Dil Beparwah | ✔

ten

||CHAPTER 10||
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┊V A R U N┊

"Check this out," Girish turned in his seat excitedly. "That blog article on merger failures is shooting up like crazy!"

Of course it was. It timed perfectly with the reason we had flown to Delhi on a very short notice. Five hours ago, Mehra Industries had announced a press conference and though the agenda stated it was about a new venture it was supposedly going to be investing in, this press conference was going to turn out to be more than that–we were reporters after all. Guptas were definitely breaking it off with the Mehras, and to avoid attention from being focused on their failure, they resorted to diverting it instead.

"Send the stats to Mikesh," I rubbed my eyes, supporting my neck against the headrest of the car seat. "Let him decide what BizNest really stands for."

Girish knew what I meant by that. Esha's blog post was still the most viewed article on our site. "Can I ask something?"

I hummed, looking at the long line of cars behind us through the rear view mirror. The signal in front of us had us waiting for a two-minute countdown from red.

"Esha has been talking about covering a story for What They Say, and that show is clearly getting a lot of hype," he pointed to a huge billboard. Sanaya Gupta was leaning out of an open window of a mud house, the name of the show nailed on a wooden sign board painted blue and hung below the window. That was another vibrant version of the posters I had seen in the past week.

The lights turned green and our cab left the poster behind, now driving over a flyover. "Their promotions team is efficient."

"Well, Esha also told us the other day that she has some insider info about Sanaya Gupta getting laid off the show."

I squinted my face. Girish was the bearable one of the three people directly under me, so where exactly was he getting at? "Are we discussing celebrity crushes now?"

"If we are, that would definitely be Tanaya Singhal," he admitted, "but she's married now."

I closed my eyes. Man, I needed sleep. At midnight, I had to drop off the girl I hooked up with. Had met her at a bar, and halfway through it she got a call from her roommate. Some emergency, she stated. I was bothered, but I was also chivalrous. I was chivalrous, but I also needed my fùçķìñģ sleep.

Girish cut off the muffled honking of cars and continued. "So, I heard Mikesh Sir talking to Esha yesterday. She might get a weekly section at the BizNest blog. The kind of news she brings in does keep our page in the rankings."

Wanted to scream fuçķing hell, but I already knew about it. A small compromise is what Mikesh had termed it. It tagged drama and the crowd for gossip was always more profitable. I was disgruntled, obviously, but I had agreed. Her connections were strong, and what she brought to the table was not far from the truth. Inconsequential, yes, but not utter bullshìť. The physical magazine was what would remain untainted.

Again, office politics was a pain in the fùçķing ass.

The cab pulled over a small distance away from the busy lane of Mehra Industries. It was scorching and the sun reflected off the glass panes of the multi-storey building. Media trucks had occupied most of the area surrounding the entrance gates and the uniformed guards were executing the security checks.

I pulled out my Media badge, pinning it to my shirt. After being frisked by the guards, the sign boards led us to the auditorium on the third floor. Placards on the draped table confirmed that Sood, head of a small real estate company , the Chairman of Mehra Industries and the CEO would be open for questions today. I couldn't help but check the stats of our newest blog post before taking a seat. It was show time.