Chapter 32

 

Blurred country side passed by him as he sat in the car, listening to music. It was strangely melancholic, the scene yet there was a slight tinge of cheeriness along with oodles of excitement. The car never slowed down to a speed less than hundred, the driver and her anger made sure of that.

 

Arnav didn't have the slightest clue of what to make of her. She seemed fragile and delicate all the times he had met her back then but the one sitting opposite to him in the car seemed a total contradiction. She oozed out confidence and power. She seemed more and more like water to him. In the past, she was peaceful, slightly mellowed and easily captured. But now, she seemed a gush, a rapid which was impossible to be contained. Such was her energy, raw, passionate, powerful.

 

His eyes never wavered from her. Her slightest moments kept him ensnared, noticing, analysing and getting bewildered. Her choice of music, her light drumming of fingers on the steering wheel, her soft moments of gear shifting, her light humming of random songs, everything. Everything told him an altogether different story. She wasn't a normal girl. She was different. Her small nuances narrated a different tale, a tale he was aware of but in different situations. Not once this kind of behaviour had he seen in the women in his circle. They were either too bold or too placid. But she was like a guy. Uncared about her beauty, not bothered about her behaviour. Rugged, bold and soft at the same time. A perfect dichotomy.

 

He could hear her talk softly to Chris. Laughing about some random jokes, including NK in the group. But not once, even for courtesy, asked him something. She was resolutely avoiding him as though he was nothing but a wall and it amused him to no ends. Not annoyed, amused. Perhaps, he had started liking her little quirks.

 

After about 3 hours of nonstop driving, they stopped for a tea break near a small roadside stall. The stall was a thatched hut with mismatched benches cluttered around for customers to sit. A woman was behind the gas, preparing tea and coffee while a small boy wandered around serving orders. While NK and himself sat on the benches, Chris was standing near the vehicle while Khushi had gone and stood in front of a huge field, stretching herself. A few minutes later, she came and sat on of the benches while Chris ordered some snacks. NK got up and joined the other two on their table, meanwhile dragging Arnav with him as well. Khushi smiled at NK but chose to ignore him as usual.

 

When their order was ready, Khushi got up and went to the stall to get the tea, forbidding the boy to serve them. She walked back with a tray of tea glasses and a plate of biscuits and handed NK and Chris their cups of tea. When Arnav stretching his hands for his cup of tea, Khushi picked up the glass and drank it herself and walked out to the field again. Arnav stared at her open mouthed for a while but quickly realized that she wasn't going to treat him like the other two and he had to deal with that. With a smile, he accepted his tea from NK who was giving him a smirk. That woman was soon going to drive him nuts.

 

"What have you done to her to make her this riled up?" Chris asked, humour dripping in his voice. This man found it hilarious to see Khushi giving cold shoulders to one of the richest bachelors of India. He made no effort to hide his mirth in the face of the ignored Arnav. Apparently, he had never encountered such a situation in his life because his mad friend Khushi never behaved this extreme with anyone. She was known for her easy going nature and her art of making countless friends.

 

"Long story," Arnav said as he sipped his tea. Chris smirked as he got up and joined Khushi. NK turned to him with a full blown mischievous smile, "Kya Bhai...yeh ladki toh bhav hi nahi derahi hai aapko..."

 

"NK, shut up!" Arnav growled as he broke a biscuit into two halves. It was about 9 in the morning. He was hungry. Arnav and NK started discussing about where to have breakfast. Khushi and Chris were deep in conversation and there was a lot of hand-talking in the process. These researchers and their ways, Arnav smirked as he got up and paid the bill and walked back to the car with NK. The other two were still talking rapidly and NK voiced the question that was running in Arnav's mind from a long time, "any problem?"

 

"No," Chris smiled, "a small detour. We had planned to get to Matheran first but Amanda thinks it is better to start our sampling from Kasara ghats and then reach Mumbai. It's not exactly a detour though. We are just stopping earlier than planned."

"So a major stop will be at Kasara ghats?" Arnav asked, thrilled at the prospect of stopping at the Ghats instead of a town. Ghats sections were the most peaceful and usually housed estate houses, the inhabitants of which would take you in if luck was on your side. It was an amazing experience to be in the midst of hills, in some small cottage overlooking the mountain ranges. Arnav loved that.

