Chapter 1: Bhooli Dastaan
"I don't believe she did not recognise me," Arnav said, probably only for the tenth time that evening, as he settled down on the couch, holding a peculiar looking drink that Payal offered him.
They were at Payal's tastefully done up apartment in Gulmohar Park. Payal divided her time between Paris and Delhi. She worked as an independent designer and occasionally teamed up with Raizada Designs on an assignment that caught her fancy. Over the last few years, Payal and Arnav had considered her teaming up full-time with Raizada Designs, but every time they had decided against it. Both of them felt that couples working together would be counter-productive and it was also likely to impact their personal relationship. Payal was doing very well for herself and while she didn't articulate this aloud, it was wonderful being her own boss. She was going to marry Arnav, but knew that he was not the easiest of people to work with. Arnav too felt that Payal did not share the Raizada design aesthetic and it would not be a very fulfilling professional association.
In January they were to launch a new design line, Kalpavriksha and Payal was helping Raizada Designs. Things were hectic at the moment, with just a little over a month and a half available to them to complete their work. The wedding date had been set for March, so that they would have time after the launch to prepare for it. While they had planned a small and intimate wedding, on last count the guest-list had hundred and twenty people. The list needed pruning, but that was for another day. Today they were going over designs for Kalpavriksha. NK was supposed to join them, but as usual was not around. After their detour to Tewari & Sons, which had left both Arnav and Payal a little weirded out, NK had decided to head to the office to get some paperwork sorted. He was supposed to have come to Payal's house to look up some designs for the new line. Payal had a working studio in her apartment itself. But since NK didn't show up, Arnav and Payal went ahead without him. They had some soup for dinner, Payal still feeling too heavy after the paneer paranthas, lassi and jalebis of Tewari & Sons. Arnav himself had barely eaten after running into Khushi.
**
"I am sorry, but who are you?"
"Didi, aap ka mobile phone baj raha hain, lekar aaon kya?" The little boy, who was probably a shop assistant or Khushi's family interrupted them.
"Nahin, main office hi jaa rah thi," Khushi nodded at Arnav and Payal and disappeared to the corner of the restaurant, where a spiral staircase took her to the office upstairs.
"Wow, this is unreal," Payal had exclaimed, as they walked towards NK who looked liked he had sampled every dish on the menu.
"What is unreal," he asked, as he dived into moong daal cheelas, that was the Special of the Day'.
Payal narrated to NK about running into Khushi and how she refused to recognise them.
"That girl always had a complex about herself. It is sad that she is still not over it after all these years," Payal said as she waded through the menu.
Payal, of course was wrong, Arnav thought. But he didn't voice it, because for one, he didn't want to create a scene, but more importantly because he was still trying to wrap his head around what had transpired a few minutes ago. It was weird that just this morning, when Payal had said that they would be going to Chandni Chowk to pick up some stuff she needed, his first thought was about her - Khushi. Though Chandni Chowk was one of the most densely populated parts of the city, he certainly didn't want to run into her of all people. No, it would be uncomfortable for him and awkward for Khushi. Plus, Payal only had a vague idea of what had happened between him and Khushi, so it would have not been fitting. Yes, he and Payal were getting into a long-term commitment, but they did not feel the urge to share every little thing about their lives with each other. It was not that they intended to keep secrets from the other, but they trusted each other enough to not want to know every thought that came into their heads or details of every incident that happened in each other's lives. He had a comfortable relationship with Payal. They had known each other since they were children, their families knew each other, they worked in the same line, they were so evenly matched that it was almost boring. When three years ago they began dating, the respective families had been thrilled, but not altogether surprised. So when after two years of dating, when Payal and Arnav had announced their impending nuptials, the parental blessings came immediately.
Everything was perfect and he didn't need the idiocy of his early twenties to come back and ruin his present. Yes, he was letting himself off the hook easily, but he also believed that Payal would too. For one, Payal never did care about Khushi. Arnav had been a bit surprised at this. Of course Payal was always the type to make snap judgements and pigeon-hole people into categories. So, he was not surprised at her initial judgement. Yes, she could be snooty about her wealth and connections. She was raised that way. Always indulged by her parents Samir Singh and Archana Singh. Her every whim catered to, her every mistake overlooked. Samir Singh, was a key member of the Indian National Party, currently in opposition. Opinion polls suggested that the party was likely to come into power in 2015 and Samir Singh a key member of the strategic group, was likely to get an important ministerial berth.
It wasn't therefore surprising that Payal had a sense of entitlement. Every single person who went to New-Ons with him was an entitled idiot. He too was, especially him. Just that he and the others either unlearned the same over the years or figured a way to mask it. But not Payal. She remained the same. And that was one of the reasons why Arnav liked to be with her. She was honest and unchanging. She didn't care for other people's opinion about her. Amidst all the fake people one often encountered, she was an open book and disarmingly straight-forward. Even if he didn't feel some grand, romantic passion for her, he loved this quality about her.
