March’ 2004,
Midtown, Manhattan Borough, Travis County, NY.

Aryan arrived at the police station to meet with the Lieutenant Vincent Louis. He was also informed that the officer was accompanied by Bryan Hensley and Yugandhar. All of them were waiting for Aryan in the private chamber at the station.

“Aryan,” Vincent uttered, “he is Yugandhar, Rekha’s maternal uncle and this is Bryan Hensley, you knew him already,”

“Nice meeting you Aryan,” Yugandhar said, “we gonna let out few facts and believe me it’s going to take you places because they are just spooky. The murder of Anusha, while you knew it was true, it is not just a murder but is a piece from an incomplete puzzle and Mr. Dayanand had been murdered with a perfect plot,”

“I don’t need any more precautions policeman,” Aryan said, “throw light on the investigation results”

And Vincent Louis began…

“Anusha was murdered by Shikar. The brothers had started a family business, a chemical industry on a small scale. It had less than fifty employees, it was growing at linear scale and expanded to more employees and consumers in a few years. Apparently in ten years, the company went public and started trading in the NASDAQ.

At the early stages after the company was setup, Shekar was married to Sailaja. The couple after couple of years gave birth to Anusha. The clever plot, which you will know in a while, had drastically turned the tables. Shikar met Mythili, Rekha’s mama. Mythili was an assistant chief in the company. She was on the lines of being palsy-walsy with Shikar and is known to have engaged with him in various activities. In the fullness of time, the set of events engendered love between the two. In fact it was later known that shikar lured her and she was deceived by taking it to love. They gave birth to Rekha in the absence of the conjugal bond. Regardless of how, Shikar promised to marry her at some point of time in the near future. For all that, in the later stage of his life he was then uninterested rather he wasn’t confident with beginning a family of his own. Shikar lied to her by voicing out that the venture they had taken up and the pressure to swell the company to a large scale didn’t encourage him for a marriage by any grounds. But the truth is, shikar was superficially involved in the company operations; he was a tacit board member and got a buzz outta his share while Shekar involved in the family business full time yet condoning his brother over anything he did. Mythili unaware of this fact complied with him. It took three years before Mythili instigated to ventilate on the subject of nuptial. Shikar had always repeated the same for excuse, his stance persisted and she was enforced to be in terms with him for ten more years. By then it was already 1970 and shikar reached forty;

In the year 1969 when the movie ‘Blue movie’ took the film industry by storm with its wide release in the cinemas. The access to the digital content was unlikely back then and the film industry was per se at the helm of adult erotic movies. With the permissive legislation, the subsequent increase in the film distribution proportionally with the cinemas in the United States proliferated the porno films.

Shikar who eyed on for a fortune, invested in the industry and that was the time he met the pornographic star Mary Millington Sibleno. The relation between the two had gradually matured leaving Mythili downright out of sight for Shikar. Shikar later went on to marry her only after Varun was born. This time he was being loyal to the porn star, he promised to marry her and he did. Shikar is a wise man, he did give the low-down on his hymeneal status except by dispensing the fact about his natural daughter Rekha.

Be that as it may, Mythili, she was in the dark of Shikar’s wedlock with Mary. Apparently, after three years, she was in the light of the matter following then she divulged their affair to Mary and guess what happened? It’s the obvious. Mary left Shikar and her son Varun with him. Mary was a pornstar but she disliked encouraging infidelity and shikar was utterly desolated with the way he was treated by a pornstar. Raged shikar conceived that Mythili would be a peril for the rest of his life and apprehended her in a dungeon cell. He then sent your mother, Mrs. Rekha to a distance far pension in Germany. He looked after her education but Rekha suffered under his regime. With Mythili, it’s a vicious conduct, no day went by with her being tormented, he continued to indulge her in fornication. He threatened her to kill Rekha if she was inimical to the swive.

After fourteen years, when the whole state of affairs was in knowledge of Shekar yet again he condoned and besides made his mind up to send Rekha to the US for her high school. Rekha yielded to Shikar when he threatened to drive a nail in to the coffin of Mythili. Rekha was in a fluster and was left with no other choice except to agree with Shikar. So as you say, your mother was brought up in Germany for a while later she was never allowed into the territory.

It was in the same year – 1969, the couple Sailaja and Shekar were blessed with a boy, Satya, the current CEO of JAPMI.