 

"Yes," Chris looked at Khushi, "but the slight problem is the detour to Mumbai."

"Why," Arnav asked slightly puzzled. "It is not exactly a part of Western Ghats. It is the unnecessary detour here. Khushi is displeased with simply going to Mumbai for no reason," Chris cast a wary look towards his friend before turning back to him.

 

"I think that is a brilliant idea," Arnav quipped, "Mumbai is a fine city. It will be good to see it in passing, isn't it?"

"No one's asking your opinion," Khushi snapped at him. Chris bit his tongue and Arnav looked at her incredulously before ignoring the jibe and answering her retort, "I know my opinion won't matter to you and neither was I telling it you. I was talking to Chris. You've got a problem with that, too?"

 

Khushi eyed him with all anger before going and sitting in the car. Arnav smirked and said, "Dude, it's the choice of you guys. You are the one who needs work done. If you really think Mumbai is a great idea then make the trip or else drop it."

Chris thought for a while and then said, "I think Khushi's right. It is an unnecessary detour right now. If time permits then we'll visit Mumbai at the end of our trip. What say?"

"Yeah," Arnav smiled, "that sounds fine too. It's up to you in the end."

"I guess I better listen to Gupta this time," Chris winked, "usually her readings are correct. If I say I want to go to Mumbai and then if our schedule gets messed up, I will be fried."

"Why do you fear her so much?" Arnav said cockily. "It's not like she's a lioness or something who's going to hunt you to death. She's just a woman."

"Oh you haven't seen her in action, Mr. Raizada," Chris smiled, "She's made real men cry already. Don't make the mistake of underestimating her. You are going to pay a heavy price. Anyway, you already have some experience with her. She isn't someone you believe she is," saying that he walked back to the car and plopped himself onto the shotgun and got to explaining the plan.

 

Arnav and NK looked at each other before joining them and the car zoomed off.

 

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Diya had already started missing her sister. It wasn't even a few hours and painful lump had formed in her throat at the prospect of not seeing her sister or not regularly speaking with her. She hated this feeling. Her crazy, harebrained sister was the only one who knew her inside out and she was the only one Diya had bared her soul to. Never anyone had understood her the way Khushi did and that void wasn't really filled even by her dad. Payal was a gone case already. Neither her mother nor her aunt had the power to ease her like the way her sister, who was not blood related to her, did.

 

Sometimes she did wonder what her life would have been if her dad hadn't found a lonely, crying Khushi on the streets 15 years back. Would she have been this happy and content in her life? The answer was no. Khushi came into her life like a tornado and rescued her from the clutches of her moronic sister. She unknowingly became her roof and bore the brunt of every nasty thing her family subjected at her to keep her little sister away from trouble. Khushi got punished for every prank Diya played. Khushi sacrificed everything for Diya's happiness. She was her angel.

 

Stop thinking! She admonished herself as she walked into the bookshop that was in a narrow alleyway in Khan Market. Diya loved visiting this tiny shop cluttered with books till the roof. There wasn't anything apart from riffling of pages and the heavenly scent of books in here. It reminded her of a handsome wooden room with huge volumes of books and a set of mahogany chairs. There didn't exist anything called as the outer world inside of that room. The same feeling overrode Diya's heart as she stepped past the threshold of this tiny nook.

 

Book reading became Diya's craze, thanks to Khushi. Khushi was a reading freak. She forgot herself when there was a book and a cup of black coffee next to her. Diya would sit hours together watching Khushi lose herself in the warm pages of a book and amazing flavour of coffee. Seeing her sister smile and laugh reading a funny paragraph, moist her eyes when there was something painful, Diya's interest piqued and she went and got herself her first novel, Harry Potter and The Philosopher Stone. The story of a boy wizard ensnared her so much that there was no turning back from that point. It was books, that became her new life. Moving past the child fiction, she stepped into mature writing with Indian Author, Amitav Ghosh's Circle Of Reason. With that book, literature became her love and she took it up as her passion and profession and it was Khushi who encouraged her to step past the stereotypic engineering and medical and take up literature as her career and not once did Diya regret her decision.

