Arhi FF : Living and Loving ~Lnk for Thd 2 on pg.1 - Page 20

Khushi prepared a plateful of Jalebis, and made herself comfortable on the couch, as she knew she would be sitting for quite a long time now, drowning in the memories of days gone by. It had been almost eight months since they had got together. Her mind automatically remembered the proud face of Arnav Singh Raizada as he announced to her that he loved her, on the day of her sister's marriage. . . . . .


"I love you, Khushi."

Khushi, with a silly smile on her face, stared on, as for the first time in her nineteen year old life, she was rendered speechless.

She felt herself being enveloped in his strong arms, her head resting on his chest, listening to his steady heartbeat. Sighing in contentment, she thought about how something good was finally happening to her. "Khushi??" He called out in a husky voice and she pulled back to see what he wanted. He was looking at her with so much expectation, his warm brown eyes, barely managing to hide his nervousness. Arnav Singh Raizada and nervousness in the same sentence was silly to listen. Even to Khushi Kumari Gupta.

If not for the happiness that he had brought with his proposal, she would have actually laughed at his expression. But right now she was too busy being happy. She nodded in excitement, and blushed. This seemed to have answered all of Arnav's questions, for he engulfed her in his arms, and laid a kiss on her neck, making her frantically beating heart to stop beating altogether.

As they went down to join the marriage ceremony, Arnav had had eyes only for her, making her blush more than the bride herself. And in between, she had pulled him to the photographer and asked him to click a photo of them both. Arnav who had felt overwhelmed by her reaction for his love, had ignored the hordes of people, and had turned to her and murmured near her temple that she was crazy. Whereas Khushi had turned and given her full-fledged, Khushi Kumari Gupta styled grin to the camera.

That night, as she made Payal sit on the wide bed, which was decked with so many flowers, she had been unable to contain her excitement, and had told her Jiji, "Jiji!! I want to tell you something. . . But promise me you won't tell anybody!!" Payal, who was arranging her bangles properly on her hand had asked, "Anybody?? Can't I tell Akashji too??" Khushi had grinned and shook her head in negation, making Payal frown and say, "Aisa hai tho, tu hume bhi math bataana! I've already hid Shyamji's truth from Akashji. I can't hide anything else from him!"

Khushi had felt a little disappointed at that. And guilty too. That the reason behind Payal feeling guilty was her. But she soon recovered when she had been caught by Arnav and had been given a proper round of kissing. And whenever she had remembered that the next day, she had giggled and blushed. . . . . . .

She brushed away the tears that had formed in her eyes as she remembered one more scene from her past. . . .

"You're a bitch, aren't you??" Shyam's voice murmured into her ear, as he ignored her cringing at his contact. "I had told you to stay away from him. Now that you can't keep your pretty little hands and mouth to yourself, I'll have to go and tell Arnav how much of a tease you were and how you made me fall for you. . . What do you think will happen next, KhushiJI?!" He asked, his lips touching her earlobe. Khushi kept on struggling against his grip on her, failing miserably to make him budge even an inch. Tears blurred her vision, as she heard him tell her what his lies would result in. "He would throw you away. We both know he's absolutely capable of doing it. . . ."

He would have continued had they both not heard the sound of footsteps nearing them. Khushi recognised it was Arnav and had dried her tears and straightened her dupatta, as she felt the familiar pair of arms going around her waist, and his solid form against her back. She leaned on him, suddenly feeling too weak to even stand on her own.

Arnav had not recognized anything wrong in her. He rubbed his stubbled cheek against her cheek, knowing how much she seemed to like it, and kissed the mole on her right cheek, which always had teased him. And when that failed to elicit any kind of response from her, he had even bit it, sensing there was something wrong, as her only reaction was to run a soothing hand through his hair. He had turned her in his arms, and was about to ask her what was worrying her, when she had been called by his Di. . . . . .

And in a way that is exactly what Arnav had done. Threw her like she was a used tissue. . . . .


