Chapter 32
[MEMBERSONLY]
Chapter 24
The first step...
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UeNIROyx6o[/YOUTUBE]
Blurred country side passed by him as he
sat in the car, listening to music. It was strangely melancholic, the scene yet
there was a slight tinge of cheeriness along with oodles of excitement. The car
never slowed down to a speed less than hundred, the driver and her anger made
sure of that.
Arnav didn't have the slightest clue of
what to make of her. She seemed fragile and delicate all the times he had met
her back then but the one sitting opposite to him in the car seemed a total
contradiction. She oozed out confidence and power. She seemed more and more
like water to him. In the past, she was peaceful, slightly mellowed and easily
captured. But now, she seemed a gush, a rapid which was impossible to be
contained. Such was her energy, raw, passionate, powerful.
His eyes never wavered from her. Her
slightest moments kept him ensnared, noticing, analysing and getting
bewildered. Her choice of music, her light drumming of fingers on the steering
wheel, her soft moments of gear shifting, her light humming of random songs,
everything. Everything told him an altogether different story. She wasn't a
normal girl. She was different. Her small nuances narrated a different tale, a
tale he was aware of but in different situations. Not once this kind of
behaviour had he seen in the women in his circle. They were either too bold or
too placid. But she was like a guy. Uncared about her beauty, not bothered
about her behaviour. Rugged, bold and soft at the same time. A perfect
dichotomy.
He could hear her talk softly to Chris.
Laughing about some random jokes, including NK in the group. But not once, even
for courtesy, asked him something. She was resolutely avoiding him as though he
was nothing but a wall and it amused him to no ends. Not annoyed, amused.
Perhaps, he had started liking her little quirks.
After about 3 hours of nonstop driving,
they stopped for a tea break near a small roadside stall. The stall was a
thatched hut with mismatched benches cluttered around for customers to sit. A
woman was behind the gas, preparing tea and coffee while a small boy wandered
around serving orders. While NK and himself sat on the benches, Chris was
standing near the vehicle while Khushi had gone and stood in front of a huge
field, stretching herself. A few minutes later, she came and sat on of the
benches while Chris ordered some snacks. NK got up and joined the other two on
their table, meanwhile dragging Arnav with him as well. Khushi smiled at NK but
chose to ignore him as usual.
When their order was ready, Khushi got
up and went to the stall to get the tea, forbidding the boy to serve them. She
walked back with a tray of tea glasses and a plate of biscuits and handed NK
and Chris their cups of tea. When Arnav stretching his hands for his cup of
tea, Khushi picked up the glass and drank it herself and walked out to the
field again. Arnav stared at her open mouthed for a while but quickly realized
that she wasn't going to treat him like the other two and he had to deal with
that. With a smile, he accepted his tea from NK who was giving him a smirk. That
woman was soon going to drive him nuts.
"What have you done to her to make her
this riled up?" Chris asked, humour dripping in his voice. This man found it
hilarious to see Khushi giving cold shoulders to one of the richest bachelors
of India. He made no effort to hide his mirth in the face of the ignored Arnav.
Apparently, he had never encountered such a situation in his life because his
mad friend Khushi never behaved this extreme with anyone. She was known for her
easy going nature and her art of making countless friends.
"Long story," Arnav said as he sipped
his tea. Chris smirked as he got up and joined Khushi. NK turned to him with a
full blown mischievous smile, "Kya Bhai...yeh ladki toh bhav hi nahi derahi
hai aapko..."
"NK, shut up!" Arnav growled as he broke
a biscuit into two halves. It was about 9 in the morning. He was hungry. Arnav
and NK started discussing about where to have breakfast. Khushi and Chris were
deep in conversation and there was a lot of hand-talking in the process. These
researchers and their ways, Arnav smirked as he got up and paid the bill and
walked back to the car with NK. The other two were still talking rapidly and NK
voiced the question that was running in Arnav's mind from a long time, "any
problem?"
"No," Chris smiled, "a small detour. We
had planned to get to Matheran first but Amanda thinks it is better to start
our sampling from Kasara ghats and then reach Mumbai. It's not exactly a detour
though. We are just stopping earlier than planned."
