CHAPTER 71 (C). LET'S PLAY HOME ALONE!
Place - Sheeshmahal
Day - 3 Sunday continued
"AB?"
Arnav looked up to see Geet standing in front of him. Arnav was still sitting in the room the council meeting was held. All had left to execute their parts and Arnav decided to sit alone for a while. But apparently he was not as alone as he thought.
"Bolo Motormouth!"
Geet huffed at the nickname but continued speaking, "Aap yeh sab kyun kar rahe hain?"
Arnav raised an eyebrow, "Kya sab?"
Geet frowned, "Yeh sab! Pranking the Chacha, kyun?"
Arnav looked at her with amusement, "Mere ateet ko jaanne ke baad, tum yeh sawaal pooch rahi ho?"
Geet rolled her eyes, "Mera matlab woh nahi hai AB! This was your chance! Aapki aur Lavanya ki shaadi postpone ho rahi thi! You could have more time to convince Khushi of your love. If this plan succeeds, paanch din mein you will be married to Lavanya. Chacha ke aane se faayda aapka tha! You lost the chance!"
Arnav shook his head and looked at her morosely, "Haan! Faayda mera tha lekin agar yeh shaadi uske wajah se tooti, toh zindagi bhar mujhe yahi ehsaas khaaye jaayega ki mujhe Khushi mili uski wajah se! Aur main apni zindagi mein use itni bhi importance nahi dena chaahta! I won't give him that importance Geet! I won't give him the option to be the reason behind mine and Lavanya's wedding being called off!"
Geet smiled sadly but nodded.
Half hour later, the whole gang of youngsters gathered in Chacha's room except Geet. After few minutes, Geet came running, "Chacha... With elders... having tea...main hall...phew!" Arnav rolled his eyes at Geet for running the whole pathway and looked at NK. NK nodded and walked off. All of them followed him. Chacha's room was situated in one of the pathways in Sheeshmahal. Hence, people can access his room from two ways; one was from the staircase which lead to main hall and other which lead to other floors from where using other pathways people could get back to the staircase. The room was far enough from the staircase that no one could hear if someone spoke in main hall but they could hear if there was shouting in the main hall. The staircase from the main hall ended in the first floor where there were many pathways connecting to the upper floors and other wings with all the pathways intersecting each other in various places making Sheeshmahal a wonderful place to play hide and seek for kids. The first floor pathways and room had a common pathway with parapet which overlooked the main hall and it also held the room from where Arnav's mom had come running out and fell down the parapet into the hall.
Others followed NK as he made way towards the first floor common pathways and went down the staircase. The others looked down the parapet to see NK engaging Chacha into talk. As NK was the only one least connected to the Chacha, the others felt that NK talking to the man would be least suspicious. NK's job was quiet simple; engage the Chacha into talking so that the others can execute their plans. And if his job failed and the Chacha wass on the move, before Arnav signaled NK through message then NK was to message NT about Chacha's movement.
Everyone nodded at each other and walked off to Chacha's room. Before they reached there, NT moved away from them and positioned herself near the pathway's beginning. She was the lookout. If the Chacha came before the others could execute their plan, she was supposed to stall him. How she was supposed to stall him, they did not know. But NT promised she would figure something out.
Once the remaining ten reached the room, Arnav asked them, "Did you get everything we wanted?" Everyone held up bags in their hands and Arnav nodded, "Good! Then lets get this show on the road."
All ten scrambled off to do their tasks. Arnav, Khushi, Geet, Dev, Annie and Arjun entered the room. Paayal, Lavanya and Aakash took to the pathway outside while Maan sneaked out of one of the pathways to the backyard. Annie and Arjun attacked the bag of Chachaji. They pulled out all his things except clothes and spread them around the room making a general mess. Arnav, Khushi, Lavanya, Geet and Dev opened the bags in their hands revealing hundreds of cockroaches. The girls did not know from where the boys procured so many cockroaches and did not bother to ask. Some things are better left alone!
"Cockroach kyun?", Dev asked Arnav while the girls also looked curious as all poured cockroaches onto Chacha's clothes and things.
Arnav gave them a vicious smirk, "Chacha has a phobia against them!"
Geet and Khushi looked at each other with wide eyes. Note to yourself; never antagonize Arnav!
Some cockroaches tried to climb Geet, Lavanya and Khushi's hands and all three shrieked while the others laughed but all continued working. Annie and Arjun dragged a chair nearby, the only thing not covered with coackroach, and placed it near the window so that anyone climbing it could see the ground right below the window. Meanwhile outside, Paayal, Lavanya and Aakash poured marbles on the floor. They started spreading them all over. In the backyard, Maan walked right under the window of Chacha's room and signaled the man standing beside him. The man, from a nearby cow shed whom the boys had contacted, placed a bucket filled cow dung aka gobar right under the window. Once the man was gone, Maan sent a missed call on Arjun's phone and soon Arjun and Annie leaned on the window and threw all of Chacha's clothes into the gobar. Maan smiled satisfactorily. Ab aayega mazaa!
