Chapter 9
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OS 1 : Knowing Khushi
Arnav filled a pot with potting mixture absently, his hands doing the familiar task with ease while his mind replayed Khushi's words, the look in her eyes as she said that Shyam would turn the situation to his advantage and blame Khushi & her family for his misdeeds...
He looked at the phone. She hadn't called yet... He sighed in impatience, & turned back to the pot.
Shyam would do it... His fingers squeezed the life out of the rim of the pot. A man who could cheat his wife who thought that he could walk on water could do anything... Shyam would make Khushi look like a vamp and himself the poor, unsuspecting, patnivrata husband...
The cheat was not at home. He had apparently left on a long business trip that evening... a long business trip that would take him to the other end of the town and Khushi's house... Arnav grit his teeth.
Why hadn't she called yet? He looked at the clock in his room. It was late! He glowered at the innocent phone lying on the small table that held his laptop. Maybe terrified by Arnav Singh Raizada's expression, it rang.
Arnav strode to the table & scooped up the phone. The display read 'Happy', the name under which he had stored Khushi's number.
"Hello!", he growled.
"Sorry, Baba, Sorry. I couldn't call earlier. Lakhon sorry!", Khushi whispered into his ear.
Arnav gulped.
"Woh kya he, the rascal came here this evening, dragging a big suitcase. Amma & Buaji were so happy that they did everything but aarti for him while he smiled and smiled and smiled. I was about to go to my room & call you when an army of guests dropped in to congratulate the devil and me on our sagai. I didn't know we had so many neighbours...", Khushi sighed. "My arms are aching. I have been making tea & serving it for the past 3 hours!"
Arnav bit back a smile.
"You are not angry, are you?", Khushi asked hopefully. "Right now, only my arms are aching. If you shout at me, my head too will start hurting..."
Arnav said, softly, his husky voice sending a thrill down her spine, "No, I am not angry."
Khushi twisted her head to look behind her. Had she leaned against some appliance that was giving her electrical shocks? But there was only a pillow touching her back.
"Khushi, why are you whispering?", Arnav asked softly.
Khushi looked at the pillow against which her back was resting with suspicion. Why were her nerves tingling?
"Ji... woh... the living room is full of ladies chatting with Buaji, Jiji is folding clothes in the next room, Amma is sitting with Babuji in his room, and I am in our bedroom with a sheet over my head...", Khushi whispered.
"Sheet over your head? Why?", Arnav was pleasurably perplexed.
"Because I don't want anyone to see me calling you.", Khushi confessed. "If Buaji knows that I am talking to a man... that too at night... that too when I am in my bedroom... then we won't have to worry about the sagai. She will have killed me before it!"
Arnav smiled.
"Khushi...", he asked, knowing the answer, "haven't you talked to your boyfriends over the phone?"
"Baaifriends? How can I talk to baaifriends when I don't have any friends that are baais?", Khushi asked a legitimate question. "You don't know anything! In real life, girls don't have baaifriends! All that writing prem patra, singing around trees, dancing in the rain, sliding down the hill on your back... yeh sab sirf phillmon mein hote hein. Not in real life. If you do it in real life, you will end up in jail. And you will have torn clothes with grass stains..."
Arnav burst out laughing.
"Sshhh..Sshhh...Don't laugh so loudly! Jiji will hear!", Khushi cautioned him, peeping out of the sheet with one open eye. The door was still shut. She sighed in relief.
Arnav laughed as he had never laughed before in his life.
The guffaws attracted the attention of his family members who were gathered in the living room.
"Bhat ijj that sound?", Mami asked, looking around with wide eyes as she walked towards the source.
"Nannav... Nannav is laughing?", NK asked, scratching his head in confusion as he followed her.
"Bhai! What happened to Bhai?", Akash ran up the steps, covering them rapidly with his long legs.
"Chotey? Chotey is laughing?", Anjali looked at Nani.
"It has been so long, Anjali Bitiyaa...", Nani's voice trembled. Anjali held her hand and helped her up the steps.
"Are you laughing at me?", Khushi asked, suspicion lacing her voice.
"No... No...", Arnav gasped.
"Hhmmphf...", Khushi snorted.
Arnav clutched his stomach.
"Khushi...", he heard a sweet voice call.
"Haan, Jiji...", Khushi replied.
"Isn't it time to go to bed? Why are you huddling under that sheet? Are you feeling cold?"
"No, Jiji... I mean I was... But now I am not feeling cold, Jiji..."
"Yeh ladki bhi na...", he heard Khushi's Jiji grumble good naturedly.
"Payaliyaa!", he heard a loud call. That must be the Buaji, he thought. "Has Titliyaa got in to bed yet, Nandkisore?"
"Haan, Buaji.", Khushi's Jiji replied.
"Ask her to sleep without playing pranks on you. Or dancing on the bed. That girl! No one would say that she is going to get married soon the way she runs around like a whirlwind!"
"Haan, Buaji, I will tell her." Khushi's Jiji said. "Khushi, I will be back in a moment. The book with salwar patterns is on the table in the living room. I will just put it back, and then we can go to bed."
"Ji, Jiji...", he heard Khushi mutter obediently.
As soon as her Jiji left the room, Khushi whispered into the phone, "Hum phone rakhte hein!"
"Khushi!"
"Ji"
"Tomorrow at my office."
"No...", Khushi screeched almost silently, if that was possible.
"Yes. I need to... err... we need to talk...", Arnav said.
"Oh..our plan..."
"Yes."
"I will leave the house to go to the temple in the morning. After that I can come to your office. Will 8 be too early?"
"No. Eight is fine.", Arnav smiled.
"Acha. Shubh raatri.", Khushi said.
"Good night.", Arnav whispered.
He stood holding the phone to his ear long after Khushi cut the call, smiling at the craziness of the adorable child-woman. He finally dropped the phone on the recliner, and turned towards his room, a smile still on his lips, to come face to face with his Nani, Di, Mami, Akash, & NK, all standing staring at him as though he had grown 4 more heads.
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