A boy is left behind by his mother and is rescued by a stranger. Soon after, two people are killed.
Twenty five years later, emotions are resurfacing. Ayaan Agnihotri learns that his rescuer is no more but the truth runs deeper than that. So, he emb...
Ayaan looked around the kitchen which was in a sparkling new condition due to its minimal use. Deepshika hardly cooked; she only baked when she wanted to let off some steam. Well, she had other ways of letting off her steam like running until she runs out of breath, punching the empty air or tearing paper. But her baking was the only way that resulted in productive and delicious end products.
Gathering the ingredients he found, Ayaan decided to make ^cheela, a type of pancake with some spiced tea. He thought of what Deepshika wanted to reveal to him and why she was disturbed the whole afternoon. He had asked his secretary, Payal to check on Deepshika at around 4 pm. Payal had done more than that.
Payal Singh, the daughter of the orphanage Director, had just completed her studies when Ayaan visited them following his finding of the man's death. The mother and daughter duo knew nothing about Vipul Gupta or the orphanage fire accident. They had peacefully accepted that it was by accident that the man of the house got poisoned and passed away. Ayaan, in sympathy, offered Payal a job at AMC. To prevent questions from his father or aunt, he appointed her in his team as a secretary, which Payal took contentedly. However, with time, he trusted her with works that he couldn't assign others whose loyalty he was not privy to. She was his eyes and ears when he was not around.
Like that evening, Payal convinced Deepshika to take a break and have something from the pantry. When she returned to Ayaan's cabin after 15 minutes, she reported on the papers Deepshika had highlighted and the agreements that were open on her laptop. She went a step ahead and forwarded a pen drive and her phone. "I took pictures of the highlighted papers and whiteboard markings. The files she had open are copied in this drive." Ayaan was still held in surprise when she dismissed herself.
---
Deepshika checked her phone for the sixth time as she roughly blow-dried her hair. She had left a voicemail for her mom before getting in the shower, finally having decided to talk to her before revealing to Ayaan. People she had to talk to kept their phones switched off while people she didn't want to face today showed up at her door. Okay, she had invited Ayaan, but she expected to have a clear picture and amendments to her plans finalised so that she could play him accordingly. Now she had to hit in the dark, blindfolded and hope that her hit doesn't boomerang back to her.
Donning her university sweatshirt and baggy pants, she stepped out into the aroma of spiced tea. She rushed to the kitchen range, inhaling the flavoured fumes. If Deepshika had to list out her reasons for maintaining this relationship with Ayaan, his spiced tea would be placed second; first being her father. He doctored the beverage in his signature style with the cinnamon stick as a stirrer and a mint leaf for presentation. He also passed to her a cheela, cut into four triangles presented on a saucer finished with drops of ketchup. "You should be a chef. It's your inborn talent", she praised sincerely.
"You are too soon in praising. I know you would strangle me over that cheela. So, here, a bribe." He handed her the bottle of ketchup.
Not understanding his words, she took a bite of the cheela and spit it into the sink the very next moment. "What was that?" She spit the words much similar to her treatment to the first bite.
"You didn't have the right flours for anything. Don't know why the Barley flour was lying around in the cabinet. So I used it. It's healthy." He added the last sentence in good measure.
"Oh, healthy it is! Then you have it and let me have your cup of tea as well." She held the teacup pushing the saucer into his hands.
---
They moved to the sofa area when Ayaan finally asked, "What happened?"
Deepshika shared her findings. "I should have asked Aakriti about this but I am unable to reach her. Don't you think BatraP deserves to be investigated?"
Ayaan sighed relief on knowing the issue that had her stressed out. "Well, don't get excited. It's possible. Maybe they went through the negotiation process even before AMC was registered."
"Fine. Then tell me. What happened to BatraP? Where is this company today? I didn't find it on the Registrar of Companies in India. Where is this Ravinder Batra today? Until now, why no one told me about BatraP's stand in all these cases? I am starting to think these American companies are also... flags."
"Red or green?" Ayaan asked with a smirk that earned him a couple of pillow hits.
Unknown to Deepshika, Ayaan was preparing his attack. He too was on the lookout for answers to her questions. After reading through the documents Payal gave him, he was also unsure of Batras in the current situation. He had asked Payal to find the company registration papers for Batra Pharmaceuticals and any contact with the company owners. He knew Payal was doing exactly that as he bit into his cheela. The taste wasn't so bad, in fact, they tasted better without the ketchup. He filed the recipe to try again.
Deepshika had cuddled against the other side of the L-shaped sofa, holding the hot tea in both her hands and sipping it slowly. She looked lost in thought to even notice if the tea scalded her tongue. Ayaan questioned his relationship with her a million times. Was it only respect to her father? No, he genuinely liked her as a person. Was it love? He didn't know. He never proposed to her so. Their story was a cliched 'opposites-attract'. When upset, he retreated into his shell, brooding over what went wrong and how wrong it was. On the contrary, she let her surroundings, living and non-living things, know that she was upset only to sit back and enjoy the consoling. When happy about something, he would share with everyone but she would keep it to herself with the belief that something sad would follow the happiness. Intimacy was an imaginary concept in their relationship which they had nurtured across a distance of ten thousand kilometres, over Whatsapp and Skype, meeting for only couple of hours when possible where the majority of the conversation focused on their guesses of what transpired in the past. Hence, Ayaan wanted to start afresh once this was over so that they would have a proper chance at a future together.
Deepshika's phone rang with the caller ID displaying a number too familiar to Ayaan. He took the call and kept it in speaker mode. "Yes, Raghav?" He greeted the caller.
"Chhaya called saying Aakriti is dead. I am going to Aashayein to find out and you should come as well. Meet me downstairs in two minutes."
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^Glossary: A cheela is a pancake made with chickpea flour.
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What is your opinion of Ayaan and Deepshika's relationship?
Now that Aakriti is no more, who will guide Deepshika now?
