Khushi Kumari Gupta almost never panicked, but today was one of the rare days in which she felt her heart rate accelerate, her blood pressure spike, and the nail on her fingernails to turn raw from the excessive biting. Okay, that was a lie. She always panicked, but today she had a very good reason to do so.
"He Devi Maiyya! What am I going to do? I am so stupid, so so so stupid!" Khushi furiously muttered to herself as she continued to scour the floor of the hotel, ignoring the looks that a few people walking by shot at her.
It had all started when she had arrived at the hotel for her best friend Payal's birthday dinner. Everything had been going fine until Khushi had begun eating and a curious girl her age had noticed the extravagant ring on her finger.
"It's my engagement ring," Khushi said as she smiled politely, tipping her hand over so the girl could get a better look.
"It's beautiful! What's your fiance's name?" The girl (whom Khushi really wanted to name Shurpanaka at the moment) asked, and just as Khushi was about to answer, Payal walked up to their table and grabbed Khushi's hand.
"Khushi! You're ENGAGED? And you never told me?!"
"Yes, well," Khushi started, annoyed at Payal as a few tables turned to look at them. "It's not like I'm too '"
She never finished, as Payal had already slipped the beautiful diamond ring off of her finger to admire it. "Payal! Give it back! It was expensive!"
It seemed Devi Maiyya was angry at Khushi for some reason, because at that moment, the fire alarm at the hotel went off and chaos broke out as chairs were pushed back and people were pushing past each other to get to the exit. Khushi forgot all about getting the ring back from Payal as they were ushered outside the hotel along with the crowd.
She had returned home after the called off party with the missing ring completely slipping her mind. Khushi had not put two steps inside the house when she saw her Buaji breathing fire on her, looking at her empty hand.
"Sankadevi! Where's your engagement ring? You took it off again?" Buaji scolded, flipping her long braid to the other side. "How many times have I told you not to take it off?"
And the rest, Khushi really did not feel like remembering.
Sighing, she dialed Payal's number for the tenth time that day. Her friend picked up after the fifth ring. "Khushi! I'm sorry, okay? I don't know where the ring is! I think I dropped it when that alarm went off, but it's not with me. I checked everywhere!"
"But Payal, this is all your fault! Buaji is so upset with me! How could you be so careless?" Khushi frowned before continuing. "Do you know how expensive that ring was? And did I mention that my Buaji wants to kill me right now?"
Payal rolled her eyes as she scanned the contents of her purse one last time for her friend's sake. "Does it matter? It doesn't even sound like you are happy with the engagement."
"Payal! That's beside the point!" Khushi snapped, hanging up as she realized her efforts were useless. She walked up to the hotel manager for the third time that day, wearing her best smile to look as sweet and helpless as possible.
"Ji, I lost my engagement ring somewhere in this hotel today. It was very expensive and important to me, so if someone here finds it, please let me know immediately, at any hour!"
"Miss Gupta," the manager frowned, "We know. We're very sorry that you've lost something so important to you but you've already left us all your contact information and there's nothing to do about it right now. It's best that you return home, and I promise that I will call if it turns up."
"Thank you sir, but you will look for it right? Or have someone look for it?" Khushi pleaded.
"We will try our best," he answered curtly, before turning to another lady who wanted to speak to him.
Sensing the end of their conversation, Khushi sighed and dragged herself outside the hotel, waiting for an auto to pass by. With her mind extremely preoccupied at the moment, she hardly noticed a tall, bald man walking suspiciously close to her. Before she could even register what had happened, he snatched her cell phone from her outstretched hand and made a dash around the corner.
Khushi's mouth formed a terrified 'O' and she screamed "Chor! Chor!" repeatedly, running behind him as fast as she could. However, it was no use. The thief was gone and it was already late outside. It was unlikely that she would get her phone back even if she managed to corner him alone.
"My phone! What am I going to do without my phone? What is he going do with my phone?" Khushi though, fuming. Her day was already terrible, and now her cell phone was gone. Her phone was even more important to her than her engagement ring. "All my contacts! Gosh, I have to call Buaji right away. She'll be worried." Khushi stopped as she just processed what she said. "Haww I can't! Because someone stole my phone!"
Khushi, on the verge of tears because of her bad day, stormed back up the stairs and into the hotel. Walking back to the manager, she furiously said, "This hotel is terrible! Its employees are terrible! How can you not find such an expensive ring? It's probably the shiniest thing here anyway! (His face turned a bit sour at this) And to top it all off, the location of this hotel is terrible! I walk outside, and there are thieves roaming around. Someone just stole my phone, I screamed for help, and not one person even came to help me!"
"Miss," the manager started through gritted teeth, "We are not responsible for what happens outside this hotel. Nonetheless, I will have one of our callboys stay with you outside until you catch a bus or an auto, but I am going to have to ask you to leave now."
"Leave? Leave?" Khushi screamed, "You can't tell me to leave!"
-5 minutes later-
Apparently they could.
Khushi, after being thrown out of the hotel by a few security guards, was waiting by the bus stop with a very bored looking callboy, when she spotting something shiny in the dustbin at the corner.
"My ring?" she thought with excitement that soon died down as she realized it was a cell phone. "Haww, it's just a phone. Wait, a phone! I need one of those! Now I can give the hotel this new number to call if they find my ring."
