Next Day

It's the only thing that irritates me to the core when uncle and aunt visit our place.

"Very good, beta," my aunt said with her fake made-up accent. "Come sit with us to eat."

"No, thanks. Have a good meal. I have to do some assignments."

Maa is awake since five in the morning, grinding in the kitchen to make pithas (sweet dishes) for aunt as she 'craved' to eat some today. And Maa, being always a people pleaser, made literally four types of pithas in such bulk, that I think we can feed them to the whole Sambalpur.

I'd previously bought my breakfast to my room so that I can at least eat in peace, without pretending like nothing has happened yesterday.

Even before sleeping in the night, the scene kept playing itself multiple times in my head, forcing me to find out about the 'her' they were talking about.

I didn't tell Maa about that moment, yet. It will only stress her out.

But I'll have to find what's actually going on behind this sweet and innocent facade of theirs.

I was arranging my bed neatly and placing the pillows right in front of the window for a good view while enjoying my breakfast, while my phone pinged.

It must be Lavanya. I thought.

Well, major update. She's planning to approach Karthik.

It was such a shock for me and Taarini. Today about six in the morning, she sent a voice message in our group chat, saying that she wants to confess to Karthik and asked us what we think about this.

I suggested her to go for it only if she really feels that spark with him. And they know each other since six years so the phase of 'getting to know each other' won't be needed.

But Taarini warned her to check beforehand if Karthik is single and not interested in anyone because she noticed once in the class that he was being teased by his friends with the name of a girl in the same class.

I placed the plate carefully on the bed and sat comfortably, internally praying not to hear a voice message of her cursing him for messing anything up.

Firstly, a notification of my mails caught my attention. I usually don't use mails and neither receive any, except social media updates.

I scrolled past all those update mails and stopped at one.

Abhijeet Naik.

I opened the mail quickly, having a bite from the freshly prepared dosa on my plate.

"Ipsita Mahapatra," It read.

Does this person know me?

Haha. Obviously, it's written on my mail ID.

"I, Abhijeet Naik, am the CEO of Alnova Technologies Pvt. Ltd. based on Bangalore. You might not be knowing me, but I know you, especially, Padmanabha Mahapatra, your paternal uncle and his wife, Rashmita Mahapatra.

After fourteen days, I'll be coming to Bhubaneshwar for a meeting with my team. I would like to meet you during those days whenever you're comfortable. It's a request, Ms. Mahapatra, to meet me in-person.

Alpana... is alive."

The phone dropped from my hands. I felt a chill creeping down my spine and my cheeks and the whole head felt it.

I stared blankly at the wall in front of me.

Alpana didi...

She died, unfortunately, due to an illness when I'd just passed kindergarten...

Though I was not present during the last rites, but Maa and Papa had went to Cuttack right away when they heard that she...

And this person, who claims to be a CEO of a tech company in Bangalore, knows me and my uncle and aunt and is saying that Alpana is alive?

I quickly unlocked my phone and went through the mail again. Right then, I noticed a phone number at the bottom of the mail.

I copied the phone number and dialled it. Replying to this mail would take this person another day to reply, so it's best to simply call this person and get answers of my questions.

Alpana didi had died long ago. How the hell can she be alive?

But the other side of my mind reminded me of the incident when uncle and aunt said - We need to find her before anyone else does.

Was it Alpana didi? The 'her' in the sentence?

I've this strong gut feeling that if she's alive, then yes, that 'her' is definitely Alpana didi.

"Hello?" A soft calm feminine voice spoke.

"Hello? Can I speak to Mr. Abhijeet Naik, please?"

"Sure, ma'am," she said. "At what time is your appointment?"

I frowned. But this was urgent. I needed my answers. Right now.

"Can you please tell him that I, Ipsita Mahapatra from Sambalpur in Odisha, had received a mail just now from him? I want to talk regarding that."

"Sorry, ma'am. We are not allowed to - "

"Ma'am, please. It's very urgent. Please. At least let him know about my name, he'll surely recognize me."

The lady seemed to get convinced and she sighed.

"Okay, ma'am," she spoke. "I'll give this information to him."

