Imperfect Mr Perfect - Chapter 11Soon Khushi started to make dinner. When she finished, she laid out all the food on the dining table, ready to go.
Then she went upstairs to get Arnav. She went back to his room (now her room too) to see whether he had returned or not, but there was no sign of him in the room. She could faintly see some light around the edges of the door next to Arnav's room as she came out, so she thought he might be in there.
"Arnavji?" Khushi called without thinking as she knocked on the door.
Only a moment later did she realise that it could very well be Dadi inside that room. Khushi's eyes almost popped out as her eyes widened with that thought. "Hey Devi Maiyya! Hum margaye! Agar Dadi bahaar aake hume dekhenge toh voh unki nazar se hi hume jalathenge!
(I'm dead! If Dadi comes out and sees me then she will burn me with her mere look!)" Khushi panicked.
"Tum bilkul paagal ho Khushi! Tumhe sochne ke baat knock karna chahitha na? Ab agar Dadi tumhe dhaatna shuru karenge toh tumhe hi sehna padega!
(You're completely crazy Khushi! You should have knocked after thinking right? Now if Dadi starts telling you off then you will be the one who would be the one to have to tolerate that!)" she berated herself.
After a few moments, she heard footsteps coming towards the door - the person was probably coming to open the door. "Hey Devi Maiyya! Should I run?" Khushi thought that maybe she should just run for it, but the footsteps were too close now. Any second now the door would be opened.
Khushi tightly shut her eyes, waiting for Dadi to come out and shout at her. She heard the door open and she waited for the yelling to begin, but it never came.
She waited a few more seconds before she opened her eyes, one at a time, to see Arnav standing before her, looking at her as though looking at an alien from another planet.
Seeing Arnav she took a deep sigh of relief before smiling sheepishly at him. She could feel her cheeks start to burn in embarrassment as she realised what it must have looked like to him while she was standing there stupidly in front of a door with her eyes tightly shut.
"Voh... I... I was looking for you..." Khushi said, causing Arnav to raise an eyebrow at her.
"Ummm... Dinner is ready... I saw the lights on so I thought you would be in here, but after I knocked I realised that it could be Dadi..." she explained her fear to him.
"Oh," he nodded understandingly. "Don't worry, this is my study room so Dadi won't ever be in here. Dadi's room is over there," he pointed towards a door the other end of the floor. Khushi nodded.
"Why don't you come downstairs? Everything has been laid out," Khushi requested politely. Arnav nodded in response and started towards the stairs when Khushi asked, "what about Dadi?"
"She will eat later. She only eats when she feels like it, so she will come and get her food when she feels hungry," replied Arnav, carelessly.
"But Arnavji it would be nice if everyone could eat together right?" Khushi asked hesitantly.
"Khushi believe me when I say that, that is how Dadi always has been and there is nothing we can do about it. Some things have gone too far to be altered now Khushi. This is how it always has been in this house and it is too late to change it - both the habits and the people. So stop trying," Arnav told her bluntly, in a stern voice, but he took care not to be rude to her - he definitely didn't want a repeat of what happened this morning.
Khushi knew that there wasn't anything she could do at that moment to change Arnav, and there was no way she was going to go to Dadi and speak to her about this - no sane person would go and lay themselves in front of a starving lion. Yes Khushi was crazy, but she was in no way insane enough to go and speak to Dadi at this point of time.
Arnav and Khushi made their way downstairs and then Arnav sat down at the head of the table. Khushi didn't sit down - she chose to serve Arnav before serving herself. After all it was the first time she had cooked for him, and she really wanted to see his reaction. She'd made aloo parathas and paneer curry for dinner, and she had no idea whether he would like it or not...
Arnav was watching Khushi intently as she was serving him. He could see that she was nervous, but why he had no idea. He saw her lay out the aloo parathas on his plate along with the paneer curry. He waited for her to sit down, but she just stood there looking at him expectantly.
He told her to sit down and eat so that they could eat together. She sat down and hurriedly served herself, so that he could start eating and she could hear his comments on her food.
They both turned to their food with Khushi picking at her food slowly without eating, and looking at Arnav closely to see his reaction after having the first bite.
Arnav froze after he finished the first morsel of food. Tears started to form in his eyes as the food tasted exactly like the food that SHE used to make. It had been so long since he had even tasted his food, because nothing was the same after SHE was gone.
His mum used to make aloo paratha and paneer for him, knowing that paneer was his favourite. According to Arnav, his mum was the best cook in the world. That was not just because she had amazing cookery skills - even though that was one part of it of course - but also because she used to make the food with so much love. With each bite he used to be able to feel the care, love and effort she used to put into the food. After she was gone however, nothing ever tasted the same. In fact food had come become tasteless - even paneer, which used to be his favourite had become bland for him. Food had just become a daily chore.
