Tewari & Sons, 23, Chandni Chowk (THREAD II) - Page 92

NOTES FROM THE PAST 8

October 2006, Healthline Hospital, Green Park, New Delhi

His eyes felt so heavy, as if someone had placed a few tonnes of pebbles on them, making it impossible for him to open them. When he finally did, he surveyed the room. It was all a blur. He realised he was in a hospital room and sitting on the chair next to his bed was a person he didn't recognise. He was a  young man, with long hair and a kind face. He imagined this is what Jesus would look like. He shook his head and tried to get his vision to be less blurry.

"Who are you?"

"Oh hi Chotey, I mean Arnav.. I am Jun.. Arjoon Bose, Anjali's friend."

Ah so this was the new boyfriend. Arjoon Bose who was just referred to as The New Bengali Boy by mum and dad during dinnertime conversations was Anjali Di's current special friend. Arnav was not sure why the boyfriend was being referred to as the new Bengali boy. Not like there was an old Bengali boy, but he was quite the hot topic of conversation in the family, mostly because Di had kept him away from the family. Until today that is. Just like Anjali Di had a new business idea or a new thing that caught her fancy every few months she also had a string of young suitors, forever getting bored with one and moving on to the next. 

Normally she had a type when it came to a boyfriend. The guys usually were a project of sort for his Di, who was a Ms Fix-It. They all had some baggage, which ranged from the usual mommy issues to more bizarre ones like guys who wanted to live the life of an ascetic. Dad used to call them Anjali's waifs. She wondered what Arjoon Bose's deal was. Arnav knew little about him, except that he was a Bengali. And according to his mother, the worst kind of Bengali, the JNU-type. Except that in the case of Arjoon, at least he actually went to JNU, so it was forgivable that he was that type. His thoughts about Arjoon came to a halt when a nurse came in and said cheerily, "Aha Mr Raizada, you are finally awake. You look good as new now." He did not need to look into a mirror to know that he looked like a wreck. Looking at his phone he realised that he had been asleep for two straight days. Slowly the twelve hours prior to it came back to him.

"So what happened that you ended up so sick and dehydrated?" the nurse asked as she checked his temperature and other vitals.

What had happened was that Khushi Kumari Gupta had set him off in quest of a ring which eventually led to them missing the original train and being stranded in godforsaken Barh. Khushi was normally so calm and a person of such few words, he had been surprised to see an altogether different side of her during this trip. Most surprising was her weird adventurous streak. When they missed the train he had expected her to either freak out or be all guilty, but she seemed to find the whole thing amusing.

"This is the third time I have missed a train," she had announced, almost with a hint of pride in her voice.

"And that is a good thing because?" he had asked as they picked up their backpacks to go and meet the stationmaster to see what other trains they could hope to catch.

"It is not good. But it is not as bad as you make out. There will be so many other trains that we can catch."

"Yes. But we had reserved seats in an AC coach. Now we will have to travel in some general compartment."

"You are just spoilt. This is how the other half lives."

"Haha. You are playing that card now? The other half."

"I am not playing any card. Anyway, chodho, I am sure the stationmaster will offer some solution."

The station-master was a surprisingly helpful sort and said that they would be able to catch a train back to Delhi that night, he would even get them onto the third ac coach. Alternately there was a passenger train which would arrive in another fifteen minutes and they could take that. They would reach almost twelve hours ahead of the ac train, but would need to travel in the general compartment. Khushi had looked at him at this, the grin on her face seemed almost like she was throwing a challenge his way and that is how the two of them found themselves in the general compartment of a train.

**

Poonam Raizada was so angry. All she really wanted to do was throw something at someone. Some way to vent out her anger and frustration. But she could not do that, could she? So she smiled at everyone. She asked people about their wives, husband, children, pets. She had years of practise doing this. Practised graciousness. It came with the territory of being a business leader, the wife of a tycoon. But some days keeping this front was difficult. Like when her husband and daughter decide to embarrass her by voting against her motion in the general meeting. The Werner deal had officially now got off their hands because her husband who had been so disinterested in the business all these months had decided to use his special double vote and put an end to it. Though it was a secret ballot, she was sure that Anjali had voted against her too. While Anjali and Arnav had formally not been inducted into the Board, they had a vote each owing to the shares that they held. She was glad that Arnav was in the hospital, and had to therefore abstain from the voting. She had absolutely no doubt that he too would have voted against her.