"Thank you very much," I thanked her and breathed finally.

This matter looks much deeper than I could think of. And hence, the creator of all these confusions, Abhijeet Naik, has to explain me everything.

Wait. He said he's a CEO of a tech company, right? Then, he must be on Google or LinkedIn.

I quickly opened Google on my phone and searched for his name.

It didn't even take three seconds for the exact results to appear.

Abhijeet Naik:
Indian Entrepreneur and Business Executive

Born: 17 July, 1998 (Age 26)

Birthplace: Sambalpur, Odisha, India

Occupation: Entrepreneur, Business Executive

Title: Founder & Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Alnova Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

Years Active: 2021 - Present

Education: Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech)

Known For: Founding one of India's fastest-growing AI and Cloud Infrastructure companies at the age of 22.

About the Founder:
Abhijeet Naik is among the youngest CEOs in India to lead a company valued at over ₹5000 Crores.

Born in Sambalpur, Odisha, Naik moved to Bengaluru for higher studies. He founded Alnova Technologies while still in college after developing an AI-powered business analytics software.

He is known for maintaining a private personal life and rarely appears in media interviews.

As of 2026, he remains unmarried.

I blinked twice.

"Twenty-six!?" I whispered to myself.

A CEO? Of a company worth thousands of crores?

He really seems to be some famous guy.

I scrolled down more. Only to end up with more shocking details about this person.

He was active on social media too, posting about his recent trips, achievements and speech and interviews short videos.

The images section showed him standing in front of a glass building bearing the giant silver logo - ALNOVA.

In one picture, he was receiving an award. In another, giving a speech.

He really looked one of those men whom reader girls called 'fictional'.

But that was not the only fact that shocked me.

Why would such a successful businessman mail me for Alpana didi? How did he even know about her existence? What relations did they share in the past?

And most importantly, how the hell on Earth is it possible that Alpana didi is alive!? I'd myself witnessed her funeral ten years ago.

Abhijeet stood alone before the floor-to-ceiling window of his office.

The city lights reflected faintly against the glass.

In his hands, he had old photograph. Almost worn-out from it's edges. But the girl smiling at the camera still looked as alive as ever.

Seventeen-year-old Alpana, whose long silky hair were open, half of which seemed to rest on her face.

He traced the edge of the photograph carefully and... painfully recalling in his mind the photos he'd been receiving every week from his man, Nishedh.

He unlocked his phone with little shaking hands. Those photos were all unacceptable to him, even after many weeks.

A woman. With those eyes that Abhijeet had always admired. Wearing a black abaya and a hijab.

She was seen in the same market, every Tuesday. Around the same shops and stalls in the market.

Abhijeet swiped those photos with trembling fingers.

She stood near a vegetable stall. One hand held a cloth bag. The other absentmindedly adjusted her veil.

Her posture looked tired in every frame. Emotionally tired. Her facial expressions always said it all.

She spoke to none, except a few ladies and the shopkeepers.

Abhijeet locked his phone and threw it on the nearby couch, exhaling a sharp breath.

And then, his eyes found their way toward the old photograph that he was holding since long.

"What have you become, Alpana?" he asked to himself.

His voice was almost broke and it trembled badly. His eyes, however, did not contain any tears, but were moist.

"Sir!"

Abhijeet didn't turn around. He already knew who it was.

His most trusted field agent.

Nishedh.

"Any updates?" Abhijeet asked.

"We're trying, sir," he answered, lowering his head.

"She looks... lifeless."

Nishedh looked up at Abhijeet. Though Nishedh was Abhijeet's junior, the bond they shared since last few years was nothing less than a brother-brother bond.

"Sir, pull yourself together," he said, walking up to Abhijeet.

Abhijeet was on his knees on the floor, still holding the old photograph firmly.

"What was our mistake, huh?" he complained, tears flowed freely from his eyes. "She was the sweetest soul I knew. Our mistake was... to love each other? Unconditionally? Or was it the unacceptance of her parents to our relationship, just because we didn't belong to the same caste?"

