"Nannav, come fast! Khushiji was talking to me and she fainted." NK's frantic voice came across clear through the phone.
The file fell from ASR's hand. He stood frozen for a moment, and then grabbed his coat & bag and rushed out of his office, telling a stupefied Aman that Khushi was sick.
NK opened the door to a wan ASR.
ASR caught hold of NK's collar. "What did you tell Khushi to make her faint? How many times have I asked you not to speak Hindi?" ASR shook NK.
An alarmed NK said, "I didn't do anything, Nannav." he croaked. "I didn't say anything. Khushiji was telling me that she wanted to eat ber and then she suddenly fell back in the chair, unconscious."
"Chotey, let go of NK bhai!" Anjali admonished him, standing at the top of the stairs. "The doctor is with Khushiji. Come up."
His strong, lithe, long legs made little work of the stairs, Anjali & NK following him, the latter straightening his crushed collar. The rest of his family was standing outside his bedroom.
"Arnav Bitwaa, hamri Khussi faintiyaa gayi." Mami exclaimed.
Mittu whistled.
Payal tried to stem her tears.
As he reached his bedroom, the door opened and a middle-aged lady doctor emerged.
"Doctor, how is my wife?" Like a gale, ASR almost floored the doctor with his anxiety and terse demand.
"Err... she wants to talk to you. In private." The doctor kept her word to Khushi.
ASR paled even further. "What is wrong with her?"
"Err... nothing that time won't cure." The doctor tried to hide her smile.
ASR frowned and barged in to his bedroom.
Khushi was lying against his pillow, looking weak.
"Khushi? Kya hua? Tum theek to ho?" He rushed to sit by her. He cupped her cheek with a trembling hand.
Khushi smiled weakly at him. "Arnavji..." She tried to sit up. His arm came to support her back. He placed two pillows against the head-board and helped her to sit against them.
"Arnavji..."
"How many times should I tell you to take care of your health, Khushi? Did you have milk in the morning?" ASR demanded.
"No. Arnavji, it smells terrible." Khushi scrunched up her face.
He clenched his jaw.
"All you eat are jalebis. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Khushi, too many of them are bad for you!" ASR tried to explain.
"You are jealous because you can't eat them." Khushi countered, forgetting her weakness for a second.
"Khushi!" ASR exclaimed in affront.
Nani looked at Mami and the others with moist eyes as the doctor left them after imparting the happy news.
"Finally." she said through a choked throat.
Mami & Anjali nodded, unable to hide their smiles and tears of joy.
Payal smiled.
Nani frowned. "But why are they fighting?"
Mami laughed. "Both of them are ajeeb, Saasumma. Our akhdoo and his jhalli wife. Imagines how their childrens will be, Hello Hi Bye Bye!"
"Yes, Manorama. Your hair will show white through your imported dye!" Nani laughed.
"Khushi, you have to eat healthy. Don't expect me to leave my office and come running each time you fall sick." ASR threatened her, worry making his voice hard.
Khushi placed her hands on her hips even though she was sitting in bed.
"Acha? How many times have I fallen sick after I married you?" she asked, her eyes challenging him.
"Err... you haven't, but..."
"I don't want to hear your buts." Khushi announced. "And who asked you to leave your precious work and your office and come running home? Did I?"
"No. NK..."
"Then go and blame him." She looked at Mittu sitting on the head-rest of the recliner and said, "Mittu Rani, I am doomed." She raised her hand to her forehead in puri philmy style and said, "Ulta chor kotwal ko daante."
"What the! Where is the chor?" asked poor ASR.
"Sitting in front of me, scolding me. You. You are the chor. And I am the poor kotwal." Khushi claimed.
"Khushi, you didn't fall, did you? I mean, did you hit your head or something?" ASR asked, baffled. He tried to check her head for bumps, but she pushed his hands away.
"Hum pagal nahi he. Haan, I am a little sanki, but not pagal." Khushi said. Tears filled her eyes. "I wanted to tell you something, but I won't now." she declared.
"Khushi!"
She turned her face away, miffed.
