Next day during lunch, the lawyer of Patel family business Mr. Jha also joined them. Everyone knows Mr. Jha but they are not sure about his presence. There is a family meeting after lunch and everyone is speculating that it has something to do with that.
After dinner, every one of the family got seated in the lounge area which has different sofas arranged in a 'U' shape. Each sofa can accommodate three or four people. The arrangement is easily able to fit about twenty to twenty-five people. The lounge area is in the front part of the hall separated from the hall with some pillars and decorative drapes and is seldom used.
Normally family members sit on the sofas in the hall itself or sometimes on the eating table at one side of the hall near to kitchen. There is a big TV screen of about 120 inches which people normally watch while sitting in the hall. Every room has its own TV, so the TV in the hall is rarely used or only used while guests are there. Grandpa and grandma who sit in the hall most of the time, prefer quiet and enjoy talking or reading books or newspaper.
The lounge is being used for the family meeting. Grandpa and grandma are sitting together. Mother of Akash is also sitting beside Grandma and massaging the arm of Grandma. Akash, Varsha, and Ira are sitting on one sofa. Eldest uncle and aunt along with their two sons are on one sofa. Youngest uncle and aunt along with their son and daughter are sitting at one sofa. The last remaining sofa is occupied by Mr. Jha who is also arranging some documents by pulling them from his briefcase and putting them beside himself on the sofa.
Everyone is looking curiously toward Grandpa and Grandma and waiting for them to say something. Grandma who is sitting beside Grandpa with a lazy expression on the face and is enjoying the massage from her daughter-in-law said in a careless tone "Old man! Why don't you talk about what you want to tell them? They all are getting impatient."
Grandpa who is sitting with a determined expression on his face, looked toward Mr. Jha who is ready with his papers in hand and is looking toward Grandpa and said "As everyone knows, Mr. Jha is the lawyer of our Patel family business from the last twenty years and is a good and trusted advisor to us in legal matters. I thought it is the time, we make a few things clear so that everyone starts understanding their roles and responsibilities in the family and also in our family business. Let us not waste our time. Now Mr. Jha will continue." And then Grandpa signaled Mr. Jha with a wave of the hand to continue.
Mr. Jha picked one document from the stash and coughed to get everyone's attention. He looked around on all the faces present and then read "Patel Family Business is solely owned by Mr. Heeralal Patel and his wife. These are the papers of ownership. Originals are with Mr. Patel in different forms and I have a copy with me here. Patel Family Business owns 5 hotels and 10 restaurants in Pune city, 10 restaurants in Mumbai and 10 restaurants in Nagpur cities. Patel Family business also has 5 hotels in Bangalore city, 5 hotels in Indore city and 5 hotels in Delhi. Some of the properties are owned and some of them are rented. Total current evaluation of business properties is 15 billion. Net per month income from the business for Patel Family is 10 million after paying all the running costs, taxes, reinvesting and insurances."
Mr. Jha showed some papers in his hand to everyone and then picked different papers and said: "Now I will announce the share distribution of business and change in his will which Mr. Patel will be signing today." After saying this Mr. Jha stopped to check the papers he is going to read next.
Everyone has their attention toward Mr. Jha. Some people are curious and some have anxious expressions. Akash seemed to have already guessed and his expression became more carefree and he put his head back to rest on the sofa and closed his eyes in a lazy style. Arpit is looking intently toward Akash and trying to guess his thoughts.
Ira looked toward her elder brother and then smiled and whispered in Varsha's ears "Sister-in-law! Now you are going to be a queen for sure."
Varsha is already in awe hearing income of 10 million per month and hearing the words of Ira, she looked surprised and then said in ears of Ira "What?"
"Sister-in-law! Let us bet. If I am correct, we will go shopping tomorrow. We will also eat outside." Ira smiled and whispered in reply.
Varsha smiled and said "Okay." Whatever is the case, she is not going to lose anything. She also wants to go out and see new places of Pune and being with Ira is always fun. But Queen? She also is curious how is she going to be a queen.
