AMARANTHINE

Act II (ix) : Whatever It Takes

"One ought to always lie, when one can do good by it"

~Mark Twain~

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Reyansh had been dreading the thought of meeting Aabha alone; he had an inkling that she would not be pleased with having been forced to accept the Rathores' proposal. He was also not sure as to why Ishaani had not agreed to his idea of simply telling Shaurya the truth about him and Aabha; in his opinion that was the simplest thing to do and would have avoided all these unpleasant encounters. When he had mentioned the same, she had given a smile, just as one would do to a child who cannot be explained to and patting his cheek had said, "Trust me, I have very valid reasons."

'Valid reasons, my foot,' he thought, easy for her to say when he was the one who had to go around implementing the plan. The first step was easy enough, as Ishaani had predicted, his uncle had quite readily agreed to the entire thing; to sending the dossier on Shaurya's achievements, the idea that they seek expert assistance for the proposed organisational re-engineering as well as to the suggestion that the person be Aabha, and had also volunteered to smooth things over with the family. 

In the company's subsequent weekly progress meeting, Reyansh updated that he had taken the chance to send the dossier detailing the backward integration process with a request to include it as a case study and also casually mentioned that it could be a good idea if an expert could be brought on board to enable better operational efficiency. He slowly expounded his cause; they could have a tie-up with a reputed institution, whose students could be considered for placements in the Rathore Industries, at various levels, summer trainees or as full-time employees, and they could take advantage of the additional publicity that would garner. It would further help build the image of the Company too, as a prospective employer. When his suggestions were enthusiastically received, it was a very relieved Reyansh who then prepared for the next step.

He pulled out the dossiers they had already prepared on the professionals to be considered and sent them to Shaurya. The next step had been to ensure that Shaurya raised no objection to finalise Aabha's selection. He reminded Shaurya about their decision to bring in an expert for the re-engineering project and requested Shaurya to approve Aabha's appointment. Shaurya looked into the file giving her academic qualifications and when he saw the photograph, he was startled; he had not been told that Dr Aabha Sanyal was Ishaani's sister. Shaurya was hesitant, keeping aside the fact that she was Ishaani's sister, which would in no way influence his decision, and while he agreed that her academic qualifications were good, he was not going to approve of her as she did not appear to have had any major experience in organisation re-engineering. All her consultation assignments had been for very brief periods and in conjunction with her thesis for her doctorate.

It was at this point that Reyansh fully appreciated Ishaani's propensity to think ahead, he had been sure that Aabha's professional qualifications were certainly good enough for the proposal to be carried through, but Ishaani had not wanted to leave anything to chance. Hence a very watered-down version of the truth was told to Shaurya.

Thus Reyansh mentioned Dadiji's ultimatum to Shaurya, who as expected, agreed that it was indeed high time that he and Ishaani were married. He also firmly stated that Reyansh's stance of waiting till he got married was sheer stupidity and unfair to Ishaani too. Reyansh pretended to waver and finally capitulated stating that he was ready but then Ishaani was still stubbornly clinging to the condition that her sister should get married before she did. Reyansh closed his eyes as he struggled to gather the strength for the next few lines he would say. 

He opened them to see that Shaurya had finished reading the other two files and was back to Aabha's file. That gave him some courage and in what he hoped was an even tone, he then continued, " Bhai, I do not know why Aabha left home nor why she refuses to come back, all I know is that Ishaani is being stubborn. I love her, Bhai and if you agree for Aabha's appointment we can ensure that at least she is here for her sister's wedding. Please, can you help me?"