Arhi SS: Tewari & Sons, No. 23, Chandni Chowk (THREAD I) - Page 20

Ever since Khushi started going to New Horizons school, she had turned into a Hindu God. No, it was not that she gained a bunch of adoring followers, just that the masses had a thousand and one names for her. 

Of course, names were not new to her. The very first name that was given to her came from Baba when he started calling her Champion, a name given to her when at the age of six, she outran Shyam Bhaiya who was on a cycle to give him his tiffin dabba that he had left behind at home. This is how Baba became the first person to realise that Khushi could run faster than most children her age. One morning rather purposefully Baba had picked up Khushi when Ma was combing her hair, made her sit behind on a bike he had borrowed from Pandey Kaka and taken her to the nearby Madina playground and made Khushi run. And she ran. Tez, aur tez, Baba had egged her on. Though Baba had a wristwatch that was not particularly sophisticated, even he could tell that his daughter had a special athletic talent, something that he was both proud of and constantly encouraged her to pursue. However, this remained a bone of contention between Baba and Maa, who felt that "bachein toh kuch dhang ka karein" And yet, each time Khushi didn't do well in a race, it was Maa who used to be be upset for days. 

Another name given to her was Ziddi Ped, this was courtesy Madhumati Bua, for what she felt was an unreasonably stubborn streak found in her niece. This was not altogether wrong, Khushi knew well enough to hold on her ground when the situation arose. Even if the opposition came in the form of the fierce Madhumati Dubey. Especially if Madhumati Dubey were the opposition.

But in the eighteen months that she had now been at New-Ons she had been given eighteen names. Baig Sir insisted on calling her Gupta. Gupta! He would say in his most strong, military commander voice, which immediately made Khushi nervous. Being referred to as Gupta somehow made her feel that she was responsible for more than just one person. It was as if she was representing every Gupta out there. Aakash christened her Shakuntala Devi, after the genius mathematician because of her ability to be able to deal with complex numbers in her head. After a while, because Shakuntala Devi was a mouthful, she just became Devi, a name that caught on among the New-On-Ites. There were other names too. Divyesh used to call her Headlight Walli Deer because of her constant stunned expression in her early days at New-Ons. Karthik called her Chandni, a name that she quite liked for herself. Payal upgraded her from behenji to mataji. Perhaps it was not an upgrade, Khushi was not too sure for the reason behind this. She was also called Gharelu Nuske, Halwai, Jalebi Bai, PT Usha, among others. 

However, the most annoying name that was given to her was courtesy Aman Sabharwal, her desk neighbour and nemesis. The offending name was Dhanno, the famous horse who was the custodian of Basanti's izzat in the cult classic film Sholay. Because Khushi was an athlete, who ran, just like Dhanno, in Aman's book, that was a brilliant name. Sometimes when Khushi would be on the playground running, Aman would show up and cheer her on, Bhaag Dhanno, ab New-Ons ki izzat tumhaare haaton mein hain. It was probably harmless, yet it annoyed Khushi. Aakash, the person she turned to for advice on how to handle her run-ins with various New-On-Ites gave her the same advice each time, if you ignore them, they will go away. And that is what Khushi did. Or at least tried to.

**

When in the start of school year, the teachers had done the grand reshuffling of Class X D, Khushi had been horrified to discover that she would need to sit next to Aman Sabharwal, Chairman of the New-Ons brat pack. Veena told her that the reshuffling happened after a meeting that involved all the teachers and they took care to spread the thirty six students in the class appropriately. It was not some freak statistical probability that had got her and Aman together, but because someone had designed for this to happen.

"Oh you mean that they put two completely different people together? So that they don't talk to each other?" Khushi had asked Veena during their first day back in school after the break.

"What are we? Five? No, they put the bright kids next to the not so bright ones," Veena had said in her confident all-knowing way.

"Really? Why would they do that?" Khushi said and now she had a new problem to grapple with, between her and Aman who was the dumb one?

"So that the good student can influence the average one and begin to do better," Veena said,who now had to sit with Divyesh and there was no doubt that in that equation she was the smart one.

"What if the dumb one makes the smart one also dumb," Khushi was not sure if she had said that out loud. But she did wonder of this learning via osmosis theory going horribly wrong.

