Chapter 20

Sorry for the delay in posting this update. I was a bit caught up with work over the last couple of days. 

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Chapter 19

A pebble disturbed the serenity of the pond, sending ripples along its radius. This was more likely a rock. The splash could be heard from a distance, and there were no ripples, just giant spurts of water falling wherever they willed. 

That's what AR Designs looked like on the fateful Wednesday morning, when Arnav Singh Raizada returned from Lucknow. Sounds that had been missing from AR for the last three months were all heard within the span of half an hour - frantic rustling of paper, the urgent clacking of shoes on fibre glass floors, the unending buzz of the coffee machine and swearing - lots and lots of swearing.

Arnav Singh Raizada was angry. Very angry. Very very angry. And it wasn't a small matter. Newspapers had been speculating for over a month about the grand entry of AR Designs into the European market, with the launch of their first exclusive retail store opening in Milan, with stock market experts predicting a substantial rise in the AR Corp shareholdings by 10 percent. AR Corp partners and stakeholders were eagerly waiting for the date and the official announcement. Arnav Singh Raizada too was...until this morning.

The designs he had been working, as part of his initial launch collection had all come back - they weren't inspiring enough. The largest chunk of the European market was already owned by Armani, Versace, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein in no particular order. And the way AR's current designs were pitched, they matched the brand value and the haute couture range of the already existing identities. There was no stark difference. As a result, no compelling need for the customers to switch!

His partners in the expansion had indicated that something with a flavor of India that would help them with the establishing and branding of the first overseas AR showroom in Milan. But so far Arnav had not been able to give them anything satisfactory. He had tried everything from changing their material to cut to design and fabric but still there was nothing unique about AR that would make the crme de la crme of the European society want to try AR over the other already established brands.

Arnav had twelve weeks in hand before he would officially have to call off the expansion. Twelve weeks to make it all work in his favor. And if there was something Arnav Singh Raizada hated more than losing, it was losing without being able to save face. After having reigned as India's more arrogant businessman for over a decade, ASR was not about to concede defeat to the rest of the world. 

****

As Khushi Kumari Gupta took in the dcor of her new penthouse apartment at Rising Star, she felt a pang of guilt. Guilt at not being able to share this luxury with the rest of her family. 

The apartment was exquisitely decorated - with an open plan living room and kitchen, black granite kitchen countertops, stainless steel appliances and large French windows that overlooked the balcony. The windows were covered with wine-colored satin and velvet interlaced curtains. She moved softly through the apartment, not willing to upset any of the many decorative pieces that were placed on small display shelves randomly through the hallway. 

The hallway led to two bedrooms - the bigger was exquisitely furnished, with a four poster bed, a settee at the foot of the bed, a coffee-table with two arm-chairs and a recliner. One entire wall of the room was a cupboard with mirrors to replace the sliding doors. This room too had access to the balcony.

The smaller room was sparsely furnished, just a small double bed, a writing desk and chair, with a lamp attached and two old fashioned wooden cupboards. The room had a window that could be left open on a pleasant day to allow some fresh air, but no access to the balcony. 

Khushi liked the smaller room, it reminded her of what she had left behind - simplicity. And so, she decided, that the time she had to spend at the Rising Stars, she would spend in the smaller room.

She lugged her bags from the living area where Ashok Yadav had left them and began the tedious task of unpacking.

*****

Lavanya Kashyap rarely gave any reason to ASR to scream at her. And yet, it seemed that unwittingly, she had added to ASR's growing temper by inviting Khushi to AR Designs for a meeting.

"What were you thinking when you invited Khushi for a meeting to AR?", Arnav hollered.

"Nothing. This is not the first time one of your Business Developers will be visiting the office. And this won't be the last. I thought..."

He didn't let her finish. "Who gave you the right to think?"

Tears pooled in her eyes at this unfair accusation and she stood silent, with her head bowed down, unwilling for ASR to see that he had affected her so.  When she didn't answer, he looked perplexed. Running his fingers through his thick matte of hair, he said: "Since that fateful day, when you decided to invite Khushi to AR, her employee record has been looked into five times, with Anjali having personally asked to see her offer letter."

Lavanya had no idea what Arnav was trying to get at. She didn't have the courage to ask. So she stayed silent, waiting for him to continue.

"I don't know what has happened behind my back, but there is a good possibility that Khushi might have run far away from New Delhi and AR, all thanks to your stupidity."

ASR was being unreasonable. And Lavanya expected nothing better. So she waited, waited with baited breath for him to pronounce her final verdict. 

"You have an hour Ms Kashyap. Collect all your belongings. The car will take you to the airport."

*****

It was 8pm. Arnav was exhausted from the events of the day. Rubbing his temples in slow concentric circles to relieve the stress he was feeling, he looked around for his secretary to ask her for his fourteenth cup of black coffee for the day. 

There was no one around but him, and a few of the designers who were working on the European project. He decided to go home, back to his apartment at the Rising Star. Indeed a hot shower might better suit him than black coffee at this hour. 

******

Standing outside his penthouse apartment in the left wing of Rising Star, Arnav inserted the key-card to let himself into his apartment that he hadn't used in more than three months. The condition of the apartment didn't reveal that.

He casually took off his coat and placed it alongwith his laptop bag on the sofa and proceeded to the bedroom to take the hot shower he had convinced himself would do the trick. 

One hour later, the the small ache had grown into a full-fledged migraine. The hot shower had not helped. It was time to execute plan B - a cup of steaming hot black coffee. Except, on looking, he found that there was no coffee in the apartment. 

Previously, Lavanya had taken care of his every need, including that of drinking black coffee at ungodly hours. And she always kept an extra case of his favorite Colombian dark roast in her apartment, in case he ran out of it in the dead of the night. Surely, she would still have some in her apartment. 

Lavanya. Now that he had considerably calmed down, he didn't know if he had been unreasonable with her or not. He didn't care. Lavanya was yesterday's story. And it seemed that a large corporate advertisement was hogging the front page of today's newspaper, shielding the headline that lay underneath it.

Arnav shook himself out of his reverie. He was losing the plot. He needed coffee. Fishing the keys to Lavanya's apartment from a bowl at the bar, he walked across the connecting corridor, slowly inserted his key and turned the lock to enter the apartment, only to come face to face with Khushi Gupta, clad in the most ordinarily stitched cotton salwar kameez, headphones glued to her ears, eyes closed, waving her spatula like a prop and dancing in the kitchen to a recent popular film tune, as if she had always belonged there!

Chapter 20: http://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=4343261&TPN=55