CHECKMATE

Chapter 2

"I don't approve of this," snapped a harsh voice from behind Siddharth.

Looking into the mirror he saw the reflection of his father who threshed in rage. His fare, round face had turned a bright red and his ears flared wide like an elephant. He was a short stubby man, with a glabrous scalp twinkling under the silver LED's that adorned the false ceiling.

"I didn't ask for your approval father." Smirked Siddharth turning to face the enraged man. "I just told you."

"This is nothing but your constant company with that imbecile Shivendra." He shouted trying to hammer sense into the boy's head.

Upstart that Siddharth was he didn't give a damn. He knew the company he kept believed in merits, doing good, being honest and work without propaganda; which was unlikely of the other men in an industry aimed at constant profits.

"I wanted you to become an advocate but here you are doing your CA." Spat his father in contempt.

"What has you becoming the great advocate Paresh Soni given you? Other than money, name, fame and prestige did you want anything better? You only got married to mom because you thought of her as a baby making machine, so that you would have a son to carry your legacy."

Siddharth's words though harsh were true, but his father was in no mood for such emotional speeches. He never understood why his son hated him so much. What had he ever asked of him other than being an advocate? Could a father not desire that his son follow his profession? Could he not desire that his son leave bad company and be with someone better for a change? Was it too much to ask?

The youth know not where they are heading, thought the aged man in fatigue.

"If you don't want to be an advocate that's fine." Said Paresh in a broken voice. "But why don't you befriend Indrajit and his brother's? Why do you continue making friends who are below your standards?"
"That playboy," spat Siddharth in a chuckle. "He and his brother's are only known to gain sympathy from the world along with their dowager mother Meenakshi."
"Indrajit isn't a playboy," replied his father in rage. "He is much better than you, he listens to me and does what I say."

A bitter bile shot up Siddharth's throat. The comparison between him and the 'innocent' Indrajit had been going on since his childhood. He could never see sense in Meenakshi and Darshit's three sons but found better sense in Kalyani and Jaswanth's three children.

Paresh knew he was only pounding his head against a wall, it was no use trying to explain a grown up, supposedly matured man in his teens of what was right and what wasn't.

"You are quick to judge," snapped Paresh at his least interested son. "Being your father let me tell you one thing, the more you try to help the people on the bottom rung they will pull you down to their level. If you give them a finger they will soon want your palm and then your arm, dragging you down and setting themselves up."

"Orthodox philosophies my father!" Laughed the teen. "Let me tell you one thing, the more people learn, the more they work the gross domestic production increases, rising the economic standards of the country. The more people set start-ups and businesses of their own, the more people will be employed, reducing the rising rate of unemployment. But here, we only seek profits to fill our pockets and to fund election campaigns of the politicians."

Siddharth shifted his gaze and saw his mother standing at the threshold of the door. She looked ten times older and weary than her actually age. Her once black hair had now been turning grey in patches and she didn't bother to conceal them. She was just too exhausted with the constant bickering between the father and son. She felt her family break and she could do nothing other than sit and watch the show from afar. Her husband had already made her an insignificant mannequin in the house only to cook and clean, but was her son too doing the same?