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PROLOGUE
"She is going to kill us when she finds out," Lavanya Kashyap exclaimed loudly to her best friends whilst chewing her lower lip nervously. They were situated around the kitchen counter, surrounding an opened envelope that was addressed to Khushi Kumari Gupta.
The simple slip of paper lay there innocently, but they all knew that they were in deep, deep trouble.
"She is going to kill us." Naina Chopra agreed, her eyes wide with horror.
"No, she is going to slaughter us. Whose clever idea was this in the first place?" Payal Gupta scolded the girls.
Naina and Lavanya immediately pointed their fingers at the other as Payal shook her head at the girls who were younger than her by a year.
She, Naina, Lavanya and Khushi were all best friends, of course, Khushi was Payal's younger cousin, but the age difference did not matter as they all got along splendidly.
Up until now.
"It wasn't our fault. We didn't think that she would actually get in!" Lavanya complained.
"Yes, you really thought that my younger sister who was voted as 'The Hottest Chick in the Year', 'Prom Queen' and voted as the 'Most Beautiful Girl in the Year' in the school yearbook in High School would be declined. Are you crazy?" Payal cried.
"Calm down, it's OK. We can just turn it down." Naina suggested, being the most calm-headed of the three. "I'm sure it's simple, we can just call them up, pretend to be Khushi and decline their offer."
"Or maybe we can just tell them that she died in an accident ... that way we can avoid all the questioning." Lavanya quipped up, unhelpfully.
Payal and Naina shot her withering glances.
"We're not going to tell them that she died. If we just tell them that she is no longer interested, they'll find someone else. I mean, they must get thousands of applications through, it can't be that hard to find a replacement right?" Naina continued, as if Lavanya hadn't spoken.
"Well, find the number to call then," Lavanya said as she thrust the paper towards Payal.
The girls waited with bated breath as Payal spoke down the line. Their worry grew as Payal rummaged through the Terms and Conditions section of the file that they were sent. Her hopeful face turning into a frown with each passing second.
"Well what did they say?" The girls asked as soon as Payal hung up.
"We can't. Read this line here." Payal passed the paper over.
All applicants must understand and acknowledge that once they are selected for participation in the program, they are not allowed to pull out of the process. Selected applicants must only leave the program if and only if they are eliminated from the process ... yada yaada yada
"Oh God." Lavanya groaned into her hand. "Just call them back up and tell them that she died in an accident!" Lavanya repeated what now seemed to be their only choice of escape.
"Well. That settles that. She doesn't have a choice." Naina sighed, after a pregnant pause of silence.
"It could be good for her ..." Payal started, the two girls looked at her with surprise. "Well, I mean, if she's not able to get herself into a stable relationship, then maybe this is the push that she needed."
"Is this like a practice run through of what we're going to tell Khushi when she gets here ... you know, so that she doesn't commit mass murder?" Lavanya asked Payal, looking at her as if she'd grown another head.
"Actually, I agree with Payalia," Naina added. "She's going to hate us, but maybe it'll work out for her in the long run. I mean there's no confirmation that she'll win this, but maybe it will boost her confidence."
"He'd be a fool not to fall for her and she him. Look at this picture! He is so completely gorgeous! They'll make a hot couple, don't you think?" Payal drooled over his picture.
"Does it just not bother you that we are breathing our last gulps of air right now?" Lavanya asked as she bit her nails.
"If that's the case then you should be careful, because he would be your Jetji." Naina smirked at Payal who dropped the paper as if it had spontaneously combusted.
"Yup, she's definitely going to kill us. What do you think the murder weapon will be?" Lavanya asked as she eyed the sharp knives in their holders wearily.
"I have to admit, they would have beautiful children," Naina sighed dreamily. "Why the hell did I not sign myself up for this?" She suddenly questioned and as Payal burst into laughter.
"Khushi doesn't like knives. She's going to strangle us." Lavanya nodded surely. "I never thought that I would die from suffocation."
"You know, this is one hell of a good excuse to go on a major shopping trip! We can buy her new dresses and heels - something sexy. She's going to make him drool all over her; after all, the first week, she will be competing with nineteen other women for his attention." Naina clapped her hands excitedly.
