SS: Keeping Khushi (Part 14 Updt on Th 2) - Page 27

oooh grey ASR ...exciting!...cant wait for the next update

Why is he hurting so much?
Cant wait to read more...

Very interesting, and very different!

(-NishaSobti-'s banner for this tale.)

Part 5

Arnav waited for the whole of Tuesday, hoping that she would call. But she didn't. He paced the length & breadth of his bedroom, frantic. Hari Prakash, who came to give him his glass of unsweetened juice, almost had his head bitten off for breathing. The laptop lay neglected on its table, his plants were forgotten...

That night, as he measured the floor of his bedroom with his long legs, he came to a decision. There was something fishy about the entire set up in Anand Sadan. Had he not been so crazed about, obsessed about Khushi, he would have realised this earlier. The presence of the kids... The blind child calling Khushi Di Amma... The boy who had let him in... The large group praying... The Baba who stayed away when the others prayed...

And Khushi. The day he had proposed a live-in with her, he could have sworn that she had been shocked, that such a concept had been new to her. But she was living with Sasi Sharma. What was happening in that house?

The first thing next morning, he contacted a leading detective agency.

Khushi looked at her Baba who was lying back in his armchair, his eyes closed. She sat on the floor, lifted his feet on to her lap, and pressed them, hoping to be of some comfort to him.

A while later, he said softly, "There is only one place where we can go."

Khushi felt the pain behind his even words, and shrivelled inside, dying a little with him.

"We need to go to Omkar tomorrow and check if it is habitable.", Baba looked at her.

Khushi nodded, blinking away her tears.

"Tell the boys & girls not to go to college tomorrow. We will need to do a lot of cleaning."

"Haan, Baba."

"We have only a week."

The next day, Khushi, Sasi Sharma, & a veritable army of girls & boys with brooms & buckets, walked to Omkar, a huge, ancient house a couple of streets away from Anand Sadan.

On reaching the locked gate, Baba gave the key to Khushi. She opened the rusty lock. The children streamed in. Khushi caught hold of his hand, and led Baba in.

Sasi Sharma stood near the gate and looked at Omkar. The house was in shambles. A strong gust of wind plastered his pale green kurta to his lean body, and caressed his face. He closed his eyes in acute grief. He could still hear his wife's sweet voice calling him on his way out, reminding him to buy raw mangoes for her. In the sixth month of pregnancy, she had wanted to eat raw mangoes. And he had bought them. But...but... He felt Khushi take hold of his arm. He opened his eyes.

"Baba, please sit here."

She led him to a clean chair she had got from the sitting room. She gave him a glass of water, and joined the boys and girls who were running around the whole house, marvelling at the huge rooms and the equally huge cobwebs.

Soon, after inspecting the whole house, they set to work. They attacked the cobwebs and dust with gusto, the children laughing and singing as they worked. They returned home for lunch, worked in Omkar till dinner, and then returned home for dinner. The ones remaining in Anand Sadan packed the belongings of all the inmates so that they could leave the house as empty as they had found it years ago.

Every night, after all the others settled down in their beds, Khushi took painkillers and rubbed a special oil into her body, especially her lower body to keep her going. She wanted to keep moving till they shifted out of Anand Sadan. Once they reached Omkar, she could fall down. But till then, she had to walk. She had to walk out of this house.

On Sunday, Khushi took out the card that ASR had left on the table from her purse, and taking a deep breath, dialled the first number.

"ASR here.", was the brusque greeting.

Khushi felt her mouth go dry. She could not form a word.

Arnav was about to cut the call, when something about the quality of the silence tugged at his heart. He closed his eyes tight.

"Khushi?", he murmured.

(Mommamia, thanx!)

"J..ji..i..."

A few silent seconds later, he asked softly, "What have you decided?" He could hear his heart go dhak dhak, loud enough to deafen him.

"If... if you can come here tomorrow morning at 10, we can give you the keys to Anand Sadan. It.. it is alright if you can't come here. I will send the keys to your office. Your card has the address."

There was perfect silence. Arnav couldn't believe his ears.

"Where will you stay?", he asked, acute shock and disappointment making his question toneless.

"Ji, we found another house... Acha, let me end the call. We have to do some last minute packing."

She ended the call in a hurry. She didn't want him to know her new address.

Aman called Arnav.

"Sir, you asked me to..asked me to cut Khushiji's engagements..."

"Yes."

"I...I couldn't cancel all of them. Some bands and concert organisers refused to agree even though I threatened them with ruin."

"Why?"

"They have been associated with Pandit Sasi Sharma and Khushiji for years. They have a very strong bond with them. My threats did not work."

"Leave them.", instructed Arnav in a low voice. "Aman, you don't need to block her concerts anymore. Undo the damage we did to her career at the earliest.", he ordered.

Will post Part 6 today. Enjoy!

Part 6: https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/fan-fictions/3239275/ss-keeping-khushi-part-14-updt-on-th-2?pn=51

😃

what made him change his mind??
is sasi her father??
are all those kids khushis students or is it an orphanage or something??
and who is akki??i found it in the 4th chap..
anyways im glad that he changed his mind..
did he find out that shes living with his baba,,and sasi is not some man she fell in love with..
update soon honey

Arnav, Arnav, Arnav *shakes head. Stubborn as hell -.-

So intriguing and loving her in this...he has realised that she is not going to succumb and so changing his ways..!

My dearest Smitha!!!!!!!!!!!

Aha! First streaks of akal shown by ASR. Me likey. :p

And what is wrong with Khushi? I have a prediction about this story but I shall tell you later only if it came true or not. :p