The Runaway Bridegroom

by Venkatraman, Sundari

  After finishing his dinner and signing the bill, Ranveer got up to leave, completely unaware of the admiring glances from a group of young women who sat at the table on his right. While they were eyeing his brooding features, Ranveer was completely lost to his surroundings. He went up to his room and decided to go to bed even though it was not even 11 pm yet. But then, he had a long drive in front of him the next day and was keen to leave as early as he could. He wanted to reach his village by evening.

  Thirty-three

  Of course, it was just the second day of his investigation and Samrat hadn’t expected to get too far ahead with it. Yet the detective was disappointed as he had come up with a blank wall both at the college where Chanda was studying and the hostel she lived in.

  The hostel was exclusively for women, but Samrat had found out that there was a separate building that housed male students and this was in the neighbouring compound. A thorough search of the list of students living there had brought up a blank. But then, all of them were either of Chanda’s age or younger, actually.

  He had even managed to get a list of the male professors teaching at the college. He had run through their personal and professional data on the college’s website and found that none of them matched the criteria that he was looking for.

  Samrat looked at his watch to see that it was almost 3 pm. It was time for a meal and his stomach growled as if on cue. He shut the laptop he was working on and decided to go for lunch. That only left one place for him to check. Chanda had been working as a temp at RS Software Pvt. Ltd. He had already verified that the company was placed in a twelve-storey commercial building. That could mean that there was a chance that Veerendra could be working in any one of the umpteen companies that were placed there. Then again, he could be a businessman who transacted with any of the said companies. That could run into hundreds, to say the least. But then, Samrat never left anything to chance and he was an expert with lists. Then there was his gut instinct that was very strong. Not even for a minute did Samrat think that it might be a crazy idea to work on an astrologer’s forecast. He and astrologers went a long way. He had used a couple of them during some of his investigations. If the astrologer was of great repute, then the chances were that they gave accurate predictions.

  Deciding to have lunch before going to check out Chanda’s temporary workplace, Samrat packed his backpack before stepping out of the college.

  RAM AND LAKSHMAN REACHED ten minutes before time for their appointment with Ranveer Singh. Not having had any updates from Samrat, the duo had kind of become restless as they were both at a loose end. The moment they walked into the reception of RS Software, Lakshman took the initiative to walk up to Ruma as Ram watched on in amusement.

  “Hi Ruma,” said Lakshman softly, a smile on his face.

  Ruma looked up to see the handsome guy who was supposed to meet Ranveer that afternoon. She recalled that he was Lakshman Maheshwari even before he gave her his name. She lifted the intercom as she smiled and said, “Could you please take a seat, Mr. Maheshwari? You’re early. Let me check if someone’s free to see you.” She didn’t want to mention Ranveer’s name as that would be an outright lie.

  Lakshman nodded his head before walking to the sofa where Ram was sitting back, his legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles. Lakshman ignored the devilish glint in his brother’s eyes and went and sat quietly next to him. He didn’t respond to Ram’s furtive looks as he took a magazine and pretended to read it. Ram gave up after a couple of minutes and started reading the newspaper that was lying on the table next to him.

  “Excuse me, gentlemen!” called out Ruma. The brothers got up as one to go to her. “Mr. Ranveer Singh is rather busy at the moment. Mr. Abhimanyu will see you immediately.” She had already instructed an office boy to lead the two of them to Abhimanyu’s cabin.

  The two men followed the office boy and went to meet Abhimanyu. Shikha looked up from her cabin and just happened to notice the two tall men as they walked into Abhimanyu’s office. She was furious. What the hell was happening? It was she who had given the appointment to Ram and Lakshman. What were they doing meeting Abhimanyu? She lifted the phone to ring Abhimanyu’s extension only to find it engaged. Expecting a call from her, Abhi had left the phone off the hook. He had even taken the precaution to keep his cell phone on silent mode. He was quite confident that Shikha wouldn’t walk into his cabin as she would definitely not want to create a bad impression on the Maheshwaris.

