FF Keeping Khushi Thread 9:Part 90 Page 138 - Page 76

Short and sweet.
Aarti though new to relations and playing with children is doing a really good job.
She can be a very good mother in the future.

A warming update.
Continue soon.
And Smita hope your mother is getting better now.

That was a good update !

Part 89

Aarti looked at the plump child sleeping on her lap, Nidhi's head resting trustingly against her heart, and felt her throat catch.

All alone in this wide, cruel world, but for the protection of Baba and Khushiji...! Not just Nidhi, but 20 children like her... Khushiji must have been the first orphan Baba had adopted, and now she was their Di Amma and Baba their father...

Aarti ran a loving hand over the child's hair, ruffling it, enjoying the soft warm feel of it.

Baba watched her with a slight smile on his face.

NK and Akash entered the living room, Arnav halting at the door to give instructions to HP.

Khushi saw Nidhi in Aarti's lap, and wanted to free Aarti of the child's weight. Aarti had 5 puncture wounds on her stomach area after the surgery. What if holding Nidhi hurt her?

As the entire family watched, Khushi tried to get up from the chair she had been sitting in for long after a hectic day of running about, and staggered.

All gasped. Many jumped up from their seats, and many hands reached to aid Khushi.

But before anyone could touch Khushi or she could fall, two hands caught hold of her arms, and held her up. NK and Akash helped her to sit down.

"Khushi Bhabi, are you alright?", Akash and NK asked, their faces pale.

Payal put her arm around Khushi's shoulder, her anxious eyes on Khushi.

Khushi smiled and nodded.

"Khushi!" Arnav bent over her, breathing harshly, having rushed from the door to her chair.

"I am perfectly fine, Arnavji!", Khushi downplayed the weakness in her limbs, smiling at the anxious family gathered around her. She turned to NK. "NK Bhai, Aartiji's wounds must be hurting. Can you take Nidhi from her?"

"Yes, Khushi Bhabi." NK walked towards Aarti, an anxious look in his eyes.

NK looked at Aarti sitting with Nidhi asleep on her lap. He bent over her and held his arms out for Nidhi. Aarti helped him lift the child on to his broad shoulder.

"Does you wound hurt, Aarti?", he asked softly.

"Slightly.", Aarti said.

"Khushi Bhabi was worried Nidhi's weight would'"

Aarti smiled. "I am fine." She walked towards Khushiji to ensure that she was OK.

The family members began bidding the Raizadas a good night and leaving, one family after the other.

Baba kissed Khushi on the forehead, and whispered in her ear, "Take care, Taarva." His past and the loss of his wife and unborn child added to the urgency in his voice.

"I will, Baba. I promise."

Baba nodded.

"I promise, Baba. I will take good care. Nothing bad will happen to me." Khushi hugged him, laying her ear against his heart.

Baba ran his hand over her head, blessing her and her unborn child.

Akash took the Sinhas home, and NK drove Baba and the children to Omkar in 2 trips.

Arnav carried Khushi up the stairs to their bedroom as soon as the guests left.

"Arnavji! I can walk!", Khushi protested, smiling.

"Bhy refujje (refuse) a phree (free) lift?", asked Mami. "Let your husbaand lift you now, Khushi Bitiyaa." She shot daggers at Mamaji. "After sometime they will staap (stop) lifting even a phingaar (finger) to help you!"

"Don't say that, Manno!", Mamaji protested. "I am ready to lift my finger, hands, and legs to help you!"

Mami winked at Khushi. Payal & Nani giggled.

"Before hamre Akaash Bitwaa was born, I could lift you. Now, after so many years of marriage, your weight and my weak spine will not let me lift you!" Mamaji looked at Khushi. "This is what marriage does to us men! Robs us of our spine!", He and the others laughed.

Mami pretended to glare at her laughing husband. "Aap to shutuppiya hi kar lo, Ji!"

Arnav carried Khushi into their room, and placed her carefully on their bed.

(Paayaal, thanx!)

"Khushi, sit here. Don't set your foot down. Tell me what you want. I will bring it to you here,", Arnav was dead serious.

"I want to use the bathroom.", Khushi smiled. "Will you bring it here?", she teased him.

"No. But I can take you there.", Arnav smiled slightly.

He lifted her carefully, and walked to the bathroom, setting her inside the open door. "Call me when you are done."

He waited for her outside the shut door he had forbidden her to lock for fear that she would fall and he would be unable to get in without breaking the locked door.

Khushi asked for her night clothes. He passed it to her, and stood waiting.

