Chapter 1

Distant Horizon Chapter 1

Delhi, Six years later

"Jiji?" Khushi looked at her sister Payal as they sat in the old bedroom they had shared growing up, "what did the doctor say?"

"It's not good Khushi," Payal replied, "I am going to be confined to a bed all day long for the next six months!"

Her sister Payal, older by two years, was three months pregnant and had been ordered bed rest by her doctor as she had suffered two miscarriages before this.

"You will forget about all this ordeal once the little one comes," Khushi consoled her sister, "think of this as a good resting period – you can watch all your favourite TV shows from your bed or you can read all your favourite romance novels --"

"But my mother-in-law will be there to taunt me about lying about all day," Payal lamented, "you know how she is."

Their aunt walked in along with their mother. "You could move in with us bitiya," she said, "your mom will make you tasty food – we can all spend time together."

"That impossible!" Payal exclaimed, "I can't move in here," Payal's voice suggested that she thought it was ridiculous idea, "it's going to be inconvenient for me."

"It will be too far to visit her gynecologist from here," Khushi piped in when she saw the look on her mother's face."

"Yes – that's what I meant," Payal quickly covered up her blunder.

The truth was that having married into an affluent family, Payal no longer found her maternal home comfortable. Their house was a modest two-bedroom apartment in a middle-class suburb of North Delhi. Growing up in Indore, their father Shashi Gupta had a small grocery store and their mother Garima, a house wife, had taken care of the house efficiently. They had never felt that their, upbringing lacked for anything. However, when Khushi was in the 9th grade, their aunt had invited them to move in with her in Delhi and had given her younger brother some money to start a hardware store. Though their mother had been reluctant she hadn’t voiced her opinion as she wanted to support her husband in his new venture. Their father had been attracted to the charms of living in a bigger city but although his business was bigger, the high cost of living in Delhi forced them to lower their expenditure and this change had taken a toll on their family.

"Most importantly, Jeejaji will miss her like crazy," Khushi pointed out.

"Akashji?" Payal shrugged her shoulders in a gesture of nonchalance, "I don’t think so but you love to exaggerate, don’t you?"

"Come one jiji – I know he fell in love with you at first sight in Sikkim," she said, "he found you after we returned to Delhi and came to ask for your hand in marriage."

"That's because you had blabbered out all our details to him," Payal said.

Payal had met Akash Singh Raizada for the first time in Sikkim when Khushi and Payal had gone on a holiday to Gangtok to stay with Khushi's classmate Samyukta Limbu, during the summer after their twelfth-grade exams. Payal had just completed her bachelor's degree in Arts. During their stay, they had helped out as her friend's sister-in-law was in her last stages of pregnancy. They had cooked and served the home stay guests including the Raizadas who had come there on a vacation. Akash, his parents, grandmother and cousin sister Anjali had stayed for four days in Gangtok.

"It worked out in your favour, didn’t it?" Khushi quipped.

A year after they had returned to Delhi, the Raizadas had come to visit their family with the intention of asking for Payal's hand in marriage. It had seemed like everything had gone well during their visit and they had left promising to call them back with good news.

"It wasn’t a cake walk," Payal muttered in irritation.

Unfortunately, the call turned out to be one of rejection from their side. Payal had later told her that Akash had been interested in her from the moment he had met her but she hadn’t taken it seriously at the time. As a result, Payal hadn’t been overly affected by the rejection. Even her parents had taken it in their stride because the status difference in the two families was more than obvious as the Raizadas owned a construction company while her father ran a hardware store in Sarojini Market.

"But it all worked out in the end!" Khushi said with a smile.

Two years later, the Raizada family had once again visited them and this time things had turned out to be successful.

"We have to thank our astrologer who told us not to look for bridegrooms for two years because of a defect in her horoscope," their mother added.

"No thanks to Arnav Singh Raizada!" Buaji exclaimed.

This name often surfaced during their conversations in the past three years but the man himself was as elusive as the legendary Yeti in mountains of the Himalayas.

According to what Payal had told her, Arnav and his grandfather Suryaprakash Singh Raizada had never seen eye to eye in their lives. Six years ago, when Arnav had decided to start his own architectural firm with his senior as his partner, his grandfather had been livid and had kicked him out of the house. Two years later, Arnav's company had shut down owing to an accident involving one of the buildings. After battling court cases, Arnav had left for the US.

