Okay before i give the update let me vent my anger and sadness... I am really disappointed to see the likes and comments going dramatically down... i mean i understand i have not been updated regularly but i have told u clearly what the problems were. in fact once i came back from vacation i was right back to writing and giving u updates... if u dont like the story or the pace please feel free to let me know so i can save my time from sending a pm. it hurts to send more than 100 people wanting pms from me and seeing hardly 50 likes and even less comments... i know i have repeatedly said i write for a few who really like my work but so many people come to ask for pms only to be never seen liking or commenting. arre main bhi insaan hoon yaar. i too would like to see a little appreciation for my time. i get so excited when writing and updating but when i see a lack of response my urge to write goes down the drain. so people come on help me here and give me a reason to write...here is the next update.. i hope to see some improvement...
Chapter 21: A New Kid on the Block
Geet woke up from her nap with the sound of the chirping birds that were returning back to their nests. She looked at the time on the clock and as it was almost a quarter past six, she got off the bed and went towards the bathroom. Although she knew of nobody from this wedding she was forcefully brought here on the pretext of that stupid bet. Well technically she could have easily got off the hook spinning some tales about her lab work or something else yet she wanted to come here. It almost seemed like an unknown force that had pulled her to accept to come down here with Maan and the bet just seemed like a lame excuse. Putting aside the thoughts about why she decided to come here, she decided to catch up on some lone time. As they were driving down to this haveli, Geet had noticed the serenity of the village and calmness of the atmosphere that she decided to do some exploring around the village. Since she was not familiar with the local language she decided to stay close to the haveli and look around near the place.
Geet walked out of the bathroom and changed into a simple white anarkali with deep red and gold lining, plaited her hair, and applied a bit of khol and lip gloss enhancing her natural glow. She pinned her dupatta in place and grabbed her cell phone before making an exit through the room. She came to stand near the railings that faced into the inner patio where people where in groups and talking. On the other end there was a larger group chattering loudly and eating something. She craned her neck to see the group mostly consisted of women. She was about to shrug away when something caught her eye. She squinted her eyes to see a familiar figure wearing sleeveless shirt along with shorts and enjoying chatting and eating. She instantly leaned forward to see Maan having a gala time eating, no wait being fed gol gappas by some girl hovering over him. Invisible smoke made its way out of her ears at the sight in front of her. She instantly stomped down the stairs and made her way to the corner where she saw him enjoying all the attention he was getting from the women. "As if!" she cursed under her breath and went to stand in front so he could see her.
Maan saw her burn in jealousy as she made her way downstairs and decided to play cool. Although he really didn't like that girl falling on him and was about to walk away when he saw Geet fuming. Well it didn't seem that bad that the mere act of being fed could have such explosive reaction from her. He straightened and pretended as though he hadn't seen her and faked as though his full attention was on the girl.
"Arre bas bhi karo Sonia, I am full," he said holding her hand.
"Maan you hardly had any from me. Kao na please," Sonia replied batting her eyelashes.
"Kao na please," Geet sarcastically mimicked under her breath. "Kayegi meri jutti," she cursed stamping her feet in annoyance.
"Teekhai magar bas ek," he said smiling sweetly and was about to eat when Geet barged in and pushed that girl away.
Sonia gasped in surprise because she didn't expect to be pushed and looked around to see another lady, her eyes spitting fire. She wondered who had dared to spoil her quality time with Maan.
"Oops sorry," Geet said pretending to be sorry. "Voh kya haina Mr. Maan Singh Khurana," she said gritting her teeth and looking at Maan, "he has an urgent call."
Maan smirked; jealousy was an age-old game yet till date there was no one who didn't fall for it. "Call? Mere liye?" he feigned innocence.
"Haan aap ke liye," she barked, her eyes red in anger.
"I don't know Miss. Han—" he began only to be dragged away forcibly by Geet. She pulled him with her and walked to the end of the corridor and walked into an unoccupied room. She suddenly let go of her hand and almost made him fall but she didn't seem to care.
Maan stumbled a bit at her sudden withdrawal and took a few moments before he straightened himself. He then folded his arms on his chest and looked at her, his eyes teasing her. "Miss. Handa you said I got a call but I don't see any telephone here, kyun signal problem hai kya," he teased with a huge smirk on his face.
"Geet, mera naam Geet hai," she spat puffing away a strand of hair from her face. "Aur voh, voh kya tha? Aap kya life mein kabhie gol gappe nahi kaya? Hmph! Aur voh bhi uss chudail ki personal haathon se!"
"Oh kya karoon Miss. Ha—" he began only to swallow his words, "I mean Geet. She had challenged me to do so," he lied blatantly.
