And She Disconnects

It took me a long time to understand that regrets crop up every time as a result of all the actions you take and mostly the ones you don’t. And the one thing I regret not doing was to go to Africa with Ritika, last January.

Ritika and her sister, Sukriti, recently, got featured on Forbes’ list of 100 richest people of India. A feat they had been achieving 2 years in a row. But as the law of nature, change is the only constant, and Ritika was feeling the urge for a while now. She wanted to take a sabbatical from work and go to Africa to help rehabilitate children whose childhoods are lost in various militant camps where they are being trained to fight a war, which was never theirs to fight.

The sisters have devoted the last 12 years of their lives, the prime of their youth, to build aircraft that can be run on bio-fuels. It was Ritika who started RS Innovations and coaxed, rather influenced, Sukriti to join her mission to make this world a better place. But this was not the beginning of their story, their story began, like all the great stories, when love knocked and was answered. I was that love.

I was working as VP of Marketing at Allianz Industries Limited, a company that still is the bitter foe of Ritika’s and Sukriti’s company. I met Ritika when our company was in talks to acquire RS Enterprises. The acquisition didn’t go as planned but the unplanned did happen. We fell in love. And to continue being in love I left Allianz and joined the sisters in their mission. But like all the good things, our love story came to a halt when Ritika decided to go to Africa. I still remember the evening when we were celebrating a big deal we just closed. Ritika came to me during the party and told me she needed to talk to me urgently, and took me to a corner.

“Avanti, I have finally decided, I am going to Africa and I want you to come with me.”

“Don’t be insane, Ritu. You have set up a huge empire here. How can you leave everything all of a sudden?” I was more shocked than surprised. I knew this was coming but I never expected it to happen this soon.

“I started this business to make air travel affordable for the lower strata of society. And my job is done here.” She claimed that with confidence and pride which was not only obvious in her tone but her whole body was in tune of her words.

“So do something else, here.” I was not sure if she is going to listen to me but it was a request rather than a command.

“You know how I feel about those children, Avanti. I want to help them, they need it more than anyone else. And please come with me, I know you also want the same.” She was trying to convince me, but deep inside she also knew that I didn’t want her to go and if she did I am not going with her.

“I do. But I am not ready to leave what I am doing here.”

“So it is decided then. I will spend a year there and you will help Sukriti in the business.” It was a declaration, that I wished to be a polite request to wait for her.

“So it is final?” I didn’t understand if Sukriti was trying to confirm or was showing her anger with her decision.

“Yes, I am leaving the day after.”

“What, so soon?” I couldn’t control but to ask.

“Baby, the sooner I go, the sooner I will be back.” She tried to calm my anger before it became resentment for her decision.

Our conversation was interrupted when Sukriti came looking for us. As usual, she was dressed to the T in a light orange dress accessorised with the shiniest platinum I had ever seen and leather boots that accentuated her posture, a remarkable contrast to her sister, who always chose her black basic t-shirt with her signature denims and a pair of white sneakers, regardless of the place or occasion.

She moved towards Sukriti and asked,

“We will announce this to press tomorrow where we will inform them about you being the interim CEO as well. Also, I will hand you over a laptop which I use for corporate accounts and all my scheduled meetings are in there, so you need to take care of those as well.”

“Woaaah, I am already feeling the pressure.”

“Don’t worry, since Avantika is not joining me, she will be here with you to help you with the transition. And you have to promise me one thing.”

“Anything for you, you just ask.”

“Take care of the business your way, don’t think about what I would have done, do whatever feels right to you. And take care of Avanti while I am gone, make sure she doesn’t fall for anyone else.” Ritika lowered her volume for the last statement as if she was trying to whisper, but it was loud enough for me to hear.

“BTW are you planning to marry Rishabh anytime soon? Don’t get married before I am back.” She continues.

It has been 15 days we haven’t heard from Ritika after the camp, she was working with, was attacked by a group of militants. She is presumed dead but her body hasn’t been found yet and we are all praying and hoping for the miracle.

Sukriti, unable to accept the news, is going on with her work as usual and is sure that Ritika will return soon as promised. But the board wants her to take the CEO position permanently. A dilemma which she doesn’t want to go through, for her Ritika is still the CEO and the company is hers more than even herself. But somethings are bound to happen, situations like these become more adamant when you try hard to avoid them. She calls me to her office to discuss the same.

I walk into Sukriti’s posh office cabin overlooking Bandra-Worli sea link. She, dressed in a white shirt and tan formal skirt with her hairs tied in a bun supported by silver bun-stick, is busy on a call and signals me to sit on the couch towards the left end facing the huge glass window. I constantly think about why I didn’t go with Ritika and if I would have gone the things would have been different now. While lost in my thoughts, I don’t realise when Sukriti finishes her call and comes and takes the white lounge chair opposite me.

“Avanti, stop thinking about it. She will be back soon.” She raises her tone to break me out of my trance.

“I am not sure of that anymore.”

“Dude, don’t lose hope.”

“I know. All the board members want to take a call and I am tired of fighting with them on this.”

“They are not wrong. If a call is not taken soon, our shareholders with lose hope. And I am sure, Ritika will be happy with you doing the right thing.”