She finally came out, dressed in a white suit with short sleeves, the dupatta draped modestly across her bosom.

Arnav lifted her in his strong arms, and lowered her to lie on the bed. He then pulled her dupatta off and threw it away. He didn't like anything blocking his view.

Khushi smiled and lay watching Arnavji as he took a set of night clothes from his wardrobe.

"The purple T-shirt...", she suggested softly. "It makes you look...", her voice trailed away at the look in his eyes.

He joined her in their bed a few minutes later in his purple top and loose trousers, dimming the lights, and pulling the blanket over both of them.

Khushi curled up against him, her right arm around his waist, her head in the crook of his neck.

"Arnavji, everything went off very well, didn't it?", she asked softly.

"Hhmm.." Arnav sighed, signifying relief.

"Now the mehendi and the sangeet.", said Khushi.

"Khushi, you are not going to do anything strenuous. You are going to sit somewhere and order others to do whatever you want done. The others will do it."

Khushi smiled at the return of the ASR.

"Had you fallen today... ", Arnav could not even complete the sentence. His fingers fondled the slight bulge where his baby lay under her heart.

"Arnavji, do you think our family will let me fall? That they will let something bad happen to our baby? ", Khushi asked smiling.

Arnav looked at her smiling face resting against his chest.

"The baby is not just ours. He or she is a part of Nani, Mami, Mamaji, Akash & NK Bhai, Payalji & Aartiji, Di and Anandji, Baba and our children, Amma, Gopi Kakka, Payal's parents and Buaji'Do you really think they will let something happen to our child? Something that is preventable?"

"No.", Arnav had to admit.

"You don't have to worry over everything, all by yourself. You have brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, grandmothers, mothers, and fathers to help you."

Arnav lay silent, hugging Khushi close to him, thinking about her words.

Khushi said softly after a while, "Our child is very lucky, Arnavji."

Arnav looked at her, a question in his eyes.

"He or she will have you for a father."

Arnav swallowed. Khushi was dead serious.

"Such a loving, responsible man for a father. Our baby is blessed."

Arnav couldn't respond to her words. He just stared at her.

"And such a loving family. Even if something happens to me'"

"Khushi!", his voice came out all strangled.

Khushi smiled.

"I am not saying that something will happen to me or us. But, if something happens to us, and our child is left an orphan like we were, he or she will have many people ready to look after it' Our baby will never have to stand at the gate of the hospital wondering where to go..."

Arnav swallowed hard. He rubbed her back, trying to comfort her, desperately wishing that he could go back and change her past, take away the pain, make everything better, return her parents to her'

"Our baby will never be left with a failing business or a family to run."

Arnav nodded.

"Our baby will not have to live like Aartiji did, surviving on her wits, watching her Amma and sister suffering, helpless to get them out of the nightmare."

Arnav nodded.

"Our baby will always know that we love it.", Khushi said.

"And that I love you and you love me.", Arnav whispered.

He kissed her forehead.

"No arguments, fights, tension in the air, worry about money, arguments over where I have been, no broken promises, no tears running down your face when I fail to turn up for family functions, no gossip among the servants about our failed marriage, no pity from well-wishers, no selling of family property at throw away prices to fund my excesses, no pain, no anguish... The very air of my house, Khushi'It was tainted with sorrow and disappointment'of broken dreams'.My childhood ' 'Khushi'"

Khushi tightened her arms around Arnav, locking her fingers in his to comfort him.

"I..I never had a childhood, Khushi. Di never had a childhood, Khushi'But our children will have theirs. A normal childhood'"

Arnav looked at Khushi, his eyes wet.

Khushi nodded, equally moved.

"Let them be happy' Our children. Akash & Payal's children. NK and Aarti's children. Let them play and laugh together. The walls of this house should echo their laughter, Khushi'Let them live together, face life together. With confidence, knowing that we are there for them, whatever happens."

Part 88: 73243071 Part 90: 73378360

Smita,😊

Here is my interpretation for Part 89

"The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings" ~ Eric Hoffer

COUNTING THE BLESSINGS it is!

Aarti looked at the plump child sleeping on her lap, Nidhi's head resting trustingly against her heart, and felt her throat catch.

"Count your blessings instead of your crosses;

Count your gains instead of your losses"

All alone in this wide, cruel world, but for the protection of Baba and Khushiji...! Not just Nidhi, but 20 children like her... Khushiji must have been the first orphan Baba had adopted, and now she was their Di Amma and Baba their father...

"Count your joys instead of your woes;

Count your friends instead of your foes"

Aarti ran a loving hand over the child's hair, ruffling it, enjoying the soft warm feel of it.

