Chapter 10: Dinner at the Khuranas
As she stepped out of the car with Shiv by her side, she was glad that Mrs. Kapoor was there as well, because she didn't know how she would get through this dinner with so many of Shiv's friends. She didn't know any of the Khurana men's wives and thus couldn't count of that side for support either. And her husband… well, it was better to not say anything about him…
She could not get used to getting dressed up in saris to go on these formal visits to people's houses for dinners and lunches as newlyweds were expected to… sari had never really been her thing… but at least these saris were infinitely lighter than the one she wore on her wedding day and for that she was thankful.
When they walked into the house, Maan, Dev, and Vicky were there to greet them. They was also introduced to Geet, Maan's wife, who seemed to be an unassuming, down-to-earth, and exuberant woman and Gauri felt quickly at ease with her. She had to admit, she would have never expected Maan to end up with such a cheerful woman, but seeing them together, it was evident that he clearly adored her. Then, there were the twins, Nayana and Nirosha, who were introduced as Dev's wife's cousins, although it was quickly evident that the youngest Khurana brother had a claim on the more serious of the twins. They were a striking pair, petite and exotic… The Khuranas clearly could pick their women, they were all quite beautiful. Just as she thought that, she heard Dadi's voice from upstairs and looked up to see Dadi come down the stairs with another woman… She now took back what she had thought on her wedding day when she saw Neela. If Neela had been the prettiest woman she had seen until that point, this woman belonged to an entirely different genre of beauty. She didn't think she had ever been dumbstruck by how someone looked as she watched the woman walk down the stairs with Dadi.
"I see that your wife has been aging in reverse, Dev." She heard Shiv say and looked over at him. He had a similar expression on his face to hers, and in this instance at least, she really couldn't blame him. There was pretty, and then there was this woman…
"She is expecting." She heard Dev say and something about the way in which he said that made her look over at him. She felt herself blush a little as she saw Dev look at his wife… this was a man who evidently worshipped the ground his wife walked on… She looked back at the woman now, she heard Geet call her Tara, and could see why Dev had given up ladies' man status after getting married…
"Congratulations!" She heard Shiv say to Dev. Tara and Dadi had arrived downstairs and they both came over to Shiv and Gauri just as Dev said, "Congratulations to you both too!" She nodded with a smile and a thanks as she was expected to, as did Shiv.
Dadi came over to hug Shiv and quite casually said to Mr. and Mrs. Kapoor that she had always known that Shiv and Gauri would end up together. Gauri's eyebrows shot up at that news – were they all just going to pretend that this had been a regular wedding with all the bells and whistles of a long and arduous courtship and romance preceding it? Well, whatever… what was the benefit of airing out the story of being left the altar without a fianc and for Satan's own son to step in to fill in!
They were all seated to dinner not that much later and she was not too happy that Shiv was on her right. She would have preferred him to be somewhere farthest from her, but guessed that that was unlikely, seeing as how they were now married and all…
"So, how did you guys meet?" Geet asked now, with a twinkle in her eye, and Gauri knew that most of these people at least knew some of the classic Shiv-Gauri hate story.
"Meet?" Shiv laughed out loud before continuing, "Oh, it's the oldest story in the book, really. We have known each other since she was in diapers. She did not look pretty, let me tell you!"
"Oh yea, and you were just the regular ol' Adonis in a diaper yourself!" Gauri shot back.
"Wow, that's so cool… so, you guys grew up together? So, this is a little like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai" The bubbly twin, her name was Nirosha, said in excitement.
"Ha!" Gauri exclaimed before she could help herself and thank God, Shiv had just about the same reaction.
"It's always been Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, but not the kind they mean in the movie." Shiv said now with a smirk and saw his mother shoot him a look.
Gauiri didn't catch the look and blurted out before she could stop herself, "It's a little less Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and a lot more Mortal Kombat… or Alien vs. Predator…"
There was one moment of awkward silence around the table before Nirosha, God Bless that girl! Gauri thought that she could really come to like her, burst out laughing. Geet and Vicky joined in and the others followed quickly after.
"Your wife is so funny, Shiv." Tara said now with a smile.
Watching Tara smile, Gauri blurted out something else that
had been on her mind since she saw her, "I am surprised that Shiv didn't make a
move on you himself back when he first met you."
She felt him kick her foot under the table and saw Mrs. Kapoor's eyes widen in surprise
that Gauri had actually said that out loud.
She felt like a blithering nincompoop today, apparently, no social
inhibition whatsoever. Suddenly she wished that she could go home. She didn't want to be at this dinner. In fact, she didn't want to go home to Shiv's
house either. She wanted to go home to
hers, with her father…
But rather than looking taken aback, Tara smiled now and looked at her husband and it was Dev who answered the question with ease.
