Part 88

Aakash waited with bated breath to hear the expected outburst. Instead he heard banging on the door. He dashed out. Anjali was banging on the door. The door was shut tightly.

Aakash came "What is it Di?" He asked concerned.

"See Aakash, He is not opening the door!" Anjali was in tears. Aakash too started banging and calling him.

Arnav heard the commotion and came out. He too started banging on the door.

After five minutes of chaos Sham finally opened the door with a towel in his hand.

"What is it?" he asked irritably. Aakash peeped in. Anjali came forward and hugged her husband. "Are you ok? Why did you not open the door?" she asked weeping.

"I was in the bathroom! Please stop fussing?" he asked Anjali removing her hands from his shoulders. He wanted to bash her. He gave a disgusted look at Arnav and Aakash.

"Jijaji, we were really worried. We thought some mishap....." Aakash did not complete his statement.

"I am alright, nothing can happen to me!" he said smugly. Aakash tried to enter his room but Sham stood like a wall blocking the way. "What has happened to Aakash?" Arnav thought looking at Aakash's over excitement. The morning incidence had pumped confidence in Aakash.

"Jijaji, what is burning?" he asked smelling, flaring up his nose and sniffing.
"Nothing!" Sham brushed him away and said "Now if you excuse me, i have some calls to attend! Raani Saheba.. please leave me alone!" Sham said trying to close the door again.

"Ok! jijaji!"said Arnav innocently. "I will take Di to the Doctor. She has her ultrasound today!" Arnav said holding his Di's hand.

"What? When?" asked Sham suspiciously.
"Oh! it’s nothing special, just a routine checkup! I will take Di" said Arnav.
"Raani Saheba, why didn't you tell me? I will come with you!" said sham coming out and closing the door behind him.

Arnav and Aakash exchanged looks and left.
Arnav came back to his room and opened his bag. He took out the file
containing sheesh Mahel case papers. It was proved that his father had paid off the mortgage loan. This became his self earned property and had alienated the property in Arnav's name by a will. The probate of the will was upheld and the property reverted back to Arnav. He had tears in his eyes. He wanted to give this good news to his Di, to everyone! He Di was his only secret keeper when he was young. He felt sorry for his Di. He should and must keep this news a secret until the final blow. He had to go a long way!

"Di, I want to pull you out of this mess. Don't know how and when.." sadness shadowed his face.
He had gone to Luknow to take the possession. The lock put by the Thakurs of the mehal was broken in presence of the Court Officials and Arnav was asked to open the door and then to put his lock denoting his possession and ownership on the property. Arnav had put the new lock but did not go inside. He did not want to enter the Mehal without his sister. Arnav had taken the papers from the lawyer, had held the key in his palm and held it tightly closing his fist for a while and then had returned it back to the lawyer saying "Please give this to Mr. Balwindar Singh! I do not wish to keep it with me for now!" his vision had gone hazy with tears in his eyes. He had wandered down the memory lane with all his better sweet experiences of the Mehal.


He opened his laptop and saw Khushi online on skype. He started video chat. waiting for her to accept. Her image flashed on the screen and his heart leapt out. He forgot all his sorrows. but kept his face straight.

"Arnav ji!" Khushi blurted excitedly. Did you drive your new SUV? You liked it? Papaji had bought it when we were in the market that day."

"hmm!" he nodded smiling at her.
"Did you read my card?" she asked.
He slid his hand in his coat pocket and took out the card. There were two messages.. One from papaji, requesting him to accept the gift as his would be "son in law"
And the second one from Khushi "Arnav ji! Hope you like the gift and the car key.... A key for A Key! A gift for a gift and a heart for .....!" she had kept the space blank, drawing two entangled hearts. He looked at Khushi's eager eyes and dabbed his lips on the card. She blushed... and raising her eyebrows said "Complete ... the sentence...!" He stared at her with desire and wrote on the card... and showed it to her..
"A heart for a heart attack!" Khushi looked furious and his face brightened up.

"Khushi listen!" said Arnav pocketing the card again and he told her about the photographs promising to upload them for her.

They chatted for a long time. and Khushi said "Arnav ji, I have deposited the money in buwaji's bank account. They can get the house repaired.

"Ok!" Arnav said sounding hurt. "She has not forgotten! I had called her a gold digger!" he thought. Sadness overshadowed his face. She looked at him pleadingly. He nodded.

** **** ***

He went down for dinner and saw all the family members at the table. Aaksh was looking at him apprehensively. He ignored Aakash.

"Di, did you get the test reports? What did the doctors say?" He asked looking at his Di.

"Everything is perfect saale saab! She is perfectly alright." Arnav looked at him in surprise. "Why was he answering?" He looked at his Di. She looked nervous. Arnav changed the subject.

"Di, can you pass the vegetable bowl, please?" he asked.
"Raani Saheba!" said Sham getting up.
"What is it Jijaji? Finished?" Asked Aakash.

"See na Aakash! He is again leaving now for some urgent work. He didn't even tell me where he is going!" said Anjali sulkily. Sham looked nervous and said slyly "Raani saheba! Its my court case and i have to be present tomorrow!" He said holding her hand.

