April’ 2004,
Austin, Travis County, Texas.

“Hello, Ralph. This is Malcolm representing JAPMI,” he said shaking hands, “I reckon the notice had been already circulated to the Career Development Centre by one of our Associate”

“Yup, Mr. Malcolm. I am the Recruiting convenor here and in fact I was expecting your arrival at this time,” Ralph said and they both took seats in the chamber.

“That’s great! We would like to begin with our process,” Malcolm asked.

“Sure. Let me check with your mode and setup,” he said and looked out on his desktop, “I see you have posted the OCR Job and decided to schedule the interview on campus,”

“Uh-huh,” he bobbed his head, “We’ve shortlisted handful of students,” Malcolm said.

“Alright, Will get them for the Screening in a few minutes at the Private Interview rooms,”

“Fair, how about the booth space?” Malcolm checked.

“It’s in the Brown Gym. One of the recruiting co-ordinator will assist you to your hotspot,” the asst. director phoned the co-ordinator.

Malcolm reached the UTA to recruit the students as an employer. Be that as it may, the motive was not to Interview the shortlisted students but rather it was to make a casual talk. It was to let them know who they gonna work with and it was to make them known of something unexpected.

The handpicked students were called together into the screening room, “Take your seats buddies,” Malcolm uttered. The young members complied with him and were seated.

“Do you know the company I represent?” asked Malcolm. He knew the students were aware yet he did the check for no joy.

“Yeah Mr. Malcolm. It’s JAPMI,” one of them answered.

“Uh-huh,” Malcolm sighed with his eyes, “So did you happened to hear about the Industry any time before?”

“Yup, we did hear,” the other student answered.

“Good. Saryu, Mruna and,” he cast his eyes on the other, “and… Jenny,” he said and continued, “Did you happened to see the guy behind you any time before?” he pointed his finger behind them.

What they had seen had come like a bolt out of the blue. “Aryan,” the three of them uttered in muted tones. They got up from their seats one after the other and Jenny was the first who got the lead out.

“Dude! Where have you been,” Jenny asked, “Where the fuck you were man?”

“We just hated your absence Aryan,” Mruna said, “Darling speak out,” she asked.

Aryan didn’t move an inch from where he installed himself. “Dear, talk to us. Where were you Aryan?” Saryu asked. The three of them looked earnestly for an answer from Aryan.

“I was on hibernation,” Aryan finally spoke, “for a learning,” he said.

“What?” Mruna enquired.

“Yup by the by, how are you all?” Aryan enquired.

“We are no good mate, we are no good,” Jenny said, “You just dropped to us all a message that you will be gone from the city but you fucking didn’t tell us why,” Mruna stepped in, “Yes and you even didn’t let us know on your return to the city,”

“That’s a long story,” Aryan said.

“Well you may wanna cut it short,” Saryu suggested.

“Alright but first, Mr. Malcolm let’s go to my place down here in the city,” Aryan looked at Malcolm, “Jenny will drive us to the house,”

“Let’s get going. We don’t wanna be late before we let them know of your accomplishments,” Malcolm said grinning.

“… and guys there’s no way I am gonna cut the story short. I will narrate the tale on our way to my place,” Aryan said, “Jenny pull the car,”

---

“I am sorry Aryan,” Jenny said, “We are really sorry for the loss,”

“Aryan, we are sorry dear and you made us proud; we are very fortunate to have you known,” Mruna talked her heart out, “we believed in you so much and we knew it, from the day you made it for the Apprenticeship, that you will make it possible for yourselves to be one among those successful entrepreneurs,”

“I am grateful for you darling,” Saryu stepped in, “There was a nagging in the group about our future after graduation and now in a way you brought us all together. This feeling is so amazing and I am ecstatically happy that we will work for your company,”

“It’s our company Saryu,” Aryan intervened.

“What do you mean?” Jenny asked.

“You don’t work for JAPMI. That’s not my company anymore, we work for my company that is our company,” Aryan said.

“…and what is the name of our company,” Saryu checked.

Malcolm stepped in, “we haven’t named the company Saryu,” he said.

“I had something in my mind, Mr. Malcolm,” Aryan said, “It was hovering around for a while. So I just named it,”

“Great! And what is it?” Malcolm asked.

“THE PHOENIX” Aryan said, “I made a choice with Kalki a while ago and now I am gonna make it one more, it’s the phoenix. We were in the pyre and it’s time for us to rise from the ashes.”

