181. OS 8: One Rainy Night (Parts 9 & 10)

Part 9

Arnav looked his fill of Khushi...her silky hair moving in the gentle breeze from the open windows, her red choli, her red sari, the long earring touching the creamy skin of her neck...he leaned forward for a better look.

Akash blinked to see his brother straining to stare at the beautiful girl he had spoken to earlier and her sister, Khushi. His Bhai was looking at a girl? And what was this look on his face that no one had been privileged to sight before?

“Bhai?” Akash’s voice was timid and scared. What was happening to the Raizada world? Had some tsunami struck it while he had been out?

“She is beautiful, isn’t she?” Arnav said softly, his eyes on Khushi as she leaned to whisper some secret in her Jiji’s ear.

“Who?” Akash croaked, his eyes wide as saucers, praying fervently that his Bhai was not interested in the girl he had talked to. What if he had to call that gorgeous goddess his bhabi? He almost shuddered at the thought.

“Khushi,” Arnav’s lips smiled, his eyes twinkled as he gazed his fill of the girl seated before him.

Khushi! Akash sagged in heart-felt relief.

Khushi turned her head surreptitiously to see if the eyes she could feel on her back were actually trained on her back or if her over-fertile imagination was cooking up the next khichdi.

Her eyes met his molten chocolate ones. She turned her head as fast as she could without spraining her neck and stared at the fire in the havankund. He was looking at her. Her breath came in choppy waves, her heart beat loudly in her chest, her pulse raced like mad.

“Kaa hua, Parmeswari?” Buaji asked. “Are you feeling sick?”

Khushi shook her head in the negative, words being beyond her at that very moment. It was a Vikram & Vethal situation with her being Vikram and he being Vethal, hanging on her back. She could smell his manly fragrance, feel his body heat envelop her.

“Khushi, tum theek ho?” Payal asked.

Khushi shook her head in the affirmative, very conscious that he could hear their conversation. How could she be theek? She was never going to be theek again after leaving this house. She would never see her raajkumar again unless...unless he got married and Naniji invited Buaji and her nieces for the wedding. Her heart clenched in grief, the burden of pain too heavy for her to bear with any degree of composure. What would she do if he smiled at another girl, or horror of horrors married her? Stand in rain night after night hoping that she could melt into a puddle and cease to exist? She coiled her arms around herself for comfort.

“Khushi,” he called softly.

Buaji, Khushi and Payal turned to look at Arnav.

Payal and Buaji looked curious.

Khushi looked downright terrified, tense.

Nani, Anjali and Mami leaned sideways to hear the gems falling from their Chotey’s mouth but the Purohit dashed their hopes. He glared at the ungodly lot, his bushy salt and pepper eyebrows lowered in a scowl.

Nani smiled sheepishly at him. Anjali looked away in embarrassment.

Mami cleared her throat in warning to her Arnav bitwaa who looked at Khushi’s pale face and smiled.

The Purohit continued with the pooja.

“Baat karni he. Tumse,” Arnav whispered to Khushi.

“Saasumma, bhat baat does hamre Arnav bitwaa want to do with Khussi?” Mami asked Nani, her voice low.

“K..Kissss baare mein?” Khushi stammered. She could feel heat emanating from his body in waves and touching her bare back. She shivered.

 Buaji and Payal stared at the unlikely pair and the Raizadas strained to hear the conversation.

“Bas karni he.” Possessiveness dripped from his words and he looked as though he would carry her off right from under the collective noses of both families and the guests.

Khushi panted. Did he want to ask her about her dreams? About the naughty things he had done to her in her room and in the car? Khushi Kumari Gupta, your jalebi is fried, she told herself. By the time he makes you describe your dreams in detail, he is going to roll on the ground laughing! You and your raajkumar! The whole world is going to clutch its tummy and laugh at your bakwaas, bewakoof dreams...

She swallowed hard.

“Hamre Arnav bitwaa talks?” Mami asked in wonder. “I thought he only scolds like an isschool teacherwaa, Hello Hi Bye Bye!”

Nani nudged Mami into silence. Anjali looked at Arnav’s determined face in wonder.

