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Key to your heart..
Please note that text in blue and italics is for what the respective characters are thinking..but not saying out loud...
Chapter 13
"Jeeji...bahar aao na..pls..."
("Sis..why are you taking so long..Please come out..")
"Khushi ..ek minute...lehenge teek tarah se pehanne toh do"
("Just give me a minute Khushi...let me wear the lehenga properly...")
"Jeeji...agar tum taiyaar hone mein ithni der lagathi rahi na..toh mere pyare jijai ka kya haal hoga.."
("Jeeji..if you keep taking so long to get ready, my poor Jeejaji would be left miserable... ")
Payal stepped out of their room, having changed into a beautiful lehenga choli that she would wear for her engagement ceremony...which was to be held on the same weekend..
"Are waah jeeji..aaj toh bade heroine types lag rahi ho..jeeju bhi ekdum hero lagoge sagaai ke din.."
("Oh my god jeeji..you are looking like a heroine...I am sure Jeeju too will look nothing less than a hero on your engagement...")
Khushi teased Payal, who tried glaring at her...but she knew how much Khushi and her parents had waited for this occasion..More than Payal herself, it was them who had worried day and nights about her future...and she was relieved to see Khushi finally having put the demons of a cursed day in her life behind her..
Khushi plopped her self on the couch and munched on the jalebis...as she watched Garima put a kala teeka behind Payal's ears to ward off evil eye...
Bauji was sitting next to her and Payal came towards him to touch his feet for blessings...
Khushi extended her leg too..
"Meri bhi aashirvad lena jeeji..bahuth kaam aayenge..aakhir jeejaji ki secretary jo hoon...main chahoon to Akash jeeju ko der tak office mein rakh sakthi hoon.."
("Take my blessings too Jeeji...will be useful for you...after all I am Jeeju's secretary...I can make Jeeju stay late in office")
Payal gave a playful smack on her shoulder..
"Aww..jeeji...iss ka badla mein zaroor loongi..woh bhi tumhare suhag raat ko hi..dekh lena.."
("Aww Jeeji..It hurt...I will take revenge on you for this...that too on your first night itself...wait and watch...")
Saying this, Khushi ran out to her room, with Payal struggling to catch her while in a heavy lehenga...
*****
Arnav was going over the show's final details with Akash and Lavanya, with Khushi taking down the minutes of the meeting...
"Lavanya, I would like to see the sample designs based on the next season's trends...I have decided to incorporate a few of those in at least two designs which will be featured towards the end of this show.."
Lavanya squirmed in her seat...though Arnav had mentioned about the next season's trends in a previous meeting, she had not given it much importance...she had felt he would ask for those only once this big show was out of the way...She prepared herself to face his wrath and gulped...
"Lavanya...the designs.."..Arnav asked her pointedly..his voice raising a note higher...
And right on cue, the pen fell down from Khushi's hands..all eyes turned to her...Lavanya grateful for the momentary distraction..
Khushi had the deer in the headlights look..though she was not the one who was being asked the question by the ASR, her reflex system was attuned to his imminent outburst and her fingers had given away..
She quickly bent down and grabbed the pen from below the table...
Arnav watched as she slowly raised and gripped the pen in a tight hold...her knuckles a shade whiter...
Arnav turned to Lavanya...
"ASR...actually I did not know that you wanted to include those trends in our show...So I.."..
"Don't be so lax in the future...at this stage, we cannot afford to be so"...Spitting this out in a curt but steady tone, Arnav stood up and left the room and Akash followed...
"Khushi...what was that..your pen fell and so did his anger..I have to keep you nearby..God knows when I will need such interventions.."
"Lavanya..he probably realized that it was not entirely your fault..He should have been more specific.."
"Still...thank you Khushi...now lets go and grab a coffee.oh I need one after facing an almost firing..."
Khushi smiled at Lavanya's dramatic antics..while her mind raced back to the moment earlier in the room when she had seen an unknown emotion fill Arnav's eyes...
******
Arnav threw the file on the table and slumped onto his chair in a sigh..
What was that...
He was about to give Lavanya a piece of his mind and then there was Khushi..staring at him..petrified..and he had backed out...
Why...that was not how I deals with my employees...I must be going crazy..what with all the work and extra hours that I am putting in for the show..
He groaned and covered his eyes with his palms..and then reached for the intercom to ask Aman to bring him another one of his disastrous coffees...
*****
Anjali had asked Khushi to come to Shantivan to help with preparations for the engagement..the main functions were to be held at the palatial residence..and after hearing from Akash about what had happened at a meeting at AR, her devilish mind had gone into overdrive...
