FF-BTBH - Pt 20 page 145 6th OCT. - Page 40

Wishing Kritika Kamra a Very Happy Birthday.

Finally he slept. That night he had a strange dream , he saw arohi in his dream chasing a butterfly which eventually landed on his hand , she came to him , he caught her roughly but she vanished , he saw a fairy in white taking arohi away protectively, the butterfly still sat on his hand, he went behind them the fairy turned around and smiled at him, he woke up startled 'mom?'.

He woke up startled, his mom with arohi. He was disturbed. Ever since he had seen arohi she was reminding him of his mother too much. The dressing style, the singing, the music, and now his mom seemed like a fairy taking away arohi. why?. He woke up and had a glass of water. His sleep was gone, he just opened his laptop and tried to forget about it. A voice in his head didnot leave him at peace. 'Why arohi? is this all really needed' . Arjun shut his laptop and went out to open the window, as cool air hit him he seemed to feel composed. How can he forget the sight of his little sister, lying in a pool of blood , lifeless, his dad a lion lying helpless, his mother struggling to live. Whatever he does is less to that. Whatever he has planned is right. It all happened for a reason, or else why would he come across her in the club that night. He has to go ahead, he had made up his mind once and there is no looking back.

Feeling a little better now, he worked till the crack of dawn. and got ready to go out and meet jay and Sanchit's assistant Rahul. He entered an alarm for a note that wld remind him to meet Arohi that evening.

On his way to the cafe that evening luckily he saw at a light, a boy giving a girl flowers, he called the boy selling the flowers and gave whatever note he found in his wallet and bought a single rose. The boy thanked his good luck for earning more than the rose's worth.

Arohi dressed up. She had to tell amrit some excuse to go out, she knew even though they knew arjun they wouldnot let her go out without making sure it went somewhere. She drove her car and saw him already there. She walked towards him he watched her with his hands in his pocket, sunrays falling on her face making shadows of her eyelashes on her cheeks, her lips forming a smile. He did find her attractive enough to keep watching. She was attractive no doubt in that, but how does it matter to him. he has nothing to do with her beauty not now or later . Arohi's thots were different How handsome he looks, the grey color suits him so much, how many girls might be after him, she is so lucky that he gave her so much importance, what might have interested him, her beauty? may be because he doesnt know her so well to take her nature as criteria. If this was a film her dupatta would fly to him or she would trip and he would catch, oh my is that a rose in his hand? thinking this she missed a step and triped. He caught her, she held on to his arm, knowing she was not going to fall anymore but she still held on to his arm. Her perfume again mingled with his cologne. He realised he was holding her longer than necessary. He was surprised at himself and left her. That made arohi to move away as well 'sorry did not see the step' how many times has she said sorry already, will this ever stop? her making some childish mistake or another, but arohi wasnt it filmy she smiled to herself. This time they had a corner table away from the crowd. As they sat , he gave her the rose with a smile 'this is for you, for me not calling you yesterday'. She gracefully accepted his apology. If it were those small homely roses she would have adorned in her hair, but this one was the long stalked bulky blood red rose bud. She will press it and make a keepsake out of it. She turned and twirled it in her hand and a left out thorn pricked her. 'ouch' she said as a drop of blood oozed out of the center of the thumb. He immediately took a tissue and pressed it against her finger. 'you should be careful' he said. 'all roses have thorns it is no big deal' she said 'still you have to be careful of them they will hurt' 'what is life without a little hurt and pain? but in the end it is love and joy that remains' err why is she talking philosophy, something is utterly wrong with her, she herself bit her tongue. He looked at her as she finished her line. yes life has not little but lot of hurt and pain and there is no way it is going to turn into love and joy, atleast not for him.

When it was time to go home 'I had good time today' he said , 'me too' 'So would you like to may be come again sometime?' 'for coffee?' 'I might make a cheap impression if I bring you out for coffee everytime, how does dinner sound?' 'dinner?' 'is there a problem' 'my mom she may not let me come out' 'then let them all come' he said casually 'no no, I will make some excuse, shefu will make up something' he didnot care who shefu was 'fine then, I dont mind if they come still, Friday night is fine?' 'yeah sure' 'let me drop you' 'no I am going to do some shopping and later go with shefu, I told mom that I am out with her' she said sheepishly. 'make sure to put some antiseptic on that wound' he said, she had to search where the thorn had pricked her 'it is gone' she gave a grin. He smiled and said bye to her and left. good she is already lying for him.

A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose was continuously going on in her mind , itseems to have stuck in her mind. The thorn was still there. She slowly moved her index finger over it. how he freaked for such a small thing. she felt happy. she got up and found her songs notebook. she cut the rose stalk but left the thorn part, even with a thorn the rose still looked beautiful and the thorn was masked by it. Giving the rose a kiss she pressed it in between the pages.

Sanchit and Sudheer that night were having a discussion over drinks. Even though KSA did not like them drinking alcohol in the house, over the time as he became weak sanchit and sudheer started doing things the way they want in the house. Amrit was too timid to protest and Simi has seen the same in her family hence she never found it odd. But KSA and his Wife's morals were slowly being sidelined. Arohi disliked this point She wanted her daddu to be the master of the house all the time. As the father son duo started drinking, they slowly shifted their talks from business to family to family business and again to the house and how KSA will never write it in their name and how they can compell him to do so. Sudheer convinced even if KSA writes the house in the name of Arohi, they can always make her give it to them. She wont say no to them. Garui is the rebllious one but not Arohi. She can be moulded as they want.