Shekar and Dayanand met each other for the first time in 1970’s as at the same time the Germany economy was burgeoning and the companies, competitors in the chemical industry were also in proportion with the prosperity. Increased competition and overcapacity problems that persisted in the SS chemical industry provoked the family to make various acquisitions through cash, stock and debt to raise the bar for the company standards and expose its potential with the competitors. The acquisition were made from the loan that was sanctioned by the Swiss bank with the approval of your grandfather, Dayanand.

Dayanand in the 1970’s by then had already seen massive success in the manufacturing industry and was planning for an expansion across Europe. At the same time, warag bank was acquired by the Swiss bank corp and the CFO of the warag bank was a dear friend of Dayanand. When Dayanand and Shekar met for the first time in a pact of SS chemical industry with JAPMI, Shekar solicited Dayanand on the imprimatur of loan from the Swiss bank. Shekar persuaded and in the due course, the loan was ratified by the Swiss bank. I don’t have details on the accurate figures but it was understood that the lump sum amount would expand the chemical industry and also favour the JAPMI in various aspects along with the supply of chemical and materials to JAPMI at the European centre in the due course of time.

With help of the loan on which the SS has got its mitts on, the industry was able to prosper at a rapid rate from their aggressive acquisition strategy. Share price went up like never before in the company history record. It continued to stay in standard with the industries and put the investors happy for about five years then.

The success couldn’t stay for long time, the management interpreted the prosperity on a whole different lines that drastically changed the things to sour. The board and the management was under immense pressure to meet with the expectations from the investors that eventually lead the board ensnared in dishonesty and fraudulence.

Shekar had the premonition of downfall of the SS chemical industry and there it is, the ignition to the things happened with the fall of JAPMI. The pestering instigated him to rat in the board of directors of JAPMI. He was yearning for a share of JAPMI to hedge on his debts and that sow the seeds for an agreement of Vivek with the acting CFO of SS industry and Anusha be married to Vivek, to erect the bridge between the families in the name of conjugal bond. While Shekar shared his forethought with his brother, it flared up Shikar and triggered the yen for the position. Shikar was already a brute who had murdered Mary Millington in 1973 for her unpolished comportment towards him. His close encounter with Shekar’s preconception catapulted him into a disorder phase of life thereafter.

Shikar murdered Anusha for the patent reasons. He forced her to write a letter that conveyed she had eloped and it asked her father not to come after the woman. Shikar with his contemptuous psyche played his card and poor Shekar who weighed his family’s reputation more than the lives of members of the family took it for the truth and shrugged off on the correspondence. Shikar who killed Anusha strategically in a savagely violent manner in time had seen the conspiracy of his rising to live. He had witnessed what he had predicted. Shekar who was always interested to have the family with the power requested Shikar with the espousal of Rekha to Vivek. Shikar used the state of affairs to his advantage and demanded Varun to be made the CEO to JAPMI when he turns his right for the position. Shekar shoved it off with a naïve compliance and that’s how your mother was married to Vivek. Thereafter the proceedings were Vivek was named the acting CFO at JAPMI while Shekar observed the position of an outside director at JAPMI. Shikar was convinced that his son would be the CEO of JAPMI in time and for it to be of monumental, he conceived that Shekar’s presence was needed with the board at JAPMI,”

Shekar does do deeds for others Aryan, he does it for himself Aryan recollected Rekha’s premonition I see it, So Shekar is avenging his daughter’s murder. Aryan thought while Vincent continued, “But fate wasn’t favouring SS industry with its dramatically stagnated revenues. The profits generated were parlous below the operating costs which goaded the company to a travesty of financial reporting. The company was certain to dodge the repercussions and they refrained to accurately represent the financial condition of the industry. The industry was afraid of losing the investors and to tackle the risk associated with it the financial division of the company went over with a fine-tooth comb on the expected results on the Wall Street to manipulate or improve on the actual figures made by the company.

Shekar had setup the phantom character ‘George hettich’ which was played by his brother Shikar. In the name of the non-existent character they have established a phantom company as well. They did the related-party transactions to commit the fraud. They sold their own patented technology to George hettich’s company and they showed the revenues by acquiring the company. It was like buying back their own technology and produce an illusion for a rise in the stock price.

That was one part of it, changing agreements between the affiliated companies or shifting costs from one quarter to the next was not saving the industry with the tactics. They were impelled to sketch more elaborate plan of actions and they devised the most terrible schemes the industry had ever done.

