Now that Dev had come back home, he spent a few days relaxing. But Bali was furious. He could not introduce his son to his friends and people of the business class.
He told Dev to hurry and start a business venture. For that he gave Dev, a week's time, to make a proper project and he would see to it.
Dev gave a good report on pharmaceutical industry and his father gave him half a million to start the venture. He took medicines produced in bulk from third party manufacturers and did his own packaging. Dev kept a marketing team, under him and started his PD company. PD as in promotion and distribution of drugs. After a year of strenuous business work, office collaborations and dealing with the venture, when revenue started pouring in, his classmate Raja, from college came to him, in the lookout for a job. Dev being too friendly with friends, took him under his wing. After a few months, when Raja got settled well, he gave a Jack Daniels to Dev, as thanks giving and gratitude. Dev had sobered up in the past year. But when his weakness came in front of him, his craving for alcohol, made him fall. His downfall started.
He used to come regularly to office but to drink . Bottles of beer, whiskey, rum, vodka could be seen strewn on the floor. Raja used to give him drinks and would look after the business. In this way, Raja became stronger and since Dev used to rely on Raja, he gave a deaf ear to his secretary, Adhi.
Raja understood what power felt like. Soon he started to steal money from the accounts section by doing some illegal juggling in the log book.
Since Raja was in the good books of Dev, the accounts section tried in many ways of warning Dev, without coming into the limelight. But to no avail. Adhi also failed miserably and took the last resort. He went to Bali and spilled the beans.
On a sunny morning of April, out of the blue, Raja got cornered by Bali. Checkmate. From company budget, to money he false claimed, to his bank account details all were shown to him, his gain in material asset, every little detail was shown. It was like taking out the skin alive from a person. Raja was screwed. He turned to Dev for help. But Dev was shocked himself. He could not believe his ears and felt too embarrassed in front of his Dad. Raja left, but by then the damage that was done was difficult to overcome. Dev was mentally broke, too much into alcohol, that even if he did not take a sip of alcohol, his body would shake.
Bali, was at a loss. He wanted to recover the business loss of his son plus wanted to tie Dev into family chain. He was twenty eight, the right age to be married. So Bali took another step, a corrective measurement for his son. An arranged marriage, where in he could pull the strings as the head of the family. So in a leading regional newspaper came an advertisement of matrimony.