Khushi was brought to the present when she felt a nip at her foot and a tug at her skirt. She looked down to find Casey look at her with a woebegone expression on her face. She lifted the pooch, and put her on her lap, and hid her face in the soft fur, hugging Casey tight, and cried in despair. Casey whined too. And licked Khushi's hands as if to cheer her up.

*****

Aditi had entered Hope with her usual happy countenance, wishing a good morning to the old couple, who were abandoned by their children, and who now sat on a bench in the garden, patting Casey and spoiling her a little more, and finally she greeted Shiva with a loud Hey!!She shifted her case to her free hand, unable to comprehend the expression on Shiva's face.'Maybe the new case is too delicate. . . . .'Aditi thought and this made her rush to the guest room, where she knew the new member would be. Still unconscious, the woman looked pale and peaceful in her sleep. When Aditi started to take the pulse of the woman, she felt her stir and looked at her with a confused, scared look. With more than a year of experience in handling her patients, Aditi gave her her friendliest smile as she introduced herself and tried to shoo the fears the woman might be facing, "Hello. I'm Dr. Aditi. You are in safe hands. There is absolutely no problem with you or your nearly eight months old fetus. You are. . . ."

"Anjali. Anjali. Singh. Raizada. . . . ." Anjali said. Her voice devoid of any emotion. Aditi nodded to herself as she murmured, "Beautiful name, Anjali. Are you from around??"

Anjali turned to her at that. The last thing she remembered was getting in a bus, not bothering to see its destination, and when the conductor had asked for money, she had removed all her jewels and shoved it to his face. She also remembered getting down when she felt she could no longer sit peacefully. Basically she had no idea where she was right now. "Which place do you actually mean by 'around'??" she asked, and watched Aditi still her movements for a second, before she started checking her blood pressure. "You're in House of Hope. Or Hope, as I love to call. We have all kinds of homeless people here Anjali. Oh! And you're in Goa."

"Goa. . . ." Anjali murmured, and remembered the previous few times that she had been here. Once or twice with her younger brother, the thoughts of whom made her worry about him. Was he taking care of himself? Was he angry at her for leaving him? She shook her head to clear those thoughts away. And the next time she was here, was with her husband, the thoughts of whom made her fists clench in mad rage.

Aditi, oblivious to all this, took out a new patient file from her case, and started filling in the details.

'Name: A-N-J-A-L-I S-I-N-G-H R-A-I-Z-A. . . . . . Oh, f**k!' Her thoughts were cut down with the profanity as soon as she realized where she had heard the surname "Raizada". She quickly masked her face with her calm mask, even as her mind whirled with thoughts. 'Is she a related to Arnav Singh Raizada?! Does Khushi know?! Oh God! Not again!! Poor thing had just started to live!' she thought as she excused herself and came out of the room. She was about to run in search of Khushi, when she saw Shiva, who had stood outside the door and listened to their conversation. She had a grim expression on her face, which answered Aditi's first question. Khushi did know this Anjali Singh Raizada, then. Aditi sighed and shook her head in sadness. "She in her room??" Aditi asked, and Shiva did not even answer, as they both started climbing the stairs, to the top floor where Khushi lived.

Aditi remembered how she had teased Khushi that she was the princess who herself chose to be locked in a tower, when Khushi had chose the top floor of the building for herself. And in a sense, she had been right. Being Khushi's closest of living beings, both Shiva and Aditi knew she had indeed locked herself up in actuality. "All because of this woman! I so wish I could throw her out of Hope! And quite frankly, I would have! Had it not been for the promise I had made myself that I would help Khushi in sheltering the homeless!" Shiva voiced her anger, making Aditi sigh and shake her head at how fate played a cruel game with her friend. "Call it Karma, or whatever crap you want. I just can't believe Khushi is being made to face such situations in her life. Again!" Aditi exclaimed, her heart going out for her friend.

