SS: Keeping Khushi (Part 14 Updt on Th 2) - Page 47

(-NishaSobti-, thank u!)

Part 8

He walked into Omkar, looking around him. It was late in the evening, and he could see children studying in a big hall. As he watched, a small girl got up and came out of the room to drink water from the pot kept near him.

"Where is your Khushi Di?"

"In her room." The child smiled at him, showing gaps where the milk teeth had fallen off. "She is making laddoo for Akki's happy birthday tomorrow. Do you like laddoo?"

Arnav nodded.

"I looove laddoo."

Arnav smiled slightly, and asked, "Where is your Di's room?"

The child pointed out the room to him.

He walked to it, the dark hiding his presence.

Khushi was in her room, sitting on a chair, making laddoos from the mixture in a big pan placed on a low table in front of her. The long sleeves of her blouse were slightly folded back. She was humming, a slight smile on her face, singing softly in places,

Man Harwa Mori Re...

She pressed the mixture into balls using her hands, and placed the laddoos on a big thali. There was a mountain of them.

Chunariya Rang De...

She felt someone's eyes on her, and looked up. Arnav Singh Raizada stood at the door to her room, looking at her. The laddoo in her hand fell into the pan with the mixture. Her mouth fell open in shock.

How did he find her new address? She stood up slowly, the folds of her pink sari falling into place. She automatically pulled the pallu lying over her right shoulder tighter to cover her bosom further.

Arnav walked into the room, and caught hold of her shoulders, pulling her close to him. Only a few inches separated their bodies & faces.

"What is wrong with you?", he asked urgently. "Why can't you walk without help on some days? Why do you need help to get up after you have been sitting on the floor?"

She stared at him, her eyes wide with shock.

"Answer me, dammit!"

"How did you find this house?", she asked, unable to produce more sound than a whisper.

"What is wrong with you, Khushi? Tell me, dammit!". He shook her gently.

"Nothing. Nothing is wrong with me." She tried to wriggle out of his arms. But he was not having any of it.

"Khushi!"

"I am perfectly all right."

"Right!". No one could beat him in sarcasm. "That's why you couldn't put one foot after the other the day you gave me the keys to Anand Sadan. You needed help to get on to the stage at the University College, sit down on the stage, get up after the concert..."

She stared at him as though he had grown four more heads, all as terrible as the first.

"How do you know all this?", she asked, shock thinning her voice.

That stumped Arnav. His hands loosened their hold slightly, and Khushi slipped away. She backed away from him, and went to stand behind the chair, holding on to its back.

A strong believer in the adage that attack is the best form of defense, Arnav Singh Raizada set out to shock and anger her into telling him everything about her and deflect her questions about his degree of knowledge about her.

"You run an orphanage with 20 kids. You sing and teach music to feed and clothe them. There is something seriously wrong with you. And there are railings all over Anand Sadan so that you can sit, rise, & walk without the help of others when you are unwell."

Khushi stared at him.

"You dress as though you were a hundred years old... Salwars that cover you from your neck to your feet... Sarees wrapped like a shroud around you... Blouses with long sleeves... The pallu over your head most of the time... Hair in a bun!" He pretended to fume. "You, Khushi, you have a saint complex, sacrificing your life and youth for the children you have taken off the street. You are wasting your life. Do you hear me, you are a loser. A loser, left behind while the rest of the world is far ahead of you..."

He looked at her, expecting her to shout at him, get angry at such a personal attack.

Khushi looked at him for a while, and then smiled slightly, not angry at all.

"But that's my business, isn't it, Mr. ASR?", she asked softly, stating an absolute truth. "It is my life to sacrifice, my body to cover, my time to waste..."

He stared at her with burning eyes. What was this girl made of?

"We met a few days back by chance. You made me an offer. I refused it. Our conversation should have ended there."

He looked at her, silent, wary.

"But you came to the temple to persuade me. You cancelled my concerts to force me to accept your offer. I still refused to do so."

Her voice was even, the tone conversational.

"Then you came home and tried to force me to accept your offer by threatening eviction. You gave me a choice. I chose to leave. The matter should have ended there." She was calm and friendly.

"Then why are you here, Mr. ASR?"

He glared at her.

She smiled gently at him. "My life, my clothes, my health, my well-being, my happiness..., these are really none of your business, you know." She sounded almost apologetic as she told him to butt off.

Arnav Singh Raizada saw red. How dare she try to push him out of her life?

"Not my business? Really?" His fury and pain overpowered his self control.

(Shopau, thanx!)

"Sasi Sharma! Did you think no one would know? Or care? What kind of scoundrel is he to live with a girl much younger than him under the cover of running an orphanage? The rasc..."

He couldn't complete the word. Khushi had her hands wrapped around his neck.

"DON'T. SAY. A. WORD. ABOUT. MY. BABA."

He stared at her, shocked out of his skull. Her face was pale, and her eyes furious. Even when he had insulted her with his offer of live-in and his views about how she should live her life, she had been calm. But one word about Sasi Sharma, and she turned into Goddess Durga? One word about Sasi Sha... Baba? She called him Baba? He looked into deadly serious eyes glaring at him.

"Khushi...", he croaked.

Her hands tightened around his neck.

"NOT.ONE.WORD."

He nodded. She released her hold on his neck, and moved back. They stood staring at each other for sometime, both of them breathing hard.

Finally, she said, "I am sorry. I should not have tried to strangle you. But you should not have insulted my Baba."

"Your BABA?", his voice was faint as he confirmed the relationship.

She nodded. "MY Baba. It is time for you to leave. Kindly do not disturb us again."

"I will go...", he said. "...once I get the answer to the question I asked earlier. Are you ill?"

Khushi sighed.

"I was in an accident sometime back."

He paled.

"I was hospitalised for some time. I am perfectly fine now. It is just that when I strain too much, old injuries start playing up. Then I have some difficulty in walking. That is all."

"Khushi...", he murmured. He knew that she was downplaying her injury to put him off the scent. How he wished he could bear the pain for her!

"I am used to it. My children are used to it. It is so much a part of our lives that we don't think about it."

Arnav swallowed hard. "Khushi!"

"Goodbye, Mr.ASR."

He looked at her resolute face. A few moment later, he murmured,

"Goodbye, Khushi..." She heaved a silent sigh of relief. He added, a small smile on his lips, "For now."

As he drove home, the smile on his lips vanished. She was Khushi Kumari Gupta. How could Sasi Sharma be her father? What the hell was going on?

Part 9: https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/fan-fictions/3239275/ss-keeping-khushi-part-14-updt-on-th-2?pn=85