The Saga of Doury & Youdi – Chapter 6

Lambs for slaughter to save the so-called lions have been practiced from times immemorial. But when lions offer themselves for slaughter, for the larger good, that perhaps qualify to be an epitome for sacrifice.

Shikhan, had a taut slender body. Rippling muscles on a slender frame, he was fit as a fiddle with a sharp mind and brain to match. As a child the brawny guys would push him away, mocking his slender built. It was but an open secret, they were jealous of the power Shikhan yielded in the gym and sparring bouts, where he would bring all the bulls and the bears down.

Shikhan’s gender was a mystery forever. Was he a transgender? Rumours had it; born a girl he had done a sex change operation. He fathered a son, from his legally married wife!

Everyone was so intrigued on what sex Shikhan was, that it became the only discussion point whenever Shikhan’s name came up. No one ever spoke or discussed the sheer power this person yielded. His exploits in the gym! His prowess in all martial arts! His acumen in academics! His razor-sharp business mind and tactics.

Nobody recalls him as the eldest sibling of Droopz.  Brother-in-law to the Paendeey’s.

Shikhan herself (or himself) was never bothered by his gender. He was happy to be known as a transgender. That neither made him or her any different. He or she was just like any other human being around. Perhaps better! In fact, he enjoyed the anonymity it bought him. Everyone focussing on that inconsequential fact, gave him time to sharpen and enjoy his prowess of the body and mind.

Shikhan despised Brizm, the Kooroo patriarch. Shikhan despised Brizm because of Amby.

Shikhan always believed Amby’s death was Brizm’s doing, a subtle abetment to suicide! Brizm in his heart carried that guilt too.

Brizm had eloped with Amby! No! Elope will not be the right word. You elope with someone to get married. Brizm had kidnapped Amby!! For a weak brother. Without the brother’s consent. Brizm in all his chauvinistic machoism took it to himself to act on his brother’s behalf and whisked away Amby. Amby was too dazed and confused to understand what was happening!  Amby was in love with someone else -Salvy!

Salvy had a Brizm connection too! He had been humiliated and pushed to the dogs in a corporate bid by Brizm. Amby was never in love with Brizm’s brother, and that was mutual! Brizm’s power dazed brain just made up a story that his meek brother was interested in Amby and he took it upon himself to get her whisked away.

Amby refused to marry Brizm’s brother, which was again a mutual feeling, as neither did he want to get married to Amby. Salvy misunderstood or feigned to misunderstand the entire eloping affair as a proof of Amby two timing him! He refused to get married to her!

In this whole fiasco, Amby was pushed around like an object. For no fault of hers. She was oblivious to the temptation of Brizm for public display of power, on every opportunity he had. Salvy’s love was too shallow. A ruse to overcome the male ego, of blaming own failures to external causes. He dropped her like a hot potato. For what? To prove a point with Brizm.

To cut a long story short, disillusioned with her belief in love and aghast with the façade of male egos, Amby took her own life.

This happened way before Shikhan was born. These were one of the many stories, Shikhan had heard, of Brizm’s youthful bravado. Shikhan saw the reckless Brizm, that was never visible to the world. The world was in awe of Brizm staying put to his promise of leading a celibate life, to please his father and his second wife, Brizm’s stepmother. A promise to ensure Brizm will never have a lineage to lay claim on the Kooroo business. That was perhaps noble and mighty of Brizm. What Shikhan despised is that Brizm used it as an excuse for his reckless bravado and machoistic pleasure in ruining many a life, including Shakynz and his family including Shakynz’s sister, mother to our Doury!

Shikhan despised Brizm for all the tales he heard. He saw through the rips in the torn fabric of Brizm’s legendary tales of business wizardry!

Brizm had mellowed down with age. I must accept; he was after all, truly a powerful man and he knew it and didn’t hesitate to prove it, as a young man! But time mellows down everything and everyone. Brizm grew old to be humble and knew he did not have to prove his strength. He understood, it is ok to feign ignorance and avoid all confrontation. But if someone mistook the silence to be a sign of weakness, just flex your muscles and remove all doubts. An old Viking proverb summed it up all for the old Brizm- “Power is only given to those, who are prepared to lower themselves to pick it up”.

Anyway, to get back to Shikhan’s story. Brizm saw an uncanny resemblance of the dead Amby in Shikhan’s demeanour. The same feisty eyes, the same nose, the same way of talking, crisp, short, to the point and yet cover all that is to be told.

Brizm never hated Shikhan for despising him. The mellowed down matured Brizm, saw Shikhan as his penance to all the recklessness of his youth. When a powerful man seeks penance, it does not come easy.  How do you seek penance? A common man adopts philanthropy, donating and sharing his wealth and power. For a powerful and wealthy man as Brizm, it did not come as an avenue for penance. Giving way from an endless coffer is no penance.

The only way, powerful men sought penance, is to bow down to someone young and embrace the hatred someone spews, with love and accept it, with open arms.

Krey saw that! Krey put that into good use, when the time was opportune. Krey’s amazing ability to seize opportune moments, twist it, to make it look ethical and moral, was but the crux of that entire corporate war of the millennium.

Krey knew the only way to bring down Brizm was to play on this weakness of his.

During the great corporate war, the Paendeey’s were struggling to get an edge over the Kooroo’s ! The chief reason was the awe and fear that struck everyone as the old Brizm was standing behind the Kooroos’, never got Paendeey’s the edge. Krey articulated that only if Brizm stepped down, would the scales be even. And he used Shikhan for that.

When Shikhan’s company fronting Arzee’s shares made a bid, Brizm did not offer resistance. For Brizm it was perhaps penance. Or perhaps a ruse he was looking to move away from taking sides within the family. His entire holding was diluted and bought over by the Paendees’ with Shikhan fronting it.

 Nobody however realised and saw Shikhan’s prowess and wizardry of his own when he thwarted multiple attacks by the Kooroos’ to bring him down. He stood and fought them alone and refused to be pushed back. People only remember that ultimately, he fronted the Paendees which liquidated Brizms holdings. They forget the astute intelligence and strength he displayed in fighting off the multiple attacks, we made from the Kooroo side.

I did take revenge of this. I saw Shikhan as one of the prime reasons for Doury’s downfall.  I liquidated Shikhan, after the mega corporate war. For the first time in my life, I gave in to sly and deceit.

The journey was inconsequential, the destination it got you to, is all that mattered. Krey taught me that.

There are multiple stories, I will share, where Krey ruthlessly used lions for the slaughter, to save the lamb kings!