From the author's desk: Hello peeps! thanks for all your lovely comments!
Hope this update will end up being a pleasant surprise for you. And you thought I would bring Dadi to spoil their moment did you?
Here is the next update, Happy reading!
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Chapter 14: New beginnings
Part 1: A pleasant interlude
“Is that a rose garden?”, Khushi asked in a surprised tone.
Arnav who had turned back to see what had momentarily caught her attention, smiled at her
“Yeah, why don’t you come in and take a look?”
Khushi followed Arnav as he slid the glass door open. The fragrance of freshly blossomed roses hit them. There were at least 50 varieties of small and big rose plants, some of them were of rare colors, that Khushi was simply awed.
“I didn’t know there was a garden here upstairs… Wow Look at these red roses – they are beautiful!”
“Thanks”
“But who maintains this garden?”
“It’s usually me. When I am not there, someone comes in to water the plants”
“You look after these plants personally? I didn’t know you were into gardening as well”
Arnav smiled.
“I mean, but you are not there most of the year, you came just about 2 months back- so these are new?”
“No, most of them are at least 5 years old, those near that corner came in about a month ago, but most of them are here for some years now. That bush of white roses- you see the one which had scaled towards the terrace- it is a climber variety- one of the first ones to be planted- its older than me- solid 30 years”
“And who planted it ?”
“my mom!”
There was a brief silence. Khushi admired the plants, "they look beautiful!" She said "So your mom… She was into gardening?”
“Big timer! Probably, I was the only one who took interest in gardening after her or maybe I was the only one who was old enough to understand the nitty-gritties of it before she left us”
Khushi nodded at him, and there was a brief pause.
“and you carried over her legacy”
“I tried my best” Arnav said “Some of them died through the years, so I brought in new ones. I tried reviving some. This red rose bush is the only one left from the red rose varieties she planted.”
“I love the red roses” Khushi said “They are my favorite”
Arnav smiled reminiscing
“They were my mother’s favorite too”
“hmm, so that’s why you like it?”
“Like what? These plants? I love them!”
“No, I meant the color red- it’s your favorite color isn’t it?”
“oh… yeah...” Arnav shrugged “It’s hard to tell what influences you sometimes. But I thought you considered red to be too flashy?”
“I like the color on roses. Not on my dresses.”
Arnav chuckled.
“By the way, this garden can easily be graded the best place in your entire house”
“you haven’t even seen even half of it”
“I know” Khushi said looking around, as Arnav switched on the center light. The balcony was not as big as the terrace balcony in the first floor, it was only half of it and the front part of it was curved, giving it a semi circle finish. Half the balcony was covered with plants of various shapes and varieties- they were climbers, creepers and shrubs. Towards the other corner stood a brass stupa of Buddha meditating in sitting position, a wooden caricature of a tree stood behind the Buddha giving a view as if he was sitting under a tree. A large circular lotus pond stood next to the Buddha. On the other side of the Buddha was a canopy of ivies.
There was a round glass table in the center of the balcony and a couple of wooden antique chairs. The walls of the balcony had a glass extension surrounding the entire parapet space giving the place some privacy. A wooden recliner with plush leather cushions stood to one side. To one end stood a wooden plank swing with wooden arm rests and back rest. It was wide enough to allow one to sleep on it. As if to support that thought, it was topped with cushions and pillows.
Unlike the terrace balcony, the balcony was well hidden from outside view by the silver oaks just beside it.
“No wonder, I didn’t notice the existence of this balcony before, it kind of your private space isn’t it?”
“Not really”
“Come on- the only access to this balcony is from your room”
“No, you can come in through this door which is from the pool area” Arnav said pointing out the locked door beside the ivies which Khushi hadn’t noticed before.
“And these steps lead to the terrace” he said moving the ivy and revealing the staircase to the terrace
“Oh my God! I feel like I have just discovered some secret passage ways whose presence was not known before!”
“and meet Tony”
“Who? You gave a name to this Buddha statue?”
Arnav laughed
“Peep into the lotus pond”
“What?”
“He is a little shy of light” Arnav said switching on a light above the pond
Then Khushi noticed it, a red eared turtle, huge as a size of a big jackfruit
“Goodness! Look at the size”
“and that’s his companion Tina”
“there is another one? That explains why a lotus pond takes this big space”
“there she is”
“I see her now, so that’s his wife?”
“pcchh, more of a live-in kind”
She playfully aimed a punch at him which he dodged.
“They are high maintenance pets right?”
“Yeah, they need clean water- the water has to be changed almost twice a week- then their food and stuff”
“How old are they, that’s a massive size”
“Tony is 10, Tina came in 7 years back”
“So whose hobby was this turtle rearing?”
“Mine, I found Tony hatching from an egg at the beach where we had gone for a family vacation at Andaman and brought him home”
“Tony is your adopted son!”
“Tina was bought from a pet shop as Anjali felt Tony might feel lonely and needs a girlfriend”
“Oh gosh! That girl has a hobby of finding a girlfriend for every single male in this house?” muttered Khushi
“What did you say?”