"Competing with nineteen other women to get whose attention?" A voice asked curiously from the kitchen doorway.
The excitement died down almost immediately.
The three girls suddenly looked scared as they stared at Khushi who was casually drying her wet hair; having just stepped out of the shower.
"Erm, Khushi, we have something to tell you ..."
**
"YOU DID WHAT?" Khushi pratically screamed, shock evident in her voice. Her small hands clenched tightly at her side as her friends and sister revealed exactly what they had done.
"We-erm," Lavanya cleared her throat uncomfortably. "We, sent a form with your details and picture to LG Productions and you are one of the lucky twenty girls to be picked to participate in this reality TV show." Lavanya repeated or the umpteenth time, trying her best to ignore Khushi's harsh glare. "It's called, Love & Reality, and this season you will be competing to win the heart of this handsome guy! If you win, which we highly expect you to do, you become the future Mrs. Imagine that?!" She finished with a nervous chuckle.
"Can you believe it?" Naina continued, "you got picked out of thousands of girls;" trying to subdue the situation, but clearly it was not working.
'Time to ready the body bags. We'll be needing three tonight.' Lavanya thought.
"Of course she was picked." Shashi Gupta, Khushi's and Payal's father, stated. "This is my Bitiya we're talking about."
"Oh. My. God." Khushi repeated slowly, over and over again as she stared at the people in front of her with disbelief. "I can not believe that you did this. And Bauji, you?! I thought that you would take my side on this."
"Hai Re Nandkishore! I know it's a shock to you, Titaliya, but-" her father's sister, Buaji, began.
But Khushi's horrified glare quietened her as Khushi realised that even her mother and aunt sided with the majority on this. Unbelievable. A bunch of traitors.
'Make that six body bags.' Lavanya corrected herself.
"A shock? Of course I'm shocked!" Khushi screamed. "I can't believe you've done this; especially you Jiji! How could you do this to me?" She asked, frustrated with each and every person in the room.
"We all know that you have...trouble with your relationships," Payal stared, Khushi scoffed and opened her mouth to argue however Payal raised her voice above her, cutting her off, "we just ... wanted to help ... you along."
"Jiji, I'm only twenty-three!" She screeched and threw her arms into the air. "Just because I don't have a man in my life yet, doesn't mean that I never will! Plus, you don't either, so I don't see why you are suddenly pointing this 'getting married and settling down' nonsense on me!" She scrunched her nose up in annoyance.
No one said anything. They had no reply to that.
"I'm not doing it." Khushi said stubbornly. "I refuse to go on a stupid television show to find love. How will I find that when I have to, not only compete with other girls who probably don't have a brain, but also be filmed 24/7. How creepy! Call them up and cancel. I'm not going. Tell them that I'd rather participate in this Season and increase their TRPs by giving them one more viewer." She then turned to her best friend.
"Khushi - you already watch that show-"
"Well Khushi, that's the thing." Naina cut in, saving Lavanya from Khushi's wrath. "We already called them up and tried. But there was a detail that we may have overlooked when we submitted your application. The Terms and Conditions clearly state that you can't pull out and can only leave the show if you are eliminated."
"Eliminated?" Khushi questioned, her arms fell from being folded back to her sides. "So, I either go on the show or we get sued?"
"Well, you'll only be on the show until you get eliminated." Lavanya added, upon the many glared she recieved in response; "well, I mean that is if you get eliminated." Khushi now turned to glare at her.
'Really this was a lose-lose situation. You really can't please everybody in this household.'
"On the bright side, Khushi, we all know who he is." Her mum spoke up.
"What do you mean?" Khushi questioned. "Please don't tell me it's your cousin's son, Janbar."
"No, no - the man you will be competing for is Arnav Singh Raizada." Naina added helpfully; hoping that this new tidbit of information would cheer Khushi up.
Her hope was in vain.
"You mean the 'Number One Bachelor in India' according to those Magazines you read?" Khushi asked. "Great." Her voice dripped with sarcasm.
"Well fine. I still refuse to do this show so I'm going to do what I have to do. Get myself eliminated." With that Khushi flounced out of the room, slamming her bedroom shut behind her.
