ARSHI's Story SILENT CONFESSION- Chapter 4 posted on 6/10 page 16

Mumbai

May 1997

It was seven in the morning, a beautiful young girl came running down the stairs, her high ponytail swung playfully on her back while light grey color pants and light pink colored tank top, she was wearing was stylish just like her and fitted well on her petite girlish frame. A wide grin appeared on her face as soon as she noted her mother and elder sister by the breakfast table and called out, "Good morning, ma, di, I am going for jogging with Pooja. Catch you laters!"

Garima rushed to the door, behind her younger daughter calling, "Khushi! Khushi."

But Khushi just glanced back and blew her mother a kiss and went running down to Pooja's place, as her mother gazed lovingly at her coltish strides and shook her head while addressing  her elder daughter, Aarti. " This girl, I don't know , what to do with her. She comes like a hurricane and takes everything that's comes in her way. I don't where her this childish behavior would take her?"

Khushi's elder sister, her lovely Aarti di, laughed and said, "Mom, stop it, let her be, she is just a baby."
Garima exclaimed, laughed and then agreed, "I know beta, she would always be our baby, but she is not a kid anymore, she is seventeen and this year, she would go to college." And then looking lovingly at her eldest child she chided, "I don't know what she would do there. " As Aarti grinned silently sipping on her second cup of coffee, her mother said, "And look at you, you were never like this at seventeen."  

Aarti nodded with a laugh and said, "Yah but look at this, I was your serious child, while Khushi keeps this whole place lively. Can you imagine this place without her?"

Garima, laughed at this and agreed as she patted lovingly on her firstborn's hand, "Ah! Khushi is a joy of our life. Her name is so true to her nature. She is our lifeline for sure. You both are my lifelines. How I wish, I could keep you like this forever."

Aarti, hugged her mother, as she got emotional and said. "Oh, Mama! You are the best mother in the world, Mama. We both appreciate all you have done for us. You mean a world to us."

Garima patted on Aarti's cheek and laughed, "Let's eat breakfast, I don't think my "chulbul" is coming anytime soon.

Aarti agreed as she glanced at the clock, "Yah I don't think, Khushi would come before an hour or so. These days she is either obsessed with exercise or listening to some gazals."
Garima's serving hand stopped midway and she looked with a curious, shocked expressions, "What gazals and Khushi? I thought she only listens to those teenagers type of loud music."

Aarti grinned and took a dainty scoop of granola yogurt bite and said, "Well, you know our Khushi, she changes her hobbies and interests every few weeks. But this hindi shayari is something new these days. Even I am shocked, as she barely understands the words and often ask me for translation." Both mother and daughter grinned thinking about their fireball Khushi, whose obsession with ghazals was something shocking for both of them.

Garima looked curiously, and asked, "How and when did this wonder happened?"
 

Aarti, tapped on her lip playfully and said, "Hm! Let me think. So it started few weeks ago when Khushi's friend Shefali gave her this CD by some unknown new singer. Well, I think Shefali was just teasing her as she knew that Khushi won't listen to Hindi music and Ghazal was a completely new word in Khushi's vocabulary. Khushi was pissed off at getting such useless gift from her friend, but never said anything. But when she heard the gazal for the first time, she became completely hooked. And the fact that she was getting over her latest heart break, she appreciate those gazals more. Few days later when Shefali asked for that CD, Khushi refused to part with it. It has been few weeks now, Khushi has not listened to her usual music, but listens only to these gazals.

Garima, who was listening to the entire episode in amused silence said, "Baap re! Khushi and serious gazals. God saves us."

Aarti laughed, "Believe me Mama, Khushi and Pooja has a mission these days. Their evenings are spent listening to the gazals and searching through the entire neighborhood's music stores to get to know that singer's identity. But poor things have come up with nothing for the past few days."

  
Garima, rolled her eyes and shook her head as she finished her breakfast and said, "I don't know what is coming next for this girl."

"Results for her board exams."  Aarti supplied and both of them laughed, knowing how Khushi was dreading that day.

2 Weeks Later

Garima Gupta came in the sitting where Khushi was busy flipping through the channels, while Aarti was sitting in one corner reading book. Picking up on Khushi's impatiently thrown jacket, Garima said, "Khushi?"
Khushi whose concentration still remained on TV said distractedly, "Yes Mom?"
Garima, sighed and took the remote from Khushi's hand and said, "Khushi Beta, I want to talk to you."
Khushi latched her arms around her mother and grinned, "Yes mother, I am all ears."
Garima, lovingly caressed at her younger daughter's head and said, "Actually, I want you to come with me to the station tomorrow. My dear friend's son is coming at 11 in the morning."

Khushi, squealed out in surprise and sound exasperated as she exclaimed out, "Station? What station? Whose son Mama?"

Garima smiled and said, "Well he is my dear friend Gayatri's son. He wouldn've preferred to stay in the hotel but me and Gayatri insisted. I haven't seen him in such a long time." Khushi looked on as Garima displayed a fond smile and said, "His train is coming from Meerut."

"What the?" Khushi's eyes went round hearing the news and she made a disgusting sound and screeched out."Meerut Seriously mom? Another one from a village?"

"What?" Garima, gave a stern look to her daughter and said, "Khushi first stop swearing and for your information, Meerut is not a village and Arnav has done.."

Khushi rolled her eyes as she heard her mother and snorted out, "ARNAV, what kind of name is that? Sounds like a villager's name." She muttered to herself.

It was Aarti, who was listening to the entire conversation very patiently, jumped in the middle as she closed her book and said, " Serously, Khushi, Arnav is a perfectly beautiful name actually. Very unique name."

Khushi appeared on the verge of tantrum as she said in an irritated tone, "Ugh! Anyways, I don't know how we would deal with another small town mentality person in our life."

Garima exclaimed out in displeasure hearing out, "Khushi, what are you even talking about, Arnav is perfectly..."

Khushi, who was an absolutely adored daughter of the house, didn't like her mother's displeased tone and that also for this unwanted intruder, so she cried out, "I don't want to hear about your Arnav Mama. But how could you forget about how we all suffered in the hands of that dragon woman who you said was our bua and her ill-mannered son? Ugh! What a pest."

Garima sighed, as she knew why her daughter was talking so and said "Khushi beta, you shouldn't say such things about your elders."  But she knew, she didn't sound very convincing while saying that.
Meanwhile, Khushi muttered under her breath, "Oh Ma! You don't know what that woman and her son said about you when they stayed here last year." But catching Aarti di's look of disapproval she kept quiet and simmered.

Reluctantly, as she decided to give up on the topic, she looked at her darling mother's face and said, "Ok Ma! So there is no choice right? I have to come with you?"

"Yes beta. We would leave by 930 in the morning. So be ready." Garima smiled fondly at her daughter and then left the room.

Meanwhile, she left behind a simmering Khushi, who angrily flipped through the channels and send series of curses towards a certain "Arnav" who was coming to disrupt their life.

But wait, she would make his life hell first. And she smiled serenely at the thought. 

TC.

R❤️