It had been close to an hour, and in this one hour Khushi had downloaded "TOY DEFENCE" and had cleared 20 levels already of stage one. Khushi loved her video games and was a natural with these 'war strategy' kindda games, plus this was her stress buster, always had been since she was in her teens. Also she never saw this as a waste of time cause social gaming companies were her biggest client. So helping them make money ensured that they help her make some too.
She felt immensely restless and could not sleep as she had nor cleared the air about this whole 'fainting business'. No matter how much she argued in her head that no one gave her a chance to clear up the matter, deep down she knew that she had let on cause otherwise she would certainly look like a stupid tongue-tied fool to Arnav.
As images of Arnav holding her flashed through her mind, she got more and more restless. She was confused and angry with this weird thing which she was experiencing. She could not control it, which was so new to her, cause khushi had always been in control of her emotions since such a tender age, that today it just came naturally to her.
So accomplished was her brain, that so far it had never let her wander in territories where there was even a remote chance for her to get vulnerable and thus get hurt. They say, seeing her getting carried away with any kind of emotion was such a rare sight.
Khushi was the proud owner and founder of Cobol Micro India, an IT company. To say that she had invested her blood and sweat to achieve the position that her company had today in this ever competitive market would be very less. What had started with, a single room, four employees, plus a six figure bank loan had come a long way to the present state of; 3 offices in India (Mumbai, Bangalore and Noida), 400 employees, and a decent turnover of around 150 crore in these eight years, plus her recent plans to set up an office in London. She herself was an excellent coder, thus understanding this market was easy for her.
Although Khushi was a young achiever, she was not ruthless or aggressive as many believed. On the contrary she was extremely patient and calm. She could achieve what she had today cause she was extremely hardworking, dedicated to her work and immensely talented and intelligent. When in school she had been promoted twice cause of her excellent academics and in college was a distinction holder.
Damn, Damn, Damn !!!! said khushi killing three tankers in a row, but thinking about how she had turned into an immobile and mute fool in front of Arnav.
"u were supposed to be sleeping" this one husky voice bought khushi out of her thoughts and she looked up to meet Arnav's amused gaze.
"So its true that you do give Naniji a hard time, and don't exactly do as she advises" he added in a teasing tone.
Khushi was completely caught off-guard by Arnav here, as she was totally engrossed with her game; and right now she looked like as if she was caught shaving off all the hair from her aged neighbor's pet dog's body.
"huh!!! i…..i…wa…was" khushi quipped, but she stopped as she saw that Arnav had yet again drowned in his laughter spell…how can he laugh like this, that too so many times in a single day !!! thought khushi in wonderment
"o…oh…that look on ur face!!! Haaa haaa….Oh, It was worth it. said Arnav in between his laughter…
What? the look on my face !!! he could laugh like that…like instead of air he had been breathing LAUGHING GAS since his birth, just because I had a weird expression on my face !!!
So it means if I dress up like a clown, he will go on laughing like that for two whole weeks, AMAZING !! thought khushi.
Arnav saw Khushi looking at him with wide eyes and a questioning look. His laughter subsided and he pulled a chair beside the bed and sat down.
Khushi noticed concern washing over his face, as he asked "how are u feeling now?" seriousness rang in his voice
"am..fine..really" khushi could manage without embarrassing herself again.
"hmmm…u look good now, the colour has returned I can see" Arnav said with an even tone
Dhak…dhak…dhak..dhak….dhak..dhak….was how Khushi's heart had decided to respond
Her eyes became wider, and she could sense her mouth doing dry. This was another first for Khushi gupta.
"now am convinced that we don't need to call a doctor" said Arnav getting up and moving towards a little cabinet on the other end of the room.
Whats going on with me? I need to get out of here asap she thought as she saw Arnav rummaging inside the cabinet. He was no more in his suit, but was wearing a white sweater and black sweat pant.
Aaha got it !!! exclaimed Arnav, as he took out a spray bottle and stood looking at it as if it was some priceless treasure.
Quickly he went over to khushi and said "this is my most faithful weapon, never has it failed me"
Seeing Khushi give him a puzzled expression as he grinned and said "Curious are you? Its about to be lunch break now, come out and see for yourself"
Saying so, he left the room, leaving khushi wondering, that how on earth this agile prankster is portraying the character of the Ruthless, arrogant business tycoon so convincingly.
Not wanting to miss what was to happen outside she immediately got up and went after him. And as she reached the living room area, she just stood wide eyed taking in the view in front of her.
The dining area, which was all messed up the morning, had been cleared up, and on the middle to the table there were two huge cakes. One was chocolate and other one was white+yellow. The chocolate one looked intact, and people were enjoying eating it, but the other one was a mess, as all the guys in the team, were scooping huge portions of it in their hands and running around to smear it on each other's face.