Arnav hadn’t attended his cousin's wedding, the following year or rather was not invited to the wedding by his grandfather. Later, Akash had told Payal that it was Arnav who had objected to the alliance.

"My mother-in-law regales how he ill-treated poor Akashji when he was younger."

Khushi felt that there was more to the story than Akash's family was letting on -- especially due to the circumstances of Arnav's troubled childhood.

The Raizadas' only daughter had moved in with her parents, brining two small children with her. A few years later, she had succumbed to cancer leaving ten-year old Arnav and his twelve-year old older sister Anjali, solely under the care of their grandparents. Arnav's father who hailed from Madhyapradesh, had remarried and settled down in Indore. How could a father not care for his own children? Khushi's heart went out to the kids who had been victims of an unfortunate fate.

"They were both kids at the time jiji," Khushi defended him, "moreover, he was sent to the boarding school, wasn’t he?"

"What else could they do?" Payal countered, "he was too unruly for them to handle."

"It's all in the past now jiji," Khushi consoled her sister. She couldn’t understand how people had the time and energy to repeatedly talk about the past especially about a person who wasn’t even around.

"Even I had moved on thinking it was all in the past, " Payal told her, "Until I found out that he is returning to India."

Khushi's heart skipped a beat.

"Really?" Buaji raised her eyebrows in surprise, "I thought he had settled down with his live-in girlfriend."

"Looks like she left him – I am not surprised though."

"These people who live abroad have completely lost sight of their culture," Buaji loved to speak about such things as though she knew everything.

Khushi didn’t want to enlighten her aunt that there were people in Delhi who lived-in together. "I don’t think it is going to be as bad as you are thinking."

"No Khushi!" Payal exclaimed, "It's going to be worse! Arnav has made up with Dadaji now. This will only mean there will be lots of changes in our lives. Why did this have to happen now?"

Suryaprakash Raizada had been diagnosed with cancer six months ago and he and his wife had traveled to the USA for treatment. Arnav had taken responsibility of take care of his grandparents. However, as the cancer had spread all over, the doctors had given up and Mr. Raizada had decided to return to India to spend his last days. However, Arnav's return was news to her.

"Jiji, please -- it is not good to stress yourself during your pregnancy."

"Do you know what I am going through right now?" she began to cry, "I cannot go on like this."

Her sister was starting to sound hysterical. Khushi realized that there was something seriously wrong.

"What going on bitiya?" Garima asked, alarmed at her outcry.

"We are in big trouble," she looked at her mother, "We need money."

"Money?" Khushi's eyes widened, "Jiji you know we are already in debt."

Their father was immersed in debt – for the loans he had taken for Payal's extravagant wedding and sizable dowry. In hindsight one could question the lack of prudence behind the decisions but when a daughter's happiness was at stake, parents are forced to make a hard choice. Although receiving dowry was unlawful, a deep-rooted custom never really dies choking the lives of people involved.

As they were trying to pick up pieces of their life after the wedding that had left them in a financial crunch, tragedy had struck. Her father who had a small hardware store in Sarojini market, hadn’t been able to manage it after an accident that had left him handicapped.

"Who else is she going to ask if not her family?" Buaji retorted, "why don’t you ask for a loan at your workplace?"

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Didn’t they understand the implications of what was being discussed? Her mother's silence during this entire conversation was typical, leaving Khushi wondering if she supported this whole drama or if she was being neutral. She would have to talk to Payal alone once she calmed down.

After work, Khushi sat in Coffee Korner lost in thought.

"Hey --" Rohan sat down across from her, "you have been preoccupied – what's up?"

Rohan Agrawal was a good-looking man with a well-built stocky physique. He was of average height, fair, clean shaven with shiny black hair that he styled with plenty of gel.

"It's work," she smiled at him, "I am really worried about the new project."

"What have you got to be worried about?" he asked her, "you work as interior designer for AR Constructions. Your boss is Anjali Jha, your jeeju's cousin sister."

He had said that to her before but she was too tired to point out that it hadn’t been a cake walk. She had worked hard and passed out at the top of her class. She had immediately been hired by the company where she had interned as a student and had the opportunity to work in good projects. But last year when the company was on a downslide, her boss had recommended her to AR interiors where Anjali's team lead had hired her, unaware of her connection to the Raizadas. In fact, Anjali barely acknowledged her at work treating her just as she would any other employee in the organization.

