A shu was born and brought up in Switzerland under her uncles guidance.She lost her mom when she was just 3 years old and so her uncle had to take care of her .Mr Shridar,Ashu’s uncle was a very famous personality in UK.He was a very famous business man in Switzerland and a very well known writer.I still wonder how he used to get time to write stories despite of his busy schedule.He was of his own kind and he had two beautiful children Anand and Ravi ,both of them were twins.Mr.Shri was busy with his own work and seldom got time to meet his childrens.Ashu,although she was his sisters daughter,but he really had great affection towards her .He loved her like his own child.He always used to say “Ashu,you are like my own daughter and the first kid of the house”.Even his wife didnt opposed this statement,even she loved Ashu like her own daughter.Mr and Mrs Shri were childless and Ashu was like a blessing in disguise to them.They were Indians who settled in Switzerland over a decade ago.Ashu was a brilliant student and Anand and Ravi were like her best friends..she used to share all her secrets with them.
Although ,Mr and Mrs Shri treated Ashu like their own child,but Ashu never used to feel that .Ashu wanted to live with her parents .Her dad died few months after her mom died and this was the reason why Shridar decided to adopt and take care of Ashu.Sridhar was a Software engineer and owned a software company in Uk.Ashu should be proud of them,but she wasnt.She missed her mom and dad very much .Afterall Mr and Mrs Shridhar were not her own parents .She used to wonder why she didnt died after her parents.She was living a luxurious life in Basil,which no one would ever think of,thanks to Mr and Mrs Shridhar.Without them it wouldnt be possible.She was feeling alone.Her uncle was always busy with his own work and used to return home after 10 pm,and so she would hardly get time to speak to him.That very year she passed her 12th grade exams with merit scores and wanted to pursue a career in Engineering as she was deeply inspired by her uncle.She told his uncle about this ,at first they thought for a while as they never wanted her to be isolated or never wished to get separated from her.This was because she was a special gift to them,a gift which they got when they desperately needed .Finally they agreed to send her to degree school to study engineering in computer science..Ashu never had friends .no one to cherish and her life was a real mess and thats why she decided to go.Her brothers were the one whom she would miss a lot as she loved both of them.Even while going she promised both of them that she would return soon ,but who knows she meant it or it was just a statement made by her.She wished to see her home town in India.She came to study in Mumbai and she lived with her granny for a while.She took admission in a very famous college in Mumbai.She hated the luxurious life that she lived in Basil.She always wanted to get rid of such a kind of life. She entered Mumbai with a big smile on her face.Ashita’s(Ashu’s) main intention was to visit the place where her parents lived.She starved for love although she was loved by her Uncle and family.She liked the way people lived in Mumbai ,a very sweet and simple life …altogether this was a different experience for Ashu.Ashu now decided to explore her life and to live a life which is deprived of tensions ,furies and lonliness.She lived in a hostel and she had three roommates with her.At beginning Ashu was a stranger to every one ,no one used to talk to her as she looked more like a foreigner.When asked about her, Ashu used to tell every one that she was from a small town near Bangalore , as she thought that no one would talk to her if she revealed her real identity.Anu,Priya and suni were Ashu’s room mates in hostel.Ashu was totally different from them.Although she was born and brought in Switzerland,but was a simple Indian girl and was not fashionable at all.She seldom spoke to a boy nor she communicated with a stranger.She was a very good friend of mine.At beginning ,Ashu never realized that communication would be a barrier to her.She never knew hindi as they all were used to English when she lived in Basil.Even in college she used to talk in English and she was too fluent in english just as any outsider would.She wanted to learn Hindi and make friends.In our first introductory lecture in first year ,she introduced her as Ashita(Ashu) and every one stared at her for a while,as this girl was amazing.She pretended to be a girl from Bangalore and spoke as if she was living in New York.She started learning hindi and asked us to talk in hindi as she wanted to improve her Hindi.She started loving the way things were going around her.Her life was taking a big twist and it was like she was forgetting her family who loved her.Her 3 room mates were friendly to her as well.
At the same time this was a very different scenario in Basil,Sridhars business was facing a big threat due to some famous company and it was running in losses.This all started just as Ashu left them.Her presence was a big boom for them.His business was doing extremely well when Ashu was with them.But as she left them everything changed,they loved her very much…but did she realized that someone was thinking about her.Their condition were really disastrous and they had to take loan from banks to run their business,it saw all loses and no profits.As of now ,Mr.Shri started facing big health problems as well.Ashu was the only hope for him,as he considered her as the eldest child of the family.Once he even told that after him,Ashu would take care of the business, as his very own childrens were too young as they were just 6 years old when Ashu left them.But any way they really started missing her and wanted to meet her soon.But it was not possible at that instant as their business was suffering badly and absence of Sridhar would see more disastrous performance.
Now Ashu realized that life in Mumbai was not easy as that in Basil.Did she realised that she was badly needed in Basil, did she realize that their business was under threat of extinction?.No one knew what was she upto and she seldom thought about them ..that too only when she thought about her mother and father…at that time she used to think about her brothers Anand and Ravi as she promised them to return soon .Even they were eagerly waiting for their diiii,but who knew what was running in her mind.Moreover she had to concentrate on her exams as well…..she was busy waiting for her exams to begin.
The Fourth Seat