"Ek baat kaan khol kar sun lo Maan, maine pehle challenge ki thi, toh first preference has to be me!" she said menacingly pointing a finger at him.
"Oh, accha magar," he said innocently scratching his head.
"Aap ko samajh mein nahi aaya, mein senior hoon aur mujhe first preference chahiye," she said looking defeated.
"Magar mein usi kaam pe hi hoon," he said walking dangerously close to her.
"Don't you dare lie! Agar aap usi kaam pe hain toh why are you enjoying eating out of that kamini's hands?" she complained, pouting like a little child.
"Toh agar main tumhara haath se khaoon toh its okay?" he asked amused, tucking her loose strand of hair.
"Hmm," she said her voice almost sounding like a moan while her eyes drooped to half closed position.
"Magar uske liye humare beech main voh relationship public hona chahiye na," he whispered enjoying their closeness.
"Haa— nahi!" she screamed suddenly becoming aware of the current situation. What had she just done! She had fallen into her own trap. Damn Maan Singh Khurana and damn his irresistible ways of getting things done his way. "Nahi, maine aisi todi na kaha," she managed to say hoping to salvage the situation.
"Toh aapne kaise kaha Geetji?"
"I said stop eating out of other's hands and keep the challenge in mind, bas!" she declared.
"Aur kuch Mrs. Khurana?" he asked suppressing a smile.
"Nahi!" she said not finding anything else to say and turn to walk away when she heard him sing.
"Rukh jaa o dil diwaane poochun toh main zara," he sang gruffly before winking at her.
She stopped to hear him sing with her back facing and tilted her face to see him from the corner of her eyes. "Nahi nahi abhi nahi, abhi karo intezaar," she sang back before giggling and running away.
Maan instantly chuckled at her reply and shook his head. Well this jealousy bahana was proving better than he had expected. Mere feeding from a strange woman had her riled up, what would dancing with someone else have her do? He smirked gleefully at his thought. Time for plan B he thought smirking devilishly before heading out of the room.
Geet was passing by the corridor when she heard faint sound of music in the end of the hallway. She walked towards the source of the sound. She could now clearly hear the famous "dhak dhak" song blaring from the CD player while people around where hooting and whistling loudly. Her curiosity took the better of her and she hurried to the room only to be utterly shocked at the sight in front of her. Maan was holding a girly skimpily clothed and dancing sensually to the beats of the song.
Wasn't it jus a while ago she had warned him to stay away from that chudail? She angrily stomped to the place where the CD player was kept and plugged out the machine. The lack of the song made people turn around to see her standing with her arms folded on her chest and heaving angrily. Maan and the girl too stopped with the music and stood in a compromising position. Maan turned around to see everyone looking in one direction and turned to find his "sherni" wife ready to explode any second. He instantly let go of girl hanging to him and gulped hard fearing the consequence. A slow murmuring began among the people but nobody dared to loudly ask why the music had stopped looking at a fuming lady standing by the music player. Maan tried to clear his throat hoping to appease the situation but before he could do anything somebody else made his way out of the crowd and came to stand in front of her. He looked to be quite tall and stood facing his back to him and blocking his view of Geet. He scrunched his eyebrows quizzically and walked towards the mystery man who dared to stand in front of his wife.
Geet on the other hand failed to notice a handsome young man clear his way out of the crowd. Although his physical frame was similar to Maan, he had thicker stubble and thinner frame than Maan. He slowly approached her in trance as though an invisible magnetic force pulled him towards her. It looked like he didn't care everybody stood gaping at him. In fact for him the whole room seemed to be empty expect for a beautiful angel in white who stood at the end of the room. The orange glow of the evening sun peeked into the windows of huge room and reflected her glowing face. Everyday he had met so many beautiful women and he even had a huge fan of women following him yet nobody seemed to catch his attention like she had but she didn't know one bit the effect she had on him. When he clearly came and stood in front of her she looked at him with confusion but he just bent down to kneel down in front of her. Even before she could clarify her intentions he began to speak in a language unknown to her yet his eyes seemed to convey something deep and real.
"Ee kshanam kalalaithe nannu lepaku,
Ee kshanam nijamaithe nannu aapaku,
Ninnu choosina ee kshanam nenu maravalenu,
Naaku marujanmam icchina ee chupuki naa runam teerchkolenu…"
- Madhu
The whole crowd suddenly burst with claps. The girls seemed to glare at Geet feeling jealous while the men whistled and hooted away. She wondered what he had said had caused the crowd to erupt. Seeing his body posture she guessed he probably proposing or flirting and by the reaction of the crowd she guessed he didn't make fun of her. Yet since she couldn't understand a word of what he had said, she was confused. She felt a bit uncomfortable by his intense gaze yet it didn't disgust her for she could see his intentions were not bad. "I'm sorry main samjhi nahi," she regretted shaking her head.