A huge smile appeared on Khushi's face as she saw NK running behind Akash with a handful of cake, and Akash dodging him easily. She heard an excited Anjali scream "NK, it has to be on his forehead otherwise u loose the bet" and all the gals cheering for NK as they looked on sitting comfortably on the sofa. Nani was also sitting there, smiling widely.
The very next instant, khushi's eyes went around looking for Arnav, and there he was blocking Aman's assault, who again had a huge piece of cake in his hand, by spraying water from his deadly weapon, laughing all the while.
Khushi's eyes softened seeing Arnav behave so childlike and nodding her head she muttered "CRAZY !!"
Lunch was a chatty affair on the sets today. As all the actors were present at the same time and thus were having lunch together in the common green room, which was quiet huge in size.
Nani was sitting next to khushi and making sure that she ate everything properly. Khushi was silently observing the comrade which the entire team shared.
They were so at ease with each other, and were extremely caring towards each other.
She couldn't help but notice that how Arnav took care of everyone around. One moment he would do something entirely crazy just to make a person laugh, and the very next moment he would become serious with concern if something is bothering someone and would try his level best to help him/her out.
She was lost looking at Arnav who was sitting diagonally opposite to her, when she heard her nani exclaim "what !!! do u intended mix the kheer with your rice now?"
Khushi immediately looked down at her plate and found that instead of mixing dal, she had bought a spoonful of kheer to mix along with the rice. And once again she could feel everyone's head turn her way. Damn it !!!!!! Is he too looking here??? Can somebody pls hand over the "Miss Fool of the Decade" trophy to me already …thought khushi helplessly
" Do you think I worry for her just like that? Here; see for yourself how absentminded she is!! stated nani trying to catch everyone's eyes in just go..
Khushi groaned a little and just hanged her head a little more down, hovering over her food knowing very well that with all the food inside, her nani is all fueled up to start with another embarrassing story of hers….
" once on getting down from a rickshaw, she asked the driver what was the fair, to which the auto driver said fifty rupess…you know what she did???? She took out fifty rupees note from her wallet, and instead of giving him the note, she kept the note for herself and handed over the wallet to the rick driver and walked inside the home….well the rick driver was another smart chap, he sat there with an open mouth when she did that, and as she turned to leave w/o noticing her mistake, he also took off with the cash filled wallet… Now how the hell do you beat this one ? huh, how?…tell me…has anybody got any better story to beat this one…common tell me?" spoke nani all happy about giving out another story, looking from one face to another from this end to that end of the table with her eyes gone wide with excitement….
Again everyone were trying not burst out laughing at this one, and were suddenly concentrating on their food.
"Yes I have" came a soft voice
All heads turned to khushi's direction, who in turn was looking at her nani…
"You have one? Very well… Tell us, but im sure it cant beat this one" said nani in sort of a challenging tone.
"Oh, am very sure that it can beat this one nani" khushi said raising her eyebrow and continued "my story is exactly the same as yours, its just that in my story the one who handed the wallet instead of the note to the driver and made his day is….YOU"
There was silence, and everyone looked at nani who opened her mouth to say something but didn't and closed it, and again opened it and again closed it, all the while her face having a stunned look…
"well do u remember it now didu ? how it was not me. how it was you who did this blunder and as time passed with each narration with every other spicy addition to the same story, you forgot that it was actually YOU who did that…and now you were itching to share this hilarious story, but had completely forgotten that it was not me it was you" said khushi smirking all the while looking at her nani…
"Ohhh yes!!" whispered nani having a very distant look on her face, as she was floating in the ocean of her flashback memories
Well by then the entire room had burst into laughter…they ddnt have to control their laughter for nani, as nani was their close buddy. They found it extremely hilarious that in her excitement of sharing a story she had actually forgotten that this one was on her own-self, and had just fitted khushi into it..
As Khushi was still not accustomed to such roaring laughter spells, she forgot all about pulling her gardma's legs, so she jumped a little in her chair and stared at the faces ahead who all had gone red face by now laughing/choking on their food almost.
Her eyes immediately darted towards arnav's direction as she was expecting to find him fallen down from his chair by now. But she found him to be very much in sitting position and looking straight at her, with kind of a stunned expression. She could not understand this look on his face nor could she take his constant stare, so she averted her gaze and turned towards nani.
The rest of the lunch went in a jiffy, with everyone teasing nani on her story telling addiction. Deviyani was enjoying this attention too. Arnav had become normal and had gone back to his jumping,laughing,clapping,singing ways which was noticed by khushi.
She also noticed that, since the cake cutting/throwing ficaso there were few ladies present in the sets with microphones and a man holding camera.
Who r those people? Wondered khushi sitting on the sofa in the huge hall..
"So you do finish your sentences w/o fainting ?"
