Current

Summery:
once the pinnacle of success, the house of Maheshwari now lies in the brink of ruin. Caught in plots of one son and wills of another tearing apart is imminent. Two women caught between the clash of men tries to stay afloat as the tide turns.
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Sky was bruised, gathering clouds of purple, plum and mauve to hide the bleeding cut in western horizon where behind a fault line of buildings a weary sun settled to sleep. Breeze sweeping across the lawn carried heavy hint of monsoon - thickly scented as it brushed over kaamini flowers in the vicinity.

Annapurna Maheshwari sat in relative recluse in the backyard, watching as her grandson Shantanu played with his puppy. Off handedly she thought that she should hurry the boy inside before rain fell, but outwardly she made no move to rise. On her lap sat the morning's newspaper, folded hastily and dropped to her lap - but it's business page frontline never dropping from her mind.

Karma and Co. the new driving force behind Nirvana Hotels.

It sounded so like Sanskar, this taking his opponent unaware - this rising from still waters - this strike in the back.

It's been ten years since she had last seen him. Surely, he was no longer the brash 21 years old boy who left the great Maheshwari name behind, but a man - a begrudgingly compelling man. A silver tongued, iron fisted, ice tempered man who had crumpled Adarsh's years of hard work with cold blooded precision and perhaps along with it that tentative bond between Adarsh and his parents.

Annapurna had laboured over keeping her family intact for decades. She may have allowed Sanskar his little rebellion of leaving them behind, but her own children she had kept in fast clutches.

She was a blushing nineteen years old when she joined this prestigious family but since then Annapurna had always managed to rule the Maheshwaris with such finesse of a well oiled machine.

There was little that went on under her roof that she did not know of. She had known of Sanskar and his questionable feelings for a girl with unsuitable background. She had had enough insight to have predicted the outcome that came about.
Yet Annapurna had let that happen. Let the only child of her younger brother in law leave them - knowing, perhaps that he may never return.

She had two sons of her own to think about. There was Uttara too - her rather young daughter.

Had it ever come to a comparison between Adarsh, her eldest and Sanskar, one year his junior, Annapurna feared her son would have came out with the shorter end of the stick. It wouldn't have done.

Over a decade since, she had not regretted her choice. Sanskar was smart, sharp and resourceful. He could make a life of his own. Perhaps even a better life of his own. Sometimes, when Annapurna indulged herself she liked to think that she had given him that push towards success. She had surely done right by him.

But it seemed that Sanskar would not agree. This return of his was enough evidence on that front. He was out for blood and now Nirvana chain, Adarsh's sweat and blood, was theirs no longer.

The business page had allocated a little column to report Adarsh Maheshwari's fallout with his father as well. In no uncertain terms had the article quoted that Adarsh was no longer looking to tie himself with Maheshwari group, the proverbial sinking ship.

Annapurna left out an exhale that rattled the corners of the paper and her hand clutched at air. She had allowed Sanskar to leave the shade of Maheshwaris and grow; but in the meantime she had lost her children one after the other.

It was still with a pang of pain that she thought of Lakshya. He was the twinkle of her eye, the darling joy of her life. There was nothing left of him but heart wrenching memories, a grieving wife and a toddler son.

The thought brought her back to Shantanu, now a drizzle had begun to fall at its earnest; soaking through the newspaper in her lap in damp patches. The boy and the puppy had stopped their catch game and instead were rolling on the grass, allowing the drizzle to wet them thoroughly.
Annapurna stood up, leaving the newspaper on the garden chair that she sat on and hurried to her grandson.

"Shantanu!" She called, "andar chaliye, you'll fall sick beta!" For the life of her, Annapurna never called him by his beloved nickname; Sunny.

It was too much of a connection, she did not want that reminder of Sanskar on her tongue everyday. Little Shantanu was Lakshya in every possible way, the most precious gift her darling son had left behind. She'd rather not brittle that affection with a link to Sanskar - the one son to leave them, and then seek to destroy them with no apparent second thoughts.

Annapurna reached her grandson and clutched at his shoulder, covering his head with her pallu she hurried him back towards the towering manor house.

The puppy made a move to chase after them, still in playful stupor, but Annapurna shooed it away. She had allowed the animal after much pestering of her daughter in law, but she would never allow it inside the house. The puppy stopped, crestfallen and watched its master being led inside.

Shantanu turned around several times to look back at it, before Annapurna had finally pulled him inside.

"Buddy is out in the rain daadi ma," he made a whiny protest. "He'll fall sick too!"