 

As her hands trailed across the backs of the numerous books, her eyes glazed with the excitement that only a new book brought into her life. She started pulling the books out of the shelves at random and in no time her hands were laden with a dozen books which absolutely had no connection with each other. The art of picking books came naturally to her and the titles flamed the torch of her inner desire. She smiled as she started walking back to the counter. The cashier smiled at her as she deposited her books on the counter and went back in to find some more.

 

The same process of hand trailing started and her fingers came to rest on a rare book, The Outlander. But the book was already claimed by another set of fingers and her eyes met that of a bespectacled guy. His face recorded emotions that were unknown to her or perhaps, that were inexperienced by her. He immediately withdrew his hands and offered the book to her, "I'll search for another copy."

 

She smiled and shook her head, "No trouble. I'll ask for another one. You can have this."

"I insist," the stranger smiled back. Not having a way, she accepted the book from his hands, "Thanks."

"My pleasure," he smiled as he extended his hand, "I am Akash."

"Diya," she shook his warm hands. "Do you come here a lot," she didn't know why she asked that question but it just slipped out of her tongue. That one moment of hand grazing made her feel she had a very intimate connection with this stranger whom she just met.

 

"Yeah," he smiled back, "this bookshop is like my personal haven."

 

She laughed and bobbed her head, "Mine too. But I haven't really seen you here."

"May be we come at the wrong times and miss each other," his eyes twinkled as he said that. She laughed again, "you speak nice."

"Why thank you," he bowed his head. "How about a coffee?"

"Sure," she agreed readily, not having an inkling of why she did it. "I'll just bill my books."

"Oh," he said as he took his pile from the nearest chair. His collection were weird but extremely interesting, she noted quickly as she accompanied him to the counter. The manager smiled at the guy, confirming his statement of coming here often. Strange how she had missed him.

 

It took them nearly 15 minutes to bill their books and walk out of the shop, "Do you have your vehicle?" he asked. Diya nodded and pointed at her car parked opposite of the shop. He smiled and pointed to his that was right in front of hers, "funny."

"Yeah," as they walked to their cars and dumped their things inside in unison, "I know a lovely coffee place here."

"Sure, lead the way," Diya said as she locked her car and went to him. Together they walked to the coffee house three blocks away from the shop. And thus a new tradition had formed.

 

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A bunch of papers flew as she banged the phone for the thirtieth time. She had no idea how Arnav even tolerated half of this relentless torture. It was driving her nuts. Being a receptionist sucked more, she decided, thinking about the poor receptionist sitting in the ground floor of AR premises, answering countless calls every day and still having to make a pleasant impression to the callers. Damn, it was so hard.

 

Lavanya never expected this much work to bury her. You had to go on a life changing field trip didn't you, she thought scornfully as she closed her eyes and stretched herself on the couch. But the minute she closed her eyes, she was awarded with a dizzying vision of sparkling blue eyes. That shade seemed to raze her thoughts and made her mind go numb. Was she in love?

 

Lavanya never thought there was space in her heart for anyone except Arnav. He was the only one till now to have such a momentous impact on her yet, that force seemed dispassionate compared to the lava bubbling inside of her now. With this blazing eyes, his potent thoughts, and his innocent smile, she didn't have anything left to think anything other than him. It terrified her.

 

 Chris terrified her because behind that innocence hid such an intense human, such a mature being that she failed to understand. Lavanya was a mind reader herself, taking pride in her observation skills but Chris startled her with his depth. How much ever gullible he seemed outwardly, ten times he was more intense from the inside. The only confusion Lavanya had was whether she would be able to match his strength.

 

But there was nothing to make her deny that she didn't have any feelings for Chris. She had. But she was still confused as to what name she would give those feelings. It wasn't physical intimacy, it wasn't desperation or escapism from her past love, it wasn't just friendship, it was more and that word, more', bewildered her to the core.

 

She rubbed her head as she fell back on the couch. Her head was so muddled with stuff that she didn't know what to feel anymore. She had to talk to someone. The answer came instantly. Khushi. She was the only one who could calm her down but the slight problem was Chris would be there with her. But after a while she just thought screw it! She was going to talk to Khushi, no matter what.

