Posted:
Awesome update...
You have built up the base so strong with beautiful characteristics that the story looks so genuine...
I am looking forward to the journey now...
Chapter 12: Oh! O is in trouble!!
Raju was very nervous. Whatever it is that Ishana madam was doing was not right. He even brought it up, indirectly and was silenced with an open threat. "Shut Up or I will make sure you spend you days in a jail!" was the threat. He tried to go on about as though nothing had happened, but he was not able to do it. This time the stakes were much higher. Racking his brains real hard, he realized the only way out of this would be to involve Anika didi. But he did not want to do that. He owed her a lot already, had it not been for Anika didi he would have long been dead. He tried to shut his eyes to what was happening. But finally after a month, he was sure he would have to contact Anika again.
"Hello Anika didi, this is Raju" said a very nervous voice, "What happened Raju?" inquired an anxious Anika, "Didi, can you please meet me today?by the old post office?". "Sure" said Anika, "but why don't we meet by Ishana didi's gallery?, it is closer for both of us". "No didi, please, I don't want to be seen" pleaded Raju. "Ok!" sighed Anika, "I will meet you after work today, at 6?" she asked. "Sure didi, see you then!". Anika was puzzled. Wonder what this would be about.
***************************************************************************************
Anika slept uneasily, tossing and turning and having bizarre dreams. It was the blue-green eyed Oberoi. Lack of sleep meant Anika woke up rather early. Sleep was a luxury Anika could not afford. With all her legal activities, teaching jobs and other mundane activities, Anika often had extremely busy days and her days usually ended with her crashing down. She was often over worked, and she actually liked that. Being over worked meant she did not have to dwell on the miseries of her life. Though Anika had come a long way from being a starved and abused child, she still had a long way to go. She made just about enough to ensure that there was food on the table. Sahil's school and related activities were taken care of, but she wanted to do more for him. What Sahil's parents had done for her could never be matched by her in this life time and so she strived hard to give Sahil the best. Lately much to Anika's pride and joy Sahil's teachers recommended that he be given IIT and Olympiad coaching. "He is really smart and has great aptitude for math" they said. But their school did not have enough facilities for either. Anika did not want Sahil to be left lacking for anything nor did she want money to hinder his growth. She would have to practice with a firm. She just wanted to find a good one. "Must ask Mallika", she reminded her self.
After brewing herself a cup of strong adrak chai, Anika proceeded to check messages on her phone. She would use Sahil's PC later for emails. The sight of the PC filled her with pain and pride. Sahil wanted a PC and knew Anika would not be able to buy him one, so the little smart guy went around collecting parts from various friends and neighbors. Once he had all the parts, he spent hours pouring over technical manuals. Finally after 5 long months he put together a PC that according to him was the coolest ever. Ruffling his hair and kissing his peaceful face, Anika proceeded to check her messages.
She had about a dozen messages from Prinku all conveying how sorry she was in varying degrees of sentiment. There were 3 additional messages, one from dadi, one from Om and one from Rudy. "God these Oberois!" she thought. While she liked them a lot, since last night she was weary of them. While she was warmed by Prinku, Om, Dadi and amused by Rudy she knew all about Shivay Singh Oberoi. She knew what he thought about people who were not blue blooded or rich and his actions yesterday spoke volumes. She mentally vowed to maintain her distance from the Oberois. They could come meet her if they wanted but she would never step foot into the Oberoi Mansion again.
After typing out a lengthy message to Prinku assuring her that she was still her friend, Anika proceeded to make breakfast. Toast and Omelette for Sahil, "Again!". She knew he was bored of the same thing everyday, but Anika was no cook. She knew the basic Chai, Toast, Omelette and poha and the slightly complex aloo puri, their favorite. Just as she was heading to the kitchen, she got a call from Raju. Three years ago Raju came down from a remote village in Bengal with a contractor who promised him employment in the city. As one would expect the contractor robbed Raju off his money, and enslaved him at a construction site. Barely surviving in the ghettos near the construction site, Raju was sure he would soon die. But then came Anika didi, just like the goddess she was named after. Anika didi was working with a human rights lawyer who rescued the entire ghetto. Anika didi discovered Raju was an artist and was initially promised a job as a painter of signs. Via few contacts Anika was able to secure Raju employment at Ishana Patel's art gallery and studio. Ishana was an art dealer who was licensed to sell various artists' work. That was the last that Anika saw of Raju. Every year after that, for every durga Puja Anika received a box of sweets and a beautiful hand painted dupatta from Raju. She protested, but he said it was for his maa Durga. So Anika was a little unsettled by his call. "I hope all is well" she thought.