March’ 2004,
Garden City Park, Nassau County, NY.

“Congratulations to the head on his promotion to head – USA,” Aryan announced as Justin walked into the hall of Aryan’s residence. “What a journey it has been” Rekha said as she walked out from her room when she heard Aryan speaking to Justin.

“Thank you for your greetings,” Justin grinned, “I was informed on the same day of Aryan’s birthday. I was engaged in multiple meetings with the executive administration. So I was caught up all day and couldn’t make some time to stop by,”

“That’s very understandable Justin,” Rekha said, “Aryan have let us known about your schedule the other day, Anyway, congratulations and we are happy for you,”

“Where’s my…” before Justin finished asking, “Fiancée?” Aryan intervened.

Justin asked, “It was hard enough to play the trick on her, isn’t it?” he felt pity.

“Oh no way! She loves them,” Aryan dabbed his shoulder.

“Trick?” Rekha was bewildered. Aryan hopped in, “Mama we did the talking about the marriage of Shalini to Justin, remember?” Rekha answered, “Yes!”

Aryan continued, “And when we wanted it be a surprise element to her we weren’t anchored with the notion,”

“Uh-huh!” she nodded.

“So we had happened to nail it down with the support of Justin,” Aryan said and elucidated on the line of action.

“Stark Mad,” She commented.

“Mama…” Shalini was calling out at the hilt of her voice on her arrival into the hall. She was flabbergasted to see Justin standing in the hallway among the others. She loved him deeply inside her but she was in two minds to express it. She wasn’t aware of the subterfuge and Aryan didn’t take the courage to spill the beans about the plot to her as she would lose the pleasure she experienced. “Well, Shalini. I am having the hunch that you didn’t meet the would-be but it seems you did meet the lover” Aryan interrupted in the silence.

“Just because he had spoken a few fanatical words and slipped his visiting card into my hands, in any manner doesn’t make him a lover, lover!” She rejected the thoughts of Aryan, “I have respect for him. Story end!” she said.

Justin and Aryan were utterly taken aback after listening to her. They believed the ploy was executed to its perfection but they found themselves twisted in their despair, “So it looks like the story is going to have a bad end,” Justin expressed his displeasure, “May be we didn’t just do it in her way, the right way” he said and started to walk back.

“But…” Shalini stepped in and paused, “the fact that he cares for my family gave him the licence to be that one,” she said and turned back with shyness crawling into her eyes.

Aryan moved in haste towards Justin and signed him to hotfoot towards her. Justin did comply with Aryan and stealthily wend his way in the direction; He stood right behind her. Shalini didn’t discern his presence, when she suddenly gyrated she found herself slipped into the arms of Justin.

“Mama, got you something but let’s walk out to lend them the private the space,” Aryan uttered. “Ah! Sure we should,” Rekha smiled.

---

“So where have you been to?” Justin asked Aryan, “You dropped me at the city centre Starbucks and you left the place for?”

“I was out of the city,” Aryan said, “I met with the policeman, Mr. Vincent Louis,”

“But why?” Justin asked as he was taken aback.

“Long story short,” Aryan answered, “there’s lot happened with the Hadars, and there’s more to be happen with the Hadars,”

“I am sorry Aryan,” Justin recollected instances from the past, “I am sorry that I was not available in the country while every odd things were happening with the family. I had to leave for Japan and I was there for three months working on site with the clients. By the time I returned home the state of affairs were already settled by then. I had no clue of your whereabouts, I tried to reach out for you guys but I just couldn’t,”

“Justin, there is no need for any repentance,” Aryan and Justin took the seats in the veranda.

“Congratulation dear,” there came a voice from behind. Aryan and Justin traced back, “Ah! Professor Malcolm,” Aryan said and got up to his feet.

“Congratulations to you too, Aryan,” Malcolm voiced out on his rapture, “Please be seated,” he said.

Aryan didn’t see the light about the regards from Malcolm, “What’s with me, Professor?” he asked.

“There is something with you as much as it is with Justin,” He said.

“If there’s something that is not in my knowledge. You may wish to enlighten me,” Aryan said.

“Ten plus one is not going to help us anymore. We will be needing more of them,” Malcolm said looking at Justin. Justin reciprocated with his eyes and then both smiled from ear to ear.

“Ah! I see it,” Aryan sensed the vibes, “Steve and mates plus I, and we need more resources? But why?” he questioned.