Yet, there had been times in the past that Arnav did try to make Payal see reason' about some of her altogether wrong, uncharitable opinion about others. Sometimes it worked and most of the times it didn't. Like with NK, whom Payal never cared for, he was able to make her come around and learn to develop some fondness for. NK was a couple of years younger than Arnav and lived in Mumbai. The cousins were always close but they became really good friends when NK moved to Delhi to do his under-graduation. He fell in love with the city and made it his home. Eventually they became business partners and today NK was an important part of Arnav's life. So when a year ago he had introduced NK and Payal, he had been taken aback at how much Payal disliked his cousin.
"He is so over the top and annoying, Arnav, I can't believe you not only hang-out with him but have a professional association with him! Why?" Payal had said after her first meeting with NK.
But over the months, as they met more and more often, Payal warmed up to NK. So much that, she had even agreed to hook up NK with one of her attractive Parisian friends who would be attending the wedding.
"Just don't be yourself, NK, you will do fine," Payal had told him.
NK was too good-humoured to take offence of anything that Payal said. Which is probably why, he looked rather unperturbed when a livid Payal was still shaking her head over Khushi's refusal to recognise them while they waited for their order to arrive and tried to not stare at NK who was really enjoying the fare and Tewari & Sons.
"Oh this is the Khushi that the two of you knew in High School? So she went to your school which is the Mecca for rich, spoilt kids and is now a halwai in Chandni Chowk? Now that is unreal, not the fact that she didn't recognise you guys," NK said, even as he scanned across the mithai shop to catch a glimpse of this girl.
"Oh she was one of those sports quota types. Joined New-Ons in Class IX only. She never really fitted it actually. Poor thing," Payal said, while she picked up the paranthas on her plate and let the excess ghee drip.
"So basically you snobs gave the poor girl a tough time. You Delhi wallahs," NK said shaking his head and taking on a chastising tone. Of course, NK was now as Delhi as they came, but on occasion, to tick off people, he would climb up on his Bombay high-horse and pronounce Delhiwallahs as uncultured and obnoxious folks. Arnav had learnt to not take the bait, plus he didn't feel that kind of affinity with the city, but Payal always did and inevitably the two of them would get into an unresolvable argument.
"We were all very nice to that behenji. In fact.." Payal began, but Arnav cut short her with a firm shut up.
"She may overhear. And what are we? Fourteen? Let it go. If you guys are done, we should leave," Arnav said, though he had barely touched his food.
"Oh I forgot.Arnav had a bit of a Khushi fixation back then. You know kinship among the sport-y types," Payal said in a teasing tone.
"Well clearly my fixation'," Arnav said making air-quotes, "didn't make me so memorable after all."
"Aww. Still smarting over that, are we? Why don't you go up to her office and say hello. Maybe she will recognise you and give us a discount on the bill," Payal said, clearly she was enjoying this encounter more than he was.
"Dude! This place is dirt cheap. I will come up with you. Want to see this girl who finds you both unworthy of remembering. I already like her. Is she pretty?" NK wanted to know, pushing the food on the table away from him, for even he had reached the point where he could eat no more.
"She is pretty enough," Arnav said and motioned the waiter to bring the bill.
"Pretty enough for," NK persisted.
Payal looked at the two men, amused and nodding her head said, "Pretty enough for Arnav to get hassled that she does not seem to recognise us."
"Well to be fair, you guys are old and went to school ten years ago. I wouldn't recognise too many people I went to school with. And I am younger than you guys. Plus, you guys were not even nice to her," NK said, it seemed as if, this pre-occupation with Khushi was contagious and none of them could let go of that matter.
"I haven't met Khushi for ten years, yes. But Arnav and she went to the same college and they were part of the Delhi A Triathlon team. So he hung out with her plenty actually. As recently as five.. what six years back," Payal looked at Arnav thoughtfully as she said this. She probably was wondering if there was more to Arnav and Khushi than he had ever let on.
"Maybe Arnav and Khushi were an item and he dumped her," NK forever in his quest to reduce any question or problem to a romantic one.
"Did you do that, Arnav. I promise to not get jealous of Khushi," Payal giggled as she said.
"Shut up, you two. I did not date her or dump her. We were as friendly with each other in college as we were in school. We didn't hangout with each other. Enough about her. Lets go now," he said, after placing a Rs 1000 bill on the table. They had eaten for Rs 740, but Arnav was not going to wait for the change to come.
