ArHi FF - Aftershock: Chapter 9, Pg 26, 23 September - Page 4

This is getting more interesting with arshi being childhood friends.Could there be any link between what caused their separation and what caused the Gupta's downfall ?

Originally posted by: ntmrjn

Memories of childhood,playing in rain..getting new feelings..promises..thats what were the arnav khushi's life..but what made so sudden change in their relationship?
Her every step from joining the company,to get every details abt the employers..all are leading to sth big..is she here to find the real culprit who did the mistake of food poisoining?

Things change when it all goes down, doesn't it? She is here for various reasons. Maybe finding the culprit is one of them. The change in relationship is explored in detail. It is, in fact, the parallel force of this story.

Originally posted by: Sindhuramakrish

so technically, arnav and kushi were childhood friends, or to be precise, childhood sweethearts or lovers. but due to uncertain circumstances, by next year, kushi's parents suicide and now she is working for her own company but she has a mystery which only she can solve. and arnav looks as though he has no recognition yet he acknowledges her presence. that is a difficult web of mystery and thriller series.😉 👏 i appreciate ur talent in bringing such a plot and i am waiting eagerly for the next update for more of the mystery to unfold. great going

You pretty much summed it up perfectly (: Arnav does recognize her; she implies that they have met over the years and he knows exactly who she is and vice versa. The past however holds the answer to his actions and Khushi doesn't completely doesn't understand it.

Thanks (:

Originally posted by: sanamsky

wow something new love it 😊

Thanks... (:

Originally posted by: vidya.sanjay

This is getting more interesting with arshi being childhood friends.Could there be any link between what caused their separation and what caused the Gupta's downfall ?

Or am I thinking too much??l

The can be links between the two and it won't be out of ordinary either. But more to come later (:

Oh my god!!

Originally posted by: mrin0709

Oh my god!!

Awesome story, brilliant concept.. very unique

Thank you (:

Originally posted by: anjs

looking interesting...

Thank you (:

Originally posted by: ntmrjn

When r u posting?

Today. Sorry for the delay (:

Chapter 4:

It was 3 AM when two continuous ring on her cellphone roused her from her sleep. The missed call was an indicator of an email and the moment that thought breaks her sleep ridden mind, she is immediately awake. She searches for her laptop amidst mountains of papers, files and empty packets of chips and cheese puffs. Once she finds her laptop, she unceremoniously shoves papers away from her bed and opens it. An email awaits on her private account from an anonymous sender in her junk folder which she knows is created just for the sake of sending this particular email. The attachment size is seven megabytes and there are several dozen documents in the compressed file. By the time she finishes reading the second file, she has a decent idea about the direction her presentation is going to be next day.

****

"Night job keeping you up all night?" Nathan asks, after giving Khushi a once over - her sleep deprived state, an inside joke.

"What can I say Nathan? I am a busy girl with a large appetite," she leers at him in return. Nathan throws his head back and gives a full belly laugh. They have less than an hour for the board meeting to commence and Khushi is tucking her shirt into her business suit.

After she had stormed off from brunch table previous Saturday, she had found Nathan waiting for her outside the ladies room. He hadn't offered an apology and she wasn't expecting any. But he had promised her an objective view of her actions and would treat her with the respect she deserves. It was exactly what she was looking for and it surprised her that Nathan had offered her this early. It would be more difficult with Arnav given their history and she was okay with it. But when he bumped her shoulder with his when they walked back to their table and told in hush whisper with a shy smile that he believed they would be friends one day, she felt her throat tighten. It was nice to have friends and in her life, there were less than two. She had nodded her head and given him a brilliant smile.

"Don't you have some make up stuff to cover the bags under your eyes that are the size of Indian Ocean?" Nathan inquires with a mocking concern. "We don't want our board to know what a party girl you are, do you?" He sniggers at his own joke. He narrowly escapes an incoming projectile - a stapler on Khushi's desk thrown by an annoyed Khushi.

Khushi dabs a layer of concealer underneath her eyes effectively hiding the blackish tinge the skin had taken after a long night of research and analysis. Thinly applied white color from an eye pencil gives her eyes a freshly awaken look and the muted nude eye makeup gives her eyes an alluring but natural look. She finishes her look with light volume mascara running on her eyelashes and the end result is plain stunning.

"How about now?" She says six minutes later, turning to look at Nathan who is peering at her curiously.

"It's like...magic!" He exclaims in exaggeration, hand on his chest and eyes wide.

Khushi rolls her eyes and hands him a file. "My presentation for today." She says cheerily.

Nathan immerses himself in the file handed by Khushi while she finishes brushing her hair and fixing the rest of her make up. She effectively ignores his mumbling and tepid curses as she runs a comb through her long locks. "You should have said 'spoiler alert' before you handed me this, you know?" He frowns at her and places the file on the table. He relaxes back in chair and watches her as she ties her hair into a complicated bun and shoves half a dozen bobby pins at various places. "I think you look hot." He makes an observation that earns him an eyebrow and a chuckle.

"Good stuff?" She asks, pointing the file.

Before he can reply, Arnav pokes his head in her office and knocks to get their attention. "Guys? It's time." He cocks his head towards the hallway.

"Buckle up Arnav," Nathan says standing up and offering Khushi his arm. "It's going to be a bumpy ride." He slaps Arnav's back and smiles wanly at him. "I am reading Harry Potter books," he offers when Arnav looks at him confused.

Arnav simply shakes his head while Khushi and Nathan exchange a private smile.