He continued. "Even though I am an architect at the same firm -- I have to work my a** off for the paltry pay they give me lest they fire me for any small mistakes I commit. A large chunk of my salary goes into my EMI payments and I hardly have anything left." He complained.

Rohan should be happy that he had money to pay for the EMI as she was the one who had passed on his resume to the HR department when he had lost his previous job at an architectural firm. For people like Rohan, procuring a loan was not very hard as his father, a doctor by profession, not only worked at a reputed hospital but also ran a lucrative clinic in the high-end South Delhi area.

"Don’t worry," she smiled, "I will pay today's bill."

"Don’t be silly Khushi," he reprimanded her, "I didn’t mean it that way and you know it. "The EMI payment is for the 3 BHK apartment I bought. I want you to know that I am serious about our future."

"Rohan –"

"Wait – let me finish." He took her hand in his. "I lost you once because of my stupidity. I don’t want to lose this second chance I have with you."

She had first met Rohan five years ago when they were both students. She was studying in the second year of BSc in Interior Design and he was in the final year of B.E Architecture. As the colleges were in the same campus, they had met at a common friend's house. After a movie and couple of lunches and dinners, she was under the impression that he was interested in her. But when she had arrived at farewell party for the architecture students, intending to surprise him, she had seen him kissing a beautiful girl in a short dress who she later found out was his senior in college. She had stopped taking his calls after that night.

Two years ago, she had come across Rohan again in a WhatsApp chat group of old friends from her and his colleges respectively. During a reunion get together, he had explained to her that it was all a big misunderstanding caused by the girl and that he had been the victim of a prank. After that they had met frequently at get-togethers, and over time she had accepted his friendship.

Khushi looked at Rohan's somber face. "I told you when we met that I didn’t want to rush into anything, didn’t I?" She gently moved her hand from his hold.

"Yes -- but it has been six months since we started dating Khushi."

After he had started to work in AR constructions, they went out to lunch together, to coffee joints post work and caught a movie occasionally.

"Rohan, frankly speaking I am not ready to settle down just yet," she told him, "I have responsibilities at home."

Rohan's face fell but he recovered quickly. "I understand – I am not in a hurry either," he said, "My friends are going on a trip this weekend. Why don’t we join them?"

Though it sounded like an innocent question, Khushi knew Rohan wanted to take their relationship to the next level.

She prevaricated. "I have to go shopping with Sammy for her engagement next week."

Her best friend Sammy aka. Samyukta, was getting engaged to her boyfriend Anirudh Ghosh.

"I completely forgot about that," he said, "I am looking forward to it."

"Rohan, about that –"

"I know I haven’t received the invite but I was Anirudh's junior in college – I don’t think he will mind me tagging along with my girlfriend."

When Khushi looked hesitant, he said, "Don’t tell me they still resent me for what happened between us," he looked irritated and then composed himself, "well, this is going to be a good opportunity to show them that we are a couple now."

That night, unable to sleep, Khushi walked to the terrace of her apartment building and stood looking up at the sky for several minutes as questions reverberated in her mind. She thought about what Rohan had said about the future. When had they moved on from being friends to something more? How had she managed to forget what he had done so easily? In hindsight, she had come to realize that the year after her dad had met with the accident, the increasing debts incurred during Payal's wedding and her first job had taken a toll on her life. The reunion of old friends had come as a God sent respite and Rohan had been a part of that. His attention for her had made her feel normal.

But today, for the first time he had talked about being serious and that worried her. Her life was too complicated right now and it wasn’t fair that she been unable to share certain aspects of her life with him. He had no idea that she too was paying off loans. While he had invested in a future, she was paying loans for decisions made in the past.

One of these days she would have to come clean about her situation and leave the decision to him. But not right now. Right now, she had more pressing things to worry about.

She had told Rohan that she had responsibilities. But was it just responsibilities that was holding her back or something more? her heart nagged her. No. She didn’t want to go back to the brief encounter in the mountains. That was a just a memory – what she had felt couldn't be real. What she had now was real. It was time to let the past go and look forward to the future.

She tried to stem the slight flutter of trepidation in her heart that had started that morning since she heard her sister's words. She had said a lot of things but there was one that stuck on her.

He is returning to India….

She was finally going to be able to put a face to the man whose brilliant designs had blown her mind and touched the very depths of her soul.