Chapter 6

Naina woke up with a start when the car stopped outside their house, realising that she had fallen asleep against Raj's shoulder on the way.

Sitting up straight, she apologised to him sheepishly. "Sorry about that, I didn't mean to take your shoulder as my pillow!'

"It's perfectly fine," Raj assured her, "I was asleep for most of the journey anyway, so I didn't even notice until the car was stopping."

Naina stretched as she got out of the car, her legs still sore from their long climb up the mountain. Everybody helped carry the picnic things back inside and then it was agreed that they should all have a shower before changing into their good clothes for the evening. Within half an hour they were all back in the lounge room, showered and dressed, the girls complimenting the guys on how they looked in their kurta pyjamas, and the guys telling the girls how nice their salwar kameez was. Since everybody was tired from the morning trip, they decided to have a quiet afternoon playing carom and cards and listening to music.

Navin and Tanu arranged it so that they were always on the same team, which meant that Raj and Naina would have to play together. There was much laughing and accusations of cheating as each side tried to win the games, and for once Navin and Tanisha didn't worry too much about their mission, happy to just enjoy the afternoon, and seeing that Raj and Naina were enjoying each others' company.

It was when it got dark that the real fun began, as they brought out the crackers and sparklers. While Mr and Mrs Ahluwalia were content to simply spin some sparklers, the young people set off cracker after cracker, sometimes even shooting rockets into the air. It was then that Navin and Tanu truly forgot about their mission in the excitement, laughing and enjoying themselves.

If they had paid a bit more attention, then they might have noticed the expression on Raj's face when he watched Naina laughing, her face lit up by the glow of a sparkler. Raj shook his head as if to clear it and turned away. He had realised that Naina was pretty the first time that he met her, but he hadn't been expecting how beautiful she would look by the light of the sparklers and crackers. He smiled to himself but realised that he shouldn't be thinking in this way, after all, she was his best friend's little sister.

It was then that a cracker going off too close next to Naina made her take a step backwards, stumbling into Raj. Reaching out, he steadied her, grabbing her arms while she regained her footing.

"Thanks," Naina told him with a smile that would've melted his heart if it happened already.

Too distracted to notice any of this, Navin and Tanu weren't aware that the first part of their plan was already a success.

Slowly but surely, Raj was beginning to fall in love.

**

The next morning everybody woke up quite late, tired out from their late night. By the time they had woken up, Mr and Mrs Ahluwalia had already completed the traditional aartis of the day, including the ones that a wife will do for her husband.

"So Ma, what did you get?" Naina asked her mother cheekily, and then oohed and aahhed as her mother showed off a new gold bracelet.

Naina cleared her throat, as if she was reminding somebody to do something, when nobody responded she nudged her brother and hissed "Navin!", suddenly remembering Naina's plan from a few days ago, Navin emerged from out of his daze, nodding at her.

"So Tanu, aren't you going to apply a tikka for me?" he asked her teasingly, knowing very well that it was something wives usually did for husbands on this day.

"Yes go on, Tanu!" Naina encouraged her, "You're going to be my Bhabi sooner or later, you might as well start practicing now!"

Looking quite shy to be doing it, especially in front of so many people, Tanu took the aarti plate from Navin's mother and applied a tikka to Navin's forehead as the rest of them started clapping.

"Just one minute," Navin told her, and then dashed into his room, coming out with the small parcel that he had secretly bought with Naina when they went shopping on the first day. Grinning proudly, he presented the box to Tanu, who was quite overwhelmed with surprise. She hadn't realised that Navin could be so romantic as to have planned all this. Opening the box, she saw a beautiful gold chain with a heart shaped locket with both of their initial engraved on it.

"Oh Navin, it's beautiful!" she gushed, forgetting that the rest of his family were there and reaching out to hug him.

"Well I think that I should get at least a little bit of the credit!" Naina complained, "The idea might have been Navin's, but I helped choose it!"

"Thanks Naina!" Tanu told her gratefully, turning to hug her.

Raj sighed melodramatically, "So there you go, now everybody in the household has a tikka except me."

"Naina can apply one for you." Navin said just a little bit too quickly, then stifled the urge to hit himself in the forehead. He knew that this comment was taking it just a bit too far.

Raj's expression looked as if he had just choked on something, he turned so red. Naina just burst out laughing.

"Nice one, Bhaiyya," she told him, "Look how much you've embarrassed Raj." Then taking some pity on him, knowing how embarrassed he really was about his earlier joke turning out like this, she quickly applied a tikka to his forehead.

Raj turned even redder if that was possible, seeing the shocked (and secretly delighted) looks on Navin and Tanisha's faces, Naina just shrugged.

"What?" she asked them in disbelief, "It doesn't mean that we're going to get married or anything." It was lucky that she didn't notice the looks on Navin and TAnu's faces right then. She paused then, addressing Raj, "But ha, I do want a gift in return for doing this."

"Well obviously I don't have anything on me, as well, I hadn't planned on this happening, but if you insist we can go and buy something later."

