Chapter 26
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[MEMBERSONLY]
[NOCOPY]
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Valley of Flowers ' Chapter 25
Part - 1
TWO weeks later, Anjali sat in the park
outside Ashray talking to Manav. 'I am worried about Arnav. Since he came back
from the police station last week, he is behaving strangely. 'What exactly
happened there Manav?'
After one week of running to and fro to the police station, the SP had
finally been forthright with him. He had told him that Shyam hadn't confessed
to kidnapping Khushi in spite of the third-degree they had meted out to him.
They believed that he was telling the truth. He was being shifted to Tihar
after which he would be awaiting trial for the murder of his father. They had
also found the remainder of the fifty lakh rupees stashed away in his house.
Then the SI had told him that since there was no foul play in Khushi's
disappearance, he would either have to wait for his wife to come back to him or
go looking for her in places she was likely to go after a fight.
'This is ridiculous!' Arnav exclaimed banging his fist on the table. 'I
am sure Shyam is lying.'
'Sir, he has nothing to lose now, why would he lie?' The
SP was trying to be patient.
'You don't know him like we do.' Arnav insisted.
'I beg to disagree Mr Raizada,' he countered. 'We have been dealing with
criminals all our lives. Have you considered the fact that your wife wants some
time off to think?' The inspector said gravely.
Arnav sat back a little taken aback with the suggestion. His eyes blazed
with fury. 'You are just not trying hard enough.'
The inspector's temper rose up. 'We don't usually interfere in domestic
disputes Mr Raizada. We have better things to take care of. How can you be so
sure she wants to be found?'
'I thought Arnav was going to hit him,' Manav
chuckled.'I calmed him down and brought him home.'
Anjali was surprised. 'Is that why he is
behaving like this? He goes to work in the morning, comes back late at night.
He hasn't been eating well. I think he has been drinking. When I tried talking
to him, he completely closed up. He isn't even searching for Khushi.' She added
anxiously.
'It's a delayed reaction to everything that
has happened Anjali. I think he is feeling guilty.'
'It was mom who caused all this.'
'That is exactly why he feels guilty,'
explained Manav. 'In the past five years, Arnav has lived with the belief that
Khushi betrayed him for her career. He thought he was the victim. Now he
suddenly finds out that Khushi was innocent all along. He blames himself.'
'He shouldn't.' Her face creased with
concerned.
'Well, I don't know the depth of the
relationship they shared at the time, but considering their age, I can only
surmise that it was still in a nascent stage.
Arnav and you come from a broken home and hence you both have serious
trust issues.'
'Me?' Anjali was taken aback.
'Yes, you as well. Your relationship with
Shyam was based on duty rather than trust and sharing. In spite of being in a
marriage you have tried not to depend on your husband for anything. You knew
all this and felt guilty. If Shyam was a good husband he would have tried to
earn your trust, with patience and understanding. But he played on your guilt
and took advantage of you.'
As Anjali remained silent, he continued. 'This
inherent distrust in relationships probably caused Arnav to hold back all those
years ago. Khushi didn't know where she stood with Arnav at the time, whether
she meant anything to him at all. That is why she couldn't come to him when
your mother asked her to leave.'
'It makes sense,' Anjali agreed. 'But from
what I could see of them in the last few months -- they love each other immensely Manav.
'I don't understand why Khushi left him like
this. What sort of love is that?'
'Anjali, I understand that you feel for Arnav
' he is your brother and it is quiet natural,' he said patiently. 'But from a
neutral stand point, this is what I think. From what I heard from Garimaji and
Buaji the other day, it is pretty clear that Khushi has had an abusive
childhood. She probably thought that she could gain their love by pleasing
them. She has been doing that all her life and probably doesn't know where to
draw the line.
'Five years ago she left Arnav not only
because she could protect her dad from going to jail, but also because she
probably felt that your mother was right and she didn't deserve a person like
him.
'Now she left so she could protect Arnav from
having to face the truth about your mother, her mother. It's in her nature
Anjali.
'I can't bear to see him like this Manav.'
'He will be fine,' Manav smiled at her
affectionately. 'He just needs some time to think. He will figure it all out.
Don't worry.'
Arnav stood in the garden at the farm house, a
glass of vodka martini in his hand and Khushi's diary in the other. Where are you Khushi? He asked silently.
It had been three weeks since Khushi had left. The first week he had been so
sure that Shyam would disclose where he had hidden Khushi. When that hadn't
turned up any results, he had spent the next week in denial that Khushi had
indeed left him. And then anger took over. Had she really gone to Mumbai? He
wasn't going let her get away with it this time.
He had
flown to Mumbai determined to carry her back on his shoulder, tied up and
gagged if the need be. He had somehow tracked down her roommate, only to find
out that Khushi hadn't contacted her either. She was sure that Khushi had not
come to Mumbai as she not heard anything from her friends circle. After, a
couple of days he realized that Khushi was definitely not in Mumbai.
A dread began to form in his heart. Was the SP
right? Didn't Khushi want to be found?
He had come to the farm house in desperate
need of some peace.But standing in the garden reminded him of the day he had
first brought Khushi here, on the night of Akash's bachelor party.
How exhilarated she was to see the beautiful flowers.
Oh my God, Arnav this is just beautiful'
Histhoughts went back to the night of the
Dandia when he had seen her dancing gracefully. He had been drawn to her instantly,
but had been trying to fight his attraction for her, first with indifference
and then rudeness but she had broken down all his defences one by one. Once he
had given in to his impulses and kissed her on the night of Diwali, he had had
a tough time keeping his hands off her.
He looked beyond to the banyan tree that had
been witness to his first intimate moments with Khushi. After the implicit
trust that she had shown that night, why had he so easily accepted that she had
betrayed him?