"So a major stop will be at Kasara
ghats?" Arnav asked, thrilled at the prospect of stopping at the Ghats instead
of a town. Ghats sections were the most peaceful and usually housed estate
houses, the inhabitants of which would take you in if luck was on your side. It
was an amazing experience to be in the midst of hills, in some small cottage
overlooking the mountain ranges. Arnav loved that.
"Yes," Chris looked at Khushi, "but the
slight problem is the detour to Mumbai."
"Why," Arnav asked slightly puzzled. "It
is not exactly a part of Western Ghats. It is the unnecessary detour here.
Khushi is displeased with simply going to Mumbai for no reason," Chris cast a
wary look towards his friend before turning back to him.
"I think that is a brilliant idea,"
Arnav quipped, "Mumbai is a fine city. It will be good to see it in passing,
isn't it?"
"No one's asking your opinion," Khushi
snapped at him. Chris bit his tongue and Arnav looked at her incredulously
before ignoring the jibe and answering her retort, "I know my opinion won't
matter to you and neither was I telling it you. I was talking to Chris. You've
got a problem with that, too?"
Khushi eyed him with all anger before
going and sitting in the car. Arnav smirked and said, "Dude, it's the choice of
you guys. You are the one who needs work done. If you really think Mumbai is a
great idea then make the trip or else drop it."
Chris thought for a while and then said,
"I think Khushi's right. It is an unnecessary detour right now. If time permits
then we'll visit Mumbai at the end of our trip. What say?"
"Yeah," Arnav smiled, "that sounds fine
too. It's up to you in the end."
"I guess I better listen to Gupta this
time," Chris winked, "usually her readings are correct. If I say I want to go
to Mumbai and then if our schedule gets messed up, I will be fried."
"Why do you fear her so much?" Arnav
said cockily. "It's not like she's a lioness or something who's going to hunt
you to death. She's just a woman."
"Oh you haven't seen her in action, Mr.
Raizada," Chris smiled, "She's made real men cry already. Don't make the
mistake of underestimating her. You are going to pay a heavy price. Anyway, you
already have some experience with her. She isn't someone you believe she is,"
saying that he walked back to the car and plopped himself onto the shotgun and
got to explaining the plan.
Arnav and NK looked at each other before
joining them and the car zoomed off.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Diya had already started missing her
sister. It wasn't even a few hours and painful lump had formed in her throat at
the prospect of not seeing her sister or not regularly speaking with her. She
hated this feeling. Her crazy, harebrained sister was the only one who knew her
inside out and she was the only one Diya had bared her soul to. Never anyone
had understood her the way Khushi did and that void wasn't really filled even
by her dad. Payal was a gone case already. Neither her mother nor her aunt had
the power to ease her like the way her sister, who was not blood related to
her, did.
Sometimes she did wonder what her life
would have been if her dad hadn't found a lonely, crying Khushi on the streets
15 years back. Would she have been this happy and content in her life? The
answer was no. Khushi came into her life like a tornado and rescued her from
the clutches of her moronic sister. She unknowingly became her roof and bore
the brunt of every nasty thing her family subjected at her to keep her little sister
away from trouble. Khushi got punished for every prank Diya played. Khushi
sacrificed everything for Diya's happiness. She was her angel.
Stop thinking! She admonished herself as
she walked into the bookshop that was in a narrow alleyway in Khan Market. Diya
loved visiting this tiny shop cluttered with books till the roof. There wasn't anything
apart from riffling of pages and the heavenly scent of books in here. It
reminded her of a handsome wooden room with huge volumes of books and a set of
mahogany chairs. There didn't exist anything called as the outer world inside
of that room. The same feeling overrode Diya's heart as she stepped past the
threshold of this tiny nook.
Book reading became Diya's craze, thanks
to Khushi. Khushi was a reading freak. She forgot herself when there was a book
and a cup of black coffee next to her. Diya would sit hours together watching
Khushi lose herself in the warm pages of a book and amazing flavour of coffee.
Seeing her sister smile and laugh reading a funny paragraph, moist her eyes
when there was something painful, Diya's interest piqued and she went and got
herself her first novel, Harry Potter and The Philosopher Stone. The story of a
boy wizard ensnared her so much that there was no turning back from that point.