  Unable to yell at Abhimanyu for interfering in her affairs, Shikha got up and walked to the reception to give Ruma a piece of her mind. Ruma was just placing the phone receiver down when Shikha barged into the reception. She walked up to the younger woman and thrusting her face threateningly close to hers, snarled, “How dare you? Just how dare you? You knew very well that the Maheshwaris had an appointment with me today. Why the hell did you send them over to meet Abhi?”

  Ruma wasn’t too flustered by the attack. She had been working in the office since two years and was quite sure of the line of authority. She also had the confidence of a sincere employee whose work was well appreciated by the management. This new secretary of Ranveer’s was full of hot air and Ruma was sure Shikha wouldn’t survive here in this company for long.

  Ruma moved away from Shikha’s threatening face and sat down coolly on her swivel chair. “Well, I wasn’t aware that the Maheshwaris had an appointment with you, Shikha. Believing that they were to meet Ranveer and considering that the boss is not in the office, I sent them over to meet his second-in-command,” she said, her voice matter-of-fact. Her body language was a different ballgame altogether. Shikha caught the stance that just told her to ‘go to hell’.

  Shikha trembled with the temper that shook her up. She had so looked forward to an afternoon of entertainment, maybe it would have got carried forward into the evening. All that was lost now thanks to this stupid woman who thought no end of herself. “You just wait, you bitch. Let Ranveer get back to work and we’ll see what he has to say about your attitude. You don’t think you can insult me like this and get away with it, do you?” She shouted.

  “Do that. I really look forward to what Ranveer has to say about this too,” said Ruma before turning towards her computer terminal. She had better things to do than to cross swords with Ranveer’s secretary who didn’t do much other than paint her nails most of the day, it seemed.

  Realising that it was of no use talking to the young receptionist, Shikha walked back to her cabin in a huff, cursing Ranveer and all things that had to do with him. She fumed as she sat there plotting horrible ways to kill both Ranveer and his executive assistant.

  ABHIMANYU GOT UP to greet the Maheshwari brothers. The office boy left them at the door after taking an order for three cups of tea. Abhimanyu shook hands with both Ram and Lakshman while his keen eyes studied the two men in front of him. They were both confident and didn’t in any way resemble Chanda, unless you looked at their eyes. Both the men’s eyes were a shining black with a smile permanently in them - just like their sister’s.

  Abhimanyu smiled at each of them in turn before saying, “Am I right in thinking that you both are related to Chanda? Probably her brothers?”

  Ram grinned widely while Lakshman smiled softly. “Is that so obvious?” asked Ram, the talkative one.

  Abhimanyu shook his head before replying, “Not exactly. The main clue was your surname. But of course, there’s a resemblance that becomes obvious once you realise that you may be related to Chanda. So tell me, what brings you both here? You must be aware that Chanda’s on leave and the reason she gave her team leader is that she’s held up due to a family emergency.” His eyebrows went up in query. “What are two members of her family doing here under the circumstances?” he asked. Abhimanyu sounded tough, but then that’s how he was. He had dealt with a number of fraudsters in his time and had learned to handle them firmly. Not that he thought that Chanda’s brothers were frauds. But he was keen to get to the bottom of the truth as soon as
he could.

  Ram shrugged broad shoulders as he looked at Abhimanyu. “Actually, it was Ranveer that we wanted to meet,” he said.

  “Is that anything to do with this family problem that was mentioned? Will Chanda not be working with us anymore? Or—”

  Lakshman spoke for the first time and Abhimanyu turned to look at him in surprise as he had almost forgotten that there was another man in the room. “Look here Mr. Abhimanyu. There has been a problem and Chanda is unable to get back to work just now. She’ll return next week as promised. Our meeting Ranveer is something else altogether. It’s on a personal level, actually.”

  Abhimanyu nodded his head wisely. He had thought as much. But it was strange that they should come here escaping the emergency that Chanda was undergoing with the rest of the family. Somehow, he couldn’t quite swallow that. But then, there was only so much he could interfere on Ranveer’s behalf.

  “Actually, Ranveer’s not in town this week. He’s expected to return to work only next Monday,” he told them the truth.