Which reminded her, she needed to go and see him at the hospital and get a first-hand account of how he returned so ill and in such an awful state. He apparently was suffering from Dengue Fever which had left him in a terrible state. Anand had suggested that Arnav who had been a little under the weather prior to his Bihar trip had caught the virus in Delhi itself. But she would not have any of it. He was on the mend when he got pulled into this last minute trip by the Alchemy coach Dhiraj Singh. And while her son might not want his parents to somehow engineer preferential treatment towards him, but she will be damned if she was going to sit by and watch while her son was mistreated by the college.

"Ma'm, Dhiraj Sir is here. Shall I send him to your cabin," Vijay Shastri wanted to know. She nodded and headed towards her office. For once Shastri brought with him news that did not upset her. She was going to enjoy taking this coach to task.

"Ma'm, you sent for me? I immediately came. Is there some problem with the articles I sent?"

He was just a bumbling mess that she almost felt a little sympathy towards him. Did he have no inkling of what the problem was? Did he think she was going to be concerned about the article of all things. She hadn't even looked at them. Every year the student beneficiaries said the same thing and honestly she preferred it that way. She did not want anyone to get too creative or clever.

"You know Arnav Raizada is my son, right?"

"Of course, Ma'm. Is that a problem?"

She was amused by the Coach's unfortunate choice of words. Was her son a problem of hers? She sure hoped not.

"You sent him off to Patna and he is now down with dengue fever since his return. The travel arrangements were not properly done, he missed his train. Basically, he had a terrible time."

"Oh. Sorry, Ma'm. I actually didn't want to send him at all. But in the last minute I had no choice..."

"Why was a student sent off alone. Why didn't you or some other teacher accompany them. We may think they are adults, but they are children."

"But Ma'm the athletes all go for taking part in the events on their own."

"Was this an event?"

"No Ma'm. Actually you are right. It was that girl Khushi.. the other student she had created so much drama.."

"Khushi?"

"Yes. She is a Mathematics student from Alchemy. Arnav and she had gone together. I heard it was because of her that Arnav missed the train."

"Khushi? The Chandni Chowk girl?"

"Yes, Ma'm. Khushi Kumari Gupta. You probably know her,  she is one of the beneficiaries of the Amit Rai Scholarship."

"What?"

"Is there a problem, Ma'm?

Dhiraj Singh's constant refrain of if there was a problem was annoying her now and she needed to get him out of her sight immediately. She accepted his apologies and even patiently heard his home remedies for curing dengue fever and got him to leave her office. After this she pulled out a file from the bottom drawer that had the resume of every student who had been awarded this generous scholarship since they set it up fifteen years ago. And there she was, Khushi Kumari Gupta who was a Mathematics (Honours) student at Alchemy College. There were details about each of the applicant and an accompanying photograph of them. Khushi looked very solemn in the photograph, a good, straightforward sort. But she knew that was not the case. This girl was trouble for all of them. And she needed to fix this once and for all. She could scarce believe that this girl of all the people was benefitting from her generosity and tarnishing the memory of her late father. 

**

"Arnav, Arnav.. wait."

Some of the other students looked at her amused as she ran through the college corridor, almost Bollywoodesque, in what was very uncharacteristic behaviour from her. But she was seeing him back in college after a long time. She had heard from the other students she trained with that Arnav Raizada was out of action because he was down with dengue fever. She assumed that it was their stay at Barh which had done it. The place was infested with mosquitoes and to make matters worse there were flash floods that happened out of nowhere, which only proved a more hospitable environment for the mosquitoes to breed. She also thought back about how it was the search for her ring that had actually led to them missing their train and the not particularly pleasant trip back home. Somehow this seemed like something that was her fault and she decided that she ought to apologise to him.

