The Birlas' - BHAVANA

Chapter - 20 : Mumbai Meri Jaan (PART - A)

In Mumbai:

The entire Birla clan would have loved to land in Mumbai but only Manjari, Abhimanyu and Neil got to tag along with Roohi. Aradhna was there to pick them all up. She conveyed very clearly to them directly that Mumbai is not less than a home for her and Aradhna will be their unofficial host for however long they stay there. 

Abhimanyu didn't want to burden her because she was just as busy as all of them were, if not more. But Aradhna didn't have any of it. She didn't know why but she loved the Birlas and their family dynamics. She could never have enough of it and thus never let an opportunity miss to spend time with them. 

Aradhna found them extremely welcoming and warm whenever she visited Birla House with or without Neil. She did that quite a lot in the past few weeks and it all happened organically. The fact that she was doing whatever she was doing because she wanted to, was the icing on the cake. 

There was no expectation, restriction, history or compulsion in the bond she shared with the Birlas. It was all very easy. That had her charmed and how. 

Aradhna never had something so amazing in life that came so easily to her. She had to fight out for whatever she wanted till now except for these few moments of wholesomeness that was gifted to her on a platter. 

Aradhna wanted to keep it that way and stopped analyzing how and why it happened or how exactly she felt about everything. She just wanted to play host and she would. Her stubbornness took Abhimanyu by surprise when she was not taking no for an answer. 

Abhimanyu had to give in when she explicitly told him that she would not compromise on her work front and would not mince words to tell them if she feels like she is done playing the host. Neil enjoyed the negotiation too much. 

It was nice to see two logical minds going at each other without crossing a line or making things awkward. The interaction was semi formal and rather unusual. Abhimanyu never had to watch his words so much and Aradhna was never the one to push for something so much. At the end of the day, a consensus was achieved, and he quite liked the arrangement. 

Aradhna greeted everyone enthusiastically and helped them out to the cars that were arranged to drop them at the hotel they were supposed to reside in. She was as shocked as everyone else when media tried to approach Roohi rather unceremoniously. They had no clue how the media had an idea about their flight timings.

But Neil knew. He fisted his palm. He could very clearly see that it must be the move of the makers to get back at them for the contract negotiation he pulled off. He realized at once that the makers would use all the loop holes in the contract to get their job done. 

There was no other explanation to it because the tickets were booked by the makers and no one but them could leak the information so precisely. Neil shielded Roohi who snuggled closer to her father. Neil was determined to outsmart the makers just the way they tried.

She loved this sort of attention but she didn't like it now because she wasn't looking presentable at all. She had cried a lot when she was bidding good bye to Soha, Abhir, Anahita and Rohan. She slept through the flight after being exhausted by all the crying.