Death In the Deccan by Aditya Sinha

Author:Aditya Sinha
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: null
Publisher: HarperCollins India
Published: 2023-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

It was a Thursday evening when Indira arrived with Babloo Jubilee at her in-laws’ house.

‘Hi, Amma,’ Indira said, stepping into the sprawling living room where Magnolia and Sankatram sat with Rompy, Sulochana and Sanjana. There were two sofa sets, one in each half of the room—the men were on one set, the women were on the other. Husbands and wives sat with their backs to each other.

An attendant appeared and asked the new arrivals in Telugu: ‘Sir, ma’am, the usual?’

Babloo Jubilee sat in a single-seater adjacent to his uncle. Indira sat in a single-seater adjacent to her mother-in-law, across from Sanjana. The couple were not in each other’s line of sight.

‘I told Agarwal that he should just take over his father’s jewellery showroom this instant, corona or no corona,’ Sankatram was telling Rompy. ‘The fellow says he’s in mourning. I went like hello! There’s no time for mourning.’

‘Why doesn’t Agarwal Uncle give us more ads?’ Babloo Jubilee asked.

‘Bobo, let’s stick to the big players for the big ads,’ Sankatram said. ‘Anyway, I thought you’d be at office this morning.’

‘Anna, I heard that the union is demanding we pay any corona-related hospital bills,’ Rompy butted in.

On the other sofa, meanwhile, Magnolia said,

‘I always buy so much from Agarwal, but his people don’t how to make the traditional gold sets.’

‘Like bridal designs?’ Sulochana asked. ‘For whom?’

‘Like kasulaperu,’ Magnolia said. ‘It might be a bride’s gift, but in the tabloid we’ve carried photos of even actresses wearing them.’

‘The one with the row of hanging Lakshmis?’ Sanjana asked.

‘Hanging Lakshmi coins,’ Indira said.

‘I personally prefer the designer kasulapera,’ Magnolia said.

‘I like the ones with stones,’ Sulochana said. ‘Especially precious stones.’

‘Why not a triple-layer kasulapera?’ Indira asked.

Back on the men’s sofa, Sankatram said, ‘I was telling your uncle about the Chinese vaccine proposal, Bobo.’

‘This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make some serious money,’ Rompy said. ‘This is the chance we’ve been waiting for. We’ll be the wealthiest Reddys on either side of the Godavari.’

‘I was wondering, we need not price it under Moderna or Pfizer, or even that Pune lab. We could just scale up while the government is still importing. It will take them a while; the Western countries are buying billions of doses. That leaves us with the Chinese vaccine that we can sell on a mass scale, earning crores,’ Sankatram said.

‘How will we purchase it?’ Babloo Jubilee asked.

‘That’s where our partner comes in,’ Sankatram said. ‘We’ll use the Mauritius funds to get letters of credit at the Export-Import Bank (EXIM) of China. Our partner will be the front. Then we use Waiting for Godown as the chief distributing agency.’

‘Fantastic solution for washing our money and bringing it in,’ Rompy said. ‘That way, we can also keep DT by buying off Shrek Fund and clearing the paper of liabilities.’

Babloo Jubilee looked doubtful. ‘I don’t know. You have to be clearer about how you intend to move the money from Mauritius to EXIM.’

‘Bobo dear, you worry too much,’ Sankatram said. He stood up and clapped his hands twice, announcing: ‘Time for dinner.

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