But now, tasting Khushi's hand-made food, all his mother's memories came flooding back to him. Emotions choked his throat, rendering him speechless.
On the other hand, Khushi was panicking seeing the sheen of tears in his eyes. Did she end up putting too much spice in the curry? "Hey Devi Maiyya! I'm so sorry!" she exclaimed standing up, diverting Arnav's attention to her, completely unknown to the inner turmoil that Arnav was facing. "Hume maaf kar deejye!
(Please forgive me!) I'm so so sorry! I must have put in too much spice - I'm so sorry!" apologised Khushi, feeling horrible for doing this to Arnav.
She hastily poured water into a glass and was about to give it to Arnav when he told her to stop by gesturing with his palm facing her.
After taking a minute to control his emotions, he said slowly, "it's not spicy Khushi - it's nice." He made sure not to show any feelings on his face - he didn't want her to see him in such a vulnerable state.
But that did not convince Khushi at all. She thought that Arnav was just saying that to make her feel better, so she stubbornly passed the water to Arnav and gestured him to drink it.
Arnav took the glass from her hand but put it back on the table next to him and said, "sach mein Khushi
(Really Khushi) The food is good."
"Nahi aap jhoot bolrahe hain. Hum jaante hain. Agar khaana acha hota toh apke aankhon mein aasu aathe? Nahi naa? Lekin aapki aankhon mein aasu hai - iska matlab hai ki khaana achi nahi bani hai. Isse mat khaaye - hum kuch aur banaake late hain.
(No you're lying. I know. If the food was good, then would you have tears in your eyes? No right? But you do have tears in your eyes - so that means that the food was not good. Please don't eat this - I'll make something else and bring it.)"
Khushi turned around to go back into the kitchen when she felt a hand clasp her wrist. As she turned back Arnav pulled her back and made her sit down in the chair next to his. Khushi was about to speak when Arnav put a finger on his own lips, letting her know that he didn't want her to say anything just yet.
Wordlessly he turned to her plate filled with untouched food, prepared a morsel of food and fed Khushi. She chewed slowly as he watched her calmly.
Only a few moments later did she realise that the food was actually nice. Neither did the paneer have too much spice and nor was there anything else wrong with it. It tasted almost perfect.
With this realisation she looked up at Arnav immediately, and he just gave an I told you so' look in reply, with a tiny smile peeking out of his lips.
Khushi was going to smile back when the image of Arnav's eyes filled with tears appeared in her head again. "But then why did you have tears in your eyes?" Khushi asked, her face etched with confusion.
Arnav was silent for a few minutes, debating whether he should answer that question or not. After some thought, he said, "The food was really nice Khushi. In fact it was perfect. That's why I had tears in my eyes."
This statement only added to Khushi's confusion. If the food was perfect' as he said then why would it cause tears...?
Seeing that he had just made the situation much worse he wasn't sure whether he should explain further or not. He knew that Khushi wanted a proper compliment and his good,' nice,' and perfect,' wasn't good enough to make her feel better. And the last thing he wanted was for Khushi to get upset thinking he didn't like the food when actually he loved it. So he decided to explain, "Someone very dear to me used to make this exact same dish for me Khushi. And believe it or not, the food she cooked tasted exactly like this. Eating this food reminded me of her..."
Not wanting to reveal anything further, he went back to eating the food, relishing each bite, as Khushi took her time in processing what he had just said.
As she registered that he had just given her another huge compliment, a huge smile planted itself on her face. She then watched him quietly savouring each bite with a content face.
Soon she started to eat her meal too, satisfied that he liked the food that she had cooked and that he had even given her a compliment.
But one thing kept on bugging her in the back of her mind still... He mentioned someone dear' and he called her a she' too - so did that mean he had someone in his life? Did he already love a girl? The mention of that girl had made him so happy...
The thought of him loving another girl almost broke her heart. Khushi hardly knew Arnav but she couldn't do anything to stop those weird sensations which arise whenever he so much as brushes past her. She couldn't do anything to stop her heart beating just that little bit faster when he came closer to her. She couldn't do anything to stop her innocent heart from wishing that this imperfectly perfect guy would be hers.
Even though she felt a little hurt by the thought of him loving someone else, she didn't want that to spoil her current happiness. So she went back to eating her food happily.
Soon they were both finished with dinner and Arnav was about to start clearing up when Khushi stopped him, "Ek minute!
(One Minute!)"
Without replying to his silent question, she got up and took a covered up bowl and put it down in front of him. Arnav looked down curiously at the bowl before Khushi took off the foil paper covering the bowl, to reveal kheer.