So there she was, next to Aman in class.

"Hey, Dhanno!" Aman had said as he sat next to her on the first day.

"Hi Lantern walle Ramlal!" Khushi said to him in her sweetest tone.

As soon as Khushi said that, she realised that she had made a tactical error.  hadn't Aaaksh schooled her enough times, about how ignoring a New-On-Ite was sometimes the best policy. Khushi had made a common, rookie mistake and she and Aman never recovered from this.

Aman and Khushi sat on the first row, right under the nose of every teacher and therefore under constant scrutiny. In this context it was very important to maintain a stoic and well-behaved facade. But this was impossible with Aman next to her, who sent her little notes with weird drawings that she did not exactly understand to her. One time he sent her notes with dialogues of Sholay, Kitne Aadmi the, Dhanno. Shankar Sir, their maths teacher grabbed the note and sent them both out of the class for being a nuisance'. As Khushi stood outside the classroom along with Aman, she was livid. Never had she felt this embarrassed. 

"Look what have you done," she said in an accusing tone.

"You are welcome," is all that he said.

"If they had to give me a dumb classmate, why not anyone else," Khushi had muttered under her breath.

"If they had to give me a girl, why not a human girl instead of a horse," Aman said to her.

Their fight went on unabated. Lavanya called it Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Aman, If they were in a movie, the Chandni Chowk girl and the rich, fat Punjabi boy would have fallen in love with each other. But they were not in a movie and Aman Sabharwal had not one kilogram more of fat on him than was medically or aesthetically acceptable. 

Aman was an expert in practical pranks and often pulled the most silliest of stunts, all of which led to a whole lot of trouble for Khushi. He would sometimes hide her assignment notebooks when a submission was due. He would switch solutions during their Chemistry lab practicals time. One time he switched Barium Chloride with Sodium Sulphate and things went just a little awry and got her the first red mark in her Chemistry notebook. He would switch her gym bag with another student's and cause her to get late for practise. Baig Sir who had always thought of Khushi as a committed and focussed athlete, now reevaluated his opinion of her. He constantly made fun of her accent, her appearance, mocked her when she would ask the teacher questions and basically let go of no opportunity to rag her. Unsurprisingly, her grades dropped in class and her focus dropped in sports. During the Parent-Teacher meet before their first term-break, Maa and Baba were horrified to discover that their daughter was on every teacher's problem list.

"Champion, isliye toh nahi bade school mein tujhe bheja tha?" A disappointed Baba had told Khushi. Maa just went completely silent. That was her way of expressing disappointment. Less words meant more anger.

So, basically Aman Sabharwal was destroying Khushi's life at New-Ons and sabotaging her future. And there was little she could do other than to stay ahead of him in his never-ending quest for practical jokes. And of course react as little in the hope that she should exhaust him some day.

If it was not enough that he harassed her at school, he even managed to get the phone number of Gupta Mithai and annoy her. Baba and Maa were surprised that anyone from New-Ons even called her, especially a boy. They didn't say anything, but Khushi knew that they listened very attentively to her side of the conversation. So Khushi had to be polite to him when he called.

"Dhanno, kya kar rahi hai?" he would ask

Unfortunately Dhanno had to politely explain what she was doing.

"Tu na telephone mein achi hain, live telecast mein nahin." he would laugh and hang up.

"Maybe he has a secret crush on you," Lavanya told Khushi once when she complained about how the guy was driving her nuts. Khushi had rolled her eyes then because that was Lavanya's assessment of all situations. If two people didn't get along well, they must have romantic feelings for each other. If two people got along too well, of course they had romantic feelings for each other.  Lavanya was back to being reasonably friendly with Khushi after her outburst from earlier in the year. The thawing process was a result of Aakash's goading and the fact that Khushi returned medal-less at the National Athletics Meet.

**

The National Athletics Meet had been a strange experience for Khushi. The event was jinxed. Khushi should have seen it coming when the event was rescheduled not once, not twice, but three times over. First from August to September, then to October and finally to November. There were just two New-On-Ites who were part of the event, Arnav and herself, both of whom left for Hyderabad on a Thursday evening with Baig Sir. Khushi was competing in three events and Arnav in two. 

