Chapter 21
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[MEMBERSONLY]
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rulama 2013-12-01 22:10:04
[NOCOPY]
MARRYING KHUSHI
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(Thanks a million for the gorgeous banner, Akorshi)
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Part 22
"Di, how did the mehendi function go?" Arnav asked Anjali when she came to bid him good night.
Anjali hid her smile and said, "Very well. We had a lot of fun. Kash! If only you & Akash too could have joined us! And NK Bhai too! Otherwise he will phone me regularly spouting his Hindi & Urdu till I feel like choking the life out of him."
ASR smiled slightly.
"Err... Amma & Buaji were happy?" he asked, turning away to look out of the window.
Anjali covered her mouth with her hand to stop herself from giggling.
"I don't know." she replied.
ASR jerked around to stare at her in shock.
"I mean, I don't know about Amma & Buaji! I was paying attention only to my bhabhis." ASR's sister smirked.
ASR flushed and turned to look out of the window at the night sky.
Anjali caught hold of his arm. "Chotey, I could read your mind even when you were too small to speak. Samjhe aap? Why don't you ask me what you really want to ask?"
ASR lowered his head.
"Khushiji was happy. The ladies were teasing her and Payalji. Both were looking very beautiful today, as you might have figured out from the picture I sent you."
ASR tried to hide his face from her perceptive eyes. He knew that Khushi was unhappy. Maybe the ladies had teased her too much...
"Chotey, are you worried about something?" Anjali asked.
"No, Di. Just that Khushi & Payal will be leaving everything familiar to them to join us in Delhi..." ASR murmured.
Anjali hugged his arm. "So my Chotey has become capable of thinking about others? The credit goes to Khushiji!"
"Di!"ASR protested.
"Don't worry, Chotey! Nani, Mami, Mama, & I will help them adjust. They will never feel lonely in RM." Anjlai reassured him.
ASR nodded.
Khushi looked at her hands... and then at her sleeping Jiji's hands. The mehendi on her sister's hands and feet were red, but hers were...
A gentle knock sounded on her bedroom window.
"Khushi..." The whisper reached her.
Who was calling her name at midnight? Khushi looked at the shut window with frightened eyes, clutching her knees close to her with hands decorated with mehendi.
Was it some bhoot? Some atma thirsty for blood? She swallowed hard, her throat dry with fear!
"Khushi!" the whisper sounded angry.
How did the ghost know her name? And why was the bhoot angry?
Her eyes widened in recognition. It was her own Rakshas, her steam engine on the boil, her dragon who was spitting fire at her window!
Khushi jumped out of bed and ran to the window to unfasten it. She pushed the wooden panels open to see her groom standing there in his black shirt, black waistcoat, and black trousers.
"Khushi, tum theek ho?" he asked.
Khushi stared at him in wonder. "You came here at midnight to ask me if I am alright?"
ASR looked away.
"I am in my bedroom in my father's house, Baba. I am sleeping with my Jiji. What can happen to me?" Khushi asked, perplexed.
ASR squirmed inwardly. Put that way, his actions looked rather incomprehensible, unreasonable, illogical, and downright silly! Absurd even!
"Move aside, Khushi. Let me come in." ASR demanded.
Khushi moved, but asked, her hands on her hips, "Kya hua? Did you shout at Anjaliji? Did she get fed up of you and lock you out of Sheesh Mahal?"
He did not deign to give her an answer.
He looked at a sleeping Payal and a dozing Mittu and tugged Khushi to the far end of the room.
"Kya he?" Khushi asked. "Have you come here at midnight to whisper some secret in my ear?"
"Khushi, show me your mehendi." he demanded.
Khushi immediately put her hands behind her back. "No, you can see it only on our wedding day." she declared.
A totally clueless ASR frowned, "What the!"
"Wedding night, actually." Khushi explained. "You have to look for your name in the mehendi."
"I do?" ASR asked.
"Yes." Khushi lifted her chin in the air, smirking smugly.
"On our wedding night?" he confirmed.
"Yes, on our suhaag raat." Khushi laughed at his ignorance.
"Crap! What a waste of time!" ASR exclaimed.
"Kya?" Khushi frowned, her air of superiority vanishing in a puff of smoke.
"Which idiot will spend half his wedding night looking for his name in his bride's mehendi when he knows it? How silly!" ASR was genuinely baffled.
Khushi's mouth fell open in one big Awww!
She brought her hands forward and planted them on her hips, girding her loins for a fight unto death.
"Silly he? Aap ko yeh 'What a waste of time!' lagta he?" she began, her eyes rolling.
ASR crossed his arms on his chest, all set to watch the fireworks.