He had turned at her calling his name and had stood there waiting for her to catch up. The closer she got she realised he had lost a lot of weight and his face looked gaunt. 

"Oh my god, you have become so.."

She stopped her sentence midway. What was she going to say? Skinny? Sick? Haggard? None of those things were the right way to describe someone with whom she barely managed to be civil. She also noticed that he looked at her warily, almost suspicious. She immediately bit her lip and wished she could backtrack. She had somehow gone ahead and assumed that their trip together to Barh had somehow thawed their strained relationship, especially once they overcame their initial hostility. In Barh, he was nice to her. Always looking out for her, eating all their meals together. He even exchanged rooms with her because the room she got was not fit for living' according to him. This happened when he came to ask her if she was coming down for dinner on the first day they were there.

"Why is your room so dark?"

"It is okay. Lets go down."

She had been nervous that he had showed up in her room. She wanted to ensure that this trip of theirs together should be sans any mishaps. 

"So how do you manage to sit in a room without light?"

"I am so tired, I will sleep quickly. Anyway there is light from the TV and the bathroom light is working."

"Thank God for that. I mean.. never mind."

"Anyway. I can switch on the bathroom light and keep the door open."

Thankfully it was too dark for her to read the expression on his face, but she had no doubt he thought that she had gone cuckoo. After dinner they found the in-charge person and complained about her room. The man merely shrugged and said, "adjust kar lo, beta." This is when Arnav decided to switch rooms with her. She had protested. 

"I don't need any favours from you."

"Good. Because I have none to give."

"Then why must you exchange your room from me? You think I can't stay in a dark room because I am a girl?"

"Did I say that?"

"No. But I know the way you think."

He only offered a raised eyebrow in return. She immediately felt petty and silly. It was a nice gesture and she should just accept it graciously and so she had agreed to the room exchange. And his room had two tubelights, a bigger TV and mosquito net to sleep under. When she saw this she had said, "Oh my room does not have a mosquito net.. What will you do?"

"I anyway find mosquito nets claustrophobic. Don't worry, I will be fine."

But he was not fine after all. It was her fault. Again.

"So I have become so.. what?"

"Arnav, I am sorry."

"For what, Khushi?"

"I mean. I heard you had dengue fever because of me?"

"I see. So you are a mosquito?"

"What? No. I mean. Your room, my room didn't have a mosquito net so that is why you probably got dengue."

"It is not your fault, Khushi. Besides I am fine now, so stop worrying. Anyway what were you going to say? I have become so.."

"Nothing."

"I bet it was something mean." 

She was unable to think of an appropriate response to this. And even as she did, he did a mock curtsy, smiled at her and went away to his arts wing.

**

It was mid-November, but Delhi was particularly warm that year, with winters seeming far, far away. Arnav returned home, almost sweaty from his training session. As soon as he entered home, strangely enough he found his mother sitting in the living room. It was just around five in the evening and on a weekday, his mom would have been at work and not home. It did not seem regular to him.

"Mom are you okay?"

His mother seemed startled to see him. She nodded. He noticed that her eyes were red. Like she had been crying. This had to be the strangest experience in his adult life. His entire life actually. Not that like Anjali Di he too believed his mother was some kind of heartless demon, but her moments of vulnerability were not for the world to see.

"Mom, have you been.. crying? What is it? Is everything okay?"

He had never imagined to find himself in a situation like this. And therefore had no idea what was proper etiquette in such a scenario. If he knew his mother at all. she probably wanted him to leave her alone and never bring up this moment again. 

"I am sorry, Arnav. I am fine. Just got upset with something. How is your practise coming along?"

"Mom, you can tell me if something is bothering you. Maybe I can help?"

"It is nothing. I have to some calls to make. You don't worry. Seema and Shivam are coming home for dinner. So I better check if HP has made all the arrangements to entertain them."

As his mother walked out, he heard her mutter under her breath, it is going to be a long night. He knew there was something troubling his mother, something that he was certain was not just "upset with something". It had to be something big and he didn't need to be Einstein to guess that his dad was somehow responsible for this.

