SS: Keeping Khushi: Th5: Part 51 Pg 130 - Page 75

Originally posted by: IPKlover

Even if they don't give us a new story, you have to keep them alive for us. Please. Don't give us another heart attack after learning about the ending of the show.
Most of your stories don't follow the show's storyline. His Smiling Girl and Keeping Khushi only have similar characters as the shows' but their storyline is COMPLETELY different from the show. Please give us another story with your own storyline but similar characters. Please!!!!

Originally posted by: toeditor

Just read the thread of discussion...feeling a pang in my heart...seriously, Smita pls pls pls don't stop writing. Your writing style and the way to attach small small things ,music, good social thought like orphanage, service to poor, etc...with your love story is mind blowing...this arnav and khushi are very much alive in your stories...in the screen ippknd after that marriage episode,there is no story line left...but the ff keeps these characters alive...in a beautiful way. All your stories are unique and beautifully written...don't curb your writing for heaven sake 😔

I beg you not to stop writing your ff's...and pls don't cut short keeping khushi...we need minimum 100 chapters...I'm sure everyone would agree with me...

Pls...reconsider your decision...and pls keep writing...we are looking for many more ff's from you dear..

Part 51

Khushi looked around anxiously for Aarti. NK had finished his dance, and was surrounded by children hugging him & each other. As soon as he dealt with them, he looked around for Aarti, but couldn't find her. He looked at Khushi, who indicated the place where Aarti had been standing last, and then peered anxiously around.

"Whom are you searching for?", Arnav asked his wife who had been squirming under his arm for the past few minutes.

"My friend.", she said with a distracted air.

"Friend? Who?", Arnav was curious. Who was this friend he knew nothing about, and why was his wife so anxious about her?

Khushi looked at Arnav's perplexed face, and decided to tease him. She said, "He was supposed to be here, but..."

"He?"

"Ji."

"How old is he? Ten- twelve?", Arnav raised an eyebrow.

"Ten-twelve? Do you think all my male friends are children?"

"Haan. I do.", Arnav was sure. The smirk on his face said so.

Khushi hid her smile, and said, "He is 21-22, very, very handsome, with fine features, dressed all in white, polite, doesn't get angry easily..."

Arnav frowned. The smirk vanished. "I see. I should meet this paragon of virtues, I think."

"I will introduce him to you one day. Then you will understand why he is my friend.", she said, smiling lovingly at him and squeezing his fingers.

Arnav looked down at her naughty smile and her twinkling eyes, feeling her pressed against his side with pleasure.

"I love you, Khushi.", he whispered.

"Why didn't you dance during Sangeet, Nandkisore?", Buaji asked as Aarti drove her and Payalji home to Laxmi Nagar. "I saw you standing near the tree while NK babua was dancing, and then you vanished. I looked for you all around the place, Eeiyaam Bitwaa. But, Nandkisore, you had disappeared like gadhe ke sar se seengh."

Aarti smiled slightly at Buaji's complaint, and prayed that she wouldn't notice the mehendi on her hands that were on the steering wheel.

"What is wrong with the youngsters nowadays, Nandkisore? No energy. No josh. Hamare zamane mein, hayyee! We used to dance away the whole night when our friends got married!", Buaji sighed, her mind lost in the recollection of her rangeen past.

Aarti and Payal smiled.

Buaji saw them smiling.

"Why are you two smiling, Nandkisore? Making fun of your Buaji, are you? Hhmmm! I was not like this 35 years back." She pointed to her bulky body. "I had Patli kamariyaa, tirchi nazariyya... The boys of our gali would sit on walls waiting for me to walk out of the house!"

"Buaji! I never knew you were so naughty!" Payal teased her. "Poor Phoophaji! Did he know about the long line of admirers?"

"Hai Re Nandkisore! He was the first one in line!", laughed Buaji.

Payal & Aarti laughed.

"Eeiyaam Bitwaa, come early tomorrow morning. Woh kya he, the Raizadas did all the arrangements for Payal's wedding. If we don't get there early, Khushi Bitiyaa will arrange everything for haldi, alone, without taking anyone's help. It is not right. We should be at Omkar early in the morning, before Khushi Bitiyaa finishes all the work by herself.", Buaji said.

Aarti nodded.

It was time. High time to withdraw. Leave the Raizadas and the Sinhas and the children and Baba...and... and the Sunflower... The world of dreams...

Her life was waiting for her.

She said, "A car will be ready for you at 6 in the morning, Buaji. It will wait at your door till you are ready to leave for Omkar."

"Tum aisan kaahe kah rahe ho, Nandkisore, as though you won't be here?"

Aarti looked away for a second, and then turned to face her.

"Buaji, you don't worry. Another driver will be at your home early in the morning."

There was silence in the car for a few seconds.

"Gaadi roko." Buaji said.

Aarti slammed on the brakes.

"I don't want another driver. I want only you, Eeiyaam Bitwaa."

"Buaji.", Aarti tried to protest.

"Can't you come for the wedding tomorrow?", asked Payal, hopefully.

