The Trampled Butterfly #2 Check index for Th3 link - Page 40

He walked to his balcony with a toothbrush lolling lazily inside his mouth, for some fresh morning air. The sun was already risen and the greens of the trees were slowly becoming visible.

And so was the familiar outline of his best friend walking down the slope with what seemed to heavy bags on her back and hands.

Dawn grocery shopping! Again? But so soon? Wasn't it just few days ago that she had carried those bags just like this? They were just two people in the house. Khushi and her Buaji. Was so much ration required for only the two?

Arnav wondered in confusion behind the mysterious shopping. Something was not fitting the puzzle.

She disappeared beneath the trees while he returned back to his bathroom to take a quick shower, reminding himself to find out more about it later.

Six hours later, he was sitting on the porch and going through the estimates of expenditure for the wedding, when his attention was once again grabbed by Khushi.

And once again, she had those heavy seeming bags with her.

Damn! what was with those bags and her, he wondered.

On further inspection, he noticed her face full of anxiety and worry and she was nervously pacing around from one corner of the garden to the other. Wondering what was worrying her to this extent, he walked up to her curiously.

"Khushi?" She quickly turned around to his voice and he noticed how her nose was scrunched up with worry and her lips were reddened with all the nervous chewing.

"You wanted something?" Khushi asked with exasperation, but immediately toned down realising who she was talking to.

"No Khushi. But why are you so worried?" Arnav asked taking a step closer to her, and successfully transferred all the bags to his hand before she could protest. He could feel the heat emanating from the bags and peeking inside, he found huge steel tiffin boxes inside them.

"I'm waiting for your chauffeur Mohanji. He had promised me he would take me to town half an hour ago. But it looks like he has forgotten." Khushi murmured, her panic increasing with every minute. "I'm going to be very late today. They are waiting for me."

"Who is waiting for you?" Arnav asked confusedly, but he got no reply from Khushi who was lost in her nervousness. "Khushi, I'll drop you." Arnav fished out the car key from his pocket and turned towards the garage.

"You will?" Khushi's worry was instantly replaced by relief at the suggestion. But as quickly as it had vanished, the worry creases appeared back. "But Chotey Saab, you are busy right?"

"Look, you have two choices Khushi. Either you get into the car with me or else, you could continue to stand here and panic and in the process distract me from my work and the people who are waiting for you will have to wait for even longer. Pick one." Arnav informed her and walked directly to the car without even waiting for her response.

From the centre mirror, he observed Khushi pondering over what he had just said and the very next second, she came running towards the car and got in.

"So where are we going?" Arnav asked, as he hurriedly drove towards the town.

"Ram Krishan Marg. I'll show you the way." Khushi replied impatiently, glancing at the steel watch on her wrist which had been most probably purchased from a local street vendor.

Within ten minutes, they reached the destination and throughout the journey, he noticed how Khushi was always on the edge of the seat. And she didn't even wait for the car to stop to push open the door and run as fast as her legs would support, into a small compound. In the middle was situated an old house, nearly worn out by the years and he watched Khushi disappear inside the door.

Curious to know what this place was, he followed after her, striding towards the same door, only to be stopped at the entrance with the sight in front of him.

There, in front of him, was Khushi, kneeling down with around seven to eight small kids gathered all around her. And with one glance of their clothes, he knew what this place was.

Arnav observed a boy, probably around five years old, walking towards her and hugging her tightly, as if he was meeting his long lost friend and Khushi, inturn kissed his cheeks and the smile that the boy flashed back in return simply melted his heart.

There was something about that sight that made him feel warm and happy, as if it was a perfect picture, as if he had to preserve this moment for eternity.

But then, as the boy moved apart and began to gesture with his hands, he realised what was wrong with this perfect seeming picture.

The boy couldn't speak.

However, there was no limit to the enthusiasm shining on his face as he communicated something to Khushi. In return, Khushi held her ears as if apologising for something she had done and the boy held her hands and pulled them down, as if he didn't want her to apologise.

And then another girl came forward and it was then that he noticed the crutches on either sides of her shoulders. She was limping. He couldn't see the girl properly due to other children blocking his view, but when one of the kids moved aside, what he saw shocked him beyond he could handle.

