AMBAR

Chapter 33

Armaan's POV

I came back from office. Guests had started to arrive and Kabir was handling everything. Whenever I see him I feel proud of him. He is my boy. I walked inside the house and greeted every one. It has been a long time since we had a celebration or get together in our house. As I walked inside the dining area I saw Rina speaking with Dhiraj Negi. Younger brother of Jaswant Negi. "Hello Dhiraj." I said.
"Hello Armaan."
"How are you?" I asked.
"Good." I said. "Did you had anything?" I asked.
"Oh yeah." He said raising the glass in his hand. "This is a fine Scotch." He said. I smiled.
"When will Jaswant return?" I asked.
"In 15 days." He said. "When did Kabir returned?"
"Yesterday."
"So looks like you have groomed him well to take over you once you reach your golden years." I laughed. "Yes. Both Ambar and Kabir will take over after me."
Hearing this he looked at me for a while. "Really? Ambar?" He said.
"Why not Ambar? She can be as capable as any of those boys in there. Infact she is capable of doing anything she wants." I said.
"You have groomed Kabir since the age of 12. He knows how to handle the in and out. Besides, Ambar is studying engineering. To learn what Kabir knows she may have to be groomed more intensively until the judgement day comes." I realised what Dhiraj said made sense. I looked towards Ambar who was talking with Prithvi.
"How did you guys trained Prithvi?" I asked. "He is also studying engineering."
"We have molded Prithvi the way we wanted since his childhood. He is responsible, takes initiative and calm. Few more years and he will be fine. Even without us."
Man this guy makes sense. And he ruined my plans for tonight.

Ambar's POV

I kept looking at Prithvi from corner of my eye. His birth mark looks cute. He is a well mannered guy. We had dinner and then I called Arush. Since he is in his final year he was busy with attending patients in hospital.
"How is everything with Namita?" I asked him.
"She is fine. After our internship we will apply for post grad." He said.
"Later I will meet her father and ask her hand." I smiled with joy.
"How are mom and dad ?" I asked.
"Dad will be 50 in few months and he is loosing patience. Sometimes I have to think twice to talk with him. Few days ago one of your marigold plant died and he lost the shit out."
"What?"
"Hell yeah. He started a fight with Mom and won."
"What the hell!" I yelled.
"Yeah. But after that mom retaliated by locking him out of the house." I laughed so hard that I had to sit.
"Why were they fighting?" I asked.
"Over Mom's ITR. She listed liabilities under assets and Dad lost it."
"Damn that is some serious shit. Did she mentioned your name under liability?"
Even he started to laugh on that. "How are things with you?" He asked.
"Well I am fine, trying to survive the winter and then summer."
"That bad."
"Yeah guess the temperature fucking 5 degree. I am wearing 5 layers of clothing yet I feel like I can die of cold any minute."
"Arush come here." Some one called him.
"Ok you go."
"Happy New year Ambar."
"Happy New year Arush." I said and hanged up. The feeling of being away from them was again taking over me. I wanted to sit and mope. Is this what people call being alone in crowd. I walked away from there and I saw  Kabir and Prithvi. They both turned towards me. Prithvi looked at me. "Are you fine?" He asked.
"Yes." I replied trying to give a half smile. It was past 12 already.
"Happy new year." Prithvi said. I looked at him and wished him. "Happy New year." I walked away from them and then I felt a little breathless. I looked around and I could still see Prithvi. At the same time Prithvi turned towards me. He saw me struggling for air. "Ambar are you alright?" I couldn't say much so I tried to walk towards my room. It wasn't far so some how I made it. I searched for my pump in my drawer. It felt like forever. God damnit. I got the inhaler. Just then I saw Kabir running towards me. He helped me in using the inhaler as I was struggling. Soon I got my breath back. I sat on the bed and looked towards Kabir. "Thanks." I said.
"Should we take you to doctor?" He asked.
"No. I'll be fine. In sometime." I assured him. I sat for a while trying to catch my breath. My hands and legs were cold. "I'll call Bade Papa." He said.
"No." I said and caught his hand. "I don't need him. I'll be fine in sometime." I laid on bed and Kabir covered me with blanket. I closed my eyes and then I slept the entire night.
It had been quite some times that I had an asthma attack. Good thing I always keep these inhalers handy. I woke up in morning and the party was over. It was around 6.30 and I was quite hungry. I didn't had dinner yesterday. I got up from bed and wore my slippers. As I went near kitchen I saw Armaan sitting on the dinning table. I went in to the kitchen and took a toast to eat. I came out and saw hot coffee being served on dining table. "One cup for me please." I asked Jogi uncle who was pouring coffee to Armaan.
"Yes Ma'am." He said it politely and poured some for me in a cup. "Happy new year." I wished him.
"Happy new year Ma'am." I smiled. I looked at Armaan and he was looking at me like a hawk. I took a sip from my cup and i felt little relief. Should I inform Armaan that I need to see doctor? As I got little worried.
"What are your plans for internship?" Armaan asked.
I looked at him in surprise. Every time this man has something under his pocket. "Why?" I asked.
"Answer me first." He said
"I won't." I replied.
He looked at me and then closed his eyes I smiled. These are the little pleasures of my life. Annoying him. "I want you to be as eligible as Kabir to look after the business." He replied.
"I don't want to." I said.
"If you won't do the internship in my company then you will never get an internship." I looked at him. Why he irritates me more.
"Why today? Can't you spare me a good January 1st. Huh? What is the matter with you?"
He smiled and applied butter on his toast. "There is no good day than today. You can start whenever you want. I just want you to learn our business. I want you to be capable." I got up and  took my coffee with me. "I'll think over your threat Armaan." I said and left.
I got ready and packed my bags as I wanted to go back to hostel.
I sneaked out of the house and booked a cab. I reached my hostel, dropped my bag and then visited Satbir ji. I informed him about my situation.
"He said that?" Satbir ji asked.
"Yes. I don't know what to do now. If I get involved in internship now I will have less time to focus on trading. I am finally learning things." I answered him. He forwarded a cookie towards me.
"You should consider that offer."
"Why?" I asked.
"You need to be more clever than being headstrong. You must learn the basics of his business. I would recommend to go for steel plants."
"It will be hot and suffocating right?" I said.
"Be blessed that I am not recommending to go in mines." He took the cup of tea and sipped it.  I looked at him and then realised what a baby I am. Learning things won't harm me. I thought.
"You need to be capable enough to take decisions single handedly. Sometimes there is no one to guide ourselves. In those times we need to rely mostly on our experiences and knowledge."