Nishedh sobbed too. He'd knew everything about Abhijeet and Alpana's story in their college days. Witnessing a lovely couple get harshly separated and tortured by the girl's parents because Abhijeet belonged to a lower caste clenched his heart in pain.

"She was literally sold to an old-aged man when her parents realized she won't leave me at any cost," Abhijeet cried badly by now. "And what did her parents answer to the world? That she died! Due to a random illness!"

"They don't deserve to be called parents," Nishedh spat out in anger.

"I can bet on my whole life. The old man, too, must have sold her there in Kerala! Or else, at least, she might have not ended up converting herself to Islam."

"Did Ms. Ipsita Mahapatra reply to you? She's the only way to reach to Alpana's so-called parents," Nishedh suggested.

"Yes, I'd sent her a mail and she called the reception to talk to me. I'll talk to her tomorrow in the morning."

Nishedh quietly bent down and sat beside him on the floor.

Abhijeet wiped his face roughly and looked at the old photograph again.

"You know what hurts the most?"

Nishedh remained silent, though he looked at Abhijeet painfully.

"Everyone moved on," His voice cracked. "Her parents declared her dead. The college forgot her. But I... still remember how we used to walk back home from college, holding our hands together like little kids."

Nishedh lowered his gaze.

"I still remember how she used to get excited when I took her out, bunking classes, to eat gupchup on our favourite stall."

His smile broke midway.

"And now..."

He picked up his phone again.

Those photographs that Nishedh captured.

"Look at her, Nishedh."

His voice was barely a whisper.

"She doesn't even smile anymore. She has absolutely blank expressions."

Nishedh looked at the photograph too. And for the hundredth time, he silently cursed the people who had ruined two innocent lives.

A tear slipped down Abhijeet's cheek.

In ten years, he built a company, earned thousands of crores, made his parents feel proud of him, appeared on magazine covers and so much more.

Yet... every achievement felt incomplete.

Because the girl he wanted to show everything to, wasn't there.

Or perhaps, in other way, she was.

Somewhere in Kerala. Walking through busy markets and buying vegetables.

Next Day

"Hello. Am I speaking to Mr. Abhijeet Naik?"

"Yes. Ms. Ipsita Mahapatra?"

"Mr. Naik, I hope you realize I have so many questions to ask."

"Yes, Ms. Mahapatra. I do. Please go ahead."

Abhijeet answered Ipsita's call this morning around ten. The receptionist that responded to Ipsita yesterday informed Abhijeet about Ipsita and sent Ipsita his personal contact number.

"How do you know my elder cousin Alpana?" She asked her first question.

"I was her boyfriend during the college days. We'd dated for about five months," he answered.

Ipsita expected anything but boyfriend. She already a had a hint of this, but denied anyways, thinking that this kind of relationship cannot exist in this generation.

"You two dated?" she asked again.

"Yes."

"And you still remember her after ten years?"

There was silence.

Abhijeet, on the other side, closed his eyes for a second and responded.

"Ms. Mahapatra, some people live with you for years and have such an impact on you that they become the reason you never love anyone else."

Ipsita went completely silent. Her fingers subconsciously tightened around her bedsheet.

"And you said on the mail, that she is... alive."

"Yes, she definitely is. And I know, ten years back, she was believed to die due to an illness, which was a lie, fed very well, without any doubt, to the world."

"A lie?" she repeated quietly. "Will you explain me everything, please?"

Abhijeet sat comfortably on his chair and looked at the plants kept on the door.

"Alpana and I met in our college, DAV Junior College. It was love at first sight for both of us. I proposed her one fine day, she accepted and we began with our relationship," he began to narrate. "Until her parents and the so-called society decided to ruin everything."

"My uncle and aunt?" Ipsita asked.

"Yes. Padmanabha Mahapatra and Rashmita Mahapatra."

"What did they do?"

"We were on a call, Alpana and I. Suddenly, her mother barged into her room and slapped her badly. When she asked her mother for her action, her mother looked at her phone and threw it away on the floor. She said Alpana how one of the parents of her friends noticed that Alpana used to spend time with me in the college."

"I can understand. They seem very strict," Ipsita said, lowering her tone.