“We will be in partnership with the Volkswagen Group. The contract is to commence from the next week that is the start of April. We are expected to be the engine assembly plant from the North American region for the Manufacturer. They see the prospect for a monthly production of at the least hundred engines for the phase one venture and it is assumed to go four fold as the relation ensues over time,”

Aryan was half-surprised about the tidings as he had already drew up conjecture from his past experiences. “Great,” Aryan said.

Justin stepped in, “Aryan, we have to name the plant and you may want to do it,”

“I will bring it to the notice when I think of something,” Aryan replied, “For now, we require resources and we do require a committee,”

“Yep!” Justin said. “What’s on your mind? You have any suggestions to increase the team” Malcolm asked.

“I do,” Aryan said, “It’s time to get back to them,”

“Who are they?” Malcolm asked. “You will know soon,” Aryan answered.

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.

March’ 2004,
GCP, Nassau County, NY.

“Building the first car was a pain in the arse,” Steve blurted, “what I mean is, and you’ve got to deal with plenty of stuff”

“Oh yeah! I totally get it,” Aryan said fixing the bolt on the engine with a spanner, “you might have the feeling because the fact that we had my pre-built model, you people had to start from the mid of the project; that is definitely intense for you guys to digest whole lot of theory in short time and be in rhythm with the progress of the project for a quick materialization. Otherwise it shouldn’t have caused you so much pain had you started at slow pace.”

“True that,” Steve recalled those days, “whatever the pain, that was worth it. It was pain worth enduring”

“I must say”, Aryan heaved as he pushed the spanner on the bolt to tighten it, “you guys were unbelievable. I must be fortunate to have worked with you guys”

“Ah! It’s the other way around Aryan,” he sat down abreast Aryan and continued, “a higher bore diameter to the stroke length, uh-huh”

“Exactly”, Aryan said backing him, “that provides shorter travel distance per stroke. So maximum piston speeds are lower which means the higher maximum engine rotational speeds.”

“…and we see the peak torques for higher maximum power output” Said Steve.

Aryan grinned, “that way you could have the larger intake and exhaust valves installed,” he placed the spanner aside and looked in the surroundings for the wrench, “for better breathing at such a high speed”

“It’s all about power, isn’t it? Right from racing cars to an individual life. Power survives, power rules”

“Well if we wanna stand in the limelight in racing car industry. That’s our primary goal then,” he smiled, “by the way, it is Sunday. Haven’t you gone out with the other guys? C’mon man, you are working professional, you should have at least one break in a week”

“Yeah I will be leaving in sometime, In fact I have planned something out for today.” Steve said, “… but how about the sprockets to the differential?”

“You will have to engineer it along with the pieces that connect the differential to the constant velocity joints. The half shafts are not commercially available in our length so it’s our job to get ’em done” they both walked into the foyer region, “all of them gotta be tough to transmit torque without any loss”

“It’s gonna draw a lot of attention to detailing and get it to the precision,” Steve smirked,

“Well that’s what separates us from the others, doesn’t it” Aryan encouraged.

“When are we releasing the engine?” he questioned. “There’s no release, it will be a direct deployment in the car. For now, the information is that an Automobile company had agreed to be in partner with us for modelling various design of sports engine. They are yet to sign the contract for the venture. Justin is going to take care of the proceedings, will know the final call in couple of days”

“This is a great news,” Steve admired him. “You and Justin are pretty much compatible with business,”

“Oh not really but Justin is. He is the angel investor. Ah! We haven’t got any name for the company yet” Aryan said.

“Oh yeah! Would it be JAPMI?” Steve surmised, “I presume it to be because we are under the cover of Justin, is it not so?”

“We haven’t thought about it, let’s see what he has got in his mind. We are meeting tomorrow evening, we could talk then”

“Happy Birthday in advance Aryan,” Steve shook his hand. “Thank you so much, make sure that you have nothing up for tomorrow other than the party”

“Certainly,” Steve assured, “this is your first birthday after we all have got along with each other. None of us wouldn’t want to miss it”

Steve received a text message on his phone. “Alright! Let’s walk into my office, it’s hot and humid out here,” Aryan said.

“I should probably leave now. I guess my girlfriend has arrived at the cross way,” Steve chuckled, “She informed that she would be late, so I dropped by at workshop to wander for a few minutes. It seems I am lucky that it’s been really a few minutes.”