Baba dropped Khushi off at school and she reached the railway station along with Baig Sir. All three of them had seats in different places, but Baig Sir made a rather sullen Arnav sit next to Khushi to look out for her and he himself went to the next coach. Ever since their last not so pleasant encounter, they had religiously avoided each other. Which had been difficult because Aman and Arnav were best buddies.  In fact, Arnav was the only person who could neutralise Aman, when not even the New-Ons teachers could. Sometimes, Aman would come to the gym when she and Arnav were practising. Khushi whose Aman-radar was exemplary would immediately throw a dirty look his way.

"Excite mat ho, Dhanno, tujhse milne nahin aaya hoon," he would say as he walked towards Arnav would shake his head. On occasion when he would admonish Aman saying, "Stop tripping, Khushi," Aman would actually throw a sorry her way. Khushi wished that Arnav was around her often, because then Aman would just be nicer to her. But Arnav sat three rows away from them in class and since Khushi never visited the school cafeteria she never saw him beyond class hours.

The train was crowded and there were more number of passengers than seats. Arnav and Khushi were sitting on a lower, each placing their huge gym bags in between. This not only marked territory between them, it also discouraged other passengers from swooping in and taking over their berths. Neither of them even made an attempt to have a conversation and after about five minutes, Arnav pulled out a book - Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Khushi had to watch him read it. Because it was either that or watch a few college students, her leery co-passengers, one of whom could not stop staring at her. Khushi felt conscious and pulled her jacket more snugly around her, though she could hear the the boys snigger, she ignored. She wondered if she should engage Arnav in some conversation, so that the boys knew thats she was not alone. But Arnav had his nose buried in the book and didn't look up even once. If Khushi had read any of the Harry Potter books it could have been an obvious conversation opener, but she had no idea even what the books were about, so that was off the table. One time Aakash and tried to explain the plot to her but Khushi just did not get it. Maybe she should speak to him about the event, how confident he was, like a bond between athletes or something. Or maybe they could talk about classes they were missing. They could talk about future plans, something that a lot of New-On-Ites spent their time discussing. Khushi was sure he wanted to take the Commerce group and study Economics, that is what all the fancy kids in school did. There were many things that they could talk about, but unfortunately, nothing was happening. And Khushi reconciled to this and decided to shut her eyes. 

She must have barely shut her eyes for two minutes when she heard a tune coming from somewhere close. It turned out to be a cellphone ring, that belonged to Arnav. New-Ons had a strict no phones in school policy, thought most of the students owned one, which they switched on right after the classes to summon their drivers. After what seemed like the longest time, one in which Khushi wanted to shake up Arnav to pick up the phone, he deigned to. And though she didn't mean to, but she ended up hearing Arnav's side of very monosyllabic conversation.

*grunt*

Ya, mom.

No, mom.

Please, mom.

*grunt*

A minute into the conversation, something changed and he sounded more interested. Even smiled into the phone.

Thanks, Di.

So he was talking to Anjali Di. Khushi kind of liked her, though she had met her just once.

Nope, there is a girl.

Some girl.

Khushi

Very funny, Di.

And after something along those lines, he hung up. Once he hung up, he looked at Khushi, who was staring at him and now that she was caught in the act, it was too late to look away.  Arnav tilted his head, offered her a lopsided smile and said, "Anjali Di, my sister, you remember her?" he continued even as Khushi nodded her head, "She asked me to say all the best to you."

"Oh!" Khushi said, while Arnav raised an eyebrow as if to say, is that all? Of course, Khushi was always thrown by New-On-Ites when they threw random acts of kindness her way. Especially when it was Arnav.

"I mean, thank you. I mean, thank her," Khushi finally managed rather coherently, "Did your sister study at New-Ons too? But she is very nice."

This seemed to amuse Arnav as he said, "Yes, she did. There are lots of nice people who studied and study at New-Ons. Not everyone is like me."

"I didn't say that. Or mean that. I like everyone in New-Ons," she said somewhat extravagantly.

Arnav just gave her a disbelieving look in return.

"I mean, except Aman. I know he is your friend, but he troubles me way too much," Khushi said and wondered why was she babbling nonsense.

Arnav was about to say something to her when one of the college kids got up and in the guise of taking down a bag, grazed her chest and lingered. 

