Chapter 19

Chapter 18:

"Alekh, you have to help me." Raj asked his friend desperately, "This is never going to work out."

Alekh looked him up and down. "I'm a bit confused." He told Raj, "What am I meant to be helping you with? Stopping the wedding or making sure that it goes ahead?"

Raj could feel himself blushing. After all, Alekh was the only one in the academy who knew the entire truth about how all this had started, and now Raj had to confess to him that he was actually in love with Naina.

"Make sure that it goes ahead." He said very quickly, and a grin spread across Alekh's face.

"So, Operation Confustion…?" he asked.

"Is completely abandoned, from now on we're all working on Operation Marriage."

Alekh just grinned even more, and pulled his chair closer to Raj's.

"Shabash," he told him, "At least you've finally gotten some sense."

Raj stared at Alekh in shock, not able to believe that his friend wasn't surprised. "But you're…" he started to say.

Alekh just shrugged. "I knew it would work out like this all along." He told Raj.

"Great," Raj told him, "Then please find a way to convince my parents to agree for this marriage so that it really can work out."

"Tell them that she's pregnant," Alekh suggested, "Then they won't be able to refuse."

"Yeah, great suggestion, Alekh." Raj said sarcastically, "And what do I do in the meantime when Navin tries to kill me, and both of our parents decide never to forgive us."

Alekh was just considering this problem when Yudi came over to join them, sitting down in an empty chair.

"Dude, I heard you're getting married, congratulations!" he told Raj, leaning back in the chair.

"Yeah well, no thanks to you, you khabri." Raj told him, glaring slightly.l

"What are you talking about?" Yudi asked, trying to look innocent, "What did I ever do to try?"

"You sold me out, that's what you did! I know you told Navin about me climbing out of Naina's window, I was scared for an entire day thanks to you!"

"Sorry about that, bro." Yudi told him a little sheepishly. "Actually they promised to help me win over Shalini if I found out about you two."

"Well did it work?" Raj asks, less angry now. After all, everything has worked out just fine, there's no point in staying angry at Yudi.

"Well… she has agreed to go out with me this Saturday." Yudi told them with a grin, and Raj slapped him on the back, genuinely happy for his friend. Alekh also smiled, nodding his congratulations.

"Well maybe you want to join us for this planning session then," Raj told Yudi. "We're trying to work out how to convince my parents to agree to my marriage with Naina."

"Simple," Yudi told him, "Lie to them that her parents are millionaires."

Raj gave Yudi a look of disbelief.

"Seriously bro, it's not such a bad idea." Yudi told him, "I'm thinking of doing exactly the same thing if I ever have to convince my parents about my marriage, I think they've got exactly the same attitude as yours. It's a millionaire's daughter or nothing."

"Yudi, I can't lie to my parents. They're going to figure out that Naina's parents aren't millionaires, and they've already met Navin." Raj told him, "Give me a better suggestion."

Yudi leaned back in his chair and thought about it for a moment. "Either elope or threaten to kill yourself. Even then it might not work, so you might want to take a bit of poison just so that they believe it."

"That's it, you're both banned from making any more suggestions." Raj told Yudi, "Navin has already ruled out eloping and I don't really want to poison myself."

"Then you're just going to have to tell them the truth and hope that they truly care about your happiness." Yudi told him, and walked away.

Raj laughed.

As if that was ever going to happen.

But he really had no other option left.

**

And so half an hour later he found himself dialling home, praying for the best.

He had to go through his father's secretary before he could actually talk to his father, and Raj waited nervously.

"Hi Dad," he said when his father finally picked up, "How are you?"

"I'm fine, Raj Beta," His father replied, "Is everything alright, have you run out of money?"

"No dad, I've got more than enough money." Raj said, rolling his eyes and thinking that of course this was the first thing that his dad would want to ask. "Actually I wanted to talk to you about something important."

"Important? Does that mean that you're finally ready to leave the army and join our business instead?" His father asked him hopefully.

"No dad, actually it's about… well it's about my marriage." Raj said, thinking that it was best to get it over with.

"Your marriage? Then you liked Sahni's daughter?" His father asked him happily, "I thought that things hadn't worked out between the two of you."