Khushi turned her head towards the source of the voice in record speed and saw Arnav sitting on the other end of the sofa, and looking at her intently.
Being in his vicinity since morning had improved her senses a lot she noticed, cause although the moment her eyes found him sitting at the other end lazily, her heart had sprouted two legs and started with a 100 meter sprint race, but her brain in its concern of not letting her make a fool of herself again, was pulling all strings to keep itself alert and attentive.
Thus khushi could form a response to his question, which came out in form of another question…. "What?" she responded
"Over lunch, that's the first time I heard you speak, that too for half a page worth of dialogue!!!" Arnav said teasingly
"I thought you might faint again by the sheer pressure of it" he added smirking
"Got you some juice so that you get back all the energy, gosh with all that talking you must be exhausted! " he said pointing to the glass of juice he had kept on the table in front of her.
Ok so now we have 3 sentences worth of data coming from him here…common fast!!! Decode and make it into something meaning full….fast fast…ok ok…don't panic..don't panic!!!..common. Common…..oh damn it, if only that good for nothing 'Lunatic' would stop racing around like a maniac now, I would be able to turn the situation around this time and not embarrass us again …hump… look at that fool down there…pumping all of that extra blood now in its trance and jamming all network here…damn this is soo new, never ever has that fool behaved in this lunatic way and tampered with my system…its me who has always been more mightier…yess that's the rule, it's the brain who has always ruled the heart…but whats happening here? This fellow, ARNAV has turned everyone inside here into loony tunes….grrr….oh forget it..let me handle the situation now….. yess its coming…So here he is saying something about him hearing Khushi speak for the first time during lunch…and he is clearly surprised by it…hmmm..whyyy…hmmm…again whyyy…….ohhh...ofcourse!! did we forget so easily that how we had performed the role of Dumb Princess to perfection all the time he had come in front of us…..
So that's the reason why he was looking at us in a stunned manner when everyone else was falling off laughing…Oh! The staring was about that...Huh!! the lunatic one below had done somersault that time I remember…heee heee..if only it knew..heee heee..hey you...down there…hey… look up..up..up damn it… Oh common you. Stop galloping and check the pm I sent just now through my system.. He was staring cause he was shocked to know that we are not mental case after all, and are capable of making decent conversation with others….LOLZZZ….haaa..haaa…haaa…so stop with all of your newly acquired prancing around ways and slow down…don't have to jump start ur scooter everytime he looks at us….wait..stop it….dont you understand…there is nothing to be happy about…ohh ok…so now you decided that you want to do a 1000kmph…..you are a fool…a fool..thats what I have to say..got it…a LUNATIC FOOL YOU ARE!!!
Oblivious to the battle within, khushi had erupted in laughter outside. She was being ruled by her heart at this moment without a doubt. She just could not resist arnav's teasing ways and was shaking with laughter once she realized exactly what Arnav meant by those sentences. So carefree and thus loud was her laughter that it attracted attention of others around. Nani came out gaping at her.. As no one so far had seen her go beyond a customary smile, everyone took out a second to give her a glance. But that one second got elongated to few seconds cause that's how mesmerizing she looked when she laughed whole heartedly..
She clutched her stomach with one hand and wiped a tear with other one, and struggled to sit straight..
"Arnav u naughty boy!! Are u responsible for this?" asked nani sitting next to khushi with wide eyes, as if not being able to believe her eyes..
"Huh?" Arnav asked having a little lost like expression still looking at khushi
"I asked how on earth did you managed to get this out of her?" asked nani
That helped khushi sober up, and in a bid to not look at either Arnav or nani's way she quickly picked up the juice and started sipping it.
"You look beautiful when you laugh Khushi" said NK dreamily
"Ahemmm" came the immediate response from Akash
"I…i… mean you look good when you laugh khushi...i mean khushi ji..yess…khushiji…" said NK quickly trying to do damage control while Akash, Anjali , Sonali were suppressing their laughter
"That's more like it NK bhai, now that you have referred her as KhushiJi, that's how you will address her always" teased Anjali knowing too well how NK was always on a look out to find his soulmate, and thus easily getting enchanted by girls.
"Yes, its good for you khushi that he refers you with an add on Ji in the end Khushi, trust me, what say nani" winked Akash looking at khushi
"yes absolutely, im planning to make khushi tie a rakhi on NKs wrist" said nani in a mock serious tone looking at NK.
"nani why rakhiii , if not anything else let me atleast be her friend for now!!" exclaimed NK
Everyone started laughing
Khushi smiled looking at NKs embarrassed face who was sitting next to Arnav, and thus in the next sec her gaze fell on Arnav's face. She had expected a smart comment from him as well in a situation like this, and had expected him to roll over laughing after teasing NK, but he had a strange expression. He was smiling looking at NK but something was amiss there, that was not how he smiled. It was half a simile he had.
Udne Ki Aasha
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