Chapter 3

    

He picked one with a lot of curiosity,he wanted answers for his questions,n he felt that these diary might contain answers to his question.Opening the diary he found the name "RIDDHIMA GUPTA" engraved on the first page amidst a lot of decoration.

They were few photographs pasted in the first few pages,names written beneath them,n few dried petals.There were many photographs of three people named, Parikshit Seth,Shilpa Seth n Riddhima Gupta. He looked at the one named Riddhima Gupta,she looked familiar to him than shilpa in the photographs.Though shilpa and Riddhima looked the same there were few differences which he culd see,riddhima looked more familiar to him than shilpa did in the photographs. He turned the pages curiously.

~~~

May 16

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I?

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

- Robert Frost.

The Road Not Taken.

The road not taken,why is that u seem so right to me, so inspiring that I cannot forget u even after so many years of my reading u in my syllabus.

U have always been able to inspire me to do different things. I have always tried to do different things. I have done it yet again n I am happy I did it. I have joined the course I always thought of being an archaeologist, less oppurtunity might be in India but still possible while my sister shilpa has opted to do fashion designing. Hope we both do well in our own courses.

Goodnight,now I am sleepy.

Aug 16

It has exactly been 3 months since we joined in the college. I am having a very good time here, learning to excavating new things, finding out age of the things found in excavations. Learning the most amazing things.

We have a field trip this weekend. I am really very excited about it, it would be very interesting analyzing things, knowing about periods when they actually existed. We are going to the museum, It might seem childish but it is not. There we are going to see some special things that has been excavated and we are gonna learn a lot about it. I heard that they have just recently discovered coins belonging to the nanda dynasty,the powerful dynasty of the ancient India. It wuld be quiet interesting to know more about them. They say that the coins were of gold, bronze and silver. The gold being the most precious then the silver then comes the bronze which Is still being followed. There are pictures of the kings then on the coins.beautifully engraved and designed. Its quiet amazing the people in those ages managed to do quiet brilliant things which seems impossible now without the machines.

Also we are going to learn about medieval history. Did u know rocket science principle was first implemented by tipu sultan in his attacks over the british with his weapons,however that has gone unnoticed.

Huh! ok enough with the history n everything,now I am sleepy. Good night.

~~~

"Uncle,uncle" khushi shouted shaking armaan to wake him up. All elders are like this, too sleepy fellows khushi thought hitting her forehead lightly, again moving him with her tiny hands. "Goodmorning" he said slightly sitting on the couch rubbing his eyes,yawning. He stopped yawning abruptly looking at khushi who was standing before him with folded hands looking at him with raised eyebrows. He looked down, "kya uncle,aap bhi itna sote ho"she said looking disappointed. She was behaving like a grown up. As her mother left for work, she felt like being the only lady in the house ,the responsibility of the whole house on her. She moved up n down the room as if thinking what to do with him, while he was thinking how he slept on the couch,his back was aching now,he definitely didn't plan to sleep on the couch, instead he thought of slipping beside khushi on the bed. His eyes then saw the diary lying down,n he remembered how he was reading it when he suddenly fell asleep after the brief history class. Who wouldn't sleep when history is there as it is big mystery n not an interesting story. He came out of his thoughts when he heard khushi say "aapko sazaa deni hogi,hmm?kya deh" she thought seriously with hands under her chin. While armaan sat there in silence letting her do what she was doing. He was enjoying looking at her with varied expressions, ekdum nautanki hai,he thought. "Theek hai,mujhe ek bada sa chocolate jahiye, aur phir aur ek chocolate chahiye, aur phir ek icecream chahiye ek chocolate,ek vanilla,ek strawberry??.." and she counted all the flavours on the fingers. "Accha?.."he got up picking her up tickling her while she laughed.

~~~

Leaving khushi at kindergarden was a big work,he thought sitting at his desk. She was really a handful. She made him run around the house thrice before she got ready sorry,before he got her ready to go to the KG. She wuldn't let him brush her hair, said her mother thought her to get ready,n he believed it while she just emptied all her mother's scent onto herself n pretended to take a bath while she just pumped water onto the walls. It took him more than an hour to clean her up washing away that perfume smell off her. She cried a lot abt her dress too, first she asked for pink gown then said it's so routine everygirl wuld wear it,n then went for blue n then for brown then peache oh god he lost count of the number of dresses lying in the bedroom now,he groaned as he remembered he needed to put them back into the wadrobe all pressed n neat. Oh! God I never worked like even in my own house He thought. Flashes of the messy house came before him as he groaned n hit himself on the desk.

"So Mr.Armaan. Finally got time to come to the office."

Armaan looked up his eyebrow arched n only one thing in his mind. This shouldn't be sapna,the great.please god,not now. But disappointed was he as he looked up to find there with a stern face n a file in her hand. "Mam,it's ?.that I ?I ?."he struggled for words. "Ok,leave it. I am in no mood to listen to any of ur excuses. I am out for a meeting, till I come back I want ur assignment to be on my desk. Did u get it?" she said snapping her fingers with attitude. "But mam, u asked me to submit it by day after tomorrow, then why now."he asked cursing his day. "Well, it's my office,isn't it. So it's my decision. If I say I need it right now,I need it then. U work it my way here. Don't u."she said walking away shouting " I need it when I come back."

"Oh no." he banged his head to the desk cursing his day, first he slept on the couch giving him a back ache, he culd still feel his back stiff. And then he had to deal with khushi, loving she might be but mischievous at the same time,he didn't have the resistance to handle it. And as a topping to his freshly baked cake he needed to complete his assignment on the evolution in the fashion.The only icing on all this was the conversation he had with shilpa that morning after he left khushi at the KG. She enquired abt khushi, he boasted himself of being capable to handle her. She hanged on as she said she wuld call later the day as she had to attend to something important.

