2. Arjun

Author's PoV

It is a very huge house in Chennai, ECR. A beautiful beach house with 3 floors. Arjun's house is filled with people. His father and mother live on the ground floor. His sister and her family live on the second floor and the third floor is solely for Arjun. Arjun has an indoor swimming pool and a huge gym for his personal use on his floor. Arjun is in his family business and also is a partner in his friend's concern. They have many granite quarries across India and they export them to many different countries. 

The once busy and happy home is now filled with sadness and uncomfortable silence. Everyone in that house is deeply worried about Arjun's life. Arjun was married three years ago. His life started like everyone else, happy and blissful. She was a very beautiful girl and was very kind and loving to everyone in his family. She respected everyone and was a perfect daughter in law for his family. But all of a sudden, his wife went missing two years ago. Despite Arjun's influence, they could not find her anywhere. The police have come to the conclusion that she is dead, now after two years.

When she went missing, people around their family and business talked all kinds of nonsense behind their backs but that settled in these years and they have forgotten about her. Arjun's mom and dad continuously pushed him to legally divorce his wife stating her absence. They want him to marry and live happily. Only last week, he got a legal divorce from his first marriage. Arjun never wanted to get divorce or remarry. He just wanted to be left alone. But his mother cannot see her son living a life of emptiness! 

"Ajju, now that you got free of your first marriage, shall I look for a bride for you?" she asked him one day.

"Ma, please. I don't want another marriage. I am happy now and please don't spoil it for me."

"Happy? Looking after the business is the happiness you mean? Why do you work so hard, Ajju? What is the use of all this wealth when there is no heir for you? I cannot die peacefully if you have no kids of your own. I wont find salvation if you don't find the meaning of your life." she cried to him and he doesn't want his mother to cry for him.

"Ma, please, stop crying. You want me to marry? I will. But this time, it will be my choice. I cannot tell you the time but I will for sure get married. Leave it to me, ma." He told her to stop this talk at least for a few weeks.

"Ajju, this is not fair. We never forced anything upon you. That marriage happened with your full consent." Priya interrupted.

"Priya, shh. I am happy that he at least said ok for the marriage. I know no one can replace her, she was a wonderful woman. I stayed calm because he needed time and space to move on from her to start a new life. I brought this up now because I think he is out of it now in these 2 years. All I ever want is his happiness. I am happy to wait!" Yashodha stopped Priya. Yashodha knows that her son will never say anything that he is not going to do. If he says it, then we can consider it done.

"Sorry, Ajju. I didn't mean to bring her topic now." Priya apologized to Arjun. Since his wife went missing, no one talked about her in his presence. Everyone missed her laughter in the house. Arjun never cried or spoke about his feelings about her loss. No one had that courage to talk to him about that, not even Preethi and Praveen. Now that Priya and their mom talked about her, Arjun's face changed to a gloomy angry look.

Arjun never discussed his private feelings to anyone so far. He is a very private man who likes to keep everything to himself. No one has ever seen him talk other than necessity. He had no friends other than the twins. He never made any friends in his college and stayed all alone because the twins studied in a different college. It is with the twins, Tarun, Avni, Anvi and his mom, he talks with ease and laughter. 

Arjun always had that respect for his dad and love for his sister. But when she got married, he reduced his talks to Priya. Arjun didn't like Rajesh to come and live with them. Rajesh is Priya's college senior. Theirs is a love marriage. She refused to go to Rajesh's house after marriage because he was not wealthy. His mom and dad were not ready to marry her to him but she convinced by telling them that Rajesh will come here after marriage. His mom and dad finally agreed to this arrangement. But he disapproved of that idea from the start.

"You knew his financial status when you decided to marry him, right? Then you should be ready to live with what he earns." Arjun told his sister harshly. He never spoke about that again. 

Slowly, Rajesh came into the business and is now looking after a section. Though Arjun totally disliked this idea, he was happy that Priya is happy! 

No matter what, Arjun's family eat their breakfast together. Everyone leaves the house at 9am and all return back at different hours. So Yashodha made up this rule to see and greet each other at breakfast time. It is a strict rule and no one has broken it until now. Arjun got in the elevator to get to the ground floor for his breakfast. 

"Good morning, Ma." He greeted his mom with a lovely smile.

"Good morning, Ajju." She caressed her son's hair with so much love.

"Mama(uncle), you haven't come to see my play school yet. You have to come today to pick me up." little Tarun spoke in his childish slang to Arjun.

"Awe, I am so sorry, Tarun. Mama totally forgot about it. I promise to come to your pick up today." he told him, kissing him on his cheek.

"Dei Ajju, his pick up time is 12. How can you come that soon? It's ok da, I can go and pick him." Priya told him while feeding Tarun.

"No Priya, it's ok. I promised him and I am going to keep up my word." Arjun started eating.

"Good morning, everyone." Arjun's dad came by.

"You are late." Yashodha pouted at her husband.

"Sorry, madam." he told her and everyone laughed.

"Uncle(father-in-law), I need to go to the Bihar outlet today. I will be back this weekend." Priya's husband Rajesh told Hariharan. 

"Ok, Maapillai(son-in-law). Safe travels." he replied back. They all had their breakfast and left for their respective works after a laughter filled chat with all the family members.

Arjun is now driving to his factory. He is looking after the major production phase in granite. His factory brings in the rocks and grinds them to polish and cut them in rectangles of different sizes. Granite and marbles are natural stones but are way too costly that normal people find them expensive. He is now trying to make tiles that look like natural stones and are durable and strong like natural stones. The first edition of his Tinite (tile+granite) is a huge success and demands are skyrocketing that he has no time to even breathe when he is in his factory and lab. 

"Praveen, are you already there?" He called his best friend to check on his status. 

Praveen works in his lab as a lab technician. When Arjun talked about Tinite, Praveen was the only one who believed that it could work. They both worked day and night at the lab to make it happen. Because Praveen was with him all along and also gave him many inputs on this project, Arjun has given him a fair share of profit in Tinite sales. Now they are trying to recreate some natural granite patterns.

"On my way da. Will be there in 10minutes." Praveen said.

"Ok ok, I will be there too by that time. Is Preethi ok?" Arjun asked him.

"She never came out of her room, Ajju. I am really worried for her. Please talk some sense into her thick head." 

"Give her time, Praveen. I saw him at the mall yesterday. I just wanted to smack his face and break his jaw. But I restrained myself for Preethi." Arjun fist bumped on the steering wheel.

"He is not worth it, Ajju. She knows it. But she is still not over it." Praveen worried.

"Give her time to swallow her deception and disappointment. She will come around. We will take her bowling tonight."

"Will see!" They got off the phone and Arjun arrived first to the lab.