After Aabir uncle passed away, I was left completely alone yet again.
I had seen enough separations and losses in my lifetime, that I doubted, I could bear a single more.
I decided to get a place for my own and decided to move out of the house. There were too many memories within the place that, I knew, would hinder me to move on.
Having found a place for myself and determined to carry forward with renewed dedication, I immersed myself in work, trying hard to suppress all the pain and agony that fate had made me endure. More so than anything else, I wanted to live up to Uncle and Aunty's dreams. I wanted to show them, wherever they were, that his life's work was in good hands. That would be my due diligence to Uncle's belief that he had put in me.
SHIKSHA, by then, was widespread in the state of Bengal. Having expanded our resources to encompass all the regional languages and thereby providing a wider base for connecting all kinds of writers and readers, I wanted to expand its branches even more. I envisioned a nationwide chain of the vision that we could have successfully established and maintained. All that I required and was desperately looking for was an opportunity.
That arrived in an unprecedented manner.
One evening, as I was leaving the office I found our Youth Branch Editor still in her chamber going over some some documents which I presumed to be articles or writeups. I walked up to her room and knocked.
"Want to pull an alnighter, Swarnali ? You aren't going to get paid extra though," I said entering.
"Aree Dhruv Da," she replied, laughing. "No no, there's nothing like that. I was just going through this." She handed me the page she was looking at when I entered.
It was a print out from an online article about another publishing house. 'The grounds shake beneath Indie House Publishing Company as sales drop' - read the headline.
"What is this?" I inquired.
"You remember the meeting last year, when you said you wanted SHIKSHA to be established nationwide? This might be the chance."
I looked back at the article and then back at her. "What do you mean?" I asked.
"You know about Indie House right? They were the leading publishing house throughout the state before SHIKSHA came along. But but then they were already wide spread in some major cities throughout India. I've researched them, and see here-," she said, handing me a couple of more pages of printouts, "-they have branches as far as Bangalore including Vishakhapatnam, Mysore and even Delhi. They do not have the North Western Market yet but-"
I had realized by then where she was leading with all that information. "But the company is almost in ruins by what these data sheet say. Their reprints have stopped and-"
She cut me off. "Yes Dhruv Da. I've been following them for some time. Apparently one of their major investors dropped out. This hampered greatly in their supply and distribution chain. This was a couple of months back. All that has followed since then is the aftermath."
"And you intend us to interfere?"
She nodded. "This is a golden chance Dhruv Da. They already have a well established system. If we can somehow manage to take over, we can cover a lot of ground all at once. Don't you think?"
I had already began to calculate the possibilities. Swarnali did have a point. But apart from all the benefits, the company which was spiraling to its downfall, would have enormous amounts of debts, and a lot of other matters that needed to resolved before even a take-over was brought into the equation. Was it worth the risk? Could I have been blindsighted by my ambition to deny the possibility of loosing the heritage of SHIKSHA? Thousands of doubts begin to circle my head. But there was one prominent question that rang louder than most. What if this was the one opportunity I was looking for?
I straightened and began to leave.
"Dhruv da, what do you say about it? Should I talk this over with the legal department."
"No," I replied. "I will talk to the legal department first thing in the morning. Could you ready all the necessary data and compile it by morning?"
"Yes, absolutely," she beamed.
"And, Swarnali-" I called after her as I turned to walk out the door and she looked up at me from her desk. "Thank you." Then I left.
- - -
Almost exactly a year later, I found myself in Bangalore, sitting in a car, on my way to visit Mr. Nikubh Jaiswal, the owner of Indie House. Inside the car and sitting in front of me was a young man named Manoj, Mr. Jaiswal's son. He had come to receive me at the airport and duly escort me to their home where our meeting was scheduled for the afternoon.
It had taken a better part of a year to intervene, propose and settle a deal with publishing company. Finally, however, SHIKSHA was taking over Indie House. It was for the purpose of signing over the final paperworks that I had decided to come over to Bangalore.
Mr. Jaiswal and his family had moved to Bangalore from Kolkata years ago, when Indie House was still a flourishing publishing company. He had shifted his base of operations as well and since then Indie House had its main office at Bangalore. Last month when Mr. Jaiswal had proposed to come to Kolkata for conclusion of the final paperworks, it was on some unknown whim that I had respectfully declined his proposal and instead offered to visit Bangalore myself. Furthermore, I considered an on ground experience of the company based in Bangalore for the past couple of decades, primarily being taking over, was chiefly necessary. Also, it was the least decency I could display to a man who was letting go of his company that he had run for almost all his life.
I was heartily welcomed by Mr. Jaiswal's family as he showed me to the hall room where we sat and proceeded with preliminary introductions. Following this I was invited for lunch, which no matter how hard I tried, I could not avoid. Completing that, we settled down in Mr. Jaiswal's study where we begin our concluding business discussions.
It was nearly evening by the time we finished and all necessary matters were covered.
"I will take your leave now Nikubh Ji," I said collecting all the documents and getting up to leave. "Thank you for your gracious hospitality."
Mr. Jaiswal asked Manoj to escort me out and to my hotel, to which I denied.
"No no, there's no need for that," I said to Manoj as he walked ahead of me towards the main gate.
"Please Sir, let me drop you to you lodge," he insisted. I declined his offer yet again.
However, as I walked out the main gate, I called after him. "Manoj, would you be so kind to just accompany me to the street. Just help me get a taxi." He obliged.
There was a certain idea playing in my head from the moment I had got off the plane and I decided to act on it.
"Would you like to come and work for me at SHIKSHA?" I asked him all of a sudden.
He halted in his tracks too surprised to react. After a while he managed a reply. "But Sir, I haven't completed my studies yet. I am in my final year at college. How would I-"
"I am not asking you right away. You take the year and finish your studies. Maybe after that you come in for an interview? What do you say? A young man like you would be a great help at SHIKSHA."
"I-Sir-I don't know what to say-" he fumbled for an answer.
"There's no pressure. You don't have to if you don't want to."
"No sir, I didn't mean that."
I smiled. We had reached the end of the street which connected to the main road. He called up a taxi and gave him the location. I thanked him and got in. "Think it over," I said, closing the door after me.
He just nodded his head in reply. A smile had crept across his lips too and I could hint at a gleam of excitement in his eyes. The taxi left and in the looking glass in front of me I saw Manoj rush back to his home, probably to deliver the good news to his family.
