Chapter 31:

Connections

 

Morning came and all three girls woke up. They had all a bright smile on their faces. Meera had dreamt about her wedding with Yash and how her life is going to change. She still couldn't believe MK had given her a pay rise. 'All be cause of Geet' she was convinced. Geet had dreamt about Maan. They had left for their respective rooms after a long time, Maan being reluctant of letting Geet go as usual. He didn't want all this to be a dream. Pinky had a smile on her face because she had smelled Khaman Dhokla. They got ready and went down stairs where Ketki welcomed them.

They had breakfast and Maan, Adi and Yash joined later. As the wedding was in a week a lot of preparations had to be made. Meera being the bride was strictly forbidden by her future mother-in-law to do any sort of work. She was to roam around Ahmadabad and enjoy. Pinky had taken up the task of helping with decorations. She was very good at this sort of work and Adi joined her. Since Maan was in an incredible mood and no one was dead or jobless now, he hoped Pinky would forgive him. She had done that when DD had given her the pay rise but she wanted to have her fun with him. Geet obviously wanted to help in the kitchen. The wedding was not to be too grand. Both Yash and Meera only wanted closest relatives to be present, hence the women in the house cooked. Ketki had asked Geet to make a couple of Meera's favourite dishes as they mostly knew Gujarati cooking. Geet was really happy for her friend that she got such a loving and caring mother-in-law. She thought about how her mother-in-law would be like and remembered Maan saying that she wasn't there. She wondered where she was and whether or not she was still alive. 'Nahin, nahin Geet, aisa mat sooch.' She smacked her head.

"Kya sooch rahin ho Geet?" Maan was now standing next to her.

"Kuch nahin, aise hi Meera ke bare mein." Maan nodded and put on an apron.

"Yeh aap kya karrahe hain?" Geet asked shocked.

"Khaana pakka raha hu. Tell me, Meera ko kya kya pasand hain. We both can cook much quicker and I can spend some time with you."

"Lekin sir, aisa nahin hota hain. Yeh aurto ka kaam hain. Log dekhenge do kya sochenge. MSK is cooking with women at his employee's wedding?"

"Geet, I don't care what people think or say about me. Anyways, there are no women; there is only you and me in the kitchen." Geet looked around and noticed it. Maan stood behind Geet and put his arms around her.

"Geet, yaha waha mat dekho, khaana banao." Geet couldn't concentrate. She felt Maan's warm breath on her neck and his muscular body on her back.

"Sir, aap mujhe distract karrahe ho." Maan started kissing her neck.

"Main aisa kya karrah hu?" Geet tried to reply but her mouth wouldn't open. Maan continued to kiss her and turned her in his embrace so she was facing him.

"Please, chodiye na, koi dekh lega" Geet muttered. But he didn't care. After yesterday Maan finally knew that Geet would not leave him. The Samira incident had been a thorn in his eyes and he at all times feared Geet might leave him. Now that he knew she loved him just as much as he loved her he didn't want to leave her side. His lips travelled from her neck up to her face and to her lips. He was about to kiss them when he heard a bunch of girls giggle at the entrance of the kitchen.

"Geet, tumhara agar hojae to Ketki bua me bulaya hain." They left.

"Hai Babaji, yeh ladkiya kya soch rahin hogi. Ke ek paraya mard mujhe kitchen mein 'woh' karraha tha" She was all red with embarrassment and pushed Maan away.

"Geet, mein kya paraya hu?" Maan put his hands on his hips.

"Aur yeh 'woh' kya hota hain?"

"'Woh' matlab wohin ja aap abhi karrahe the."

"Kya?"

"Wohin, hoto ke saath"

"Kiss?"

"Haan wohin."

"Geet, even after we have kissed so often you are still feeling embarrassed saying it. Look it is easy. K-I-S-S. Now you try." But Geet just shook her head and ran away.

Maan smiled. 'Yeh ladki bhi na. Kabhi kabhi itni badi badi baatein karjati hain aur 'kiss' kehne mein itni sharam aarahin hain. Kya karun mein is pagli ka?'     

 

Vicky and Ferri were sitting in his room. So far Dadi had told them about Samira as much as Maan had told her. Vicky consoled Dadi as her eyes had filled up but the mention of Geet brought back a smile on her face again. 'I really need to meet this girl who has cast a spell on Dadi and Maan bhai', Vicky thought. Ferri looked at some sheets of paper which to Vicky were nonsense.

"What is all this?" He asked her.

"Information" she simply stated.

"This? 'The duck flew at midnight to the dragon's house' and this 'Tomorrow there is storm warning at Juhu beach'"

"All this is coded of course. We can't risk NORMAL people reading our paper work so we get them coded." Vicky rolled his eyes at the mention of NORMAL. He was thankful that he was normal since Ferri's behaviour had made him wonder.

"These here are important, the rest can get shredded."

"Why?"

"Well, because they are useless to us." Vicky looked confused.

"It is easy. I have people working under me. They go around and find out things. I do not tell them specifically what I want so they get everything they can. I than evaluate what is of importance and what not. This is how I or my work can never get traced."

 

She took a blank paper and wrote:

1. Rajeev Khurana committed suicide – why?
2. What did his words You can't. I'll never allow this to happen, never mean?
3. Do they have to do with Samira cheating Maan?
4. What is the reason for Sonia Khurana's leaving?
5. It is relevant?

 

At this point Vicky protested.

"Hey, of course it is important why my mother left. I want to know what happened."

"With relevant I mean in connection to your father's death. It might be a trivial reason like a fight between husband and wife or it might be something else."

"Ok now how are we going to get the answers to our questions?"

"My instinct tells me that Rajeev's death is connected to Samira somehow (maybe not really the cheating part but that is to be found out), since this incident shortly followed the one of their talk. When we find the real connection between you father and Samira then we might also get our answer to question 2.

Now to your mother, she is a different aspect to our little mystery. Her reason for leaving might have a connection to Rajeev and Samira but I don't want to conclude anything before a proper investigation." She sighed and looked at Vicky.

"Here I must say comes a little task for you and I know you will refuse but listen out before saying no." She told him. He listened. He refused.

"This is like poking the dragon in the eye."

"You have to do it nevertheless." Vicky knew he was at a loss. Bringing Ferri home as his girlfriend had been dangerous enough but his task was made easier by Maan being away. Now he was to ask Maan about all he knew. His brother was suspicious and that for obvious reasons. If found out about a detective having a finger in our family matters he would no doubt burst.  

 

Maan later called home to inform Dadi about happenings. He conveniently left out most of it, especially the Geet parts, and was glad to hear Vicky had visited with his girlfriend. He felt bad though for having missed him. Suspicious as he was he asked Dadi about Feroza but Dadi was fortunately more interested in his and Geet's plans. Both wanted to stay for the wedding, that is Geet had insisted and since Maan was not leaving her alone he stayed, too.