The girl's right leg was amputated from her knee and she was standing only with the support of her other leg. And unable to see her plight, Arnav looked away, his eyes moistening with tears.

"Didi, you are late today." He heard a girl's voice and he knew it was the same girl.

"I know. I'm so sorry." Khushi replied and Arnav looked back to find her hugging the girl.

"No, Didi. Don't say sorry. We all love you even if you are late." Another boy spoke and Arnav noticed how the boy's hand was vaguely reaching out for her, as if he couldn't see and that was when he realised the boy was blind.

And slowly, the whole picture became clearer as he observed one common pattern among the kids.

They were physically handicapped in one way or the other.

But there was one thing that stood out even amongst those deformities.

The huge smiles on their faces and he knew Khushi was majorly responsible for those wonderful smiles.

"From morning, they were waiting for you." He saw a middle aged woman enter the room from another door. "They kept on pestering when Khushi Didi will be arriving." And he heard giggles from all the children.

"Auntyji, I was supposed to come half an hour earlier. But' nevermind. Let me serve them. Otherwise, the food will turn cold." Khushi replied and went into one of the doors and returned back with several plates in her hand.

Arnav observed how the kids sat neatly on a wooden bench and their plates were arranged on a desk and Khushi retrieved out the tiffin boxes and began serving them.

Soon the room was filled with the aroma of food and million watt smiles on every kid's face as they began to eat the lunch.

"Didi, you prepare the best food in the world." Another girl exclaimed, while the mute boy gestured something with his hand, making Khushi smile back at them.

Curious to know what they were praising, Arnav stretched his neck a little bit more to see what they were eating. But to his surprise, he only found Bhindi bharta, rice and some yellow coloured gravy on their plates that was nowhere near what he expected to be tagged as the best food. Nevertheless, every kid inside there was licking their fingers as if that was the best they had ever eaten in their life.

And then it dawned upon him, the answer to his morning's question. She used to do all that grocery shopping for these kids? But why? That too taking all that trouble?

"Didi, there's someone at the door. I think even he is hungry." Arnav heard one boy and immediately all eyes in the room were pointed at his direction.

"Oh! Chotey Saab!" Khushi exclaimed, suddenly remembering his presence. In all the tension, she had completely forgotten about him.

"Do you also want food? We can share." The girl with the amputated leg, tried standing up, holding out her half eaten food to him.

"No, no. I'm not hungry." Arnav replied apologetically, walking towards the girl so that she didn't have to stand up for him. He noticed the girl, turning back her attention towards the plate and picking even the half cut grain of rice sticking on the edge of the plate and eating it. By the looks on her face, he could figure out that she was really hungry. But inspite of that, her, being an orphan and with physical deformities probably having nothing of her own and yet, offering the food for him, for a man who had everything in life, who had probably wasted thousands of grains without even sparing a single thought for it, ignited a new wave of guilt within him.

"Didi, do you know him?" Another kid asked and Khushi nodded.

"Yes, he is my Chotey Saab. You remember all those stories I used to tell you." Khushi pulled Arnav towards her. The 'My' in her reference to him wasn't missed out by him.

"Oh! That 'Annyav'." The girl exclaimed and giggles followed making Arnav to stare at Khushi suspiciously at their reaction.

"Yes, that 'Annyav'." Khushi replied and Arnav felt his heart skip a beat when she mentioned his name in that same way. It was fifteen years since he had heard it and he felt indescribable warmth in his chest listening to that name, the way only she could pronounce it.

Arnav simply smiled at the children not knowing what to say. On one side he was moved by their plight and on the other, their cheerfulness was simply transferring into him the more he stayed with them.

If they could trigger guilt in him in one instant, they also triggered immense boundless cheer and happiness within him the very next instant.

"Annyav Bhaiyya, even we want to listen to stories from you. Khushi didi was saying you tell the best stories in the world." The blind boy turned towards his direction and spoke.

"One day, when I'm free, I'll surely come here and tell you stories." Arnav replied, walking towards the boy and holding his hand. He stared into those brown eyes just like his, except that they only reflected light but no life within them.