“never mind. I was wondering what other secret chambers do you have at this place? And who else have I not met in this house yet??”
“This is not a secret chamber”
“Of course it is! It has hidden staircases and doors and I have never seen this place until today or known about Tony and Tina in the 2 months I have lived here”
“Because you don’t notice!” Arnav teased her as he got up to switch off the overhead light above the pond.
“come on, how do you expect me to search for secret doors that pretend to be walls?” Khushi asked easing herself from the kneeling position.
“That’s a proper door made of wood!” Arnav protested.
“The first thing I am going to ask Anjali tomorrow is how come she hasn’t introduced me to Tony and his girlfriend” Khushi told him “and about Arnav’s garden”
“We actually refer to this as Mumma’s garden”
Khushi silently looked at Arnav
“She usually gets very upset when comes here. There was a time when she used to avoid coming to this part of the house. To change that perspective, I purposely wanted to nest Tony here. So that she will overcome her depressed feeling about this place when she comes to visit Tony, I suppose she still nestles that feeling.” Arnav explained “And that’s perhaps why she hasn’t shown you this place, she associated this place with our mom’s loss.”
Khushi nodded at him.
“I heard that she was only 4 days old when your mom…”
Arnav nodded, looking far away
“How old were you?”
“I was 8” he told her, turning to look at her.
“that’s tragic” she whispered “the others were years younger and with an infant, I can imagine what the family must have gone through”
Arnav was silent for a sometime.
“The most tragic thing was the suddenness of it all” he said in a broken tone “I might have not been old enough to understand what happened to her at that age, But as I grew older, when I realized that it was because of negligence of some doctor that we lost her- the angst which comes with that helplessness is so painful and void!”
“I know” she whispered back “We sometimes cannot stop ourselves from wondering if we could have done something about it- something at all which would have saved her and wishing how different life would have been if she was still around”
Arnav turned back to look at her, but Khushi was looking somewhere beyond the horizon, lost in thoughts
“Khushi are you alright?” he asked tentatively.
She nodded at him
“you were speaking about your mom?”
She nodded again “Mine passed away when I was 16”
Arnav waited for her to continue, and she did
“Like you said, it was all so sudden. She had an attack of asthma – it wasn’t unusual. She usually got it during bad weather and father took her to the hospital and she never returned back home alive”
Khushi suddenly started walking towards the parapet and looked up.
“But whenever I remember her, I look up at the sky and I can see her up there”
Arnav joined her as well
“up there?”
“The stars” Khushi explained “Even the Delhi sky relents to my mood”
“that’s Venus and Saturn- the planets” Arnav told her
“Ok Mr. Astronomer, they can be Venus and Saturn to you- but I would like to let the child in me believe that it’s my mom.”
“I am not arguing!” he told her “I completely agree that those are stars and one is yours and the other is mine” he said raising his hands as if in surrender.
“You better don’t” she smiled
“Not today, not when I discovered that Khushi Kumari Gupta can have normal conversations with me. I am not spoiling that for anything”
“Come on, you showed me your secret chamber and how can I not act normal with you?”
“of course!”
“And how come you got this room with secret chamber? I mean, I have at least seen Anjali’s room, her room isn’t as big as yours and then, you have got Tony and Tina as your room-mates!”
“This room used to belong to my great grandfather. And he was the one who built this house- so naturally he got the best”
“Does the family think you are some sort of re-incarnation of your great-grandfather and gave you this room” Khushi decided.
“And where does this story come from?”
“From the engagement party- there was this old man who would tell anyone who would listen to him about your great-grandfather and then about you.”
“Oh you met Rajneesh Kapoor?”
“No idea about his name, but strangely, this old man called me aside and told that I resembled someone whom he knew so well but he couldn’t place whom… I think he mis-took me to be Anjali or someone else and when I told I was not related to the family, he then started speaking about you and your great grandfather- I think he should be one of your relatives”
“No, he is Sheetal’s grandfather”
“oh”
There was a brief silence when both stood watching the well-lit and empty road.
“I think I should leave” Khushi said turning abruptly
“why? What happened?” he asked
But she didn’t answer him directly
“It’s getting late and I am feeling sleepy” she said as she started walking towards the door.
To be continued.
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bwahahahaha...Here is where I close this part, at least their conversation is not over yet, so Vi demands more comments, bring them on!
Arnav babu you need to understand you guys live silent ly but still far to except in your heart … cute talk
Nice chapter.
They had their very first cheerful and full pledged conversation. I loved lotus pond and Budha statue. My friends have them in their garden too! Pet turtles, how cute!
The mention of Sheetal broke the conversation. But, who did Khushi resemble in the family?
Cheers......
First of all thank you dear for your timely update.😊its nice but small , very small, very very small.
I always like your writing style, characters conversation, they are so on point, sometime I so lost in their nice arguments. When the scene finished I feel like awww...
Keep writing..
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