Whoever said that a human needs only food, clothes and shelter to live was a fool according to Khushi Gupta. Maybe to live those were the bare necessities but to feel alive, to be alive, it needed far more tangible things than them, most important being warmth.
Food of unmatchable taste was served to her as she was housed in one of the most exquisite privately owned palaces of the countries , yet, all she could feel was void; the void which was sucking out every emotion, every happy memory from her. She could feel her soul writhing in pain.
The family which resided in the palace was never very welcome to her presence but she felt positively degraded by the way they disregarded or avoided her as an nonexistent entity in the present scenario and made her feel more than horrible.
True, she was responsible for her own fate and deserved every bit of hostility for disgracing them in front of the world in the way she did but to invite her home and treat her like dirt was making her count the amount of time she has to stay further.
The only people who warmed upto her and made her feel welcome were her sister, her brother-in-law and his mother. She knew that it would be well within her right to call her mother-in-law but she knew that the man through whom she would be related to her would kill her in coldblood before she can address his mother as her mother-in-law.
Years ago, she had decked up as a bride in the same room as she was now dressing to her sister's baby shower. There was excitement, joy and glow in her back then but now, she lacked lustre, appeared pale and seemed to just pull herself through it.
She was sure that if she had not loved her sister as much as she did, she would never be able to bring herself to do what she was doing. It hurt her way too much to see a man who loved her beyond everything hate her to pieces.
His words reverberated in her mind as she placed the earrings in the piercings of her ears.
"Go away from here, Ms.Gupta. Go away before I forget that I had loved you in the past and do something I would regret."
Was it so easy for him? He had loved her, couldn't he have trusted her a bit more? Why couldn't he be more compassionate like his mother, more understanding like her. She then reminded herself that she was thinking about a man who had gone ahead to enact an extremely cruel plan to exact petty revenge from her; the man who could forget the very morals he was brought up with, if he was messed with.
Hoping that she would not lose control over herself and ruin her sister's day, she glanced over herself for one last time in the mirror before making her appearance in front of people who cared less.
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The Function,
Payal Gupta Raizada was a very stubborn lady and she would settle for no less that what she had wanted. She made sure that she had her sister Khushi beside her at every possible instant to make up for every moment they had lost over the past two years.
Khushi could see through the fake smiles plastered on the faces of the guests who had arrived to give blessings to the to-be-mother. There were myriads of questions in their minds about her presence. It was not long before the whispering began and soon she could see Arunima being grilled with questions by other ladies.
" Arunima Ji, isn't she Arnav Bitua's wife who lodged domestic violence case against you? What is she doing here? Have they reconciled?" asked one lady.
"I have seen the trailer of the movie in which she acted. Did she lodge the case because you were stopping her from being an actress and wanted to work in family business? Why did she come back now?" asked another.
Before Arunima could answer, Kavita took over from them. "No no, Arnav seemed very supportive of her being an actress. In fact, I remember that he helped her for the look test. I also remember that there was tussle about money during the wedding. Isn't it Arunima Ji?"
"Enough! If you just want to gossip over my presence here and torment Arunima Aunty, I don't think there is any need of your presence here. This event is for my sister and the well-being of her unborn. Instead of showering wishes on her, you are torturing her family. Sorry to say this, but you have proved that age is just a number and maturity has no relationship with age," reprimanded Khushi sternly inciting gasps and shocked faces on her targets.
"Insult! Such an insult! It was our bigheartedness which made us to come over as guests to a Raizada function or who would want to associate with a family on whom a domestic violence case was lodged? We are leaving and we will never come back, especially after such great insult!" shouted Kavita as she turned around to leave along with the other guests of the function while Khushi stood shocked. She never realized that her single deed would have such great effect on Raizadas.
She was brought out of her reverie when she felt an arm tugging on hers roughly.
"What do you think of yourself, Ma'am? You are not a part of the family to greet the guests. Who are you to show the way out to the guests? Don't you have any manners? Or is this an extension to your revenge plan?" he questioned, his eyes burning holes into her skin.
" I might be no one in this family but I will not take anyone mistreating Arunima Aunty in the way they did. And maybe you should learn manners to not jump to conclusions before you know what had eventuated," she spat, tugging her arm away from his grip.
"Oh please, don't act like you care! You very well know that you are the sole reason for Raizadas being an outcast in the society for a mistake they didn't commit. You are the one to teach me manners? The one who filed a fake FIR to exact revenge? Don't make such cheap jokes, Ms Gupta because there is absolutely nothing a respectable person can learn from you!" he lashed out as everyone around them stood astounded at their outbursts.
"Chotte, what are you doing? Stop.."
Arunima was cut by Manorama. "Bolne Dijeye Jiji! Sahi Tho Bol Raha Hai! If she had not done that childish act years back, today Raizadas would still be revered in the society! It's all her fault!"
Khushi could feel tears forming in her eyes and she struggled to hide them to the best of her abilities. She sensed Arunima trying to object and turned around to her,
"Don't fight for me, Aunty. I am their culprit. Let them punish me. It's in the best of everyone's interests if I leave immediately."
She ardently signed to Arunima to not say anything further and moved over to her sister caught in the conflict on whom to support: her sister or her mother-in-law.
"I am so sorry for ruining your day, Jiji. Although I hoped to spend more time with you, it would only cause more tensions to you and it is not good for your health. Please forgive me, Jiji. I hope, at some point of time, I will have the fortune of meeting my niece or nephew," she said, weakly smiling at her.
"Khushi.."
"I understand, Jiji," said Khushi, understanding the unsaid as she walked over to the room assigned to her and began packing her things. She knew that she could not let tears come out of her eyes in that house or else everything she had endured would go down the drain.
Making sure that she would not leave any souvenir of her sour visit, she moved out, not bothering to change.
When she arrived at the living room, she had her sister, brother-in-law, Arunima and surprisingly Arnav Singh Raizada waiting for her.
She hugged her sister and gave her best wishes to her brother-in-law. When she moved over to Arunima she realized that she could not look into her eyes or face her, because it would only wreck her.
"Give me your luggage, Ms.Gupta. Great people like you shouldn't be burdened with lowly things like this," mused Arnav sarcastically as he twirled the car keys in his hands.
"You don't need to drop me, I will leave myself," she offered.
"Some of us honor-bound and duty-bound, Ms.Gupta. But you might not know the meaning of those words. Either ways, I am dropping you and don't make this more difficult to me by making me speak to you, because that is the last thing I want," he spat, roughly taking her luggage from her as she stood blank, unknown which way she was drifting by the current he was causing.
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Dedicated to ishqkum!
Edited by ..AgniJyotsna.. - 7 years ago
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Anupamaa
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