With You, Right Through- Excerpts

 Emotions that are governed by past experiences have a way of defining our personality for  better or worse . True growth is achieved when we learn to let go of baggage that holds us back from becoming the best version of ourselves.

Presenting excerpts from my debut novella- With You, Right Through- a story about emotions, family and friendship where the protagonists rise above their past experiences to become the best version of themselves.

The novella is available for sale worldwide on Kindle and Kindle App on Apple and Android devices. It can also be read on Mac and Windows laptops.

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Chapter 1

It was a  cold and foggy Monday morning . Kusum Kataria woke up to the sound of her phone ringing . She sat up on her bed and reached for her phone on the bedside table , muttering curses. She had been fast asleep and was dreaming about vacationing in the Maldives .

Kusum swiped on the screen of her phone sleepily, to answer the call . It was her cook Lathaben.

“Good morning didi . Did I wake you up ?”, asked Lathaben 

“Yes, but I had to get up anyway . It is a Monday . Kya hua? Why are you calling instead of coming to work ?” asked an irritated Kusum 

“The thing is didi , Munna had high fever yesterday and has rashes all over his body today . I think it is chickenpox . So I cannot come to work for ten days at least”, said Lathaben, dropping a bombshell casually .

“Ten days !!! I have a deadline at the office . Who is going to cook and clean while I am super busy at work” rued Kusum. “ Do you know someone who will come to work for ten days?”

“I don't know anybody that will work for just ten days didi. Other cooks have the houses that they are working in already and do not have the time” said Lathaben. “ I can try to come once a day, but if you get chickenpox , don't hold me responsible”.

“It's okay, I will manage” grumbled Kusum and disconnected the call. Chickenpox or not , Lathaben was the fourth cook to chicken away from working at her house in the last six months . As for her , she could not cook to save her life!

As Kusum rummaged through the kitchen shelves , looking for food , she reminisced about her family’s futile attempts to teach her to cook . She belonged to a Marwari family and red blooded Marwaris loved their food. But she always viewed the kitchen as an altar where women sacrificed their dreams and was determined not to have anything to do with it.

Kusum’s family , consisting of her paternal grandparents , parents , younger sister , uncle , aunt and cousin - in short an entire ensemble for a daily soap , considered her as a loose cannon when she was growing up . She was good at academics and even nursed hopes of managing the family’s jewellery business some day . In another family she would have been the epitome of an ideal child , but not in hers . Her grandfather , Kewalchand Kataria, believed that women belonged at home , in the kitchen . Her father, Dineshchand Kataria, mirrored his own father’s beliefs and her uncle , Satyam Kataria was no different . It did not help that the women in her household , be that her grandmother , mother or aunt, revelled in playing second fiddles who loved their time at the kitchen. What was worse, they managed to get her little sister to be just like them!! As a result, Kanak Jain was now happily married, mother of a three year old at twenty six!! But the only blessing in her sister’s story was her husband , Sandeep Jain, as fine a person as can be , who encouraged Kanak to follow her dream . Of course , it was not his fault that Kanak only dreamt of home , kitchen and kitty parties ! 

Kusum’s life was a different story altogether - something that she scripted exactly the way she wanted . She thought back about that fateful day nearly nine years ago when she came home from college to find that her wedding had been fixed with the only son of an affluent businessman . She was not exactly surprised . Knowing her family well , she kind of expected it . But she being the mastermind that she was, had her escape route ready. She played along with her family’s wedding plans and at the opportune moment, when she got her appointment confirmation from the prestigious bank that she had applied to, and her wedding jewellery was all in place, Kusum announced her decision to go to work. The family, as expected, threw a fit and she walked out of the family mansion in VV Puram, with her jewellery in tow, sold it and made the down payment for an apartment in JP Nagar. Her family promptly decided to disown her, Hindi movie style and her little sister was the only family who still spoke to her. She worked hard at the bank and studied even harder to finish her CA. She was now a relationship manager at the bank’s prestigious investment banking division and home was a two bedroom apartment in Temple Towers at JP Nagar.

Kusum snapped awake from her reverie and decided to focus on the problem at hand - breakfast! She was craving for piping hot paneer parathas but all that she had was sawdust flakes ready to eat from the carton it came packed in, aka breakfast cereal!

Was it too much to expect hot and nourishing breakfast in the morning? “Not  if you can make it for yourself”, said the voice of reason .She promptly silenced it and decided to send an SOS to her little sister Kanak who would send enough food to last a week.


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Chapter 2

It was a busy Monday morning in the Sunderarajan household and Ramesh Rajan woke up to the whooshing sound of the pressure cooker and the shrill whirring of the mixer grinder. His maternal grandmother, Ranganayaki paati, was giving terse instructions to the cook. He glanced at the time on the bedside clock. It was 6:30 already!!. He scrambled out of his bed to get ready. He was not a topnotch CA like his parents Vaidehi and Sunderarajan, who ran the reputed audit firm Sunderarajan and company and this topped the list of his parents’ pet peeves, but he had his own catering business, Ranganayaki caterers, to manage. He had named his business after his maternal grandmother who had instilled the love of cooking in him. Ranganayaki caterers were famous for supplying good quality lunch to offices, on time everytime. They had made inroads into providing meal subscriptions for pregnant women and new mothers and had plans for expanding into the wedding catering space. In short, he had his hands full and a busy day ahead, beginning with a meeting with Gopal Chithappa(uncle), the administrative head of Ranganayaki caterers and a distant cousin of his father. Gopal Chithappa was a retired diplomat who was passionate about food and he had found his ikigai in Ranganayaki caterers.
As Ramesh rushed out of his room to grab breakfast, he heard loud chatter and the voice that was heard the loudest was of his Radha Athai(aunt). Radha Athai was his father’s sister. She was the head of HR at a leading IT company and lived in Sarjapur road with her husband Mohan Athimber and prodigal son Advaith, who was a CA working with ESFG.

“Advaith must have eloped and gotten married to a Mandy or Meherunnisa and Athai is here to vent out her frustrations”, thought Ramesh, feeling delighted. But his happiness was short lived.  Athai was offering macaroons to everyone with the look of a cat that had swallowed the cream. Advaith had gotten promoted as the senior manager and Athai was obviously here to celebrate!!

Ramesh groaned inwardly, feeling resigned to his fate of being constantly overshadowed by his prodigal cousin, as he wished Athai. Such was his luck!


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Here is the link to the book available on Amazon:


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