While everyone was doing the tasks, NT's mobile beeped. It was a message from NK which read "Oops!" NT's eyes widened and she walked over to the parapet and leaned over. There was Chacha climbing up the stairs. NT scrambled off the area and went looking for her family. Right as she was about to step into the hallway, Aakash shouted, "NT don't! Marbles right below your leg!" NT, who was about to keep her left leg ahead stopped and looked down. Marbles! She gulped and took few steps back. Agar hum gir gaye hote toh? Humaara bachcha! She placed a hand on her stomach thanking God that she and her kid was fine. Then she remembered the reason behind her hurry and she spoke up, "Magarmach is on the way! Baaki sabko baahar nikaale! Jaldi! I will keep an eye on him till then!" Aakash and Paayal nodded and ran off inside while NT went back to the parapet. Chachaji had reached the top of the stairs. Oh no!
"Bhai! Dev! Chalo! Woh aadmi aa raha hai!", Aakash spoke up as he entered the room with Paayal in tow. Geet, Khushi, Lavanya, Annie, Arjun and Dev nodded and scrambled out of the room but Arnav remained working on some strings. "Bhai! Kya kar rahe ho? Chalo!", Aakash spoke up but Arnav shook his head, "Tum log jaao! I have one major thing left to do!" Aakash gritted his teeth, "Bhai! Chalo!" Arnav shook his head as he fumbled with the strings, "You go! I will come!" Aakash shook his head in frustration but grabbed Paayal and ran away. He went right to the room across the hallway where others were hiding. Right behind them, Maan came in. He looked at all of them and then frowned, "Arnav kahaa hai?" Aakash looked at him in frustration, "He is still there!"
"Shit!", Dev swore and leaned out of the room, "NT!", he called out softly and NT, who was standing near the parapet watching Chacha's progress towards his room, turned around to look at him.
"Arnav is still in there! Stall the man!", Dev spoke up and NT slapped her forehead. She gave him a worried look and went back to looking at the Chacha coming closer to her. How was she supposed to stall him?
NT bit her lip. Ab hum kya karein? She turned around hoping to see Arnav coming out of the room but he wasn't. She looked at the man coming towards her but he had yet to notice her. She looked down in worry when suddenly her eyes fell on her stomach and she smirked. Humaara bachcha kab kaam aayega? Chalo betaji! Aapko hum humaari acting skills ka ek namoona dikhaate hain! She walked a few steps back swiftly in the common pathway and turned around and started walking ahead. As she went few steps back, it looked like she was coming out of another pathway in the first floor and not from the one Chacha was housed in. She met Chacha right outside the pathway leading to his room. As she passed him, she acted as if she is in pain and crumbled onto the floor with a painful moan with her hands clutching her stomach. She could have shouted to be more effective but that would have alerted the elders sitting below and she did not want that.
Chacha looked at the young girl in worry. "Bitiya?", he mumbled and bent down beside her in worry. NT grabbed the man's hand making sure he was not going anywhere till Arnav was out of the room. She moaned a bit and the man looked at her worriedly. "Ka hua bitiya?", the man asked and NT was about to say that her stomach was paining and she wanted him to sit beside her when her eyes caught Dev looking out of the other room worriedly at her. She glared at him. Why was he out? What if the Chacha saw him? The Chacha frowned; why was the girl glaring elsewhere? He turned to look at the person and NT's eyes widened.
Just as the Chacha was about to get a look at Dev, Dev was grabbed by his collar and dragged in by Aakash. Arjun glared at Dev, "Have you gone mad? You would have spoiled everything!" Dev looked at the door worriedly, "But NT ko pain..." Aakash swatted the back of Dev's head, "Abe gadhe! She was acting! Apni biwi ko itna bhi nahi jaanta!" Dev huffed while he rubbed the place Aakash had hit him.
NT heaved a sigh of relief when Dev was dragged in but again moaned so that Chacha's attention remained on her. Her acting worked and Chacha turned to look at her worriedly. He kept on asking questions to which NT answered either with a whispered word or nod all the while trying to stall the man.
Inside the room, Arnav's string was ready and he tied it near door from one side of the room to other, right at the height a person's ankle would be and once he was sure the string was tight, he looked out of the room. He noticed NT and Chacha and took a deep breath. He looked at the other room where Maan saw him and signaled him to come. Arnav nodded and slowly sneaked out of the room. NT continued her acting while keeping one eye on Arnav crossing the hall. Chacha kept on telling her to leave his hand so that he could call for help.
