Part 159
When they reached home, she was out of the car even before he had shut off the engine. She washed up and went to the dining table and without waiting for anyone started serving herself. Kaka and akka knew it was better not to question her, though they guessed something was wrong. They had seen Armaan walk in quietly to his room just with a "hi maa" to Padma, that was rather strange.
Padma innocently went and asked her daughter "kya hua aaj Armaan ka wait nahi karogi?"
R: Mujhe bhook lagi hai main kha rahi hoon, usey bhook lagi ho to woh bhi kha lega. Why should I bother about someone who doesn't trust me?
Though she was putting the food in her mouth she wasn't able to swallow it. Anger was choking her and tears started running down her cheeks. She brushed them away and pushed some more food into her mouth and finally started coughing. Armaan rushed to her before anyone else could and started thumping her back. Then putting one arm around her shoulder, he picked up a glass of water with the other and held it to her mouth. She pushed it away and at the same time pushed his hand away from her shoulder too.
He left the glass on the table and immediately knelt beside her. Holding his ears he apologized "I'm sorry sweetheart, but yeh to batao tum itne naraaz kyon ho? Yeh bharosa na hone ki kya baat kar rahi ho?" "don't act so innocent Armaan. I'm not a fool" she shouted. "didn't you request Dr. Mohan to give you Mr. Kartik's case?"
A: Did Dr. Mohan tell you that?
R: You only tell me, did you request him or not. Haan ya na?
"Haan" Armaan replied in a low voice, "lekin," before he could complete she left the table and ran to her room, latched the door and fell on the bed weeping. Padma, akka and kaka were watching the whole drama dumbstruck. And the most surprising thing was Armaan instead of trying to go and console her, just walked out of the house. They kept looking at each other not knowing what to do.
Seeing Padma puzzled, kaka confidently said "aap fikar mat kariye, Armaan beta bahu ko zaroor mana lega."
P: main soch rahi thi Riddhima ka gussa ab kum ho gaya hai, par woh to ab tak uske naak par hi hai.
"Armaan beta ne zaroor kuch galat kiya hoga, nahi to bahu aisey naraaz nahi hoti," kaka defended his bahu.
P: Par jo bhi ho, usne uske saamne gutne thek kar maafi bhi maangi na?
K: Bahu bhi to ro rahi thi. Matlab Armaan ne uska dil dukhane jaisa kuch to kia hai. Lekin aap chinta mat karo, woh usey manakar hi rahega.
P: lekin woh to bahar chala gaya na?
Then she got up and went to bang on Riddhima's door. "Riddhima, darwaza kholo. Mujse to naraaz nahi ho na? Mujhe to batao kya hua." But all of them were shocked when the door opened after a few minutes and both of them came out, Armaan's arm around her shoulder.
P: Armaan tum to bahar,
A: haan maa, main bahar jaakar khidki se andar khuda. Main jaanta tha meri jungli billi darwaza nahi kholegi.
For that he got a hard hit on his shoulder. Then he went on to explain to Padma, what was the problem. "Maine kaha tha na maa, main Riddhima se kuch chupa nahi paoonga. Yeh chupane ki chakkar mein hi sab gudbud ho gaya."
P: Tab to Riddhima, tumhe naraaz mujhse hona chahiye, maine hi usey batane se mana kiya tha.
Armaan winked at Padma and continued to Riddhima, "Tum jaanti ho na I trust you totally. I knew you'll never divulge anything to that man but I also know he's not a person to give up easily. He'll keep questioning you till he gets the answers to all his questions. I didn't want you to go through that torture, that's all. And you'll agree if I approached you directly, you definitely wouldn't have agreed to my suggestion. That's why I had to go to Dr. Mohan behind your back. Satisfied?"
By then they were seated at the table and kaka was serving them. She stopped him from serving her saying "Nahi kaka main kha chuki hoon."
K: Aaj main tumhare pasand ka avial banaya hai, bahu. Zara theek se khakar batao kaise bana hai.
Armaan held a morsel to her mouth and beseeched her with his eyes to take it. She narrowed her eyes at his nautanki and opened her mouth, but bit his fingers. "Ouch! He screamt aloud shaking his fingers. "Isliye tumhe jungi billi kaha" he said blowing on his fingers. She pulled a plate towards herself, without sparing him another glance and said "kaka avial bahut bhadiya bana hai. Main chawal ke saath khaoongi." Kaka gave a broad smile and served her.
Padma shook her head looking at the pair and said, "Pehle aisey ladey ke mujhe to heart attack hi ho gaya, aur ab aisey bachkani harkatein kar rahe hain jaise Ani se bhi chote bachche ho. I don't think I'll ever understand you both." "That's Armaan Riddhima," he said putting his arms around Riddhima's shoulder and she also put her head on his shoulder with a smile saying "exactly".
Though they had rushed off after lunch Armaan had made some signs to Padma, which she didn't understand properly, but she assumed he hadn't told Riddhima about Kartik being her father, as yet.
In the evening all of them went to meet Mathew and his family. While the men chatted and the children played, Riddhima offered to help Nancy with the packing and Padma accompanied them. Their relatives would be coming the following day to see him off, Nancy informed them. They were having a special prayer offering too. When they were about to leave after an hour, Armaan hugged Mathew and asked him not to worry about Nancy and the kids. Padma kept her hand on his head and blessed him wishing him success in all his endeavours. That brought tears to his eyes.