"Khushi." he tried to turn her face towards him by cupping her chin.
She twisted her head away. One slow tear dribbled down her cheek.
The sight of that tear unlocked his tongue. "Khushi, I am sorry. I should not have shouted at you. Khushi, I was worried. That's why..."
Khushi threw her arms around her husband's neck. He held her tight against him. She could hear his heart beating very rapidly against hers.
Khushi smiled.
She cupped his face in her hands.
"Arnavji, I am going to tell you something that will make you very happy." she smiled.
"NK is returning to Sydney?" ASR asked hopefully.
Khushi frowned. "No! Of course not! Why should he leave his brothers and sisters and go far away?"
ASR sighed silently. He could think of many reasons, but...
"Then?" he asked.
"We are going to have a new guest here, at home, soon." Khushi blushed, fiddling with his tie.
ASR frowned. "Bubbly is returning?"
"Kaun Bubbly? Kahan ki Bubbly?" Khushi asked, the blush fading.
"Just a friend of Akash's." he said. "Must be 8 or 9 years old."
Khushi frowned. "Jiju is friends with a child? What is wrong with him?"
"I don't know." ASR said. "Who is the guest?" Please God, please God, not another brother from Milan or Paris or Sydney. How many sisters did Mami have?
"Our baby." Khushi blushed again.
"What the!" ASR exclaimed. He stared at Khushi's face, sure that he had misheard her. But the vanishing blush and the growing ire on her face confirmed that he had heard right.
"Our baby?" he asked slowly.
"Ji. If it were someone else's then I need not have told you." Khushi glared at him.
"No... no... I didn't mean that, Khushi. I was just checking that I had heard right..." ASR rushed to explain.
"Your ears don't work too? Mittu Rani, Di's papad ka dukhda has many technical kharabis." Khushi glared at ASR.
Mittu tried to help ASR.
Sola singar karke, godh bharayee le
Saiyyan, saiyyan, saiyyan, saiyyan...
Saiyyan se khelee bahut, abb chhotu ko khilayee le...
"Khushi, you are... I am..." ASR struggled.
Khushi nodded patiently.
"Our baby?"
"Ji, our baby." Khushi said.
ASR looked at her stomach as though he had x-ray vision and could see his son or daughter growing in her womb. His eyes grew moist and slightly red.
Khushi swallowed. To get him away from pondering over his tragic past, Khushi said, "Arnavji, I am waiting!"
He looked at her.
Khushi pouted. "Will you spend all day looking at my stomach or will you hug me and give me chumban?"
ASR smiled at her. "As many hugs as you want and all the chumban in the world." he promised her rashly.
"Then you will never be able to go to office again..." Khushi giggled, safe in his arms. She tilted her head up to receive his lips.
"Khushi..."
"Ji?"
"Khushi... I am so happy..."
"I know."
"Khushi... I never thought... I thought I would be alone..."
"But that was before you met me." Khushi replied in all confidence. "Now you will never be alone, Arnavji. Not even if you want to be. This kotwal has jailed this chor of my dil."
ASR handed over his bag & coat to HP and almost ran up the steps to his room. He could hear music and laughter coming from there.
The TV was on.
Khushi and their daughter, Gauri were dancing on the bed in time to the music blaring from the TV. Mittu was watching the fun.
Gauri saw her father first.
"Da.. da.. da.. da..." she mouthed, flailing her arms wildly to get to him.
Khushi turned her head to see him at the door.
"Arnavji!" Her face lit up.
ASR walked closer to the bed and lifted Gauri in his arms. She strangled him just like her mother and rained kisses all over his face. And as she did every time he picked her up, she pulled his nose.
"Da... da... da... da..." she chanted.
ASR returned every one of her sweet kisses. As soon as he finished, Khushi rushed in to his arms. "Now it is my turn." she declared.
Smiling, delirious with joy, ASR kissed her all over her face and then her lips.
Gauri chuckled to see her father kissing her mother, held safe and close to her parents by their four arms around her.
Mittu, as usual, had the last word. She sang,
Jumma chumma de de, jumma chumma de de chumma... 
35