Part 16: Hum Hain Khushi Kumari Gupta!
There was something different about the next morning; the breeze coming in through the window was a bit more pleasant, even the usual noise from the car repair shop across the street didn't throw Khushi in a bad mood. She had had a good time the previous day, she hadn't talked much with Arnav but still she felt a renewed bonding with him and it wasn't just the bikes. The call he had made last night, had taken away her breath for his voice had sounded so pleasantly gravelly, it had sent butterflies fluttering in her stomach, her stomach had clenched when he had said, "Hi", the edginess was missing, he was relaxed. Twirling around the room, Khushi picked up her clothes and went for a shower. Half an hour later, she was leisurely having her breakfast while listening to the news on radio, one leg flung over the chair's hand rest and swinging, when she heard a persistent sound of someone honking under her window. Curious she went to check out to find Arnav on his Harley. She gesticulated with her hands to ask him why he was there and he waved his arms asking her to come down.
Quickly slipping on her slippers she went down to him.
"What happened? You okay?" she asked worried.
"yeah why will I not be okay?" he asked surprised.
"So?" she prodded on trying to get some sensible answer out of him.
"So this, that I want you come with me for a ride," he said haltingly as if he was not sure if she'll accept.
"On a Sunday! And so early??" she complained for the sake of it.
"Yes, on a Sunday and so early so that at least we get less traffic!" Arnav pointed out the obvious fact.
"oook, I'll go," she said as if she was chewing on some thought, "on one condition!" and there it was.
Arnav raised his eyebrows quizzically, at which she simply shrugged her shoulders to say, "if ' you ' let ' me ' ride ' the ' bike!" one word at a time.
"I am taking you for a ride! What kind of a condition is that?" he asked incredulously.
"I won't be riding behind you!" Khushi tried to explain.
"Khushi are you out of your mind? Are you going to sit on the fuel tank?" Arnav had no idea even then what Khushi was trying to say.
"Arnav!" Khushi stamped her feet in frustration, "Arnav I will ride, and YOU," she said poking a finger on his chest, "will be the passenger! Do you get it now?" her eyes were as big as saucers when she finished exasperatedly.
Arnav couldn't even manage his trademark "What the.." and just stared at Khushi open mouthed as if a bolt from the sky had hit him. After a whole minute he just moved his mouth but nothing came out, he then cleared his throat and said in a whisper, "What?" and then a bit more audibly, "Do you know how to?"
"No I just want to destroy your Harley out of jealousy!" Khushi said sarcastically, "Of course I know how to, I may be a bit out of practice, but as you said, there will hardly be any traffic today, say what?" she finished as she pulled the corner of his collar teasingly.
Caught off guard, Arnav tried one more time, "When'when did you learn and how, from whom?" he asked in one breath.
"Hold on, hold on, we have a looot of time, you can listen to the story on the ride," she said.
"Oh no no, you first tell me before I let you anywhere near my Harley!" he said patting the bike possessively.
"Oh well then," she eyed the Harley and leaned against it and started, "In school, there was this girl Anwesha, my best friend. Her brother had a passion for Harleys, he had a huge collection of Harley magazines. I was fifteen at that time. On his eighteenth birthday his father gifted him one, quite similar to yours. Since we had listened to his passionate monologues about Harley until then we demanded a personalized tutorial on the real-life specimen." Khushi was totally lost in the past by then, "Anwesha was always the dainty type so she lost interest in the first 5 minutes, but I fell in love with it the moment I had set eyes on it. So anyways, the tutorial wasn't enough for me I wanted to feel how it felt to ride it. I demanded lessons from Dev bhaiyya and he readily agreed," she told proudly.
Arnav choked, "So did you take lessons from him?" he asked warily thinking 15 was not very long ago for Khushi.
"ufff you ask such obvious questions! Of course I did!" she said with wide eyes.
"How did he trust his Harley witha fifteen years old?" Arnav asked skeptically.
"haye Devi Mayyian, he use d to sit behind me, his Harley was safe!" Khushi was beginning to think Arnav had lost it, quite oblivious to the fact that he was actually having attacks of jealousy at the mental images that were coming to his mind.
"hhhow, how many lessons did he give you?" he asked quite losing it literally.
"How am I supposed to remember that," she said pushing a dagger through his heart at the fact that there had been quite a few of them, "but it didn't last for long, babu ji strictly forbade me to continue, I don't know why but he was quite angry that I hadn't taken his permission!"
"ohhh smart man, smart man!" Arnav said totally understanding her Babuji's reason.
Arnav scooted backwards on his bike making space for Khushi, "Let's see how much you know!"
