Paperwork

The siblings decided to meet a lawyer and seek a professional opinion towards the land ownership transfer and if they could skip adding the name of their sister as per her wishes. The lawyer guided them to proceed with the documentation for both purposes. The lawyer also warned them that this will be a time consuming procedure. The estimated time for completion of legal work was 2 years.

The siblings though would be the land owners they had made a pact: the proceeds from the land would be divided in four parts and each sibling should get equal share. Archana's share was to be provided to her and she would get to decide how she wanted to utilize it. The siblings also decided to keep all conversations and transactions transparent, so that nobody would be kept in the dark. They did not want the land to be the reason for dispute, as they were close. Or at least they thought.

The procedure began. As the lawyer informed, the formalities had been time consuming in reality. Everything came with additional expenses. However at least it was moving smoothly. The lawyer was competent and supportive. After a couple of months, the lawyer informed that a few times all the siblings would need to travel to their native village for completion of legal paperwork, though the lawyer had made the plea for minimal travel considering that all of them had been elderly.

Yet the siblings travelled multiple times to their village for a legal proceedings. This was consuming time, money, and efforts, yet looking at the results the siblings had decided to continue with that. After each visit, meeting with the lawyer, or update, the siblings used to maintain a transparent and clear communication so that every sibling would be on the same page. Archana too had been kept in the loop despite her insistence of not wanting her stake.

Slowly one year had passed. The progress on the land transfer had been impressive. They could see that the documentation and process had been steadily moving ahead and in the right direction. It appeared that the land transfer would get completed in a few months.

Meanwhile the village had been selected by the government for a massive green energy project. This was a great news because it indicated that the land valuation would be higher, due to the new developments. Several reputed developers from the major cities had been scouting the properties to create their projects. This meant that once the land had been transferred on their names, their was a possibility that a developer would approach them to acquire their land.

The siblings had been delighted. They informed Archana of the recent announcement of the government project and the subsequent impact it may have on the village. They expected their sister to be as delighted as they have been. But the reaction from Archana was cold. She spoke as if she was not interested in what her siblings had to say. She pretended as if she had nothing to do with the land. But the reality was far from the imagination.

The siblings had no idea what had been waiting for them in the future.