They hided the debts and stowed the liabilities off the books by allocating co-borrowing loans among its unspecified subsidiary companies. It appeared to the investors that the company was paying off the debts. They did fabricate sham transaction and fictitious documents to prove the details on the repayment of their debts. In addition, the company manifested the upgradation of plants in a false manner and they leveraged the case to distend their earnings. Besides, realising the kickback of revenues from the phantom upgradation of plants and shifting the expenses to unspecified subsidiary companies the investors were caused to feel certain with the industry performance in the market.

The treacherous of all is Mr. Shikar had spent six hundred and fifty thousand euros on establishing a laboratory in the city outskirts near to the factory and the fact is that lab hasn’t been traced by the policeman till today. Well, it does look absurd but that should not be the case. If we read between the lines, it comes into sight how puissant Shekar is and Shikar had made the best of it. His son varun was rather extravagant in whoring around and playing casinos.

Truths never sinks, it remains floating and in the fullness of time someone would catch a sight to give it a yank. That was when the SS industry at length reached a stage where they had to look for filing bankruptcy but Shekar had an aversion to it. He cast his eyes over JAPMI and the rest of the story is already unravelled,” Vincent Louis finally breathed and took a sip of water from the tumbler.

Aryan remained silent for the whole time and before he showed any emotion, “I guess it’s my time to join the conversation,” there came the voice. Aryan casted his over the doctor, Bryan Hensley, “Shekar consulted me to do a check over the health of Dayanand. From the revelations made by the policeman I get to the bottom of the stratagem by him. I was bribed to inject the bitcoin, a savage poison that could potentially do a mass killing, into Dayanand and false his death by nicking the advantage of the fibrosis pulmonary disease.”

Vincent intervened, “he then hatched a phantom company by the name Bloomberg’s Automobile spare parts manufacturing industry from Germany”

“I have the deets under my sleeves, Officer Vincent,” Aryan voiced out, “I am aware all of that,”

“He killed my sister Mythili brutally,” Yugandhar intervened, “he killed her dissolution” I was waiting for a revenge and I kept waiting for the opportunity” He moaned.

“So it’s you who revealed the facts to Mr. Vincent?” Aryan questioned his kith, Yugandhar.

“Yep Aryan,” Yugandhar sounded out.

“How did you find out all the details and why should I trust you?” Aryan asked.

“Aryan, Katie Joanna is a woman, a loyal woman to her husband. She would risk her infidelity for her husband to give him whatever he wishes for,”

“Who is that woman?” Aryan enquired.

“She is my wife and I have planted her as the chief assistant of Shekar,” Yugandhar replied.

“If you had done that, didn’t you get a time to divulge all this information long back?” Aryan questioned.

“As I said, I was looking for an opportunity which I never found; But what a poor can do to a rich and powerful bastard?” he exclaimed, “except to get suppressed under their power”

“Uncle Yugandhar,” Aryan rose up from his seat, “I feel remorse but be that as it may,” he came close to him, “I’ve got your back and you have my word,” he said and walked out of the place with an optimistic redemption.

March’ 2004,
Starbucks, City Center, GCP, Nassau County, NY.

There she sat alone. Such a beautiful woman in cashmere golden complexion. She was wearing a comfy but stylish gored long skirt, ending in a frisky full hemline. It has a plain front with supple sides made of a woven polyester. She was wearing a top made from a fine gossamer chiffon; beautiful sheer top drapes incredibly to create a perfect profile. Spaghetti straps and a splendid slit, finished off the effortlessly beautiful look. The whole aura of her dressing combines just the right amount of sexiness yet it’s incredibly feminine sending you the romantic vibe surrounding her.

“Sir, your coffee”, the vendor has intervened the man’s thoughts. He walked straight towards her table with the coffee mug. While he was in the midst of talking to his heart, to fathom out from the dilemma of talking to her. Howbeit, his insanely not so wise mind has taken the lead.

“Excuse me!” He said.

“Yes, what is it?” She replied in a perplexed tone.

With a lot of courage, after a lot of struggle to garner the same, he asked her, “What if I tell a woman that she’s beautiful, do you think she would slap me?”

Raising her eyebrows and lowering the corners of her lips on either side, now in a more confounded state, “She shouldn’t, if it’s only a compliment and nothing else”, she replied.

“Well, thank you so much and by the way”, with an optimistic gut feeling and in firm voice, he said “You look beautiful”.

