FF// Untold Stories; Note Pg. 18 + Link to Ch. 6 (Pg. 20) - Page 3

Originally posted by: pakpearl

Very intriguing start...

Pls do continue..

I'll love to read it..

@Savera84 ..

Thanx for sharing the link..

Thank you love!

Thank you so much. Welcome aboard :)

Thank you for the reviews, you guys are ever so sweet! I may have broken a long standing jinx with this new ID (lol), and so while the creative juices are flowing, here's Chapter 2 :

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CHAPTER II

Of Jobless Vacations

"And suddenly you just know...it's time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings"- Meister Eckhart

“It wouldn’t hurt you to read something besides the gossip columns in newspaper”, Devyani Raizada said pointedly and Arnav smirked as he saw Anjali almost cringe in dismay. He could predict the way the conversation would flow from here- from UPSC to life to future. Sure enough, the next thing out of Devyani Raizada’s mouth was, “They won’t ask about Sonam Kapoor’s wardrobe in UPSC”. The look on Anjali’s face was priceless. She caught him smirking and made a face which only served to further his amusement.

Anjali, at twenty two, was seven years younger to her elder brother. Arnav, despite all the fun he made of her, secretly admired his sister for her way around people and her social tact. Personally, his social skills were no better than that of a block of stone and he had made his way through both high school and college with head buried into the pages of textbooks, and now his workaholic professional life was spent buried in files. Anjali was the life of parties, the talk of college newsletters and one of those people who kept people like him from making the world a cemetery. He was quiet, famous amongst academic and then professional circles, averse to all sorts of social gatherings, and often unintentionally, a complete and utter disaster with people. Were it not for the biological resemblance, no one would take them for brother and sister.

“Three hours I’ll be reading stupid current affairs magazines but Nani has to walk in that exact moment that I pick up Filmfare” Anjali grumbled, after Devyani Raizada had made his exit with a dramatic sigh.

“I don’t get why you read that trash anyway”. Arnav personally looked at gossip magazines like you would look at unidentifiable bugs in your lunch—with absolute disgust and perverse wonderment.

“Because”, Anjali retorted, “It’s fun. And it keep you in the know of what’s going on”.

“Well” Arnav shrugged his shoulders, “Current affairs magazines also give you a lot of ‘know’ on what’s going on”.

Anjali moaned in dismay, “WHY are you like this? Seriously bhai, I don’t know how you get along with people at your office”.

Arnav didn’t quite have a reply to that. He knew he was the stereotypical boss— cold, closed up, and non-fun. It wasn’t like he tried; it just came naturally to him. That reminded him of Khushi, and how these days he wasn’t too comfortable when she stood near him with hardbound files or heavy objects because she seemed so close to hit him with them. It was something in her eyes that seemed to be giving a constant finger to him, all the time, every time. Khushi was not very further away in rank from him, which made their professional relationship closer to equals than that of subordination, the primary reason he guessed she made it this far in expressing her love for him in an office where his terror famously reigned. Personally, people who clearly hated their job, as she so obviously did, annoyed him. He believed that once you chose a profession, you ought to be true to it, or you shouldn’t have been in it at all. Ten thousand things to do in the world for crying out loud. Also, she was a divorcee from what he knew. Well no surprises there, if that was how she used to eye the poor bloke too. (And who in their right mind got married that young?)

“Are you listening to me at all?!” Anjali’s irritated pitch made him snap out of his thoughts.

“What?”

“You never listen to what I say!”

“Which, should be a hint for you to say something worth listening to for a change”

“Sorry, I have a threshold to how boring I can sound and I still fall short to yours”

“Oh, like your intellect”

“You know what? I don’t even want your help!”

“I am so shattered”

“NANIIII!!!”

Devyani Raizada sighed somewhere inside the house and wondered if her grandchildren would ever grow up.

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Khushi put down her mobile phone and buried her head into her open palms. A conversation back home was always exhausting, and left her a little more emotionally scarred than before. This time it turned out that Shyam had directly channelized his venom towards her family instead of her, and made it into a well fabricated story of how the divorce was a result of her callous dismissals to his earnest efforts towards reconciliation. This led to an entire sermon on how, but for some prudent steps and patience, her life could have been so much better. Shivani aunty had said, her mother had recapped in a heartbroken voice, how girls with jobs ruined their marital lives. They had not listened to those pearls of wisdom, and look what had become of her today.