"Err... I... I was roped in at the last moment. I was not supposed to..."

"Who is your manager, hein? Your boss? Give me his number, Nandkisore. I will talk to him directly, and get permission." , Buaji threatened.

"Buaji!", Aarti sighed. "I will talk to him."

"Tell him that we don't want a seventh car if you are not driving it, Eeiyaam Bitwaa. We will take a rickshaw."

Aarti sat looking at the steering wheel for a few seconds. Then she said quietly, "I will come. Now, shall I take you home? Your family must be worried. They will think that I kidnapped the bride and her Buaji!"

Payal smiled. Buaji tried to control the small smile peeping out. She said, "Hhmmmppfff! The man hasn't been born who can kidnap me!"

Soon, they reached Laxmi Nagar. The rest of the family and relations had already reached home.

Before helping Payal & Buaji out, Aarti decided to come clean. There was no need for her to do this, she knew. She would never see them after tomorrow, but... It was always better to be honest. She didn't want Buaji wondering weeks later if Eeiyaam Bitwaa had grown a mush or built muscles. She didn't want Buaji searching for her in the akhada near her house or coming to find her in the office. She didn't want the middle aged lady to feel mortified later when she found out the truth, after she had invested too much in the enigma called Eeiyaam. A man who did not exist.

"Buaji, please look at me.", she said softly.

Buaji & Payal looked at her. Aarti lifted the cap off her head, and turned her face to them.

"You have beautiful eyes, Bitwaa.", said Buaji. "Bilkul ladki jaisen."

"That's because I am a girl, Buaji. My name is Aarti. Aarti M. I gave you my initials, AM, when you asked me my name. You heard it as a name."

Buaji stared at her, mouth open. Payal looked at Aarti's fine features, and excellent complexion with new eyes.

"Hai Re Nandkisore!", Buaji whispered.

"I.. I didn't want... anyone to know I am a girl....err...that's why I didn't tell you.", Aarti shrugged.

There was silence for a few minutes in the car.

"I am sorry.", Aarti said.

Buaji brushed that aside. "Is this the work you do, Bitiyaa? Driving people around?"

"Ji. I also repair vehicles."

"Like Happyji? In the workshop across our house, Nandkisore?", Buaji pointed to the workshop.

Aarti looked at the auto workshop. "Ji."

"You work with men all the time, Bitiyaa?"

"Ji."

"The people who hire your car are mostly men, aren't they, Bitiyaa?"

"Ji."

"Then you remain a man. Don't tell them you are a woman, Nandkisore! It is such a dangerous world, Bitiyaa, for such a beautiful girl like you. Driving late at night with men... Who knows what kind of rascals come to hire a car?"

Aarti looked at Buaji, wonder in her eyes.

"Whom do you have in your family, Bitiyaa?"

"Err... Just my mother."

"You look after her?"

"Ji."

"You have no one else?"

"Gopi Kakka. He looks after Amma when I am working."

Buaji's big eyes filled with tears. She pinched Aarti's chin with love.

"You are such a good Bitiyya. Taking care of your Amma. Working and taking care of her. She is blessed to have such a good daughter like you!"

Payal nodded.

Aarti looked at Buaji & Payal, helpless, not knowing how to accept or refuse the credit they were determined to shower on her.

"Aarti Bitiyaa, you are just like Payaliyya here. She too looks after her father's hospital." Buaji sighed. "My brother, Payaliyya's father, is a doctor. He went abroad to study, and returned with many big degrees after his name. Everyone expected him to take up a well-paying job and to mint money. But my Prakash babua, he started a hospital for the poor, Nandkisore. He worked in two other hospitals, and used his salary to run the charity hospital. Our relations...", Buaji sniffed, "...called him crazy. They fought with him when he sold land he owned to finance two ambulances and staff for the clinic, Nandkisore. When Payaliyya started her medical course, everyone said that she would teach her father how to live. But as soon as she finished her studies, she joined her father's hospital." Buaji sighed. "Now my Prakash babua is in a wheelchair. Payaliyya looks after everything in the clinic, and works part-time in another hospital."

"Buaji and Amma too used to help out when Babuji was healthy.", Payal smiled at Aarti. "It is Dr. Sinha's Clinic near the big Devi Maiyya's temple on the Main Road near the government school.", she said softly. "Bring your mother if she needs to see a doctor. The treatment is free."

Aarti looked at Payal in shock. This soft-spoken, kind-hearted, unassuming lady was a doctor, and was running a free clinic for the poor?

Buaji said, "Tum Eeiyaam Bitwaa ho yaa Aarti Bitiyaa. I want only you to drive us to Omkar tomorrow." Buaji searched in her capacious bag. "Do you have a pen, Bitiyaa?"

"Ji." Aarti handed over a pen.

Buaji wrote something on a card, and gave it and the pen to Aarti.

It was an invitation to the wedding between Akash Singh Raizada and Payal Sinha, addressed to Aarti M & her Pujaneeya Mother.

Thread 6: Part 52:

https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/fan-fictions/3321019/ss-keeping-khushi-thread-6-part-59-pg-110