Chapter 17
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[MEMBERSONLY]
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rulama 2013-11-25 19:59:42
[NOCOPY]
MARRYING KHUSHI
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(Thanks a million for the gorgeous banner, Akorshi)
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Part 18
Khushi looked at all the sarees and lehengas and kurtas and dhotis and pyjamas and sherwanis and and boxes and boxes of jewellery spread on the bed.
Buaji and Amma were shopping with a vengeance. After all, who would have thought that they would be marrying off both their daughters on the same day, to brothers who were the soul of sanskar and politeness? Khushi grimaced. Buaji should hear the Shaitan shouting! That would put an end to all her misconceptions about his sharafat!
She looked at her Jiji who was blushing as Preetho's mother teased her.
Jiji was happy. Atleast Jiji was happy. As for her, she would have to live with the Laad Governaar, put up with his akkad and his guroor...
Preetho's mother moved away.
Khushi asked, "Jiji, tum khush ho na?"
Payal blushed and nodded.
Khushi smiled, reassured.
"Jiji, you like Akashji, don't you?" Khushi made sure.
Payal nodded, smiling.
"Why? Why do you like him so much?" Khushi asked.
"Because he is just like me." Payal answered.
"Oh Payaliyaa, will you wear the yellow or the green lehenga for your shagun?" Buaji asked. "Titliyaa, have you picked your dress, Nandkisore? Or are you going to leave it till the last minute and crawl in to whatever you can find at that moment? Don't shame us in front of the Raizadas." Buaji knocked on Khushi's head.
The knock did not register. Khushi was lost in her thoughts.
After marriage, when they started living in Delhi, when Akashji would buy jalebi for Jiji, the Shaitan would be shouting at her! Akashji would take Jiji out to see Salman Khanji's latest phillum, and she would be sitting at home eating channa as the Laad Governaar planned how to make more models walk on the stage on ladder-like chappals...
But what to do? She had to live with him. She sighed. Love called for many sacrifices, and Khushi Kumari Gupta was in full sacrificial mode.
Well, atleast she would have Mittu to talk to, Khushi thought. Her eyes widened in horror. What if the Rakshas did not let her take Mittu along with her? She turned her head to look at the parrot nodding away on a beam.
Khushi jumped up and ran from the room.
Buaji looked after her in shock. "Hai Re Nandkisore! Ab isse kaa hui gawa? Her parents should have named her Toofan instead of Khussi!"
Khushi took out the phone and called her bridegroom.
"Khushi..." his husky voice sounded in her ear. She held the phone away, at a slight distance, grimacing at it. Even through the phone, his voice was capable of increasing her dhak dhak.
"Mittu is coming with me." she declared.
"What the!"
"What the nahi. Mittu the parrot!" Khushi stated.
"I mean... Khushi, she belongs to Preetho, doesn't she?" ASR tried to understand how and when Mittu had become his responsibility.
"Preetho's in laws were not willing to take her." Khushi's eyes filled with tears. "Her father-in-law is allergic to pets. He sneezes and sneezes if so much as a cat crosses his path."
"Oh!"
"So she is mine now." Khushi claimed possession. "I won't go anywhere without Mittu. If you can't take Mittu to Delhi, I will stay here with her. Aap shaadi ke baad Delhi jaayiye. You stay in Delhi and I will stay here in Lucknow."
ASR felt his mouth fall open.
He hastened to reply, "No, that won't be necessary. You can bring Mittu."
Khushi smiled. Atleast she wouldn't be lonely now.
"Suniye, I wanted to ask you something." Khushi began.
"Kya?" ASR asked.
"Just a minute. Let me find the list."
He could hear Khushi searching, knocking down boxes... "Khushi..."
"Got it! Suniye, this is a list of questions I wrote down a long time back to ask the boy who would come to see me. Now you answer them." Khushi demanded.
ASR looked at the pile of work waiting for him.
"Khushi... can we do this later?"
"Later? When later? Tomorrow morning your relations are going to come here for Shagun. And in the evening, they are going to come here for Sagai. So when should I ask the questions? After our marriage?"
ASR smiled, looking at the screen of his laptop.
"Dekhiye, I have no choice but to marry you. Because my Jiji's entire happiness hangs on my 'yes'. But how can I marry a man I know nothing about? How can I leave everybody and come with you when all I know about you is that you are like a steam engine, all the time huffing and puffing in anger?"
ASR smiled. "Ask."
"Where are your parents?"
"Dead."
"Oh, how sad! I will never know your Amma & Babuji!" Khushi lamented.
ASR swallowed hard.
"Do you smoke?"
"No."
"Do you drink daru?"
"Sometimes. At official functions."
Khushi gasped. "I am going to marry a sharabi like Amitab Bachchanji in that phillum? He Devi Maiyya, ye aapne kya kar diya?" The picture of the rakshas walking on unsteady feet and spouting incomprehensible poetry while she danced on the stage before him flashed through her mind.
ASR smiled, now used to Khushi's dramatics.