“I don’t want to be the CEO, I took up this position only to allow Ritu to take a break.”

“You have to run this company to honour her memory.”

“What do you mean by that? She is alive and well and I am sure she will back soon. She will have to come back to take charge of her company.” saying that Sukriti breaks down. She doesn’t want to believe anything has happened to her sister. The thought is scary for me as well. But more so of her coming back.

I get up and hug her to comfort her.

After mulling over the decision for a couple of days, Sukriti agrees to become the CEO, and the company announces the decision at a press conference and all the shares held by Ritika are transferred to Sukriti and I. Sukriti also takes over as the chairman of the board. She appoints me as the co-CEO to share her workload. They also announce a memorial ceremony for Ritika for the following day.

For a moment, I feel Ritika’s presence, I feel her right here at the ceremony with us. I try looking for her, but can not spot her. I, strangely, feel afraid when I think about her being back, afraid of losing the promotion I just got. If anything has to happen to Sukriti, I will be the next CEO of the company, but if Ritika comes back, she will be heading the company and I will have to go back to being the CMO, chief marketing officer, and all the things I did will be for nothing.

I was the one who planned that attack on her camp. But I am not going to let it come back to me. Every single detail will lead to Sukriti and if anybody finds out about it, she will be the one to take the fall for killing her sister. I used the laptop which Ritika handed over to Sukriti to transfer the funds to the mercenaries I hired. But it was more of Rishab’s doing than mine. He was the one who came to me with the idea.

A month back he came to meet me in my office.

“When is Ritu coming back?”

“Her project will be done by the end of next month.”

“Ohh cool. So are you guys planning to get married?

“Honestly, I am not sure if I want to marry her. Last few months have changed a lot of things between us.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I left everything for her and joined her company. Now if she is not here to lead the company, everything is not the same.”

“In my opinion, you should have been the interim CEO, instead of Sukriti. She preferred her family over you.”

“That’s how things work in India.”

“We can change that you know, right?”

“I don’t think the change will happen anytime soon.”

“What if Ritu never comes back?”

“I don’t know where are you going with this, but this doesn’t sound right.”

“I am just saying that you can be the CEO of the company and there is only one way.”

There was an awkward silence between us. I didn’t know what to respond. I was happy that at least somebody knew I was the one who deserved to run the company but at the same time, I loved Ritika irrespective of how things were between us. The unsaid truth of this world is that between love and greed, greed always wins. I should have gone to Africa with her, but I chose not to.

“I think you do.” Rishabh said to get me out of my thoughts.

“So what’s your plan?”

“There is no plan, but let’s say that militants attack the camp she is working at and she gets killed.”

“I will figure the hows. I have access to the laptop which Ritu left for Sukriti. But Sukriti will be a natural choice.”

“There are two ways, one, somehow she gets the blame for whatever happens, second, we make sure that you become co-CEO along with her. And given the state of affairs in the last year, the second will be easier to achieve.”

I, strangely, started planning how to achieve both. But no plans are perfect and there are a lot of things you can’t control. You just set things in motion, and the outcomes can be what you never planned for.

After the press conference, we start preparing for the memorial service. In the evening, we are sitting in Sukriti’s office and she gets a call. I can not guess who is on the other side, but she was happy and shocked. After disconnecting the call, she tells me that she has to go for a meeting at Leopold, and leaves instantly.

I am sitting here and guessing who she is meeting. The feeling of guilt always makes you think that you are about to get caught, you are going to be proved as fake. And everything that is happening in the universe’s plan for it.

After waiting for her for a few hours in the office, I call her but she doesn’t respond. I try her number a few more times, before winding up the preparation and heading home. I think about going to Leopold on the pretext of being unable to reach her and also find out whom she is meeting. But I decide against it and head home.

When she doesn’t return after a few hours and doesn’t even call back, I get worried. I decide to go to Leopold to check on her. While driving, my mind starts wandering around thinking about all the possibilities. When you are sure that you have thought of all the possible situations and feel prepared, the universe throws a situation at you which you couldn’t have imagined. I reach Leopold and look around for her everywhere, but I can’t find her.

I try her number again, and again, and again, but it is not answered. The staff at Leopold know us well as we frequent there, so I go to the reception and ask about her.

“Hey, was Sukriti here?”

“I didn’t see her, but my shift just started, let me call the guy who was handling the shift before me for you.”

He calls the receptionist who was there before him.

“Hi Sir, How are you? It’s been long you haven’t visited Leopold.”

“I am good. Acha, was Sukriti here in the evening?”

“Yes, Sir. She was here with Ritika ma’am.”

“What?”

I get shocked. This is one of those situations I never imagined.

“Yes Sir, I think they were fighting about something before they left.”

“When did they leave?”

“They were here for just half an hour.”

“Cool, thanks.”

I walk out of the cafe, not knowing what to do. I was sure that Ritika died, but how can she escape the attack? There are a lot of questions going in my mind, the answers of which I can’t figure out. There is only one person who has all my answers. I call on Ritika’s number. She answers the call -

“I know.”

And she disconnects.