Chapter 17

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhgS45l19XA[/YOUTUBE]

 

 

That was the moment Arnav had become Arnav Singh Raizada, the apple of the Raizada family. He had done something seemingly impossible and for that the whole family owed him their happiness. They showered all their love and affection on him from the time he had been adopted into their family as Kasturi and Rajnath Malik's foster son, Mahendra Pratap and Manorama Singh Raizada's son and Anjali Malik's loving brother. He was instated as the heir of the family and had been bestowed with the surname, Singh Raizada. Vinay could never forget that day in his life when all the darkness surrounding them was washed away by the mere presence of this little boy, who was shy but very adorable. Most of the time, one could see him cowering behind Anjali, nervously peeking out from behind her and staring at all his family members with his bright, innocent, molten chocolate brown eyes. Everything seemed to be back in place for this family until one day Arnav decided to detach himself from his family and turn aloof...

 

 Though he never knew the reason until then, Vinay had never felt that pain Anjali endured because of Arnav. He simply believed Arnav was probably missing his real people, his real family and wanted some time alone to gather his thoughts but never had he thought that he was the real reason behind Arnav's cold behaviour. Something that even hurt him more was the fact that he was the real reason for Arnav to come to their home in the first place. He had ruined everything for Arnav. He had made him homeless. He had built his castle of his happiness over Arnav's sufferings.

 

That guilt had made him incapable to face that ball of fire standing there in front of him, his eyes mirroring the deepest loathing and revulsion his heart held for Vinay. Arnav's gaze was so strong that Vinay was buckling on his knees, unable to tolerate the amount of hatred it exuded. That mountain of guilt was tearing him apart but he could do nothing to redeem himself. Arnav had point blankly refused to give him that opportunity.

 

 However, that embarrassing silence was broken by Mahendra, who approached Arnav and held him by his shoulders, "Arnav beta, is this true?"

 

Arnav looked at his uncle and nodded stiffly. Manorama gasped and started crying. Devyani was distraught and found her solace when her grandson, Akash hugged her and comforted her. Lavanya was looking around in confusion but her lovely coal black eyes were wrought with deep melancholy. Anjali was too tired to even cry. She just stood there, staring at her younger brother with love and sympathy, a deep guilty sympathy.

 

Mahendra looked at Arnav sadly and muttered, "Arnav beta, I don't know what to say..." but Arnav walked away from him, not giving him the chance to complete his sentence. He believed that whatever had happened, his family or so they said, had been responsible for it in some or the other way and he had no interest in making any sort of conversation with them. All of them, Lavanya, Manorama mami, his nani, everyone tried talking to him but he resolutely ignored them, reached his sister, squeezed her hand tightly and walked out of the manor, into the darkness.

 

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Chris McKinley never felt depressed from the time his best mate, his partner in crime Khushi came into his life. But that was exactly what he felt right now. Utterly depressed and lost. It had been just a week since she had gone to India and here he was, making it look like a year already. Life got so boring and monotonous without an occasional explosion caused by her. She was like this burst of energy. She just couldn't sit simply. That was her beauty and he wanted it back.

 

 He wasn't in love with her. No. Love and attraction was never a part of their relationship from the time they met. He had immense respect for her and in some way she filled that void his little sister had left in him when she passed away in a skiing accident a few years back. Khushi too considered him her brother. Both had such easy camaraderie with each other that it was hard to believe they didn't know each other before. They had just hit on instantly.

 

That is why when your best friend goes away on a family trip, you feel jealous. Yes. Jealous. Chris too felt the same. But that jealousy was eclipsed by worry. Chris was aware about Khushi's family though she refused to talk about it openly. He had been with her at her lowest. He had seen the way she used to hug her sister's photo and go to sleep. He had seen the way she used to yearn for that love and affection a mother had for her daughter. He had seen that, experienced that and knew how hard it was for Khushi to stay away from the only people she considered her family.

 

He was busy musing when his phone buzzed. Looking at the caller ID, his face wore a big smile, "Gupta!"

"Hey big guy!" Khushi smiled, "How are you?"

"I am suffering!" Chris whined, "When are you coming back? It's so boring without you here!"

"I miss you too big guy..." Khushi said sadly, "but I have only just come here and I need to be with Diya for a few days as well..."

 

Chris nodded, "I understand. How is she?"

"Just crack-a-lackin!" Khushi grinned, "was watching Madagascar with her a while back..."

"Cool..." but suddenly he was hit with another bout of jealously, "Hey that's supposed to be our movie watch together, isn't it?"

"Oops!" Khushi giggled, "Sorry big guy...forgot!"

"Yeah right!" Chris muttered, "You mess up big time, Gupta!"

 

In no time, they both were laughing their heads over some silly best friend jokes only they understood. It didn't matter how far they were from each other, they knew exactly what it took to bring a smile on the other's face. Many had mistaken their friendship for a relationship but for these two, that was also a matter of humour. They had spent ages laughing over how the people "aww-ed" at these two walking into the canteen holding each other's hands. In fact they both used to do that on purpose to rile the other people up.

 

"How're things there?" Khushi asked after they had finished guffawing, "How's your Linda?"

"Gupta!" Chris fired, "one more mention of that woman and I am going to cut the call!"

"Okay, but why are you so annoyed if I bring up her name? As far as I remember she genuinely likes you," Khushi said seriously.

 

"My standard of women has increased since I met you, Gupta..." Chris replied, now scratching marks on his desk, "I can't tolerate women who fawn over men..."

"McKinley, that's a very rude way of putting it," Khushi admonished.