"Wah wah ramji..jodi kya banayi..jeeji aur jeeja ko badhayi ho badhayi..."
Khushi was cleaning and heloing beautify the devi maiyya idol at Shantivan, humming a song...while Anjali was nearby looking for the brass lamps that were kept in a small cupboard near the mandir door..
Arnav heard the film song drifting out of the mandir...and he decided to take a look at what was happening there..
"What the...has Di gone crazy..?...singing film songs...!!"
Since he had shoes on, he peeked into the room and asked..
"What is going on in there.."
Anjali looked up and saw Arnav...
"Kya...?"
("What")
"Wahi toh main bhi pooch rahoon hai ki kya ho raha hain.."
("That is what I am asking...what is going on here..")
"Chotte..hum dono mandir saaf kar rahe hain...aur kya.. nani ne kal ghar mein havan rakhi hai."
("Chotte..we both are cleaning the temple...what else..Nani has arranged for a pooja to be held at our home tomorrow..")
"Acha..maine socha aapne bhajan ke jagah filmy gaana gaane shuru ki hai..aur ye...hum DONO saaf kar rahe hain..?...who is with you..?"
("Oh..I thought you have started replacing devotional songs with film songs...and..we BOTH are cleaning teh temple.?.Who is with you..?")
Slowly Khushi came out from behind the devi maiyya's idol..her face, palm and arms smudged with agarbatti ashes and some sindoor and sandal paste..
Arnav smirked seeing her..
Ab isse kaun saaf karega..WHAT THE..where did that thought come from..
(Now who will tidy her up...WHAT THE..where did that thought come from..)
Khushi looked at Anjali who started giggling...
"Di...aap kissi aur ko iss kaam dijiye...khud mandir saaf karthe karthe ab yeh bhi mandir ke floor ki tarah ho gaya hai..."
("Di..please give such chores to somebody else...by cleaning the teample, she herself looks like the temple floor")
Arnav then went towards his room, Khushi muttered.."Laad governor.."...
As they got back to the chores at hand, Anjali had a smile on her face thinking how things between Arnav and Khushi were now slowly and surely getting better...
*****
Arnav stifled a yawn as he tried to concentrate on the file at hand..it had a bar graph that Aman had prepared to indicate market values of the international distributors who will be attending the show...The colors he had used for the graph blurred before Arnav's eyes...Arnav strained his eyes further on the graph and found that the strange brown marking that he was trying so hard to interpret was actually a coffee stain...
He let out a disgruntled sigh...He needed some sleep..but knew he would have to settle for only a small break from the work..and so headed downstairs to refill the water jug...the lights were all dimmed as it was quite late into the night...
He neared the dining room area and saw that the light above the table was on..and heard a faint tinkling of bangles emerging from there..
Khushi was busy kneading the hot boondis into round balls for laddoo..Anjali had offered to stay back and help..but Khushi had declined and pushed her off to get some sleep as Anjali seemed pretty tired...
She was too engrossed in the process of trying to mold the boondis into round laddoos, that she missed Arnav who was staring at her from across the table...
"Aadhi raat ko yahan baithkar tum laddo bana rahi ho..unbelievable.."
("Making laddoos at midnight...unbelievable..")
Khushi jumped a little because she had not noticed him till then..
"Aap..yahan..yeh..yeh mere liye thodi na hain...yeh to kal ke havan ke prasad ke liye hain..naniji yeh prasad padosiyon mein baantna chahthe hain..kam se kam sau banane hain..aur abhi tak to pacchess bhi nahin huye.."
("You...here...this is not for me...its the prasaad for the pooja tomorrow...Naniji wants to distribute it among our neighbours too...and I ahve to make a hundresd laddoos atleast...and have not made even 25 yet..")
Arnav saw that she was looking at the tray of boondis with a pout on her face...
"Tumhe help chahiye..?"
("You need any help..?")
"Aap...aap madad karenge.?..."
("You will help me with this..?")
"Not me..Ms..I mean...Khushi..I will call Hari Prakash..."
"Rehne deejiye..Naniji ne yeh kaam mujhe saumpi thi aur mein khud katam kar loongi..."
("No..its OK...Naniji had asked me to do it...and I will finish it..")
"Fine..toh yehin pe baithi raho puri raat..."
("Fine..then spend the whole night sitting here and making laddoos...")
Arnav refilled the jug and was on his way back..and found Khushi stretching her right arm a few times and was slowly trying to blow air onto her palm...He paused and then turned towards the table..
