Chapter 24: Thodisi Bewafai
The slightly chilly weather of New York notwithstanding, Nakul enjoyed his stay in the city immensely. His weekdays were a maze of meetings, inspections and other tasks aimed completing the groundwork for the initiation of Virani Group of Hotels in America. The weekends though, he spent exploring. And resolved to come back some day with his wife. He made it a point to call home every five days, but most often than not, did not get a chance to speak to Barkha. Like him, she was working late hours, taking over the charge of running the restaurant in his absence. The one time she spoke to him, he spent nearly half an hour waxing eloquent about New York. "Barkha....I'll have to stay back for another fortnight atleast." "You don't sound too rueful about it, Nakul" she observed. "Are you sure you want to come back?" she asked him, sounding amused now. "Are you sure you want me too? You have the whole room and the whole bed to yourself now.....Not that I had any rights over it earlier.....You don't have an over protective, distrustful husband hovering around you all the time.......And nobody would have put his foot down about not doing the restaurant wallpaper in pretty pink...." "Nakul, you'll be glad to hear that's the exact shade of the wallpaper in our room now." "Nahi.................Barkha...........What................. .....All..........My room.....................Pink............................... .No...............I'm definitely not coming back now!!!!" "We'll see.....I've to go...Tulsi dadi's has an errand for me I think............." "Bye Barkha......" "Bye Nakul..." she said turning towards the radio which had just begun playing, "Mujhe Tum Yaad karna aur mujhko yaad aana tum". "Apposite song" she murmurmed before stepping out of the room.
Nakul reached India two days before he was scheduled to. He had intentionally misinformed his family about his date of return. As his cab entered Shantiniketan, he could see decorations all over the place. And a huge crowd. He racked his brains trying to remember any upcoming social event in the Virani calender, but any such memory eluded him. Rather than stepping into the house, he walked out to the garden where a dai had been constructed and Karan Virani was addressing the gathering.
"Ladies and gentlemen.....First of all I want to thank you all for making it to this occasion.......I never knew the lure of free food is so overpowering....." Nakul chuckled with a couple of others at his uncle's straight faced attempt at humor. "Well....Poor Jokes apart......We've been fortunate enough to welcome to the Virani family, many new members this year....Joydeep Acharya.....Barkha Doshi....." "Chachu....yeh board meeting nahi hai..........." Archita interjected. "Oh....yes...yes.......So .....Lets proceed with the ceremony." Watching Manthan come up on the stage, looking distinctly uncomfortable in a sherwani, Nakul almost laughed. His laughter changed to open mouthed horror when he saw Manthan's intended fiancee.
"Nakul.....when did you arrive? " Tripti seemed to have spotted her foster son and came by to stand next to him. "Surprising, isn't it....?" she said, looking at Nakul's face. "Lakshya was sent away to Delhi on pretext of business. He has no inkling of how much heartbreak is in store for him when he arrives. When I think about the gross injustice that is being done to your younger brother, Nakul...." "Why didn't you stop it mom? You know how much he loves..............I asked him to wait...promising to speak to you and papa when I came back from New York......" "I tried to stop it Nakul....Lekin meri yahan koi sunta kahan hai...They all believe I only have my own vested interests in mind when I say or do anything. And besides, do you who is responsible for this alliance in the first place Nakul?....Your darling wife ....Barkha..."
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