"They were strict. Undeniably. But the reason her mother slapped her was that I belonged to a lower caste. And she couldn't bear to see her daughter dating such a person."

Ipsita's smile faded.

"I was a Naik. And she was a Mahapatra."

He continued, "After that day, they gave her multiple warnings to stay away from me. Still, we kept meeting and talking in private and acted as if we don't know each other in public. Suprisingly, it worked for two months. But after that..."

"Her parents found out again?" Ipsita guessed, her hands were already trembling, unable to handle so much from the past.

"Yes. This time, her father did. And after this, whatever happened, I've no idea of it. I just know that after her father found out about us, right three weeks later, her parents announced that she had died due to an illness."

Ipsita slowly sat upright.

"I was moved hearing the news. The next three months were hell for me. I had neither the power nor the right to ask questions from her father about her death."

Ipsita swallowed hard. She felt as if the past is repeating itself in front of her, right now.

She suddenly remembered how no one in her family would ever speak of Alpana. How her uncle and aunt hated it when someone else would ask them and talk about their daughter.

"Mr. Naik..." Ipsita said slowly.

"Abhijeet."

She paused. "What?"

"You can call me Abhijeet."

"No way," Ipsita shook her head immediately.

"Why?"

"You are older than me. You are a CEO."

Abhijeet laughed. A real one.

"Sometimes, I myself forget that I am a CEO. Never mind, thanks for the reminder."

"Uhh, no, no. I didn't mean it that way-"

"But I'd already taken it that way," he interrupted quickly.

"I-I am r-really sorry, Mr. Naik," she pleaded truly.

"Relax, Ms. Mahapatra. You're talking exactly like Alpana."

Ipsita froze. "Really?"

"Yes."

For some strange reason, that sentence made Ipsita smile. She adjusted herself comfortably against the pillow.

"Oh, by the way," Ipsita spoke, trying to remember something. "You said recently you found Alpana didi?"

The atmosphere shifted instantly.

"Yes."

"Where?" she asked almost quickly, holding her hand close to her heart.

"Well," Abhijeet took a pause. "That shall be the conversation when we'll meet."

"No!" Ipsita screamed.

"Exactly like Alpana," Abhijeet whispered to himself. "Please, Ms. Mahapatra. We'll fall short of topics to talk about when we meet."

"Call me Ips. And when will you meet me?" she asked, pouting her lips.

"Around after ten days. I'll contact you once I land at Bhubaneshwar."

"But..." Ipsita bit her lip. "What if my uncle and aunt find out?"

"They won't," Abhijeet replied calmly.

"And even if they do..." He paused. "I've spent ten years looking for Alpana. One more obstacle won't stop me."

Ipsita fell silent.

"But Bhai-"

She instantly covered her mouth. What did I just say?! - she thought.

She just called the country's one of the youngest CEOs 'Bhai'!?

On the other side of the line, there was complete silence for exactly five seconds until Abhijeet laughed warmly.

"Continue," he spoke with a much lighter tone.

Ipsita hid her face inside the pillow.

"No."

"You already started."

"I said nothing."

"You called me Bhai."

"It was a slip of tongue. Absolutely normal."

"Not anymore, Ips."

A smile remained on Abhijeet's lips. One he hadn't worn in years. Because for the first time in a decade he wasn't talking to an investigator, detective, spy or an employee. He was talking to someone who knew Alpana. Someone who still remembered her. And somehow... that felt like hope.

"Thank you," he whispered.

Ipsita smiled softly. "Don't thank me yet."

"Why?"

"Because if you break Alpana didi's heart again - "

Abhijeet almost choked. "Excuse me?!"

"No excuses," she cut him off in the middle. "I'll personally expose all your embarrassing college stories to the media."

He laughed helplessly. "I swear I'm so terrified, Ms. Mahapatra."

"Ips," she corrected him.

"Right," he laughed again. "Ips."

And as the call continued - neither of them realized that somewhere in Sambalpur, just a few kilometres away, Padmanabha Mahapatra was sitting silently in his hotel room, staring at an old photograph hidden inside his suitcase.

A photograph of a seventeen-year-old Alpana.

For the first time in ten years, he looked afraid.

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