Chapter 14: Abeer

The SEBI hearing was scheduled for: January fifteenth. The baby was due: January twentieth. The universe, apparently, believed in: dramatic timing.

I prepared for: both. The SEBI preparation was: legal. Our legal team — led by Advocate Sharma, the senior counsel who had argued: forty-seven SEBI cases and who spoke to regulators with the specific authority of a man who had been: right forty-six times — Advocate Sharma assembled: the evidence. Email records showing the CSR timeline preceded the merger discussion. Board minutes demonstrating that Khanna Capital's portfolio positions had not been: shared with Malhotra Industries. The testimony of Priya, my assistant, who could prove that the first meeting with Gauri had been: about a donation, not: a deal.

The baby preparation was: different. The baby preparation involved: a nursery. The second-floor room that faced the garden — my: room, the room where I had slept as an: infant, the room that Maa had: painted yellow because she believed yellow was: the colour of possibility.

Gauri repainted it: green. The green of the: Rajasthan schools. The green of the Barmer: fields after the borewells brought: water. The green that meant: growth.

"You're painting: over my mother's yellow," I said.

"I'm adding: a layer. The yellow is: underneath. Foundation first. Growth: on top."

"That's: a metaphor."

"That's: paint. But: also a metaphor."

The nursery had: a crib. Bought from a: carpenter in Shahpur Jat — not the designer furniture shops of South Delhi, but a: woodworker, a craftsman named Iqbal who made cribs by hand from sheesham wood and who had been: recommended by Bimla aunty, whose network of artisans and suppliers constituted: a parallel economy. The crib was: beautiful. Hand-carved. The headboard had: a peacock, because Iqbal believed that peacocks: protected children, and who was: I to argue with a man whose hands could make: wood into birds.

"The peacock," Gauri said. "It's: beautiful."

"It's: protection."

"According to: Iqbal."

"According to: tradition. Which Iqbal: represents."

"The Calculator believes in: tradition?"

"The Calculator believes in: everything that makes his wife: happy."

*

The SEBI hearing happened: first. January fifteenth. The baby: waited.

The hearing was at SEBI's office in the Bandra Kurla Complex — Mumbai, not Delhi, because SEBI operated from: Mumbai with the: specific institutional logic that the country's financial regulator should be: where the money was, not where the: power was, though the distinction was: increasingly academic.

I flew to Mumbai with: Advocate Sharma. Gauri stayed in: Delhi. Eight months pregnant. In the green nursery. With Amma — Gauri had started calling my father's sister Bua ji "Amma" because Gauri needed: a mother figure and Bua ji from Chandigarh had: volunteered with the: enthusiasm of a woman who had been waiting for: someone to mother.

The hearing room was: small. Government-small. The SEBI adjudicating officer — a woman named Dr. Meera Iyer, IAS, who had been appointed six months ago and who was known for: thoroughness — sat behind a desk that was: too large for the room, the way government desks in India were: always too large, the: furniture of authority compensating for the: architecture of austerity.

Randhawa was: there. Not personally — through his lawyer. Advocate Reddy, a man whose reputation in securities law was: surgical and whose fees were: proportional to the damage he: inflicted.

The hearing lasted: four hours. The evidence was: presented. The email records. The board minutes. Priya's: testimony via video link. The timeline that showed: the CSR discussion in March, the merger discussion in: June, the gap of three months that proved: the marriage and the merger were: sequential, not: simultaneous.

Advocate Reddy: attacked. The attack was: predictable — the arranged nature of the marriage, the fathers' involvement, the "coincidence" of two business families merging after their children: married. The attack was: effective because it was: true. The families had: planned. The merger had been: considered. The marriage had been: part of the calculation.

But the: insider trading? The: securities fraud? The: specific allegation that share prices had been: manipulated through inside information? That was: false. And the evidence: proved it.

Dr. Meera Iyer: ruled. Three weeks later. The ruling was: twenty-seven pages. The conclusion: on page twenty-six.

"The allegation of insider trading is not substantiated by evidence. The timeline clearly demonstrates that the CSR partnership preceded the merger discussions. While the arranged marriage between the principals of both families may have facilitated the subsequent business combination, facilitation is not fraud. The complaint is dismissed."

Facilitation is not: fraud. The sentence that separated: what we had done from: what we had been accused of. The sentence that said: yes, the marriage and the merger were: connected. Yes, the families had: planned. But planning was: not crime. Arrangement was: not fraud. And the: thing that had started on a terrace with: glitter and champagne was: real.

I called: Gauri. From the SEBI parking lot. In: Mumbai. In: January. The phone: rang twice.

"Dismissed," I said.

"I: know."

"How do you: know? The ruling was posted: ten minutes ago."

"Mohini works at: Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs knows: everything ten minutes before everyone: else."

"Legally: questionable."

"Familially: efficient."

"Come: home."

"I'm: coming. The flight is at: four."

"Come: home. The baby is: coming."

"The baby is due: January twentieth. It's: the fifteenth."

"The baby doesn't: read calendars, Abeer. Come: home."