"Oh aap yahaan ki rehne waali telugu ladki nahi hain?" he asked perplexed.
"Sorry main actually Delhi se hoon," she said shrugging her shoulders and by that time Maan had come to stand right behind him while.
Maan was literally fuming somebody had the guts to flirt with his wife. Anushka had found her way to Maan to tell him something when she heard the man speak to his Geet. And since she had clearly understood what he was saying she stood stunned for few moments until the crowd erupted a cheer. Seeing the reaction of the crowd he was sure that man was advancing romantically. He had rushed to where that man stood and was about to pull him up by his neck and give a piece of his mind when he felt Anushka tug him urgently.
"Bujji ruko tum kya karne wale ho?" she asked alarmed at his angry advance towards the other man. "Maine kaha that na ek problem solve karne ke liye ek aur problem create karni chahiye?" she stated.
"Sweety tum chup raho. He is flirting with my wife aur main usse chod doon," he asked incredulously.
"Maan, remember she is not you wife here. Agar tum yahaan tamasha kada karoge toh the situation will spiral out of hand. "Aur mujhe pata hai ki tumhara haath hi pehle talking karega aur he is a big superstar so there would be unwanted media attention. Waise toh he doesn't seem to have any kind of bad intention towards her. So listen to me and let the drama go on," she whispered and held his arm tightly preventing him to jerk forward and get hold of Ram Charan.
"Ah hume maaf keejiyega," Ram Charan's deep baritone voice interrupted Maan's angry thoughts. "Hum bas keh reh the ki hume aapse pyaar ho gaya hai," he stated plainly with a lovely smile on his face shocking everyone around and further angering Maan. "Mujhe vaise bhi urdu shayari nahi aati magar phir bhi main arse karta hoon aapki khaatir," he said with a charming smile.
"Deewane hai apke, is baat se inkaar nahi?
Kaise kahein ki hume aapse pyaar nahi?
Kuch toh kasoor hai apki adaon ka?
Akele hum hi gunehgar nahi"
-Teri Meri Kahaani
As soon as he finished, once again the crowd gasped in unison. Earlier Maan couldn't understand what Charan had said but this famous shaayari had made his intentions clear. So Maan now didn't care if he would cause media attention but he just wanted to punch the man who had declared his love to his wife. But before he could do anything Geet's voice interrupted him.
"Kya?" she asked completely taken aback by his sudden declaration of love. I mean she was going to forget his maybe harmless flirting and get back to her work but she was utterly shocked at his love statement. It was the last thing she expected. Not wanting to create any kind of problem in this new and unfamiliar place she decided to not make a big deal out of it. "Dekhiye mister I have no idea who you are aur mujhe yeh bhi nahi jaan-na chahta ki aap kyun humse pyaar karte ho. I just wanted to clear the fact that I am not interested," she said plainly.
Ram Charan was initially shocked at her outright rejection. He never knew of a woman who had shunned away his advances. Women died to get a glimpse of him and have a word with him but here was a girl who even failed to recognize him and also rejected him. Somewhere he felt the need to have such a woman in his life who would rather see him like any other man and treat him without any special favors or attentions due his star celebrity status. He then smiled slowly, not losing heart that she had said no to him but was now more determined to impress her. "Kyun?" he asked. "Aapka koi boyfriend ya koi commitment issues?" he asked hoping she would say no.
"Haan main sh—" she instantly began only to see Maan look intently at her and then she remembered him enjoying having that chudail in his arms. First, he had refused to recognize her when she needed help earlier then had gone ahead to openly flirt with some chikni chameli right under her nose. And now when she had walked into the room she had found him shamelessly dancing away with some useless wannabe Munni. Well if he had the guts to irk her to no limits she too had to do her bid no? Maybe she wouldn't shamelessly flirt around like him but some harmless playing around wouldn't hurt.
"Ha? Aap shaadi shuda ho?" he asked extremely hurt and his shoulders drooping in defeat.
"Nahi!" she quickly replied. "Mm main toh perfectly single hoon, haina Anu," she quipped. She had seen Anushka stand by Maan and quickly called her to the rescue hoping she wouldn't give away their secret.
"Huh?" Anushka gasped in surprise not foreseeing she would be put on spot. She smiled nervously before affirming with Geet.
"Oh this is all about that stupid challenge, wasn't it?" Maan fumed internally. "Too bad Geet, now the war is on baby, you shall definitely come begging to me," he assured himself.