 

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"I think we missed the highway," Khushi whined miserably. Chris who was busy looking into his tablet was shocked when Khushi literally snatched it, "your GPS device sucks!"

"What," he protested, "I have never been to India. You can't blame me for getting wrong." Khushi looked at him in irritation before she sighed, "I guess you are right."

 

Looking for a service road that connected to Maharashtra, they had wandered into a lone stretch of road that looked like a bypass to a nearby village instead of Jaipur. Either way they looked, the stretch was covered in small huts in distance and freshly tilled soil that was ready to receive the first sprinkles of monsoons. None among them had realized they had missed the highway until Khushi had the brains to ask someone in the way and the person looked on blankly at her, confirming her that the highway was nowhere near to where they were. Hopelessly stranded, the group looked on for some shred of path that would lead them to the original Jaipur service road where they had planned to do their first night hold up. It was almost 3 in the afternoon and by their calculations they should have reached Jaipur long back but they were still stuck in an unknown place which didn't even have a milestone to tell which village road was nearing.

 

"Damn it!" Khushi banged her steering wheel, "now what do we do?"

"Khush," Chris smiled, "its fine. Its going be a little adventure and why are you getting so worked up. We have lost our way tonnes of times and you always told it was a wonderful experience. What happened to you all of a sudden?"

 

Khushi ran her fingers through the ends of her hair before taking a deep breath, "you are right. I don't know why am I making this such a big deal. Anyway, we'll just go to the village and ask them the directions from there."

"Why do we have to go till the village," Arnav finally broke his silence after almost 2 hours, "we don't even know how far is that. Isn't it better if we wait here for someone to show up and then ask them the directions?"

"Did I ask you anything," Khushi gritted her teeth as she turned to him, "Why do you think it is important for you to speak up?"

Arnav stared at her for some time before answering, "No you didn't ask me anything but it's easy to ask someone than break the head trying to understand the directions. We might end up not reaching the village at all."

Khushi's eyes never had so much of annoyance as they did now, "Once again I am warning you. Just stay the hell out of my work else I'll throw you off the vehicle into the river."

 "Oh really?" smirked Arnav as he tried to wake a snoring NK up.

 

"Do you want me to try?" was the retort that came up almost instantly and in no time the big fight was about to begin when Chris had some sense to stop it, "Guys! Enough! We have lot of things to worry about without you lunging at each other's throats. Khush get a grip on yourself and he sure does have a point."

"Are you siding with him," this time target became Chris, as Khushi rounded on him to blast. But Chris who had lots of experience with Khushi's anger smoothly slid off it, "Gupta, don't you want to reach Jaipur and have some wonderful lunch? We haven't had anything decent since morning and I am hungry. Instead of making a huge detour to the place unknown, we'll stay put here and wait for someone. I am sure they will be knowing something."

"Fine," grumbled Khushi and got down from the car to get her backpack out of the boot. Chris smiled at Arnav and got down from the car to keep an eye on the street for any passers-by. NK was blissfully sleeping in the backseat. Arnav left him sleeping and got down as well, stretching. Khushi grabbed some crisps from her pack and handed two of them to Chris who in turn gave one of them to Arnav. Arnav was beyond amused to see Khushi giving him classic cold shoulders. It was fun.

 

"Khush," Chris put an arm around her, "I'll drive from here. You take some rest."

"Okay," she smiled as she munched on her bag of chips.

 

"You sure aren't at your best, are you?" Arnav said cockily, raising his eyebrows at Khushi. Khushi narrowed her eyes, glaring at Arnav like she was about to blast him through her eyes. But she thought better of it at the last minute and not wanting to waste her time on this loser, she simply glowered at him and went back to her jeep. Chris and Arnav shared a look of deep amusement. Their look had a lot of things being explained there. It was as though the boys finally found that one thread connected them and it was Khushi. Albeit her behaviour towards either of them was different but she held them on her either side, making their bond strong and guy friendships were easy to make. Khushi unknowingly had made these two strangers look out for each other.