Keeping the jug on the table, he sat next to Khushi and grabbed the tray to put it between him and her..
"Aap kya karne waale hain.."
("What are you planning to do..?")
"Help..aur kya...?.."
("Help..what else...?")
"Aapko laddoo banaana aatha hai..?.."
("But...do you know how to make laddoos...")
"I have seen Nani making laddoos since childhood..I know..."
"teek hai..thank you..."
("Ok then...thank you..")
She gave him a bright smile and continued with her work..
Arnav found her shaping it quite easily and so put his palm on the tray and grabbed a handful...
"AAH...WHAT THE F...why is it so damn hot..and why didn't you tell me...ooh...my hand.."
Khushi was irritated...
"Aapne humse poocha kab ki yeh garam hai ya tanda..?.aapne kaha tha ki aap jaanthe hai...aur yeh prasad hai..use banathe waqt aise gandhe shabd mat kahiye...paap chadegha..."
("Did you ever ask me if it was hot or cold..and you told me that you know how to make these...this is for the pooja...you are not supposed to use swear words while preparing it..It is a sin..")
"What nonsense...mere haath jal gaye hain and you are lecturing me on prasaad and paap..oh my hand.."
("What nonsense...my hand has burnt and you are lecturing me on pooja and sin...oh my hand.")
He started blowing onto his hand vigorously...
Khushi found it amusing that he did not know about hot boondis..he himself had offered to help and even before making one laddoo was sitting there howling..quite unlike the ASR avtar..She chuckled...She stopped her musings when he glared at her..
"Stop giggling and get me some ice dammit.."
Khushi got up and took some ice from the kitchen..also grabbed a tube of burn medicine..
"Chaliye..haath dikhayiye.."
("Come on..show me your hand..")
Arnav obeyed and held his hand out to her..Khushi noticed that his palm was bright red...She realised why..she had been careful to get boondis from the side of the pile and mold them...where they would have been cooler..but Arnav had grabbed a handful from deep in the middle and it had caused the burn.
She slowly blew cold air into his palm and massaged it with ice..
"Ab teekh..."
("Is it alright...")
Her words trailed off as she saw him with eyes closed..a sense of peace and relief on his face...She found herself taking in his hard but strangely alluring features...the muscular jawline..the arch of his upper lip...the eyelashes covering his chocolate brown eyes...that were closed and let her savor the moment unabashed...
Her dainty fingers were grazing his palm and the movement of ice cube with those fingers was creating an assault on his senses..But he opened his eyes sensing that she had stopped moving the ice cube on his palm..and saw her staring back at him..
Khushi averted her eyes and after wiping dry his palm with the end of her dupaata, spread the medicine paste on his palm..she felt his palm slightly trembling below her fingers..but his face gave away nothing...
"Ho gaya..ab aap jaayiye aur hamein kaam karne dijiye.."
("All done...now please leave and let me do my work..")
Arnav stood up and said a thank you after which he headed to his room..he felt rejuvenated after that "break.."
Khushi sat there late into the night making laddoos..but for some reason, they were not as perfectly round as the ones earlier..maybe owing to her wandering thoughts...
****
The havan had finished by office time and Khushi was standing in the stock room with Lavanya...they were both searching for a roll of fabric that one of Lavanya's assistants had stashed somewhere..they did not realise as someone entered the room..and were startled to hear a heavily accented voice..
"Howz it going mates...?..."
She was standing precariously on a tiny stool and being startled meant she lost her balance and was now about to fall onto the floor backwards..
He saw the pretty lady on the stool falling onto the floor headfirst and ran to reach her in time...standing there cradling her in his arms and staring at her beautiful face..
Arnav was gob smacked to see his cousin who had entered the office less than hour ago, standing there like a hero with her in his arms..He was determined not to let such playboy antics in his office..
He slammed open the half shut door to the studio and asked.."what the hell is happening here..NK..Lavanya.."...They both scurried off in different directions...
NK stayed behind to receive another lecture from Arnav on office etiquette while Lavanya had long left the studio with Khushi..
Later on the day at Shanthivan, Arnav glared at Khushi who was serving NK the laddoos..while NK sat there praising the laddoos and the one who made it..
He saw color creep into her cheeks and took it out on the small sugar free laddoo in his hands..that was crumpled into a shapeless mess...
P.S: did any of my dear readers feel it was the Gupta lady whom NK had caught and not la...curious to know cos this is the first time I have tried "trolling my readers"..m a fan of this technique ever since I saw it on Sherlock...please let me know...😊
Silent readers..please please comment...😊..I want to know your thoughts on this story..please..
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