Smitar's: Marrying Khushi#1 Part 9(1,2) Pg 125 (4/11)Link to#2 on Pg 1 - Page 62

Originally posted by: smitar

Part 7 (To be updated on Wednesday)

Manju Singh looked at Anjali & Aman with surprised eyes. "I have to go to a Gomti Sadan and invite a certain Khushi Kumari Gupta to join me as an assistant cook?"

Anjali & Aman nodded vigorously.

"Wear salwar kameez, Manjuji. It will give the Guptas a good feeling about our Operation Khushi." Aman smiled away.

Manju frowned. "Operation Khushi?"

Anjali explained, all smiles. "Your ASR has finally fallen in love!"

"Who? I mean, ASR...love? With this Khushi?" Manju gasped.

Anjali & Aman nodded, smiling.

"The ASR has gone and fallen in love with ...a wannabe cook?" Manju could not believe her ears.

Anjali pouted. "Manjuji, don't call Khushiji a wannabe cook. She is already a halwai by birth and career."

Manju Singh collapsed in a chair. "A halwai?" she whispered, her voice just a thread. "He fell in love with a halwai?"

Anjali & Aman nodded.

Manju looked at Anjali & Aman for a moment. Then she said wryly, "So that was what was wrong with all the models flashing their legs and whatnot at him. They were not halwais. That is why he never paid any attention to them."

Aman & Anjali chuckled.

"Manjuji, please keep her here for one month. By hook or crook. She has to be here for one month. So that she too can fall in love with Chotey." Anjali smiled.

"That is, we hope she will fall in love with Ch..I mean, ASR." Aman qualified Anjali's optimistic statement.

Manju Singh looked both of them in the eye. "Do you seriously think that watching ASR in action for one month will make any girl fall in love with him?" she asked, bluntly.

Anjali sighed. "We hope it will...but it does seem difficult when you put it like that..."

"Anjaliji, ASR needs a personality transplant not the period of one month to make a girl fall in love with him." Manju was nothing if not truthful.

"Anjaliji, Manjuji..." Aman soothed the ladies. "Don't worry about ASR & Khushi. Things will work out. That is why love is considered to be blind." Aman tried to enthuse both of them on their way to helping ASR.

"This love has to be deaf and dumb too if this Khushi has to fall for ASR. Especially when he is throwing one of his tantrums..." muttered Manju.

"Manjuji, what do you normally make for breakfast?" Khushi asked, hopping from one foot to the other in excitement as she walked along the road with Manju Singh by her. Yes, it was the Rakshas's kitchen, but it was still a kitchen! It was not the fault of the poor kitchen that it happened to be owned by a khadoos, manipulative... And she would get the chance to feed thirty people!

Manju looked at the beautiful, vivacious face turned up to her. No wonder ASR, the stone heart, fell for her! she thought. The girl was absolutely beautiful, so stunning that most models would cease to be seen if Khushi shared air with them. And so totally unselfconscious!

But such a lovingly brought up girl! And that too from a middle-class family. Would she survive a month with ASR? Would she fall for that khadoos, akhdoo, egomaniac?

"Toast, orange juice, coffee, tea, fruits..." Manju muttered.

Khushi frowned. "Nobody eats proper food?"

Manju looked at her for an explanation.

"I mean, poori, aloo sabzi..." Khushi asked, genuinely curious.

Manju smiled. "The models are all concerned about their weight and figure. They starve themselves to get in to the clothes that designers make for them."

"They starve? He Devi Maiyya! Poor things!" Khushi was all pity for the models.

"They worship and are scared of another Devi. Calorie Devi." Manju quipped.

"Calorie Devi?" Khushi asked. She was about to ask more when Manjuji's phone rang.

"Yes, Sir. She is with me. We will get there in 2 minutes." Manju reported, rolling her eyes. This was the fifth call from ASR that morning. 

As she cut the call, Khushi asked, "Was that Laa...I mean, Arnav Singh Raizadaji?"

"Yes." Manju watched her closely for any sign of affection on Khushi's face, but couldn't find anything except annoyance.

Khushi pursed her lips. The Laad Governaar! Using her family's kind heart to get her here... Khushi frowned. But why? Why was he so insistent that she cook for him? After all, she was not his Phoophaji's daughter for him to find employment for her!

"Is he mad?" Khushi asked Manju directly.

Manju's eyebrows flew up to her hairline. ASR was many things. Primarily, he was a pain in the neck...and other parts, but mad he was not.

"No." Manju said. "Why do you think he is mad?"

"I ran in to him in the Gomti Nagar market and knocked down his bottle of pickle. That is all I did.  I didn't do anything else. I didn't have the time!" Khushi explained earnestly.

Manju paid close attention. ASR had picked a namoona for himself!

"I bought him a new bottle of pickle. I made up for my mistake, didn't I, Manjuji?" Khushi asked.

Manju nodded. "Then?"

"He asked me to be a model." Khushi said, her eyes wide.

Manju gasped.

"I said no."

Manju stared at her.

"Do you know what that Laa...Raizadaji did then, Manjuji? He caught hold of my arm..." Khushi showed the spot on her arm that ASR had clutched. "...and dragged me to his car..."

"And had his evil way with you?" Manju asked, hiding an amused smile.

