IPKKND FF:Perfection Th.3 (Chap 40 Pg 130)Upd:8/12 - Page 34

CHAPTER 35.

NK now walked into the study, fishing out a cell phone from his pocket. His face had given nothing away, as he held the Blackberry up for all to see. The phone was buzzing with the eerily familiar ringtone for Anjali, a colored display indicating it was turned on. Shyam Jha's slightly mangled, but apparently operational cell phone had somehow come into NK's possession, and he now placed this incredible clue onto the coffee table in the study, right between the two couples.

NK turned and without explanation, without saying anything in anger, or protest, he walked out, and not one of his four silent relatives inside the study had the guts to stop him. He had been totally silent from the moment they had seen him, till the moment he walked away. He had revealed nothing of the corrosive pain that had eaten into him because of Arnav's words. Now he was just as silent as he strode through the deserted corridor and back up to his bedroom, shutting the door quietly behind him.

Three pairs of eyes now focused on Arnav, as he felt the shock of being proved wrong within seconds of saying his angry words filter through him. Here they were, wondering about Shyam, planning feverishly how to track him, how to understand his moves. And here was the one person Arnav had dismissed as a fool who had brought them their first concrete clue, their first peek into that madman's inner world.


The "goddamn idiot" had beaten them all hollow, and they didn't even know how he had done this. But with Shyam's phone, knowing how tech savvy Shyam was, and how he had always treated his Blackberry as an extension of his life, they would have a lot of information to mine through. There would be names, addresses, contacts, even personal appointments and messages to work with. The famously secretive world of Shyam Jha could be cracked open.

Nobody had told Khushi, nor had she herself ever assumed that that loving Arnav Singh Raizada was going to be easy. Still, the fact that it would be this hard to deal with his casual cruelty was a revelation for her. Right now, she struggled with the very real desire to punch out her husband, who stood, tense and silent staring at the door out of which her friend had departed. She was trying to form words of reproach, trying to point out the enormity of Arnav's mistake when she realized she didn't need to bother.


Arnav was already striding out after NK.

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"Can anyone tell me what the hell that was all about? I don't think Arnav-ji was even correct in saying that NK likes Khushi as anything more than a friend, right Khushi? I mean, he has always treated you as a friend!!" said Payal, stroking Khushi's back, trying to leaven some of the tension from those slender shoulders.

"NK and Bhai--They have a..umm.. complicated relationship, Payal" said Aakash uncomfortably, as he tried to forget the myriad ways in which NK had shown, to the men of the Raizada family at least, exactly how much he had loved a certain Khushi Kumari Gupta from the moment he had met her.


Aakash knew that there were always going to be certain things one just did not share with the women of one's world. Arnav blurting out NK's feelings was one of those...private things that should never have seen the light of day. Now, as Khushi argued heatedly about how NK was just a friend, and Arnav was a jealous possessive rakshas, Aakash found himself perjuring his immortal soul as he worked valiantly to support this wrong belief of hers. In her innocent world, NK and Khushi could be just friends, without NK feeling anything more than that simple emotion for her.


Aakash now agreed with his clueless saali, and lied through his teeth, assuring her that NK did think of her as just a friend, and that yes, Bhai could be very deluded at times. Bhai was clearly being irrational here. Lying was a sin, Aakash knew, as he piled on the denials, helping to ease Khushi back into the comfortable relationship with NK that Bhai had disturbed. It was a sweet relationship that she cherished, and she would never know that it was completely based on a foundation she could not understand. But if lying right now spared NK, Aakash thought, well, then he, Aakash could live with that sin.

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"Why, Nanav?" Asked NK, conversationally, as if he was asking Arnav about the weather. NK stood casually, his stance relaxed and at ease as he faced the pool just outside his own bedroom. ASR has just walked into NK's room, expecting to see his cousin packing his suitcases, or furiously pacing, or even perhaps fighting mad, ready to throw some punches. Instead, NK was calm, his body emitting a sense of peace that unnerved Arnav because if its very unexpectedness.

Arnav did not pretend to misunderstand Nk's actual question. And so, he answered NK honestly, from the gut.

"Because she should be with you. And one of these days, either she or her relatives or someone who she trusts will figure that out. And I wont let her go no matter who finally decides that my having her is a mistake. I just won't let her go. She is stuck with me, and that's where she'll remain, no matter who comes and tries to take her away from me. And she will be miserable when she realizes the person she has chosen, the man who I am is not a man anyone would choose over a person like you. Not if they aren't insane."

NK's response was lighthearted--"But she is exactly that, right? Insane, I mean?" That teasing tone, again. Completely unexpected given what NK had heard, an unnatural reaction to the taunts and the vitriol that NK had been subjected to. What the hell? Arnav's face must have revealed his inner turmoil, because at this point NK sighed, and turning, he fixed Arnav with his earnest eyes. Now, Nand Kishore, and not NK spoke.