Aryan laughed out loud, “Women,” he said, “have a good time brother, Seeya” Steve left and Aryan walked into his office wandering in the thoughts of Kalki. She never kept me waiting, she knew I hated it. It’s going to be my birthday and she always made me feel special about it. Much love to the petite woman, should I be calling her tomorrow? Stop it Aryan, never again. I love her and I want her to be happy with whatever the choices she makes in. He reached his office and lay back in the chair. He placed his hands on the arm rest, flinched back to lower the back rest angle and doze off for a nap. I love you Kalki, I love you to the moon and back. He said to his heart.

February’ 2004,
GCP, Nassau County, NY.

“Come on in Aryan,” Malcolm uttered welcoming him in his home. Much to his surprise, Aryan couldn’t believe on what he heard from Malcolm and it was utterly delusional to him.

He was then having a premonition. There was no way Malcolm would know about his true identity yet he seemed to have something that’s gonna scare the heck Aryan thought. Did he know everything? How should I be answerable? I lied to his face every single time and he trusted me naively for every fabricated story about my life that I told him. How should I look him in the eyes and talk?

Dear god, what is your mechanism? The dynamics of life? I never believed in you but the very first time I made a call, when I uttered the prayers all through my heart asking you to save my father, you didn’t attend to them yet I kept believing in you because of my love. What are you trying to do now? I have been hustling through all this while and what are YOU, trying to do? Whack it up? I have one question legend; do you attend to only those people who would be devoted to you? Don’t you intend to care for all the people in the world equally? I feel you are being partial just like any other human being but then again why are you being so called god?

“Sit down boy,” Malcolm motioned his hand unto a couch, “we are expecting a guest, till then make yourself comfortable. I will be right back and the coffee is on its way”

Aryan believed that the creator of this universe was a very strange person to be understood. He had compelling reasons for his understanding, the conversation he had with his mother long ago. He questioned her, ‘who writes the life of a person?’ She replied with ‘the god’. Momentarily he had to ask her, ‘if a person commits a mistake then it is only because of the same god who had written his life to be so, isn’t it?’ She replied, ‘very true’. He questioned her instantly, ‘so why there is a heated contention of being driven to hell or heaven when you are dead? Don’t you think that a person on which they have no control over is being made to suffer because of it? Don’t you think it is ironic that the person is going to hell, as they say, for the mistakes he never understood why he had committed but only did it because the god had written his life for it?’

His mother shrugged it off on anymore of his questions. Only later he had to realize that god seemed to be scarier than the one who usually is believed him to be. Aryan thought that he was the real businessman, scaring one to death if they don’t devout themselves to him. Yet they call him god. Ironic, utterly ironic, He said to himself, A wise man once said, “… but if a universe is really completely self-contained, having no boundary or edge, it would have neither beginning nor end; it would simply be. What place, then, for a creator?” that explained everything. Should one really believe in god?.

---

Aryan continued sipping his coffee only until he had seen a man in his mid-thirties walking on his way into the hall along with Malcolm. Aryan mildly spilled the coffee on the table soon after he took a glimpse of the profile.

“Aryan, you know him. Don’t you?” Malcolm squinted, “don’t worry young man, you don’t have to be apprehensive about anything. I understand how tough it was for you, I really appreciate your decision, you earned my deepest respect yet again hereafter for all the odd life you have had been in till this point in time”

“Justin…” Aryan scarcely voiced out any more words, “you…you…” and looked composed once in a blue moon.

“It just seems that it’s been years since we had seen each other, doesn’t it?” both of them walked close to each other real quick, “I know it was you, I knew it” Justin said and wrapped his arms around Aryan’s shoulders. He could not carry himself from the emotional state, few beads of tears just evinced from the lacrimal sac but as Aryan felt cautious on his ambience they quickly disappeared.

“He knew it Aryan,” Malcolm joined in the state of affairs, “He knew it very long back, probably on the same day when I visited the company for a sponsorship. For various reasons, as he says, he opened up on the matter just a day before the success party in the university… Justin,” Malcolm moved close to both of them and placed his hand over Justin’s shoulder, “tell him everything. Aryan, let’s get our backs some rest”

They were all seated, each one on a different couch. A silence prevailed for a while, the other two intended to give a minute for Aryan before they proceeded to talk about anything with him. Aryan laid back on his couch, pressed his palms onto his face while Malcolm and Justin looked at each other with a grin. Aryan sighed for some water and Malcolm handed him the bottle.

