Chapter 4
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[MEMBERSONLY]
[NOCOPY]
RECALLING ARNAV
Part 2
Section 2
Anjali stood at the doorway of her brother's room and looked at him sitting hunched over the laptop. Akash & NK were at the office.
Her heart clenched. Five months without Khushi had turned him in to a wreck, the sight of whom made Mami cry and Nani bury her head in her hands.
He had lost weight. His face was gaunt, his eyes listless, his Adam's apple pronounced, the bones at the base of his throat sticking out. He had stopped eating well. Jogging was a thing of the past. He took his pills because she forced them down his throat every morning and night and it took him less effort to give in to her than to fight her.
"Chotey," she called softly.
He lifted dull eyes from the laptop screen he had been gazing at for hours.
"Come down for lunch. I have made tomato soup."
"Later," His voice was rusty. "Is Payal back from the temple?"
"She called. She will be here in five minutes. Chotey, you will make yourself sick if you go on like this," Anjali could not stop herself from saying.
He looked at her blankly.
His phone rang.
"Yes, Aman."
He listened for a few seconds. "I will come over." He cut the call. "I need to go to the office, Di," he said, standing up.
"Have lunch first," Anjali said.
Payal joined the family at the lunch table.
"How was the pravachan, Payaliyaa?" Nani asked.
"Very good, Naniji. It would have been nice if all of you could have joined me," Payal smiled slightly, passing the dal to Mamaji.
"Did Khushi call last night?" ASR asked Payal, impatient, his tone urgent.
"Ji."
There was perfect silence at the table. Arnav had been waiting to ask Payal this question since morning. As he usually did.
"How is she?" Worried eyes looked in to Payal's evasive ones.
"Fine. Happy. She is going to start Satwik Mishtan Bhandar once more," Payal smiled.
Arnav swallowed. "How can she... I mean, she fell from the steps four months back. How can she take up such heavy work?"
Payal looked at the worried faces around the table.
"It was a minor fall. And four months have passed by. All her injuries... her injuries..." Payal stuttered. "Her injuries are healed now. She is healthy, happy."
"But..." ASR protested.
"Chotey, you don't have any right over Khussi bitiyaa," Nani was blunt in the extreme. "She is not your fiancee or wife. It was your choice to listen to Sumi and throw Khussi out of your life. Now she is trying to find happiness and purpose in her life. You have no right to question or dictate her decisions or actions."
ASR's face grew grim, pale, the conflict in his soul eating in to his peace of mind like cancer.
"Arnav Bitwaa, we didn't know that Garimaji was the woman involved in the scandal. Payaliyaa didn't know. Khussi Bitiyaa didn't know. Why did you punish the child for something that her Maasi and your father did fourteen years back?" Mamaji asked.
"I am sure that Garimaji had no idea that we are the Malliks. It must have been her first sight of Dadi that told her that she had married off Payaliyaa in to this family. She must have been horrified to realise that Khushiji was going to marry Arvind Mallik's son," Anjali said sadly.
"Arnav Bitwaa, I don't blames you for leaving Khussi. If you didn't wants to marry the niece of the woman who caused the death of your Amma-Babuji, I can never blames you. It ijj your decision. Theek he. But why are you not happy with your decision? That ijj my kwestion, Hello Hi Bye Bye," Mami said.
"Why do you hound Payaliyaa for Khussi bitiyaa's news every day?" Nani asked.
ASR had no answer. He looked down at his untouched plate.
"I don't know what happened fourteen years ago. I don't know if Garimaji was involved. I don't know if my daughter killed herself out of a misunderstanding or if she had a reason to end her life. I don't know anything, Chotey. Because I did not see anything. I was not there at the scene of the crime," Nani sighed, her face drawn. "But I did see two things. I saw how much Khussi bitiyaa loved you and trusted you, how she clung to the hope that you would come to marry her even after all of us told her that you wouldn't, how her heart broke when you told her over the phone that you did not want to marry her, how she collapsed and remained laid up for days due to the shock..."
ASR's face whitened as all the people around the table nodded in agreement.
"And I saw how much you loved Khussi bitiyaa. How your love for her overcame all your prejudices and lack of belief in love and marriage, how it made you want to marry her. Also how it made you throw Sumi out of your house, how it made you expose Shyam's true nature to your family and Anjali bitiyaa... after you broke off the marriage. And I can see how it is making you miserable and sick now."