That was too much for Khushi. She could take down these boys, she thought and was all but about to get up from the seat when Arnav said, "Do you want to go and sit on the upper berth. This place is full, almost like an unreserved compartment. If you are comfortable that is."

Khushi was disappointed that Arnav did not heroically beat up the college boys to protect her chastity and instead was suggesting the cowards way out. But that was the practical solution and she got up on the top berth, away from accidental gropers.

Once Khushi was seated safely on the top berth, Arnav asked if she wanted any of her bags. She pointed at her food bag and Arnav handed it over to her and climbed on top too. This time he put his book away and was clearly in a mood to talk to her. This was both exciting and terrifying for Khushi.

"Do you think we should go and check on Baig Sir," Khushi said, suddenly remembering their coach, who had abandoned them.

"No. He is probably sleeping and doesn't want us anywhere near. He always books seats in a different coach deliberately, but says he didn't get tickets together," Arnav said grinning.

Khushi did not like this new piece of information. Of course she understood that it is probably not much fun for Baig Sir to chaperone annoying teens, but still that was part of his job. How could he just leave Khushi and Arnav alone at the mercy of rowdy fellow passengers. That was just plain irresponsible of him.

"No need to look so disapproving, Gupta," Arnav said in an amused tone, clearly Khushi's face mirroring her thoughts.

"But.." Khushi began and then decided not to say anything on the subject, because given her history with Arnav she didn't want him to think that she was uncomfortable with him, "I am hungry."

"Oh! Yes, me too," Arnav said, looking at his watch, "We can order something the next time someone from the pantry car comes in."

"I have got food from home. Maa packed for all of us. But.." Khushi trailed off, she was not sure Arnav wanted to share her dabba.

"But? You are so greedy that you won't share?" Arnav asked.

This friendly Arnav was disconcerting. She was used to an indifferent one reading a book or a sullen one throwing a pout in her direction, but not this almost comfortable banter.

"No. I mean, I don't think you will like my dabba khaana," Khushi offered her not particularly stellar explanation.

"Why? Is there pata gobi? Pata gobi is vile. Else everything else is okay."

"No. It is daal parathas and achaar," Khushi opened her dabba and tentatively offered it to Arnav. He took it from her and started eating right-away.  And Khushi could see that he loved it. Of course, Maa's food was the best and it would take a special kind of dead taste-buds if you didn't like it. And that is how, in a train did Arnav and Khushi break bread together for the very first time.

Once they were done eating and washing their hands, they were back on the top berth. The Ticket Checker was nowhere in sight and it looked like they would never get back their rightful berths. Though Khushi was still annoyed with Baig Sir, she found herself feel more forgiving towards him because of her transient moment of kinship with Arnav.

"That was very delicious, Khushi. Thank you." Arnav had said and went back to his book. A happy Khushi had fallen asleep on the weird smelling railways given pillow soon after. She woke up some hours later when her pillow fell down. The coach was dark and the rowdy co-passengers were asleep by then, but Khushi didn't want to climb down  to fetch her pillow. Arnav had fallen asleep sitting on the edge of his seat, his feet dangling, he looked rather uncomfortable.His book was lying  next to him and Khushi picked it up, realised it was fat enough to be a pillow and fell asleep on it. Many hours later, a rather commanding voice called out Gupta! Raizada! Get down, we have reached!' Khushi woke up with a start and was slightly embarrassed when she realised that Baig Sir must have found it strange to see his wards up on the top berth. She jumped down from the berth, putting way too much pressure on her knee. Arnav seemed unperturbed and thankfully did not follow Khushi's stunt.

By the time they reached the Championship Village, Khushi's legs were hurting very bad. A flustered Baig Sir went to look for a physician while Arnav went to sign them up to get their participation kits. It took a good half an hour before Baig Sir could locate a physician, who didn't need an X-Ray to know that Khushi would not be able to compete in the events. Baig Sir was disappointed, but he tried to say a few encouraging words to her, "Ho jata hai, Gupta. Room mein aaaram karna." When Arnav returned he found a rather forlorn Khushi, barely able to contain her tears. He handed Baig Sir the keys to his room and told him that he would accompany Khushi to hers. Khushi was determined not to cry, at least not in front of Arnav and Baig Sir. Arnav placed Khushi arms on his shoulder and held Khushi's hand  walking her towards her room. The walk towards the girls hostel was a long one and as they walked, all the other girls looked at her and Arnav curiously. She finally reached her room, which she had to share with three other girls, none of whom who had arrived. She sat on the bed and Arnav handed over her badge and participation kit. It had become too much for Khushi by this time and she could no longer manage and burst into tears.