Akash stared at his Bhai in astonishment and hero worship. Could he invite Khushi’s sister to talk in private just as Bhai had ordered Khushi? He looked hopefully at the beauty sitting by Khushi and tried to drum up courage.

“What does that bitwaa want to talk to you about, Sanka Devi?” Buaji asked Khushi.

“I..I don’t know, Buaji,” Khushi whispered, wishing she actually were unaware of his intentions.

“Did you do something to cause him trouble, Nandkisore?’ Buaji asked, her stern eyes on her niece.

“No, Buaji,” Khushi said meekly.

“Hhmmfff” Buaji snorted, knowing her niece.

Khushi looked at the havankund and the holy fire burning brightly. “Hey Devi Maiyya,” she whispered. “I know I told you that I want to see him again, but I didn’t, I most definitely didn’t ask to be humiliated before him and his family. As it is...my dil hurts...Devi Maiyya, how will I survive this night?” She looked at the clock. “The pooja will be over soon and then my raajkumar, your Arnav Singh Raizada will want to talk to me,” she hyperventilated. “How will I find answers to his questions? Please make me deaf and dumb,” she prayed. “Then I won’t have to talk to him or hear him ask uncomfortable questions. Devi Maiyya, raksha karna...please..please. I will bring one kilo of jalebi made in desi ghee to your temple tomorrow...in pure desi ghee without any milawat. He Devi Maiyya!”

Part 10

As soon as the pooja was over, Khushi nudged Buaji and said, “Buaji, ghar chalte hein. I am not feeling well.”

Buaji looked at her flushed face and said, “Payaliyya, call Happy Singh.”

“Ji,” Payal bent to locate her phone.

The guests moved towards the door, chatting and laughing merrily.

“Buaji,” Arnav called from behind Khushi. She stiffened.

“Kaa he, babua?” Buaji asked.

“Can I talk to Khushi for a moment in private?” he asked politely.

The Raizadas crowded behind him to hear the conversation.

Buaji looked at Khushi’s now pale face and Arnav’s gentle countenance.

“Just five minutes, Buaji,” he requested.

“De do, de do phive minutes,” Mami exhorted Buaji. “Hamre Arnav bitwaa can do bahut kuch in phive minutes.”

Nani glared at Mami. “Madhumatiji, Chotey will take good care of Khushi bitiyya,” she comforted Buaji.

“Yes, Buaji. Khushiji will be safe with him,” Anjali added.

“But will he be safe with Khussi?” Buaji muttered under her breath.

Payal looked away to hide her mirth.

Buaji looked at Arnav and nodded. “Five minutes, bitwaa. Then we will go home. Happy Singh will come for us.”

“I will drop you home, Buaji,” Arnav offered.

The Raizadas stared at Arnav with varying degrees of shock evident on their faces.

“No, bitwaa. You..you talk to Titliyya, Nandkisore. We will go home with Happy Singh,” Buaji decided.

“Khushi,” Arnav invited.

She gulped and looked around. All she could see were encouraging faces. ‘I am going to my doom and all they can do is cheer me on my way?’ Khushi thought. She looked at her raajkumar. He was waiting for her to join him. Slowly she walked away from the two families towards him.

He led her up the steps.

“Hey Devi Maiyya, raksha karna,” Khushi chanted under her breath.

Arnav smiled at her words. He held the door to his bedroom open for her.

Her feet halted and her round eyes looked at him with fear in their depths.

“Just five minutes, Khushi,” he said gently.

She slowly walked into the room. Arnav shut the door behind her, trapping both of them in the dark room.

Before she could voice her fear of the dark, he switched on the light. Dim, golden light lit the room, lending elegance to the decor.

“I remember,” he said, his voice low & intimate. “I remember everything you said that night in the rain.”

He did? Khushi swallowed hard and looked at his hard, handsome, tempting form with huge, vulnerable eyes.

He looked down for a moment and then asked, “Why does Buaji call you Titliyya?”

After a moment of standing disoriented, staring at him, she said softly, “Buaji thinks I flit about like a butterfly.”