Lavanya did not need to ask questions when she entered the room and saw her in that position. A part of her wanted to dial every living soul related to Khushi and give them a little piece of her mind. Shyam, she wanted to strangle with her bare hands. Pretending not to be in the know of the cause of Khushi’s current misery, she started a conversation in her most casual tone.

“So? What plans for today?”

Khushi did not reply and instead heaved a deep sigh.

“I see..” Lavanya said, “so we are mourning the day through. Nice”

Khushi retained her silence and now gazed into some far away space.

“Earth to Khushi! Earth to Khushi! KHUSH! Are you listening?”

“I am quitting my job”, came the almost inaudible reply and Lavanya had to crane her neck forward to make sure she had heard it right.

“Um. What?”

“I am quitting”, this time a little louder, and Lavanya panicked that this was perhaps Khushi’s ultimate resignation from everything that made up her life, to seal the misery once and for all.

“You are leaving your job?”

“That’s what I last heard quitting was”

“But…but, the money? All that you-“

“I don’t know. I just won’t do it anymore”

“Khushi, if this is about some depressing phone call I would suggest you sit and think on it with a cool head okay? Don’t jump into anything that you’ll regret later”

“It is about the phone call...but not because of it”

“Care to explain?”

“I am tired Lavi. I am so SICK.. I am SICK of my rotten stupid stinking life! And you know how I’m going to change it? By quitting from this goddamned job”

“And how is that going to help?” Lavanya asked.

“I don’t know”, Kuashvi replied, “clearly, I have thought this through.”

Lavanya smiled encouragingly.

Khushi took in a deep breath, “You know Lavi, years down the line when I tell someone my story you know what they are going to do? They are going to sympathize, make me the topic of conversation for kitty parties, or take the Shivani aunty’s Well I told you so route. I am not going to get anything out of this mess. I don’t want a “this is to hereby certify that Khushi Gupta led a miserable life” plaque of approval over my grave when I am dead. I want to- I just want to take the first step to get out of this. And right now, it’s quitting this job.”

Lavanya pondered upon it silently for a moment and then smiled. “Congratulations. Go slap that resignation in Arnav Singh Raizada’s face tomorrow.”

“I can’t believe I’m going to do this. Oh my God, this is so scary”, Khushi gazed at her with eyes wide open in horror although she could feel a wave of something alien within her. A wave that smelled somewhat of…freedom; and it excited her just as much as it scared the wits out of her. She had never taken a bold step in her life before, and certainly not one for her own sake.

Lavanya extended her hand and squeezed hers reassuringly, “Relax Khush. I am so glad you are finally doing something for yourself. Don’t go back, you owe it to yourself”.

Khushi stared at her for a long moment and then a smirk tugged at the corners of her mouth, “Gosh Lavi, you are becoming just like one of your posters.”

“Aaand we are back”, Lavanya rolled her eyes hopelessly.

“Oh shit!” Khushi suddenly exclaimed, “I forgot I have that Nainital conference scheduled next week. Shit I can’t quit right now.”

“Well can’t you cancel on it? I mean if you quit, they can’t ram you inside a skybag and carry you around right?” Lavanya suggested.

“But that would be so unprofessional. I have been on this project since the very beginning and I’m one of the senior members on the team. They’re counting on me.”

“Well…then?”

“I’m going to quit anyway, I’ll just let them know that this is going to be my last tour and last task in the job”, Khushi said with conviction, a little too much Lavanya thought, as if she were trying to convince herself that it would be okay, that this was right. Lavanya was just glad that although her friend had finally cracked under the pressure, it had been a cracking for good and not one where she would have to keep emergency hospital numbers an arm’s distance away.

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“I am not taking you with me and I am saying this for the last time”, Arnav had an edge to his tone.