NK got up and made a huge show of how full he was by making groaning noises and holding his belly as he did this. Some of the patrons at the other tables, mostly families looked at them disapprovingly. Arnav decided that they needed to leave immediately and briskly began to walk out. But as he reached the exit of Tewari & Sons, he turned behind once to see the spiral staircase to see if Khushi would emerge. But she did not.
When Payal and NK finally came out too, they stood in front of the shop and took in the sight and fragrances of the place around. The place was even more crowded than when it was during the entire day that they had hung around there. They were close to the famous Kinaari Bazaar, which quite literally was a place that sold things on the kinara, the 'edge' - laces, motifs and zaris to instantly give character to any piece of garment. While Arnav personally did not visit the place, Raizada Designs sourced many a "edge-piece" from here. The work was always intricate, the designs always timeless and at prices that allowed them to mark-up their finished garments satisfactorily. On any other day Arnav would have wanted to browse to see what was on offer, but not today. Today all he could think was to get out of this place as soon as he could.
The three of them walked towards the car park, each of them pre-occupied with their own thoughts.
"You know guys, I was thinking, this girl is a Gupta, right? So why is their shop called Tewari & Sons? Strange isn't it," it was NK who broke the silence, just as they reached their car.
"She probably married a Tewari and has two sons by now. Hence the name," Payal said, getting into the car.
"That explains everything. Any woman who had to birth two children is probably going to forget everything else that happened in her life until that point. Forgive her, Arnav," NK said from the backseat, where he promptly stretched himself and fell asleep before instructing Arnav to drop him off at the office.
"I am sorry, but who are you?"
**
"By the way, what is this strange drink, Payal? I can't tell," Arnav asked after cautiously taking a swig from the drink he had been handed over earlier. When after their soup dinner Payal had asked Arnav if he wanted a drink, he assumed it would be something simple like wine or scotch, but instead Payal handed him something that looked suspiciously like milk.
"Oh that is a Rum Punch. Milk, rum and some honey. Joelle's recipe, she always makes the best stuff. You remember Joelle, yes? She is my merchandiser in Paris. She makes this one.." Payal stopped mid sentence when the doorbell rang. She got up to answer it while Arnav headed to the kitchen to pour away the disgusting drink into the sink. He needed to fix himself a real drink. he deserved it, after all it had been that kind of day.
When he headed back to the living room, he saw that Payal's late evening guest was NK. Who had resurfaced after playing truant the whole evening.
"So, you finally show up now? We just picked the final twenty designs for Kalpavriksha. Payal, show it to him, will you," Arnav told Payal. While Arnav did not say this ever, but he trusted and relied on NK's judgement when it came to work. NK had an intuitiveness on what would work and what would not. He was not easily swayed by fashion-speak or new fangled things like organic fabrics and what not. He either liked it or did not. Sometimes he would not even have an explanation for why something did not work, but it was enough to make the decision for Raizada Designs. And sure enough, he liked fifteen of the Kalpavriksha designs and they decided to trash the remaining five and look at other options.
"Do you want some Rum Punch?" Payal offered him once they were through with the designs.
"Sure," NK said, "But more rum and no punch. please."
Payal shook her head and headed to kitchen to fetch a glass for NK.
"So, did you guys solve the Khushi mystery," NK demanded to know when Payal handed him his Rum Punch without the punch.
"Nope, but Arnav can't stop obsessing about it," Payal said as she sat down next to him on the couch and ruffled Arnav's hair playfully, "maybe she has honestly forgotten us."
"Oh, you mean like she has amnesia? That is possible. Maybe she had a sport-related injury and lost her memory," NK clapped his hands, somehow this Bollywood-esque twist exciting him more than necessary.
"But she still makes perfect jalebis, so she has not forgotten that," Arnav said, recalling her little show from earlier in the day.
"How do you know that she made perfect jalebis? But is it possible at all that the two of you were mistaken and she was not Khushi at all and was just a lookalike," NK continued, his Bollywood fanboy mode completely activated now.
"Perhaps. But it is too much of a coincidence that a lookalike of her is in Chandni Chowk and is a halwai. It has to be her. Let me go and fetch the school yearbook," Payal said and got up to fetch the New-Ons Yearbook of the Class of 2004. Arnav not the one to give in to nostalgia hadn't looked at the school yearbook since they passed out of it. He wasn't sure if it was even there along with all his other stuff. But evidently Payal, the ever cool and disdainful was a sucker for nostalgia.
"Oh my God! You guys are so old that when you passed out there were only black and white photographs," NK exclaimed as he flipped through the pages.
Arnav rolled his eyes. He remembered being on the editorial board of the yearbook and they had gone ahead with a black and white look to make it stylish in a pretentious sort of way. Seeing the photographs, it did make them all seem so innocent, uncomplicated, good souls. There was something about sepia-toned photographs that were able to mask that this was in fact the Brat Class of 2004.
