The Twenty First Gem

Sarah had nobody in this world. When she was an orphan girl of three years, a group of holy sages had found her behind the figurine of Lord Shiva at Lord Shiva's temple and gave her to Mumbai's best ideal and renowned couple, Mr. Anant Deshpande and his wife Leela, who adopted her later, considering her adorable chubby form, good looks, and big bright and watery eyes.

Anant and Leela were childhood sweethearts and got married early just after they became of the legal age of marriage. Leela had been fond of children but unfortunately, she was unable to conceive. So to make her happy, Anant adopted many children. They had enough wealth to afford the expenses of those orphan children. Money was not a big problem for the couple.

When Sarah arrived at their home, they already had adopted twenty children and wanted to stop adopting another child. But Leela liked Sarah at first glance and Anant too could not help but look at the girl with deep longing and love. The other children also insisted the couple keep the adorable baby girl.

Sarah was the twenty-first and youngest one among their other adopted children and spoiled by the entire family. Since they were adopted in a Maharashtrian Marathi Brahmin family, everyone's surname was- Deshpande.

The home of the couple was the children's legal home. They taught their children how to become independent and enhance their knowledge through various activities, sports, and e-learning.

Now in present, it had become a famous 'House of Twenty-One Gems' produced by Golden Peace Award Winner Couple Mr. and Mrs. Deshpande. They were perfect examples of an ideal couple, gentle parents, strict teachers, doctors, scientists with extraordinary versatile personalities who were also well-versed in different arts and technologies.

They were children's idol since their childhood. What was remarkable about them was they never forced their children to learn what they got, instead, the couple taught and encouraged them according to their likings.

No wonder such a couple could produce twenty-one gems because all children were toppers in their academic studies as well as brilliant successful personalities in their respective career fields.

Among them, Rudra was the eldest and was ten years older than Sarah. He was in the Indian Army serving the nation as Major General.

After him, another two children Rahul and Misha, were Asia's gold medalist Surgeons.

Vikram had become an IPS officer and was working in Mumbai Police Department's Special Force as head of the department.

After him, slightly younger Samar was Neurosurgeon, and his buddy as the same age as of his, Kaivalya was working as a Scientist in ISRO.

After them, Naina had become an Advocate and was working in Bombay High Court.

The other three adopted children of Anant and Leela- Sheila, Aditya, and Neel has been settled overseas.

Sheila was CA in a financial company in Frankfurt, Germany, whereas Aditya was a wildlife photographer and always traveling. He was famous for his award-winning photography. Neel was a Professor of Engineering Physics at Amboyrd University, New York.

There were also two oddballs Psychiatrists and also twin brothers- Kush and Lav. They owned a clinic in partnership. Kush was a famous psychiatrist for children and Sarah was his first patient since her teenage. Lav was an adult's psychiatrist.

Other than them, there was also a mischievous trio working in top companies in higher positions. Amrut was a mechanical engineer and Vice President of the Entarca company. Madhur was an expert in computers and working as a General Manager in an I.T. company named AEGIS Security PVT. LTD., India.

All were experts in their respective fields. Among the trio, Arjun was a Civil Engineer. He had left his company and started his own business in partnership with his friend.

Another adopted daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Deshpande, Samira was good at classical as well as western dance styles and had become a choreographer. She was working under a renowned professional Choreographer named Ronald D'costa, also know as D. Ronny. Samira was dating Ronny for some time and now they are about to get engaged.

Another pair of twin sisters was Divya and Drishti. Divya was working as a Model in a subsidiary modeling company of a film making company named StarCross Entertainment. Drishti was a famous hairstylist and fashion designer working in the same company. She was also one of the board directors of StarCross Entertainment. Both were gorgeous girls of twenty-five and stunning divas.

Swayam was a Pilot in Indian Airlines and Saniya had become Chef and owned a family restaurant with her fiancé. Both were a year older than Sarah.

Among them, Rahul, Misha, Vikram, Sheila, Kaivalya, and Naina were married and had children. Some got engaged and others were in search of their partners; some were busy in their careers. All her siblings are well settled.

The father of Anant, Ramchandra Deshpande, a retired army General, has been started to get on his age. It was difficult for an elderly to remember so many names of his adopted grandchildren. He called them in the order they were adopted with numbers!

For example, Rudra's number was 1, Vikram's number was 4, and Sarah's number was 21. He even had saved their phone numbers in his cell phone as Roll No. 1, 2, 3,..21. He wasn't even bothered to ask their names. As they all grew up, he started to remember only his granddaughters' names.

Rudra, Vikram, and Sarah were his favorite grandchildren among the others.

And the last but not least, the twenty-first one, that is Sarah, was a pampered and spoiled princess of Deshpandes' and was close to Rudra and Vikram since her childhood as she followed the two boys everywhere like a shadow.

She used to secretly copy their behavior and manners and the result was... She had become Tomboy! She never behaved like an elegant lady and always wore clothes of boys, especially of her brothers to date.

Nobody cared actually about this. Only Leela was concerned and worried about her future. Sarah was good at sports but she chose writing as her career.