Arnav entered the opposite room and NT acted as if the pain was going away slowly. Chacha helped her to get up and asked her if he should call others. NT refused saying that she would just go lie down on her bed. The Chacha patted her head and both walked away. As NT walked away, she wondered how many showers it was going to take her to make her feel less dirty after being touched by that slimey piece of magarmach?
When they saw NT get up, the ten people in the room closed the room lightly, opening it only a crack so that they could see what was happening outside. Suddenly, they heard a crash outside and looked at each other in surprise. Maan opened the door slowly and peeked out. His eyes widened and he pulled away.
"He fell!", Maan whispered.
"Yes!", Arnav pumped his fist in the air while rest of them exchanged grins.
Outside, the Chacha looked around in confusion. Hum jameen pe kaisan aa gaye? He was lying down on the floor on his back with marbles all around him. Yeh kanchiyaan? Iyaan? He tried to get up but as he stood up his feet stumbled again and he fell down right on his face this time.
Khushi took a peek outside and when she pulled back others had to place a hand on her mouth because she started to giggle out loud and could not seem to stop herself.
It took Chacha ten tries to get up and reach his room as everytime he took few steps one of his foot fell on the marble and he slipped. Everyone had fun peeking out and seeing his condition.
Finally Chacha reached his room and opened it. Arnav smirked as he heard the door open. THUD! Dev opened the door wide and they saw Chacha on the floor right inside his room. Chacha had fallen down due to the wire Arnav had tied in the room near the door. They closed the door and looked at each other, all wanting to laugh but unable to.
Chacha slowly lifted his head and his eyes widened as a small cockroach walked right in front of him. All looked at each other with wide eyes as they heard Chacha shout and shriek. Geet giggled, "Lagta hai cockroach ne apna kaam kar diya!"
The Chacha could not believe his eyes. Wherever he went, there was a cockroach present. First he saw some on floor. Due to fear, he did not remember that there was a door behind and he scrambled towards the one thing that he felt was safe; the bed. So he ran to the bed and climbed it, all the while looking at the cockroaches. During all this running around, he continued to shout for help. Unfortunately, no one could hear anything from the rooms in the pathways unless they are in the same pathway and those who were in the pathway were the ones who preferred to see him shout.
Chacha heaved a sigh of relief knowing he was safe on the bed. He sneaked his hand under the pillow to get hold of his mobile. He wanted to call Anjali so that she could help him out. Suddenly, he felt something creepy crawly on his hand. He turned around and could not help but shriek like a girl as a cockroach climbed his hand. He shook it away and pushed the pillow onto its side. There are cockroaches under the pillow too! With fear and dread he lifted the bedsheet which was kept folded at the end of the bed. There were some cockroaches there! All cockroaches were relieved to be out in the open and all started moving around. Chacha let out another scream and scrambled off the bed. He did not know where to go. There were cockroaches everywhere. He saw the chair near the window and ran towards it. He climbed it up and heaved a sigh of relief. He was safe!
Arnav looked at Maan, "Next plan of action ready?"
Maan nodded, "Ready!"
Arnav looked at everyone, "Ok! Guys! Remember! The moment Chacha runs out of the room to the backyard, we have to scramble to the room next to his room!" As the marbles was only in half of the pathway, the one which was from staircase to Chacha's room, the others half of the pathway was clear. And the room Arnav was mentioning was in the other half.
All nodded and waited for the sound of Chacha walking away.
Chacha was taking deep breaths trying to calm himself when his eyes fell on something outside the window. Right below his window was a bucket filled with... Ee gobar hai ka? Chacha squinted. Arre haan! Ee toh gobar hai! Aur gobar ma kachchu toh hai! Ee ka... HUMAAR KAPDE? His eyes widened and he jumped off the chair. Hopping around all the cockroaches, the Chacha ran out of the room. HUMAAR KAPDE! Usmein kachchu toh mehenge bhi the! HUMAAR KAPDE! Remembering the marbles, he ran towards the other end of the pathway and using the crisscrossing pathways he reached the backyard.
Hearing the pitter patter of Chacha running, all scrambled out of the room and ran to the other room which was right beside Chacha's room. They opened the window of the room and looked carefully. The window beside them had gobar underneath it filled with Chacha's cloth. They all looked at the bucket kept in the room. Arnav had asked Maan to get wet mud filled bucket placed in this room. All of them looked back out of the window and there came Chacha running while shouting about HUMAAR KAPDE!
The boys hefted the heavy bucket and the moment Chacha crossed underneath them; they poured all the liquid mud all over him. All pulled away from the window just as the Chacha shrieked and started shouting.