“Do I ever ask you to take me with you on trips? No; because I have no desire of boring myself to death. But this is Nainital. It would be cruelty to Nainital to unleash you upon it without my supervision. I don’t think the place has seen so much of accumulated boredom before”, Anjali whined.

“I am not going on a vacation. This is about work. A foreign concept to you”

“So who is stopping you from working? I will be out enjoying mountains and snow and hillside boy-“

Arnav gave her a sharp look and she hastily proceeded with “boats. Hillside boats. Shikaras.”

“And you are going to appear for civil services”, Arnav gazed at her disbelievingly.

“The point is you know Nani would never allow me to go to Nainital alone bhai. This is like my only chance. You know what? You do this and I will teach you how to be cool. I promise.”

“Wow. You got me with that one”, Arnav feigned excitement.

“Please?”

“...”

“Please?”

“I will think about it”

“OH MY GOD seriously?”

“I said I will thi-“

“This is great! Oh God, I have so much packing to do!”, Anjali jumped off the bed in excitement.

“Did you even-”

“Thanks bhai you are awesome. Seriously”

And before Arnav could say another word, Anjali was out of sight.

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“Khush since when did you start having meetings in such a dreamy place?” Lavanya spoke as she lazed her finger over her laptop touchpad.

“I know right”, Khushi chuckled, “As far as history went, I was predicting the next meeting to be at the bottom of a well or something. But you know it actually wouldn’t make much of a difference. I would be working all the time anyway, and before you know it, it’ll be time to leave. Only it’ll hurt more, because duh, it’s Nainital”

Lavanya kept staring at her computer screen in deep concentration. “Khush…you know, I have an idea”

“What?”

“When’s the last time you went on a vacation?”

Khushi laughed, “What are you doing Lavi?”

“Tell me no!”

“My honeymoon. If you could call an awkwardness fest that”

“You haven’t been anywhere since there?” Lavanya exclaimed in shock.

Khushi shrugged, “I didn’t get the time…I was preoccupied with other things- aka psychopath husband, divorce proceedings, job, life falling apart blah blah blah-”

“That’s decided then. We are going on a vacation then”, Lavanya grinned, “you and I”

“What?”

“It’ll be perfect. You won’t have a job to return back to right? Sooo” she drawled out, “I will join you there after the week is over and we’ll do some Uttarakhand exploration of our own”

“Oh God no”

“I am not taking a no woman. You have woken the travel monster in me. Now it won’t sleep until it has seen Nainital”

“People at work are going to judge me so bad. Who resigns from a job without a backup plan and goes vacationing?”

“Who cares?” Lavanya shrugged her shoulders, her mind already transported to more important matters like tickets, shopping etc.

“Don’t get those tickets okay? Let me think on it!” Khushi said although she knew thsat once Lavanya had set her mind on a trip, she was not one to step back.

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Khushi took a deep intake of breath as she gathered her papers in her hand and made firm steps towards Arnav’s office. She was finally doing this. She was doing something for herself. Why hadn’t she thought it through? Maybe now was not the right time. But then there was never a good time to throw yourself from the top of a cliff was there. Oh good heavens, she didn’t even have a backup plan!

Khushi had no more time to obsess over her thoughts as she had already knocked upon the door and stepped inside.

Arnav seemed to be frowning in annoyance at something on his computer screen and was slightly startled when she called him out.

“Arnav?”

“Huh- yes?”

“Go through these before I send them out will you?”

“Okay. Thanks. Also Khushi, we have a meeting scheduled at 5 for the Nainital thing. Be there.”

“Yeah sure. Um…I need to talk to you about something though.”

“Yeah?”

Okay. This was it.

“After this trip, I wish to resign”, she spat it out.

Arnav raised his head from the files and stared at her for a long moment, as if wrapping his head around what she had said. His face had a strange quality of being like an impenetrable wall. If you wished to break through, you’d better be riding on bulldozers—and run the risk of having a broken bulldozer at the end of the ordeal. Khushi waited in anticipation of the logical outburst that would follow.

“Okay”, Arnav finally replied, as if she had said something very casual related to work.

Khushi waited for a moment before opening her mouth again, “um…so, that’s okay?”

“Yeah cool”, Arnav nodded, “You’re with us on the Nainital thing though right?”

