Plainly With A Twist!

3. Maneuvering

The Poddars are seated around the dining table after a scrumptious Saturday lunch. It was a holiday for both Chitranjan and Eshaan. A week has passed since the topic of Eshaan's marriage had come up.

Chitranjan wasn't around when the photos of the prospective girls were shown to Eshaan, as he was away on a business trip. Chitranjan is a chartered accountant with a leading private insurance company in Bangalore. He often gets invited to high profile parties and Share Bazar events held by his company as well as the Marwari business association, which he happily attends, sometimes with family, sometimes alone.

"so, have you all decided the girl?" Chitranjan asked his family at large.

"yes it is Veena Pukhraj, my sister's daughter." Rukmini Devi answered immediately before anyone else could say anything. She hoped that her status as the head of the family and official decision-maker would stop the rest from going against her word and saying the truth.

Her declaration shocked everyone including Chitranjan. He absolutely hated the Pukhraj family. not for the people themselves, but what they represented, stuck-up villagers with no sense of modernity or ambition. Moreover, they were in close proximity with Brijesh tauji and Sunil bhaiya.

Brijesh Poddar was his tauji, elder brother of his late father. Sunil bhaiya were his elder cousin brother and son of Brijesh tauji. The two men were a pain in the arse. Always looking for ways to freeload and interfere in other people's matters. It was such a difficult task to shake them off after his father's death when he was bringing over his mother to the city from the village.

Brijesh tauji had a big family of 6 back in the day, one son and 3 daughters. Neither Brijesh nor Chitranjan's late father Orrish were well educated. The family's income was dependent on the sale of the produce from their tamarind plantations and sahukari. However, at least Orrish Poddar invested in the education of his only child and son Chitranjan. Made sure that he, Chitranjan, would be able to move out of their small village and live a comfortable and luxurious life in the city. Orrish himself never tried to leave the village and settle in the city. Even when Chitranjan had started earning well, married and bought a nice house, and had invited his parents to come over and stay with him.

The reason for this was Brijesh. Brijesh was an egotistical man with a false and rather rigid sense of entitlement. He would hardly ever put in the efforts but always wanted the lion's share in the profits. Brijesh made no special efforts to get his children educated and self-sufficient, even his only son Sunil. Sunil too grew up to be a carbon copy of his father, just as lazy and self-centred.

orrish died at the age of 72 due to a stroke; Rukmini Devi was just 60 years old at the time. Chitranjan was 24 years old at the time, recently married to Ranjana and working part-time at a co-operative bank and also completing his chartered accountancy studies on the side. Orrish had managed to save little for his family as Brijesh had always hogged most of the family's earnings in the name of getting his daughters married. But at least Orrish made sure that Brijesh wouldn't be able to access his son's earnings while he was alive. When Orrish died and Chitranjan came to the village to perform the funeral and take Rukmini Devi to the city with him, the father-son duo (Brijesh and Sunil) tried their level best to tag along. They had neither the dedication to do a job nor any business plan to settle in the city. All they wanted to do was tag along with Chitranjan and live off his earnings. With great difficulty Chitranjan had stalled them, complaining about expenses of living in a city and with the help of few other relatives.

The Pukhraj family was also in the same village. They were also in the similar business of selling spices and sahukari. A very rigid and orthodox family, that Chitranjan had met till date. They were also one of those who supported Brijesh in his false sense of entitlement, after all Brijesh was the elder son of the Poddar family and hence deserved to enjoy the benefits procured by the hard work of the rest of the family.