Unfazed

9. Ties And Lies Shall Not Suffice (Deven)

By the time I had walked ten feet away from Deeksha into a row of start-up stalls at the Fair, I wanted to turn around. But the constant nagging at the back of my head that asked me 'What will you tell her?', kept me from going back. Yes, I wanted to apologize for what happened and yet, I didn't even know if she knows what happened back then. After all, it has been nine years since that fateful day – and I haven't even gotten the chance to explain myself.

Before I could get bitter about the whole ordeal, the ringing of my phone and the name of my brother flashing on the screen brought me back to reality. Answering it, all I heard was "Dad wants you back in the office by 2, Dev", before Vishwas cut the line. If I didn't know any better, I would have guessed that my brother was upset about something. But, this was far from the truth, for much like myself, Vishwas was a quiet, reserved person too. We both took after our father that way.

Driving into our office, I noticed a black sedan parked outside the gate – clearly, we had a visitor. This was probably why Dad had asked Vishwas to call me. Waiting in the elevator from the basement to my office on the seventh floor, when the gates opened to reveal my best friend on the ground floor, I was perplexed to say the least.

"Deeeevvv!!!!!!!" said Tanay, giving me a big hug on seeing me. "Hey Bro", I said though I was dying to ask what he was doing in my office. I had met him for lunch last month and the bugger hadn't told me of any plans of dropping by! "How come you're here, man?" I asked, no longer able to contain myself.

"I'm taking over your company", he said in the most serious fashion possible. "Very funny," I retorted with a laugh. "No... seriously..." I urged and he gave up and said, "My father is your latest client and he wanted to speak to Raj uncle about the commercial space near the Town Hall," he explained. Nodding in understanding, I told him, "That property has been under dispute for a while now, no? Once you guys get the approval, we will start the work."

Walking towards the Board Room, Tanay nodded and said, "Yeah – In the meantime, we can finalize the designs and vendor quotations for sourcing."

"My! My!! My best friend who never passed a single paper on his own in college, has become smart after graduation!!" I mocked. "You sound like my mom now, and that, bro, is not cool" he said with the most serious tone possible.

By this time, Tanay's Father had walked in, with my own – and both seemed to be in a good mood. Getting up to greet them, we exchanged pleasantries before getting now to business. "Mehraji", began my Papa, looking at Tanay's father, "We have decided to go ahead with a different colour scheme for each floor of the office space – as far as redecoration is concerned. I had sent you the samples by email – I hope you liked them."

"Of course, Sanghviji", came the reply from Mehra Uncle and from there began the drone of a long session of mulling over colour schemes and design ideas. While it was not a mandate for me, or Tanay for that matter, to be a part of this meeting, as likely heirs to the respective companies, our fathers thought it a good idea to keep us involved.

Over the course of the meeting, the architect in charge of the project and our chief interior decorator had also been called in to take suggestions and know the feasibility of various ideas. While I did pay attention to everything that happened, in every spare second I got, my mind kept wandering back to my short but strange meeting with Deeksha Bhalla.

When my phone buzzed on the table and showed a message from Tanay, I was surprised. Sure, for three years in college while we attended our respective classes, Tanay and I had kept up with each other texting under the table – and at work too, I was quite glad to see that custom unchanged. Opening the message, without anyone noticing, I was surprised to say the least, when I saw that the message read, "There's something bothering you. Want to talk?"

Before I could finishing typing my reply in denial, I got another message saying, "Don't deny it. I'll meet you at the coffee dispenser on the terrace after the meeting."

Now, I dreaded getting done with this meeting that I was just wanting to get out of.

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Hello!

First chapter with Deven's original identity...! Crazy or Crazy?

The image above is of Dev's father - Rajkiran Sanghvi.

Note: I have non-Indian readers and just to clarify - In Indian customs, adding "Ji" at the end of a name or a surname is a sign of respect to the other person. The word "Ji" is gender neutral and can be applied to women and men alike. 

Further, when an elder person asks a younger person to do something, saying "Ji" is an acknowledgement. So essentially, "Ji" is an acknowledgement of superiority in most, especially North Indian customs.

Will Tanay be able to interrogate Dev? Why is Dev so bothered about his meeting with Deeksha? Any thoughts?

Wait for the next chapter, lol.