BEYOND THE CLOUDS (Completed)

Chapter 4

Drunk and passed out, his mind was going through the details of the visit to KK's house earlier that day. 

He stood, as he saw his parents enter the study of KK's plush apartment. 

Since it was early noon and way ahead of their party times, they both looked fresh and sober. 

His father, Ajay Shukla, was a tall lanky guy, with an average personality. But his demeanor had the arrogance of a rich bred person, that he always bore and an obvious reason why he had had no difficulty in charming species from the opposite gender. 

His mother, Sarika Shukla also known as Rikki, in her society circle was what can be called a fading shadow of a glorious and a beautiful youth. 

With the help of the right make up and clothing, she still managed to look like a diva, Sidharth had to give it to her. 

With that thought, he stirred uncomfortably on the way to small for him sofa, in his sleep, and settled back as the broken memories came back to him again.

He had given up on wanting to be loved by them both at a very young age. 

Of course he didn't remember, but he assumed, that from age 0 to 7 he was raised by Sujata, his nanny. 

From the age 8 to 13, he was a nuisance for his parents and they always had an annoyed expression whenever he seemed to come in their way while they were either going to or coming back from their society parties. 

 Age 13 to 15 was the worst time of his life when he was packed off to Chicago to study and one of his fathers friends, Kishore Uncle was made his local guardian. He hated that man.

Even in his drunk state his body jerked at the thought of the frantic call he had made one day to his grand dad who he fondly called bade papa, after which he was whisked away from Chicago and sent to Boston into another boarding school. 

He felt sad and unwanted but cajoled himself, although his bade papa loved him a lot, he was a busy man and even though reluctantly, he willed himself to settle at the BromField High, a top private school in one of the Boston suburbs. 

Life had been better since then. 

He briefly saw his parents after that and only got their updates via bade papa on phone. 

It was heart breaking even for a teenager to know that neither of his parents were interested to even meet him. 

He found his own ways of rebel and spent his growing up years studying and whoring around with the girls in his college, earning quiet a reputation. 

When he was done pursuing Business at Yale and came back to India to join bade papa, he hadn't had an ounce of emotion left inside him for his parents. 

He only met them, during the monthly trust meeting. 

This trust was set up by his Grand father in the names of his parents so that they can earn a dividend income out of it and live off the money with luxury. As a chairman of this trust, Sidharth was supposed to sign allowance cheques for his parents individually. 

Only formal and shallow words like, 'how are you', 'I am fine' were exchanged during this meeting making it even more insufferable. 

Today as he saw them again, he painfully remorsed being born out of them and just sat there, with his jaws locked tight, until KK showed himself with a bunch of papers in his hands. 

His grandfathers death had been a huge shock and a hard time for him. KK had informed everyone at his Prayer meet, that the Senior most Shukla had specifically requested for a joint will reading on Sidharth's 35th bday and until then the business will be run as always with the reigns being in Sidharth's hand.