Happy Birthday Sanaya Irani
Over the nine and a half years of their marriage, Khushi had gone through different emotions, ranging from extreme happiness having him by her side, to limitless love for him and occasional anger and frustration when his work kept coming in between their time together. But very very rarely she had to display her possessive side, much less in front of an audience.
Today was one such a day
--*--
Aarti Bajaj was a new face in modeling industry and had been given an assignment at AR. Tall, slim, slender Aarti was a dusky beauty and what worked best for her was her father was a local politician. So, it helped her make connections more easily and rise through the ladder of competitive glamor world. Her appointment at AR however had totally been based on her capability and grace to carry herself, that was required in the modeling job. She was recruited by AR's team sans Arnav, he had long excused himself from hiring any positions that were not directly reporting to him, and models were certainly not!
But Aarti kept trying to stay connected with him, calling him at odd hours to discuss upcoming projects, barging in his cabin trying to get his inputs, insisting to meet him to ask numerous questions about their field of work, and sometimes blatantly refusing to agree to AR's teams' suggestions unless Arnav intervened. She had been nothing but difficult!
Initially they all had let it go, thinking she was good at work despite her tantrums. With festive season just around the corner they could not really go and look for new models in that short time. So, the team at AR was doing their best to manage with her.
However, Khushi could see it had started bothering Arnav. Given the field of work that he was in, they both were used to the occasions when women made a pass at him, some oblivious to his marital status, some despite that. But none of it became a nuisance as he knew how to shun those advances in the first step itself. To be honest what worried him the most was how his wife always found herself numerous admirers, especially charming men, whenever they attended any business parties related to his or her work or any family function.
Aarti was a tricky case though. She was subtle, not directly hitting on him or giving any hints or making a pass but still one could say she was stepping into his personal space and hampering it time and again. When Arnav first mentioned that he was afraid he had found himself another fangirl, Khushi had brushed it off saying Aarti was probably genuinely interested in learning about the fashion world. She had honestly thought that they should give Aarti a benefit of doubt.
However, when Arnav got a call at 12.30 midnight, 3rd day in a row to discuss 'apt locations for their next shoot schedule', Khushi knew it was time to intervene. She had always steered cleared of his work otherwise but decided that something had to be done now.
--*--
"Good morning, mam" the receptionist at AR head office greeted Mrs. ASR aka Khushi mam. Khushi's visits to AR office had always been pleasant. And after kavish's birth, they had turned even more fun. Everyone at AR loved Chiku, well mostly, until he started throwing things around. But that also stopped when their visits to AR reduced, first due to Khushi's second pregnancy and then due to the pandemic. It had only been 2-3 months that AR had resumed all in-person working and everyone was already looking forward to meeting newest additions to their boss and their Khushi mam's life. They had seen photos of the twins of course but had never met them.
So, when Khushi stepped in AR that day, everyone around the entry lobby expectedly looked behind her to spot any nanny who was carrying the babies. After seeing none, they felt disappointed.
After consoling her friends and fans aka the employees at her husband's company that she would soon bring the newest 2additions to their family in the office, she made her way to his office upstairs. She was determined to finish the job she was there for.
--*--
"Hey, what a pleasant surprise" Arnav was visibly happy when he saw Khushi walk in in his office that morning. When his cabin door opened without any knock and he wasn't expecting any visitor, he was afraid it was Aarti! He prepared himself to finally give a piece of mind to her but seeing Khushi made him both happy and relaxed.
"I thought to pay a visit to AR and see for myself if the employees were being treated nicely" she said tongue in cheek as she stepped near him to hug him
"Don't you mean if their poor boss is given a good treatment and good work for his money?" he asked as he wrapped his arms around her
"naah, they are all a talented bunch of people, so I am sure the boss is happy with the work"
"Well mostly" as he said that Khushi didn't miss a slight pain in his voice. Aarti had become a nuisance and it was obvious that he could not do much as she hadn't done anything visibly offending
"Speaking of, where is your team for the upcoming shoot? Aren't you supposed to chair that meeting at 11?" she asked casually, she didn't want to alert him of her idea just yet, if she succeeded then he would obviously know
"umm, they must be on 2nd floor, that is the new place allocated to this team"
"achha? Thik hain, hum ek baar un sab se mil kar aate hai"
--*--
"Aarti, this is Khushi mam, Arnav sir's wife. And Khushi mam, this is aarti, a new addition to our team" their head designer Rachna tried to be as polite as she could with the introductions.
