Chapter 9

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Hieveryone,

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Chapter 8

The next morning, as they satfor breakfast, Mrs. Rai had also joined them. She had started to walk slowlywith the aid of a walking stick.

"These rice rotis are amazing Khushi," Mrs. Raicomplimented her.

"It's thanks to yourrecipe book aunty," Khushi replied, "I have learnt so many newthings."

"This was a favourite ofAarav's," Mrs. Rai said, talking about her son as she often did, "Iwonder if he misses this in the US."

"How is Aarav doingaunty?" Manav asked Mrs. Rai, "your son just doesn't keep intouch."

"You know how tough itis for doctors," Mrs. Rai defended her only son. "He is upset that hecouldn't come here after I fell."

"I told him not to worryabout it," Arnav answered, "I am here for you right? He is busy doinghis specialization -- so he should just focus on that."

"I bet you didn't know thatAarav was my classmate in Bangalore." Manav told Khushi.

"Really?" The newsthat Aarav and Manav had been classmates during pre-university was news to Khushi.Mrs. Rai had mentioned earlier that Aarav had completed his medical degree atMysore Medical College and had later left for the US to pursue further studies.

"That's why I alreadyknew Arnav when I came to study here." He said, "I had met him a fewtimes when he came to aunty's house in Bangalore during his semester holidays. "

He hadn't mentioned this theother day. That was probably why Arnav had looked out for Manav during college,Khushi surmised.

"Before I forget,"Arnav addressed Mrs. Rai, "Rashmi has invited you to lunch at her uncle'sancestral house for some pooja on Friday."

"It must be for the Nagamandala." Mrs. Rai said."Rashmi is mistaken. The invite will be for dinner as the ritual is performedat night."

"What is Nagamandala?" Khushi enquired.

Mrs. Rai explained that Nagamandala was a ritual of the serpentGod that was usually celebrated from the months of December to March justbefore the monsoons. It was done as an appeasement to the Serpent God that wasdeemed auspicious by the people of South Canara. It involved a"mandala" or drawing of the serpent in the form of a rangoli aroundwhich a dancer dressed in costume, performed a ritualistic dance.

"Wow that'sinteresting," Khushi said, "I have never ever heard of it."

"We have many ritualshere that people in other parts of the state are unaware of," Mrs. Raisaid, "we have Bhoota Kolaaround March for the appeasement of spirits and the tiger dance during Dusshera."

"I am not sure I canattend the pooja," Khushi said tentatively,"I didn't bring any festive clothes with me "

"That's alright,"Mrs. Rai said, "Arnav will take you to the city. He knows the stores whereyou can get a good silk saree or any other traditional outfit you like."

Khushi went red in the face,wishing she hadn't mentioned her attire problem out aloud. "That won't benecessary!" she said quickly, "I can go by myself."

That evening after herclasses, Khushi found Arnav waiting for her on his bike. He had messaged her earlierthat he was going to pick her up.

"You didn't have to pickme up," she said as she sat behind him, " You must have dropped allyour important work to come here. I could have walked back home."

Arnav continued to ride insilence. After a while Khushi realized he was taking her to the city, and nothome as she had presumed. It was only when he stopped in front of a sareeshowroom, she realized that he had taken his aunt's words seriously.

Khushi got off the bike."You didn't have to bring me here," she said, "I could have comehere on my own."

"We are already here,aren't we?" He walked to the door of the showroom and opened the door forher.

The sales man at the sareeshowroom welcomed her enthusiastically, seated her on a chair and began to showher sarees, one after the other. The rich colours and texture made each sareeglitter under the bright lights, and Khushi's eyes lit up with pleasure. As hisphone rang, Arnav left Khushi to continue, while he stepped outside to talk onhis phone. Disappointed that he had left her to do the shopping alone, Khushibrowsed through the sarees half-heartedly, finally narrowing down on threesarees. She draped the saree on her shoulder so she could make a choice.

As she looked at herself inthe mirror, she noticed Arnav watching her. He indicated with a shake of hishead that he didn't like the first or the second one.

Finally, the last saree she triedwas a Mysore Silk saree in fuchsia pink color with a thin gold border. When shelooked in the mirror this time, the approval in his chocolate eyes made her happy.Whether the happiness was a relief because he had helped her decide, or if itwas the way he had looked at her, was something she didn't want to think about.

"Would you like to seematching blouses madam?" The man asked her, reminding her that she neededa blouse as well. He told her to go upstairs for the blouse section.

Soon she tried a fewready-made gold colored blouses for her saree, and had almost picked one whenan enthusiastic salesgirl came up to her with a new-design.

"I really don't havetime to try it," she said looking at the time on her phone.

