An OS to help with the weekend...blues!
"PREGNANCY BLUES"
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"This is not the right shade of blue. This is TOO blue. And the blue you got
before was not blue enough. If it's not the right blue then the other things
that are the right blue will clash with the wrong blue. This is the blue I
want. Can you get this blue, not that blue and not any other blue but this blue?"
Arnav Singh Raizada stared at the paint sample cards being shoved in his face
by Khushi Singh Raizada. He looked at her agitated face, and knew better than
to point out that she was holding three identical cards of the goddamn color
blue. "Yes jaan." he said meekly, resolving
to get Aman here and put him in charge of the nursery decorating from today.
Aman had managed to wriggle out of the Great
Baby Cot Buying Project of 2013 last week by claiming to have
contracted a case of the deadly bird flu. He had been very upset for
Aman initially, knowing that this disease was spreading through
contaminated poultry. In fact, he had even thought about sending his ill
employee a fruit basket or a teddy bear or something. Arnav had felt
horrible for his favorite office
monkey until he remembered the crafty little bugger was a strict
vegetarian.
Unfortunately, he had remembered this when he was already inside the world's
largest baby cot showroom with Khushi. Trapped in a hell that he had never
known about, Arnav had given in to his manic wife, and the demon-shop assistant
who was clearly on commission, and working for the Devil. The fact that Arnav now
knew firsthand that such a hellish place existed was something he would forever
hold against Aman. This would be reflected in his yearly bonus amount, for
sure, assuming Aman still had a job, of course.
This was something Arnav had vowed to himself as he
smiled and nodded and agreed that mahogany, ebony, pine, poplar, sheesham,
mango, teak and kesar wood choices were
crucial, absolutely crucial, even if the cot was going to be padded. Then had come
the issue of choosing what kind of padding. 32 kinds were available as options
to choose from, the demon shop-assistant had said, the red light of
evil clearly shining in her eyes. Khushi had needed his thoughts on every one. Arnav
shuddered and quickly moved on from this memory. Some things were too painful
to dwell on.
Now, he slowly started to back away from Khushi's waving arms, taking a small
step back every time she looked away from him as she turned and gestured here
and there. By the third step, he was close enough to the door to risk a quick,
very ballerina style leap sideways and be out the room. He ran faster now
than he had ever run when he was a track-team star at Harvard, heading away from the nursery at a
pace of a respectable 4 miles a minute.
Khushi's wail of "Arnav-jiii...what
about the bluuueee" faded behind him as he reached the safety
of the living room. Panting, he came to a standstill as he kept his ears alert
for the chan chan sound of running payals behind him. Nothing. She was probably
still in the room, thinking he'd be stupid enough to go back in there.
But the
danger was still there. Lurking, lurking. Someone would have to be sacrificed.
Just not Arnav Singh Raizada, of course. But who?
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He saw Aakash coming towards him, and, being a smart, if not actually a nice
man, he told Akash that Khushi was looking for him in the nursery. "Sucker!" He thought as Aakash opened
the door down the corridor, got grabbed and then forcibly dragged into the nursery by
a pair of hands holding blue paint chips. Next he could hear the words "blue... mumble...deep
blue... mumble..right blue...mumble
mumble...not too blue..." Akash was caught.
Arnav saw his sister coming towards him, slowly, carefully holding a glass of
milk. Right then Khushi came out as well, with Aakash looking dazed, holding
some paint chips. Khushi darted towards Arnav, angrily, but before she could
start, she saw Di and noticed the milk.
Khushi, immediately distracted, grabbed the milk from Anjali's hands, and
peered into the glass as if there was poison in it.
"Does
this have the almond paste? Where are the almonds? Di! Almonds? Where are they?
Hai Devi Maiyya , plain milk...might as well drink drain-water! What is this?
Does anyone care? Anyone at all? What will happen to the baby if there are no
almonds? The book says, almonds! And here there are no almonds! Amma also said
almonds, and not to forget the almond paste in the milk every time. The second book by that
AMRIKAAN doctor also specifically says almonds..."
"Khushi, I'm on my knees, begging you to Just.
Shut. Up...-I'm getting the almonds, please, please stop saying "almonds"!...Nuts for a nut"..Arnav muttered, and, unfortunately, Khushi heard him.
Now came the tears--right on cue as he had known they would. He had never even
heard of anyone being so emotional during a pregnancy, but he was fast learning
how crazy his wife could be.
And since there was nothing he could do about it,
other than suffer, and pray the child came out before he dropped dead from
tension and fatigue, Arnav went to get the nuts, while Aakash went to get the
right blue. Not the blue that was the wrong blue. The true blue.
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Di and Khushi sat down, the ladies discussing the impending arrival of the
baby who had driven the household into a frenzy not seen since the second
coming. Of Elvis himself. Soon, the conversation dwindled as the mother-to-be
and the sister-in-law quietly focused on the little baby, softly speaking in
whispers, as if practicing for when the baby would need both aunt and mother to
soothe him to sleep.
Arnav came back into the living room
holding the almond-filled milk to find Khushi stroking the baby bump softly, a
look of such pleasure and awe on her face that he was transfixed. Arnav felt
his love for his wife crash into his chest, his overflowing heart constricted
almost painfully, as if struggling to process such happiness, such contentment.
Di smiled at the two love birds, looking at her bhabi's face glowing with
pleasure, while her brother's eyes filled with sudden tears of emotion, of
worship. Reaching for Chote's hand, and Khushi's own, Di placed them together,
and she got up, leaving them lost in each others' eyes, not really registering
her exit.
Di had dealt with a very excitable Khushi
for a while now, and she needed a rest..but not before she looked back,
smiling at what Khushi had told her.
It was time.