She slid the book in her hand on to the table, letting herself lean towards her front end of the table. She then composed herself with serenity but this time her lips raised and apart revealing an unforced genuine smile, there came the most pleasing reply, “Thank you but you just stole it from me”.

“Excuse me”, he replied momentarily while he was quite astonished with the response and he was excited to confirm on what she meant.

“I meant, that you are looking handsome and strangely smart too”, she confirmed.

The man recalled, this doesn’t usually happen with a girl, accepting what you said, responding positively while suggesting you her subtle interest. When there is an opportunity that is the moment where you should probably be ready to nail it down in the next session of talk with her.

“Are you waiting for someone”, he asked in cock-a-hoop.

“Not really”, she said, “You can sit, if you wish to”, motioned her fingers to the vacant seat in front of her on the other side of the table.

He placed the mug on the table. he pulled out the chair and made room for himself in order to sit comfortably, leaving his hands free with his palms each touching on either side of the mug, loosening calves and legs crossed but before that he asked her, “Would you like to have coffee or something?”

“No, I am absolutely fine and thank you”, She answered and continued, “So what is it? Is there anything that you would want me to help?”

He didn’t really know how he should be answering her straight forward question. I should make something out of this or everything which has been reached this far will be going into vain he said to himself.

“Oh no, there is nothing as such”, he replied, “but you know what, a random guy from nowhere comes to a girl to strike a conversation with her. Don’t you discern what could be the possible reason” he continued, “I am sure you do, so my answer is the obvious but let’s not talk much about those odds. My presence here is for completely different purpose but the purpose kept changing with our talk”.

“Is it”, She said and breathed out.

“Yeah! So, my purpose is variable, it’s not defined yet”, he said, “by the way, I like the book. I read it, maybe 3 or 4 times”.

“Uh-huh”, She said nodding her head up and down, “what part of the book, did you like the most?”.

“When the male and female protagonists meet for the very first time”, he said.

“Fair play, boy”, she said, tucking her hair into the left ear evincing the long golden dangle ear rings, “Did you come prepared?” She asked.

“Sorry, What? I missed out”, he responded and then he took the first sip of the coffee.

“Never mind”, she said. She kept looking at the diagonally opposite table couple of feet away from them. He hesitated to barge in but then in sometime she helped him hop onto her boat.

“Did you look at them?” She pointed at the pair sitting out there on the table and kept saying, “It’s so crazy to see each of them being busy with their phones while they have actually come out to spend time with each other”.

“Oh, Yes! I must agree with you.” He said, “With advancement in the technology, life has become more of mechanical and it has been a commonplace to see such people”.

“Whatever, it’s unrelated to us and we should not even be talking about them”, she momentarily felt disgraceful, “You know, it’s not a right thing to do, is it?” She asked.

“Yes, but no worries”, he tried to make her feel better, “don’t feel bad about it”, he said.

“I wanna ask something”, she came a bit closer to the table now, “Why do you think people fall in love?” She asked. He could see the curiosity in her eyes while she was looking for the answer to this question.

Phone Ringing…

“Excuse me”, she said before answering the call.

He thanked god for the uncanny break in the conversation. While she kept talking for a few minutes, he had enough time to compose his answer.

“Okay, I am sorry. You know, its family” She continued while checking her call list and consequently deleting junk, “Yes, so tell me why would one fall in love?” She recalled the question.

“It is going to take a while if I have to give you a true sense of it,” he said narrowing his eyes.

“Let me tell you”, she said resting her back on the backrest of the chair, “I have come here to meet somebody, to be frank with you, today I am supposed to meet would be of mine”

“Oh! Great.” He said instantly but lowering his voice.

“Yeah! But he hasn’t shown up. I have been waiting here for more than thirty minutes”, she said, “That’s why the call from home, to do a check on this. I don’t think he is gonna come anyway. So, I have lot of time, don’t hesitate, please go ahead”

“There can be many reasons why people fall in love, what I reckon is there are different cases at the least eight percent of them fall in to these categories.

The first one, Boy and a girl, they have been friends for a long time, they know each other very well. Ones fear of losing ‘the other’ in the long term is triggering a feeling in ‘that one’, which is asking to build a stability on the relationship leading to an intrinsic feeling of not able to live without ‘the other’ and that’s why ‘the one’ is assuming that themselves is in love and is falling in love.

