ArshiFF:Your Love Means Everything T#2 TSR2 150 - Page 14

Originally posted by: shagun05

Originally posted by: jahnvi.luvs.ASR

So here u go...

Originally posted by: shagun05

Originally posted by: jahnvi.luvs.ASR

So here u go...

Originally posted by: trisasak

HAHA GIRLS YOU CRACK ME UP! I'm trying i promise. But I should let you know that this is another Khushi less update!

Two Can Keep A Secret If One Of Them Is Dead

"Grown ups are complicated creatures, full of quirks and secrets."

? Roald Dahl

Arnav stood precariously atop a plastic stool waving his mobile in the air. This place had no mobile network to speak of and he wasn't exactly in a position to go and ask for use of the landline. He could only imagine how that conversation would go...

"Buaji could I use the landline to talk sweet nothings with your niece?"

Yeah that was great idea.

He heard someone clear their throat behind him. Craning his neck around he saw Payal looking at him strangely. Arnav lost his balance and fell very ungracefully off the stool. Payal tried to not to openly laugh as she helped him up. Brushing off the dirt from his trousers he thanked her.

"What were you doing?" she enquired.

"There's no mobile network. I was trying to see if I could find some..."

"Oh do you need it for work? You can use our landline..." Payal began to walk off in the direction of the lounge room.

"No! I mean I just wanted to talk to Khushi. Let her know I reached safe and all that." Arnav hurriedly called out.

Payal smiled fondly at her brother in law to be. Khushi had found her Khushi style rajkumar. "The network coverage here isn't very good. If you want to use your mobile you're better off going into the main town area. I'm going to talk to Khushi later today...do you want me tell her you got here ok?"

"Actually if you didn't tell her I was here I would appreciate it. It's supposed to be a surprise." This conversation was becoming excessively polite.

"Oh alright...well breakfast will be served shortly. Do come." Arnav followed her stuffing his hands in his pockets. He couldn't make up his mind about Payal. She seemed gentle and docile but he had a niggling feeling that there was something underneath that exterior. It almost reminded him of Aakash; a silent observer, maintaining the peace in a household of volatile personalities. Aakash, he felt, would have been better served as a foreign diplomat then the CFO of AR designs. Payal similarly had understood his inability to use the landline and offered a quick solution.

Taking a seat on the dining table he took in his surroundings. It was a different world than what he knew. A simple shower this morning had become an issue when he realized that there was no showerhead. Filling up the bucket with water he had scrubbed himself, freezing in the winter cold. A novice in such matters he had forgot to switch on the geezer and ended up bathing in the icy cold water from the main tap. It was refreshing but he was sure he had the lost sensation in most parts of his body as his teeth chattered loudly.

Payal began to make the tea and Arnav looked around for the elders of the house. Voices began to filter in from the main gate; becoming louder as they approached the dining area.

" Garima aaj toh pooja acche se hua…nahi?" Buaji clapped her hands together in happiness.

"Haan jiji…" Garima agreed.

They walked past Arnav toward the kitchen, smiling stiffly. It seemed they had paid an early morning visit to the mandir. Shashi took a seat next to him, placing a large paper parcel in the middle of the table. He then slid a copy of the morning newspaper toward Arnav.

"I thought you might like to read it…" he ventured. Arnav nodded his thanks.

Shashi sat down with his own copy and began to read. Arnav observed the grace and ease with which he held the large article; an art that, he felt, had been lost with the previous generation of men. Usually news updates were pinged through to him on his iphone but since there was no network, the idea of wifi was a distant dream. He lifted the paper and tried to mimic the man's action but his fingers were struggling with its 'fidliness' and after a while he just gave up.

Shashi looked over his own newspaper and smiled witnessing Arnav's frustration. Garima came over to the table, aarti thali in hand and stealthily put a tikaa on both Shashi and Arnav's forehead, placing a portion of banana as prasad in their hands. He looked at the banana in his hand and debated whether to eat it or not. He then remembered what Khushi had said to him…

Its just some pigment and food. It only holds any importance if you give it importance.

He decided that he might as well eat the banana since he was already on the back foot with both mother and aunt. A flurry of activity took place around him. Buaji took her place next to Shashi and Garima handed around plates. Payal served the chai and Shashi opened the package in the middle of the table to reveal fresh bread from the local tandoor.

Breakfast was an interesting affair to say the least. It was mostly silent except for noise of scraping cutlery. Garima and Buaji kept eyeing Arnav suspiciously and Arnav returned the favour. Payal and Shashi exchanged mischievous looks as they tried to hide their amusement.

After finishing his chai, Shashi stood up abruptly, his chair scraping the floor behind him…

"Toh ab hum kaam ke liye nikal te hai. Shyaam ko milenge." (So i'll leave for work now, I'll see you all in the evening.)

