The secret Oberoi

chapter 1

The secret Oberoi ch 1

It was a pleasant day in Mumbai and the campus of the National Institute for Fashion Design was buzzing with the excitement that comes with every Graduation ceremony.

Gauri Sharma however, couldn't be less interested in the buzz going around... she'd had a truly bizarre and pointless argument with her husband just before leaving home for her graduation and now couldn't find it in herself to pay attention to anything.

The argument, after the way he'd acted the previous night and early that morning, made absolutely no sense to her. 

Gauri was almost done with her degree in Design and Merchandising, and ready to graduate... but the road ahead was still a bit hazy as she'd wanted to achieve whatever she could, all by herself with absolutely no help from anything associated with the Oberois.

She sat in a relatively silent corner of the library, mindlessly sketching some designs on a notepad... It was how she relaxed nowadays. She'd started working on some random things the previous night and had meant to finish it then itself, but someone... a particular someone with long hair and paint stained fingers had very effectively distracted her for the entire night and part of the morning too. 

She'd had to end up wearing a kurta she hated to her graduation, mainly because it had a high collar that would hide all the blue and purple marks he'd left on her neck, shoulders and chest.

The memory caused her to blush and smile to herself even as she wondered and worried about their argument that morning, something her excited friend missed while she plonked herself on the desk next to Gauri in the library.

"Gauri! What are you doing sitting in the library! Haven't you heard the hot news around campus about who's supposedly coming to the graduation ceremony?"

Smrithi pulled on Gauri's arms, making her hastily pack up her pencils and pads and walked her out of the library into the sunshine.

"Sorry Smrithi... I'm a little out of it today... Sort of had an argument with my Nandi before I left home and anyways, you know I really don't care about all this gossip and rumor..."

"Are! You will definitely care about this! Do you know there's a whole lot of gossip going on that someone super famous is coming to the graduation ceremony though no one knows quite why?"

"Do I need to remind you that I'm married Smrithi? And majorly in love with my jatadhari..." 

She pointed to her mangalsutra, a fake frustrated expression on her lovely face as she walked beside her friend

"And by now you know me well and so should know I don't care which hotshot they are bringing in this time to preside over the ceremony..."

"I am sure you will change your mind when you come to know just who's coming! And don't think I've forgotten about this elusive jatadhari of yours... I thought at least today I'll get to see this jatadhari, who I was sure will have to finally show up around here at least for your graduation. Two bloody years yaar... abhi tak tere husband se mulaqat nahin karvaya tu ne. Hamesha uske gun gaati rehti hai magar kabhi ek picture bhi nahin dikhaayi. Agar maine us se baat nahin ki hoti phone pe aur tum donon ke saikdon sexy waale messages nahin dekhe hote to I would surely not believe ki tumhara jatadhari even exists."

"Since I am sure I cannot stop you from telling me, I'm gonna let you just get it all out. Go ahead... I'm all ears. Tell me about this amazing and I'm sure entirely undeserving, empty-headed gasbag they're planning to make us hear this year" Gauri said, neatly sidestepping the whole invisible jatadhari question.

"It's Shivaay Singh Oberoi! OMG! Now you're interested... am I right?"

Fortunately, Smrithi was involved in her own excitement and she didn't really see the utterly panicky expression descend on Gauri's features. 

While her friends and classmates knew she was married, she'd registered at the university as Gauri Sharma and no one outside of the Dean knew of her relationship with the Oberoi family.

Gauri hadn't wanted any sort of unnecessary drama, gossip or the spotlight that invariably came with being an Oberoi in the outside world... so she'd gone through two tough years of hiding exactly who she really was... Gauri Omkara Singh Oberoi. But today, her entire drama-loving family seemed to be bent upon destroying her years of hard work in one fell swoop.

Gauri now came to understand just what her family had been planning behind her back this whole last week. Everyone just kept giggling in her presence the entire previous week and after a couple of days she'd lost it and almost yelled at Rudy and Soumya for their incessant giggling. 

Also, the light bulb went off in her brain about what the stupid reason had been behind their pointless argument that morning. Her idiot jatadhari had voluntarily picked a fight with her to distract her! 

Of course, the crazy extended family she had was going to do this... she knew they were going to show up en masse for her graduation.

Gauri knew the Oberois so well by now that she didn't even need any sort of confirmation from them. All she did, was send a quick message to a number listed under 'Jatadhari'

'You really should have told me... call me when you guys get here'

And just as quickly, she received a reply that had her rolling her eyes

'Get where? I don't think there's any plan to go anywhere today'

'Ha ha... I'm still angry with you and that little stunt from today morning is not getting you any closer to forgiveness'

'Sorry about today morning, I had to do it or else you would've known... picture my puppy dog eyes as I say sorry. But about the other thing, we'll see...'

With that cryptic message that only served to boost her already high stress levels, Omkara signed off, leaving Gauri shaking her head in despair at her situation.

Gauri sighed and shook herself mentally, knowing that Smrithi was waiting for some sort of a reaction from her.

"Sorry... I had some messages to reply to. Looks like you'll meet my jatadhari today after all. About the guest... I know Sh-Shivaay Singh Oberoi is a famous businessman... he's very rich, successful and quite young. But he's married... in fact all the Oberoi sons are married. So I doubt you or anyone else is going to get a chance with him. What're you getting so excited for?"

Gauri still had trouble calling Shivaay by name... literally anything other than 'bade bhaiyya' seemed impossible when it came to than man.

"Are married ho ya divorced... kis ko faraq padta hai? I'm just excited to see him yaar! He's so young, so successful and best of all... so hot! His eyes... they're enough to make a girl swoon."

Smrithi was still in raptures about the oldest Oberoi son and Gauri couldn't decide if she was amused or worried about her friend's level of interest in her bade bhaiyya.

At least, she had something to tease him and her bhaujaai with now... Anika bhaujaai's reaction to this piece of information would be very interesting to behold.

"Waise, it's not only SSO that I'm excited about. I heard that all the brothers might show up. The youngest one is a cutie... but that other one! OMG... he is so sexy yaar! That artist look, the long hair, the glasses and that attitude he has... it's like honey for bees. All the girls are gonna flock to him the second they step foot on campus."

Again, Gauri didn't quite know how she felt about her friend thinking that her husband was sexy. Well he was unbearably sexy... and she'd thought that even before she was privy to situations where she'd seem him in ways no one else in the world had. 

But to hear someone else discuss him and his looks like he was a piece of meat was very disconcerting as well as awakening her protective instincts quite a bit.

She couldn't let the pack of wolves these women were, loose on her husband and brothers. If Smrithi was just a normal example of the group, Gauri couldn't even contemplate the more extreme reactions people might be having. 

                        To be continued