Khushi waited for him to take off the helmet and put it on, meanwhile Arnav had put his shades on and Khushi just pause as she looked at him looking ultra gorgeous in a casual polo neck, half sleeved black T-shirt with classic blue denims and the shades were like icing on cake! "yummm" she went in her mind only to be followed by, "What the!" at the thought that had just gone through her mind. Taking a deep breath she got on and ran a mental check list of the sequence.
Arnav watched as Khushi turned the key in the ignition correctly at the very first attempt and pressed the start button to get the engine going. He was even more impressed as she waited for 45 seconds for the engine to get warmed up, then she moved her fingers as if figuring out the controls and cautiously pulled the clutch lever and pressed the shifter down to the first gear and then released the clutch slowly while she twisted the throttle a bit to get it going at a decent speed. "Wow!" Arnav thought totally smitten by this side of Khushi, she was a girl with guts. Not that knowing how to maneuver a bike was on his list, the fact that she was ready to learn new things, to move forward, to think beyond the limits the world set for people hit the right chord with him. He had always challenged the set standards, the ways of the world with his ideas. It hadn't been easy to reach where he was and doing that had needed steel nerves and guts. In Khushi he saw the same spirit, but she had so much more!
With a jerk Arnav's tarin of thought came to an end when Khushi got a bit off balance while taking a turn. Arnav quickly bent forward to hold the bars and helped Khushi turn around a sharp corner.
Once they were going smoothly again they both took a sigh of relief.
"Thanks," said a nervous Khushi, nervous because she had just lost balance and also because she had just realized that Arnav was too close for comfort and when he had helped her take the turn she had felt tingles travelling from her hands to all parts of her body leaving her giddy. Although he had again resumed his previous position and his hands were on his thighs, Khushi was too aware of him to be comfortable.
"Umm I think that's enough, I think we should have our breakfast now," she made up an excuse to put some distance between them.
Arnav hid the smirk that came on his lips as he had realized what had actually made her say this, so he just nodded in agreement for he was afraid of laughing out loud if he tried to say something.
They had stopped in front of a dhabba, something Khushi preferred over any other eating out place and it didn't take them much time to finish eating.
On their way back, Arnav rode the Harley and Khushi sat behind precariously perched a little behind him trying to avoid any sort of contact with him.
"Khushi don't fuss, I am not going to eat you okay? But you need to hold me for if you don't I will not start at all. I have to be sure that you are safe. So come on now!" he ordered her.
As if swallowing a bitter pill, Khushi put her hands lightly in his shoulders and waited for him to start.
"What" she asked irritated when Arnav didn't even budge.
Arnav simply raised his own hands to his shoulders to hold hers and pulled her forward with a jerk to forcefully encircle his waist with her arms. "this is how you are going to hold on to me Khushi Kumari Gupta!" he warned her.
"Whatever!" she rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue at him as they rode off.
"So what are your top 10 wishes Khushi?" Arnav asked her later in the day.
They were in her room, Arnav was sitting on the rug leaning against the couch on which Khushi sat with her legs folded under her. They both were having tea, Arnav had been given a dare.
"Ummm not 10, I have a few weird ones'." She said and went quiet.
"Which are''," he urged her to finish.
"I am sorry, I won't have you laughing your head off at me, so I amd not telling!" she said quickly.
"Oh and we thought this was all about getting to know you, as far as I know you, you never shied away from saying what was in your heart!" he challenged her.
"Skydiving'.," she just mumbled staring at Arnav's back and didn't see his eyes widen as he said, "hmm go on'"
"horse riding'.," another surprise and Anav felt his eyes will pop out if she continued o shock him like this and he turned around to look at her.
"Khusi Kumari Gupta motorbikes, skydiving, horse riding '''. This is not a crazy list, but the way you have always seemed consumed by cooking and 'what do you call it'embroidery and all that no one can ever imagine you wanting to do all this! What is the drive for it''.," he asked.
She looked away, a melancholic look came over her face as she said, "I have always wanted to forget all the wrong things in my life, not that I don't want to face reality but sometimes things become so overbearing that ''''..," she couldn't continue as a lump formed in her throat.
Extending his arm he held her hand and squeezed it, "I can say I understand but I know nothing can make me understand exactly how you feel, but I can always be there for you," he comforted her and she smiled back at him.
"Skydiving we can see some other time but horse riding can be taken care of .. my lady!" he said getting up and sitting next to her, "When do we begin our lessons?" he asked comfortably putting an arm around her.
"Our lessons?" she asked to which he simply said with a wink, "Yes, I will be your teacher!"
Edited by zarmyna - 13 years ago
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