~~~

"Oh!God.One more hour n she wuld be back. N I haven't even written a page." He thought looking at all the papers he had. He had researched for his column but now putting all of them together was really hard that too with the time constraint,he really culdn't think of anything to write.

"Don't worry armaan, u can do this" sumit the helpful man assured him patting him,placing the cup of coffee on the desk. "Thanks man,that was really needed." He said sarcastically. " I knew it was needed, after all the pages u have thrown, I felt if I didn't stop u we wuld run out of papers.Needed to save the papers. U see" he replied winking at armaan moving away While armaan sheepishly smiled at him shrugging his shoulders looking at the pile of thrown papers. All crumpled dancing before him teasing him. "Ah,this won't do. I think i wuld relax for half an hour n then i might get some idea."

He stretched himself circling in his chair. He remembered abt shilpa's diary that he was carrying in his pocket.and took it out. Let me read it, thoda relaxation toh hoga.It's interesting to read a girl's diary,sirf usme history classes nahi hona chahiye.

~~~

"Mr.Armaan,Mr.Armaan.."

He woke up as someone nudged him,shouting his name. He rubbed his eyes,he looked around trying to make out where he was.

"Where am i?" he wondered aloud not able to make out the place where he was.

"Well, Mr.Armaan.This is ur house,why don't u stretch up while I get coffee for u" she said calmly.

"Oh, that wuld be so sweet of u" he said feeling light,he still didn't get where he was. Thanking the lady he turned around and was shocked beyond words to see her.

"Armaan, u idiot.this is not ur house that u could sleep, this is my office, the fashion magazine's office. U r here to work n not to sleep. Did u get it?" she shouted at him. Armaan could see fumes coming out of her ears n nostrils, a more minute she wuld have been there he wuld have surely used the fire extinguisher on her.

As she left the place he looked around to see the whole staff giggling at him.

"Armaan tumhe mam bhula rahi hai."sumit informed him as he passed by giving him a pitiable look.

Armaan checked out his watch,there was only 2 min to submit his column as she asked earlier in the morning. He groaned as it dawned on to him, that he slept again reading the diary,he cursed shilpa for writing such a diary,Shilpa kya yaar tumhara diary mujhe itna neend de laa raha hai.ispe koyi sleeping charm lagadiya hai kya,mujhe sleeping beauty dikhane keliye.Waise mei toh sleeping beauty banjaau lekin sapna beast banjayeegi.mujhe toh waise bhi neend aagayi,aur yeh sapna mujhe kaccha chaba jayegi.koyi raasta nahi hai abhi bachne ka.

He moved towards the cabin,knocking at the door he only prayed to get out of this mess,he was sure she wuld sack him.

"Well, Mr.Armaan, Your column "the customary bride" has received good appreciation from all our readers. Our partners want u to come up with someother interesting topic for our next grand jubilee edition of the magazine. So get onto it" she said not even looking at him. Armaan let out a sigh of relief. Phew!that was a close shave.he thought and turned around to leave when sapna again spoke, "don't think I have forgotten of what I have asked of in the morning armaan, but I can clearly make out that u haven't written anything, so how about u submitting both the articles by day after tomorrow."she said cocking her eyebrows. "Mam,both the articles"he asked puzzled. "yes,Mr.Armaan. Both the articles, the evolution one and the new articles for the jubilee edition" she said moving in her chair with the pen in her hand. "Yes,yes maam" he answered,atleast he got out for this time,he thought.

Coming out the room he let out a big sigh of relief, he showed thumbsup to sumit who was looking at him. Sumit smiled and went back to his work.

"Hello, Armaan Mallik speaking from the fashion magazine"he answered the call that came on the office telephone.

"Why the hell is ur cell switched off?" she shouted.

"Excuse me" he said politely

"Armaan, it's me shilpa. Why is ur cell switched off?" she asked this time a little bit coolly, calming down her nerves.

"Shilpa,?" he said amazed checking his cell. It was switched off when he didn't know.

"sorry just don't know how it got switched off. So how did the interview go?" he asked brightened by a call of her.

"Armaan, I have still not got the interview, I am waiting for them, they are in the church right now" she said.

"OH!How's the wedding, grand I suppose?"he asked collecting all his papers.

"Ah,yes grand n beautiful. Well, I called to ask about Khushi, Have u got her back from the KG?" she asked enthusiastically.

"Khushi" he whispered,his eyes widened with shock. He checked his watch,it was 2:00. OH!God I forgot about khushi, I need to get her back. I hope someone looks after her at the KG. what shall I say to shilpa now. She would be so angry on me.

"Shilpa, I just got some important work, I will call to u a little later." He said hurriedly and without waiting for a reply hung up the phone.

"Sumit, I will just return in an hour please can u manage sapna."he pleaded sumit to cover up for him.

"Ok, don't worry I will tell her u have gone to get some hot chicks" he said teasingly while armaan raised his eyebrows.

"For the photoshoot, what did u think I will say? Pwff" sumit said moving his hands lightly. "u and ur crazy ideas armaan"saying so he moved away.

"Tujhe toh mei baad mei dekh lunga saale," he murmered to himself breaking into a run Pehle toh mujhe khushi ko laana hoga.