Chapter 8

It looks like her life hasn't been exactly a bed of roses either. Don't they say that Karma is a bitch and comes to bite you. Perhaps she and her family deserved this! No... No! He threw away that distasteful thought from his mind.

No matter what happened to him, however horrible his life had been, he always strove to maintain a positive attitude in his life and never thought ill of others, even if it was Chandni.

He had a million things to say, but just managed to blurt out something totally unexpected, surprising himself, as if it had been wrenched out of his subconscious.

"Atharv, Huh! Lovely name, it has got a great meaning." Aryan paused again, unsure how to proceed.

Vikram smiled back at him, relieved that Aryan was not hostile towards him anymore.

"He must be a very lucky boy to have a father like..."

Vikram cut him short with a loud chuckle.

"Yeah Aryan, even I thought so. But you know what he says to me? You are so lucky to have such a good boy like me as your son...Hahaha!"

Aryan's face too broke into a smile listening to the doting father's reminisces. For a moment he completely forgot the animosity between them, and just felt happy as he observed the proud father's guilty pride in his son's antics.

"He sounds like a cheeky monkey!!" He blurted out, and regretted it immediately, unsure why he is doing so many slip ups today, even though he was talking to a complete stranger. Control yourself, Aryan, he chided himself.

But Vikram put him to ease by laughing even louder.

"You are exactly right, he is a cheeky monkey indeed and I am so glad that at least you got a good hang of him much faster than us, the poor parents. He makes us dance to his little tunes, especially Chandni, who pampers and spoils him too much."

The smile on Aryan's evaporated as quickly as it came, at the mention of Chandni's name, and Vikram too noticed it with a sudden pang.

He got up quickly and approached Aryan who had cast his head down by then.

"Aryan, as I said I know it is very hard on both of you, but please try not to be antagonistic towards each other, as a start. If you give Chandni a chance and I am including you too Raj Ji, you will realise that she has got a good business head and can contribute her share in making this organisation even better. I know that most of you have been in this company for a long time, and are almost like a family. And that's why I am requesting you and Raj Ji to make Chandni a part of that family. What do you say?" Vikram asked him sincerely.

Raj Singh who had been a mute spectator to the whole conversation so far, chose to speak for the first time.

"Vikram Ji, I know you have good intentions and of course it is imperative on everyone in the office to get along with Mrs Rajput as she will be heading the operations. But what you just asked of Aryan, to forget everything and behave normally would be extremely difficult."

Aryan looked sharply at him and silently signalled him to stop, but Raj Singh chose to ignore him.

"Trust me, I advised him the same this morning, but when I heard the same words coming from you, I could feel what pressure we are putting on this young soul here. Your justification, pardon me for my choice of words, is that Chandni had been through some rough times, and so Aryan and the rest of us need to be sympathetic towards her, and understand what a strong woman she had been, and embrace her, right? I completely understand your sentiments and agree with them wholeheartedly, but If only you knew what my Aryan had been through because of her and her evil Parents..."

"Chacha ENOUGH!!" Aryan's voice roared and both Vikram and Raj could feel the pain and the anger in his voice.

"I am... I am sorry Chacha!! I shouldn't have raised my voice against you." Aryan looked guiltily at Raj Singh.

"It's Okay Aryan, I don't mind, not in this instance. But he got to understand what happened!!" Raj's voice trembled.

"NO and Please don't make me shout again. Mr Rajput has got nothing to do with what I had been through. In fact, as far as I am concerned, he has got nothing to do with whatever happened between me and Chandni all those years ago either, and I want to keep it that way. I absolutely prohibit you from talking about my personal life with anyone, including him. Do you understand?" Aryan was controlling his temper with difficulty.

Raj Singh looked helpless as he felt compelled not to go against Aryan's explicit wish.

Aryan raked his fingers through his unruly hair in frustration as he faced Vikram.

"Please forget whatever Raj Chacha... I mean Raj Ji said, Mr Mathur!"

"Aryan, I DO want to know exactly what happened. Because I only know one side of the story, but if you don't want to tell me, then I completely respect your decision and would not impose on you. But please keep this in your mind, any time you have a change of heart and want to talk about this, I am always there to hear. And I understand that you hardly know me, so whatever I say about myself, would only sound like I am blowing my own trumpet, but all I am interested in, is to make sure that you both work together in the office with as little discomfort as possible." Vikram implored.

"And my answer to you would be the same as what I just said to him now. Whatever happened between me and .... Well, it stays between us. Period.” Aryan said firmly.

"Oh!! You can’t even say her name now is it? But you were ready to shout at me for being protective about you. You really think that..." Raj Singh Sneered at Aryan.

"Chacha Please!! I know how much you love me and feel protective about me, but you can’t fight on my behalf. This is my problem, my trauma and I know how to deal with it. If I falter, I will learn and get better. There's no point in talking to a third person when the relationship between two people is broken and cannot be fixed between themselves. Especially a relationship that is in the past and has no present or future. And to me, Mr Mathur is nothing but a third person." Aryan said furiously.

There was a resigned silence in the room and Aryan felt compelled to look at Vikram.

"What I am saying might sound harsh to you, but it's perfectly valid to me Mr Mathur." He felt compelled to add the explanation.

"I understand, as you say I am nothing but the third person in that context. And I would never impose myself on anyone in this matter. As I said, it is entirely up to you." Vikram reiterated.

Aryan still looked very much uncomfortable and ready to bolt out of the room at the first given opportunity.

Vikram chose to calm the fears of the protective and anguish ridden Raj Singh first.

"Raj Ji I totally understand how difficult this must be for you too. When I asked my wife to become the Acting CEO of this company, I had not foreseen what just happened. And since I created this mess, I thought I must be the one to fix it as well, and straight away arranged this meeting between us. In fact, Chandni doesn't even know that I am here and talking to you both about this. But Sir, you are elder to me. As the previous owner of the organisation, with such vast experience, you might have come across many conflict ridden situations like this. Please advise me on this. Apart from these two burying their past and trying to work together, what other alternatives have we got, and where do we go from here? I am all ears."

Raj Singh took his time to answer him but when he spoke, he was much calmer.

"Vikram Ji, please don't take my advice in the wrong spirit, but it would be better if we find a permanent CEO for Synergy as soon as we can. I mean, we have to be more aggressive in our efforts to find a suitable CEO for this company. Perhaps we should advertise in all Media rather than limit ourselves to the traditional recruiting agency process, and try through our known networks as well. Till that time, I am sure Aryan will do his best to maintain a professional relationship with Chandni. He gave me his word on this, and I know Aryan very well. Once he gives his word, he will honour it no matter what. Contrary to what people think of him, his ethical and professional standards are nothing less than ideal, and once he commits to something, he will see it through to the end, sometimes even at a terrible cost to himself."