**

Normally Anjali was not the first to fetch the newspaper at Raizada House. In fact, truth be told, she seldom read it at all. Newspapers never brought any news that was even remotely worth reading, or that could be the source of any happiness at all. But the last couple of weeks she had been reading them. Jun had persuaded her that she should apply for a Masters programme in JNU and she had let him talk into it. She had an entrance test in January which had one paper on Current Affairs. She had been horrified when she saw the sample question papers and decided to at least scan the newspapers every day to make informed guesses. However, she always get distracted by news items related to city-murders and Bollywood affairs, which were both available in plenty. As she walked upstairs towards her room, scanning the newspaper, her eyes fell upon a photograph of her father, with one of his golf buddies and a woman her age standing between them. Reading the piece almost made her barf and instead of going to her room she knocked on her brother's door.

Arnav opened the door almost immediately, he was wearing his gym clothes and was throwing stuff into his bag.

"What is it?" he asked sullenly.

Anjali was not very close with her brother. Not that she had any quarrel with him, but he was a bit of a goody-two-shoes that she found exhausting. He seldom took sides, initially she had assumed that it was because he didn't have strong opinions. But as she grew older she realised it was a kind of clever strategy. He always came across as the more reasonable child between the two of them. She was always getting in trouble, while he remained relatively unscathed. Like a few weeks ago she was forced to vote against the Werner deal thereby incurring the wrath of her mother forever. Arnav had conveniently taken ill at that time and managed to abstain from voting. But inspite of everything, she had to acknowledge he was a good kid. And there were things that she could not discuss with her parents or her friends, she could talk to him about it.

"Read this," she said pushing the newspaper into his hands. He looked perplexed as he took it from her and began reading. She saw his eyes move over the short piece and he didn't look alarmed or upset with it.

"Yeah, so what, Di? These kind of pieces keep coming up. This the gossip section of Times of Delhi. Don't fret too much about it."

"How can you be so cool about this, Arnav. Apparently dad has a thing for pretty, young things according to this report."

"Please, Di. Dad has a thing for golf. This Jyoti Kapoor is a golf player and that too JS Kapoor's daughter. We should sue these people for defamation and character assasination."

"But have you noticed mom has been a little mellow lately. It could somehow be connected to this, yes?"

"I think you are overreacting, Di. Anyway I am running late for practise," he said as he zipped his bag, but she noticed that he did look more troubled than he was willing to admit.

Just as he was about to leave, he turned back and asked, "Di, what do you mean by Jyoti Kapoor being dad's type?"

"Oh I don't know. Something from a long time ago. You were very young, I am not sure you remember there used to be this intern.. I don't remember her name actually. But I remember mom and dad having a huge showdown about her, and the girl quit the next day. I know it is silly and you are right. Times of Delhi is always writing nonsense about our family. Last month they wrote about how Raizadas were building a pad for me which was to be designed like a cupcake. Just because I had a cupcake business. Bizarre it was. Anyway, I will see you later."

It is only after her brother left did she notice that he had left his gym bag behind. Something really seemed to have thrown him off.

**

He noticed Khushi was doing exercises with the Kettlebell again. He had realised that for some odd reason that was her favourite ever since she had come to Alchemy. He personally did not think it was the right equipment for her, but if Coach Sir didn't say anything, who was he to say anything at all. Ever since their trip to Bihar a they had managed a reasonably civil relationship. She didn't look through him when they ran into each other and she also didn't seem to carefully reschedule her training timings to avoid him. She seemed more bold and almost normal in their interactions. In fact just last week, she had agreed to have coffee with Veena and him, of course in their canteen itself. But she did not sit quietly during the mini New-Ons reunion over coffee. She regaled Veena with a scintillating anecdote of how they had discovered a bee inside a gulaab jamun during their trip to Barh. While Arnav had been understandably squeamish about attempting to eat any of the other gulaab jamuns on the plate, Khushi had no such qualms and ate the remainder. She made it sound like she had pulled off something heroic, Veena had been amused and Arnav was filled with wonder on the progress that they had made in their relationship.

"Khushi, I needed to talk to you."

