Chapter 5
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OS 1 : Knowing Khushi
Part 3: Laying the cards on the table
Khushi remained seated. She seriously didn't think her legs would support her if she tried to stand up.
"I dare because I am getting engaged to your Jijaji, Shyam Manohar Jha!", she said quietly.
There was a moment of silence. Then came a furious 'What the!"
Khushi nodded. "Ji. I too swore when I found out. Not "what the!.. because my English is poor, but.. Hey Devi Maiyya!'"
Arnav sat down, very slowly.
"Get out." His voice was soft and deadly, his eyes like laser beams.
"If I get out now, I will have to come back again.", Khushi said, her voice equally soft.
Arnav asked, gritting his teeth, "Do you want me to drag you out of this office and throw you out on the street?"
"No. Shukriya for asking. But I can walk." Khushi looked directly into his eyes.
Arnav glared at her, his jaw clenched.
"Whatever you do or say, I am not getting married to a man who already has a wife." Her voice was sad, but the determination in it was clear.
"A few days after we brought Babuji back home from the hospital, Shyam Manohar Jha approached Buaji. He said that he was a lawyer, that he was from Lucknow, that he needed a place to stay urgently, that he was an orphan'.", Khushi sighed.
Arnav sat, his face hewn in stone. "You are lying."
Khushi did not bother to respond to him. She continued,
"Buaji is a widow, living on her husband's pension. And with Babuji being ill, we needed the money. So Buaji rented out a room to him." Khushi looked at Arnav's cold face with sorrow in her heart.
"He knows how to pull the heart strings of women, especially older women. His smarmy ways, his oily smiles that never reach his eyes, his pretty speeches.. Uughhh.. Soon Buaji and Amma began looking on him as a son they had never had. And he loved it'.. Luknowi chaat.. pooja with the family... helping in the kitchen.. talking to the guests as though he were a family member..." Khushi clenched her fists as though she were closing them around Shyam's neck.
"You are lying." Arnav was quiet but emphatic.
"Why should I?"
"Because you want to hurt my sister, my family. Because you want something from me." Arnav's cold eyes rained ice on her.
Khushi nodded. "I do want something from you. Just help to stop the wedding between me & your Jijaji. I have no intention of harming your family. If I had wanted to make your sister cry, all I had to do was sit at home and get engaged first & then married."
Arnav fumed, shock & helplessness eating into his self-control.
Khushi pushed a glass of water closer to him.
"Soon, he approached Buaji with a marriage proposal. Buaji & Amma were delighted. A responsible lawyer, a boy who was like a son, who would stay with them'a perfect match for their Sanka Devi who does one foolishness after the other.." Khushi sighed. "If Babuji were well, I don't think he would have accepted the proposal without finding out why Shyamji travels so much, is absent from home on many days & nights of the week... Anyway, Babuji is ill. He can't even lift his hand... Buaji & Amma are all for this wedding. They don't know what kind of a scoundrel he is..." Khushi sighed, tired. She placed her hands on his table, crossed them, and leaned her chin on them like a child.
"I was praying at the big, white temple on the Main Road, asking Devi Maiyya why I didn't want to marry Shyamji. Then I saw him with a beautiful lady. She was smiling at him. He filled her maang, and she tried to touch his feet. He stopped her, and said. "Your place is not at my feet, Rani Sahiba, but in my heart!"
Khushi didn't notice Arnav paling.
"The lady limped away to a car. I ran to Happyji who had brought me to the temple in his auto, and asked him to follow the car. It was difficult, but we finally traced her to Shantivan. I didn't tell Happyji anything. He knows Shyamji, you see.. I didn't want Shyamji knowing that I had found out that he had a wife." Her voice was low, reflecting her fatigue at the long battle she had been fighting against her family & Shyamji.
"I found out that it was your house, that the lady was your sister... I got your office's address from the watchman'I tried to see you.. But how could I tell the receptionist or your secretary why I wanted to see you?" Khushi looked at Arnav.
Arnav looked at Khushi for a moment, silent. Then he got up, picked up the photo of his sister & her husband that he kept on a glass ledge behind her, and showed it to Khushi.
"Yes. This is the scoundrel. And this is the lady I saw in the temple." There was no triumph in her voice, only deep sorrow. "I told Babuji, but couldn't tell Buaji & Amma. Or Jiji. Because if they knew, they would throw him out... and he would retaliate."
"Retaliate?"
Khushi nodded.
"Once I realised that he was a crook, I started paying closer attention to him. Odd people call him up.. at odd times.. and the way he talks to them.. as though threatening them... I don't know if he is a criminal as well as a scoundrel, but I cannot take the risk."
She looked into his eyes. "I am sorry. I know I have hurt you. I am sorry. There was.. there was no other way'.."
"How do I know that you have told me the truth?", Arnav was equally sombre.
"You don't. But maybe you can find out." Khushi got up from her seat, putting the strap of her cloth bag around her neck. "Hum chalte hein."
"Your phone number.", Arnav demanded.
She gave it.
"If you are lying, I will destroy your life." The threat was very real.
"My life is already in tatters. There is nothing more you can do to destroy it.", Khushi replied, her sad eyes on his. "Namaste."
She walked away, out of his office, down the steps, towards the exit. Near the door, she turned to look at him.
Even at this distance, he could see the glint of tears in her eyes and the movement of her lips as she murmured, "I am sorry."
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