"Though, what the high and mighty Raizada sister is doing here, at Hope, I don't understand!" Shiva muttered, making Aditi wonder the same. They stopped at Khushi's door to listen to what she was doing. Surprisingly, they heard her yelling, "Catch, Casey!" There was a crash, making them both flinch, and chuckle when Khushi shouted again, "Again?!" And in a while, she had opened the door which led to the huge apartment of hers, and stood smiling at them, a brightly colored Frisbee in her hand. Casey trotted through the door and ran down the stairs.

The signs of crying was there. But they could see that she had stopped crying, "Did you check on her, Adi?" Aditi nodded, as she gave a verdict about Anjali and her fetus. Khushi mock-flinched at the word "fetus", and joked, "Its a baby, Aditi!!" Aditi frowned, and was about to argue that it would remain a fetus until and unless it came out of the mother's womb, the doctor in her wanting to explain the term. But she was, at the moment, concerned for her friend.

"We shall talk about this later, shall we? I'm now going down to meet her." Khushi announced and her audience exchanged worried glances.

"Khushi. . . . Are you sure, kannu?? She doesn't seem to know you're here. I can always handle it for you. . ." Shiva asked, as she held Khushi's hand. Khushi smiled reassuringly, as she laid her free hand on top of Shiva's. "No. Its time I face it."

*****

Khushi found Anjali staring out of the window, her eyes taking in the high roofed buildings and the church across the street with blank eyes. She went to stand behind her, taking a deep breath to soothe her racing heart. Was she ready to face her past, she did not know. But was she ready to shelter this seemingly helpless woman in front of her.

Absolutely yes.

She would never let anything come in between her and her new-found destiny, and that did give her some amount of strength.

She laid her hand on Anjali's shoulder, and made her turn to her. Anjali who had looked up in surprise, started blinking her tears and after a while threw her arms around Khushi, gasping her name. 'So she knows the truth about her husband. . . .' Khushi thought, as she hugged her back, knowing well that only having an infidel husband could make a woman feel so desolate. That and having fallen in love with a man who did not trust you. She made Anjali sit on the bed, and held her until her sobs reduced.

"What are you doing her, Anjali Di??" Khushi asked.

"What are you doing here, Khushi?"

"I run this place. . ."

"Oh! Then you must be waiting to kick me out of your place. . . After all my husband and brother made you suffer. . ."

"You know it isn't the truth. What are you doing here?"

"I fled."

"Why?"

There was a moment's pause before Anjali whispered, "When I came to know about Shya. . . Chotey and him were there with me when another woman came to Shantivan, claiming to be hiswife. It turned ugly after Chotey handled the woman. . . ."

"Handled?? Let me guess! He threw a big wad of cash to buy her silence." Khushi's voice expressed the disgust she had just started to feel for the man she loved.

Anjali nodded, lowering her gaze in shame, and Khushi felt a part of her belief that Arnav would return once he came to know the truth, died. "Why did you leave??", she pursued.

"Chotey was almost about to kill Shyam, and amidst all the yelling, I came to know what had happened to you. What he had done to you. . . . And then, he started getting too. . . . Too over protective. . . . And I. . . . I. . . . . I felt suffocated!!" Anjali sobbed her answer. So Arnav Singh Raizada did not know where his sister was. Yet! A voice stood out in her head. He would eventually get to know about his sister of course. He would give away his life happily to know where his sister was at the moment.

Khushi's shoulders slumped as she smiled sadly at her, "You're staying here. That is what is best for you and your child, Please keep that in your mind before you even think of fleeing to any place else. . ."

Anjali looked up in awe. The woman in front of her had to leave practically everything because of her brother, and in some way, because of her!! And Khushi still wanted to keep her here?! She did not know if she could live with that amount of guilt. But then, she would have to live with the guilt no matter where she was. And right now, at this point of her pregnancy, she simply could not afford to take anymore risks and she nodded her head, deciding to make it up to Khushi in any which way possible. . . . . .

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Poor Khushi! Shes really in agony! nw wid Anjali before her eyes!