"Ummm uncle, do you mind if I walk with you?" Arnav said hurriedly. The idea of being left alone with three females, two of which did not particularly like him, was not appealing.

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Both men walked in silence for sometime, enjoying the crisp morning breeze. The sun peeked through the cloud cover providing some relief from the bitter cold.

"So what's the plan for today?" Shashi asked.

"Just a bit of sight-seeing before I head back to Delhi tomorrow."

A comfortable silence befell the men once more and they continued along their route. They walked past a large field in which men were unloading steel rigging supports.

"It's the annual fair." Shashi explained.

"When Khushi was young I would take her to melas in Delhi. It was our thing. She would sit on my shoulders and take in the sights." He smiled nostalgically. "When your mother brought her to us it was very difficult. In the beginning she would hardly talk or respond. I would try and get her to say something but it was impossible. One day we walked past the local fair and for the first time I saw a sparkle in her eye. I remember it like it was yesterday."

Arnav felt uncomfortable at the thought of such a subdued Khushi. "What was she like as a child?"

Shashi laughed… "She took a while to open up but once she did…by god there was no stopping her! Khushi the butterfly. That's why her buaji calls her titaliya. Always flitting from once place to the next, never sitting still. She was and still is the life of wherever she goes."

He grinned. That was more like the Khushi he knew. But it was time he started looking for some answers and perhaps Shashi had some of them.

"What happened? I mean why did my mother bring Khushi to you?"

"That is a question to which I shall never know the answer. I knew your mother only through the association that she bought sweets from my shop. In fact I remember her bringing a young girl with her…perhaps your sister?"

Arnav nodded as he reminisced. Anjali would always insist on going with their mother to the sweet shop. She had a particular fondness for the rabdi that she claimed no other halwai could compete with.

"She always's loved the rabdi." Arnav shared.

"Ahhh yes. I do remember that now you mention it." Shashi's eyes twinkled. Arnav looked at Shashi sceptically.

"I'm a halwai son. We have a knack for remembering a person's temptation." He paused and then continued. "Regardless…I believe it was my wife who spoke to your mother more than I did."

"But she must have said something to you about Khushi. Surely nobody just hands over a child like that."

Shashi nodded as he looked toward Arnav and then back at the ground. " You are right. Nobody hands over a child thus. But your mother was very adamant that we know nothing about her other than that she had lost her family. She insisted that Khushi was to be given our last name and that we would move to Delhi to take of her. Khushi was never to return to Lucknow. That was all we ever really knew." He rubbed his eyes and suddenly looked very weary; the memory of that time a heavy burden.

The rhythmical crunch of the gravel under their feet cut through the heavy atmosphere. Arnav spoke once more…

"Don't take this the wrong way but...a woman comes to you, out of the blue, hands you a child and tells you to leave your hometown never to return….and you agree? Now I know you are good people but nobody does something like that purely from the goodness of their heart. What was in it for you?" Arnav needed to know if there was anything he could gain from knowing the Gupta side of the story.

Shashi stopped. They had reached his shop. Looking Arnav in he eye he spoke…

"There was a financial incentive. Your mother offered us enough money that I could afford a good education for Payal as well as pay for the medical expenses of my brother in law. The shift to Delhi was agreeable to us because the medical services in Delhi were much better." Shashi paused and took a breath putting his hand on Arnav's shoulder.… "It is not something that I am proud of but we all have our secrets. I have never treated Khushi as anything other than my own flesh and blood. She can never know of this." The last statement came as a plea.

Arnav looked Shashi squarely in the eye and nodded. This was an honorable man who had raised Khushi with all the love in the world. He had nothing to be ashamed of.

"I'll see you in the evening." Shashi offered as a parting statement. Arnav waved him goodbye and walked further ahead hailing down a tuk tuk.

He decided he needed to see Lucknow the way Khushi would. Ergo an auto rikshaw was the way to go. The rickety three-wheeler came to stop infront of him; the engine spluttering as it shut down.

"Kahan jana hai sahib?" (Where do you have to go sir?) The auto driver asked in between mouthfuls of pan.

Arnav slid into the worn out seat… "The Palace of Awadh."

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Ok so no thankyou's in this update because I am SUPER TIRED. The only reason this update is going up tonight is because of shagun and jahnvi. This will be the last Khushi less update. Sorry for the lack of Rabba vey but I do actually have to progress the story. I was going to include the palace scene in this part but I'm really tired like I said.

So Enjoy!

OH AND THE RESPONSE TO THE LAST UPDATE WAS INSANE. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANKYOU. I LOVE YOU ALL.

I will properly thankyou guys in the next update I promise. I am literally falling asleep as I type.