The second type, Boy or a girl, it might be either of them. Who do not want to live a life alone and yearning for a support, a kind of partner who is there to talk, share and feel free with ‘that one’ special person completely dedicated to him/her especially from the opposite gender, when these people look at the person of their interest. That’s leading to think themselves is in love and eventually falling in love.

The third, Boy or a girl, it might be either of them. When they are desperately looking for a date or say trying to get into a relationship to just taste it as part of life, they feel like they are in love with the person they are interested in and are falling in love.

The last type, Boy and a girl, be friends for a long time but one never felt the fear of losing the other because their friendship exists even if the conversation between them has stopped for a longtime. If they feel that they are interested for a long time commitment. They talk their hearts out, understand each other’s world, check if one supports the life of the other, be clear about their happiness in the others presence, they get decided after having answered the reasonable questions and then they fall in love, which I believe is the true love. If they are discomforted with the long term commitment they still have their friendship living because they never had a fear of losing the other.

“That’s my understanding of the philosophy in love”, he said after devouring lot of her time with a long lecture.

“I am flattered with your detailed answer”, she said to the hilt exposing her apparent joy with her smile and contentment through her eyes, she continued saying, “I have seen people answering naively to this question and for the very first time, I now see someone who’s thorough in understanding the feelings in love. I am truly impressed with what you have made intelligible”.

“As you like it”, he replied short and crisp.

“And now I can fathom out the cliché ‘all the brainless are in love and the rest are single’ ” She said nodding her head up & down by slowly turning right uncovering her left cheek with a little cute dimple.

“True but the quote needed an amendment”, he muttered.

“Oh! What change?” she asked with all the agog.

“Actually people who are intelligent are in love or are interested to be in love,” he paused and sipped coffee for more clear thoughts, “and those who are too intelligent tend to be single”, he made his statement.

“Enlighten me”, she said with a veritably puzzled look on her angelic countenance.

“This might seem funny but it is what it is and this is what I believe”, he said, “People need moral support, care and love, a girl, in more concrete sense it should be a wife, she is just the genesis of all the three and more. Maybe that is why, there is a woman behind a man’s success On the other hand; the too intelligent people don’t intend to seek any such need. They are stronger and they knew that they could tackle all by themselves. This is why, maybe, we see an exception where there are people who are successful even by being single”.

“Nice cut”, She said, “and what about the brainless?”

“I don’t know but when they are eventually married, wives turn them into responsible and wise men”, he answered, “So there are no brainless men as such. All men are brainy”, and they both laughed.

“By the way, what about the would-be? Are you going to get married soon?” he asked, despite his tautness, with a lot of curiosity and traction while taking another sip of coffee.

“I don’t really know much about him except the fact that he is the head of R&D at JAPMI. In fact, I haven’t seen him before. I’ve naively come here to meet and know more about him in person. So, I am not certain of the marriage”, She said looking right through his eyes.

“Gosh, absolutely far-fetched. You look so beautiful yet committed to an arranged match?” he said after he felt mildly inebriated although he had no bevvy, “So, is it that you are interested in an arranged marriage?”

“Oh! Hell yeah”, She replied with her mouth wide opened while placing hands crisscrossed on her belly and making herself feel cozy in manner.

“But you know, it is plausible that you might had or have a boyfriend. Don’t you wanna lie please”, he shot back.

“Ah no! No way!” She replied instantly.

“Alright! I get it. You do have followers, don’t you?” he asked.

“Yeah and a few proposals too”, She said.

Ah! Her innocence while answering the question was insurmountable. He said to himself. “There you go, so what was wrong with them?” he asked.

“Lameness”, she replied with a cute smile on her elfin dolled up lips.

“Aha! What do you look for in a person or in your man”, he asked waiting no more.

“He should be intelligent and caring”, She said.

“That is all you look for?” he asked with much of dubiety.

“Yes, I don’t go by looks, neither by how he dresses up. At the end of the day, all that matters are how much love and care he shows upon you. In effect, that is what drives the relationship”, she delineated, “and when one is intelligent, I believe he understands his woman.”

“I don’t know if I am Intelligent, we could talk on it later but I am darn sure that I am a caring person”, he tried to talk his heart out.

“No doubt about it. I can see it through your eyes and how you carry yourself while talking to me”, she said.