It was books, that became her new life. Moving past the child fiction, she
stepped into mature writing with Indian Author, Amitav Ghosh's Circle Of Reason. With that book,
literature became her love and she took it up as her passion and profession and
it was Khushi who encouraged her to step past the stereotypic engineering and
medical and take up literature as her career and not once did Diya regret her
decision.
As her hands trailed across the backs of
the numerous books, her eyes glazed with the excitement that only a new book
brought into her life. She started pulling the books out of the shelves at
random and in no time her hands were laden with a dozen books which absolutely
had no connection with each other. The art of picking books came naturally to
her and the titles flamed the torch of her inner desire. She smiled as she
started walking back to the counter. The cashier smiled at her as she deposited
her books on the counter and went back in to find some more.
The same process of hand trailing
started and her fingers came to rest on a rare book, The Outlander. But the
book was already claimed by another set of fingers and her eyes met that of a
bespectacled guy. His face recorded emotions that were unknown to her or
perhaps, that were inexperienced by her. He immediately withdrew his hands and
offered the book to her, "I'll search for another copy."
She smiled and shook her head, "No
trouble. I'll ask for another one. You can have this."
"I insist," the stranger smiled back.
Not having a way, she accepted the book from his hands, "Thanks."
"My pleasure," he smiled as he extended
his hand, "I am Akash."
"Diya," she shook his warm hands. "Do
you come here a lot," she didn't know why she asked that question but it just
slipped out of her tongue. That one moment of hand grazing made her feel she
had a very intimate connection with this stranger whom she just met.
"Yeah," he smiled back, "this bookshop
is like my personal haven."
She laughed and bobbed her head, "Mine
too. But I haven't really seen you here."
"May be we come at the wrong times and
miss each other," his eyes twinkled as he said that. She laughed again, "you
speak nice."
"Why thank you," he bowed his head. "How
about a coffee?"
"Sure," she agreed readily, not having
an inkling of why she did it. "I'll just bill my books."
"Oh," he said as he took his pile from
the nearest chair. His collection were weird but extremely interesting, she
noted quickly as she accompanied him to the counter. The manager smiled at the
guy, confirming his statement of coming here often. Strange how she had missed
him.
It took them nearly 15 minutes to bill
their books and walk out of the shop, "Do you have your vehicle?" he asked.
Diya nodded and pointed at her car parked opposite of the shop. He smiled and
pointed to his that was right in front of hers, "funny."
"Yeah," as they walked to their cars and
dumped their things inside in unison, "I know a lovely coffee place here."
"Sure, lead the way," Diya said as she
locked her car and went to him. Together they walked to the coffee house three
blocks away from the shop. And thus a new tradition had formed.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A bunch of papers flew as she banged the
phone for the thirtieth time. She had no idea how Arnav even tolerated half of
this relentless torture. It was driving her nuts. Being a receptionist sucked
more, she decided, thinking about the poor receptionist sitting in the ground
floor of AR premises, answering countless calls every day and still having to
make a pleasant impression to the callers. Damn, it was so hard.
Lavanya never expected this much work to
bury her. You had to go on a life
changing field trip didn't you, she thought scornfully as she closed her
eyes and stretched herself on the couch. But the minute she closed her eyes,
she was awarded with a dizzying vision of sparkling blue eyes. That shade
seemed to raze her thoughts and made her mind go numb. Was she in love?
Lavanya never thought there was space in
her heart for anyone except Arnav. He was the only one till now to have such a
momentous impact on her yet, that force seemed dispassionate compared to the
lava bubbling inside of her now. With this blazing eyes, his potent thoughts,
and his innocent smile, she didn't have anything left to think anything other
than him. It terrified her.
Chris
terrified her because behind that innocence hid such an intense human, such a
mature being that she failed to understand. Lavanya was a mind reader herself,
taking pride in her observation skills but Chris startled her with his depth. How
much ever gullible he seemed outwardly, ten times he was more intense from the
inside. The only confusion Lavanya had was whether she would be able to match
his strength.