He couldn't bear to see them. It was just painful.

"We will be waiting for you Bhaiyya." The kids replied in unison and Arnav turned around, walking towards his car so that they could eat their lunch without his interruption.

Few minutes later of waiting in the car, he saw Khushi walking towards him and getting inside the car.

"Thank you Chotey Saab for bringing me here on time." She had a huge smile on her face. Maybe he had never seen her smile so brightly before, not even when she was with him.

He nodded, not knowing how to acknowledge her deeds. He would be lying if he said that he wasn't stunned by this gesture. The whole realisation of what she was doing to these kids simply baffled him.

"Why Khushi? All that trouble at dawn, for them?" Arnav looked with a renewed awe for her. "When you said hunch back was better option than empty stomach that day, you were talking about these kids right?"

Khushi nodded looking away at the old house. "They are kids Chotey Saab. They don't deserve to go hungry to bed. It was the least I could do for them."

Once again, he noticed how she only talked about others and not herself. How could anyone be so selfless in life, he wondered.

"Khushi, you yourself are struggling to make your ends meet. Doesn't government provide for them?"

"They are unwanted Chotey Saab. They were refused even by the orphanages because they couldn't afford the disabilities they carried with them."

"You could have atleast asked Dadi for help. She would have helped you." He argued vehemently, the whole idea of all the troubles she takes for this kids, simply aching his heart.

"Dadiji has helped a lot. She looks after their medical expenses and therapies. But Chotey Saab, these kids need more than money. They need love." Khushi turned back to look at him in the eye, a strange pathos dwelling in her own eyes. "Have you seen the smiles on their faces when I bring lunch for them? Those smiles are worth all my efforts."

"I may not be as rich as you, but I realised that even within my means, I could help them."

"From how long have you been doing this?" Arnav asked curiously, feeling proud of his best friend.

"Three years. Actually hardly anyone knows about this place or these kids. The woman that you saw there with them, she is Swarnaji. She used to work in the municipal orphanage here. It so happened that one day, the orphanage decided to evict all the handicapped children, because they realised that no couple would ever adopt such kids and that they were nothing but a liability for them.

"It's all business, you know. Every kid in there has a price tag attached to them. But kids like these couldn't be tagged. Swarnaji loved all those kids having none of her own and when she came to know that these kids would simply be ousted on some random street in some random city, she came to their rescue and brought them all to her house. Ever since then, she has been taking care of all of them with the help of some donation from some generous people like Dadiji."

"I came to know about them when I saw one of them at the local hospital being treated. I met Swarnaji and she introduced me to all of them and from that day, I decided I had to help them in whichever way I could."

"You know, whatever you are doing Khushi, is very noble of you." Arnav replied, amazed at her words.

"It's nothing noble Chotey Saab. You have done the same thing to me when I was a kid. Even I was an orphan. I had no one and was poor. Yet, you became my best friend and gave me one of the best childhood I could ever ask for." She smiled at him warmly. "I was just doing what you did for me."

For the first time, he felt nice about himself, hearing from her own mouth, how he had indeed transformed Khushi's life. At that moment, Arnav knew what he had to do. His conscience had no qualms and he could only see the path laid out for him.

"Shall we go back?" he asked, his words signifying more than what they would normally be interpreted as and Khushi nodded her head and they drove silently back to where they had come from.

o0o

Naina Singh Raizada was busy arranging the sarees she would wear for the upcoming functions of her daughter's wedding, when her attention was interrupted by two arms sliding over her waist from behind and a small but unmistakable smile glowed on her face.

It had been fifteen years since those arms had held her this way, those tiny arms and feet that would come running towards her to engulf her in an embrace like this.

She didn't even have to turn around to know who it was. A mother could identify her child even with blindfolded eyes.

She knew her son was not someone who would openly display his affection towards her at random times. It was only when something bothered him, that he craved for a little bit of love from her.

"Chotey, what happened to you?" she asked concernedly while he rested his chin on her shoulder.

"Nothing Ma. Can't I even hug you anymore?" Arnav asked, hanging on to his mother.