"Haan, bolo," she said putting down the kettleball in the box carefully and wiping her face with a towel.

"Do you have any classes now?"

"No. I had early morning lectures today, so that is why doing an extended training session now. I am going to run three rounds now. Nationals is just around the corner, I need to be better trained."

"Khushi I need to talk to you about.. something."

"Haan.. tell me."

"No, not here. Some place private."

"Oh."

He could already sense the alarm bells going off in her head and he had to admit it, mean as it was, he was enjoying it.

Khushi changed and emerged rather reluctantly from the gym a good twenty minutes later. He walked ahead and she followed him. Walking rather aimlessly they reached the Chemistry Laboratory, which was shut. He sat down on the stairs in front of it and she followed suit. There was no good way to broach this subject. How could he ask her if his father had put his moves on her. And if so, how did she react. Was it true that his father had a type - the pretty, young thing? But there was no right way to ask this very wrong question. He knew it was insulting to both his father and this young woman, not quite his friend, but someone he had been trying to mend his relationship with.

"So.. I wanted to ask.. what do you think are our chances at the Nationals?"

"What? That is the important thing you wanted to discuss with me in private?"

It was a pretty stupid thing to say, he needed to do better than that. Khushi was now looking impatient. He watched her pick up her bag, get ready to leave.

"No, wait. What I wanted to ask is.. I mean, it is a bit silly... but it is my birthday next week."

"Okay.. happy birthday in advance.  But I still don't understand what you are trying to say Arnav."

He had no clue where he was going with, but he was suddenly having a birthday bash at their Chatarpur farmhouse for which he had now invited Khushi. He specified a venue, date and time for this make-believe party. Seriously, what was wrong with him? A birthday party? What was he? Five?

"What? That is.. nice of you.. to invite me after everything that has happened.. but I don't think it is a good idea.. but I hope you have a great birthday."

"I understand. I am sorry to have pulled you out of your training."

"That is okay. Can I go now?"

Relieved that she turned down this party invitation because it did not even exist, he walked her back to the gym. She was unusually chatty asking him about what a farmhouse was and if there was actually a farm there, and if so what crops they grew. Thankfully the Raizadas really had a farmhouse, that mostly only his parents used to entertain business associates. But at least he didn't have to lie any further. He also had to concede that Khushi was hardly the kind of girl who would have kept silent had his father made her feel even remotely uncomfortable. Inspite of his mother's warning that the Khushi was trouble, he knew this was not true. What he knew of her was that she was a talented athlete, very ambitious but also very righteous, a good person who played fair. He trusted her and he trusted his father, who might not be the best father, but he too was a good person. He felt guilty for having given in to this line of thought and reasoning. When they reached the gym, Khushi almost ran into it seeing the elliptical machine free.

"Khushi, I wanted to say one more thing.. don't get annoyed, but training with kettle-balls is a bad idea."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean it is not for you."

"Why? Because I am a girl."

"Oh please.. don't play the girl card. I mean, there is a greater chance of injury. I think you are losing weight and not building muscle strength. Baig Sir told me that that is why he didn't include it as part of our workout."

"I am going to do well at the Nationals because of this. You will see."

"We will see."

She smiled at him, waved and disappeared. That would be the very last time the two of them had a civil conversation and she would smile at him. But he did not know that yet.

**

"He invited to you his birthday party in their farmhouse?"

"Yes," Khushi whispered. They were inside the library and Preeto was being so loud and chatty that some of the other students threw annoyed looks their way. She didn't blame them. That is exactly what she would do too if someone else were to chatter loudly in the library.

"And you refused? Why?"

Khushi was surprised that Preeto asked her this question. She knew most of her history with the Riazadas, or the somewhat edited version that she had shared with her. And she was the first to agree that the clan was bad news for her. She even disliked Arnav, though Khushi herself didn't find that much fault in him. Yes, he could have been nicer to her and spared her by not doing his blow hot-blow cold routine with her, but that aside, he was not a bad person. But still she knew that nothing good would come out of her getting sucked into his world. And by how quickly he withdrew the birthday invitation, it seemed that he saw it too. So it was surprising that the ever pragmatic and oftentimes militant Preeto thought that it was unkind of her to turn down Arnav's efforts to reach out to her. Khushi put this down to new-love that Preeto was experiencing with this boy Gagandeep whom she had yet to meet. But Gagandeep had been successful in chipping away her sharp edges and Preeto was now in the sky-is-bluer and grass-is-greener phase of her life.

