The First Trillionaire

Untitled Part 18

The life of Sid, Olivia, and Peter in England from 1970 onwards was a lesson in living with half-baked dreams. For all of them, their lives had no flicker of resemblance to their former lives in India. Grief never left their hearts, and although they survived the test of time, they never lived fully again like before. Sid appeared to be affected the most by it, and he never recovered from his grief. Moving to a different country to put distance from that grief did not make much difference to him. He never set foot near polo matches or pick up a golf club in his hands again. When Olivia asked him if they should visit India again to go to the Vaishno Devi shrine as had been their tradition for many years or settle up the investment in their last venture in Bombay, he was completely bewildered, "I am not going to India ever again or visit Mata's shrine. Sell off whatever we have left in India and donate the proceeds. We have enough here." He could not be persuaded otherwise.

Peter completed his schooling from Godolphin Latymer School, Hammersmith and his good grades at school did not gave anyone a reason to guess about the mental turmoil and shock he had faced in his young life. He tried hard to settle down in his new school hoping that his parents would let him visit India when he had grown up and completed his studies. He still missed his old school, football, his friends there, and one person in particular that he never stopped thinking about.

As for Olivia, she was busy more than ever trying to overcome and outrun her grief by drowning herself in new business interests and achievements. She invested many of her assets in creative pursuits in England and Africa. Like her father some decades ago, she also purchased shares of various firms in film, real estate and tech firms in the USA. She spread her business mainly in the Silicon Valley by investing in new startups. A production house for animation movies only was her new venture when computers were taking over all aspects of work in the West and cartoons were still in their nascent journey from paper to movies. She worked hard as she felt that Peter deserved all that had been snatched away from him in his former childhood in India. Olivia knew Peter would take over the business one day so she worked hard to build a strong empire for his sake.

Olivia had no inkling of the fact that Peter wanted to return to India or that he had some dreams about India that he had been shelving for many years now. Some years later, when the 33-year-old Peter had started to look after the business interests outside England, Olivia found him becoming increasingly aloof and detached. He did not show any interest in girls, unlike other men of his age. He preferred to work long hours and stay cooped-up inside his office instead of partying or going to clubs. Olivia decided that it was high time that she gave him some time off from work.

"Peter, why don't you go to Greece and look at some property there? You can take the whole month off and enjoy yourself there for some time."

"I'll go there if it is required. What about the last week of this month? I don't think I have an opening in my schedule before that."

Peter did go to Greece but he returned after two days, citing he had wrapped up the things there so it made no sense to further his stay there.

However, Olivia was unaware that Peter had been visiting India for the last three years. He had been going to the Vaishno Devi shrine during Saptami without fail. He did not tell his parents about his visits because he feared that they may feel hurt on hearing about his clandestine sojourns. The very thought of India made them both relive their sadness.