"She chose you, Nanav. I was never even an option. Even if you don't know this about her yet, I know that once she has given her heart to someone, it will never be available for anyone else. That's just not something my Khushi-ji can do. One man-woman, my Khushi-ji. I can love her, Shyam can want her, hell, Salman Khan can come off of her poster and beg her to be his. But none of us are her Laad Governer, Nanav. You don't deserve her. We both know that, maybe even she knows that. But you have her, anyways. And you will always have her, Nanav, because she will not think about who she should be with or what other people think. She will just...be with you. Forever. And she wants to be with you, paagal that she is. So I respect that. I want that for her. If you are the happiness she craves, then how can I not be there to help? Dost hu main--dosti ka farz to nibhana hai..."


Arnav watched his cousin, sensing the truth in his words. Arnav was, in fact, feeling a sense of deja vu, as if this situation had in fact happened before. This was a selfless act of giving, of tolerating pain, and still smiling. This was sacrificing oneself for a greater purpose, giving up happiness so someone else could feel it. In his world view of profit and loss, of exact accounting, this was completely unnatural. For a man like Arnav, this kind of sacrifice was literally gibberish, it was something that made no sense. One held on tight to one's heart, guarded it. One did not open that heart up for pain, smile through the tears. But incomprehensible or not, he had seen this behavior before...but where?


And then it hit him. This was what Khushi had always done, for as long as he had known her. He had inflicted pain, she had absorbed it, internalized her hurt, then come back, smiling, for more of the same torment. Not because she was stupid, and did not feel hurt, but because she would much rather tolerate the pain than let it seep onto anyone she cared for. Always placing her family, her friends, hell, even him, before herself. Taking the blows so they would not have to, accepting the burden so others who she loved could go on unburdened. |

To live a life like this--that was, for Arnav, against every normal instinct.

To love a person like this--that was, for Arnav, pure madness.

Arnav had thought, until this moment, that Khushi was the only person who could be so...good. But right now, standing before another such person, Arnav realized that he had been wrong. Never again would he be able to think of anyone's face other than NK's when people spoke of that painful, impossible ideal--- selfless love. Poets wrote of it, legends were built around it. But the reality? To live that way, to smile through that pain? To do that, one had to be---truly remarkable. To love someone, to then set that love free, and to know not only that the loved one is lost forever...but to then to be truly happy for that other person--this was greatness.

Arnav Singh Raizada was not a great man. It humbled him now as he realized that NK was.

NK was going on..." I'm not leaving, Nanav. You'd better make your peace with that. I'd like to punch you out right now, and I will, when all this is over. But right now, you need my help, and she does too. You might not trust me, but I do trust myself. I don't need your permission to help my friend. At least I can help keep her happy, keep her safe. You have everything else of hers, Nanav. You have her love, her commitment, even her thoughts. I just have her friendship. And, along with that comes the right to help keep her safe. And, you undeserving bas***d, you don't get to dictate to me whether or not that is my right. It was mine from the moment we met and she called me her friend. So...we good, Nanav? "

"We good." quietly responded Arnav.

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Friendships between men were odd things, thought Payal as she watched NK and Arnav walk back into the study, joking and pushing each other as taunts flew in the air between them. Payal shook her head very slightly at her excitable young sister, holding her wrist to stop her from launching into her husband's arms, or, perhaps, (heaven forbid!!) into NK's.


Khushi pouted at the discreet, painful pinch delivered by Payal's nimble fingers, but she heeded the warning. She wisely held her tongue that longed to ask questions, to demand explanations, and generally interfere between the two brothers who now were relaxed and in complete harmony. Some things were better dealt in the mysterious, say- nothing, understand-everything male world that no woman was truly privy to.


Both women stayed shut, knowing when to let the the men be, well, men. Khushi smiled nervously as Arnav, with shocking rudeness, compared NK's previous exit from the study to a frightened bride in the bedroom.

NK's comeback, that Arnav should know all about swift retreats since Arnav was clearly a man who did not have either the length or the stamina for the bedroom made Khushi gasp in shock.

Her husband, howling with laughter at what was surely a mortal offense then offered NK very X rated lessons on pleasing the deaf-mute who would be the only woman who'd agree to marry a whiny crybaby like NK.

This horrible insult pleased NK enormously, so he hit Arnav hard on the shoulders.

Aakash laughed in sheer happiness as he saw such love blossom between his brothers. He joined in to tell them of his own feelings, to express his affection for them. He informed both brothers that they were ugly, pathetic sons-of-bitches while he, Aakash, was the clear winner among all Raizada males in terms of sex appeal, sexual ability and looks.

Both NK and Arnav greeted this show of respect from their younger cousin with a great deal of delight. To show this delight, they combined forces to question Aakash's manhood, penis size, and his probable sexual preference for the goat Laksmi over the woman Payal in the bedroom.

Through such completely inexplicable insults and jibes, the previous tension dissolved. On the coffee table, the almost forgotten cellphone suddenly sprang into life. A message beeped.

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