But there was nothing to make her deny
that she didn't have any feelings for Chris. She had. But she was still
confused as to what name she would give those feelings. It wasn't physical
intimacy, it wasn't desperation or escapism from her past love, it wasn't just
friendship, it was more and that word, more', bewildered her to the core.
She rubbed her head as she fell back on
the couch. Her head was so muddled with stuff that she didn't know what to feel
anymore. She had to talk to someone. The answer came instantly. Khushi. She was
the only one who could calm her down but the slight problem was Chris would be
there with her. But after a while she just thought screw it! She was going to talk to Khushi, no matter what.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I think we missed the highway," Khushi
whined miserably. Chris who was busy looking into his tablet was shocked when Khushi
literally snatched it, "your GPS device sucks!"
"What," he protested, "I have never been
to India. You can't blame me for getting wrong." Khushi looked at him in
irritation before she sighed, "I guess you are right."
Looking for a service road that
connected to Maharashtra, they had wandered into a lone stretch of road that
looked like a bypass to a nearby village instead of Jaipur. Either way they
looked, the stretch was covered in small huts in distance and freshly tilled
soil that was ready to receive the first sprinkles of monsoons. None among them
had realized they had missed the highway until Khushi had the brains to ask
someone in the way and the person looked on blankly at her, confirming her that
the highway was nowhere near to where they were. Hopelessly stranded, the group
looked on for some shred of path that would lead them to the original Jaipur
service road where they had planned to do their first night hold up. It was
almost 3 in the afternoon and by their calculations they should have reached
Jaipur long back but they were still stuck in an unknown place which didn't
even have a milestone to tell which village road was nearing.
"Damn it!" Khushi banged her steering
wheel, "now what do we do?"
"Khush," Chris smiled, "its fine. Its
going be a little adventure and why are you getting so worked up. We have lost
our way tonnes of times and you always told it was a wonderful experience. What
happened to you all of a sudden?"
Khushi ran her fingers through the ends
of her hair before taking a deep breath, "you are right. I don't know why am I
making this such a big deal. Anyway, we'll just go to the village and ask them
the directions from there."
"Why do we have to go till the village,"
Arnav finally broke his silence after almost 2 hours, "we don't even know how
far is that. Isn't it better if we wait here for someone to show up and then
ask them the directions?"
"Did I ask you anything," Khushi gritted
her teeth as she turned to him, "Why do you think it is important for you to
speak up?"
Arnav stared at her for some time before
answering, "No you didn't ask me anything but it's easy to ask someone than
break the head trying to understand the directions. We might end up not
reaching the village at all."
Khushi's eyes never had so much of
annoyance as they did now, "Once again I am warning you. Just stay the hell out
of my work else I'll throw you off the vehicle into the river."
"Oh really?" smirked Arnav as he tried to wake
a snoring NK up.
"Do you want me to try?" was the retort
that came up almost instantly and in no time the big fight was about to begin
when Chris had some sense to stop it, "Guys! Enough! We have lot of things to
worry about without you lunging at each other's throats. Khush get a grip on
yourself and he sure does have a point."
"Are you siding with him," this time
target became Chris, as Khushi rounded on him to blast. But Chris who had lots
of experience with Khushi's anger smoothly slid off it, "Gupta, don't you want
to reach Jaipur and have some wonderful lunch? We haven't had anything decent
since morning and I am hungry. Instead of making a huge detour to the place
unknown, we'll stay put here and wait for someone. I am sure they will be
knowing something."
"Fine," grumbled Khushi and got down
from the car to get her backpack out of the boot. Chris smiled at Arnav and got
down from the car to keep an eye on the street for any passers-by. NK was
blissfully sleeping in the backseat. Arnav left him sleeping and got down as
well, stretching. Khushi grabbed some crisps from her pack and handed two of
them to Chris who in turn gave one of them to Arnav. Arnav was beyond amused to
see Khushi giving him classic cold shoulders. It was fun.
"Khush," Chris put an arm around her,
"I'll drive from here. You take some rest."
"Okay," she smiled as she munched on her
bag of chips.
"You sure aren't at your best, are you?"