"No dad, not Sahni's daughter." Raj told him, wishing that his father would let him finish saying what he wanted to. "Actually there's a girl that I like… and I want to get married to her."

There, he had said it now. It couldn't be unsaid. And on the other end of the phone, his father was silent.

"Who is this girl, Raj? What's her family like?" his father asked him.

"Well actually she's my friend Navin's sister," Raj admitted, "You remember Navin, dad, you met him when you came to the Independence Day celebrations last year."

"Oh, that Navin." His father sounded quite uninterested. Raj was sure it was probably because he'd worked out that Navin did not belong to any business person's family. "Well where did you meet his sister and how did this happen?"

"Actually dad, we met when I went with Navin to his house for Diwali, and ever since then we've liked each other. You know Naina is currently studying for her MBA, she's a very smart girl and…"

"Raj, what do you want me to do about all this?"

Raj felt like screaming, this was really not going to work out.

"Well dad, I want to marry her, so obviously it would be good if you and Ma could come and meet her parents and discuss it."

"Raj are you really sure about this?" His father asked him, "I mean you're rather young to be making decisions about marriage, and you haven't known this girl for very long."

Well that certainly hadn't stopped his dad from trying to arrange Raj's marriage to Neelu, who he'd never even met.

"Dad, I really love her." Raj told him honestly, hoping that his father would hear the sincerity in his voice. "Just meet her once at least."

"Alright," his father agreed, "No promises, but we'll certainly meet the girl and her family. Arrange it for next weekend and we'll come to Ambala."

"Thanks Dad, I know you'll love her." Raj promised, even as he suspected that his parents wouldn't be the least bit interested in trying to love Naina. "I'll arrange it and let you know the details."

"Fine, call me back soon." His father told him and hung up.

Raj sighed, but he wasn't sure whether it was in relief or disappointment. At least that was over now, but a far more difficult task lay ahead.

How was he ever going to convince his parents that they should give up their ideas of the perfect bride for his happiness.

This could possibly their most difficult operation ever.

**

"Well it's settled," Raj told Naina when he called her up later that day, "Come with your parents to Ambala this weekend and they can meet my parents on Sunday."

"Oh wow, really?" Naina asked him, "That's so soon, I mean… what am I going to wear?"

"I doubt it will make a difference." Raj told her glumly and Naina immediately realised that something was wrong.

"What's wrong?" she asked him, "There's something you're not telling me, isn't there?"

"Naina, if you don't actually want to get married then it's going to be very easy to avoid it." Raj told her, "Because I don't know whether my parents are going to agree for our wedding or not."

Naina felt her heart sink, she knew that he wasn't joking. "Well why not?" she asked him, "What's wrong with me that they wouldn't want us to get married?"

"Naina there is absolutely nothing wrong with you," Raj reassured you, "Anybody would be lucky to have you as a daughter in law, I mean you're beautiful, and you're smart, and you're kind, and funny and…" He realised that he'd probably said enough, and decided that he should stop the list there. "It's my parents that there's something wrong with, I know them, and I know they're not going to give in easily."

"Well what's the problem?" Naina asked, "I know that for awhile they wanted you to marry Neelu, but I thought you'd sorted that out."

"It's not that they wanted me to marry Neelu, it's that they wanted me to marry some business man's daughter so that the can profit from it."

"Oh," Naina said, suddenly understanding. "This really isn't going to work, is it?"

"Well, we'll try our best." Raj told her, "But it would be good if you could warn your parents, I'm just really worried that mine might be a bit rude."

"I'll do that," Naina promised him, "But do we have a plan? Is there any way that we can make them agree?"

"I think that for now we just have to hope for the best," Raj told her, and despite the seriousness of the situation, he couldn't help feeling relieved that it at least sounded as if Naina wished to get married.

"Naina… do you think you could come a little earlier before your parents arrive? So that we can have time to talk?" There he'd asked, it was done. No matter what happened, he would make sure that Naina knew how he really felt about her. Whether his parents agreed or not, he wasn't about to let her go easily. They would find a way, he knew they would.

"I'll try," Naina told him, and her voice was full of promise. "I'll talk to Ma and Baba about it tonight, and I'll make sure that I at least come on Saturday."

"Then we'll talk properly then." Raj promised, "I mean, there are things which on the phone…"

"I understand," Naina told him, "And I'll be waiting to see you until then. I'll call to let you know when I'm arriving."