Armaan and Riddhima assured him that they would extend Nancy whatever help she needed. Moreover, Nancy's parents were also planning to stay on with her for a few months. They wished him luck and invited Nancy and the kids for Akshat's birthday party and left. When Mathew requested Akshat to take care of Tania at school, he replied very confidently, "You don't worry uncle. I'll take good care of her."
When the Malliks left, Mathew remarked to his wife, "Akshat is an exact replica of Armaan, so kind and so polite. God bless them."
The New-Year's party in the colony was a huge hit as usual with family games and food. Then the DJ began to play the popular numbers and all the youngsters started dancing. Having seen the Mallik couple dance at the MSHC, Dia and Varun pulled them also to dance. The Malliks'excuse was that they weren't familiar with the latest songs. That was soon remedied by Varun, asking the DJ to play the most popular songs of the previous decade. Then there was no stopping the Malliks then, as the DJ played all their favourite numbers.
Seeing Padma sitting and watching them, with a smile on her face, Varun went up to her and asked her for a dance. She made a fuss at first, but he pulled her and asked the Dj to play a slow number.The Malliks were also happy dancing to a slow number. Seeing Varun and Padma many older couples also came to dance.
The next dance Riddhima and Armaan moved to their table but Varun came and asked Riddhima saying "please Riddhima." It seemed rude to refuse so she winked at Armaan and went with Varun. Seeing that Dia had no one to partner her and she had even missed the previous dance, Armaan extended his hand towards her. She was surprised by his request but happily accepted. When they crossed Riddhima on the dance floor she raised her eyebrows at Armaan and this time he winked at her.
The next morning, Armaan had an urgent case to attend to, at Coimbatore. So he left early in the morning with Shafi. Riddhima wouldn't let him drive as he had had very little sleep the previous night. Akshat had an off from school, but Riddhima had to go to the hospital. Varun and Dia were surprised to see her driving and Armaan missing. They seemed quite surprised when she told them about Armaan's trip as he hadn't mentioned anything the previous night.
R: He got the call early this morning and hence had to leave immediately.
Everyone was greeting each other A HAPPY NEW-YEAR as they crossed each other at the hospital. When she gave the same explanation to Sheena and Rajan for Armaan's Coimbatore trip, Rajan said "I've been doing the Coimbatore visits for the past two years. I don't know any of the patient needing an emergency visit. If it was so, I would have gone. Who could have called Armaan?" Then they parted saying "have a nice day."
Riddhima got worried, though she didn't show it to the Rajans. She immediately went to Dr. Mohan, to get clarifications. Dr. Mohan told her that it was a new patient who couldn't be brought to Munnar. That was what Armaan had requested him to say. "He'd better have a proper explanation for everything," Dr. Mohan thought to himself. He didn't like lying to this honest and sincere lady. Then he made his way out saying he needed to check on Armaan's patients.
"I'll do that sir," Riddhima volunteered and he agreed but suddenly remembered about Kartik and said, "you take care of wards 5 and 6, I'll see 7 and 8. Riddhima left from there but the feeling that Armaan was hiding something from her, lingered in her mind.
After an hour Armaan called to say he had almost reached Coimbatore. But he still had an hour's drive before he reached the patient's house. He enquired "Kya hua Riddhima?" guessing from her voice that all was not well. She asked him point blank "Armaan tum mujse kya chupa rahe ho?" he was totally stunned. "Wha… What are you saying Riddhima. Main tumse kyon kuch chupaoonga? Tum kiss bare mein baat kar rahe ho?" She thought it wasn't the right time to get into all that now. So she said, "baad mein baat karte hain Armaan. Par tum batao, did you take a nap. Raat ko tum bahut kum soye the. Tumhe sar dard to nahi hua na?"
Hearing her concern he was feeling very guilty about keeping her in the dark. But then that was the main purpose of this visit. He wanted to find out all the details about Kartik before revealing the truth to her.
A: I'm fine sweetheart, I had a nice nap and am feeling fresh now. I'll call you after I see them, I mean the patient. Tum lunch ke liye ghar ja rahi ho?
R: First I thought I won't go, but chotu will be waiting for me, so I'll go.
Armaan thought how the little one came bounding to the door even before they got out of the car. Padma had been surprised how he recognized the car horn which he heard when Armaan turned into their street and immediately left all his playthings and ran to the door shouting "mama, dada, mama, dada". He would come and hug Riddhima's leg and wouldn't let her enter till she picked him up. Immediately he would start licking her face and showering his 'pa' on her. He wouldn't even let her wash up before picking him. So she had made it a point to wash up thoroughly before leaving from the hospital.
Waking up from his daydreaming he said "Yes, he'll be disappointed if you don't go. Bye then, take care. See you soon. Miss you.
R: I miss you too. Jaldi wapas aa jao.
But it was late evening by the time Armaan returned. He had picked up some of Akshat's and Ani favourite snacks from Coimbatore, because he didn't have time for much else. That distracted Ani, otherwise he wouldn't have let him enter without taking him for a small round in the colony. That was his daily routine, when his parents returned from the hospital, in the evening. They couldn't come out of the car. Either his anna or athai would bring him to the car when his mama and dada reached home, and he would go for a small drive along with them.
After dinner Armaan read a story to Akshat and waited for him to sleep. In the meantime Riddhima had made the little one sleep. He had told maa and Riddhima before dinner that he wanted to talk to them. Padma's immediate reply had been "You must be tired beta, take rest. Can't this wait till tomorrow?" his reply had been "nahi maa, it's ok I'm fine. I'd like to get this over tonight." So after dinner they sat in the drawing room with the coffee kaka had made for them.
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