The Caged Bird – Chapter 2

The sun had set down to its last; the sky was now turning dark. Sayi was just staring out of the window, nothing much changed in the last 6 years, except that the city was a bit more crowded than earlier.

“How long will it take for the traffic to clear? It’s been over 20 minutes already” she asked the driver.

“I can’t say anything madam, the traffic here is unpredictable”

For some reason, she wanted to reach home as soon as possible, if not for her dad, but, for his mother and her caretaker ‘Usha tai’. Her parents were busy handling and expanding the business, it was rare to see them home, but Usha tai was one person, who never left her side, no matter what. A serene smile appeared on her face, reminiscing the moments they spent.

After struggling with the Mumbai traffic for over an hour, she finally reached the Joshi Mansion, which was decorated like a queen to welcome the ‘Young Master’. The huge door opened and she stepped inside the manor, her Usha tai welcomed her by doing her aarti and warding off the bad sight..

“You have grown thin baara”

“Of course! Because my pyaari tai wasn’t there to feed me with her hands.” Sayi said pulling her cheeks

“Today I’ll feed my princess with my own hands” came a voice from behind

“Aaaaayiiiiii” Sayi screamed and rushed towards her mother to give her a tight hug.

“Do you have any idea about how much I missed you?” Sayi said pouting

“I know, and I missed you too, now go, freshen up and come down for dinner, I’ve asked to prepare all your favorite dishes today”

“Okay, I’ll just go and come.” (Okay, main abhi gayi aur abhi aayi)

“Everyone here are useless,(They all looked in the direction of the voice to find Sayi’s dad standing on the staircase, he didn’t seem to bother to come down, but the expressions on his face said he was extremely angry over something) I asked the servant to inform of your arrival, but don’t know where did he go. Never mind, I need to talk to you about something, come to my study.” He said in a cold tone.

“She just came, let her eat at least” her mother said in a concerned tone.

“Food can wait. I need to see her urgently” saying this, he went back

Sayi signed her mother who was about to speak and rushed towards his study.

“Mr. Matthews just sent me your final year reports and other documents. I guess you already met your PA and he might have told you why you have been called back.”

“I know and I reject”

“Reject what?”

“Reject everything, your name, your money, your position, your business, everything”

“Do you have any idea that whatever you are and whatever your place in society is all because you are my daughter?? Without that Joshi in your name, you are nothing!”

“I’m nothing anyways, with or without your name”

“You are the heiress to the biggest empire of this country”

“And I regret being that”

“People envy your lifestyle”

“Because they don’t live my life”

“What exactly do you lack?”

“Everything…I lack freedom to roam around, freedom to chose my career, freedom to make friends, have fun at malls, eat vada pav at stalls, watch the setting sun on Juhu.”

“These things mean nothing in front of money and power.”

“But these things are enough to give you happiness, which means more than money and power”

“You are taking up the business in 10 days; I want you to report to me at 8:30 am sharp everyday till then”

“What if I don’t?”

“Then the consequences won’t be good”

“I want to continue my course”

“You won’t get anything from becoming a mere pilot”

“IT IS MY DREAM”

“Then leave it behind. Your only dream should be the betterment of Joshi Empire”

“I don’t care about anything!! You can’t threaten me for life”

“You know I can do worse”

“Then do what you can, I really wanna see the worst side of you, I wanna see how low you can fall”

“Sayi I’m your dad”

“And I’m just your helplessness Mr.Joshi”

“You can’t talk to me like that”

“Oh! I can’t?? But I just did. You failed as a father Mr. Joshi!! You failed to make our family a normal family. It won’t be long when you’ll finally realize that in the greed for money and power what all have you lost as a father and as a person, that day you’ll only regret and won’t be able to do anything!” Saying this, she rushed out of the room, slamming the door to his face.

Kamal is standing in the same position he was, anger evident on his face now. He sat on the nearby chair, took out his phone and calling someone said “Tomorrow morning 10 am.”

******************************************
Since telly updates takes hours to upload after submitting the post, I decided to post on wattpad too. You may now find this fanfic on wattpad under the same title.
I’ll try my best to upload on a daily basis.
Thank you for your support so far.