*****

When Khushi stands up, there is a hush in the room. Arnav gives a brief introduction about a decade and half of her work under ten minutes and doesn't hesitate to emphasize the prospective clients who would come to them because of her presence. Everyone in the room understands the burden she carries and knows how well respected she is in their domain. Khushi thanks Arnav politely and brings up her presentation.

"We have to fix attrition," she says as an introduction. There is a chuckle and snort from the end of the table and she doesn't care for that. Not yet, at least. "Hiring process is a problem and I don't understand why the board has to be involved in it as it's an internal operation. Since there is a huge vested interest in intellectual proprietary and copyrights, I believe it was earlier discussed in the board."

"What are you proposing, Ms. Gupta?" A voice shoots from far end of the table. It takes her a moment for the recognition to set in. She has managed to steer away from the man for several years though their paths had crossed more than dozen times. She wasn't scared of meeting him but there was an inhibition in the way he dealt with things. He had risen to a prominent member in fertilizer industry, schmoozing with politicians and becoming larger than the company itself. She hoped her dislike for the man who watched her father fall deeper and deeper into debt wasn't too obvious when she replied.

"I am going to fire Cadillus Consultants this week Mr. Jha." She says calmly. "The men and women they have provided over the years are substandard, lack in talent and aren't the right fill for the role."

"So that means the respective departments will be conducting their hiring process?" A senior board member asks, frowning. "Isn't it what the earlier process was?"

"It was." Mr. Jha interjects cutting Khushi who closes her mouth with a snap. Her face betrays no emotion as she leans across the wall and crosses her ankles; she knows her careless pose antagonizes a man of control like Mr. Jha and makes him more vulnerable than he is ready to show. "I don't know how it was done from where you come from Ms. Gupta but here at Raizada industries we are very particular about time management. This entire hiring process wasted a lot of our researchers' time. Outsourcing is both cost and time effective."

Khushi nods. "I agree Mr. Jha." She says. "If it's done properly. Cadillus Consultants is shitty at best." Mr. Jha, whose face showed the start of a smile, turns his lips to a flat line.

"Ms. Gupta-"

"Let's do a simple analysis shall we?" Khushi cuts him off before he could go on a rant or borders his words as threats to other members. "In two years we lost nineteen people who were hired by us at the recommendation of the consultants. It's surprising that these people along with half a dozen who quit in the last two years, have all ended up in the same company." She turns to look at Arnav and Nathan and smiles. "Strange, isn't it?"

"What the f**k do you think you are implying?" Mr. Jha's voice has run cold. Khushi cheers internally. "Arnav! I thought you hired this woman to improve our operations but look at what she is doing - spying on our ex-employees already. Did you troll the internet to find out about them? Or did you ask their friends who are our employees here to find out about them. This is atrocious. Two weeks in and she starts questioning our decisions that's been working well. Do you know why people have quit Ms. Gupta?" Mr. Jha snarled. Khushi gives him a careless shrug which makes him narrow his eyes. "People have quit because the pay elsewhere is good. People have quit because of the perks that's been offered to them and the kind of research fund these companies come with. I have been telling Arnav and everyone in this board to start accepting the offers we have been getting for subsidized-"

"No." Both Arnav and Nathan reply at the same time. Mr. Jha glares. "We have discussed this before. I am not accepting that." Arnav replies in a final tone for thirtieth time.

Khushi smiles and begins, "I didn't ask anyone to spy on my behalf Mr. Jha, I just asked our finance department to find out where the employees provident fund was transferred after they quit their job. And in some cases we were requested by the employers to provide their Form 16. The answers are more rational than...the story you just spewed Mr. Jha." Half the table laughs, Mr. Jha's glare intensifies and Nathan snorts loudly. Khushi considers it a win.

"Our people spend time and share proprietary information to new employees as it's very necessary for them to be integrated to their respective departments soon. What we are seeing here, ladies and gentlemen, is a systematic brain drain. You have the figures and you have the results. And I wasn't asking for firing Cadillus Consultants." Khushi finishes her presentation without a smile and switches on the lights. As expected people are surprised at Khushi's decision.

"I don't think the board agrees to your decision Ms. Gupta." Mr. Jha gives her a wan smile.

Khushi smiles. "I don't really care Mr. Jha," she smirks. "As a VP of operations I have full authority to take this decision and it doesn't require board's approval; I checked. It came to the board's purview last time because you bought this item to the table. Again, I checked the minutes of meeting."

Mr. Jha is seething. "Is this how you want to go forward Arnav?" He sneers.

Arnav shrugs. "She runs the show now Mr. Jha. If she thinks this is how it needs to be then this is how it's going to be."

"I must say I am disappointed Arnav. Decisions like these should be run by the board. We are all accountable for the progress of this company." Mr. Jha says, disappointed at the outcome.

Ignoring him, Arnav says, "If there isn't anything further in the agenda, we should close the meeting. I have to be on a flight in two hours." He says in final time.

In moments like these Khushi realizes how powerful of a man Arnav can be; be it his charisma or the authoritative attitude that he seems to pull from nowhere but is always sizzling just beneath the surface.

When his declaration is met with silence, he stands up and thanks everyone for their time politely. Khushi thanks the board and her eyes lock with Mr. Jha. The look he gives her is undecipherable and she knows that this is a very small win for her.

"Arnav, can I talk to you for a moment about the future board meetings?" Khushi asks a bit loudly. She knows her voice will travel across the room and reach the intended people. "I think we should ask the actual board members to start coming to these meetings and not send proxy." Arnav widens his eyes at this and whips his head to see Mr. Jha. And as she anticipated, Mr. Jha has clearly heard her request and the anger dances on his face. "Just a suggestion," she adds softly and walks away from the boardroom.

The silence that falls into the room is filled with apprehension.