Baba watched her with a slight smile on his face.

"Count your smiles instead of your tears;

Count your courage instead of your fears"

NK and Akash came into the living room, with Arnav halting at the door giving HP a few instructions.

Khushi saw Nidhi in Aarti's lap, and wanted to free Aarti of the child's weight. Aarti had 5 puncture wounds on her stomach area after the surgery. What if holding Nidhi hurt her?

With these thoughts, when Khushi tried to get up from her chair, her legs that were tired from the running about the whole day, couldn't take the weight. As the entire family watched, Khushi staggered.

"Count your full years instead of your lean;

Count your kind deeds instead of your mean.

Count your health instead of your wealth;

Count on God instead of yourself"

All gasped. Many jumped up from their seats, and many hands reached to aid Khushi.

But before anyone could touch Khushi or she could fall, two hands caught hold of her arms, and held her up. NK and Akash helped her to sit down.

"Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes of which all men have some"~ Charles Dickens

"Khushi Bhabi, are you alright?", Akash and NK asked, their faces pale.

Payal put her arm around Khushi's shoulder, her anxious eyes on Khushi.

Khushi smiled and nodded.

"Khushi!" Arnav bent over her, breathing harshly, having rushed from the door to her chair.

"When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around" ~ Willie Nelson

"I am perfectly fine, Arnavji!", Khushi downplayed the weakness in her limbs, smiling at the anxious family gathered around her.

She turned to NK.

"NK Bhai, Aartiji's wounds must be hurting. Can you take Nidhi from her?"

"A fellow who does things that count, doesn't usually stop to count them"

"Yes, Khushi Bhabi." NK walked towards Aarti, an anxious look in his eyes.

"Each of us has his own rhythm of suffering"

~ Roland Barthes

NK realising that Aarti has Nidhi sleeping on her lap after being told by Khushi, lifted the child from Aarti's lap.

"Does your wound hurt, Aarti?", he asked softly.

"Slightly.", Aarti said.

"Khushi Bhabi was worried Nidhi's weight would..."

Aarti smiled. "I am fine." She walked towards Khushiji to ensure that she was OK.

"We need deliberately to call to mind the joys of our journey. Perhaps we should try to write down the blessings of one day. We might begin; we could never end; there are not pens or paper enough in all the world" ~ George A. Buttrick

All began to disperse, bidding the Raizadas adieu, one family after the other.

Baba kissed Khushi on the forehead, and whispered in her ear, "Take care, Taarva." His past and the loss of his wife and unborn child added to the urgency in his voice.

"I will, Baba. I promise."

Baba nodded.

"I promise, Baba. I will take good care. Nothing bad will happen to me." Khushi hugged him, laying her ear against his heart.

"Every positive thing in your life represents a single unique blessing. Every negative thing in your life has the opportunity to become a double blessing. For when you turn a negative into a positive, you gain twice. You are no longer burdened with the negative situation, and in addition to that you are strengthened by a new positive force" ~ Ralph Marston

Baba blessed His Taarva and her unborn.

While Akash dropped the Sinhas home, NK took charge of the Omkar drop.

Arnav without listening to Khushi, carried her up the stairs to their bedroom.

"Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what the heart says. I have been bent and broken, but - I hope - into a better shape"

~ Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

"Arnavji! I can walk!", Khushi protested, smiling.

"Bhy refujje (refuse) a phree (free) lift?", asked Mami. "Let your husbaand lift you now, Khushi Bitiyaa." She shot daggers at Mamaji. "After sometime they will staap (stop) lifting even a phingaar (finger) to help you!"

"Don't say that, Manno!", Mamaji protested. "I am ready to lift my finger, hands, and legs to help you!"

Mami winked at Khushi. Payal & Nani giggled.

"Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand" ~ Mark Twain

"Before hamre Akaash Bitwaa was born, I could lift you. Now, after so many years of marriage, your weight and my weak spine will not let me lift you!" Mamaji looked at Khushi. "This is what marriage does to us men! Robs us of our spine!", He and the others laughed.

"As soap is to the body, so laughter is to the soul"

~ A Jewish Proverb

Mami pretended to glare at her laughing husband. "Aap to shutuppiya hi kar lo, Ji!"

Placing Khushi carefully on their bed, Arnav ordered her not to set her foot down and he would be doing all that is necessary for her. This, he was very serious about.

"I want to use the bathroom.", Khushi smiled. "Will you bring it here?", she teased him.

"No. But I can take you there.", Arnav smiled slightly.