"Shiv did make a move on Tara, didn't you my friend?"
Gauri looked at Shiv to see that a look of embarrassment had crept up his face. She liked Dev, she thought, as she looked back to see that all the others, the usually stoic Maan included, looked up in surprise as Dev said, "You can't tell from meeting her now, but my wife can be the queen of showing… shall we call it polite disinterest? I don't think there was any man at that party, myself included, who actually managed to get her attention that day. So yeah, Shiv was shot down as well …"
Gauri looked at Tara to say with a smile now, "I like you already!"
"But, I see that Shiv recovered nicely." Tara said now and Nirosha joined in to add, "Yea, you know you could work a haute couture ramp with that body of yours! Man, how long are your legs??"
"Ha! Haute Couture! It's more like Germ Couture! You give her a microscope and some binary fission slides and she could be happy for hours! So, yea, long legs, high cheekbones, and a minus two size waist are all just a waste on her."
Gauri looked at him in surprise at his description of her body. She had never thought that he noticed her like that. Shiv caught her look and then seemed to realize what he had said, so he added now, "I mean, that's what I assume a haute couture model would look like…"
"Shiv, I have to give it to you! I really can't imagine you married to anyone else, now that I see you two together!" Vicky, the youngest Khurana brother, said now and Gauri turned in his direction. He had always been her favorite out of all the brothers; Maan had always been too intimidating, Dev was friends with Shiv – that didn't speak so well for the company that he kept – but Vicky had always been the sweet one, with his unruly curly hair and soulful eyes, but he could charm the socks off of anyone when he tried… she could see why he was so into the quiet twin with the intense eyes…
"That's because you have a sadistic streak, Vicky, despite what all the women think about you!" Shiv replied.
"Yes, we will end up just like Romeo and Juliet. Except, it would not be a dual suicide, but a homicide.. he would feed me poison and I would take him down with me, stabbing a dagger right through his aorta!" Gauri added.
They must have ragged on each other enough because now their mutually deprecating comments were eliciting laughs more easily than the slightly awkward chuckles that were coming before. Even Mr. and Mrs. Kapoor no longer appeared to be writhing in discomfort like they were before… Gauri felt better…. There was no way that she would be able to keep up a pretense of being infatuated with Shiv, especially in front of these people. Some nice old uncles and aunties, sure, but these men and their wives actually looked like people whom she could actually end up liking, and how long could she really put on an act for…
"So, if you both grew up together, you must know a lot about each other." Geet said now, looking at the both of them.
"Not really… when you hate each other's guts, you typically
tend to stay out of each other's way." Gauri said now and Shiv, of course, had to add, "There's really
nothing all that interesting to know about Gauri. She's a nerd, and that about covers it."
She kicked him under the table and said out loud, "Well, if you are an imbecile
like Shiv, everyone is bound to seem like a nerd!"
They all laughed once again and dinner continued.
After dinner was over, they all moved to the living room and it was Nirosha who suggested that all the couples play a game. She appointed herself as the one who would be in charge of coming up with the questions for the game, while Dadi would serve as the moderator.
Her enthusiasm was infectious and everyone was in agreement, and although the newlyweds were reluctant to play on the same team, they figured that it was no longer an option to say no... seeing as how they were mated for life and all… It was a guarantee at this point that they would come in last in this game when Nirosha proclaimed that the objective was to figure out how well the couples knew each other. It was based on some reruns of an old American reality show that she had been seeing, apparently.
She took a few moments to come up with ten questions and each member of each couple had to answer the questions for themselves as well as what they thought would be true for their significant other.
Nirosha passed out a folded piece of paper to each of them and Gauri unfolded it to look at questions.
1) What is your middle name? What is your significant other's middle name?
2) Where were you born (name of city and hospital)? Your significant other?
3) Who was your seventh grade science teacher? Who was your significant other's?
4) Who is your celebrity crush? Your significant other's?
5) What is your pet peeve? Your significant other's?
6) Do you prefer vanilla or chocolate? Your significant other?
7) If you could do anything you wanted in life, what would you do? Your significant other?
8) What did you want to be when you were young? Your significant other?
9) What is your hidden talent? Your significant other's?
10) What is your best memory of your significant other? What do you think is his or hers of you?
She read through them again and looked up at Shiv, wondering if he knew any of those about her. He looked up at the same time and caught her eye for a brief moment, but she couldn't really tell from his expression what he was thinking before he looked back down at the paper. She answered all the questions and turned in her paper just as Nirosha came back to collect them. She and Dadi opened up all the answer sheets and they decided that Nirosha would read out the answers of the men and Dadi would read the women's responses.
Everyone got the first question right.