Arnav said cockily, raising his eyebrows at Khushi. Khushi narrowed her eyes,
glaring at Arnav like she was about to blast him through her eyes. But she
thought better of it at the last minute and not wanting to waste her time on
this loser, she simply glowered at him and went back to her jeep. Chris and
Arnav shared a look of deep amusement. Their look had a lot of things being
explained there. It was as though the boys finally found that one thread
connected them and it was Khushi. Albeit her behaviour towards either of them
was different but she held them on her either side, making their bond strong
and guy friendships were easy to make. Khushi unknowingly had made these two
strangers look out for each other.
PRECAP:
I thought you were a seasoned trekker. I didn't
know you couldn't differentiate between loose soil and hard soil.
A
little help would be really appreciated, madam
Oh
keep your sarcasm near you. I really don't care. Give me your hand.
Aren't
you supposed to be like my dress is going to get soiled or anything?
One more word and I'll leave you
here to be food for hungry big cats. Want that?
Sorry!
Comments really appreciated by the way :) Not being sarcastic :D
Your reaction
Nice
Awesome
Loved
LOL
OMG
Cry
Continue Reading next part >
Comments (22)
Hey this is awesome ya!! The wait for these two to meet..The adrenaline and the anticipation as to when they will acknowledge each other... love the thrill, although the genre is nowhere close to a thriller.. Wonderful writing.. The way you have related every character to each other.. thumbs up.. Please update soon... Came across this only yesterday and can't wait to read more!! P.S my like button has gone bonkers.. just wanted you to know.. :)
10 years ago
Dat was amazin...:)It was beautiful...wat u wrote...nd gud...so many thoughts...nd complications..arshi fite..diya nd akash finally befriend each othr...lets c how it all progresses...:)looking frwd to d nxt update...post it soon ...:)
10 years ago
I have read this story till chapter 6 and I m captivated with its magic n Such strong storyline...I must say that I m liking this mysterious Arnav despite having a great dislike for his rude behavior...Characters of Vinay n Aksh are my favr8 too...For A change,,This different kind of Khushi is intensifying my curiosity n I m finding myself unable to stop reading...So Garima,,Payyal n Madhumati dislike her...Where Arnav does not like Affection n display of love from family,,Khushi is going to face the opposite...Lavanya stays at Shantivan...Let me read n find it...What I can call U writerji...P.S I am new reader on board of Silver Lining...P.P.S thumbs Up n Hats off to U for writing this beautiful story...This is awessome..
10 years ago
Amazing ridzloved it sooo muchwas waiting impatiently for the start of arshijourney towards ghaatand that was really awesome and marvellouskhushi is a lioness for sureshe gives arnav cold shoulder throughout the journeyand that really amused arnav instead of annoying 😆 chris and arnav bonding is going to be greatloved each sentences of ur updateand sorry forlate commentread it two times as really adore the partplzz continue sooon
10 years ago
part 24awesome dear...excellent...Khushi is ignoring Arnav so much...and Arnav is amused...well now they are stuck in the place of nowhere...Khushi is always losing her temper when it comes to Arnav...cont soon dear...
10 years ago
Amazing Story.👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I loved it.❤️ Khushi is fantabulous.👍🏼🤗 I am glad that Arnav is not being so aggressive with Khushi anymore. This trip will be so much fun.😆 I am looking forward to reading more. Thanks.😃zafi2014-06-29 02:39:16
10 years ago
loved it i hope this try will bring them close
10 years ago
Thanks for PM..Wonderful update!!Fight between Arnav-Khushi is continuing..Arnav somehow guessed right that Khushi is the type of girl he thought at couple of first meetings of their..She seems the captain of the their team- strong, passionate, straight forward and of course a good friend of NK and Chris...I can say their journey will be more interesting after seeing it's start..Akash finally met Diya..And first coffee is on their way..Wow!! Seems another love-story start with the first step- friendship..Lavanya-Chris felt same thing for each other...Their story will surly continue after the trip..Waiting for next...
10 years ago
Khushi is awesome hahahahaha
10 years ago
Oh Gosh Khushi...she is really amusing...the way she always snap at Arnav the way she is giving extreme cold shoulder is really amazing...loveddd it
10 years ago