Shantanu's lower lip jutted out and his eyes brimmed.

Annapurna heaved a weary sigh.
"Raam Singh!" She called and when the older servant appeared, fetched from more pressing duties elsewhere in the house, she ordered him distastefully. "Put the dog back in its shed."
Then she turned back to her grandson.
"Boys don't cry so beta, come, you need to change out of those wet clothes."

Shantanu has always been a fragile child. Precious and pampered yes, especially considering how they become aware of his existence only after Lakshya's death; but a child with a weak constitution nevertheless. Annapurna could not allow him to build up a weak character also, one prone to emotional breakdowns.

Shantanu would inherit all their lives' work one day; with Adarsh and Parinita being childless as they are Shantanu was their sole heir.

"Will ma take a long while more to return?" Shantanu asked, as Annapurna helped him into a spiderman t - shirt, after his hot bath.

The rain was pouring incessantly now, blurring everything outside into dark blues, greens and occasional red.

Durga Prasad Maheshwari, Annapurna's formidable husband was out attending a yacht club dinner hosted by one of their business associates. Swara, Shantanu's ma and Annapurna's youngest daughter in law had accompanied him.

It had been a while since they decided to involve Swara in the business matters. If Shantanu was to inherit someday, she'd have to get her hands in the affairs now so that she could guide him in the future.

It had unpredictably brought Adarsh's ire. Apparently for no reason he pointed out that Swara had never been involved when her husband was alive. Of cause not, they weren't aware of her existence until after Lakshya's death were they? If Adarsh's wife Parinita could make social appearances and host her husband's business events why couldn't Swara? But then Adarsh had argued, Pari did not, would not join the company now would she? Neither would she attend board meetings?

Annapurna shook her head, that argument had been weeks back, way before Adarsh lost Nirvana chain. She hadn't seen her son since. He has not been coming home. Perhaps he was more furious now; being a board member Swara might have witnessed him being humiliated as he lost his life's work.

Better let him have his seclusion to lick his wounds. He would be seeing both his father and Swara at the yacht club dinner, and of cause they would talk him around and bring him home.

Adarsh has never been one to hold long grudges.

Annapurna shook her head to herself, as she settled Shantanu with his colouring books - some or other promise of his Ma returning soon and glanced out of the window once more.

They would be back soon.

As if her thought had just jinxed something, the vintage telephone in the centre hall began to ring. It made a hollow sound in the empty hallway, an ominous foreshadowing of the news that awaited in the line.

Treeeng....treeeng....treeeng! It went.

*

Their argument had begun out of nowhere. Both her older brother in law and her father in law had been walking on egg shells around each other for weeks now. Ever since that - well, Swara wouldn't say the take over - because these father and son had fallen out long before that.

Adarsh was an insecure man, rather greedy but incompetent to achieve what he wanted. Swara had no qualms of listing out his weaknesses. He had never made her feel much welcome.

In fact, during those very first weeks she had spent with the Maheshwaris, she had felt the down right maliciousness he displayed towards his baby nephew; Sunny.

Adarsh might think he played it cool, with those lavish soft toys he had brought for Sunny, but Swara had caught the expression on his face when he thought no one was looking at him. Also, she knew that he made three background checks on her during that first month. It seemed the older Maheshwari scion found it hard to believe that his brother could meet, love and marry a girl of his choise in a foreign country and keep the news from them, for the childish reason of surprising them.

But that had not been a story she invented. Lakshya had indeed met the girl of his dreams in Hungary, married her and kept the matter from his orthodox family for such a long time. He was juvenile like that and also unaware of how cruel fate and some people could possibly be.

This older brother of his, Swara hated to admit was another Lakshya did not recognise. Adarsh wanted no other contenders for his throne that much was certain. Now that his right to claim it in itself was at risk, Adarsh was no longer playing it cool either.

The argument had begun softly, but it had ended up with breaking glass, a toppled table, two fallen chairs and an inebriated Adarsh storming out, not before calling his father a failure and a fool too old to be kept at the helm of his business.

Not long after he had gone, her father in law had collapsed too - his face purple with shame at this public display of disharmony - clutching at his chest and staring after Adarsh.

His words had been too harsh, unjust and unbearable to the older man. There was a lot of dignity to his old family name, the real wealth he earned and now - the up and coming names of their circles had witnessed him being so disgraced.

Swara clutched his hand, peering over him, distraught with worry. She'd never been good in crisis. Tension made her limbs lock and her mind unresponsive.