There, she spent the rest of the week Googling Arnav Singh Raizada, trying to find as much information on him - more specifically, as much dirt on him as possible.
Unfortunately for her, her research on him came back cleaner than a hand sanitiser.
**
"Hello Ladies. Welcome to Love & Reality!" An annoyingly chirpy woman announced. "My name is Anjali Jha and I am the Producer." She sent a pearly white smile to the women standing in front of her. "Let's not waste any time; basically what's going to happen is that I'm going to be showing you where to go, what to do and I'll be informing you on what to expect."
Khushi faked a smile and grimaced on the inside. 'Great. The show is going to be produced by the Bachelor's older sister. This is going to be ounces of fun.'
Mrs. Jha's perfectly manicured fingers clutched onto the clipboard in her hands that had details of every girl on it and a schedule of the many days ahead along with it. Khushi inwardly groaned. 'Could this day get any worse?'
Khushi zoned out as Anjali gave the girls a lecture on codes and conduct and what was expected of them.
/Sometime later.../
"Now, when you are shown to your rooms you'll find a list by your beds. You should check through everything before the first episode is filmed tonight." She added sternly, however, the mask did not stay put for long as a smile broke through eventually. "That's all I have to say for the time being, I apologise for the brief introduction but are there any questions?"
Khushi snorted inside her head, 'brief my arse'.
"When can we meet, Arnav?" A girl squeaked and excited murmurs followed shortly after from all of the girls, excluding Khushi, of course.
Khushi stared at the small brunette who had proposed the question. She was a pretty girl, with curly tendrils that framed her heart shaped face which was lightened with excitement as she waited for Anjali to reply.
"I was waiting for someone to ask that." Anjali responded with a smile that seemed slightly insincere and Khushi could have sworn she saw the older woman roll her eyes but decided to credit that to her imagination. "You'll meet my brother tonight at the opening ceremony."
Curious murmurs spread through the area as those who hadn't done their research became aware that they were talking to the Bachelor's sister here.
"What time will that be?" Another girl piped up.
"Well, the show is airing live this evening at eight o'clock." Anjali informed them professionally. "And it is now 12PM, lunch is being served in the Banquet Hall downstairs; so I suggest you girls get down there and have your meal before you start getting ready for tonight. But also use the time to get to know each other better. After all, regardless of how long you stay, you will be spending a lot of time with each other more than with Arnav. I won't keep you any longer; when you return you will find a contract on each of your beds for you to sign."
"Oh My God!. 8 hours. We only have eight hours to get ready." A girl cried from the other corner of the room.
Khushi looked over and saw that it was one of the girls who she had grimaced at when she'd entered this place. Low cut top, barely there skirt, pancaked make up - not good. Go figure that she would be the one who'd think that eight hours would not be enough. Quite frankly, Khushi thought that she needed far more than eight hours.
"A contract?" Khushi asked, ignoring the other girl; bringing the more important issue to light.
"Well you are going to be caught on camera 24/7 and selected segments of that which is filmed will air every week before the Rose Ceremony." Anjali answered, giving Khushi a calculative look. "So, cameras will be following you at all times, and yes that does mean when you are sleeping as well." Anjali cut off a girl who opened her mouth, Khushi held back a grin. "The only place cameras aren't at is the bathroom for obvious reasons. The contract is a standard procedure, it's just a formal document that shows your consent to us filming you."
Khushi held back the bile in her throat.
Everyone was going to be watching her.
India, and other places in the world where this show was broadcasted was going to be watching her. 'Hai Devi Maiyya! Why?' Khushi sobbed in her head.
As Anjali turned to take her leave, Khushi called out to her. "Wait! When will eliminations take place?"
She needed to get out of this hell hole as soon as possible and she wasn't going to be taking her chances.
"Yes, of course. Eliminations." Anjali looked down at her clipboard. "Eliminations will take place every Friday evening live. which gives you the week to spend time with Arnav and to get to know him; but also remember to let him in as well - because that's going to be the deciding factor - you and your personality. Please, refrain from making a scene if you are eliminated; should there be any disturbances, this Production House will not hesitate to call the security to escort you out of the premises. Something I'm sure you don't want millions of other people to witness."