For a second Arnav's face was blank, which eventually turned into shock as he registered that he actually had a bowl of kheer in front of him.
Before he could say anything she said, "don't worry, it's sugar-free."
That only seemed to make him more shocked and one question seemed to bug him in his mind. His mum also used to make this exact combination of food for him very often because they were his favourite. Ever since he was a child, his mom's kheer was his most favourite dessert.
In fact his mum was the only one who had made desserts for him after he had been diagnosed with diabetes. Everyone else had stopped giving him sweets because of his diabetes, and no one had cared enough to try and think of an alternative for him. They didn't care about the fact that it was a huge shock for a nine year old who loved sweets, to find out that he could never have sweets again. However, his mum had made sure that she made sugar-free kheer for him at least once a week, along with other desserts that he enjoyed.
That was his mother and she was bound to know all these things. But how in the world did Khushi know that he liked all these dishes? The aloo paratha and paneer curry could have been a lucky guess, but... the kheer too?
Instead of voicing his question and creating a fuss, he just decided to go with the flow and eat the kheer. There was already too much to think about, too much to solve. He didn't need another thing to think about right now. This could wait.
But all those thoughts flew out of the window when he ate the first spoonful of kheer. This kheer... It tasted exactly like the one his mother used to make...
"Kaun ho tum?
(Who are you?)" Arnav asked startling Khushi. Whatever Khushi had expected him to ask or say, it definitely wasn't this. Maybe she had misheard him.
"Huh?"
"Who are you?" he asked a bit more sternly, his eyes searching.
"K-k-khushi. Khushi Kumari Gupta. But you already know this..."
Arnav closed his eyes for a moment, trying to control his mind which had numerous thoughts swirling in his head. "Who taught you to cook?"
"Why?" Khushi asked him, unable to comprehend his reaction to the kheer. Usually when someone tries the food someone eats, they either compliment the food or say that it's not nice - or sometimes even give no comment. But Arnav's reaction was something else altogether.
"Just answer the damn question," Arnav said, gritting his teeth in frustration.
"Voh... My parents died in a car accident when I was eight years old, and it was just me and my elder sister. When my parents died my sister used to leave me in the temple while she went to one of our old neighbours to find some work so that she could earn money for our living. My sister was 12 at the time and she was the elder one so she had to earn the money. I wanted to help too, but my sister refused saying that I was too young."
Arnav was listening to all of this silently, but inside he felt the pain that Khushi and her sister must have felt at the time - after all he had gone through a very similar situation.
"When my sister used to go to work, she would tell me to stay in the mandir until she came back, and that's where I met Ratna Ma."
Arnav's breath hitched as he heard the name.
"I was sitting in a corner crying thinking of my parents when she came up to me and asked me what was wrong. At first I was too scared to speak to her and I didn't answer her back. Instead of leaving me and walking past as everyone else did, she sat next to me and talked to me about nothing and everything. I think she just wanted to make me feel comfortable and to forget my worries," Khushi said smiling with the memories.
"I didn't trust her at first but I always listened to her stories. Then eventually I started to respond to her sometimes too. After hours of staying with me, she said she had to go back home because her son would be coming back from school and he would be looking for her."
"Phir?
(Then?)" Arnav asked, encouraging her to continue.
"I kept on thinking about that aunty for the rest of the day and I was really grateful to her for giving me a chance to escape from reality for those few hours. Those few hours I spent with her were... indescribable. She made me feel the warmth of my mother who I missed a lot. I couldn't help but feel sad that I probably wouldn't see her again. But then she came again the next day. Only this time, she came straight to me and sat down next to me again. And that's how our relationship started."
Arnav listened to all of this attentively having a very strong instinct on where all this was going.
"Everyday she would come to the temple and talk to me. I became very close to her and she told me not to call her aunty anymore and insisted that I call her Maa. So from then on I started to call her Ratna Maa. This carried on for many months and then one day she asked me whether I would come to her house. I was apprehensive at first, but then she said that I would be back by the time my sister would be back. So I agreed and spent many days with her in her house. I used to sit down blabbering while she would cook and listen to me at the same time. Soon she taught me how to cook when I asked her to teach me."
"I went to her house every day and learnt how to cook. She would teach me about our culture, our traditions, our religion and so much more. When we had free time, she would then talk about her family. I remember she always used to talk about her son who she loved to bits. I'd always wanted to meet the son who had such a gem of a mother. In fact Ratna Maa had told me that she would definitely let me meet him one day. But then one day, she didn't turn up to the temple as she usually did to pick me up. I thought that something may have come up and she would come a little bit late, but she didn't come. I thought she would come the next day, but she didn't come. I waited for days, weeks, even months. But she never came."