"Of course I insist!" Naina told him teasingly, relieved that at last the red colour was fading from Raj's face. "Nothing big of course, but you can at least buy me some new chappals!"

"You and your chappals…." Navin muttered under his breath, but it was more affectionate than annoyed. He couldn't believe how well this had all turned out, surely this was a sign of good things to come.

**

Later in the day after lunch, as promised, Raj took Naina shopping for chappals. When he had told her to get ready to go, she had told him that she was only joking and that he didn't really have to take her to get anything. It took Raj awhile to convince her that he was actually happy to go shopping with her, and only then would Naina leave the house with him. It was after a great deal of pushing from both Navin and Tanisha that they finally got out the door.

"It's my fault for making such a stupid comment this morning," Raj told her, "I should've known better."

"It's okay," Naina told him, "I know that it was just a joke, it was Navin's fault for making it even more embarrassing."

Raj nodded "If there's one thing that Navin knows how to do, it's how to embarrass me terribly."

By now they had reached the shoe shop and were wandering aimlessly as Naina looked for a pair that she liked, trying not to choose anything that would be too expensive.

"Well however embarrassing it was for you, at least this morning turned out well for Navin and Tanu."

"Of course," Raj replied, "It's good that he found her, otherwise he would've kept flirting with every girl in sight. I'm betting that they'll get married within a few weeks of graduation. At least they will if Tanu's mother keeps pressuring Navin to propose."

Naina laughs at that, "It would be good if they did, but I'm afraid that Navin might have to wait. My parents are determined to get me married off before him, and I've got no plans to settle down until I've finished my MBA."

"Knowing Navin, he'll probably come up with some sneaky plan to get what he wants, he's a master at that." Raj joked.

Naina was laughing at this, agreeing with him when suddenly a thought entered her mind, as she glanced over at Raj enquiringly, she found that he had exactly the same look on his face.

"You're not thinking what I'm thinking, are you?" she asked him.

"Surely he couldn't be that sneaky, or that desperate…" Raj started to say.

"Oh don't ever underestimate my brother," Naina told him, "I'm sure that he would be more than willing to do anything it took."

"And Tanu… she's been known to come up with quite a few plans in her time, I'm sure this must have been her idea." Raj suddenly looked incredibly annoyed, thinking about how his feelings had been manipulated ever since he arrived here.

"Let's think about this carefully," Naina told him, "We don't want to jump to any conclusions. How did Navin ask you to come here?"

"Well first he made it sound like he'd be doing me a favour as I wouldn't have to go home, then he changed his mind and said I needed to come along because Tanu couldn't travel alone with him."

"Okay, well that's suspicious point number one," Naina said, her expression hardening even more, "Now how many times since then have they tried to get us on our own?"

"To be honest I don't remember," Raj told her, "But quite a few times at least."

"Suspicious point number two," Naina counted, "Now how many times have they made suspicious comments only to try and cover them up?"

"Too many to count." Raj said, obviously agreeing with Naina about what the conclusion was.

"Right, that's it, it's definitely a conspiracy." Naina told him, "Navin and Tanu are trying to get us married off."

She looked so annoyed about it, that Raj felt quite disheartened, although he wasn't quite sure why.

"That's it, let's go and talk to them about this right now," she said angrily, "They have to know that they can't manipulate our feelings in this way."

"Wait," Raj told her, "First let's buy you some chappals, then let's go get some coffee and decide what to do. When they've spent so much time on their plan then perhaps we should spend some time on ours."

Naina brightened at this, obviously pleased that Raj seemed to have a plan of his own to make her brother and future sister-in-law pay for their interferance.

**

Half an hour later they sat at a table with some coffee and Naina's new chappals, which had been more expensive than she wanted them to be, but which Raj had insisted on buying for her after he saw her looking at them and then hastily put them down after seeing the price tag.

"So what are we going to do about them?" Naina asked him, as she stirred some sugar into her coffee, "Should we just come out and tell them their plan failed?"

"I've been thinking about that," Raj told her, "And I think that if they know it's failed they'll just come up with a new one."

"Good point." Naina told him, "So then what should we do?"

"Well…" Raj took a long pause before saying his next point, "What if we let them think that their plan was successful? I mean think about it, then Navin would at least stop trying to marry you off for the time being."

"You've got a point," Naina agreed, "But what are we supposed to do? Go and tell them that we've fallen in love?"

"No, that would be way too obvious." Raj told her, "What we do is we keep them guessing, we put on just enough of an act to let them think we've fallen in love without really knowing for sure."

"Mr Rajveer Singh Shekawat, that is one sneaky plan." Naina told him, "And I think I like it."

Pulling her chair around so that she was sitting next to him, they began to whisper about what their plan would be.

Navin and Tanisha had made failed because they were too obvious, that was why they were found out.

Raj and Naina wouldn't repeat their mistakes.

One thing was for sure.

Navin and Tanu would never know what had hit them.