"Yaar, usne apne ego ko set aside kiya aur tujhe bulaya. You should just show your face at least."

"But I can't go to a farmhouse and all. It sounds scary."

"Hmm. I know where this Raizada farmhouse is. It is in Chatarpur, no? Ginny and I will take you there. You just say hello to him and we will drop you back home. Easy."

"No. That is all too much. And I don't want to trouble you and I especially don't want to trouble Gagandeep. I have not even met him."

"Oh please. He is used to driving people. Their family has a transport business anyway."

"So? He is a driver? You are so mean."

"Okay, that is not how I meant. And besides, baat aage badhane se pehle, your approval of his is needed. So he will be willing to drive you anywhere."

"Aage kya badhani hai?"

"Khushi, samajh ja yaar."

"Hmm. I am not sure. I just feel it will be a disaster. And I will embarrass Arnav and embarrass myself."

"Well, you can embarrass yourself only if you decide that you have done something embarrassing. And if he gets embarrassed by you, well at a least it is what you expected. And who knows Aakash might be there.."

Though they were inside the library, a scared place of learning, Khushi picked up a book and whacked Preeto on her head at that.

But Preeto, lovesick and being uncharacteristically chirpy as she was lately, did have a point. If Arnav could try to put everything aside and reach out to her, she could meet him halfway too. Yes, she would go.

**

Ginny was on the phone and Preeto was walking on this beautiful, quiet road in Chatarapur, that led to the farmhouses of all the wealthy people in the city. It must be nice to be so rich to have these weekend and party homes, she thought. Khushi had been reluctant, but she would hear nothing of it and almost pushed her through the gate of the farmhouse named Anjali. She learnt from Khushi that Anjali was also the name of Arnav's older sister, the first-born of the Raizadas. 

"Kya chahiye," the guard had asked.

"Woh.. party ke liye.." Khushi had stammered.

"Oh, Raizada Sir ke party ke liye?" the guard had asked.

Khushi nodded and was let in. The guard had looked strangely at Preeto when she declined to go in saying, main toh sirf driver hoon. Khushi had slowly walked away, turning behind to look at her friend, perhaps she was too nervous and needed the reassurance that someone was looking out for her. Ginny commented that the moment felt like they had come to drop off their daughter on her first day in kindergarten school. Thankfully, Ginny's phone rang then and Preeto was spared from reacting to Ginny's ten-year family plan. She expected that Khushi would not come back for a while at least. Parties were like that. Even if you went in reluctantly you will get caught in polite hellos and chit chat. So she was shocked when Khushi returned within five minutes. Bawling and rather incoherent. Ginny hung up and started the car. Preeto got into the backseat with Khushi, while Ginny drove. She held a sobbing Khushi as they drove her back home, trying desperately to piece together what had happened.  As Preeto would learn later. There was a party, not Arnav's birthday party, but the senior Raizadas entertaining some guests.  Why had Arnav lied to her, she did not understand. Why had Poonam Raizada viciously lashed out at Khushi she did not understand. Yes, it was a mistake, but a honest one. But the damage was done.

The repercussions of this was understood by everyone, especially Preeto only a few months later when Poonam Raizada withdrew Khushi's scholarship citing "poor moral character and not upholding the values of a true sportsman" as the reason behind it. The money was only part of the problem. University fees were not that high and Khushi had just one more year to go. But the humiliation if it was too much for Khushi to bear. Poonam Raizada had taken away from Khushi that one thing that was most dear to her, the ability to run faster than most people, with as much dignity as she could.  And so Khushi she did not return to Alchemy for a third year. 

For all of this, Preeto held Arnav and the Raizadas responsible. But she also could not deny that inadvertently it was she who had pushed her best friend into this life-changing mess.

**

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