“I have never ever thought that I would be meeting you again Justin,” Aryan constructed words for his feelings, “you have no idea, how grateful I feel right now. I am more than happy to see you”

“I see it buddy,” Justin said, “in fact we both see it, don’t we Malcolm?”

Malcolm sighed with his eyes, “We sure are seeing it”, he replied.

“You know Aryan, the visiting card that I had given you,” he paused, “it has the hologram if you remember, I am sorry to tell you but that is enciphered with a numerical digit. Which means, the card has a specifically ordered number giving me the license to register the identity of the individual who holds the ownership of card”

“So, when Malcolm had shown the card, you did what? A scan to check the identity of mine” Aryan completed the elucidation, “fair play dear”

“Hahahaha! Some things are just business” he bust a gut, “you know why I am here?”

“Did you expect me to know about your presence,” Aryan said, “you were quite a package of surprise to this morning?”

“Oh sure I am,” he leaned towards the glass of water to quench his thirst, “we have something interesting for you. When I said Interesting, I mean a game changer. Wanna hop in for a game?”

“Only if you wanted to play it my way dear,” he looked through narrowed eyes, “I like challenges, you knew it, don’t you?”

“I pretty much know you well handsome,” he smiled and looked at Malcolm who engaged in looking fixedly at both of them.

“So the bottom line of me coming right here to this place is not to surprise you with my visit but to let you know that,” he paused; turned his pate towards Aryan and continued, “Me and Malcolm had made our mind to entrust you with a new entrepreneurial venture”

“Sorry what?” he was bolted out of the blue, “I made no sense of what you just spoke” he said.

“Yes Aryan, you heard it right,” Malcolm continued, “Justin has decided to run a small business, a start-up in the automobile industry and he would like to consign it to you. You will be the co-founder and CEO”

“Wait what?” he guffawed, “I am the CEO of the company where there are no resources for it be established. Let me make it clear, we need people, high skilled labor with work ethics. It is tough to get ’em. Did I make it look condescending?”

“You never talk condescendingly. You are very pragmatic and whip-smart. That’s what I like about you” Justin answered him, “and resources? You don’t wanna draw to a close on them. I have people for you, as you’ve cleared it out. We do have skilled workforce”

“Well it looks like the day is going to offer several thunderbolts,” he raised his shoulders, “if that’s true then I am greatly honored to be a part of the mission. Just out of curiosity, I would like to ask how many and where did you get them from?”

“There are ten people,” Justin said and got up from his seat, “you know all of them”

“Seriously Justin?” he squinted, “you are reading my mind, do you see it? Is it them? You know those who I am referring to”

“Seems like telepathy hasn’t died yet,” Justin said, “you are right, Steve and team, your group at the University”

“My goodness, I knew it,” he slapped his palm with his right hand, “but they are recruited by JAPMI, aren’t they?”

“I am from JAPMI, am I not?”, he retorted, “I will make sure they would get their professional work ship certified from JAPMI but they work under your arms and they, under your leadership will help this bird fly high. You know what I mean”

“Well I see it vividly” he smiled and looked at Malcolm.

“You both talk less and work more through your eyes, isn’t it” Malcolm commented, “well that explains about everything of Aryan past achievements”

“What’s next?” Aryan enquired.

“Before you talk more, let’s get your famished bellies some brunch”, Malcolm stood on his feet and guided them to the dining.

January’ 2004,
GCP, Nassau County, NY.

“That’s a whacking blow”, Malcolm enfolded Aryan in his arms, “you did it, and you made the guys do it. I am proud of you and the kids. I now see the worth of leaving my professional job for teaching. I have twenty odd years of industry experience but never was I entangled in mixed emotions. Being a teacher standing behind my students who achieved a milestone, the feeling is inexplicable”, tears kept rolling down his eyes and he continued talking his feelings out, “I must say, I am greatly honored to have you guys being supervised by me. You have given me something that I would cherish for the rest of my life although it may be just short. This success belongs to you all.”

“Sir, please”, Aryan did his best to placate him, “You are the real captain, without your instincts and courage this wouldn’t have been possible. You believed in us, you took management risks on behalf of the team, you were available at every hour during the course of the execution, you do share a lot of credits from the success and we will never alone take the success if not for you”

The beautiful beast, as they named it. They did finish the fabrication process in time. It took two months fifteen days to completely materialize the theory and concepts.