He was lost in his thoughts and could not construct words to carry forward the conversation. Silence prevailed in the ambiance for more time than it should usually be, time flowed by as they exchanged looks. He was able to read through her mind, it felt as If he was engaged in telepathy which ensued in succoring him acknowledge that her heed knocked the door of endearment. She hesitated to break the ice and continued gazing intermittently while he tried to aid the state at his best.

As they were in the swoon of blithe, the moment had been obstructed with the invasion of off-comers into their beatific territory. Damn! You usher he thought.

“So, why don’t….. We….. Let ourselves…… take this forward?” he asked recessing in between.

“But I just know you mentally and not personally or professionally”, She said, “I would like to know how the grass looks on the other side”.

“I assure it is greener on the other side of the fence”, he said, “I love my mama and I respect women. By virtue of it, I will forever be in true-blue to my partner and I can just hope, but not expect, for her fidelity in return, as it is her way out how she wants to lead her life”.

“You won’t mind of her past, is it?” She asked.

“Absolutely”, he replied in a staunching voice, “I will accept and love her as who she is and for what she can be”.

“I admire the way you perceive things”, She said, “What do you do? We haven’t talked anything about it yet”.

“Make a guess”, he said winking an eye.

“Do you work for a firm? A consulting firm maybe?” She said, “Because you are wheedling in your way”, with a tongue in cheek.

He grinned, “No, I don’t work for any consulting firm but”, he said and had his last sip of coffee, “I try to help build products”

“Oopsy Doopsy, it was a goof”, She said in a coltish tone swaying side to side, “Are you an innovator?” she asked.

“Sort of, you could just assume it that way” he tried to get her as far as possible from the subject before he would get caught in the middle of a revelation of his true identity.

“Amazing”, she said, “where do you work?”

“Alright, I’ve got to go but before I take leave, I would like to say few words. I understand that you just know me. Well it is unlikely for you to think or relate me to that one person, you know who it is. While you are very true in this aspect, I am asking you to talk to me for few more times and I leave it on you to choose how many more you would want. Eventually, you will have a choice to make when the right time comes, meanwhile I will keep waiting for that auspicious moment. For now, and forever, I intend to tell you to have hope and faith”, he got up from his chair, slid down his right hand into the right pocket of his jeans, drew out a card, “Here it is, my visiting card, you can call me if you would like to and there’s the number personal number”, he said and proceeded to leave.

“Excuse me”, she took the card without a glance, she called out in most possibly gratifying voice, “one quick question”, She said. 

“What is it?” he asked.

“Do you believe in love at first sight?” She asked yet again in dubiety.

“Substantial question”, he said and smiled, “you better go home, you might figure it out by yourself, trust me, try getting down to brass tracks and you will love seeing the big picture” and he walked out.

Soon after he left the place, she pulled her tote to put the card in her pochettee but she caught glance of text written in ink in the card. It read, “To my love Shalini, will you be my fiancée?” she was utterly flabbergasted when Shalini read her name on the card, she flipped the card to look on the other side. The content read, “Justin – Head R&D USA, JAPMI”

March’ 2004,
GCP, Nassau County, NY.

“Hello! Do you love me?” She asked, “Tell me my beau, do you love me anymore?”

“Kalki, is this a time to ask me a question of this sort,” Aryan tried to shift the gears, “I am not gonna answer any question that pulls me out from my ease”

“Okay handsome, I am not gonna make any more enquiries about our love. Oops! My love. I guess you have signed a resignation few months ago, didn’t you?” She questioned, “Oops! I am sorry. You know what, never mind. You don’t have to answer it, “she said and counted, “30 secs more… stay with me”

“I know, we have been doing every year,” Aryan said, “20 secs, I am excited for no reasons, why do I feel it this way, every single time”

“Psychological honey,” She replied in short, “10 more secs” she began counting down aloud.

“9…8….7….” now they both uttered in cadence, “3…2…1…”

“Happy Birthday Love, many happy returns of the day,” She kissed him, “I might not be your woman but I love you and I always will. My only wish is to see you back where you belonged as a child. You are a man with intelligence, you are man with innate potential. Promise me you will show it to the world” He could not paint any words. He stood in absolute silence. His heart moved and asked him to kiss her back, he was lost in his thoughts. He couldn’t decide if he had to make the revelation on his feelings. He thought… for a few seconds… and for a few more minutes… he ceased on his notions to come up with a way out but only the tears rolled down his eyes. He exerted himself to be in reticence, and he remained absolutely unspeaking.