And there she was, on Page 22 - Khushi Kumari Gupta. Each page had two write-ups. Khushi shared the page with Divyesh Thakur, the captain of New-Ons cricket team and very popular among the girls of the school. Divyesh briefly played for the Indian National Team, but didn't perform well enough to book a permanent spot. When last heard, he had defected and was the one down batsman of the Rajasthan Cricket Team. They had put Divyesh and Khushi on the same page because of the sports connection. That apart, they had little in common. Divyesh a hardcore spoilt brat, son of a senior bureaucrat who suffered from the peculiar Delhi affliction of, janta bhi hai ki mera baap kaun hai?
"She is a cutie. I should have been in school with you guys. I would never have been mean to a sweet looking girl like her," NK said as he began to read her profile. It was a nice photograph of her. A well-known fashion photographer who was the cousin of one of the students had agreed to shoot the Class of 2004 spread. Besides the candid group photographs, he also photographed each student individually. Each student's picture was shot in a part of school where they wanted to and which fitted their interest. Khushi's picture was taken at the basketball court. She sat there in the middle of the court, her hands folded, somewhat nervously and the sun shining right above her head, looking like a halo almost. She had probably been instructed to smile and the rather imperious way that she pursed her lips suggested that she did not like to be told to smile. It was indeed a very sweet photograph of Khushi and seeing it Arnav had no doubt that the girl they met earlier in the day was in fact Khushi and not some lookalike of hers.
"Khushi is an experience - you cannot describe her - you cannot classify her - most of all you cannot contain her. Wow, her write-up is poetic. Seems like only the pair of you didn't care for this cutie. She sounds fun," NK said, as he read out Khushi's write-up aloud.
"Wow! Who wrote this, Arnav? Friends were asked to write about each other. Who was Khushi's friend in school? Lavanya, right? She was such a weirdo too. You remember Lavanya Kashyap, Arnav? She was part of your sports gang. Wonder what she is upto now. Idea?" Payal asked.
Arnav shrugged. He vaguely recalled Baig Sir mentioning that Lavanya owned a Sports Talent Management Company, but he had honestly not paid too much attention. Lavanya and Khushi were very thick through school, she would probably be in touch with Khushi.
All the talk about Lavanya made NK lose interest in Khushi and he flipped the yearbook pages searching for Lavanya. And finally he found it and let out a curse.
"Holy cow! This Lavanya is cuter than Khushi even. What is wrong with you two, hating on all the cuties!"
**
"So are you going to invite anyone from New-Ons for the wedding," Aakash asked Lavanya as they drank their coffees at Kimaya Travel Cafe, the newest hangout place in the upscale Hauz Khas Village.
"I don't know man. There is Veena, Karthik and you, of course. I will obviously invite Baig Sir. I think we are good. Am I missing anyone?" Lavanya said and put down her coffee mug on the table as a group of kids, in their school uniform walked into the cafe, "These kids look ten, why are they not in school at 12 noon?"
"Haha, La, listen to yourself sounding like one of those crabby old men shouting, get off my grass. How about Divyesh Thakur? He is now a hotshot and you had a crush on him back in school didn't you?" Aakash said and pre-emptively ducking for he was sure that La's coffee might find his head.
"Ugh. I did not. Just that we were all into sports, so hung-out a bit with him. Plus, it is my wedding. Inviting even a mediocre cricketer who has at some point played for the national team will take the attention away from me. Can't have that."
"Hmm. How about Arnav. You guys were close too, weren't you?"
"Again. The Sports connection. we were okay. But I can't invite him. If I do, I will have to invite his snooty girlfriend too. No, please, no."
"Haha. Payal. She was cute. And deep down she was a sweet girl."
"Must be way too deep down."
"Hmm. How about Khushi?"
"No."
"C'mon. It is time to bury the hatchet don't you think? This has gone on for too long. It is immature and unlike you."
"Perhaps. Anyway, let her be. You tell me, what is new? Are you in India to find a bride for yourself? Is it true that you almost won yourself a Nobel Prize this year?"
"Nope. But I am in the last phase of my research where we are testing our algorithms on simulated data and on SNPs human genetic variation to reconstruct evolutionary trees."
"You are so hot when you talk dirty like that."
"Haha. You should speak to Khushi. The Lavanya I know and love wouldn't bear a grudge forever."
"Fine. I will speak to her. If only you were this relentless with other women, you wouldn't be so hopelessly single, Aakash."
**
| topics | author | replies | views | reply |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| abavi | 247 | 90680 | Mimima | |
| Rizz-ington | 30 | 4494 | PeachyPisces | |
| spvd | 635 | 41334 | ghsp2fan | |
| Koeli | 511 | 37728 | Mrunmayee02 | |
| Meerkat | 129 | 17391 | sursri |
comment:
p_commentcount