They ran through the contest and the beast topped the list in the competition. The college had won a huge cash prize and all the students were offered full time positions as the automotive research and development engineer at the JAPMI. The dream of each of them to have them placed in an industry, to live with the work they enjoy doing, has finally come into the picture. They stood as an inspiration to the young minds out there, revealing what a naive individual, if believed in oneself, can change the way how things would work out for them.

The university board had arranged for a colossal party, it was so stupendous that the college had never organized a fete of such a scale in its history. All the faculty and few other delegates from several other automotive companies were invited to the soiree. The beautiful beast was resting on a small decent dais, constructed for her to showcase her beauty and strength, of what she can do, to the world.

The reception was to start in an hour, after the delegates from various places arrived at their own pace. Justin Amell, sponsor for the project from head to toe, was patently expected on his arrival. While everybody engaged themselves with the ambience and partook in the celebration, Aryan had a question wandering in his mind and it only kept his heart rickety. What’s next? His mind repeated the question oftentimes. He walked out from the surroundings for some fresh air, you have been here to support the project on a daily basis compensated with the stipend, now that this comes to halt, what’s next? But this time his heart sounded out. You were not given an offer by the company because you are not a legally enrolled student at the university, He said to himself, what’s next? He was bogged down as the same question played in his mind for several hundreds of times.

“Dude, I was looking around for you and you are here”, Steve said, “come on, cheer up. You really do have a great father-in-law and Professor, Malcolm, has a great son-in-law indeed. Fortunate to have known you both.”

The appreciation from Steve sounded tantalizing to Aryan. The certain information of a fact which the inner world of the University had about him was out of his sight. Steve invoked his sensibility which made him realize that he was introduced to all of the faculty and staff, and to the students as the son-in-law of Malcolm. That’s how he squared things out for Aryan in order to keep him at the work in the project. For the outside world he was the unchanged hackney driver of Malcolm and for the professor he was the hackney driver working for him on a stipend.

The successful reification of the beast had drawn attention of the media extensively. Aryan decided to leave the soiree at the earliest before the reporters caught a sight of him. I had to go, I have to move out, and right now He said to himself as he walked alongside with Steve towards the main center.

“Steve, a minute”, he excused and wend his way towards Malcolm.

“Professor Malcolm, I would like to leave now. Family’s at home, is waiting for my arrival”, Aryan informed him, “and I would like to leave before it is any late”.

“Young man,” Malcolm called and motioned Aryan closer towards him, “this is your day, and you deserve to live in this very moment. You may not want to miss this, I will take the onus of telling your family if that is a concern,”

“You have given me enough of more than what I deserve. The time has come and I had to leave, as my stay and deal with the project comes to halt by today as per our understanding before you on boarded me.” Aryan uttered in a low tone as he waned in sounding out words with lots of emotions running through in his heart, “I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart and with due respect I tend to ask, If you may excuse and accept, I will take leave”

Looking away from him with his left hand on Aryan’s right shoulder and his right hand slid inside his right pocket of the tuxedo, “I would like to see you at your ease”, he said, “I leave the choice to you, my young man but remember you will still keep me driving to the college from tomorrow,”

“That was also part of the deal”, Aryan said with a smile, “Will talk tomorrow in the morning”. Aryan started to walk away from the center, “Young man”, he heard Malcolm calling him, “Young man, just a sec”, he approached him, “Please reach my home by ten in the morning”. “Sure”, Aryan nodded.

“Have a good night, convey my regards to your family”, he said and walked back towards the center.

I leave now before Justin or media catch hold me He said to himself and increasing his pace, careful, watch your step, keep an eye on the ambience

It took fifteen minutes for him to come out of the place. On his course way, he’s got a glance of the emblem, ‘JAPMI’ on a car that drove past him from the other end of the way. Instantly Aryan got into his car, what is your next step, Aryan His mind reeled the question. Before his mind was to take much control over the heart, he decided to drive back and disappeared in blink of an eye.

October’ 2003,
GCP, Nassau County, NY.

It had been a month since the time they dwelled into the project. Lots of enthusiasm coupled with full throttled energy accorded a semi-finished product. They did keep up with the deadlines inside the project. A massive boost to the group by the presence of commendable workers with incredible intelligence. Each member of the crew had eclipsed on the expectations from the job. The way they took a new lease of life by themselves to latch on to their job in a short time on the by and by assignment was truly impeccable for the heads. At such a young age they were inspirational to several other students in the college. It did start to change the dynamics of the team and with the college. They had assembled at the conference room in the early evenings as part of their regular meetings.