  “What?” said Ram, absolutely disappointed. He had been so keen on meeting the man who had captured Chanda’s heart. A small frown gathered on his forehead as he looked at Lakshman, silently asking him the next plan of action.

  Just then the office boy walked in with a tray containing three cups of tea and placed it in the centre of Abhimanyu’s desk.

  Abhimanyu waited for the boy to leave the cabin before answering Ram. “Yeah, Ranveer has gone to Jaswantpura. He should be back in Delhi by Sunday,” he said before picking up his cup of tea.

  While Ram sipped at his tea, Lakshman asked quietly, “Did you say Jaswantpura?”

  A dazed Ram placed his tea cup on the table to avoid spilling the hot liquid as his hand shook with shock. This was just too much of a coincidence.

  Thirty-four

  Abhimanyu was not only a diligent employee, but also a discreet one. It wasn’t by chance that he had mentioned Jaswantpura. He had deliberately spoken about Ranveer’s trip there to encourage the Maheshwari brothers to confide in him the purpose of their visit.

  And it wasn’t Abhimanyu’s curiosity that was making him behave the way he was. He genuinely liked and respected Ranveer and considered him a friend more than an employer. He also thought that Ranveer had had a raw deal in life and had still managed to land on his feet. He couldn’t but admire the young man for his tenacity. And he so wanted to help him, in any way he could. It was obvious that Ranveer was in love with Chanda and Abhimanyu had decided that he would do what he could to help the young couple. From what he had heard from Ranveer, it looked like Chanda had encouraged his feelings and that suggested that she was interested in him too. And now her brothers were here looking for Ranveer. Surely there was a connection?

  In reply to Ram’s question, Abhimanyu replied, “Yeah, that’s exactly what I said. Do you know the place? I heard it’s a village in Rajasthan.”

  Ram replied, “I’ve heard of it. We have some distant relatives who live there. But of course, I’ve never been there personally.” He felt a little foolish now. Ranveer had gone to Jaswantpura. That could mean just about anything. He didn’t quite understand what had shaken him up about that little piece of news. Picking up his cup of tea, Ram began sipping it.

  The two men got up after that to shake hands with Abhimanyu. They thanked him before leaving the office, quite disappointed at not meeting Ranveer. They decided to go back to their hotel before deciding their next course of action.

  Abhimanyu felt quite bad that his shot in the dark had missed. The Maheshwaris had not confided in him despite his offering them the extra information about Ranveer’s trip.

  SAMRAT HAD MADE A NOTE of the address of RS Software Pvt. Ltd., the company where Chanda was working as a temp. He decided to check out that office before going to the other floors. It was best to begin at the point closest to her.

  He walked into the reception. Ruma greeted him with a polite “Good Evening!” It was 4.30 pm. Samrat gave her his card and told her that he would like to meet the person in charge as he had some investigations to conduct.

  “Could you please take a seat, Mr. Samrat?” suggested Ruma before calling Abhimanyu on his extension. Abhimanyu was surprised to hear that a private detective was there to check out something at RS Software Pvt. Ltd. Thinking that today seemed to be a very strange day, Abhimanyu told Ruma to send Mr. Samrat over to his office.

  The office boy led Samrat to Abhimanyu’s cabin. He got up to shake hands with the slim, dark man and requested him to sit down. “How can I help you, Mr. Samrat?” he asked.

  “Well, it’s like this actually. I’m conducting an investigation on behalf of Mr. Maheshwari.” Samrat’s eyebrows shot up when he heard Abhimanyu’s exclamation. “Were you saying something, Mr. Abhimanyu?” he asked politely.

  Abhimanyu shook his head vigorously and said, “No, no. Please go on.”

  Samrat continued, “I believe that Chanda Maheshwari works here in this company as a temporary assistant.” He waited for Abhimanyu to confirm it before going further, “The case it rather strange. I’m looking for someone who’s been associated with Ms. Chanda in her childhood. This person must be about twenty-seven years old. And—”

  Abhimanyu interrupted the detective to ask, “Would that be a male or a female?” He was quite confused. If Samrat was looking for someone who had been associated with Chanda in her childhood, it seemed rather wild that he was looking for that person here at her place of work.