"Hey, it is okay. I understand this must be disappointing, but sometimes these kind of things do happen. Don't cry," Arnav said to her, he looked both concerned and alarmed about the fact that he had to deal with a crying girl. He placed his hand on her head, like a blessing as he sat down next to her. They sat for a while, until a stern looking lady, who was the warden of the hostel said, "No boys in the girls hostel."

Arnav awkwardly got up and asked her if she would be okay. She nodded and he left. Khushi placed the bottle of water and medicines on the bed and was about to go and shut the door when Arnav returned.

"Khushi, keep my phone with you. I will call you from the phone booth at the venue to check on you."

"No, no. That is okay. I don't know how this works."

"When the phone rings, just press the green. If you want to end a call then press the red button."

And before Khushi could protest anymore, he left.

Once Arnav left, Khushi started crying all over again. This was supposed to be her big opportunity to do something that she was good at. To prove to others at New-Ons, Maa and Baba that she in fact had talent. And she had blown it, all because of a freak stupidity of hers. Maybe New-Ons would ask her to leave the school if she didn't do well enough. After all, the school took her in only because they saw in Khushi a student who would potentially be a medal winner. And sometime between these melancholic thoughts is when she fell asleep. Only to be woken up with a start when the phone began to ring. A disoriented Khushi, woke up to find herself alone in a dark and unfamiliar room. It was probably  close to six in the evening, the events would be winding up and she would need to leave the city in a few hours without even having competed. It took her while for realisation to dawn that it was Arnav's phone that was ringing. He was probably calling to check on her. She picked up the phone and saw Aman's number flashing on the phone. She pressed the red button. Arnav had given the phone to her so that he could call and check on her, so he didn't expect her to answer calls on his behalf. But Aman was relentless and kept calling, Khushi cut it each time. She also didn't want to speak to Aman and explain to him why she had Arnav' phone. God knows how much teasing and ragging that would fetch her.

Today she realised that she should have picked the phone then.

**

Baba had made Khushi sit in the mithai shop while he and Maa went to look up Bua who had just undergone a surgery. Business was not so great and Khushi sat there with her books, revising for her pre-Board exams. Ever since the disaster of the Nationals Meet, Khushi began to focus on her studies, With no sporting achievements to fall back upon, she had to rely on doing well academically to retain her New-Ons spot. While the Nationals Meet had been a disaster for Khushi as an athlete, when she returned, things looked up for. Lavanya was nicer to her. Veena felt somewhat sympathetic and helped Khushi with her science lessons. Aakash was constantly spewing some inspirational words, which cheesy as they were, also happened to comfort her. Arnav, of course, went back to ignoring her, their brief friendly interaction at the Meet notwithstanding. But the best part of it all, Aman Sabharwal had disappeared. 

The first couple of days, Khushi had been too excited that Aman was absent to make much of it. But when he didn't show up for a whole week, she did wonder where he was. Lavanya and Veena had no idea, Aaaksh was vague about it citing some kind of ill-health. When another week went by and he still didn't show up, Khushi for the first time, voluntarily sought out Arnav in school.

She found him outside the class, sitting under the giant Amaltas Tree, along with Payal, both of them studying.

"Hi, Arnav."

Payal looked up,rolled her eyes dramatically and nudged Arnav who wouldn't look up.

"Arnav, how is Ram.. I mean, Aman? I heard he is not well."

"If Aman knew that Khushi Mata was missing him, he would be so kicked. Arnav, should we call and tell him?"

Arnav threw a dirty look Payal's way and his patented death-stare Khushi's way. Khushi was not sure why he was reacting the way he did and walked away, feeling silly.

Anyway, she thought as she served  a customer some pyaaz kachori and meethi chutney, she was done trying to make sense of New-On-Ites. Just as she was about to go back to her books, the phone rang. Khushi picked up the phone cautiously. It was probably Baba from Bua's house, calling to check on her.