“It’s been thirty odd days,” Malcolm recalled, “Let’s do a recap and understand what our learnings so far were”, Malcolm asked.

“It is harder to build simple things than to build complex ones”, Kevin Said, “I mean, it is pretty much easy to build a heavier car with a quite complexity but to decrease the weight of it while building to gain the power to weight ratio, that was challenging indeed”

“You must keep things simple and light weighted in order to be competitive”, Aryan added to the findings of Kevin, “Simplicity is under rated and yet it is the hardest thing to achieve because it requires a mechanic to be more thoughtful in design and planning iterations.”

“True that,” Robert added, “speaking from the non-technical front, when car is supposed to weigh less, it should probably have fewer spare parts installed on it. This will certainly pay off for the racer while minimizing the total number of installed parts”.

“Yes, I must agree with Robert”, Sean joined the conversation, “more parts on the car is gonna take more time in installing them. On the other side, the other day while I was watching a competition on the TV. I’ve noticed, a team had dismantled a portion of the rear end suspension system in the middle of their race. Although, they are allowed to continue in the race, they took a lot of time in order to fix the portion of the car and get it back in shape. They worked on fixing lots of bolts, nuts and brackets.”

“In addition, smallest part is going to consume lots of time during its installation”, Mathew, the head spoke, “the Chassis, Engine, Fuel tank, Exhaust and radiator, Suspension are going to take more time compared to the installation of parts like Pedals, differential, firewall, seat, rod ends, shock absorbers, disk brakes air intake manifold steering wheel, and car body. Time must be documented with this in mind. Well integrated systems and components would reward our efforts.” He concluded.

The discussion had taken an hour before they winded it up. Several questions with supporting answers. The progress had been clearly tracked down by every person on board. They put themselves upfront in taking up the challenges from the coming up tasks. Everybody has got their work assigned for the next month before they could see the model coming to live.

---

“I am happy and never in my wildest dreams had I imagined I would see my students endorsing the project with such an immense pleasure”, Malcolm said as he walked with Aryan towards the car in the lot after the meeting. Aryan continued to drive the cab but only for Malcolm. He was assured of a stipend for working with the project. So, He was making enough that could accommodate the living of the Hadars.

“I am happy too Professor”, He said in response, “I could not thank you enough for what you have given me” and they started to drive back to their homes.

“Never mention! Young man. I have to thank you for all that you have done to me and the college”, he said smiling genuinely through his eyes, “I am fortunate to have met with you, in fact you are the reason for everything that is taking place right now. All those students would be indebted to you than me for the knowledge and experienced you shared with them”

“Sir, please don’t say so”, Aryan replied momentarily, “You have seen a lot more life in the field, your experience is far superior to that of my knowledge. I am fully convinced that they should be indebted to you more than the college for leading their lives into propitious phase. I am sure they would have seen themselves by now where would they be after six or seven years down the line”

“I am sure they did”, he endorsed Aryan’s statement, “they are smart enough to understand their efforts they are putting into and the rewards they are to receive at the early phase of their life.”

“Very true”, Aryan complied with Malcolm.

“By the by. You had only told me about your Mama and Shalini but we never talked about your educational background” he asked hesitatingly, “in fact, we never found some time to talk over it. You may want to do it now?”

“I have finished my high schooling from a local public school, but I flunked in enough of the subjects”, He lied for several reasons, “I had enrolled in a public university. I continued to study for two years but again I flunked few courses except those fell under automobile engineering”.

“Ha ha ha”, Malcolm laughed out loud and Aryan complied with him.

“Mr. Malcolm, it might look funny to you but that was a tough job to scrape through other courses. It was hard for me to accrue interest in those uninterested subjects “, Aryan voiced out, “I could not get stipend from the university as my grades were not up to the threshold. I worked as car mechanic back then since high school so that I did some money for home. That’s how I had passion for cars and I learnt a lot through the service that I rendered for the customers at the car shed. This helped me clearing those core subjects under my department.”

“You have an interesting character young man”, he said, “I like you for many reasons. It doesn’t matter if you flunk at the tests. They are never any barriers for success. You are good at something and you are having your life now”.