“Yes”, Khushi replied, her temper rising with each passing moment.

“Great. I don’t know the logistics of this resignation thing though. You’ll have to speak to the HR.”

“Oh I will. Thanks”, Khushi replied before storming out of the office, literally slamming the door behind her.

Arnav frowned as he saw the door slamming behind her. Was it just him or did she sound upset? What for though? He had said ‘okay’, hadn’t he? Weird woman.

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Khushi couldn’t believe her ears. Three years of her life had been devoted over this godforsaken job where people did not even care to ask her twice if she decided to leave. Three years of mind numbing boredom only to hear “cool”. She would be replaced. Just like another clog in the system machinery that had inconveniently fallen off and needed to be replaced. Would it have hurt so much to say a “May I know why?”, or was it too much to ask? It was like no one cared if she made an exit out of their lives. No one gave one flying shit about her existence. Was there something so inherently wrong and undesirable about her? So forgettable? How funny would it be, lying in a coffin with people saying “cool. She died? Oh okay”.

She fought back tears as she rummaged around the pile of papers lying on her desk. After a while, she sat down on her chair, picked up her phone and sent out a text:

Lavi, get those tickets.

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Please let me know what you think?

Much love!

Interesting.. love Anjali already. Cool. And she going to mainstay too.

And arnav has noticed that Khushi hates her job/boss. But he clearly has no feelings towards her. But like Khushi sai, y hadn’t he even asked y she was quitting?

Wonder ants in store at Nainital. Do update soon. Eager to read more

Wow..

It's getting more interesting..

😛

Arnav was upset..y??

Did he care for her a tiny bit??

We know the reason as to y Khushi was hurt..

Her good for nothing family n that creepy creature named Shyam r spoiling her zeal to life..

Anjali n La will definitely add fun factor to this so called boring life of Arnav n Khushi..

Waiting for the Nainital trip that was destroyed cruelly by IPKKND CVs..

🤔

Sad how disposable Khushi feels right now. She badly need Anjali’s spirit and Lavanya’s optimism and great vacation, soul awakening one would be great. I wonder why she still keeps in touch with either Shyam it her parents. I mean, with Shyam, she has no obligation to take his calls. She should think of restraining orders against contacting her. As per her parents, it cannot hurt her or them for taking a break in their relationship as they point blank refuse to understand her. This emotional abuse has taken a big toll on her already.

Oh... I love love love this Anjali. Loved the brother sister bickering

That was an interesting chapter.So her boss was Arnav. And now she quit her job.Why was he so cool with her resignation? I thought he was going to be angry. Didn't expect this reaction. Poor Khushi. She was so hurt. I loved Anjali and Lavanya. Hope they will meet in Nainital.

Just found this story and I'm so loving it...

With Anjali and Lavanya joining, Arnav is going to regret that "okay"..

Nice

She wants to resign from the job

Hope to get next update soon

"Untold stories" by An-Ex-IPK-writer! What else can a Arshian wish for If you had to create a new one because your old one became non-functional, chances are I haven't read any of your old works. I am a late entry to the IPK world. But many Thanks to Savera84(Raji) 🤗, I can join the ride for this one.

Khushi comes with a baggage of failed marriage and not-so-supporting family. To add to her woes there's a psychopath ex husband who is not willing to let her live in peace and a job that that she desperately needs, but hates to her core. Looks like her "disturbing cynicism" is heavily inspired by her life experiences. But I loved the witty sarcastic comments and her equation with Lavanya. It's probably a first for me, where Arnav is actually scared for his life when Khushi is around carrying heavy objects. I was ROFLing at that image. Instead of gust of wind, there's an air of discomfort and Rabba Ve is replaced by some bollywood gangsta song involving goli, bheja and shor LOL

Arnav's reaction at Khushi's resignation was awesome and his confusion at the door slamming was just epic!! No wonder Khushi is mad. He definitely needs to work on his social skills.

Oh, and I loved the way Anjali railroaded herself to Nainital. It will be interesting to see a fuming Khushi, a chilled out Lavanya, a bubbly Anjali & a clueless Arnav interact with each other in Nainital 😊