Peering at the callboy to make sure he wasn't looking, she scooped the phone out of the trash and wiped it a bit with the end of her salwar, thanking Devi Maiyya for the only luck she had found that day.
"Maybe I will just borrow this phone until Amma and Buaji cool down enough to buy me a new one. It was in the trash, so I am sure the owner did not want it anyway."
Turning the smart phone around, she eyed the red logo at the corner curiously. "Hmm, AR Designs. Looks like some company phone."
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1B:
No sooner had she noticed the logo, the screen flashed and the phone began to ring to some English song that she hardly recognized. The name on the screen read 'Arnav Sir.'
"Arnav sir?" Khushi thought, "Who is this? Must be the previous owner's boss or something." She turned to the side to make sure that the callboy was not watching her, only to realize that he had disappeared completely. 'Haww, how rude!'
Shrugging to herself, she picked up cautiously. "'Hello?"
She was answered with what sounded like a pissed off man. "Sim? Where the hell are you? Why haven't you been picking up since the past hour? Didn't I tell you to stay in the hotel lobby to stop the Mehras if necessary? Well, it's necessary and you better be there right now!"
Before this Arnav sir could continue his rant, Khushi stopped him mid sentence. "Actually sir, I am not Sim. I am Khushi, and actually this Sim of yours threw this phone away in the trash around the corner from a hotel I was at so I found it and now it is mine, sorry."
There was a actually a few seconds of silence and Khushi was beginning to think that he would not care when she heard a few curses on the other line. Cringing, she was about to respond when he yelled at her. "What kind of a joke is this? Is Sim with you? Tell her that this is not the right time to play a prank and that she is fired if she does not get on the phone this second!"
Khushi frowned, "No sir, I don't know who Sim is! This phone was in the trash, meaning that she did not want it anymore. Finder's keepers! Besides, someone stole my phone twenty minutes ago so I really need one."
More cursing, "Who the bloody hell do you think you are? This is a company phone! It's company property! Just because it was in the trash does not mean you can take it!" He paused, breathing heavily as Khushi cringed again. He sounded extremely angry and had a point, but still, she badly needed a phone for a few days. It wasn't her fault that she born in a technological era. "Fine, listen. Obviously I cannot let you keep that phone, but the least you can do after stealing is go back to the lobby of the hotel and stop a group of six businessmen from leaving. You can't miss them, they are all middle aged men and two or three of them are short and almost bald. One of them is wearing a blue suit."
"And why should I?" Khushi voiced, her hand on her hip.
"Just do it! If you don't, an year's worth of negotiations and contracts go to waste and at least ten people will lose their jobs. You have to stall them for five minutes, and then I'll be down. The elevator's jammed or I'd do it myself!"
Great, the guilt trip. How was she supposed to refuse that? "Fine, but stay on the line."
Khushi found herself running down the street and back up the stairs of the hotel, only to realize that the same guards who had kicked her out were still stationed in front of the doors.
She pleaded with one of them to let her in, "Look Ji, I am not here to cause more trouble. I promise that I won't try to talk to the manager anymore. I just have to meet with someone in the lobby, it's very important!"
Shrugging, they let her in, figuring that she had not caused any harm the previous time anyway. However, they kept a close eye on her as she sprinted inside, scanning the lobby for a group of business men.
Sure enough, she spotted them leaving from the right side of the hall and making their way towards the exit.
'What did this Arnav sir say their names were? Um'oh yeah, the Mehras! He Devi Maiyya, how am I supposed to stop them? What do I say?'
Khushi awkwardly walked up to the group and said, "Mr. Mehra! So good to see you after so long!"
The man in the front gave her an odd look, "Have we met before?"
Another man in the group spoke up, "Look Miss, we really have to leave so if you could kindly move."
'Rude men, just like the Laad Governor on the phone,' Khushi fumed. However, she gulped nervously and stepped in their path as they tried to move away from her. "Actually, you..you can't leave. Atleast, not yet! I'm, um, I was sent by, uh, Gupta's Greetings to deliver all of you a personalized song in, um, greeting."
"Personalized song?"
"Gupta's Greetings?"
"What?"
They all exchanged bewildered looks and suddenly Khushi sang the first thing that popped into her mind, causing their eyes to go round and people in the room to stop and look at what was going on.
"Aaj Mausam Hai Suhana! Kapde Done Ka He Bahana! What the, what the, what the! La, la, la, la, la, la. Kya Dhoop Nikli Suhani! What the, what the, what the! La, la, la, la, la, la!"
And the funny part was, they actually seemed to like it. The Mehras were grinning, watching Khushi sing and dance like an idiot. As she was nearing the end of her song, Khushi put the phone back at her ear and muttered, "What is taking you so long?"
"I'm busy being entertained."
She gaped as her head shot up and her eyes landed on a sinfully good looking man standing by the elevator on the first floor, dressed in a dark black suit that matched his perfectly cut hair and slight stubble. Even from the distance, she could see a hint of a smirk on his face and realized that he had watched a good part of her personalized greeting.
'How dare he? I was making an idiot out of myself more than I had to?' Khushi fumed. "Great! I'm glad to have entertained you. I think I deserve this phone now."
Her eyes widened as she saw him walking towards her and the Mehras and before he could take the phone away, she quickly scrambled out of the lobby and continued running until she reached the bus stop. Hopefully he had better things to do at the moment than follow her for his stupid phone. What did this Arnav not understand about finder's keepers?
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