"This is the same sizeas the ones you tried madam," she implored. "if it doesn't fit youcan bring it back for an exchange."

Khushi noticed that thedesign on this blouse was far better than the one she had chosen and on a whim,decided to go for it, bringing a big smile on the girl's face.

When she came downstairsready to pay the bill, the salesman handed her a bag and told her that her "husband"had paid the bill and was waiting for her outside.

"How much do I oweyou?" she enquired as Arnav stared the bike.

"This is a gift -- from management,"he told her, "we gift a saree to all our female staff once a year."

Khushi stared at him askance."Really?'

"Ask the other teachers ifyou like," he said, "come on let's go, I am hungry."

On Friday evening, Khushi stoodin front of Rashmi's ancestral house. The house looked a lot like Mrs. Rai'shouse, except that it did not have a first floor. The external verandah extendedto the length of the house and was spacious. There were flower decorations ofyellow and orange chrysanthemums all over the house lending it a very festivelook.

One part of the yard had beencordoned into a makeshift kitchen, filled with huge cauldrons, utensils, stoves,and cooks clad in dhotis sat on the floor, chatting with each other as theyprepared for the impending dinner.

"Hi Khushi how did youget here?" Rashmi said, as she hurried up to welcome her. She was drapedin a beautiful silk saree in parrot green and pink, matched with a pink blousewith gold buttas that were typical ofa Kancheevaram saree. She lookedgorgeous. Sanvi was right behind her looking pretty in a red and blue silk lehenga and a long matching blouse.

 "Manav dropped me by car he will behere later with aunty," Khushi informed her. Rashmi did not ask her aboutArnav which meant she knew exactly when he was going to arrive. She didn't wantto let this information bother her but it did. For some reason, she had hopedhe would bring her to Rashmi's house instead of Manav but he hadn't returnedfrom the construction site when she had left home.

Rashmi led Khushi to a spacewhere a huge gazebo type structure was built. The flower decorations on thestructure indicated that the ritual would be held in that area. A woman in herfifties, sat drawing a beautiful design using white chalk, that included alarge snake coiled around it. Khushi was fascinated by the uniqueness of thedrawing.

 "My aunt is almost done with the outline.Let's start filling in the colors." Rashmi said.

They used white, green,yellow, red and black colors to fill in the drawing.

"So, what made you comeall the way to Udupi?" Rashmi asked, "I am sure there were plenty ofopportunities for a counselor's job in Bangalore."

"I wanted to get awayfrom Bangalore for a while." Khushi replied.

"What about yourfamily?" she asked, "your parents siblings?"

"I only have mymother," Khushi replied, "my father passed away a year ago."

Rashmi touched her shoulder,"Sorry Khushi," she said, "I can understand your pain aboutlosing a father. A daughter can never really recover from it, can she?"

Khushi didn't want to counterher by saying she wasn't really that close with her father. Since Rashmi didn'tpersist, there didn't seem to be any reason for her to explain about Payal.

Rashmi continued. "I wasin a total mess when my father died." She went on to explain how she hadre-connected with Arnav. "Manav and I have been friends on FB since longbut we hadn't been in touch. After my father passed away I posted on FB and Manavsent his condolences. I took Arnav's contact details from Manav and called him.

"Arnav happened to be inUdupi visiting his aunt," she said, "He came by my house and whenhe realized I was in trouble, offered to help me. He was the one who encouragedme to start a business, he event lent me money to so I could get the bakerystarted at home. I don't know how I will ever be able repay him."

Rashmi had been iterating hergratitude for Arnav and it was understandable in the circumstances but for somereason it felt that she as trying to tell her something even though she didn't seemtoo inclined to talk about her past with Arnav. Somehow Rashmi's words werebeginning to weigh on her now.

A little later, when Arnav camein with his aunt and Manav, he saw Khushi working on the Rangoli. He helped hisaunt to a chair, and while Manav went looking for Rashmi he walked towardKhushi. She looked stunning in the pink saree. With large gold jhumkis in herears, matching bangles on her wrists, and her long, black hair braidedelegantly, she looked very much like a South Indian belle.

When she stood up to look atthe work she had completed, her saree moved and the sight of her beautiful backmade his heart skip a beat. Gold lace that looked like wings of a butterflycovered her shoulder blades, connected by a hook at the base of her neck, whilethere were three hooks on a thin strip at her waist in a deep scalloped design.He couldn't take his eyes off her.

She looked at him and smiled."Oh, you are here " she said, "Is something wrong?" sheasked him when she saw him staring at her.

He leaned down and whisperedin her ear, "your blouse "

Khushi didn't let him finish,"I know!" she took one end of her saree and tucked in in her waistcovering her back. "That stupid sales girl forced me to buy this without atrial. If I could get my hands on her " She stopped when she noticed the amusementin Arnav's face. "What?" she asked but didn't get a chance to hearwhat he had to say.