He lifted her carefully, and walked to the bathroom, setting her inside the open door. "Call me when you are done."

Having forbidden her to lock the door lest, he be needed to help her, he waited outside for her. Once she opened the door, he swooped her into his arms and carried her to the bed. Khushi watched him taking his night clothes from the wardrobe!

"The purple T-shirt'.", she suggested softly. "It makes you look'.", her voice trailed away at the look in his eyes.

When he came back to the bed after changing, Kushi curled up against him

"Arnavji, everything went off very well, didn't it?", she asked softly.

"Hhmm.." Arnav sighed, signifying relief.

"Now the mehendi and the sangeet.", said Khushi.

Arnav was adamant that she would not do anything during Mehendi and Sangeeth. Kushi seeing the emergence of ASR - the adamant, possessive one smiled. He voiced out his fear to her.

"Had you fallen today...", Arnav could not even complete the sentence. His fingers fondled the slight bulge where his baby lay under her heart.

"Arnavji, do you think our family will let me fall? That they will let something bad happen to our baby? ", Khushi asked smiling.

"I cried because I had no shoes until I saw a man with no feet. Life is full of blessings. Sometimes we are just blind to see them"

Arnav looked at her smiling face resting against his chest.

"Never lose sight of who you are, always remember the reason you are smiling today. Count your blessings for been given the gift to smile"

~ Jasmina Siderovski

"The baby is not just ours. He or she is a part of Nani, Mami, Mamaji, Akash & NK Bhai, Payalji & Aartiji, Di and Anandji, Baba and our children, Amma, Gopi Kakka, Payal's parents and Buaji'Do you really think they will let something happen to our child? Something that is preventable?"

"No.", Arnav had to admit.

To witness miracles unfold in your experience, count your blessings and be thankful. Perceived small blessings accumulate to be the most powerful"

~TF Hodge

"You don't have to worry over everything, all by yourself. You have brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, grandmothers, mothers, and fathers to help you."

"Not what we say about our blessings, but how we use them, is the true measure of our thanksgiving"

~ W. T. Purkiser

Arnav lay silent, hugging Khushi close to him, thinking about her words.

Khushi said softly after a while, "Our child is very lucky, Arnavji."

"Those blessings are sweetest that are won with prayers and worn with thanks" ~ Thomas Goodwin

Arnav looked at her, a question in his eyes.

"He or she will have you for a father."

Arnav swallowed. Khushi was dead serious.

"Such a loving, responsible man for a father. Our baby is blessed."

Arnav couldn't respond to her words. He just stared at her.

"A true diamond never over shadows... it's the brilliance of the subtle shine that's the most attractive" ~ Dena Tyson, Xceptance

"And such a loving family. Even if something happens to me'."

"Khushi!", his voice came out all strangled.

Khushi smiled.

"Gratitude is an opener of locked-up blessings"

~ Marianne Williamson

"I am not saying that something will happen to me or us. But, if something happens to us, and our child is left an orphan like we were, he or she will have many people ready to look after it' Our baby will never have to stand at the gate of the hospital wondering where to go..."

"She was a genius of sadness, immersing herself in it, separating its numerous strands, appreciating its subtle nuances. She was a prism through which sadness could be divided into its infinite spectrum"

~ Jonathan Safran Foer, Everything Is Illuminated

Arnav swallowed hard. He rubbed her back, trying to comfort her, desperately wishing that he could go back and change her past, take away the pain, make everything better, return her parents to her'

"The wound is the place where the Light enters you" ~ Rumi

"Our baby will never be left with a failing business or a family to run."

Arnav nodded.

"Everyone suffers at least one bad betrayal in their lifetime. It's what unites us. The trick is not to let it destroy your trust in others when that happens. Don't let them take that from you"

~ Sherrilyn Kenyon, Invincible

"Our baby will not have to live like Aartiji did, surviving on her wits, watching her Amma and sister suffering, helpless to get them out of the nightmare."

"There is the solitude of suffering, when you go through darkness that is lonely, intense, and terrible. Words become powerless to express your pain; what others hear from your words is so distant and different from what you are actually suffering"

~ John O'Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

Arnav nodded.

"Our baby will always know that we love it.", Khushi said.

"And that I love you and you love me.", Arnav whispered.

He kissed her forehead.