"Tomorrow? On a holiday?" asked Arnav loudly.

"um.. " sham fumbled. "Preparatory work!" he said and left. Anjali looked confused.

"Is he hiding something from me?" she muttered and went behind him. Aakash and Arnav finished their dinner and left. They knew what to do when sham was away.

Arnav came back to his room. Aakash barged in after a while.
"Bhai.. he escaped this time. I think he burnt those snaps" he said.
"I know Aakash, but I feel Di should see those photographs in his presence. She is in a delicate condition and controlling her will be problem for us..!" Arnav was serious.

"Yes! I want to know what excuse he gives this time!" said Aakash.

Sham boarded the bus to reach Chandighar. The bus was about to leave and his cell rang. It was from his saale saab's office. He got down from the bus immediately forgetting that he had bought the ticket.

"What? Delete everything.. I want that folder clean! and listen to me carefully..." he ordered. He looked enraged. He was shaking from head to toe. "You will pay for this! Saale Saab! You will pay for everything you did to me. I will teach you and your limping sister a lesson! Khushi ji.. I know you will be here soon... I will have you! You will be mine!! and if i can't have you no one will!!" he muttered with gritted teeth and clenched fists.

"I am coming for you Arnav! This time you will not escape my wrath!" He signaled for an Auto.

The sun rose next day with different fates for different people.
ASR received the call from the office. He rushed without even waiting for Aakash. Ajali was down with her morning sickness. She was surprised to see Sham back home last night. Sham went out early morning. Aaksh too rushed to the office in panic state.

Khushi was safe in her papaji's shelter! At least for now!!
ASR barged in the office calling out for Aman.
Aman stood before him with his head down. There was a major breakdown of the entire network and a power failure. All the servers were down and the entire work was stand stilled. The good thing was it was weekly off for most of the office staff.

"What the hell is going on? Where are our maintenance people?" ASR barked.
"Sh... Short circuit..!" Aman stuttered in fright. He had no clue how did this happen.

"What the hell? Do we not have surge trappers? stabilizers?MCBs?" ASR came on to Aman aggressively.

"Call the maintenance head immediately!" he ordered.
Aman ran out. ASR sat on the chair in fury!
Aakash came in. "Bhai..." he started off. Arnav raised his hand to stop him. He was in no mood to talk to anyone. He racked his brains for the causes of this disaster. He waited for the maintenance guy.

The maintenance head came in shivering in fright.
"What the hell!" ASR shouted and got up from his chair.

"Sir, I do not know who bi passed our safety circuits. I am trying to get the CCD camera footages. This lookes like sabotage! I am trying to find out. My men are behind setting everything right and measure the damage" He said it in one breath. ASR seemed to have cooled down a bit.

He went into the server room only to see the system breakdown. The system administrator was trying his best to bring back the servers to life. The power was restored. The maintenance people had done a good job.

"I am afraid; we have lost the data... " the sys admn muttered. He was unable to locate the problem. It seemed the air conditioning system in server room malfunctioned and instead of cooling, heated up blowing the servers.
Arnav came back frustrated. "Bhai... we are finished if the data is gone!" Aakash looked devastated. They believed in less paper office and hence over relied on the digitization and electronic media.

Arnav stared unfocused, thinking hard on the way out. He called Aman.
"Aman get me all the clients files and our financial data, right now!" he ordered. Aman looked aghast. "Sir we have more than thousand clients.. have very little documentation on paper...!" Aman started weakly.

"I know, Damn it! get me all those files and I want at least five persons from out accounts department right now! Give those files to them for scrutiny and to find out if something is missing! I want the written report on all the files by this evening." He ordered.

Aman went out. "Aakash, when did we deploy this system?" Asked ASR. Aakash was looking after the entire office automation work.
"Three and a half years back. but these new servers are installed a year back and still under warranty." Said Aakash confidently.

"I don't care about the warranty, damn it!" ASR barked. "Get me those deployment documents immediately.!" Aakash gaped at him for few moments and rising from his chair in slow motion, looking at his bhai in admiration said... "Bhai.... i know... we had discussed.... I know...!" smile appeared on their faces brightening up their spirits...!

Aakash ran out of the cabin jumping out in excitement. ASR smirked!
"Hello Saale Saab! Where are you?" Arnav heard Sham's voice when he picked up his ringing phone.

"I am in the office, Jijaji! What is it? Is there any problem?" asked ASR innocently.

There was no answer from the other side for a while and then sham spoke "No Saale Saab I needed some data from our office but it seems there is power failure! Anyway i will manage for now!"

"Jijaji... your Del-Ta company's systems are working! This company is not a part of AR group! so if you want the data, you can pull it anytime online. But if you wanted AR data, then i am afraid you are not authenticated for that... you have no permissions!" said ASR coolly, smirking...

There was a silence and then the phone got disconnected. ASR sat back with his arms folded on his chest smiling!!!

"JIJAJI !! Come back soon from wherever you are!" he thought aloud..