Oct 6–Oct 20, 2015
"Whispers in the Media"
The October air in Delhi was beginning to shift — hot afternoons mellowed into cool, breezy nights, and the festival season shimmered just on the horizon. The streets buzzed with Diwali advertisements: electronics, sweets, new cars, and even home loans. Amid this everyday noise, another kind of whisper began to rise, one that had nothing to do with crackers or mithai boxes.
The name Arjun Rao had slipped from the sealed walls of government meetings into the bloodstream of India's press.
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The First Article
It started small, as it often does. A mid-tier business magazine, India Infrastructure Review, carried a three-page spread tucked between policy analysis and cement sector updates.
The headline was sober, yet intriguing:
"Bharat InfraWorks: The New Challenger?"
The article described Arjun Rao as a rising industrialist, bold in vision, confident in execution, promising to bring "new-age tunneling and road-building techniques" to connect the remotest corners of India.
There were no pictures of him, just a silhouette graphic. The text quoted anonymous bureaucrats who found him "compelling, though unusually precise in his proposals."
Most readers skimmed it, but the right eyes lingered.
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A Spark in the Newsroom
At The Economic Times headquarters in Mumbai, senior journalist Meera Singh leaned back in her chair as she scrolled through the piece. She had seen names like this before — sudden, out-of-nowhere billionaires who often turned out to be scams or shells. But something about this one bothered her.
"Who is this guy?" she murmured.
Her junior reporter looked up. "Never heard of him. No social media, no interviews, no family name. It's like he appeared out of thin air."
Meera smirked. "Nobody appears out of thin air. Let's start digging."
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Side POV – A Young Investor's Buzz
Meanwhile, in Bengaluru, 23-year-old software engineer Vikram Rao (no relation) read the same article during his office lunch break. He was a small-time investor who dabbled in penny stocks. Seeing Bharat InfraWorks' name whispered alongside big infrastructure contracts sparked something reckless in him.
He messaged his friend on WhatsApp:
> "Bro, this Bharat InfraWorks thing is going to blow up. I'm putting 50k into it."
His friend replied with a laughing emoji. "Enjoy your scam, genius."
But Vikram did not laugh. In his gut, the words new challenger glowed like neon. He didn't know it yet, but this small gamble would change his life.
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Foreign Embassies Take Note
Far away from Indian boardrooms, in a quiet office inside the U.S. Embassy in Delhi, an analyst flagged the same article. The report traveled through cables, labeled "emerging Indian industrialist."
The same happened in the Japanese and German embassies — infrastructure was serious business, and a new player promising 21st-century solutions was worth watching.
Within days, small dossiers began to circulate.
Who was Arjun Rao?
Why had he risen so quickly?
And why did no one seem to know his origin story?
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The MC in the Shadows
The MC read the buzz with a calm smile. Sitting in his study, screens glowing in front of him, he monitored the ripple effect. Arjun Rao's image — curated, carefully designed by Aarya's algorithms — was now a ghost gaining flesh.
The trick, he knew, was never to push too hard. Let curiosity grow on its own. Let people think they had "discovered" Arjun, instead of being handed his name on a silver plate.
Behind him, Aarya's voice whispered through the holographic projector:
> "Master, the probability matrix indicates that within six months, Arjun Rao will be treated as a national-level industrialist. Do you wish to accelerate the timeline?"
He shook his head slowly. "No, Aarya. Let the world whisper before it shouts. Whispers are more powerful than headlines."
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The Closing Image
That night, as fireworks tested the sky in early Diwali trials, the MC sat on his balcony in Delhi. The sound of laughter and sweets carried up from the streets. In his hands, he held a newspaper folded to the small article about Bharat InfraWorks.
He read it once more, almost like an outsider, and then folded it away with a small, satisfied sigh.
> "The mask has entered the public stage," he murmured.
"Now the performance begins."
And somewhere, across the city, Meera Singh tapped at her keyboard late into the night, already sketching her next piece:
"The Mystery of Arjun Rao: India's Most Elusive Tycoon."