"Oh toh kuch bhi problem nahi. Ab aap aage dekhiye ji ki how I shall make you fall in love," he winked grinning widely. Geet chuckled at his nonstop advances before walking out of the hall shaking her head at his confidence.
"Geet how could you?" Anushka asked seriously.
"Kya, oh that I didn't say I was married?" Geet asked causally.
"Nahi yaar, how could you not fall for chunky hunky handsome Cherry?" she asked dreamily.
"Eh?"
"Arre voh bandha jisne tum se ab tak baat kar raha tha. Tumhe pata bhi hai voh kaun. Ram Charan Teja, Cherry. He is superstar Chiranjeevi's son," she confirmed. "Kaash tumhare jagah mein main hoti," she sighed.
An actor, afterall he had that charm to make people easily fall for his words. No wonder acting came so naturally to him, she thought after his performance for her. "Tum kabhi nahi sudhregi Anu," she said laughed. She had assumed Anushka would ask away why she had refused to reveal her status as a married woman but here she was lamenting about her rejection. "Maine socha tum mere jawab ke baare mein poochogi."
"Arre koi bhi ladki usse dekh ke hi mar jaayegi. Yeh Maan shaan kuch nahi hai uske saamne," she added.
"Kya keh rahi Anu, Maan bhi kuch kam nahi hai. Voh dole shole aur uska smile. I mean he is quite handsome," Geet gushed unknowingly.
Anushka smirked at her response but regained her posture to add, "Handsome? Tumhe Maan handsome lagta hai?"
Geet who had without her own knowledge blurted out was shocked when Anu had repeated after her. Did she really tell her that Maan was handsome? Damn it! "Huh? Na nahi, I didn't say that. I just meant you know," she said trying to rectify the damage done.
"Tekhai teekhai, it's alright you don't have to justify your praises of your husband," she teased.
Geet rolled her eyes at her baseless teasing and was about to tell her about her plan to walk through the country fields and spend the rest of the evening in peace, when she heard him clear his throat. She turned around to see him only to scorn at him. Her widened eyes spitting balls of fear while his pleading guilty. She ignored his gestures of apology and continued to loudly tell her plans about the evening before heading out. Maan tried to stop her but Anushka assured that she would be fine and to give her some time settle down.
Since Geet said she wanted to spend some time alone, she promised to stay close to the haveli and would be back soon. Anushka reluctantly acceded but insisted her to keep her cell phone always with her and call her immediately if she needed anything. Anushka had suggested a few places to Geet where she could spend some quality time by herself. Geet first walked to the nearby reservoir and sat on the edge of the wall facing the water flow by her feet. The force of the water was not too high and the water wasn't too deep so it she was able to enjoy the lush greenery and the serene calmness of the surroundings without the fear of falling into the water. She was so immersed in nature that she failed to see it was almost quarter past seven and it had become quite dark. So she immediately got up and headed back to the haveli.
Meanwhile in the haveli Maan was unaware of the fact that Geet had gone away and went in search of her only to find out from Anushka that she had ventured out alone. He immediately scolded Anushka for letting Geet out in a place she could hardly communicate to people if at all she needed help. He waited a while for Geet to return but seeing she was nowhere back and her phone was not reachable he decided to go in search of her hoping she would safely find her way home.
Geet was walking back with the help of the glow of the full moon as it had quickly become dark after sunset. The path she was walking could accommodate only a single person at a time so she was careful not to slip into the puddle below. She had reached the end of the path and was about to take the bigger road to the haveli when she heard distinct human voices from the other denser corner that was covered by trees. She once again began walking when she heard a woman's voice clearly crying for help. Without another thought she headed off to see if she could be of any help.
Geet walked through the thorny bushes and into the densely populated area. She could see a clearing in the center from where a glow of a fire torch was seen. She hurried to clearing only to be shocked at the sight in front of her.
Precap: "Maan!" she screamed in fear seeing somebody attack from his back. He immediately turned prevent the guy from slashing his neck only to gash deeply by his shoulder. He winced in pain but managed to pry the man away from him and knock him unconscious. He then reached to hold his shoulder unable to contain the pain that surged through his body when he felt her rush to him.
"Maan you are hurt badly, chaliye you need medical attention right now!" she screamed while her tears flowed freely. Seeing her in distress for his condition he turned to look deeply at her. She did care for him and she definitely couldn't see him in pain yet she didn't want to give their relationship a chance.
"Geet main teekh hoon," he said calmly cupping her face while ignoring the shooting pain. She averted her gaze to his deep chocolate brown eyes but her tears prevented her from having a clear look at his face. Fresh blood on his hands smudged on her face as he held her delicately. Edited by madhu.pmlist - 13 years ago
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
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