"Bas bahut hogaya! Hum ee ghar ma na rahenge! Ee bachche bade badmaash hai! Humka ijjat naahi karat! Naahi rahenge! Jis ghar mein humaar ijjat na hai hum uu ghar ma naahi rahenge!" Anjali, Naani, Daadi, Maama Maami, Amma, Buaji, Shyam, NT and NK, all chatting in the hall, looked with wide eyes as a mud covered Chacha stormed into the house mumbling about leaving the house. When he saw them he shouted, "HUM JAA RAHE HAIN! HUM US GHAR MA NAAHI RAHENGE JIS GHAR MA HUMAAR IJJAT NAAHI!" He stormed off to his room and except Anjali, all sitting around were trying to stop their laughter from coming out. Finally Maamiji lost her control and started laughing followed by NK and Shyam. Soon rest of them followed suit. Anjali huffed at them and walked after Chacha.
As she reached the top of the staircase she heard Chacha shout and she walked to the pathway of his room only to find Chacha sprawled on the floor surrounded by marbles while standing by a nearby room, Arnav, Maan, Dev, Arjun, Aakash waved at her while smiling widely. Standing beside them, Geet and Annie smiled sheepishly. Lavanya looked away unable to stop smiling while Paayal and Khushi looked down scared of Anjali's scoldings. Anjali narrowed her eyes in anger at all of them.
After fifteen minutes, Anjali followed a fuming Chacha trying to stop him from leaving the house while the said Chacha refused and continued to storm away. When he turned at the threshold to send a final glare at everyone in the room, Arnav waved him goodbye while smiling widely.
Once he was gone, Anjali turned around and stormed over to Arnav and his gang of mischief.
"Chote! Yeh sab kya tha?"
"What Di? What are you talking about?"
"Baniye mat! Hum aapke rag rag se waaqif hain! Aap kya kar sakte hain aur kya nahi, humein sab pata hai! Aur aaj aapne jo kiya woh galat tha!"
"Achcha? Toh itne saal pehle unhonein jo kiya woh sahi tha?"
"Lekin unhonein jo bhi kiya ho, hum kaun hote hain unhein sazaa dene waale? Devi Ma hai! Woh sab dekh rahi hai! Tumhein kya lagta hai? Kyun Chachaji ko koi bachche nahi hai? Yeh Devi Ma ki sazaa hai! Unke koi bachche nahi hain isliye woh yahaan aaye the, unke bhai ke bachchon ki shaadi dekhne ke liye!"
"I don't believe it Di! I refuse to believe that that idiotic man could change! He was selfish and greedy and he will remain selfish and greedy. And by the way, weren't you the one who taught me that Devi Ma usi ki madat karti hain jo khud ki madat karta hai? So today I helped me and my family! What did I do wrong?"
Geet butted in before the argument could get out of the hand, "AD! Yeh sab chodiye! Jo hogaya so hogaya! Ab humein gaye hue kal ki nahi aane waale kal ke baare mein sochna chaahiye! Aur kuch din mein aapke bhaiyon ki shaadi hai, uske baare mein sochiye! Please iss incident ko bhool jaayiye! Please!"
Listening to Geet's pleas Anjali huffed and forgave her brother. Geet happily hugged Anjali and Arnav followed and hugged Anjali. Anjali pinched Arnav's ears till he shrieked and then hugged him tightly. Once she pulled away, Anjali walked over to Maan and smiled at him, "Boliye Maan Saab! Denge apni behno ko humaare Chote aur Chutke ke liye?"
Maan smiled and nodded at her. A cheer rang around as everyone went back to being excited about the wedding. Arnav smiled sadly. Apne hi paao pe kuraadi maarna koi mujhse seekhe! Khud hi apne haathon se Khushi ko paas laane ke chance ko tukhra diya! Koi baat nahi! Atleast uss aadmi ka saaya toh iss ghar se gaya!
SMALL NOTE
I thought I should explain to you guys the timeline as this Day 3 has been going on from Chapter 69.
So here it is!
Chapter 69. The Morning After Antakshari : Happened around 7 to 8 in the morning
Chapter 70 (A). The Lucknow Outing Part I : Anjali came asking for help around 9.
Chapter 70 (A). The Lucknow Outing Part I : The driver scene happened around 10.
Chapter 70 (B). The Lucknow Outing Part II : They went out at 10.
Chapter 70 (B). The Lucknow Outing Part II : They had Lassi at 12.
Chapter 70 (B). The Lucknow Outing Part II : The danga ended around 1:30 and they reached home around 2.
Chapter 72 (A). Lets Call The Wedding Off : Happened around 2 to 3.
Chapter 72 (B). Lets Get the Magarmach Out of the House: Happened around 3 to 4.
Chapter 72 (C). Lets Play Home Alone : Happened around 4 to 5.
Phew! Next chapter will happen in the evening of the same Day 3.
PRECAP
Why should I type it down when I have got banners and VMs to do the job!
Check out the banner and VM below and get a clue on what is next!
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bMN8A_GNl4[/YOUTUBE]
Thank you, take care and have fun,
Kalpana
Edited by Kalpana_Writer - 11 years ago
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