Khushi frowned, not understanding the implication. "And introduced me to Anjaliji & Amanji..."

"Kebab mein do haddi..." Manju said, hiding a smile.

"Kebab? But I am vegetarian. Strict vegetarian." Khushi frowned. "Then he pushed me in to his car and made me show him the way to my house."

"Acha? Then?"

"He came in, and impressed my Amma, Babuji, Buaji, and Jiji with his polite behaviour and manners..."

The breath that Manju had innocently drawn choked her. She coughed. "His what?" she gasped.

Khushi frowned. "His polite behaviour and manners."

Manju coughed once more. "Really?" she managed to gasp.

"Really. Then he asked my family for permission to make me his model."

Manju asked faintly, "What did they say?"

"They refused, of course. How can I be a model when I am perfectly capable of tripping & falling on my nose while walking on an even surface? And how will they get me married off if the whole of Lucknow sees me walking on a stage, wearing sarees & lehenga? If it were a dance..." Khushi ruminated.

Manju coughed again, hiding her smiling lips behind her hand.

"So he said, if I can't be his model, I should be his cook. That he is diabetic and needs healthy food that I should cook for him. That he can't eat oily food from restaurants..." Khushi reported.

Manju laughed silently. So ASR was pulling out all the stops, even using the sympathy card to trap the bird. But how would Khushi deal with the ASR's huge ego and his legendary temper? 

They strolled in  through the huge gates of Sheesh Mahal.

Khushi drew in a sharp breath. "It is so huge!" she whispered.

"Yes." Manju said, smiling. "It has to be if 30 people have to live here for one month. Our kitchen is in the outhouse. It is linked to Sheesh Mahal by a passage. After we cook, servers will carry the dishes to the big dining hall in the main building."

Khushi nodded. 

Manju led her to the outhouse, and showed her the humongous kitchen and explained the use of the many pieces of equipment arranged within it.

Manju's phone rang.

 ASR. 

She answered the call, cut the phone, and told Khushi, "He wants to see you."

"Who?" Khushi asked, her eyes still on the beautiful food processor and the rack of gleaming knives.

"ASR."

Khushi frowned. "Why does Laad Governaar want to see me?" she thought aloud.

Manju collapsed in a chair, laughing.

When Manju was done laughing, she gave directions to ASR's study in Sheesh Mahal.

"Take care, Khushi. He is known for his temper." Manju warned.

"Really? His temper has made him famous? Very good. Then he can keep it with himself. I don't want any of it." Khushi lifted her chin in the air and marched towards Sheesh Mahal.

Manju buried her head in her hands, laughing like mad.

The big doors of Sheesh Mahal stood wide open, as though welcoming all visitors in to its cavernous hall.

Khushi hesitated to step in. The darkness...the chill air...

"Khushi..." came the call she had not been expecting.

ASR stood at the far end of the huge hall, looking at her. Dressed in black formal clothes, he looked a part of the scary, eerie house. Had he called her? But how could she hear him from such a distance unless he had shouted her name? Khushi frowned as she took the first step towards him.

He stood waiting, watching the slight, fairy-like figure in a violet anarkali walk to him.

As she neared him, ASR said, his voice low and husky, "Welcome to Sheesh Mahal, Khushi." He took care to keep his face expressionless, but possessiveness coloured his tone. Khushi was finally here, in his space, within his control... She would never leave him. He would trap her like a spider trapped a fly in its web...till no one could separate them...

Khushi shivered, his voice touching nerve ends that she did not know she possessed.

She frowned at him. "Why are you holding a fashion show in a house that looks haunted?"

One eyebrow lifted. "Haunted?" Images of his father and mother, all wrapped up in a white shroud, lying in this very hall rushed through his mind.

"Come with me." He quickly led her away in to his study and locked the door.

Khushi nodded. "It looks like a house filled with ghosts...like you see in phillums..." She looked nervously around the huge room, searching for paranormal activity.

ASR crossed his arms and looked at her, a small bubble of amusement taking birth in his heart.

 "Oh, so that is why I heard the sound of anklets at night..." he mused.

Khushi paled. "Anklets?" Her mouth fell open in an Aww.

"Hhmmm...And felt someone knock on my window last night..."

Khushi looked in to his impassive face with terrified eyes.

"The dogs were barking all night, and I saw a figure in white walk across the lawn at midnight..." Arnav teased, loving the fear in her saucer-like eyes.

Khushi rushed to him and clutched his arm in fear. 

"F..f..igure in wh..wh..ite...?" she stammered.

Arnav nodded innocently. "And she was singing Gumnaam he koi..." ASR comforted his Khushi by drawing his arm and her closer to him and placing his warm, large hand over her pale fingers.

Khushi shuddered in fear and drew closer to him.

"But she was out of tune. Looks like she was out of practice..." ASR said, a smirk in his eyes and on his lips as he looked down at the girl hanging limply on his arm.

Khushi frowned at him. "What?" she asked.

Arnav smirked more openly.

Khushi's face became suffused with anger. "You were teasing me, you...you Laad Governaar!" She pulled her hand away from his hold.

Arnav raised one eyebrow. "How can I resist, Khushi, when you make it so easy for me to... tease you?" he asked, his seductive voice pricking her skin like a thousand needles.

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