They said goodbye, and Raj leaned against the wall, trying to get a hold of his feelings.

She would come, he would tell her the truth, and then… then it was out of their hands for the time being. Nobody had been able to give him a single good idea and Raj also had no clue as to how they were supposed to convince his parents.

Eloping was starting to look like a much better option.

**

It was lunch time on Saturday and Raj was waiting nervously at the bus station for Naina to arrive. Her parents would be driving in a few hours later, but luckily she had managed to convince them that she should arrive early so that she and Raj could talk.

Raj checked the watch that she had given him for the hundredth time, before cursing the bus for being late. Every minute that it didn't arrive was another minute less that he and Naina would have together.

He noticed the bus approaching from a distance and sighed with relief.

**

Meanwhile on the bus, Naina had been asking when it was due to arrive every few minutes for the past two hours. Now recognising Ambala, she stood up excitedly in her seat, wanting to get to the front as quickly as possible.

"Sit down, young lady." The conductor told her, "You can get up once the bus actually stops."

"But I…"

"Sit down!"

Reluctantly Naina sat back down, thinking that the other passengers had better let her past when the bus finally stopped.

She needn't have worried, everybody was very quick to get out of her way when the bus finally stopped, probably because they realised that at the speed Naina was going, it would be dangerous to try to exit ahead of her.

Finally Naina made it to the door and spotting Raj, began to wave madly. He waved back just as enthusiastically, and she jumped down from the step, rushing over to him.

"Hi," Naina told him breathlessly, trying to calm herself down.

"Hi," Raj told her in reply with a grin, "I can't believe that you're finally here."

It was too much for Naina to resist, all the way here she'd practiced what she might say, how she might tell him, but now that she was finally here she was forgetting everything.

"I love you, Raj!" she declared suddenly before she could lose the courage to do so, "I really do, and I really, really want to get married to you."

Raj stared at her slightly dazed. He hadn't expected it to happen this quickly. In fact he'd been planning to take her somewhere nice and then tell her his feelings very romantically. He should've realised that nothing ever went exactly to plan in their relationship.

Raj decided to hell with the plan, he was going to tell her right now in the middle of the bus depot.

"I love you too, Naina, so much!" He told her, "You don't know how happy you've just made me."

They grinned at each other like fools for a moment, then Naina impulsively placed her arms around his neck, and Raj hugged her to him, lifting her off the ground and kissing her cheek.

They were still hugging each other when an older passenger from the bus stepped around them, muttering something about shameless young people.

Slightly embarrassed, they broke apart, but Raj grabbed her hand instead, at least wanting to keep touching her in some way. Naina smiled and entwined her fingers with him.

"Do you have any luggage?" he finally asked, and Naina shook her head.

"No, only this backpack." She told him, "The rest is coming with Ma and Baba."

"You know, this wasn't really the way that I planned on telling you." Raj admitted, "I thought I'd take you somewhere nice for lunch and then confess."

"Well when has our romance ever been typical or normal?" Naina asked him, "I know I should've waited for the right moment, but I just really wanted to tell you right then."

"I'm glad you did," Raj tells her warmly, "At least now all the nervousness is finished and we can go and enjoy our time together."

"Well what should we do now?" Naina asked him, "We have an entire afternoon together before my parents arrive."

"Well how about some lunch?" Raj asked her, "Since I was planning on taking you anyway."

"Sounds excellent," Naina told him brightly, "I really am quite hungry after the long bus trip."

"Then let's go and get you some food," Raj told her, "And we can try to at least have one romantic afternoon without any planning or scheming."

"What a relief," Naina replied, "I was thinking that we would never have a normal type of relationship. I'm so glad that we don't have to worry about 'Operation Confusion' anymore."

They reached the motorbike, and Raj climbed on, starting it up before Naina took the seat behind him, winding her arms securely around his waist.

"I could get used to this very easily," she told Raj, resisting the urge to lean her head on his shoulder. After all they were out in public in the middle of the day.

"I know exactly what you mean." Raj told her, turning around to give her a happy smile.

Her parents would be arriving tonight and his would be arriving the next morning.

At least for this afternoon they could pretend that everything was going to plan.