The rest of Anika's day passed rather peacefully. By 6pm Anika made her way to the old post office. Within a few minutes she spotted Raju. He looked well, "Thank god" she thought. As she was parking her Champa, Anika saw Raju come over and quickly bend to touch her feet. "Arrey Raju nahi nahi" said Anika catching by the shoulder just as he was bending down to touch her feet. "Didi how are you?" he asked. "I am fine Raju, what about you?are you OK?what happened?" she asked. "I will tell you in a minute didi, let us go sit and get some tea first". With that Raju led Anika to a small tea stall. Once chai was served, Raju started "Didi, I noticed this about three month ago, Ishana madam asked me to come to studio one day in the dead of the night. She had just received a shipment from Paris. It was beautiful sculpture of a woman deep in thought. Ishana madam asked me if I could copy it for her. Initially I was excited, because this way I was learning something new. I spent 3 full months replicating it. Once I was done, I showed it Ishana madam who was immensely happy. She paid me 3000 rupees for it. After that she always made similar requests off me. Soon I realized that Ishana madam was getting me to copy originals and was selling them off to unsuspecting buyers. She is making money off the artist and the buyers. I realized that and began to add few changes to the copies so as to protect the artist. But Ishana madam has caught on. I got away by saying that the art work is hard to copy and she seems to be convinced. But I am concerned now didi, because the gallery recently received an order of 20 unique pieces. I found out that they are to be auctioned at a charity and will fetch a great price. Ishana madam wants me to replace the originals with fakes. I am really concerned didi" finished Raju.
"Ok this is bad" thought Anika,"But are you sure Raju?", "Did you talk to Ishana Madam about this?". Raju said "I did didi and she threatened me of dire consequences if I let slip of this and promised me 1000 rupees for each copied piece". Shaking her head Anika thought "maybe they could contact the artist first?". "Raju" said Anika, "do you know which artists these pieces belong to?". "Umm... I am not sure didi, I managed to copy the sign off the boxes these pieces arrive in" saying so Raju handed Anika a drawing. The symbol had two Os, a simple plain circle encircling an ornate O. The ornate O had an equally ornate S engraved on the top and a rather stylish R engraved at the bottom. Now Anika was no artist and neither did she have a smart phone to look up the sign over the internet. "Umm..." said Anika and noticed that Raju though had a smart phone. "Did you try checking the sign over the internet?" she asked. "Didi my phone is new and I am yet to get the browser in Bengali" admitted Raju sheepishly. Smiling lightly Anika took a picture of the sign and did a google image search, she gasped at the results. The sign belonged to Omkara Singh Oberoi. "Oh no!" she thought "Not the Oberois". Raju noticed the expression on Anika's face and asked "What happened didi, do you know who it belongs to?". Anika nodded with a frown on her face, "Raju, this may be hard, but we must do what is right, understood?" she said. Raju nodded.
Anika took a deep breath and dialed Prinku up. "Hi Anika" said a very excited Prinku, "I am so happy you called" she squealed. "Listen Prinku, can you please head over to my house with Om?... I will explain once you get to my place...yeah...Please come fast" saying so she hung up. "Raju let us go to my house, do you have samples of the copies?" she asked. "Yes didi, should I bring them?" asked Raju. "Yes, please bring all the evidence you have and meet me as soon as possible at my house" she said. With that both of them left the tea stall.
Getting on to her Champa Anika marveled at how weird all this was.
******************************************************************************************
Om was engrossed in a painting when he heard Prinku lightly tap at the studio door and ask "O bhaiya, can I come in?". Smiling and nodding towards Prinku, Om said "Sure come in, whats up?"."Bhaiya Anika called and asked you and I to come down to her house as soon as possible" said Prinku. "Is everything alright?" asked Om now concerned. "She said it was a little important and asked us to hurry" said Prinku. "Well then what are we waiting for" said Om as he wiped the paint off his brushes and took off his apron. Just as Om and Prinku were heading out, Rudy accosted them with a "Where are you guys off to?". "To visit Anika" said Prinku, "Please Please can I go as well?" he whined. Rolling his eyes Om said "Yes yes Rudy, come on!".