"Sometimes one has suffered enough to have the right to never say: I am too happy"

~ Alexandre Dumas, The Black Tulip

"No arguments, fights, tension in the air, worry about money, arguments over where I have been, no broken promises, no tears running down your face when I fail to turn up for family functions, no gossip among the servants about our failed marriage, no pity from well-wishers, no selling of family property at throw away prices to fund my excesses, no pain, no anguish'

"When you've suffered a great deal in life, each additional pain is both unbearable and trifling"

~Yann Martel, Life of Pi

The very air of my house, Khushi'It was tainted with sorrow and disappointment'of broken dreams' My childhood ' Khushi'"

"There is an ancient tribal proverb I once heard in India. It says that before we can see properly we must first shed our tears to clear the way"

~ Libba Bray

Khushi hugged Arnav enclosing him in her warm embrace to comfort him.

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars"

~ Khalil Gibran

"I..I never had a childhood, Khushi. Di never had a childhood, Khushi'..But our children will have theirs. A normal childhood'."

Arnav looked at Khushi, his eyes wet.

Khushi nodded, equally moved.

"But smiles and tears are so alike with me, they are neither of them confined to any particular feelings: I often cry when I am happy, and smile when I am sad" ~ Anne Bront, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

"Let them be happy'.. Our children. Akash & Payal's children. NK and Aarti's children. Let them play and laugh together. The walls of this house should echo their laughter, Khushi'.Let them live together, face life together. With confidence, knowing that we are there for them, whatever happens."

"Count the garden by the flowers, never by the leaves that fall. Count your life with smiles and not tears that roll"

COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS!

"Count your blessings. Once you realize how valuable you are and how much you have going for you, the smiles will return, the sun will break out, the music will play, and you will finally be able to move forward the life that God intended for you with grace, strength, courage, and confidence."~ Og Mandino

This begins with Aarti looking at the sleeping Nidhi, realizing how lucky she is that at least she had her mother, sister Shikha, Gopi Kakka and eventhough a sadist but still a father! What poor Nidhi must have undergone before getting a family at Omkar! She even thought about Khushi who happened to be the first to be adopted by Baba!

Khushi realizing that the discomfort that Aarti might be feeling due to the surgery with the weight of Nidhi on her lap, rose from her chair. But the bad leg hinders her. The helping hands extended to her from all the people surrounding her is also a blessing she has received for her good, sweet and giving nature!

"Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart" ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Even with her discomfort, for her Aarti's health is of top priority. She asks NK to relieve Aarti of the sleeping Nidhi! Aarti realizing it was Khushi's thoughtful gesture, goes to enquire about her discomfort!

"There is one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one's life - reciprocity" ~ Confucius

Baba who lost his wife and unborn child due to an accidental fall from the staircase asks Khushi to be careful. He has counted his Taarva as his blessing as she was the reason for him to come out of his drinking habit. She was the one who tended to his wounds in the heart and healed them. She is his divine intervention at that stage of his life!

Khushi knowing her Baba's past is counting him adopting her as her blessing when she had nowhere to go as an orphaned eight year old child discharged from a hospital with burn injuries!

Allaying Arnav's fears of some untoward thing happening to her and the unborn kid, Khushi asks him to have faith in his family which is always hovering around her.

Khushi counts getting Arnav as a husband, who is always bestowing her with the tender loving care as her blessing. She feels that her children when they come into this world are blessed to have such a responsible, loving, doting father.

Even the family they are born into will accept them with open loving arms. They would never feel the loneliness, unwanted, shamefulness or any such feelings that they i.e. Khushi, Arnav, Anjali and Aarti had to face in their childhood.

She says the family and the extended one would always be there for their kids even if anything happens to them is by itself a blessing!

Arnav feels blessed that the children will have a secure, happy and well-loved childhood which they - the quartet had been deprived off! He wishes that they would be blessed enough to grow up happily along with Akash-Payal's, NK-Aarti's kids and face life together with the secure feeling that their parents are always there for them.

"Counting our blessings can transform melancholy into cheerful mass; laughter and joy are expressions of praise and thanksgiving for life's glories. When looking at the glass that symbolizes our life, we can view it as half full or half empty. The choice is ours... The more joyful we are, the more attractive we become. When we feel gratitude for our experiences, it becomes easier to see the good that always exists. When we give a smile to someone else, we are likely to receive one in return, and that smile reflects a happy heart that is open and receptive to what the good life has in store" ~ John Marks Templeton

Don't we have to COUNT OUR BLESSINGS???

That's it from me! Hope you enjoy it!

An extremely adorable part I loved ARHI.

Wow updated - lemme read
I think it's the first time I get a place in the page of the update

very emotional update 👏👏

Oops.. Sorry I couldn't comment for few updates...!!!

beautiful update...loved the way whole people were there to help khushi...arshi part s so sweet