Tewari & Sons, 23, Chandni Chowk

Notes from the Past: Part 5

January 2006, Chatarpur Temple, New Delhi

January is one of the coldest months in Delhi and yet, here was Arnav having to wipe sweat from his forehead every few minutes. He also felt that he was rapidly running out of Oxygen because the Chatarpur Temple, one of the best known temples in the city was packed with people, evidently because it was some special kind of Saturday as they learnt later from the priest. He was not at all the religious sort. In fact, nobody in his family was. Which was surprising because they ran a business and usually all Hindu businesses thrived on bhoomi poojas, breaking of coconuts and constant divine intervention. But his father Anand Raizada was a rationalist and believed that the key to a successful business was actually doing work and not in the alignment of stars or the appeasement of gods. Though mom and dad did not agree on many subjects, on this matter they did. Mom, the ever practical sort and workaholic, felt that the time and money spent on these rituals could be better spent elsewhere. Of course, they still attended random poojas and satsangs they were invited to, but that was more of a social exercise. But about two weeks ago, his perfectly healthy father, chairman of AR Enterprises, that had reported a profit of a hundred and twenty crores in the last quarter, had collapsed in his office and suffered a stroke keeping him in the ICU for twelve days. Clearly, it was time to re-think one's relationship with god. It was Seema Bua who had made the suggestion to his mother that the family visit the temple to give thanks for the fact that her brother had made an almost full-recovery. Though Bua was not mom's favourite person, but this one time, mom made an exception and agreed with her. Of course, with dad being out of action, much of the work burden fell on mom and so she excused herself from the temple visit and instead suggested that Bua take along Anjali and him with her. Bua had agreed and that is how Arnav found himself in the Chatrapur Temple for the first time in his life, with Anjali and Aakash for company.

With no disrespect to goddess Katyayani, the people who deserved credit for dad's recovery were two other women. One of whom was Dr Kusum Yadav, the surgical resident at Safdarjung Hospital who performed an emergency surgery on dad. The other was Khushi Kumari Gupta, who on finding his dad collapsed had immediately phoned for an ambulance and had whisked him to the nearest hospital, before even the family reached.

Khushi, the thought of her made him let out a deep sigh. She was his former schoolmate, current college-mate, fellow sportsperson and a short-term employee in his father's business. Any person who fitted more than one of those criteria would ideally have been his friend. But not Khushi. Sometimes when he would chat with Anjali Di about school and college happenings, she would in jest refer to Khushi as his Jaani Dushman, referencing a hit 70s Hindi film. Of course, Khushi was not his enemy. That was Di being silly as usual. But they were not friends for sure. Khushi was the most maddening person he had ever met. He was grateful that she had saved his father's life. But this gratitude was not going to lead to any friendship.

Seema Bua finally spotted Vijay Shastri, who worked as an administrative officer at AR Enterprises. Shastri's cousin was the temple priest and he was here to ensure that they could bypass the masses and get their darshan of the goddess through a special side-gate meant for VIPs. Thankfully Shivam Mallik, his Bua's husband was not around, for he would not have approved of this blatant rule-flouting. Though he belonged to the fraternity of bureaucrats, notorious for their corruption, he was honest to a fault. This sometimes led to him being overzealous when it came to settling disputes on unfair trade practices by mid-sized companies, including AR Enterprises. This was something that had led to several showdowns and resultant awkwardness between Shivam Mallik and mom. While mom did not care for Bua much, it was with her husband that she had the most discomfort with. This is why Shivam Uncle seldom visited the Raizada House and always excused himself from family get-togethers. This of course meant that Aakash did not get to spend as much time with his father, a problem that his own father over corrected by showering a lot of attention on him.