“Are you there?” She checked on him but she knew that he was hanging on the call and listening to her, “you don’t have to think too much on telling me how you feel about this. I don’t expect you to kiss me back either but I can just hope, that way it doesn’t hurt, does it? Fingers crossed. I feel you are lost in your thoughts; you don’t have to. You did it all the time Idiot. You did all… the… time…, don’t you know that I would sense your state of mind without you telling it to me? Reciprocate love. I am dying to hear your voice”

He composed himself and cleared his bunged throat, “We swapped the courtesy with a kiss because you never liked the words thank you being exchanged between us but… “

“Aryan, as I said. I could just hope. I understand you don’t want to do it, you made it plain already,” she scoffed, “if you were intended at first, you would have done it by now”

“You do understand me very well,” Aryan said but this time he chuckled, “sometimes you could still be wise by giving me that opportunity to complete my expressions because you never know what you might miss”

“What do …,” before she completed her ask, she heard the peck. Aryan smacked and continued, “… but if the perceptions and feelings between us are still the same then I wouldn’t let them die until the end of time. They will live, no matter what” he said and kissed her again.

Silence prevailed between them. Abruptly there was a knock on the door, “Just a sec” he said on the phone and swirled back.

“Happy birthday Son” Rekha arrived in his room, “Oh cutie pie, many happy returns of the day,” Shalini greeted. Aryan wetted eyes conveyed both the woman that he was engaged in a call with Kalki “will come back later, take your time,” Rekha said and started walking towards the entryway.

“Aryan, we can talk later,” Kalki said momentarily, “you owe your time to your mother as much as you owe it to yourself or any other. She is the one who brought you into this world. I am gonna hang up on you, will catch up a while later. Love you” she said.

“I will see that she gets the best of her son’s time, and I promise for the very first thing you’ve asked me on the call today” He said.

“You are an Idiot,” she chuckled, “You never wanted to leave a trace unanswered, don’t you? Now you may have to go, see you” She said and hung up the call.

Aryan mildly hit his pate with the phone, Crazy girl he thought and left to Rekha’s place.

“Mama,” He called out loud, “Mama, are you there? Where are you?”. “Aryan, we were expecting that you would be hanging in the call for a little longer. Sit down she is gone to use the loo” Shalini said.

“It’s Kalki, she insisted me to spend time with you guys,” He said. “How sweet of her,” Shalu adored her courteousness and then Rekha arrived into the hall. “Look at you! Boy, you look like a man, not a teen anymore, happy for you” Rekha expressed her feelings.

It didn’t matter to them for how long had they been awake. They continued to talk till the late dawn. As soon as Aryan took the charge over the start-up, a week later he bought a house for his family. Malcolm and Justin could have well supported him financially but he chose to live by the advice of his mother, live by your stance. He made an effort with the racing car at the university and that drastically paid him off.

“Are you friends going to pay a visit today,” Rekha asked, “we got to prepare ourselves well for a nice welcome to our guests”

“Oh yeah. They were supposed to come but Justin is not going to make it today,” Aryan conveyed, “He’s got an important meeting whole day at the JAPMI”

“Who’s Justin,” Shalini asked Rekha. “He has been the head of R&D dept. at JAPMI since a long time now, it never occurred to me that you had no idea of this person” Rekha cleared her, “He is from the ivy league. An absolute savvy bloke” Aryan added.

“May be I should meet with him, I admire intelligent people,” Shalini said.

“Smart people do get along with each other very well, isn’t it?” Aryan tried mocking Shalini by talking it out with Rekha. “Uh-huh, you mean both of us,” Shalini winked playing her card.

Aryan abruptly got struck by a thought. Although he tried to talk it out with them but he decided to hold it back. He was not sure of the possible outcomes of his intuitions. They finally went to bed in the early mornings.

---

Same day at 21:00 hrs…

“Hey buddy, I read your message just before,” Justin said, “couldn’t attend it in the day time, was busy with the meets”

“Yeah Justin, I am aware,”

“So what is it, anything new has come up?” he asked. “Yes but it is sort of more on personal grounds,” Aryan hesitated for the very first time ever since his meet with Justin. “Interesting, shoot it,” Justin responded.

Aryan and Justin spoke for half hour. Well Justin will leave to the city center and I will head my way back to the Mid-town Manhattan Aryan thought and went for a good night sleep.