Dev's POV.

I came home late. I have realised that I am loosing my patience. All the heat that I hold mostly gets erupted on Arush and he bears with me. I need to control my anger. I am becoming like my dad and I don't want Arush to become like his dad. I went inside the house and heard Arush talking with someone.  I went inside and saw Arush standing near the fridge and a girl sitting on a chair. Arush looked at me and all the colour from his face went away. I looked carefully and it was Namita.
"Hey Namita." I said. She looked at me and then she stood up.
"Hello uncle. How are you?" She asked with a smile.
"I am good. How are you and your parents?"
"All well." She said.
"Did you guys ate anything?" I asked.
Arush was looking at me as if he saw a ghost.
"We ate"
"I am hungry." Namita said. "Arush how much time will it take for you to make noodles?" She asked.
Arush then turned to his side and started to increase the flame on gas.
"Few minutes ." He said. He then removed a bowl from drawer and served Namita the noodles.
"Dad will you have some?" He asked.
"You guys will have noodles for dinner?" I asked.
"She was hungry so I made it quickly. Nilu didi left soon today." He said hesitantly. I looked at him in surprise.
Damn my anger fit has stirred up Arush.
"Arush come here." I called him out of the kitchen. He came out slowly.
I sat on a table and looked at him.
"Are you afraid of me?" I asked.
"Lately yeah."
"I am sorry kid. But don't feed my to be daughter in law just plane noodles.  And how come she is waiting here till this time?" I asked.
"Dad we were studying and then we lost the track of time. So I thought it would be better for her to stay back rather than going to her hostel and fighting with her warden to let her in." He said.

"You lost track of time while studying?" I asked in shock. "What were you studying?" I asked. It's fun teasing him.
"Dad we were just studying for Entrance. That's why." He said with shy smile. I patted his cheeks.
"I am your Dad." I removed my wallet and gave him some cash.
"Now I am not done of noodles as much. Order a large pizza for me and your lady. I can sense she is cranky because of hunger." He took the money with a smile.
"Thanks Dad." He said.
"Where is your mom?" I asked him.
"She'll be here in sometime." He said.
"There is a late night cafe. They deliver by 3. Order blueberry cheesecake from there. Your mom will love it and any thing you and Namita like."
After Mira came all four of us had a nice dinner. Namita slept in Ambar's room. Mira was paranoid of letting Arush and Namita sleep on the same floor so she made him to sleep with me. The look of disappointment on Arush's face was so evident.
This is the same woman who use to jump walls to come and meet me.

After few months Arush graduated and from that day he became Dr. Arush Mehra MBBS. Both Arush and Namita gave entrance exams but only Arush could clear it. Namita was short for one mark. Arush was very sad. He decided to skip that year for her but luckily Namita knocked sense in her. It has been nearly 4 years to their relationship and Namita has become centre of his world.
After his admission was sorted and Namitha started to work in a hospital i started an anger management therapy. Everything was fine when one day Arush called me home one day urgently. I drove home immediately and saw Mira reaching there at the same time.
"Did he said something to you?" I asked.
"No." She said.
We went inside the house and saw Arush sitting on sofa shaking his leg in tension.
"Arush. What happened?" I asked.
"Dad." He came running to me.
"Dad. Namita's father is trying to get her married without her consent please help us." I looked at Mira.
She held Arush's shoulder. "Arush, honey we will try to talk to her parents." She said.
"Promise me you will?" He asked.
"I will kid." She said. "For you I will." She said trying to calm him but I was unsure.