"Papa ji," she gasped, heart pounding. Oh what was she to do! She looked around the crowd begging with silent eyes. "Someone please  - call a doctor!"

They were in a yacht, out in the sea. It would take a time for them to dock, for Durga Prasad to be taken to a proper hospital. Swara didn't know if the man would survive for so long. With her clammy hands clasped together, her eyes blurred with tears. Bhagvan, she couldn't have one more death on her hand!

The crowd around them was more cutious and less involved, they surrounded her in a circle tight enough to suffocate - din of their collective voices made no sense to her.

Finally, when she had all but receded into a panicky shell of her own, someone clapped a hand on her shoulder.

"Mrs Maheshwari?" It was a man who spoke. A voice that sounded pleasantly familiar. "The doctor on board is here. Make some room for him to check on your father in law."

She nodded mutely and allowed the man to hold her from the shoulders and help her to rise. A doctor was indeed there, followed by another - who could only be a medical assistant. She shuddered and wanting to look anywhere but at that very medical scene looked at the man who had taken matters at hand before she lost her mind.

He is tall.

Was her first thought. So tall that she barely reached his shoulders. He was turned away from her, beckoning a waiter and she observed his side profile, the line of his jaw and lush of his hair. He had hair like Sunny's - was her second ridiculous thought. Surely, her mind was going into shock.

"Here," he shoved a glass into her hand. Snatching one of lumpy limbs and making her grip that cold glass.

Insistent brown eyes bore into hers. There was a spark of intelligence in them, and a little familiarity, but above all else a cascading, all encompassing darkness.

Swara shuddered and almost dropped the glass, had it not been for his hands clasping and holding over hers.

Even her shock addled mind, recognized him now that he stood so close, looking down at her and seemingly seeing right through her.

This man was Sanskar Maheshwari; Lakshya's estranged cousin whose laughing picture hang in the centre hall of their stately home. She had only seen him once, during the take over of Nirvana chain and still remembered the ice in his voice as he shook Adarsh's hand. She still remembered his words then, that chilling detachment as he delivered them.

"I'm sorry you lost your Nirvana, Adarsh bhayya."

"Drink that!" He snapped and startled, Swara reemerged from her memories. "Get yourself together."

"I -" her voice shook and Swara gulped. The horror was slowly sinking in. "I don't drink alcohol."

She said in the end returning the glass to the waiter with shaking fingers. "Could you bring me a glass of water, please?"

It took the waiter only a few minutes to return. In the meantime the curious crowd had thinned and Durga Prasad had been removed to the medical room. Swara made a move to follow him, but her shaking body did not allow.

"I think you should sit down," Sanskar suggested slowly.

He did not touch her again. But his tone was warmer. Giving into his suggestion, Swara sank into one of the vacant chairs and buried her face in her shaking hands.

"I've talked to the captain, it will take us only a few minutes more to dock. An ambulance is already waiting there." He continued to talk to her, in that clam, impersonal tone of his.

Swara allowed the words to wash over her, not really pausing enough to make sense of any. She could only think of Durga Prasad's purple face as he collapsed- the pain in his eyes. How even after such a big disturbance happened Adarsh did not return to check on his father.

They were in the middle of nowhere- he was still inside the yacht. Still, he choose to ignore his father in his worthless fury.

Suddenly, a fear so strong had gripped her. What kind of people were these Maheshwaris? Did she dare allow her Sunny to be raised among them? Will he be safe - was she safe?
Swara began to tremble.

"Do you carry any medicine that your father in law -" Sanskar stopped mid sentence noticing how the young woman's hunched frame trembled uncontrollably.

For one dared moment he thought she was crying. He was at loss with crying women, what did you do to make them stop? But then he realized she was working herself into a panic attack.

"Mrs Maheshwari? Mrs Maheshwari?"

No response. Sanskar bit his lip, distressed himself. There was no other way out of it but to kick off tact. He bent and placed a hand on her shoulder, gently shaking her.

"Swara?"

She raised her head, pale, large eyes staring at him unblinkingly. For a moment Sanskar drew blank and then he inhaled.

"He's going to be alright." He told her.

"I don't know what to do," she stammered. "Ma should have been here. I don't know -"

"I'll take care of everything, hmm, everything will be sorted." He assured her softly, trying to smooth her nerves with promises.

"Why don't you call home and inform someone to meet us at the hospital?"

After a pause, she nodded.

"That's right. Come with me."
She hesitated a little.

"You need to go to the control room to make a call Swara, we are sailing right?"