"Arnav uncle!"Little Sanvi had come running.

"Looking very prettytoday, aren't you?" Arnav lifted her and held her in his arms.

"Arnav --!" Rashmiwalked up to them, "thanks for coming." Rashmi was glowing as shelooked at Arnav.

"The rangoli lookslovely," Arnav looked at Khushi.

"Oh yes," Rashmisaid, "it was all thanks to Khushi. I got called away on errands and couldn'thelp her much. Sorry Khushi."

"That's alright,"Khushi dismissed, "I love doing such things. It's no big deal."

"Come on " Rashmitold them, "Dinner is ready." She directed them to the dining area thatwas set up in the yard, under a decorative awning.

As they sat for dinner, Khushilooked at Arnav seated next to Sanvi at a table across from her. He was wearinga tomato red self-embroidered kurta on blue denims. It was so unfair that helooked so handsome in anything he wore, she thought as her heart thudded inagreement. He looked up at her at that precise moment as though he knew whatwas going on in her mind.

As the child spokeanimatedly, he listened to her indulgently. While the food was served, Mrs. Raiexplained the different items on the plantain leaf. There was green gram andyam curry, bitter gourd fry, raw banana fry, urad dal bonda, string beans curryand wheat payasam.

As the server added anotheritem on the leaf, Rashmi came up to them. "This is Pathrode it is aKonkani specialty -- steamy rolls made of colocasia leaves."

"Pathrode?" Manavseated next to Khushi quipped, "remember Rashmi, during our first raggingsession, one senior girl asked you the recipe because you were from theseparts. You didn't know."

"Of course, Iremember," she said, "You were asked to sing a song and you couldn'tremember it."

Manav looked at Khushi."We were both punished as a result. Our punishment was to go to Arnav andmake him laugh.

"When we went up toArnav I suddenly remembered the song," Manav said, "in my anxiety Ibegan to sing the song aloud and Arnav started to laugh."

"What could I do?"Arnav said looking Manav, "you sounded like a donkey."

Khushi looked on feeling alittle left out, as the three friends laughed merrily recalling old memories.

A little later, as the dancersbegan to perform, a huge crowd gathered around to watch. The dancers began todance around the elaborate serpent design while some priests chanted hymns forthe ceremony.

Khushi began to search forArnav and then she found him standing next to Rashmi. Suddenly, as thoughsensing her, he looked back at her with his mesmerizing eyes.

"It looks a littleintense, doesn't it?" Manav asked Khushi.

"Yes." Khushi turnedher attention back to Manav.

Mrs. Rai explained that theone of the dancers dressed in a serpent costume was called 'nagakannika', andthe other one called 'paatri', was dressed as a man who transforms into orpossessed by a serpent God after inhaling the fragrance of areca flowers.

As the dancers performed tothe increasing beat of the sound of the drums and the trumpets, Khushi felt anodd sensation of bewildering anxiety and her eyes once again darted towardArnav. He seemed to be listening intently to something Rashmi was telling him.

"I am feeling tiredManav," Mrs. Rai said, "I would like to go home now."

"Sure aunty," Manavsaid, "I will bring the car out to the front and then Khushi can help you tothe car."

"I will go home withyou," Khushi said as she helped the old woman to her feet.

As Khushi was helping Mrs.Rai into the car Rashmi and Arnav came up to them.

"Khushi, you can't leaveyet. You must take the tamboola. Canyou please wait until I finish dinner? They are going to close the kitchen."

"But it's getting lateI"

"Khushi will stay,"Arnav cut her off, "Manav, come back after dropping Ma. We will wait foryou."

"Yeah sure!" Manavsaid, "we could all go for some ice cream later."

As Khushi sat in one of therooms a little later, Rashmi's aunt came in hurriedly and offered her the tamboola that Rashmi had mentionedearlier, which was kum kum on platealong with a blouse piece, bananas, betel leaf and a small gift box. Khushiapplied the vermillion on her forehead and accepted all the other items and putthem in a bag. She realized that being a widow Rashmi would not be allowed tooffer the sacred items to anyone. She felt sorry for the other girl who had toface such discrimination in the name of tradition.

Khushi walked to the diningarea and saw Arnav playing with Sanvi as Rashmi ate her dinner. A strangefeeling of restlessness filled her, and she felt like there was a knot in herchest. This feeling had been building up since evening and she didn't know why.She turned around and walked away.

She decided to walk back tothe house as it wasn't too far and at this moment, she felt like the walk homewould do her some good. After five minutes, she started to wonder if it was agood idea because even though the moon was out, it felt a little eerie as the roaddid not have many street lights.