"Silly aur waste of time is not looking for your name on my palm on our suhaag raat! It was sitting like a statue for the girl to draw the design on my arms and legs. It was having Amma feed me and Jiji because we could not use our hands. It was struggling to rub my nose against my shoulder when it started itching because I couldn't ask Amma to scratch it for me!" she hissed.
ASR bit back his smile.
"It was sitting for hours with my arms and legs stretched out so that you can get a bride with perfect mehendi, not a smudged one. It was having Buaji apply some oil on all that mehendi creepers and flowers on my arms and legs as though the design were a plant that had to be watered!" There was no end to Khushi's list of grievances!
"It was scrubbing away all that dirty brown paste away! It was worrying all day if my mehendi would be dark or pheeka! If it would be visible!" Khushi said, overpowered by a sense of injustice.
ASR frowned. "Why shouldn't it be visible?"
"He Devi Maiyya! Why shouldn't it be visible, he is asking me! After leaving me to worry all day, he is climbing in through my window at night and asking me why my mehendi would be invisible!" Khushi sounded very put upon.
ASR hid his smile. "Khushi... mehendi is supposed to leave colour wherever it is applied, isn't it?" he asked reasonably.
"You... you... Arnav Singh Raizada! You don't know anything! How do you run your textile shop in Delhi?"
ASR looked away to hide his laughter.
"I should have written Laad Governaar when I got a chance! Or Rakshas! Or Shaitan!" she mourned her lost chance.
"You didn't?" ASR sounded surprised.
That was the last straw on the back of the camel named Khushi Kumari Gupta!
"How could I? All the women of the neighbourhood were here to examine the mehendi on the hands of the brides as though they have not seen mehendi before! Had I written..." She paused for breath.
"Had you written Laad Governaar...?" he asked, smirking.
"The ladies would have seen it. Your Naniji, Mamiji, and Di would have been so humiliated!" she sighed.
"Poor Khushi!" ASR smirked.
Khushi grit her teeth.
Mittu yawned and spread her wings. "Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander!" she mumbled before dropping off again.
Khushi glared at the bird and then at ASR.
"Do you know how scared I was? Do you have any idea?" he voice wobbled.
"Khushi!" ASR was disconcerted. "Kya hua?" he caught her by her shoulders, gently, trying to comfort her.
"What if my mehendi was pheeka when they scrubbed it off?" she asked in a tear-filled voice.
"Why should your mehendi be pheeka, Khushi?" ASR asked, bewildered.
"Because..." she sniffed, "...because the depth of the colour is a reflection of the depth of the husband's love for his wife..." Fat tears rolled down her cheeks.
"Khushi..." he pulled her close to him and hugged her.
"Preetho's Amma said that they would inspect Jiji's and my mehendi tomorrow to see how red they were. I knew that Jiji's would be very red because Akashji unse bahut prem karte he... but... but... mine... I thought..." She dried her face by rubbing her cheeks against his conveniently placed shoulder and snuggled closer.
"Why did you think yours would be dull, Khushi?" His face was pale, and his hold around her secure.
"Because our marriage is not like Jiji's." she whispered.
ASR swallowed.
"Akashji wants to marry Jiji. You need to marry someone. Anyone. Any girl would do." Khushi yawned and then cuddled closer to him.
"Khushi..." His voice didn't sound like his own. "Any girl won't do. Only you will do."
"Because I an Jiji's sister." Khushi said.
"No. And before you say it, not because you are Buaji's niece or your parents' daughter..." ASR added, smoothing a tender hand down the fall of her hair.
"Then?" Khushi frowned at him from his arms.
ASR said softly, "Because... because you are Lucknow's Jalebi Bai!"
Khushi scowled at him weakly.
"Because if I am a Shaitan, you are no less! If I am a Rakshas, you are one too!" ASR claimed.
Khushi pushed at him with her hands. He held her closer.
"Khushi..."
"Hhmmm..." She was half asleep, cradled in his powerful arms against his warm chest.
"Your mehendi is redder than your Jiji's, isn't it?" he asked softly.
Khushi whispered, "How did you know?"
"I know."
There was silence for a few moments.
"Khushi..." he began.
There was no response. Khushi was fast asleep.
ASR smiled as he lifted her in his arms and gently laid her down beside Payal. Her fingers clutched the neck of his waistcoat, unwilling to let go of him.
He smiled as he freed himself from her hold. He looked at the hand he held. The mehendi was a dark red.
Smiling, he dropped a kiss on her fingers, inhaling the pungent smell of the mehendi.
He bent down to kiss her cheek.
Khushi smiled in her sleep.
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