Smitar's OS:Knowing Khushi Part 9 Page 123 (Mar 4) - Page 9

Originally posted by: -Sadi-

when we will get part 2 ... waiting

Originally posted by: smitar

<font color="#FF0000" face="Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="5">Posted Part 2

Smita</font>

Smita,😊

Here is my interpretation of Part 2.
This update is about bravery or daring spirit. Hence the title DERRING-DO...

"I told you, I am Khushi Kumari Gupta. My father, Sasi Gupta is a halwai. He has a sweet shop in Lucknow." She waited for his response, something to show that he was listening.

Arnav looked at her, his face expressionless. Finally, he said, "I am diabetic."

Khushi sighed. "I am not here to feed you his pedas."

"Stressed spelled backwards is desserts. Coincidence? I think not!"

"Then?" This was fun. When had he ever had fun?

"My Buaji lives in Delhi, in Laxmi Nagar. We came to visit her 3 months back. It was to be a short visit, but my father had a stroke, and so we can't go back."

Arnav nodded. Where was this story going? The way in which her eyes shone when she talked about her family!

"The love between family members is one of the strongest human connections"

"'We' means Babuji, Amma, Jiji, & me." She looked at him to confirm that he understood.

"Did you steal into my office to tell me your life story?", he asked mildly.

Had Aman heard his boss using this tone to a woman, he would have had a heart attack.

"A soft nature of a person doesn't mean weakness- Remember, Nothing is softer than water, but its force can break the strongest of rocks"

The girl twisted her luscious lips in annoyance. She looked like a Kindergarten teacher frowning at a student who had made a mess with colours and mud.

After a moment, she sighed. "Ji. That's exactly why I came to see you. To tell you my life story. Scene by scene, like a Salman Khan movie.."

Arnav settled back more comfortably in his cushy chair.

"Are you crazy?", he asked conversationally.

"Here's all you have to know about men and women: women are crazy, men are stupid. And the main reason women are crazy is that men are stupid" ~ George Carlin

Her face lit up as though someone had set off fireworks within her.

"How did you know? My Buaji says I am Sanki. And do you know what my Jiji says? That only a pagal will marry me...", she laughed.

"When the whole world is crazy, it doesn't pay to be sane" ~ Terry Goodkind, The Pillars of Creation

Arnav looked at her happy face. Was it possible to be so happy in this world?

Suddenly her face fell. "That's why I came to see you. I am getting engaged next week, and I want you to stop it."

Arnav leaned forward, his eyes wide with shock and a deep sense of horror. She was getting engaged? How dare she? That is... she was getting engaged? To some man? To some other man?

"O, beware, my lord, of jealousy;

It is the green-ey'd monster, which doth mock

The meat it feeds on"

~ William Shakespeare, Othello

"You want me to stop your engagement?", Arnav clarified. His voice was soft and dangerous.

"Ji."

"Do you seriously think that is what I do for a living?", he growled.

"A professional is a man who can do his job when he doesn't feel like it; an amateur is one who can't when he does feel like it" ~ James Agate

"No. That is, I don't know anyone who stops engagements for a living...", she swallowed at the look on his face, and continued quickly, "I don't know exactly what you do for a living. It is not my business. I mean, it is your life. But I want you to stop my sagai."

"Nothing is impossible; there are ways that lead to everything, and if we had sufficient will we should always have sufficient means. It is often merely for an excuse that we say things are impossible"

~ Francois De La Rochefoucauld

"How dare you come here and ask me to do something of this sort?" Arnav stood up, leaning over the table with his hands on the glass, towering over her.

"What makes you so dare to challenge me, kiddo?

It ain't about you, Sir. I just wanna confront my fear"

~ Toba Beta, My Ancestor Was an Ancient Astronaut

Khushi begins to narrate her story as to why she was hell bent on meeting Arnav Singh Raizada. She told him that she was Kushi Kumari Gupta, daughter of the halwai, Shashi Gupta of Lucknow who owned a sweet meat shop over there. She waited for his response to confirm him following her story.

"Attention is vitality. It connects you with others. It makes you eager. Stay eager" ~ Susan Sontag

Looking up at her in an impassioned way, he told her that he was diabetic. She responded by saying that she was not offering him pedas to eat. Though he asked her why? in an irritated tone, he thought it to be fun. She continued with her narration. Three months back, her family consisting of her father, mother, and sister had come to Delhi to visit their Buaji who lives in Laxmi Nagar. It was meant to be a short visit but Fate had other things planned. Her father had become an invalid due to stroke and thus they were unable to return to Lucknow. Arnav nodded and wondered what it would lead to. He had noticed how her eyes twinkled when she spoke about her family.

"A happy family is but an earlier heaven"

~ George Bernard Shaw

He enquired whether she took all the trouble to meet him just to tell him her life story. He had asked it in such a polite way he thought that his assistant would be stunned to see him using such a mild tone while addressing a woman. ASR was known to bark orders at everyone and an exception was his family, particularly his Di.

"The boldness of his mind was sheathed in a scabbard of politeness" ~ Dumas Malone,

Jefferson and his time.

Khushi found it annoying that he had asked such a question. Exasperated she said that exactly was the reason for her to see him. To give an indepth description of her life story just like a Salman Khan movie. Hearing her sarcasm loaded reply, he asked whether she was crazy! Her face glowed as though a light was lit within her! She asked him how he knew that.

"You have no idea how crazy I am, I should be wearing yellow Caution tape, I'm that bonkers"

~ Robin Benway,

The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May, & June

She said, her aunt called her Sanka Devi and her sister always told her that only a crazy person would venture to marry her and laughed. Seeing her happy face Arnav wondered how anyone could be that happy in this world!

"Happy are those who evolve from within"

~ Amit Abraham

Then suddenly her face fell and told him that she was getting engaged next week and she wants him to stop it!

"For an idea that does not first seem insane, there is no hope" ~ Albert Einstein

Hearing that she was getting engaged had Arnav wide eyed with shock! His first thought was a horror filled realization that she would be engaged to some man and that too some other man and not him! He asked her in his quiet, deceptive voice, whether she expected him to stop her engagement. When she concurred he growled as to whether she thought he was making his living in that way.

"But the truth is, it's not the idea, it's never the idea, it's always what you do with it"~ Neil Gaiman

Khushi replied she doesn't know what he did for a living and it was not her business to know as it was his life. But she wanted him to stop her engagement!

Arnav who was riled up by her talk bellowed, "How dare you come here and ask me to do something of this sort?"

"Physics advances by accepting absurdities. Its history is one of unbelievable ideas proving to be true" ~ Rivka Galchen

This update showed that Khushi Kumari Gupta was brave enough to narrate her story to Arnav Singh Raizada who she knew had no time for small talk.

"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog" ~ Mark Twain

After dilly-dallying for a quite a few minutes mustering her courage she was brave enough to, present her case with guts, charter into unknown territory, not knowing how it will be taken.

"Let the first act of every morning be to make the following resolve for the day:

I shall not fear anyone on Earth.

I shall fear only God.

I shall not bear ill will toward anyone.

I shall not submit to injustice from anyone.

I shall conquer untruth by truth. And in resisting untruth, I shall put up with all suffering"

~ Mahatma Gandhi

She was daring enough to ask him to break her engagement!

For him she was an unknown quantity. For him she being a stranger it was a request out of the blue.

"Courage is found in unlikely places"

~ J.R.R. Tolkien

Though amused in the beginning it left him livid in the end. That was what Khushi had to face! His bark which usually had all cower but not Khushi!

"Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts"

~ Winston Churchill

That is why this is DERRING-DO.

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