Khushi studied aarti's expressions carefully. While there were no visible signs of displeasure on her face meeting Khushi, there was no pleasant smile either. Khushi decided not to think too much of it.
--*--
"So Aarti, tell me why you chose this field of work?" catching Aarti alone, Khushi started with her plan
"Because I am made for it I guess?" Aarti replied in a sharp tone and Khushi didn't miss the arrogance in her voice
"Hmm. But I am sure you know how stressful this line of job is. Arnavji for example, works almost 11 hours every day and finally when he gets home, he can't even spend time with his wife or kids because work calls that keep coming till late night"
Aarti looked taken aback at the jibe. Seeing her words were getting desire effect, she continued
"You know our son Kavish is so fond of cricket and has been waiting for his papa to take him to his cricket coaching, but he can't. And our daughter Aru, she has her dinner only when Arnav feeds her while Pari refuses to sleep until he tucks her in. But given the busy schedule that he has, we hardly get his time. Balancing personal life with work is so difficult in your field of work"
"Erm, yeah. I mean you are right." Aarti fiddled with her pen, looking down
Khushi smiled at the desired effect.
"Anyway, despite all this I am proud of my husband, as even you might have seen, he rarely refuses to help his employees. The way he balances work and personal life is commendable. Don't you think?" going for the kill, Khushi asked. And smirked as Aarti's face had fallen
Khushi very wisely put Arnav's domestic side in front of Aarti, to make her realize what her constant nagging was doing to their lives as well as how Arnav was a family man. If aarti was any smart, which Khushi sensed she was, she would have gotten the clear message of Khushi's otherwise personal story.
She had let Aarti know that Arnav's biwi was very much aware of what was happening and was very much around to guard their life!
--*--
Soon enough, Aarti's behavior drastically changed, she started minding her own work, discussing with just immediate seniors instead of bothering Arnav and stopped calling him at odd hours.
"So, I heard you had an interesting conversation with Aarti the other day?" he asked her that night as they were ready to go to bed
"I might have had, why?" Khushi stopped making the bed and turned to look at him, smiling.
"Nothing. Just realized something." Arnav said shrugging
"Kya?"
"That my wife is 'biwi no.1'" he was smirking now
"What? Kya matlab?" Khushi was confused.
"arre don't you remember that Salman khan movie of the same name you made me watch? I realized; we personify the movie perfectly. Except the affair part of course. But the title song is so "US". " Khushi was impressed now. Her lard governor husband not only paid attention to the movie but also remembered the song? That had to be some 'biwi effect'!
To add to the point, he started humming the song and twirling her around "Koi bole mujhe aaja aaja handsome, Koi bole mujhe hi hello Samson
Koi bole tu chikna hai bada, Koi bole tujh mein bada hai dum
main sabse bolu ek hi baat, ik ladki bhai mere sath, sone jaise baal hain uske chaandi jaisa tan, wo hain meri biwi no1'
(loose translation – Some call me come with me handsome, some say I am hot and fit but I tell everyone that I have a girl in my life, who has glowing skin and golden hair and she's my perfect wife)"
he sang the bit in a sweet way
She just giggled as they danced away and happily hugged him at the end. Life was peaceful again!
--*--
A/N – don't ask, what triggered this! I love Salman Karishma pair and imagined arshi in their roles specially the title song of biwi no1. Except Khushi would be far smarter than karish and Arnav would not be a jerk that salman played in that movie. So this was my take on biwi no.1.
Thanks to everyone who is supporting this story. 🤗😇 If not for you all, I would have stopped updating long ago. Do leave comments too, they encourage me.
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