Arjun had reached his suite. He was not that affected but still now and then he would get flashes of Arohi's talking or smiling face. It was all chatty and noisy till then now it was all calm and quiet. He liked calm and quiet. Just then his phone rang, it was his dadi. 'how are you daadi' 'I am fine. how are you ? where are you? cant you leave message for daadi? the manager has the nerve to not tell me where you are' 'yeah I asked not to tell anyone' 'not even to me?' 'you were not here and you did not want to be disturbed while on piligrimage, so I didnot specify anything' 'where are you?' 'in bombay on business' 'when are you coming back and why is this a secret?' 'it is secret because it is concerned with very important business deal' 'does rudra know?' 'he only knows I am here on business' 'so arent you there only for business?' arjun realised his slip of tongue 'yeah yeah the same' 'arjun' her voice became a little heavy and he could guess what was coming 'my son, savita and raashi's anniversary will be coming soon, wont you be here for that' 'I will be there' 'atleast this year do the rituals properly how long are you going to keep them' 'as long as it takes' 'you dont want their souls to rest in peace' 'they will when I am done with my quest' 'leave all that. whatever happened has happened, why are perishing your life for that now. they wont come back. see dont be like this, alone aloof. I will find a nice girl for you. marry her, it was savita's wish as well to see you married, remember we all used to tease you that a wife can only change you , now ...' 'daadi I am getting another call, I will talk when I come there' he cut the call.

He remembered crystal clear. How can he forget. How annoyed he used to get at Raashi, now he is ready to bear all that but she wont be able to come back to annoy him. It twisted his heart to think of his innocent sister. How she and dadi used to tease him that now he despices being talked along with a girl but later he will dance to his wife's tunes and his mother would support him and ask them to keep quiet. Marriage? , wife? he smirked. but not before arohi's face flashed in front of him.

A few days later , on Friday night he saw her enter the restaurant the same time he was coming. She was on time, there was no need to wait and that was a relief. He didnot notice that much if he did he would see that she had dressed with lot of care and that she was wearing the same black and red long skirt and top that she had worn the first they had seen each other. They greeted each other had some formal talk and settled

When they were seated he smiled at her and her heart skipped a beat. If the waiter did not come she would still be staring at him. They ordered and she saw him just glance over the menu and tell whatever was the first two options, while she went through it and ordered cautiously. As the waiter left, she asked him 'what is favourite item?' 'I dont have any favourites' 'come on everyone has one, mine is naan with spicy kurma and mild mutter paneer' 'good, hope u ordered the same' that means he didnot listen to her when she ordered? well men!! she thot. She asked him again , this time he did try to remember what was his favourite , he would eat whatever his mom made but still one thing he loved better than all was her malai kofta and he uttered the name as he remembered it. Arohi got excited 'but you didnot order that' then she spotted the waiter and called him 'can you please add one malai kofta for us' he updated the order. She smiled satisfactorily. women !! he thought, but he could not ignore the satisfaction on her face. she continued 'just one favourite,? what else do you like' 'nothing, I eat whatever I am served' 'that makes life for opposite person easy' 'does it?, well I am glad I can do atleast that much' 'but what if the person wants to find out all your favourites and like to make them' 'then she has to just keep guessing' 'will her guesses be correct' 'depends on my mood' 'okay for example let me guess you favourite sweet, mmm laddoo, was I right?' she asked with anticipation 'hmmm I might like it more sometimes' 'oh I was right' she got excited 'and you know what my favourite is, kaju katli' 'I thought it was kheer' he said looking at her, she got embarassed remembering the incident, he gave out a laugh she too laughed 'actually I dont like it that much but your bowl had salt in it and I didnot want you to eat it' 'salt, why??' 'I will explain someother time please, I am really sorry about that' she made a face asking sorry and folding hands for which he had to say okay.

Their food arrived, and after a long time he had remembered malai kofta and he had it too. It somehow made him content. She was talking all sorts of things. birthdays, parties, college, work, music, food for an hour and a half they sat there talking and eating. suddenly she said 'you know my friend is giving a birthday party next week, she invited me and I can take a guest, would you like to come' he coughed over his water 'me?' 'yeah' 'sorry I cannot come, I wont be in the city next week' she was suddenly sad not for the no he said , but for the news that he wont be in the city. 'are you going somewhere' 'yes, it is very important' 'oh okay' 'sorry' he said again 'no it is okay, but I hope you dont miss my birthday' he was now forced to ask 'when is it?' 'may 10^th' this time he was stunned may 10th? may be he heard it wrong. '10^th may?' 'yeah' she smiled and asked 'when is yours?' he did not hear that question only one thing was going on and on in his mind. she was born on the same day his mother was born, why oh why did it have to be , till now everything about her has to remind him of his mother but he had never in his wildest dreams imagined her to share the brithday with his mom. It was hard for him to digest.

oh it sure is destiny bby ;-) hehe