Chapter 13: Gauri

The Randhawa escalation came at: seven months.

Seven months pregnant. The belly: visible, the body: changed, the specific transformation of a woman carrying: a person inside her person. I was at the foundation office — still working, still: running, because pregnancy was not: disability and the girls in Barmer did not stop needing: schools because their benefactor was: gestating.

The escalation was: SEBI. The Securities and Exchange Board of India — the regulator, the: authority, the institution that governed India's stock markets with the: specific combination of bureaucratic power and: institutional slowness that made it both: feared and: frustrating.

Randhawa had filed: a complaint. Alleging insider trading. The allegation: that the Malhotra-Khanna merger had been: arranged — the word: arranged, deployed with: precision — to exploit inside information about Khanna Capital's portfolio positions. That Abeer had: known about HK's investment strategy before the merger was: announced. That the marriage was: not just a business arrangement but: a vehicle for securities fraud.

The allegation was: false. Completely: false. Abeer had not known about HK's portfolio positions. The CSR donation had been: genuine. The marriage had been: real. But false allegations at SEBI were: dangerous, because SEBI investigated: everything, because the investigation took: months, because the investigation froze: assets and damaged: reputations and created: the specific legal uncertainty that shareholders: hated.

"He's using: SEBI," Abeer said. At home. In the drawing room. The drawing room where every: crisis was discussed, the room that had become: the war room. "Randhawa knows the allegation is: false. He doesn't need it to be: true. He needs it to be: pending."

"Pending destroys: confidence," HK said. HK was: present because HK was always: present when Randhawa: attacked. "The share price drops. LIC gets: nervous. The blocking stake becomes: relevant again."

"Can we: disprove it?" Papa ji asked.

"We can disprove it in: a hearing. In: six months. After SEBI: schedules the hearing. In the: meantime, the allegation is: public."

"So we fight: on two fronts," I said. "Legal: and public."

"Public: how?" Abeer asked.

"The: same way as before. The foundation. The annual: gala. We don't: respond to allegations. We: demonstrate."

"Demonstrate: what?"

"That this family — this merged entity — produces: value. Not: fraud. Not: insider trading. Value. Schools. Water. Employment. The things that: matter."

"Gauri, SEBI doesn't care about: schools."

"SEBI cares about: evidence. And the evidence is: on our side. But the: public cares about: stories. And the story of a family that builds: schools in Rajasthan is: better than the story of a family that: commits fraud. We: control the narrative. While the lawyers handle: SEBI."

*

The gala was: mine.

Not Ritu the wedding planner — not the: production machine. This was: the Khanna Foundation annual gala. My: event. My: mission. At the Taj Palace, Delhi — the ballroom that had hosted: everything from state dinners to film premieres and that tonight would host: three hundred people who were here not to: perform generosity but to: see it.

I was: seven months pregnant. In a: lehenga that had been: specially designed — Sabyasachi, because Delhi events required: Sabyasachi the way Delhi weddings required: baraat — the fabric: emerald green, the work: Lucknowi chikankari, the: belly accommodated with the specific engineering of a designer who understood that: pregnant women did not want to be: hidden, they wanted to be: magnificent.

The gala was: structured. Phase one: the video. Shot in Barmer. By the NDTV crew who had come: back. The footage: girls in school uniforms, singing the national anthem. Borewells pumping: water. Women carrying: brass pots that were: full, not empty. The: before and after. The before: dusty, dry, the girls: absent. The after: green, wet, the girls: present.

The video played on: a screen the size of a: wall. Three hundred people: watched. In: silence. The silence of people who were: seeing something real in a room that usually: traded in performance.

Phase two: the speech. Mine. From: the stage. Seven months pregnant. In: emerald green. With the: screen behind me showing a girl in Barmer holding: a glass of water.

"This glass," I said. "Cost eight: crore. Eight crore rupees. The cost of twelve: borewells. The cost of: one merger. The cost of two families deciding that: water mattered more than: reputation."

"This glass is: the answer. Not to SEBI. Not to: allegations. Not to: gossip. This glass is the answer to the: question that matters: what did you: build?"

"We built: wells. We built: schools. We built: a company that gives: back. And we will: continue."

The: applause. Not the polite applause of a: gala. The: real applause. The sound that a room made when it: believed, when it was: convinced, when three hundred people who had: entered as audience became: participants.

Abeer was in: the third row. Where he always: sat. The seat that was: his now, the way the third row at the Odeon Theatre had been: Surbhi's grandfather's. He was: not applauding. He was: watching. The Calculator: watching his wife on a stage, seven months pregnant, dismantling: a corporate raid with: a glass of water.

And the expression on his face was: not calculation. It was: awe.