"I still don't know where Ratna Maa went," Khushi said as her brows furrowed at the mystery. "But her memories will always be cherished in my heart. Even though she was a complete stranger, she had helped me when I was all alone. In fact, she was a second mother to me. I just live in the hope that she will come back to me one day so I could scold her for leaving me all alone again just like my parents. She even promised me that when I was older, that I would probably live with her and her family - even if she wasn't able to give me that much I would have been happy just to see her once in a while. But she didn't even give me that satisfaction. She just left." Khushi had tears in her eyes thinking of the pain she had gone through when her Ratna Maa had left her without a word.
"Sometimes I still sit down and wonder where Ratna Maa went - I hope she is happy wherever she is. I can still remember her kind eyes smiling at me every time we met, but I just have no idea where she went."
But I do,' Arnav thought in his head, as the picture of his mother's agonised eyes tortured him.
"I remember her son was diabetic and she used to make sugar-free desserts for him - that's how I made the sugar-free kheer today..."
Arnav couldn't say a word. He was speechless. He didn't know what to do so he went by his instinct and took Khushi into a bone-crushing hug, burying his face in the crook of her neck. Arnav could do nothing to control the tears that flowed down his eyes onto Khushi's neck.
When Khushi felt her neck getting wet, she got alarmed instantly.
"Arnavji?" she called, worriedly. "Arnavji are you OK?" she asked. "Arnavji are you OK," she asked again, now starting to panic.
"Please Khushi," he said. Khushi didn't know what he was pleading for, but she could hear and feel his vulnerability in that moment. What wouldn't she do in that moment to wipe those tears away forever? She didn't like Arnav being like this at all. She would give anything he wanted in that moment to make him feel better. But what he wanted was the question. She didn't understand what he wanted or needed.
So Khushi did the only thing she could give him in that moment. She brought her arms around him and put one hand on his back while running her hands through his hair soothingly with the other, trying to pass on all her warmth and strength to him. She stood their comforting him like a mother does her child, expecting nothing in return.
Arnav on the other hand was overwhelmed. Having watched over Khushi over the last few months he had always felt some kind of connection with her. And now he knew why. Because in her each action, he saw a glimpse of his mother. Her kindness, her selflessness, her warmth - everything reminded him of this mother.
After a few minutes Arnav stepped back murmuring a quick apology and thanks. Before he could turn around and walk away, Khushi tugged on his hand and said, "You can tell me, you know."
After a few momets of silence he opened his mouth."Your Ratna Maa is never going to come back Khushi," Arnav said slowly, waiting for his words to sink in as new tears made their way down his cheeks.
"W-w-what?" Khushi asked, fearing his answer.
"She's no more Khushi. Maa died years back." Arnav's shoulders shook as he cried for his mother's death for the first time since that horrible day. After hearing Khushi's interaction with his mother, he felt like he saw his mother in the form of Khushi. Seeing his mother in Khushi, he couldn't control his grief.
Khushi felt like a boulder had been thrown down on her head. She broke down immediately, finding that the lady she had seen as her mother figure had died. She hadn't even had a chance to say bye to her. There was so much she had wanted to share with her. So much she had wanted to ask her. She much she had wanted to do with her. But now knowing that she was no more... she felt like someone had stabbed her heart and cut it into a million pieces. All her hopes had been shattered within a single moment.
Arnav held onto a sobbing Khushi, as Khushi did him. They supported each other as they both lamented over the loss of their mother. The woman who they had both admired as children. The woman who had given her love to them with no restriction. The woman who had shown them the true meaning of affection.
Eventually Khushi fell asleep on Arnav's shoulder, so Arnav picked her up into his arms and took her upstairs into his room. He placed her on the bed and tried to turn away when he felt her firm hold on the collar of shirt. He carefully removed her hand, making sure he doesn't disturb her sleep. He pulled the recliner closer to the bed so that he could be there for her in case she needed something in the middle of the night.
After he adjusted the recliner, he tucked her in properly in the duvet when she held onto his hand in her sleep and placed her head on it, using his arm as a pillow. Arnav tried to move his hand, but Khushi just moaned in protest and held onto his hand tighter as she fell back into deep sleep. Having no other option, Arnav moved the recliner even more close to the bed and lay on it, with his hand still held by Khushi.
That night, one star in the sky twinkled brighter than all the other stars in the sky, happy that her kids were beginning to find their happiness in each other, just as she had always wanted.
It took me ages to write this update! I hope this looong update makes up for the previous crappy one. Thank you so much to everyone who liked and commented on my work - especially the last one even though it wasn't the most amazing update. A big big thank you to all of you for your support.
Do let me know what you thought of this chapter by liking or commenting. 😊
All rights reservedDo not take, use or copy my work without my permission Edited by amira039.303 - 10 years ago
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