issue, that she didn’t notice when Virat returned from the washroom and was now standing near the bed looking at her like she was a hopeless case.
“I hope you are not thinking about the kitchen politics,” he said, sitting beside her.
Niyati smiled, embarrassed about the accusation, and slowly replied, “I feel uneasy. As if something is about to turn the winds in the house… as if a storm is approaching…”
With a subtle tug at her wrist, he drew her closer and slowly gathered her in his arms before he lowered his face over hers.
“You are right. I am the storm.”
………………..
Thank you for reading 🙂
This was what made me smile today. Thank you 🙂 💖
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