“Hopefully,” Aryan replied and continued, “Fortunately JAPMI was lenient with academics and were focused in recruiting students with interest, knowledge and experience as interns. That’s how I had an opportunity to work for the industry. Thereafter life has become more of mechanical, the university fee was doubled for no reason in my third year. I didn’t had enough money to pay the tuition and fees. I was having no choice but to stop going to college and work as a full time cab driver to make money; a few months later I happened to meet with you”

“Quite an interesting phase of life is yours”, Malcolm patted on his shoulder, “I appreciate your interest and courage; for what you are as a person at the young age. You have gained my respect young man” he said.

“That means a lot to me Sir,” said Aryan casting his eyes on Malcolm, “I appreciate your backing and concern towards me”

“Well you will have them forever”, he said and Aryan had to cut the street corner as they neared Malcolm house.

“Ok, young man. Will catch up tomorrow,” he said and got down the car, “drive safe, good night” he bid bye.

Aryan did lie but also he had deep respect for him because of the help he had offered and for that, he would be forever indebted. He just didn’t want him to know about his past. The day he left the city, he had decided to let his past perish. Yet it kept haunting him.

Your past is something you are born with, it doesn’t easily evanesces, reverberated in Aryan’s ears every single time he recollected his past. It occurred to Aryan then that it was going to stay with him for the rest of his life; he made his mind up to evade when he encounters it and that was what he had been trying to do. Ain’t making a mistake by doing so because I am living for my mama and Shalu. I would like to make them happy as long as I can by continuing to work to the best of my abilities and to do it, I will have to lie about my past He thought for a while and stopped the car abruptly. He reminded himself, Malcolm now know about my stint at JAPMI and the supervisor as Justin. Justin doesn’t know of my whereabouts; he is only aware that I left the city with mama. Huh! Good god! He cleared his mind on the issue and fired the engine to drive back to his home.

September’ 2003,
GCP, Nassau County, NY.

“This project demands apparently two thousand five hundred productive working hours”, Aryan voiced out leaning forward by placing both his fists on the Kennedy and Coe table, “you are eight in number, working six hours a day can guarantee us the product in couple of months”, he said and proceeded to his seating.

He looked over the captain for the Project, “I believe the computer-aided design is done long before. Do you have the results from the simulated environment? Mathew,” asked Aryan.

“Oh yeah! Here they are”, he handed over the record of design and analysis of the entire model.

“The stress and suspension analysis looks interesting”, Aryan said, “Let’s freeze the dimensions because they also tend to match with the chassis I modelled last year at the JAPMI. Everything looks great, I hope we could start building a mock-up using plastic materials to ensure that the design is achievable in reality. We do have sponsors but this is your first product with no prior experience. It is essential to proceed with mock-up modelling to minimize the overall cost”.

Aryan took a sip of water and continued, “We will be going with the fabricated chassis of mine. It is much easier that way, taking the existing set up and leveraging on what we have than to start from the scratch”, He glanced over all the attendants in the conference room, “I reckon people are good at vehicle dynamics, heat transfer, material sciences and solid mechanics in excess of what you guys required to get your degree because this project needs you to demonstrate your knowledge, understanding and reasoning. Why you had to do something in a specific way and why not the other, what was the thought process before arriving to a conclusion on a spare part, do you really understand what you have at stake and while utilising them? These are a few intuitions you should have asking yourself during the course of the development. Engineering is an art of choosing compromises that best solve the problems, as they say it. It is not only important to play with the advantages of one over the other but to know its limitations as well. This rule applies everywhere, even to our lives. It is necessary to do your thinking on the design decisions upfront. Conveying the best of your understanding to someone, who has experienced racing all of their lives or to an inexperienced car owner, is your job.” And he paused the talk.

“We should thank the young man for his lead on the investor”, Malcolm Intervened, “and it is now our responsibility to deliver what the sponsor is looking in return for their donations. They will be coming back in the years to come, if you show case your potentiality by bringing the product to live,” he enlightened the young kids, “Good luck with the assignment”, he said and concluded.

“Let’s roll up young men”, Aryan cheered the fledglings, “right from tomorrow morning”.

The crew dispersed from the conference room after the meet. The juveniles were in high spirits for their upcoming engagement but Aryan wondered if they would potentially keep up the spirits till the completion of the task. Though he had notions in a manner, they eventually proved him wrong.