"Khushi se baat karni hai," an unfamiliar voice said.

"Ji. Hum Khushi bol rahe hain."

"Chatarpur Police Station se Inspector Ravinder Singh bol raha hoon. Apna pata confirm kariye."

"Ji. Kiss baarein mein," a nervous and baffled Khushi asked, but confirmed the address that the inspector read to her.

"Wahain par rehna," he sternly admonished.

A nervous Khushi paced up and down the store. Why did an inspector want to speak with her? What had happened? Why was she getting into peculiar situations these days? Where were Baba and Maa? Should she call up Bua's house? No, that would create everyone to panic and create needless controversy. She would just wait. Perhaps it was a mistake. It had to be a mistake. Maybe it was a prank by some New-On-ite. Yes, it was probably Aman Sabharwal pranking her. It had to be the only plausible explanation.

But unfortunately, this was no prank and the inspector and his assistant arrived an hour later, it was a nervous Khushi who made them sit down at the shop. A few curious onlookers from the nearby stores now looked at them and in a while a small crowd had gathered.

"Poora naam," the senior inspector asked sternly.

"Khushi.. Khushi Kumari Gupta," she said, willing for Baba and Maa to come in quickly. How could a police officer question a minor without the presence of any adult around. And sure enough Baba and Maa arrived just then, shocked at the commotion and crowd.

"Kya hua, Champion," Baba asked and Khushi ran to him and explained as quickly and coherently as she could.

"Kuch galti ho gaya hain kya bitiya se," Baba asked the senior officer who had identified himself as Inspector Singh.

"Ghabrana mat. Bas school ke ek ladke ke baarein mein sawaal karna tha?" the Inspector said, not unkindly.

"Kaun sa.. ladka?" Khushi asked, now completely confused about what was happening.

"Aman Sabharwal. Suicide attempt kiya na usne?" Inspector Singh told a shocked Khushi.

"Suicide? Matlab khudkushi?" Baba asked the Inspector while mom placed her hand on her mouth in shock. Aman Sabharwal was the only one among Khushi's classmates that her parents knew because of his occasional phone calls.

"Haan. Thekeh hain ab. Lekin suicide attempt hain toh poochtaach to karna padega. Wiase bhi high profile walla maamla hai, toh sab ache se check karna hai," Inspector Singh said.

This was all too much. The worst Khushi had wished Aman was that a bird poop on him or that he fall ill that will keep him off school for a week, but this was all too much. This also explained why Arnav did not want to talk to her about Aman.

"Khushi, woh tumhaare saath baithta tha, na? Usne kabhi tumse kuch kaha ki usse koyi depression hain?

"Nahin. Hum utne ache dost nahin the."

Inspector Singh hesitated and  looked at a worried Khushi and her parents, then kindly suggested that they go inside their home to continue the questioning. Maa and Baba gratefully took him inside, not wanting their lives to become a fodder for Chandni Chowk gossip.

"Haan, jaanta hoon. Arnav Raizada aur Payal Samir Singh ne tumhaara baarein mein bataya. Kahan ki tum dono ki banti nahin thi," her parents looked uncomfortable at the last part fo Inspector Singh's assessment.

"Is bacheein ki is ladke ke khudkushi se kya vaasta," Baba wanted to know.

"Suicide kanooni jurm hain, toh pata karna padta hain," Inspector Singh told her parents.

The interrogation lasted for a hour and and a half and Khushi could scarce believe that Aman had done something like this. Now that she thought about it, all his constant stunts and practical jokes made sense. It was his cover up for some deep-seated anxiety that he had. Khushi felt just a little ashamed of herself. Perhaps if she had been more of a friend to him, this might have been different. All of this was after all a call for help. As Inspector Singh questioned her, the pieces of the incident began to fall in place. Aman's suicide attempt happened when she was away at the National Meet, the time when he was desperately trying to reach Arnav. Though, Khushi had no way of knowing this, she felt incredibly guilty about it. If only she had picked up the phone then. 

