tere naina ✨

Chapter 2: Roots and Realities

For Dhruv Malhotra, success had always been expected, but never gifted. Born with a golden spoon and the Malhotra name attached to his every move, Dhruv had learned early on that privilege came with expectations—and chains. While others marveled at his family’s sprawling empire, Dhruv saw it as a gilded cage, a constant reminder that no matter what he achieved, people would attribute it to his surname.

It was this need to prove himself that drove him to Stanford at 18, a world far removed from the sprawling estates and private jets of his upbringing. There, he met Viren, a scrappy, sharp-eyed Mumbai boy on a scholarship who’d taught himself coding in his teenage years. The two were an unlikely duo: Dhruv, the reserved and methodical strategist, and Viren, the relentless coder with an infectious energy.

During their final year, they co-founded QuickKart, a hyper-local delivery app inspired by the chaos of Indian cities. Viren handled the tech, building an intuitive interface that could predict delivery times down to the minute, while Dhruv spearheaded the business strategy, pitching to investors, and scaling the idea. What started as a dorm-room project quickly exploded into a billion-dollar enterprise.

But as QuickKart grew, so did the responsibilities Dhruv couldn’t ignore. The Malhotra Group had long been eyeing the tech sector, and Dhruv’s father saw him as the natural leader for the company’s next big leap. For months, Dhruv tried to juggle both worlds, splitting his time between the frenetic pace of QuickKart and the high-stakes boardrooms of the Malhotra empire.

Eventually, he made the hard choice: he stepped down from his operational role at QuickKart, leaving Viren as the acting CEO. It wasn’t a decision he made lightly, but his loyalty to his family—and his own unrelenting drive to prove his worth—left him no choice.

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Chaya Mehta’s story couldn’t have been more different. She was born in a small Bengali town where traditions ran deep, and dreams were often dismissed as luxuries. Her father was a school teacher, her mother a homemaker, and her childhood was a mix of curiosity and quiet rebellion.

From a young age, Chaya had a mind of her own, questioning everything—why girls weren’t encouraged to study science, why her neighbors thought a “good marriage” was the ultimate goal, and why people believed that ambition wasn’t for women.

She excelled academically, despite the odds stacked against her. While her classmates dreamed of government jobs or early marriages, Chaya had her sights set on something bigger—something that would let her reshape the world she grew up in.

Through scholarships and sheer determination, she earned a degree in engineering from a reputed college. But breaking into the tech world wasn’t easy. She moved to Kolkata, taking up multiple jobs—teaching coding at a local center during the day, freelancing for small startups at night, and saving every rupee she could.

Her hard work paid off when she launched NexiCore, a tech company that developed affordable, innovative gadgets for underserved markets. The journey was far from glamorous. Chaya had faced rejection after rejection, her ideas dismissed by investors who didn’t take a young, small-town woman seriously. But she persisted, crafting her first prototype with a borrowed soldering kit and sheer ingenuity.

The product—a wearable AI device—caught the attention of a few key players, and soon NexiCore was making waves. But even as she gained recognition, Chaya never forgot where she came from. She remained unapologetically desi, her speech peppered with Bengali idioms, her office walls adorned with Madhubani art, and her wardrobe a mix of sharp power suits and traditional saris.

She had opinions on everything—whether it was workplace diversity, sustainable tech, or the state of the education system. And she wasn’t afraid to share them, her savage wit and candidness earning her both admirers and critics.

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When Dhruv and Chaya’s paths first crossed in the library, they were two people from entirely different worlds—he, the calculated businessman who had everything yet wanted more, and she, the fierce innovator who had clawed her way to success.

But even as their rivalry simmered, their pasts offered glimpses into the people they truly were.

Dhruv wasn’t just the polished corporate heir Chaya imagined him to be. Beneath the suits and boardroom confidence was a man who had worked tirelessly to step out of his family’s shadow. His success at QuickKart was his alone, and though he rarely spoke of it, there was a quiet pride in what he and Viren had built.

Chaya, on the other hand, wasn’t just the scrappy underdog Dhruv saw her as. She was a woman who had redefined her narrative, turning every “no” into a stepping stone and every failure into a lesson. Her resilience wasn’t just about survival—it was about thriving, about proving that a small-town girl could go toe-to-toe with the giants of the tech world.

And as much as they were rivals, they couldn’t help but respect what the other had accomplished.

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One evening, as Dhruv sat reviewing NexiCore’s patents, he couldn’t help but admire the ingenuity behind the technology. “She’s brilliant,” he admitted to himself. “Stubborn as hell, but brilliant.”

At the same time, Chaya was discussing Dhruv with Priya. “He’s more than just old money,” she said begrudgingly. “I’ve seen his work with QuickKart. The man knows what he’s doing. But I won’t let him buy me out just because he can.”

Their pasts shaped their present, and in each other, they saw not just a competitor but an equal. Two people who had fought battles of different kinds but carried the same fire within them—a fire that promised their rivalry would be anything but ordinary.

To be continued...