That night, Khushi had confessed her love for
him, but he had not reciprocated.He had realized how much Khushi had come to mean
to him but he had procrastinated the decision of letting her know. This
decision had to lead to the chain of events where Khushi was forced to leave
everything she held dear -- in the blink
of an eye.
He
tried to imagine the mental trauma the young eighteen year old girl might have
gone through when his mother had confronted her on the day of Akash and Payal's
wedding. He recalled the entire day in minute detail.
She had ignored him and had concentrated on
talking to some boy from Lucknow. Then he had witnessed Buaji's embarrassing
rantings against mami regarding some gift. Already irked by Khushi's erratic
behaviour, when Lavanya had teased him about Buaji becoming his mother-in-law
he had blown his top --
Akash is a big fool to be getting married into a low class family like
that
Had she heard him talking to Lavanya? No
wonder she had brought that up in a conversation they had when he confronted
her under the stairs, pushed her against the wall and kissed her against her
will.
'If you are done, can I go now?'
'I should have known not to engage with -- '
'A low class girl like me!Is that what your mom taught you?'
'Don't you dare bring her up! You don't even know her.'
It
was he who didn't know his mother. A woman
who had traumatized an innocent girl, playing on her weakness ' her obligation
toward her foster family.
She
had not told her parents about the fraudulent papers. She didn't want to face
the remote chance that the accusation might have been true. What a dilemma for
a young girl to face. Her sister's wedding was at stake, the likelihood of her
father going to jail ' all these critical decision at a time when she should
have had the freedom to grow and spread her wings.
She
had probably agreed to leave when his mom had threatened her with breaking up Payal's
wedding. But his mom hadn't stopped at that. She had further blackmailed the
poor girl with fraudulent papers. Why?
As
he kept staring at the plants he realized it. Of course! It was the same afternoon, hours before Akash and
Payal's wedding that he had revealed to her that he loved Khushi. She had
hugged him then and told him everything would be alright. But all she had been
doing was plotting to send Khushi away from him. He threw the glass against a
tree in anger. How could his mother do
that to him?
Later that evening, Khushi had completely
avoided him. He had been so angry with her that after the wedding, he had
insulted her by slapping Rs 10,000 on her hand for Akash's slippers. A knife
twisted in his heart as he remembered the tear that had trickled down her cheek
from her already red eyes. He had wanted to drag her to himself and wipe away
the stricken look on her face but he had let his temper rule him. He had walked
away.
Even
after five years, in spite of his mother being gone, Khushi had refused to let
it out once that it was his mother who had sent her away. She knew how much it
would hurt him. But she had tried to tell him, hadn't she?
He
wouldn't listen.
Don't mention my mother
Khushi or I don't know what I will do.
F@#$!
He had incessantly tortured her with insults about her relationship with NK.
After
their marriage, Khushi had only been giving. On the night of his father's thirteenth
day, she had given herself to him -- no questions asked -- only to comfort him.
During the argument they had about NK she hadn't hesitated to declare her love
for him openly. She had come looking for him driving all the way to the farm
house with a box of kalmi kabab which she had learnt only for him. She had
ardently kissed away his nightmares and listened to him when he had poured his
heart out about his father.
He
remembered their conversation after the nightmare.
He had never been able
to forget her'
He could never love her
because of this woman'
She was very hurt by his
betrayal.
There
was only one reason she had left him now. She believed that her mother had been
responsible for destroying his parent's marriage. She was also probably worried
herself to death thinking their relationship might be a forbidden one as that
b@#$%^ had insinuated. And Khushi being Khushi, she had taken it upon herself
to protect him from this ugly truth.
And why would she stay back and share this
fear with him? He had held back the one thing she probably craved to hear.Three simple words.
He
hit his hand against the bark, but the sharp stinging pain did nothing to
assuage the one in his heart. As he sat down to read her diary again, it hit
him. Khushi had mentioned her great grandmother's house near Dehradun. What if she
was stuck in that calamity ridden state?
His
heart pounding wildly, he called
his mother-in-law to get the exact location of her great grandmother's house
and found out that it was Govind Ghat. He called the help line numbers and
heard with dread that the river flowing in the The Valley of Flowers had wiped
out the valley and surrounding areas. His heart almost stopped when he realized
that Govind Ghat was quiet close. Since they didn't have any information about
Khushi, he decided that there was only one way to find out.
After driving through the night, Arnav
finally reached Gauchar in the early hours of the day. Gauchar was the base
camp from where all the rescue operations were being organized by the Indian
army.He had found out from the authorities that there was a chopper headed
toward Joshimath as they had just received information about many pilgrims who
were stranded there. He requested them to drop him off there and that he would
manage to get to Govind Ghat by himself. In spite of their strong warning not
to take this risk he brow beat them into acceding. He had set out on this
journey based on an intuition. He was not going to back out now.
In Joshimath, with that
help of a local boy Gopal, who had promised to take him on a short cut, Arnav
hiked up the slippery, rocky terrain. The landscape looked fiery in its
devastation 'nature's response to intruders who were trying to invade and
destroy. Resilient andfull of hope thateach step would take him a little closer
to Khushi, he trudged on.
After scaling a treacherous rocky hillock,
they had finally reached Govind Ghat by midday. Then he had to walk a few more
kilometres toward Gangharia. With the directions that Garima gave him, he managed
to find the little house that belonged to Khushi's great grandmother. He
stepped inside and smiled with relief when he saw the lamp lit by Devi Maiyya's
idol. Khushi had to be here.
A little later, he found Khushi standing
under a tree, a little distance from the house. The pain of the entire journey
melted away in seconds when he saw her, looking as beautiful as ever. He had
always wondered why people took so much pain to take treacherous journeys to
visit holy places or climb mountains. Now
he knew.
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