But why had Aman Sabharwal, the boy with an almost perfect life attempt to take his life, was the question. He was rich, smart, popular, good-looking. A lot of students felt too pressurised in school especially around the time when they had to appear for public examinations. Suicide attempts are not uncommon, but it was still hard to see why someone who was as happy-go-lucky as Aman would do that. And the police were trying to find the reason for it and had questioned his close friends according to his family - Payal, Divyesh, Lavanya, Aakash and Arnav. All of them had apparently mentioned about Aman's troubles with adjusting with Khushi. But it was Arnav who seriously suggested that it was probably having to spend so much time with someone so unlike him and who had a serious dislike towards him that made Aman share a difficult relationship with her. 

When Inspector Singh finally left, Khushi had burst into tears, while Baba consoled her and Maa left home saying she needed to go to temple and pray for the full recovery of the boy. Khushi clammed up for the next couple of days, alternating between crying and sleeping. She didn't go to school for two days and her parents did not make her. However, after two days of wallowing, her sadness turned into anger towards all her classmates who had in some ways made her seem responsible for all that had happened.

So when Khushi went back to school the next day, she was determined to confront all of them, especially Arnav. Lavanya and Aaasksh were apologetic. Divyesh ran away after her rant. Payal said that it was only a joke when she said to the inspector that, "Khushi ki wajah se khudkhushi" But Payal agreed that her joke was in bad taste. However, when Khushi confronted Arnav, he turned it around and said, "Aman called seven times that day, if you had spoken, this wouldn't have happened. He was miserable at home and you made his time in school miserable too."

Khushi had walked away then, because there was nothing else to do. Especially since she had somehow been held responsible for another human losing his will to live. 

It was one thing to not like her accent, or the oil in her hair or her face or her personality, but this, it was something else. 

**

The next few weeks New-Ons was abuzz with theories on the Aman Sabharwal episode. There were all kinds of theories, and a number of them involved Khushi. How Khushi had turned down his affections and hence the drastic step, was the most bizarre of the lot. However, Khushi focussed on her studies and she was glad that they would break for study holidays in a couple of weeks and she could be away from New-On-Ites drama.

**

During her study holidays, Times of Delhi ran a salacious piece on the Aman Sabharwal case. Turns out that Aman had been clinically depressed for more than a year and his parents marriage was a difficult one. The report also said that Aman's maternal grandparents who lived in London had guardianship of him and they would take him to UK after his Board Exams.

**

Her Board Exam centre was Laxman Public School at Defence Colony. Baba dropped her off on Pandey Kaka's bike every day and picked her up after the exams. Khushi did not speak to anyone before or after each exam because it was too much pressure to. This had helped her and she had done the first five exams rather well. 

Finally, it was her last exam, Social Studies and Khushi did some last minute cramming of Civics as Baba drove her to the centre.  When she got off from the bike, a familiar voice called  to her.

"Dhanno!"

Khushi turned towards the voice and saw that it was Aman. He looked fine, happy, the usual mischievous smile on his face.

"Exam ke baad, hum sab Nirulas jayenge. Tu aayegi na?" Aman asked, in casual tones, giving no hint of his recent digression.

"Woh main.."

"Chale jaana, Champion," Baba said to her and handed over a hundred rupee bill to her.

"Par.." Khushi began.

"Bhaav mat kha, Dhanno, Hot Chocolate Fudge khaate hain," Aman said and grabbed Khushi's hand, leading her to the examination hall.

**

When she returned back to New-Ons in the Summer of 2003, everything had changed. Aman had moved to London. Lavanya and Payal oped for Humanities. Arnav chose Commerce. Aakash, Veena and Karthik opted for Science with Computer Science. And Khushi opted for Science with Biology because of Maa's lifelong ambition to see one of her children become doctors. 

However, two years later, much to Maa's disappointment Khushi did not make it through any medical entrance examination and through her fantastic performance in the various tournaments in 2003-04 and with half decent marks, made it through the prestigious BSc Mathematics (Honours) programme at Alchemy College, in Delhi University's North Campus.

There were a handful of New-On-Ites who were in the same college, but in other courses. There was also Arnav Singh Raizada, who was enrolled into Alchemy College's BA Economics (Honours) programme. 

Khushi had not spoken to Arnav in years. In fact, she still had his copy of the Harry Potter book which she used as a pillow. She had meant to return it to him, but had not.

**

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