Khushi.

Khushi was about to turnaround when she suddenly remembered what Ratna had told her. Her heart began tobeat like a sledge hammer. It was probably just a bird calling out, sheconsoled herself, or had someone really called out her name? Her imaginationhad been running wild since the incident at the well, and then Arnav's prankhad worsened it, for she had a few nightmares after that. Why had she let heremotions get the better of her? She admonished herself.

"Khushi, stop!" Arnavcame up next to her.

She thanked God that it wasArnav, but she didn't want to show her relief to him. If he thought she wasgoing to hug him like she had last time, he had better think twice. "What?"she looked at him.

"Why did you leavewithout me?" he demanded, clearly piqued.

 "I wanted to go home." She increasedher stride cursing herself for wearing footwear with heels. "You were busywith -- Sanvi."

"Rashmi was having herdinner," Arnav said, "couldn't you have waited for a few moreminutes?"

"No I couldn't!"Khushi retorted, indignantly. "Who asked you to come? You should have stayeduntil she finished dinner --- or breakfast tomorrow morning---"

As a two-wheeler sped past,Arnav moved Khushi away from the path. "Watch out!"

"What's wrong withyou?" Arnav asked her, "We were supposed to wait for Manav."

"I wanted to leaveearlier with Manav, but you didn't let me go!" Khushi hated herself forbeing this way but she couldn't seem to help it.

"Khushi are you upsetbecause of such a small thing?" he mocked her, "come on, don't besuch a cry baby."

Those words were the finalstraw, and she lost control of the last vestige of temper she was holding onto. "And you don't be such a high-handed, uncaring jerk!" sheretorted, "you are always so insensitive!" She shouted back.

 As a few vehicles passed them on the road, he tookhold of her arm and pulled her away from the path toward a big banyan tree onthe side. "What do you mean?" His tone was menacing.

You have been ignoring me all evening! Shewanted to shout but she couldn't, so in desperate attempt to cover up, sheprevaricated. "The way you spoke about Srijit," she referred to theweek-old conversation, "that he should be seeing a psychiatrist and allthat."

"Why are you bringingthat up now?" Arnav looked nonplussed. "Is that what you are angryabout right now?" he asked angrily.

"Can't you have somesympathy for him?" she asked, "he nearly drowned that otherday."

     "Khushi, the boy was just actingup."

 "He wasn't acting up!" She said,"He came to me for help and I turned him away!"

"Does that mean heshould walk into the ocean without a care in the world?"

"You don't understand athing about human emotions, do you?" Khushi asked him, "do you knowwhat happens when a person is heartbroken? How would you know? You have only broken countless hearts did youbreak Rashmi's heart as well?"

"Khushi!" Arnavtook a step toward her.

Khushi took a step backwardbut she couldn't seem to stop her words. "But I can see you are trying tomake it up to her now," she said, "helping her with her business,with the litigation problems -- that's a good way to patch up with her betterlate than never " Khushi couldn't continue as her eyes filled with tears."You know what I am tired and I" she turned around and began towalk away.

In the next moment, Arnavgrabbed her hand, pulled her flush against his body, bent his head and capturedher lips before she could utter another word. Khushi went completely still asan electric jolt went right to the pit of her stomach. His mouth was rough onher, but she didn't feel even a bit repulsive, on the contrary she reveled init, feeling the wild beat of his heart under her palm. This raw feeling shockedher to the core. Afraid to reveal this side of her, she stood still, trying hardto appear impassive to the onslaught.

Arnav let go of her wrist to wraphis hand around her waist, while his other hand brushed through her hair tohold the back of her head for a better grip.

When his lips touched hers again,they were gentle, taking turns with her upper and bottom lip, his tonguegrazing her lips ever so lightly. No longer being able to hold on to her resolve,Khushi surrendered to him, and opened her lips of her own volition. He dartedhis tongue inside to explore the moist caverns of her mouth while his hand ather waist pulled her even closer, causing liquid heat to pool at her core. Asher knees threatened to buckle, she clutched at his shoulder for support. Ashis lips continued to devour her, his hands moved from her hair down to herupper back, to slip into the sheer lace, snapping the hook that held it together.

"Sorry!" hewhispered as he raised his head, but Khushi looked back at him unaware of whathad happened.

At that moment, his phonerang shrilly. It was Rashmi. Arnav cut the call and said, "It's too latenow," his eyes bore into hers like hot coals. "I think Manav will belooking for us to take us for that damn ice cream." He took her hand inhis and began to walk as Khushi followed him too dumbstruck to utter a singleword.

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Yourfeedback is what motivates me to write so keep them coming. Thanks.charlotte742019-04-23 20:12:10