Chapter 4

                               (A)

"Armaan,how could u forget. Wat would have happened if I didn't call u?" shilpa shouted for the umpteenth time at him.

"Shilpa, I am sorry,sorry. I was just little held up,I forgot yaar."he apologized again making a puppy face, while khushi giggled at him. When he reached the KG he found her playing, he felt relieved. Getting her home back was another great task as she wuldn't sit quietly on the bike. She shouted, stretched herself enjoying herself. He had to worry abt her a lot. Leaving her at anjali's place he went back to the office. After a hectic day at office with sapna ready to spank him he returned home and now he has been trying to apologise to shilpa for the last one hour but she was repeating the same thing like a parrot. "tota"he murmured under his breath.

"Armaan mai tumse baat kar rahi hu" she shouted once again.

"Shilpa maine bhi sorry tumse hi kaha hai, iss phone se nahi"he frustratedly shouted at her.

"Accha pehle galati karo phir chillao,huh?"

"Maine sorry kaha na shilpa, abh maaf bhi kardo. Yaha khushi hass rahi hai mujhpar. Thodi toh bacche ke saamne izzat karo" he said pleadingly.

"tumhe kabse fikr hogayi inn sab ki" she asked teasingly

"Shilpa yaar abh taang mat keech, pehle sehi taka hua hu.aaj office mei bahut kaam tha" he said knowing her tone.

"Accha baba srry. Bahut kaam tha aaj office mei. Accha theek hai khushi ko phone do" she said

"Hello mumma.Aap kaisi ho?"little khushi squealed in excitement once she got the phone from his hands

"Mai theek hu baby, aap kaise ho. Uncle ko tang nahi kar rahi ho na?" she asked sweetly/

"Mai theek hu, uncle accha hi qayal rakh rahe hai. Mai uncle ko bilkul tang nahi kar rahi" she said innocently flickering her eyes. Armaan smiled at her antics.

"Accha baby, mai kal raat ko aajao gi.aap apna qayal rakhna theek hai. Mumma loves u a lot baby" she said her voice quivering.

"Mumma, aap rou mat mei theek hu,uncle hai na. Khushi also loves mumma." She said sweetly assuring her mother.

"Khushi,now enough of watching tv,u should sleep now."armaan called looking up from his laptop he was working on.

"No uncle I want to see more. See pucca Is coming now. I can't miss it. Please uncle"she fluttered her eyelashes at him innocently. But there was no way he was going to fall for that.

"No,khushi u need to get into the  bed" he said  strictly this time.

" Ok,Uncle but u need to tell me a story,my mom tell one each day" she said getting into his arms.

"Khushi I can't.u slept yesterday without any story right" he said hoping her to understand that he was very poor at telling stories.

"Yesterday u let me watch the tv but now uhu…"she pouted her lips.

"Ok baba fine"he finally agreed tucking her in the bed.

" Once upon a time there was a king, he had 7 sons. Once they all went for fishing and got 1 fish each. They put it in the sun to dry but one didn't dry. The prince asked the fish when it didn't dry, it said the heap of grass has come In my way to the sun, the prince wnet and asked the grass heap why it came in the way. The grass heap said the cow didn't eat me that's why.The prince went and asked the cow why it didn't eat the grass. The cow answered raju didn't leave me to eat it. So the prince went to raju and asked him why he didn't leave the cow to eat the grass. Raju said that the ant bit him. The prince asked the ant why it bit raju. The ant said if u keep ur hand in my anthill I wouldn't bite u??and left the place. Haha…the end" he said putting the covers over her.

"Uncle do u call it a story" giving him a look.

"Hmm……….now enough khushi just sleep. U wanted a story and I told u. Please sleep now,please" he beeged getting on to his knees by her side. He was really tired. He knew shilpa would again burst on him if he didn't get her to sleep.

"hehe…….ok Uncle."she giggled at his state and closed her eyes. She enjoyed teasing him, troubling him. He was so sweet to her all the time, he handled her with delicacy and hadn't shouted till now.

After what seemed to be several hours he took his eyes off his laptop fully tired. Finally he had succeeded in completing the articles for the magazine. The article seemed perfect and flawless as he skimmed it for the last time. "Ah! I am finally done with it. Now time for some relaxation" he put his head back to rest. Glimpses of the day came back to him, his running after khushi and everything came back to him. However tough handling khushi might be but he loved her, her mischievous ways. A smile formed on his face as he remembered it. He remembered how he slept reading shilpa's diary. Far most it was the most boring book he has read, bt still he was willing to read it as he felt it could unleash the secrets of her past. He was willing to know who the people in the photographs were,about her twin sister. He grabbed the book which was in his pocket and made himself comfortable on the bed ready to read the book once again hoping this time he doesn't sleep out of bore.