****************************************************************************************************
Anika was pacing nervously in her apartment. She did not know how would they react. Besides she did not know how would they like to be in her house, after all it was not even as big as Prinku's room. Just then her phone rang, "Anika, our car is not able to get to your lane, can you give us walking directions?, we are by the hanuman temple" said Prinku. Slightly embarrassed Anika said "Sure... straight...yes turn left...yeah...then right... can you see me waving?...i can see Rudy" with that Anika hung up. A very excite Rudy ran up to Anika took her into a bone crushing hug and said "Anika didi so happy to see you!! Your place is so cool" with that Rudy plopped onto Anika's divan and proceeded to get comfortable. Anika was relieved and flashed him one of her brightest smiles. Prinku and Om soon caught up. Prinku excitedly hugged Anika and Om warmly shook hands with her. "Whats up Anika? what happened?" asked Prinku
Drawing in a deep breath Anika proceeded to tell them all what Raju said. To say Om was shocked would be an understatement. Just as the Oberois were assimilating all that Anika divulged, Raju showed up with evidence. One look at the copied pieces and Om no longer suspected that Anika misunderstood facts. Om was devastated. Ishana was a friend, "why was she doing this?". These pieces that Raju was copying were for the annual Oberoi charity held to commemorate Mahi bhaiya. "Ishana knew what these were for" said Om through clenched teeth. "How could she" he yelled. Throughout all this Rudy noticed Raju sneak glances towards Om. "While everyone knows I am the most handsome O bro, why is that Raju is looking at O on the sly?" he asked. The others immediately turned towards a very red faced Raju. "What happened Raju" asked Anika gently. "Didi, I made several paintings for Ishana madam of Omkara Saheb" said Raju. Shifting rather uncomfortably in his spot Raju added "Madam has a private room full of Saheb's pictures, paintings and paintings of saheb".
Anika and Prinku gasped with their hands immediately finding heart and mouth respectively. Rudy roared with laughter but immediately went still when he saw a very angry and white faced Om. "What do we do now?" asked Rudy. At that very moment Rudy's phone rang and Shivay's face flashed on the screen for all to see. Picking up the call, Rudy listened before saying anything and then said "Yes Bhaiya, not everything is right, where are you now?...um... Ok... why don't you come home in about 30 mins?" saying so Rudy hung up.
"I think we should all go home, Shivay bhaiya will know what to do" said Rudy.
"Umm, Ok! you guys go ahead!" said Anika. "Didi won't you come with us?" asked Raju panicking. "Anika?" asked Prinku. "Umm, its just that, I don't think I need to be there" began Anika. "Didi I am scared, you are a lawyer, you will protect me" said Raju. "Anika didi you are a lawyer?...so cool" Rudy interjected. "But Anika why are you not coming?, I thought you forgave us" asked Prinku hurt visible on her face. "Anika, please do not mind Shivay. I cannot even begin to explain how grateful I am to you that you brought this up to my notice so quickly" said Om. Before Anika could deny him, he looked at her and said "For me, Please!" he said. "Sure sure" said Anika nervously. She hated to deny Om or Raju and she knew Raju would be worried. Besides she was really apprehensive about how Shivay Singh Oberoi would deal with this situation, "What if Raju gets into trouble?". Sighing she said "Let me make arrangements for Sahil and then...," "Didi, please ride with me, we hardly got time to talk" said Rudy. "Yes Anika, go with Rudy bhai, we will take Raju with us" said Prinku.
With that Anika headed to the Oberoi Mansion, Again.
Thank you so much!Originally posted by: Eternized_Blues
I am literally waiting for the next part with a bated breath! This was absolutely amazing.
Aww.. thank you so much!Originally posted by: ithihaas
I am bowled over by the way you have weaved the story around the characters... So much of fine tuning and the story is just marvelous... I am amazed at how much of story can be written around these beautiful characters.
👍🏼
comment:
p_commentcount