Winner of Wattpad India Awards 2020 (Judge's Choice) in the New Adult category.
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"The lights are cheeky, you can't live without them, and yet if you get too close, they'll blind you. Darkness? Well it doesn't cheat. It's cool and soothing. It's r...
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October 2006
Madhulika Thakur loved parties, especially when she was the centre of attention.
The room around her broke into a polite, aristocratic applause when Bollywood heartthrob Sameer Kapoor took a bow, having concluded his classy yet entertaining act. The guests seemed pleased.
Thank God for that, Madhu wryly thought. The man had charged her a whopping fifty lakhs just for a single appearance.
She straightened her back and levelled her gaze, mentally going over the motions she had rehearsed earlier that afternoon. Once the noise died, Kapoor walked down the stage and towards her just like they had discussed. He took her freshly manicured hand in his own and escorted her to the podium on stage. It was far sweatier than she would've thought, and Madhu was glad to let go of it when they reached the mic.
Sameer Kapoor's contract also included him standing prettily beside her while she addressed the gathering, but Madhu despised sharing spotlight. She knew that no one would pay attention to her if the man who had topped 2006's list of sexiest actors under forty was next to her, even when she was dressed her best in a custom made, high-neck cut out bottle-green gown that hugged her lean figure in all the right places.
"Thank you, SaKa," Madhu addressed him by his fan-given nickname, her soft voice, amplified by the mic, cutting across the hall. "I'm fairly certain I saw a few ladies fainting at the back, I myself am finding it hard to stop from swooning." She could almost imagine her father shaking his head at the flirtatious way she said that. The thought made her smile.
Her eyes scanned the crowd as she waited for him to scoot away. Madhu couldn't make out the features of a single face, only their outlines, for the stage lights behind her were blindingly flashy. That made her relax a little as she began speaking again. "People have asked me what's so special about Delhi, and honestly? I have always struggled to come up with a good response. What should I say? The food? The fashion? The feisty Delhiite aunties?" A spurt of laughter followed the last one, ending just as abruptly as it had started. Madulika continued. "Eventually, I ended up replying with a single word; hospitality. India in general is a pro when it comes to hospitality, what with us treating our guests the way we treat God. And Delhi? Well, she is the shining example. Hence I knew that the first Jasm Inn had no better home than Delhi. So, ladies and gentlemen, please raise your glasses for many more years of hospitality, paving way for hundreds of Jasm Inns to bloom across the country."
The clap that followed was like music to Madhu's ears. Dreams of this noise had been with her for almost a decade now, ever since she had taken responsibility of her father's plan to dabble into the hospitality business. She had been nineteen back then, a new intern at her father's media firm whilst still in the second year at college. Mahesh Lal Thakur, always the visionary, had witnessed the popularity of the Internet in America. He had estimated that within ten years, even India wouldn't require specific advertising agencies. There was a pressing need to branch out.