  “Male,” replied Samrat firmly. “It’s actually a delicate issue.” He wondered how much he could take Abhimanyu into confidence. Samrat studied the man in front of him who appeared to be scrutinising the detective with equal fervour. Samrat noticed the intelligence as well as the honesty in Abhimanyu’s keen gaze and decided to tell him some more.

  “Well, I’m looking for someone who is called Veerendra Choudhry. But of course, the chances are very high that he is under an alias.”

  “Is he a fraud? I mean, has he harmed Chanda in any way?” asked Abhimanyu, a mite worried that some danger had befallen Chanda and that’s why she hadn’t come to work. If that was the case, then he had better contact his boss immediately.

  “Ms. Chanda is totally safe, to my knowledge. There’s no problem as to that. I’m looking for someone associated with her childhood, Mr. Abhimanyu,” he stressed, waiting for the information to sink in.

  Abhimanyu breathed a sigh of relief. Just now, Chanda was okay it seemed. Samrat was looking for someone from her past. He nodded his head, indicating that Samrat should go on with his story.

  “This person - Veerendra - ran away from home while young. He never got in touch with his family for fourteen years. No one has a clue to how he looks. And—”

  Samrat’s story sounded good. But Abhimanyu just couldn’t understand what the detective hoped to achieve by making enquiries at Chanda’s work place. It all sounded so bizarre. It never struck Abhimanyu that he hadn’t allowed the detective to complete his story. His mind was working so fast that he kept interrupting him so often without letting him finish what he had to say.

  Samrat didn’t want to be rude nor did he suspect Abhimanyu of a dearth of intelligence. But why can’t the man let him give all the details before asking his questions? He looked at Abhimanyu quite sternly and the latter was startled to see the ordinary face come alive in front of him. When Samrat introduced himself, Abhimanyu believed that he was meeting an ordinary guy who was playing at being a detective. Looking at the unyielding expression on the man’s face, Abhimanyu changed his mind. He was looking at an intelligent man who knew his business, it seemed. Abhimanyu decided to keep quiet and let him have his say. As that was exactly what Samrat had wanted to establish, he continued his story uninterrupted.

  Samrat didn’t want to mention that Chanda had been married to Veerendra Choudhry. After all, this was her place of work and it wouldn’t be a good idea to mention that to one of her colleagues. It might lead to gossip. He had t
o be quite careful with what he said.

  “I’m looking for this Veerendra Choudhry. I have a childhood photograph of his and I’m working on a clue that he’s probably in Delhi. Of course, you must be aware that detective work is quite boring as we keep checking a lot of details before arriving at the correct answer. There is indication that Mr. Choudhry is probably working in the same area as Ms. Chanda. I don’t think I need to ask you whether someone by that name is working here, of course. You don’t find the name familiar,” he declared, quite confident with his conclusion. But then there was the very big chance that Choudhry went by an alias.

  Abhimanyu looked at Samrat with a big frown on his handsome face as he digested this information. He couldn’t but wonder at what Chanda’s role was in the whole scene. Why would her family want to trace a man from her childhood? As far as he knew, Chanda was interested in Ranveer. She had gone home suddenly on a family emergency. Her brothers - no less than two - were making enquiries about Ranveer during her absence, that too when she had stayed back in her hometown to handle some urgent situation. Now, a detective was here at her office making enquiries about a Veerendra Choudhry from her childhood. Why the hell would Samrat come to check at her place of work if the man had disappeared fourteen years earlier? This was getting too weird for words.

  He looked at Samrat and asked him directly, “Are you telling me all there is to say?”

  Samrat eyed Abhimanyu. Why would he give the man all the information? What if he turned out to be a gossip and told everyone that Chanda had been married as a kid? Samrat thought on his feet. Well, the Maheshwaris had trusted him - Samrat - with that information. So why not one more person, even if he was Chanda’s office colleague? What in case he could help him? If nothing, Abhimanyu had given him a lot of time, listening to his tale. Samrat decided to tell him some more.