So she nodded again and allowed him to lead her to the control room. They met with the captain who gave her a reassuring smile and pressed the receiver into her hand. Sanskar nodded at the man discreetly as he passed and moved away to give her an elusive privacy as she dialled.

"Ma?" He heard her shuttering voice begin to speak.

It was only then that he finally moved away towards the captain who was waiting to talk to him.

"Sanskar," before he could talk to the captain, Vivek bhardwaj the host of their dinner hurried over.

What Durga Prasad Maheshwari probably did not know was that Vivek and Sanskar had been business partners way before Maheshwari group even entertained a thought of seeking him out. Sanskar had reached out to Vivek when he was no more than a promising intern, being over worked by an exploiting software giant; he had invested in Vivek's start up and now held a considerable say in what went on inside the multimillion VB soft.

Vivek looked around and making sure they weren't being overheard asked Sanskar.

"Did you plan this?" He sounded irritated.

Sanskar raised a brow.

"Antaryaami hoon? How could I possibly know when his heart would decide to give up?"

Vivek shuddered a little at how unsympathetic he sounded. There was no denying that Sanskar had planned to have both father and son together at the dinner. He was more or less responsible for Adarsh's fury as well.

Had it not been for the delicate manner he handled Swara, Vivek would have thought Sanskar wanted the father and Son to kill each other.

Thinking along these lines Vivek looked at his friend and mentor carefully.

He did not look much like a man regretting his actions. But there were faint lines of concern on his forehead and he kept fiddling his mobile between his fingers - a sure sign of agitation.

"He'll be alright Sunny," Vivek offered.

Sanskar looked at him a bit startled and quite at a loss for words.

"I know," he said slowly, his eyes trained elsewhere. "He's stronger than this."

Vivek wondered if Sanskar knew how his voice sounded reverent when he spoke of his uncle.

They had been nemesis for so long, had not spoken a direct word to each other but still, his tone hushed with begrudging respect when he spoke of the man.

Then there was Adarsh, the so called eldest son and heir. Vivek snorted at the thought.

"Where is Adarsh?" He asked then.

Sanskar rolled his eyes.

"Drowning his sorrows somewhere. I just wish he topples over and befriends a shark but luck probably wouldn't have it."

"Yes, sharks deserve better."

They drew silent after a moment. Sanskar was restless, stress taut on his shoulders. Vivek thought if this was a good time to talk him out of his retribution track but then thought better of it.

If guilt was gnawing at his friend, he'd rather not hit a nail on how Sanskar was responsible for this turn of events. He may have wanted the two Maheshwaris to fight, but as Sanskar himself had said, he had no way of predicting this outcome.

Before Vivek found the right words to offer him, Swara walked out of the control room, looking every bit as distraught as Sanskar. But there was a determined gleam in her eyes, a little gesture of tucking her chin in and squaring her shoulders - Vivek would have thought she was marching into a battle.

"Mr Bhardwaj," she said once she reached them. "I'm really sorry for all the trouble - and thank you for bearing with us -"

"Mrs Maheshwari," Vivek cut off her apologies uncomfortably shifting. "Aap hume sharminda mat kijiye, we are all friends here. Practically family, if you consider how close our dealings have been past few years. You don't have to worry on my account."

Swara shifted too, mouth tugging into an uncomfortable smile.

"Woh - what happened today - it shouldn't reach the media -"

"It won't," Sanskar said before Vivek had a chance to reply.

Vivek hesitated looking at Sanskar, frowning. Wasn't the entire point of this debacle had been to publicize the dispute brewing in the main branch of Maheshwaris? Why was Sanskar promising something rather contrary to his motives.

Swara's eyes snapped up to Sanskar's and held. There was something cold about her gaze, a doubt lurking in them. She nodded still, grateful for all he had done.

"Thank you, Mr Maheshwari," she said. "I must go to my father in law, excuse me."

"Is this what you wanted Sanskar?" Vivek asked doubtfully, after she was gone.

"No." Sanskar said shortly.

Since he met Swara Bose Maheshwari, all those weeks back in Hungary, nothing had been going on as he wanted it.

He felt as if he was caught in a violent river and the current was against him, carrying him downstream no matter how hard he tried to swim against it.

Sanskar sighed.

He should do something, fast at that. He should take the control of his life from the hands of whichever mischievous fate that it had fallen into. He should do it soon.

**
As promised new chapter when we cross 150 views. Hope you enjoyed! Don't forget to vote and comment. Let me know you are reading. 😉