Anjali looked around at the twenty different girls, varying in height, shape and colour, each one as excited as the last, except one girl who Anjali knew of from the very beginning, Khushi Kumari Guputa.
Anjali looked around at the twenty different girls, varying in height, shape and colour, each one as excited as the last, except one girl who Anjali knew of from the very beginning, Khushi Kumari Guputa.
Being the producer of the No1 Hit Show, Anjali was one of the few people who had the authority to choose who entered the show and, as soon as Khushi's application came up, Anjali had put a big, fat, red tick next to her name.
She didn't know why she had been so optimistic straight away but, seeing her now, she instantly knew that Khushi was different, maybe the different that Arnav wanted; because finding the perfect girl for Arnav was just as important to her as it was to him.
Well, actually, she was sure that she was far more excited about this process than he was.
**
A couple of floors above in the vast mansion, Arnav Singh Raizada sighed heavily and collapsed onto the bed that would be his for the next few months.
Closing his eyes, he let out a heavy groan, already feeling tired from his plane journey back from London, a new business venture had come up, one that now brought billions more of turnover to his company AR and quite frankly he was more nervous for the up-coming evening than he had been when he had been trying to secure that deal.
Here he was, a young, a twenty-six year old man who had his own business empire that he'd built from scratch and one that he loved to bits; worried to bits about meeting twenty girls who were apparently very beautiful and only one of those girls would be left, more importantly would become his wife.
This wasn't exactly how he planned to meet his future wife, in fact, he wasn't planning this at all. But the pressure from his grandmother to get married was overwhelming and, after many months of persuading, he finally gave in to become the Bachelor on Love & Reality, his sister's show.
"Why am I doing this?" he asked himself out loud, "why, why, why am I doing this?"
"Because Nani and I say so." Arnav shot up to see the familiar flash of brown walk through his door. "They're here." Anjali stated and Arnav let out a loud, puff of air. "Excited?"
"More...nervous." Arnav replied hesitantly, running a hand through his hair, "I just don't know what to expect Di, what are the girls like? Are they scary?" He asked with innocently wide eyes.
"They're ... something ... but not scary ... well a few may be ... but ..." Anjali giggled behind her hand at her younger brother's increasingly wide expression. "Don't panic, it'll be fine and anyway, Shyam is the host of the show, so you won't really be alone - your Jijaji will be there with you all the way. Take this as a ... life experience."
"Life experience? How is this- you know what, I'm not even going to bother." Arnav glared at his sister before saying, "So, I'll be meeting them when they come through the door?"
"Yup. Exciting nah?" Anjali chirped, ignoring Arnav's glare - she was used to it now. But she decided that she should stop teasing him and give him what he clearly needed in that moment.
"Since I am the most amazing sister in the world ..." she paused as she pulled out a small file, "these are all the pictures of the girls that could possibly be your future wife; I know it's against the rules but when have the Raizada's ever followed the rules eh? But the catch is that they don't have names on them - I wasn't able to print them on to it - it would have looked suspicious - plus, there has to be some sort of suspense right?" She asked rhetorically.
"At least, I'll know what they look like." Arnav grinned, "Thanks, Di."
Arnav hesitantly opened the file and immediately closed it again before he had a change to have a proper look.
"It's not compulsory that you marry them, Arnav - the girls don't know that but you do." Anjali reminded him, knowing that he was on the brink of his patience and about a step away from walking out of here. "You either find love or you don't and in your case, I hardly see it as a lose-lose situation. If anything, I'd say it's a win-win. You in a house with 20 beautiful women ... "
"Whatever. When do I have to be ready by?" Arnav asked her, brushing off her words of wisdom; but he knew that his sister knew that he appreciated it.
"You've still got a couple of hours." Anjali informed him, brushing his hair softly to which he predictably responded by whisking her hand away. "Well, I better go, I need to send the contracts around and make sure those girls have everything they need." She rolled her eyes, standing up to walk to the door.
"Bye, Di."
"Oh, and Chotte?" Anjali asked, pausing at the door and turning round to face him - however, he was highly engrossed with his file.
When he looked up, she sent him a wide, bubbly grin and said, "Welcome to Love & Reality."
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