Dhruv has never really known a comfortable life and always had punishment for small mistakes. Well, you could call it a brown household thing.
Being the eldest son of a respectable house, his family had expectations from him, really high. That the son will be more successful than the father.
His father was not a regular man, Elegance was embedded in him deeply, from how to walk in public to dining a etiquette, everything had to be perfect.
His father was a businessman and had acres and acres of land in the city, he was no other than Mukesh Roy, one of the richest men in the state of Maharashtra.
However happy their family appeared outside of their house was a big fat lie. His mother was only married to his father because of his money and had no interest in their family just wanted her wine and a loaded card.
His father also only married her for the purpose of having some heir and to continue the family line. It was an amazing deal between his mother's body and his father's money.
Dhruv had two younger siblings, a younger sister Alina, and even younger brother Mohan. They are the only close family he has after his grandmother, well actually had.
He would say she was the only sane adult in the house, a loving parent. She would tell him stories and make him laugh, as innocent as both of them were, his grandmother was not close to his siblings that way, they shared an invisible string.
That snapped when he was only ten, his grandmother died from a heart attack. He locked himself in his room and no one bothered to come to him.
His father had dragged him by his collar on the second day of the funeral, "A family should be properly presented" he had yelled.
---
Now he is 23, done with his college and higher studies. Well, it was practically all a show, everybody knew had to take up his father's business when he grew up.
He had been given knowledge by his father's advisor about what to expect or do.
His father mainly focuses on his business abroad, and his workers usually take care of it within the country, but now as Dhruv is of age, he wants his eldest son to take care of it.
He doesn't have to do much honestly, but go around the city, overlook the land and workers, and also scare some tenants to pay their pending rent.
So, he wakes up at 7, showers, gets ready, and wears a suit (an order from his father who is unfortunately in the city right now).
For the last four years, he has been mostly abroad for months, only coming to India for the festivals, this time he especially came to witness Dhruv's graduation and to start him up on the work.
He came down to have breakfast, his 'family' was already there. His brother in his high school uniform, his sister ready for college his mother silently eating and his father sitting on the head of the table.
Dhruv sat quietly and the servant started to pour food on his plate, his father cleared his throat and everybody looked at him but he looked straight at Dhruv.
"You will go with Arun, I have already informed him where you have to go and do the work properly", he said straight and sharp leaving no space for any argument.
"Yes Father"
He begrudgingly dug into the breakfast laid in front of him. They eat quietly, always have been, just the noises of forks and spoons clattering on the plates filling the silence.
Dhruv is quite happy that Arun will be there with him, Arun is the same age as him.
Actually, he is the son of their family driver, they properly met when they were 10 or 11.
Mr. Manoj Sharma their family driver used to bring their 10 year old son on the job with him because the mother who used to look out for his son died due to critical illness.
It became a daily routine the father would drop him of outside the front gate in the garden and warn him not to go inside the house. Dhruv's father allowed that, Manoj uncle would come during lunch and dinner time and find a spot in their yards sit there and have food.
Sometimes Dhruv's mother used to give them leftovers and both the father and son would cherish it.
Dhruv would watch him, after coming from school or doing homework or while chasing Mohan around the house while playing.Â
Manoj uncle was a thin, loopy but a kind looking man, he used to buy some 5-10 rupee biscuits or chocolate for his son, after coming home from work but the boy wouldn't eat unless his father had a bite and they both happily went home. They had something Dhruv longed for he couldn't figure it out but he was jealous of this thin tanned boy.
Arun in the daytime, when his father was not around, used to kick rocks, play with sticks or pull grass out of boredom, after all, there was no school for him.
Seeing this, Dhruv's father did his admission to a local government school. Taking the responsibility of fees upon himself.
Manoj uncle was in tears of happiness by then, soon after, Arun would be hanging around their garden in a uniform.
Which, eventually led to their friendship, one day Dhruv was having a packet of chips and wandering around the house, ending up in the garden.
"Don't pull the grass, you will ruin the garden", Dhruv said, the boy backed up in a blink of an eye.
"Oh sorry" The boy's big brown eyes traveled around him and landed on the packet in his hand.
"You want some?", Dhruv asked
"No, Father said not to ask for anything" He looked down.
"I'm not asking, I'm offering"
"still…"
"Just take one, if you want" he said bluntly. The boy stayed quite.
Dhruv took out a chip from the packet and extended it towards the boy.
"Eat it, it's an order"
The boy slowly took the chip and was about to eat it when Alina's voice echoed around the house.
"Who took my chips?"
Dhruv jumped at the sound , grabbed Arun's hand and dragged him till the back of his house.
"shh" he said keeping his index finger on his lips and crouching down so no one could see them.
"Hey! It's your sister's! why are you stealing them" Arun low whispered.
"You also took one, now you are red-handed and also my partner in crime," he said and smiled "Wanna share" he offered again.
"I'm already a criminal now, so okay," he said and both of them lowly laughed while Alina accused Mohan of eating her chips.
From that day onward Dhruv had decided that Arun was his best friend. He had other friends, of course, all the rich kids his dad said to befriend in school, but none of them were as Arun.
Arun was surprisingly good at academics, really good, so since high school, his education was continued by the sake of scholarship. But this didn't make him have an easier life because his father was still a driver.
Soon after Arun graduated from high school, Manoj uncle feel sick in bed.
Dhruv's father was generous enough to let Arun continue a job in their house. So, as Arun studies to become a software engineer, he also runs errands for Dhruv's family.
Dhruv's father trusts Arun in a distant way, maybe because he has lived up to his expectations by achieving higher grades.
He actually trusts Arun more than Dhruv that's why he had enclosed his plans for today to Arun instead of Dhruv.
but it's ok because Arun doesn't judge him in any way, he is his mate. So that's how 15 minutes later he was in the passenger's seat talking to Arun who was driving.
Arun has grown up to be a fairly handsome dude. He has light brown eyes which gives him a rare look and jet black hair but no beard, he wasn't that lucky. He himself has grown to be good-looking, he has always gotten compliments on his looks at meetings and gatherings from his father's colleagues.
"Well, as it is your first day, he doesn't want you to overdo anything, you just have to 'talk' to tenants who haven't paid their rent. "
"sounds tiring," Dhruv said, tilting his head. While resting it on the seat.
"Here" Arun handed him a file, "here's all the information about the tenants, today we'll just go to three houses, one is a family man, he works in some post card office, he has a wife and two small children," Arun said, as Dhruv scanned the family picture of a fairly old man with his wife and kids.
"Second is a college student, he just lives in a '1 room, kitchen and bathroom' dorm, he is from a village and came here to study, he is just 2 years younger than us." Dhruv studied the photo of the person, his name was written 'Aman Chavan'. Interesting, Dhruv would have someone to toy with, when he's bored.
"And lastly, there's a divorced woman who works in a bank. All three of them live in the same building so we won't have to travel much."
Dhruv sighed, bored, "let's see"