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Some time later, after the pre-natal
medications had been taken, Khushi made one final phone call. This was a
long conversation, and Arnav, waiting patiently to help his clumsy wife up the
stairs almost fell asleep before this one ended. But a final consult with Amma-ji
and Bua-ji about stretch marks and swelling feet and natural remedies had to be
discussed-there were a lot of herbs to buy the next day, and Khushi had to be
careful about exactly what would help with these pregnancy related issues. Finally, after checking that the right low VOC
blue paint was in the nursery, Khushi was ready for bed.
Arnav had waited for his wife to finish her nightly chores, her self imposed
duties. He was always trying to make her do less, reminding her that when the
baby came, she would be incredibly busy. The Prakashs should be used to dealing
with her little chores from now on, in three months, they would not have their
Khushi Bhabi to do everything. But Khushi would still work late into the night,
so he had to wait for her, as he couldn't trust her to not stumble on the
stairs out of fatigue. Arnav waited like this every night, grumbling loudly, but secretly quite proud
of his industrious wife.
Now, Arnav woke up when she collapsed next to him on the couch, and seeing how
tired she was, he swept her up in his arms, carrying her safely up the stairs.
But a small punishment for making him wait was surely fair...
Once in front of
their room, he exhaled, loudly, and, pretending as if he was extremely
exhausted, he dumped Khushi onto her feet. "Kitne heavy ho tum!" he said,
stretching his arms and massaging his back as if his wife weighed a ton, and he
was winded after having to carry her. "I have to say, you've really put on weight, recently, haven't you, Khushi? I used to be
able to carry you up and down stairs and all over mandirs and catch you falling
here and there much more easily back when we first got married, hmm?"
But
it had been a long day, filled with many tasks, and his teasing tone was not
registering. Khushi Singh Raizada had had enough. And so, now, she did what any
woman, who didn't knee her husband in the groin would choose to do
as Plan B. Khushi burst into, noisy, dramatic, REALLY loud tears.
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"Arre jaan,
I was teasing you, I was teasing you! Chup Khushi! You are as
thin and slender
as ever! I could carry you to Lukhnow, and
back, I swear it! Light as a feather! I love you, if you quiet down
right now, I'll buy you jelebies ! Many MANY jalebies! I'm sorry! Please
chup ho jao!" Alarmed, Arnav tried to shush his wife, but
her bawling was too loud. It brought his entire family to his door. First Payal and Aakash glared at him,
then Nani shook her head. Finally, Di arrived, and it was to Di that Khushi rushed,
sobbing loudly.
Hugging his pregnant sister, for whom she had been working so
hard, Khushi complained about his
cruelty, how he ran away from the nursery, how he yelled at the nice shop assistant
at the Baby Cot store, calling that
startled woman a demon-spawn from hell.
She cried bitter tears at how unsupportive Di's Chote had been acting lately,
and finally, she revealed the worst sin of all. How, today, after everything Khushi
was doing, for his sister--for his own Di-- after all her efforts he had called her fat and heavy.
"She's not fat, Di! She's just irritating!" Arnav
explained, weakly, hoping to get his point across. After all, if anyone had
been harassed and driven insane by Khushi's pregnancy obsession, it was Di. The
woman who WAS pregnant, and the focus of his wife's craziness. Surely his Di understood
her Chote's frustration?
"Arnav Singh
Raizada!" Di yelled, and then and there, he knew that he was in the dog
house. He looked at Aakash pleadingly, for help, but Aakash remembered the blue paint incident. Aakash took
revenge as he smirked at his Bhai, commenting nastily about ungrateful brothers
who did not appreciate their amazing wives and who called slender beautiful saalis fat.
The night was not going well for Arnav, but he had a plan. After soothing the three
ladies' ruffled feathers, he whispered something to Anjali, which prompted his sister
to swiftly end the angry scene, and persuade Khushi to forgive him this once,
and to go to bed. Arnav closed the door, loudly promising to hurt Aakash in
some gruesome manner very soon, and Anjali leaned over to say a few final words
to him before she retired for the night.
The final words of his sister rang in his ear, as Arnav lay down next to his
slightly huffy wife, touching her perfectly flat belly, stroking the slender
hips. "You are nothing if not desirable, Khushi.
I'm sorry, I just get so jealous of how much you time you spend on this, and how
closely you watch over Di. I'm selfish, you know. I hate to share you and I was
being mean because I want you all to myself. Di told me that you have been
saying that you might be ready, my love. I think, if all this preparation, and
fussing was for another little one as well, I would be less jealous, Khushi. My love, Di thinks you are this focused on her
because you might be..you might want a little one of our own--do you, Khushi...?"
Khushi smiled, and nodded shyly...she was truly ready. And she
already knew so much about all of this!! After all, even the right shade
of blue had already been found for the nursery, she did so want a
little baby boy! Further paint-related thoughts faded, as her husband
slowly took off her clothes, nibbling her throat, worshipping
her breasts, stroking into existence that quivering heat and fire that
only he could
sate with his own.
Arnav looked down at Khushi, tender passion on
that lovely face mirroring his own. If he could have a little girl who looked
exactly like his wife, Arnav thought, lowering his mouth to capture hers in a
kiss-he would paint every damn room in Raizada House any damn color she wanted.
But NOT... and yeah, on this point he would put his
foot down...it would for damn sure NOT be the color blue.
If you enjoyed this OS, and if you'd like to check out some more of my writing, take a look at the links below.
I have a Fan Fiction, "Perfection" which is ongoing. The completed works are the Short Story: "The Love Story On Page 3" and the One Shot -- "Homecoming". Read on!
LINKS:
Perfection (Thread 1): https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/topic/2784901
Perfection (Thread 2):https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/topic/2904041
Homecoming : https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/topic/2933278
The Love Story On Page 3: https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/topic/2934427
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