"Ofcourse you can. But you know, it's just that it is fifteen years since you last hugged me like this." She confessed, turning around to look at him.

"Fifteen years? Really?" Arnav was quite taken aback by her response. Had he never hugged her for the past fifteen years? The whole idea itself seemed absurd to him.

"Oh!" he drawled as he moved away.

He didn't know why he had finally broken the spell. Maybe it was because of the visit to the orphan kids earlier.

Those kids back there had no one. And he had everything in his life but had never really appreciated its importance until he saw someone else being deprived of the very thing he had taken for granted in his life.

"What were you doing?" he asked, walking towards the bed and plopping himself down on it.

"I was just deciding which saree I should wear for Chutki's reception." She replied, her shock amassing with every second at her son's interest in her.

Why wouldn't she be? Her very son, who had stayed aloof all this years was suddenly showing some signs of her little boy whom she believed had disappeared fifteen years ago, when he went to London.

"I think you should wear the green one. You will look beautiful in this." Arnav replied, picking up the green saree and handing it over to her.

"And you should wear the emerald set which Dadi had gifted you. It would go very well along with it." He added, fuelling more curiosity in his mother.

Naina stared in awe at her son, who had not only selected her saree but also the jewellery along with it, without even asking for his suggestion. Something had changed in him, that too rapidly because she was sure till yesterday, he was the same aloof brooding son of hers hibernating in his cocoon.

"What?" Arnav asked in surprise, wondering why his mother was staring at him like that. And without any preamble, he saw tears glistening from his mother's eyes.

"Ma, what's wrong?" he rushed towards her in panic.

"Nothing. I'm just very happy, you know." Naina replied, kissing her son's forehead, leaving him all confused at her reaction. But how could she describe her feelings, the joy she felt knowing that her son was finally back to her?

Now the only thing left to figure out was what or who had brought about that change in him and a silent prayer of thanks escaped from her lips.

CHAPTER 14

You might be wondering, why these random chapters. Where's the romance damn it?!😆 But after this story is completed and you turn back to look at when exactly had Arnav fallen in love with Khushi, well... ^^^

And most of the dialogues that I write have more than one meaning to be interpreted. Many understand it, but some just read them shallowly, and then end up asking questions which I cannot answer.😆 I won't apologise for that, because this story is not supposed to spell out everything for you. Every scene, every dialogue, every description lets you know more about the characters. It is upto you to pick it up and figure it out.

And this one question was asked by someone who is kind of frustrated with Arnav in my story. Is Arnav self centred? Why does he think only about his guilt, himself and not what Khushi actually wants?

My answer is Yes, Arnav is self centred. But that's why we have Khushi who to some extent will bring about a little change in him. Yes, a little change, because you can never change self centred people.😆

Ahhh!! Missed the first spot by one Rach 😭 anyways, There's always a next time 😉

Arnav had frozen emotionally since the day of the incident. So, he may have grown physically, mentally but emotionally he stopped feeling and expressing. In his desperation to get beyond the pain, Arnav clealry blocked his memories that further fueled his emotional degression.

Thanks to Khushi, Arnav is thawing and at a rapid pace at that. Seeing Khushi with those kids, reminds him of the importance of giving back to those in need. The happiness he experiences when Khushi attributes this aspect of her life to him is heart breaking. This guy's guilt is eating his alive. and I can understand why he is the way he is.

When one experiences trauma, it is painful physically, mentally and emotionally. But when your loved one experiences trauma, the pain we experience is thousand times more. This pain is derived from the helplessness we feel due to our inability to help them. I truly believe this, coz when I'm hurt, I find ways to get over it but my husband or child gets hurt, I break. I want to be in their place but I know that is not possible. Thus Arnav's pain is way deeper than Khushi's even though she was the one who experienced the trauma physically.

I was ecstatic to see Arnav reaching out to his mum. He is thawing and feeling. Thank you Khushi for tbeing there for Arnav despite your problems. If naina understands the reason for Arnav's emotional recovery, there's hope for Arnav and Khushi. Coz she wouldn't care whether Khushi is rich or poor ... she will know Arnav needs Khushi.