"Do you play jua?"
"No, I don't gamble. I don't believe in good fortune and misfortune."
"Devi Maiyya ki laakh laakh jai ho!" Khushi prayed devoutly for not having blessed her with a juari.
"Anything else, Khushi?" he asked, leaning back in his chair.
"No more questions. I... I just wanted to tell you..."
"Yes, Khushi?"
"Woh... woh... I am scared of lightning and thunder." she confessed rapidly. "I am scared of the dark. I am scared of sleeping alone." She cut the call.
ASR looked at his silent phone, feeling his heart clench in sympathy for the girl who had been orphaned at such a young age.
His phone rang again. Khushi.
"Yes, Khushi?" he murmured encouragingly.
"I just wanted to say... maybe it will be alright. I mean, atleast I will have Jiji there with me. New town, new people, new husband, woh bhi khadoos... Atleast Jiji will be the same..." Khushi tried to calm herself down.
Arnav shut his eyes in pain. He was uprooting her from everything she knew, everything familiar and replanting her in alien soil.
"Khushi..." his husky whisper soothed her. "Khushi, you will never have to be scared anymore. Not of lightning or thunder, not of the dark, not of sleeping alone. I will be there with you all the time." he promised.
Khushi nodded. Atleast if she was fighting with him all night, she wouldn't notice the thunder and lightning!
She cheered up.
"My Nani, Mami, Mama, my Di, my brothers... they have all been waiting for me to get married, for long. They will treat you like a princess. You will never want for anything." he promised.
Khushi nodded. "Hum phoone rakhte hein. Neighbours have come to look at the clothes and jewellery."
"Khushi!" he stopped her. "There is one more advantage to marrying me."
Khushi frowned. "Kya?"
"You can see my bare chest whenever you want to. It will be your haq!" he teased her to make her angry.
Khushi gasped, "Awww!" her mouth wide in an 'O'.
ASR cut the call, smiling.
The Raizadas came in full strength, weighed down with gifts for the two brides. The two grooms were banned from attending the function.
"Khushiji, Payalji, we have all come for your Shagun. Hum kerchief laa rahe he!" NK announced happily.
"Hein?" Buaji stared at him.
"Kerchief naahin, NK Bitwaa!" Mami hastened to correct him. "Tashreef, tashreef!"
Buaji and all the others burst out laughing.
Buaji pinched and pulled NK's cheek, "Bahut mazaakiya ho, Nandkisore!"
"Buaji!" NK tried to escape. "It hurts... ooo... ouch!"
Anjali teased both brides after filling their laps with gifts.
"Akash & Chotey wanted to accompany us. It took a lot of effort on our part to stop them!"
The pleasant picture of the Shaitan tied down with shackles and locked up in chains, singing "O Priya, Priya, kyun bhula diya" flashed through her mind. But it is only a dream, Khushi Kumari Gupta, she told herself. The chains that could bind him had not been forged yet! And if he were tied, he would be saying "What the!" instead of "O Priya, Priya!"
"Don't be sad, Khushiji!" Anjali whispered in her ear. "Chotey will come to see you in the evening!"
Of course he would! Khushi thought. He couldn't very well ask Nanheji to push the ring on to her finger, could he?
After the Raizadas left, Khushi and Payal were given their lunch and asked to rest before the festivities of the evening.
Khushi drifted off to sleep.
She saw herself dressed in a red lehenga like a bride, walking alone in a desert. Wind blew her lehenga around her. Sand dunes changed shape around her, the wild wind lashing sand in to her eyes. She pulled her ghoonghat more firmly over her head.
She was waiting for him... her groom. She looked around anxiously. Where was he? He had promised to wait for her.
She caught sight of a flash of blue. She lifted the skirt of her lehenga with both hands and ran towards him. If only she could catch a glimpse of his face! But like a mirage, he vanished when she reached there.
Panting, Khushi called out, "Suniye! Where are you!"
She caught movement to her left. He, dressed in a blue sherwani, was walking away from her. She ran after him, trying to reach him. But he was too fast for her.
"Suniye! Suniye! Hamari baat suniye!" she hollered through a dry throat, panic and the eagerness to see him making tears fall down her cheeks.
Then he turned to look at her, the ever present smirk on his face. His sherwani was unbuttoned till his waist, letting her see the golden skin of his chest and hard stomach.
"Khushi! Khushi!"
Khushi jumped up, gasping.
"Khushi! What did you want to tell me? Why are you crying?" Payal was sitting up in bed by her side, anxious.
"Huh?" Khushi asked.
"You said, Suniye, hamari baat suniye! Did you want to tell me something?" Payal asked.
"Nothing, Jiji! I just had a nightmare!" Khushi pushed Payal in to bed and threw the blanket over her Jiji's head.
She then lay down, burying her face in her pillow.
The Rakshas wouldn't even let her dream in peace! Khushi grit her teeth and her fingers clutched the pillow. He and his muscles! And his ever present smirk!
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