“And do you?” he asked in a low voice as one would talk to a child.

She gulped. The next question would be ‘Why does Buaji call you Sanka Devi?” Attack was the best form of defence and it was best she started the battle before he could drag in her dreams and her sankiness. If he wanted to explain to her that her brain was like a sieve, her imagination was out of bounds, she had imagined him to be her raajkumar, that he had no intention of starring in her dreams, that her out-of-control dreams were her own problem, then he didn’t have to bother. She knew all these and more although she was helpless to change her sanki nature or make her heart understand that the man standing before her did not belong to her.

She gulped down her tears and began, “Why did you visit Laxmi Nagar?”

“To see you,” he was blunt.

She frowned, pretending she couldn’t understand his motive.

“Why?” she asked. “I didn’t take your coat that night. There was no reason for you to visit us.” She took care to casually step farther from him.

“Do I need a reason to visit you, Khushi?” he asked, his eyes intent, his body alert.

He looked so handsome and so..so touchable as he stood there looking at her! Khushi looked away and tried to stiffen her trembling lips. No, he didn’t need a reason. Why did he have to ask permission? He was in her dreams and her head and her mind and her heart all the time anyway.

“You wanted to make sure I was alright. Shukriya, you are very kind,” she tried to distance him.

“Do I need a reason to visit you, Khushi?” he asked again.

Khushi tensed. What was she going to do with this delicious man she needed to push away but couldn’t keep her hands off? She clenched her fists for fear that she would touch him, run her hands over his chest, into his hair, touch his lean cheek, gently touch the cleft in his chin with her finger...

“Khushi, what did I do in the car?” he asked.

“Nothing,” she blurted out.

“I see,” he murmured.

She hoped he didn’t see. It would be very embarrassing if he did!

“What did I do in your bedroom as you were changing?” he asked.

“Nothing. Nothing at all,” she quavered.

“Oh,” he seemed disappointed. “Khushi, you imagined me in the car and your bedroom, didn’t you?”

She looked away, hoping desperately that the five mminutes were up and Buaji would bellow for her. “Wohh..it must be time for me to leave...Buaji will be waiting...” she began desperately.

“Just as I dreamed you,” he continued as though she hadn’t spoken at all.

Her mouth fell open and she shook her head. She must have imagined his words, she thought.

“I dreamed that you were wearing a red sari,” he began softly, his voice a mere breath in the night air.

Her huge eyes stared at him in disbelief.

“It was raining...a dark night. We had an umbrella,” he said.

“Like Nargisji and Raj Kapoorji?” Khushi asked. She could slip into a dream at the shortest notice, even other people’s dreams!

“Yes. You called me Arnav,” he said.

Khushi frowned. But she had found out his name only this evening. Then how had she called him by his name? ‘Koi baat nahi, Khushi. It is a dream. Sab kuch chalta he in a dream,’ she told herself.

 But she had called him Arnav!

‘Khushi, tum bhi na,’ she told herself. ‘No manners, not even in sapne. You should have called him Arnavji. Calling him by his name!’

While Khushi lamented over her lack of manners, he continued, “You danced in the rain.”

She nodded. She could see herself doing it...and falling ill afterwards.

“You laughed,” he said slowly.

Khushi smiled.

“And asked me if I wanted to hug you,” he whispered.

Khushi’s eyes flew open. She was besharam even in his dreams?

“You said that you were mine just as I was yours,” he murmured.

Khushi gulped. Whose dream was this? His or hers?

He walked closer till he stood just inches away from her. She could feel his body heat, smell his musky fragrance, hear him breathe.

“You said you want me...only me...for hamesha,” he said softly.

Khushi’s head fell back in shock. She had actually told him what was in her mind..in his dream? She frowned.

“You said you can never leave me, that you are a part of me...just as I am a part of you,” he confided.

Khushi gulped. She had spilled the deepest secrets of her heart... in his dream?

“And you kissed me,” he moved closer.

Khushi gasped loudly. She had apparently climbed Besharmi ki heights in his dream. She stepped back, felt her knees touch the recliner. She sat down in a whoosh.

He lowered himself to kneel by her.