My Imperfect Sadu Singh Oberoi

Chapter 1

Mumbai or rather widely known as Bombay by those who love the city by their heart, is known as the city of dreams, fashion, parties, street food, clubs, celebration and also shopping. However, for the next heir of the Oberoi Clan, Mr. Siddhant Singh Oberoi had a different definition for Mumbai. For him, Mumbai is a city of opportunities and exploitations. Those who exploit and seize the right opportunity can survive in the city whereas those who don’t, they fall back. As a matter of fact, life is all about surviving for Siddhant.

It was in the mid of July, during one of the beautiful early morning monsoon light showers, a blaring alarm woke Siddhant up from his light slumber. He immediately got up and turned his alarm off. Once it's off, he snuggled back into his cosy white comforter as he tried to get 'just another five minutes' sleep. He wasn’t someone who loved sleeping, but, continuous late night schedule has gotten the better of him.

Before he could even settle properly into a tiny nap, his e-mail kicked in. Miss Chanda, his secretary had already sent his schedule for the day. He got up for real this time preparing himself to face the responsibilities, not just as the managing director of Ahaana Authentics, but also as a son, brother and grandson. Responsibilities and Siddhant are undeniably an inseparable pair. Ever since he was a child, he had always been fulfilling all the responsibilities resting upon his shoulder and on other family members as well. He was taught to live up to them. Siddhant had never known a life indifferent from what he had lived. He never complained, but he had no other hope or wish in life. All that he ever wanted is to bring his business to a better level and keep his family happy.

After a brief warm shower, Siddhant unlocked his IPad and checked the schedule his secretary had sent earlier. His meetings were scheduled to begin at 11 in the morning. A small smile crept up to his lips as he realized that he had some extra time before he could go to his office. His sacrifice of sleep last night did not go in vain. He quickly pulled his phone out and called his favourite person, his grandmother, Dadi.

“Hello Billu”, Dadi's sweet sleepy voice answered. Siddhant smiled upon hearing his nickname from her. He was sure now that his day would be a great one ahead.

“Good morning Dadi! Are you up or not? I’ll be there in another 15 minutes, can you make some poha for breakfast? I’m craving for your handmade food!”

“Poha? Okay, I’ll make it for you, but only if you make me some vegan pesto spaghetti. Otherwise, you are not getting any poha or soha! So, are you interested in locking the deal or not?”

Siddhant chuckled at his grandmother’s childish demand despite being amused at how she was trying to imitate his business tone.

“Wow! Okay, Dadi. I’m locking the deal with pleasure”, Siddhant paused for a while as something hit his brain.

“Dadi, is Pranav awake? He had quite a party last night, if I’m not mistaken. If he’s still sleeping, can you wake him up?”

“Sure Billu. Just come soon, okay? Both Poha and Pranav will be ready by the time you reach here.”

Siddhant just smiled at his Dadi's childish antics. She was the true definition of age is just a number. He also realized that he had inherited his business skills from his grandmother, despite the media claiming otherwise. He knew deep down that if his grandfather could ever build such a huge business empire, it must only be due to the support of his grandmother.

Shaking off his thoughts on Dadi and her husband, Siddhant went into his kitchen and took out the necessary ingredients needed to prepare the vegan pesto spaghetti that his Dadi had requested.

*

In another part of the same Mumbai, about the same time, under the same dawn breaking shower, Abella snuggled further into her comforter, sleeping through all her morning alarms with a bright smile plastered on her face. As her windows were opened wide, tiny water droplets from the morning shower was blown into her room, hitting her serene face. Even that wasn’t enough to wake her up. The water droplets hitting her face only made her smile to grow wider and she nestled further into her pillow.

“Abella, wake up! We are getting late! We've got a lecture at 9:30 and it's already 8:45. Abella!” Shanaya who had just entered the room yelled the top of her voice.

'Shanaya yaar! Let's bunk the early morning lecture na... let's sleep a little longer. Come, join me!” replied a sleepy Abella while lifting the end of her comforter.

Shanaya was fed up with the everyday morning drama of Abella. Just before she could do something to wake her up, Abella had pulled her on the bed next to her, locking her by her shoulders. As she struggled to get out of Abella's clasps, an idea struck her head. She smiled mischievously and called out Abella’s name.

“Ani”

“Hmm?”

“Ani”

“Hmm?” She asked again, with a much intense tone as she opened her eyes to look at Shanaya.

“Speak out what you want to say! Do I even have a choice?” asked Abella groggily.

Shanaya smilingly shook her head and said, “Mumma called, and said that she's in Mumbai. She'll be here in like about half-an-hour”

Abella woke up with a jolt and ran into the bathroom to get ready while whining at Shanaya for telling her such an important matter so late. Abella got ready swiftly and came out of the bathroom. Abella was a fearless woman, undeniably, but, she has her own fears too. One such fear was her Mumma, her mother, Mrs. Maria Rene D’Souza. Shanaya, being her childhood friend was fully aware of this fact and exploited it. Shanaya was in fact quite surprised when Abella was ready within minutes upon the mention of her mother’s name.

“Not bad! You are ready within 20 minutes only. I should have used this trick earlier. Now that you're ready, shall we go ahead?” asked Shanaya.

For the first few seconds, Abella couldn’t comprehend the twist of events. She blinked, being absolutely clueless until the prank finally hit her.

“Did you just played a prank on me?” Abella questioned curiously, just to be sure as she doesn’t want to be surprised by the sudden appearance of her mother behind the door of her room.

“Finally you understood! Now let’s go, we’re getting late! Come!” Shanaya insisted and slowly walked towards the door.

Finally getting the prank that Shanaya played on her, Abella started chasing Shanaya around in her room. The giggles of both the best friends echoed through the 20th floor of the apartment.

“Shanaya! Stop right there!” Abella warned her as they went in rounds around the bed.

“No way!” She retorted as he tried to escape her best friend’s wrath.

Within minutes, both of them were breathless and Abella finally got a hold of Shanaya. She tugged her by her wrist, causing both Abella and Shanaya to trip and fall on the bed. Looking at each other’s face, they break into a laughter. Soon, Abella got on her knees and began to tickle Shanaya as part of her revenge. After a few seconds tormenting Shanaya, Abella finally let her go and giggled as she caught up on her breath.