~~

" Hi,diary no not diary,my heart,that's what i decided to call u right a lot time back,as i  poured out my heart into you,i shared my happiness with u,everytime i had something important or happiness which i could n't hold,i used to tell u,but now u are much more u will be my secret keeper,who holds all my reality,my identity and everything. Now i'm giving my life to you. The life of Riddhima Gupta,who is long lost in a real life game,The lady who plays shilpa....."

He turned the pages curiosity as he read it. It was confusing for him. Why was she calling herself Riddhima Gupta. Then where is Shilpa. He was confused.

      "Finally we shifted to Mumbai leaving back the past in Delhi. Me and Khushi to start a new life.I hope happiness to prevail into our lives as I cannot break loss of precious people. It's painful to remember the past but still a way of relieving urself is accepting it as empheral images play before u in ur sleep. And that's what I am doing right now relieving my pain.

                  The game me n my sister shilpa used to play with my mother,has now become my reality,always we used to fool our mom switching ourselves. My mother padma bhansali, a strong independent lady, cheated my a man she so dearly loved,but never lost any hope,never has she been weak,always been strong,stood for herself and for her children. She has no support,lost support of her parents,n sister smriti after she left them for the man she loved. The imbecile who left her,who ditched her. She never tried getting back to her parents,as she knew she has hurt them through her act,n it was only she who has to pay back for what she has done,she was never going to ask them for help. She singled handedly raised us and has given us all the luxuries we needed. We never mentioned of the person who ditched my mother. We were happy the way we were, a happy threesome.

Mom always used to say never lie,it's a sin,i followed her never in my life has i lied,never even in my difficult fixing times, but now i am lying to the whole world,i don't know how big sin it is,but i am commiting it. It's for the happiness of someone, for the living of someone.

(Hmm a touchy sentiments shilpa. Its still confusing for me. You are shilpa or riddhima.) 

I still remember the day shilpa told me of her love, she was so excited abt him. She said she met him in the college, he was a engineering student. When destined things happen and they met rather  coincidentially initially and became friends,after which they realized they had somefeelings for eachother which were beyond the line of friendship,called love. She introduced me to  him, his name parikshit sial. He was decent looking, tall and handsome. They made a cute couple. He was a bit reserved and calm, I seriously doubted how he must have confessed to her, but then again I got the answer it was shilpa who confessed first. She is like that lively, lovely,outspoken. She speaks her mind. She is quiet opinionated, has opinions on everything, and no one could tarnish them. She is extremely talented and had the courage to speak what she felt. I trusted her judgement as I know her better.     

(Finally confirmed u are riddhima. Shilpa is ur sister and parikshit her love. Now u playing shilpa confusing heck confusing)

My mom was bit apprehensive initially thinking of her own life but after meeting parikshit all her doubts vanished. She was happy with the choice of her daughter. But the real problem was with parikshit parents. They weren't ready for the marriage, They had already talked of his marriage to a well known family who offered them a hefty amount as dowry. Now that's what I call idiotism. Those people were bloody worried abt dowry, can't they see the love of their son. All they wanted was money. Parikshit left his parents for his love. He left them. My mom though apprehensive initially gave in as he pleaded that he wuld take good care of shilpa, he loved her and can't live without her. What could be more happy thing for us, he loved her a lot and would surely keep her happy. They got married, without much extravagance. They got settled well in  their professional life, while I too got a job in my desired field of archaeology.

( u wouldn't be apprehensive after such a drastic experience. So parikshit married to shilpa,against his parents wishes. Dowry, the root cause. U an archaelogist woah! Someone pinch me. Happy till now. Got it. Wat happened next)

Everything was well, they were happy. I was happy with my own life and theirs too. They had a baby the following year and we named her khushi as she brought new set of happiness in our lives. My mom was happy for them and me too. She wanted me too to settle down, She decided to search for some guys herself as I showed no interest. Finally she found out the eligible bachelor for me, his name is sumit. He was stock exchanged analyst. He was handsome and was a lone son of his parents. He was quiet, but was surely a charmer. Had good sense of humor and was comfortable to speak to. I agreed as I didn't find anything wrong in him. He seemed perfect to me.

(So khushi daughter of shilpa and parikshit. U liked some freak called sumit huh! U said no to me. What's bad in me huh! U are surely  not as clever as ur sister is,look she found the best for herselves and u can't even see one who is before u. Huh! Ok I will deal with it later first need to know the rest of the story.)