ASR looked at Nani, his naked eyes revealing his soul-felt grief and loneliness.
"Chotey, life is short. You cannot live your parents' lives for them. You cannot spend your life making up for your parents' mistakes or seeking revenge for real or assumed slights," Nani said.
Anjali nodded. "Nani is right, Chotey."
"It is time to choose. Do you want to live like this, trying hard to hate Khussi bitiyaa and failing? Or do you want to beg her forgiveness, marry her and bring her back here where she belongs?" Nani asked, looking directly in to his eyes.
All looked at ASR. There was perfect silence in the hall.
Before Arnav could reply, Payal intervened. "Buaji, Amma and Babuji want Arnavji to forget whatever happened between him and Khushi. They want him to live happily, away from Khushi and them."
ASR swallowed, his throat dry as dust. The Guptas had forgiven him, freed him.
"It was a contract marriage, meaningless, short, planned to oust Shyamji. It is over now. So they are hoping that Arnavji will forget everything that happened after that and get on with his life. As Khushi is doing," Payal smiled, hoping frantically that the Raizadas would agree.
All stared at Payal, their faces pained.
"Arnavji is a free man now that the contract has ended. Everyone in our home in Lucknow feels that it is good that there is no bond between Arnavji and Khushi now. They would like to see Arnavji marry again. And this time to a girl more suited to his position, without such a tainted history," Payal tried hard to keep the smile on her face.
ASR stood up suddenly, his arm inadvertently knocking his plate off the table on to the floor. All stared at him, awestruck at the animation on the face that had been as good as dead for the past five months.
"Khushi is my wife. Whether she is living with me or away from me," ASR's eyes spit fire at Payal. "If Buaji and the others are waiting to see my wedding with any girl other than Khushi, I am afraid they will have to live with the disappointment."
He turned and walked away.
Payal bent her head, exhausted. She had tried. She had really tried to free him. What could she tell Amma, Babuji and Buaji now?
Khushi banged the spoon against the back of the steel plate that had been kept face down on the dining table.
"I am hungry, Amma. Khana do, khana do. Nahi to hum hartal karenge! Kyon Babuji, won't you join me?" she teased.
Babuji smiled.
"Tanik thehro, Nandkisore. I am bringing lunch." Buaji grumbled.
"After lunch I have to join Krishna and Munna in cleaning the vessels, Buaji. And then go out to the shops." Khushi proclaimed cheerfully.
"You got good money for the bangle, Titliyaa?" Buaji asked.
"Yes, Munna knew the jeweller. I have kept the money in Babuji's safe box, Buaji. I will take a portion of it when I go to the shops, Babuji." she declared.
Babuji nodded.
Khushi looked down at the smooth expanse of the plate. She could see her face in it. She leaned forward to smile at her image.
A masculine hand threw a bundle of notes on to the back of a steel plate resting face down on the table.
Khushi jerked, looking around. Who was the idiot throwing money on plates? There was no one near her.
She frowned. How weird!
After lunch, Khushi sat before the TV, waiting for her helpers to arrive.
"Barsat mein,
humse mile tum sajan,
tum se mile hum...
barsat mein...
Tak dhina dhin..."
Khushi smiled at the TV, watching the song being played out, humming and singing along with it, the words coming to her mind with no difficulty.
Barsat mein... she sang.
It was dark. She was alone. It was raining.
Humse mile tum sajan...
She felt a bright light flash against her face. The very next moment, warm, strong arms closed around her and swung her around, close to him.
Tum se mile hum... barsat mein...
Cradled against him, safe, she could hear his heart beat against her ear. It was as fast, as loud as hers...
Khushi clutched her head. A dull ache was making itself felt at the back of her head as the images spun and twisted on the screen of her mind.
"Kaa hua, Nandkisore?" Buaji's anxious voice broke in to her preoccupation. "Is your head hurting?"
Khushi tried to smile. "I think I am watching too many phillums these days, Buaji." Why else would she see such phillmy scenes with herself as the heroine and some man as the hero?
"Khushi didi!" Munna called.
"Shall we start?" Krishna asked.
"I am coming. Wait for me." Khushi jumped out of her chair and ran out to join them.
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