The Prodigal Son (Complete)

Chapter 15

"Has? Where is he now? He left 3 years ago. He is gone."
Saivi clenched her teeth, "Shut up Darshan! Sidharth is here, among us right now. Are you blind?"
Darshan started laughing, "Sidharth is here? Are you talking about that dehati? That's not Sidharth. And we all know that. I don't get it, why is he even here in the first place?"
"I said enough, Darshan. You can't talk like this about him. He is my brother. Samjha!"
"You both relax. We are here discussing something important. Darshan, Sidharth is a board member. He has to be here. And I wanted him here."
"Chatterjee uncle, first of all, there's no proof that this guy here is Sidharth. And if we still accept what you all believe, is he of any help? I mean, look at him, he is just sitting staring at the papers and laptop while we are bumming our heads to find a solution. He is not Sidharth Dewan but some ganwar."

"Darshan, stop or else.."
"What Saivi? If he is your brother, ask him to give a solution to the problem. Hey, you.."
Darshan snapped his fingers and called Sidharth who was engrossed looking at the laptop and papers in front of him and scribbling something down.
"Hey you! C'mon tell everyone what your view is? This was your project, so what do you think?"
Sidharth stared at him and then turned back his attention to the jotting. Darshan started laughing.
"Sidharth Dewan? Hun? Saivi, this man is not him. And if he is him, he is useless now. He is mentally derailed. I think we should go with my plan. Stop the project or we can sell some.."

Sidharth cut him short, "We don't need to do that.."
"What?"
"Shut up! You know nothing so just shut up.."
Raghunath said, "Darshan, let him speak. Sidharth, bolo beta.."
Sidharth stood up and went to the front. He stood there for a minute rubbing his hands out of nervousness.
On being asked again to talk, he said, "We don't... don't need .. to stop the construction. We.. are already .. ahead of our timeline as.. the labour used.. are high in number. We... can reduce.. the labour for now to ⅓ .. let the work continue. This will reduce the cost.. This .. can help us.. The funds can last 15 days more than time estimated. "
He went to Rahul's chair and pointed at his laptop. Rahul connected it to the projector and they could see the figures on the screen.

"We need.. time to talk.. to Mr. Kalyan. We can .. continue like.. this until then. "
Raghunath nodded his head as he checked the paper that Sidharth was scribbling on.
"He is correct. The figures he has jotted down is accurate. Marvelous!"
Darshan, irritated, said, "But what if Adhir says no? What if he doesn't give us any money? Then how long can we continue this?"
Sidharth walked to the chair, picked up the papers and placed them in front of Raghunath.
"We.. we can sell this.. the land here.. This is our land.. right?"

He pointed at a particular area on the map.
"This is supposed to be .. a garden with a fountain. There's already a dedicated area for a park and there will be running flowering plants and bushes by the pathway. This huge area was just wasted space which was later designed for an additional garden. The cost of this land will be high because of the construction. We can raise a good amount of money from this if we put this up for sale. Any real estate company would love to develop this land. We could have done it but now we can get a good deal by selling this.. This is also not in the plan. So the AK Groups have nothing to say on this."
Sidharth finished with a smile and then realised he had spoken everything without any stammer. He loved it and the nervousness was suddenly gone. All liked the idea and were impressed except Darshan. But he could not say anything further as the majority supported his idea.

Rahul came to drop Sidharth at Dewan house after he had taken him for lunch to celebrate his comeback. They could hear Darshan yelling at the top of his voice. He was arguing with Saivi and Dida about Sidharth. And Nirupama had turned a silent spectator, occasionally supporting his son and at the same time trying to calm him down. Sidharth stood at the door hearing all the bad words Darshan could find for him. He was called a fraud, thief and whatnot.