 

"No, Gupta..." Chris said, "it isn't... if it was any other girl, I am sure she must have got a clue that I am not interested in her. This one just doesn't!"

"May be she doesn't want to," Khushi suggested, "have you ever tried talking to her in one mind?"

"I don't want it in the first place..." Chris said, "Will you please cut it? I am not ready to take another lecture on how Linda doesn't see anyone else but me. That woman is annoying. Period."

"Okay boss," Khushi said exasperatedly, "what's up and how is Amanda by the way?"

"Oh she is fine..." Chris replied, "Work you know... don't know from where she gets loads to keep her busy. She just doesn't take an off..."

"Yeah, Amanda is like that..." Khushi smiled, "So what else? How are you doing there?"

"I am feeling super bored!" Chris started again, "it sucks to stay alone you know without having your menace friend to mess things up."

"Yeah well..." Khushi agreed, "Life here is almost same expect for Diya. She is just too excited to have me here..."

"I understand..." Chris said, "by the way it is getting late. Go to sleep. I will call you tomorrow..."

"Actually, I called to ask you a favour..." Khushi said as she remembered the real reason she had called him.

 

"Anything Gupta," Chris said and Khushi started saying what exactly she wanted him to do.

 

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 How untrue the saying was.  Here he was, still stranded in that abyss where there was nothing but darkness surrounding him. Not even a shred of light. His demons from the past haunted him every day, every minute, and every second of his life, making him feel extremely revolted about himself that how he was never able to save the situation. Even though he was a mere, helpless kid at that point of time, he had always thought he shouldered every responsibility because he was more strong headed and wise. Yet his wisdom had crumpled before fear and apprehension. The destiny had mocked him, laughing at him cruelly while he had struggled to hold all the shattered pieces together. It had just ridiculed him...made him a fool at its hands...

 

 Now, even after 15 years, he was nowhere close to thwarting the evil plans of the fates. While his hard work and resoluteness had awarded him with a successful professional career and life, his personal life still floated around in the darkness, desperately trying to see some light, some joy. He had been unable to pull himself up together. Something or the other held him back from breaking free, get liberated. His heart felt heavy with all the torments weighing him down and a vortex of confusing emotions swirled deep inside his heart, creating a void in its eye, hungry for some love and affection, some friendship, some trust. But, alas, all was in vain. He was alone and he would be alone. The missing piece of the jigsaw that connected his two worlds now was lost forever, leaving a prominent empty space that was hard to be filled by anyone else, even his sister.

 

 Thinking down the painful memory lanes made him miserable and tired and Arnav slid down the trunk of a gulmohar tree that was planted in garden of Raizada mansion. The garden was huge and had many trees and plants that gave Arnav plenty of privacy as well as peace. He was very fond of nature and greenery. He had practically grown in her arms, waking up to beautiful sunrises of Dehradun, cycling down the narrow lanes bordered by thousands of trees, standing at mountain tops and yelling with his hands cupping around his mouth, making stones go skipping on the surface of the water... so much happy memories, so much fun and excitement. He had had the best childhood but everything just vanished in a flash... like poof!

 

 "Talk about magic!" he muttered in distress when he felt a familiar hand on his shoulder and looked up to see his sister standing behind him looking at him with kind, sympathetic eyes. He blinked stupidly as she sat down next to him. "Di, you here?"

"Chhote, are you alright?" Anjali asked softly, her voice barely reaching above a whisper. Arnav nodded sadly before staring into the distance.

 

"I know you are not alright," Anjali said, caressing his head with a small smile. Arnav just slid onto her lap and said nothing.

 

"Chhote...what is bothering you now?" Anjali asked, "Even Vinay knows the real reason of why you hate him so much. You just put out everything that was troubling you. But why are you still so unhappy and sad?"

"Di..." Arnav said softly, "as much as I feel relieved about shouting at Vinay, I still am not happy because I have nothing to make me happy anymore except you. I want my life back Di. I want my previous life back where I was carefree, happy and excited. Now I am nothing but depressed."

"Why do you think like that?" Anjali asked, "Why are you not even making an attempt to come out of the depression? Why don't you think about making your life greener?"

"Di, if it is about Lavanya again then I am afraid I have nothing to speak about it," Arnav said in a tone of finality as he got up. Anjali sighed exasperatedly as she joined him and muttered, "why do you dislike her so much?"

"It is not about liking or disliking her, Di..." Arnav almost yelled, "it is just that I am not meant for her. How many times do I have to tell you this?"

"Chhote, why do you think you are not meant for her?" Anjali tried to convince him when Arnav said, "because love happens only once Di and it has already happened to me..." and walked away from her.

 

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Talking to Chris made Khushi forget her problems. The whole time she would be really happy just because they both had some real fun stuff to talk about, making new plans to menace, pulling each other's legs and having loads of laughter in between. Anyone would think these two had nothing sorry in their lives.

 

But as soon as they ended talking to each other, both of them would go back into their personal miseries just as how now Khushi was moping around, feeling extremely low. Diya was soundly asleep in her room and her snores were carried up to Khushi's room which she found highly amusing yet even that couldn't make Khushi happy right now. She just sighed before collapsing on her easy chair and closing her eyes. Within few seconds, sleep overwhelmed her.

 

 Khushi woke up with a start. She had screamed, she knew it. She was sweaty with a look of pure terror written on her face. She needed some air. She needed to gather herself. Bracing, she got out of the bed, wore a jacket over her pyjamas and walked down to the door to go for a walk to clear her thoughts. To get a grip on herself. She desperately needed some.