Mr. Jha started reading "I will just summarize the things in the paper. Mr. Patel and his wife hold 25% of shares and each of his sons has 25% of shares. Out of 25% shares which are in name of his eldest son, 15% will be given to his granddaughter-in-law Varsha and 10% will go to his grandson Akash. There is also a change in the will of Mr. and Mrs. Patel. Out of 25% of their shares, 10% will go to their granddaughter-in-law Varsha while remaining will be distributed equally to the family of his three sons."
Then Mr. Jha left his seat with few files and brought in front of Grandpa and Grandma Patel and said "Please read and sign them. You both have to sign here, here and here." Mr. Jha pointed out the places to sign to Grandpa Patel. Grandpa Patel took the papers in hand and started going through them and after a few minutes, he signed them and then helped Grandma Patel also sign them.
Mr. Jha took the papers back from Grandpa, checked them and went back to his seat and put them. He then pulled some forms and went to Varsha and smiled at her while nodding his head in acknowledgment and passed them toward her. Varsha who is already surprised at the things happening could only look at this man in his fifties dumbly not knowing what to do. Ira laughed and took the pen and papers from Mr. Jha and looked into them. Varsha also looked sideways on the papers in hand of Ira.
Ira chirped "Oh, these are the forms to open the bank account and another is a consent form to receive the income from Family business account directly into this account."
"Yes, they are. We already have all her details to fill the form. We only want her signatures on both these forms and we are set." Mr. Jha smiled and said.
Varsha looked at the forms and then toward Grandma and Grandma who are smiling at her. She suddenly felt overwhelmed by the things happening and her eyes turned watery and she said "Grandpa! I.."
Before she could continue, Grandpa raised his hand to stop her and then said "This is your marriage gift and our blessings for you. You see, it is not really much. 15% you are getting is from your husband and later father-in-law and from 10% in our will, hardly 7% is out of the calculation. So, if we say you are only getting an extra 7% for being eldest granddaughter-in-law and to feel responsible and happy in the family. You should not reject it to make us happy."
Varsha lowered her head and muttered, "I don't need money to feel happy with my family."
Akash who is sitting eyes closed, opened his eyes and looked strangely toward Varsha and said "Grandpa and Grandma want it. So take it and make them happy. No one is asking you to bear with the curse called money. You can pass all that curse to me later if you don't want it."
Varsha looked at the nonchalant expression of Akash and felt speechless seeing his expression. He was supposed to smile when joking but he is saying it like he is talking not about money but some waste material he wants to dispose of. His expression shows like 'Its is just a bit of money, take it. It is no big deal'. She shook her head in resignation and turned toward Ira and took the pen from her and asked: "Where do I sign?"
Ira passed the papers to Varsha and mentioned the places to sign and Varsha did it and passed the papers to Mr. Jha. Mr. Jha took the papers back to his seat and started arranging them in folders and started preparing to pack.
Ira laughed and said "Elder brother sure knows how to convince sister-in-law. Is it the telepathic understanding between husband and wife?"
"It is just signing few papers. Why waste time? I know it is not easy to convince Grandpa and Grandma. And you stop being dramatic." Akash muttered and sent a warning glare toward Ira.
Varsha lowered her head shyly on the comment of Ira and Ira laughed hard and said "Sure, sure. Whatever my dear brother says."
Grandpa also laughed and then said "Well, I believe I have not cut short the rights of anyone. So, there should not be any issue. But I still want to ask if anyone has any questions." Grandpa looked toward Akash who just shook his head that he does not have any issue. His second and third son have their 25% shares and the person whose shares are divided is Akash and that is why Grandpa looked toward Akash first. Grandpa felt happy inside and could not help but smile when Akash did not object. He suddenly felt like a big burden has been removed from his chest.
Mr. Jha is ready to leave. He could feel that family is in need of a serious discussion after the changes made. So as an understanding person he bid his farewell to give everyone space to discuss. He said the few words he wanted to say pertaining to the changes to Grandpa and Grandma Patel and left the Patel Family house.