Vicky and Nayana got the second one wrong, but everyone else passed.
Only Shiv and Gauri got the third one right, everyone else got it wrong.
From the fourth question on, the answers became more interesting and they started reading it out loud. Nirosha read Maan's first; he had said that Geet's crush was some guy named Armaan, but Geet had answered Shah Rukh Khan instead. Geet had said that Maan does not have a crush on any celebrities, and that actually was correct. Geet grinned from ear to ear at having beat her husband on that one and Maan muttered under his breath was this was becoming a pattern. Dev said that Tara's crush was Nazeerudhin Shah, which incidentally was right, to everyone's surprise and Tara said that Dev's was Madhuri Dixit, which was also evidently correct. Vicky and Nayana both got each other's wrong, but they both looked amused at the answers that each other had written down. Mr. and Mrs. Kapoor both got it right; it was Darmendra and Zeenat Aman, and Gauri couldn't help but smile at the answers. She had actually known that Shiv's mother had a soft spot for Dharmendra although his father's choice was a surprise. And finally, it was down to them. Nirosha read out it out loud now, "Shiv's celebrity crush is… Simran Nawal. Dadima, what did Gauri say it was?"
"Simran Nawal." Dadi said now, looking up and Shiv looked at her in surprise to ask, "How did you know?"
She raised her eyebrows in an, You-are-not-that-hard-to-figure-out-expression.
Dadi continued now, "And Gauri's celebrity crush is…" but before she could finish, Nirosha burst in with , "oh please don't tell me it's actually Eminem!"
Dadi looked up now and said, "Yes, I was wondering how to say this name. Sounds like that chocolate M&M, huh?"
It was her turn to be surprised and she looked at Shiv to say, "There was no way that you could have known that!"
"Oh! come on! For someone so straight-laced, you own every single album he's ever put out! You have a strange thing for rap music, huh?"
There was no way that he could have known that; it was supposed to be her most sacred secret! No one knew that she liked rap music! No one!!
For the fifth question about each other's pet peeves, everyone got the answer right, although Shiv and Gauri had the funniest answers, according to Nirosha, because they had put down each other's name and had correctly guessed that the other would say their name.
Gauri didn't know how Shiv knew that rather than picking Vanilla and Chocolate, she would write down that she liked Cookie-dough, and she had correctly guessed that he like chocolate. She was starting to wonder whether he had peeked at her answers, although that was impossible with how far away they were sitting from each other now, unlike dinner. Everyone else got that right as well.
For the seventh question, Shiv had correctly guessed that she would be a cell biologist – she was at least predictable in that area – but she got that one wrong. Evidently, if Shiv could do anything he wanted in life, it would be to live his life like it had been two days ago. Yea, that one had been aimed at her! She should have put down the same answer… asshole! It was interesting because the rest of the men got them wrong, whereas the women got them right, completely in opposite to her and Shiv.
For the next one, "What did you want to be when you were young?" She and Shiv both got them right… she knew that he wanted to be an astronaut, what little boy didn't really? And he had correctly guessed that she had wanted to be an archeologist. She had to admit that he was right at least on one count, she really had been a nerd since day one… but she had never realized that he had known the archeologist thing about her… or even if he did, that he remembered after all these years… Dev and Tara got that one right, while everyone else got it wrong...
The ninth question, the one about the hidden talent, only Mr. and Mrs. Kapoor got right. But more than that, Gauri was glad that Shiv had gotten this one wrong. He was starting to make her look bad, with his stupidly incredible memory for completely unnecessary information. But Shiv's answer on this one had also been a surprise to her; he had said that she could sing, but that she only opted to do so when no one was listening…. Well, clearly, he had listened at some point! She wondered when he had heard her sing… She had gone for a flip response and had put down that his hidden talent was to woo ten women at the same time, to which he answered, "That's not a hidden talent, wifey. It's a widely accepted truth…" So, she had replied, "You know what else is a widely accepted truth? The Jupiter size of your Ego!"
And then it was onto the final question... All the other couples got this one right, except for them. She felt something by her left breastbone clench when she heard Nirosha read out Shiv's response to this one, "My best memory of Gauri – the way she laughed when my dad beat me for breaking her doll when she was five." Gauri remembered that day clearly now; his dad had beaten him so hard that he had started bleeding and Gauri's laugh had quickly turned to tears. Nirosha was now reading what Shiv thought was her best memory of him, "the way I cried when my dad beat me for breaking her doll when I was seven."
And she listened now as Dadi read out loud she had written… "Gauri's best memory of Shiv is when he rescued her from drowning when she was sixteen." She saw him look up at her now in genuine surprise… and something else. Dadi continued now, "And she thinks his best memory of her is when she cried when he broke her favorite doll when she was five."
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