11. Switched at birth - birthday OS May'24

5 days ago

manjiri

@m4manju

Q/N - This one is for two of my dearest and very special readers who never cease to amaze me with their many reviews, UshaVijay5 and Reneeshah. Wish you both many happy returns of the day, in advance! May you have a day filled with love and laughter and a wonderful year ahead! ❤

--*--

It was a rainy night. The electricity supply was intermittent, causing frequent power failures. And the newly opened hospital in Lucknow didn't have generator backup.

In that condition two families were anxiously waiting for the arrival of the new members to their family.

The maternity ward in the hospital was stunned with groaning and pain-filled crying of two women who were having labor pains.

Amidst this tense scenario, and fervent prayers of the family members they heard small wailings of the newborns and both families heaved a sigh of relief. Both, for their dearest ladies finally free from labor pain and for the arrival of the babies.

And just at that moment, a power failure occurred.

The nurses and the doctors who were inside the room that had to be shared between both pregnant ladies hurriedly tried to safeguard the newborn babies.

And during that confusion, they switched babies!

Soon, the electricity was back on, as if it was out only so this destined switching could happen.

And Arvind Singh Raizada got the news that he was now a father to a baby boy, thus failing the bet with his wife that they would have a girl while Shashi Gupta received the news that he was blessed with a baby girl, fulfilling his and his wife's dream to have their own child!

Both families stayed blissfully unaware that their kids had been switched at birth!

While both the mothers did feel as if they couldn't connect to the baby handed to them immediately but convinced themselves that this was their first experience with motherhood and thus, they had felt so...

*****

18 years later, Delhi:

It was Arnav Singh Raizada's first day in college. And he was very excited about it. The reason being his mom had convinced his dad to let him drive their brand-new Mercedes to the college!

He was the first child to Ratna and Arvind Singh Raizada and had two younger siblings who were twins, Anjali and Aakash. While Arvind tried to reason with him, Arnav's mom often relented to give him whatever he wished. And thus, at the age of 18, he only knew how to boast the best of everything, the latest iPhone, the brand-new car, and the best college in Delhi! Arvind often worried how could his son not have a single instinct of saving money, or at least thinking of it despite being a son of a shrewd businessman like him!

And not just that, unlike his other two kids, Arnav had almost no resemblance in face or habits to either him or Ratna or anyone in their family...

It was Khushi's first day in college, and she was very happy as well as nervous about it! Her Papa had given her enough pocket money that she could take a cab, but she had decided to use the metro and save some bucks. Her Maa-papa's marriage anniversary was approaching, and she wanted to gift them something special!

Khushi was the only child to a small-sweet-shop owner Shashi Gupta and his wife Garima. After praying for and waiting for 10 years of their marriage, they had been blessed with a baby, their Khushi and thus had named her so! She was their happiness! That's why, despite being from a middle-class family, they always tried to give her everything best. But their daughter only knew how to save! She rarely demanded anything and even when they offered, she would convince how it was not a 'profitable purchase' as if she were a businesswoman!

Shashi and Garima often wondered how a beautiful angel like Khushi was born to them, especially her honey-toned hazel eyes when neither Garima nor Shashi nor anyone else in the family has such unique eyes!

.

.

Arnav sat in the class constantly looking at his smartwatch to see when this lecture would be over. It was only his first day in first class in his intended degree of bachelor's in business administration (BBA) and he was already regretting it! He once again wished he could study hotel management instead.

And to add to his ire, this girl, whatever her name was, was constantly asking questions to the professor, as if she was planning to learn everything on the same day!

Thankfully, the class got over soon, and the next couple of them were pretty chill. And then they had lunch break, the time Arnav was eagerly waiting for. He had to confront that girl and tell her to keep her questions to herself and ask them later, at least to spare her classmates from the snooze-fest torture.

Khushi was gathering her stuff and packing her bag, ready to go to canteen for lunch. The day was going good so far, she was in her dream course of BBA and the professors were so knowledgeable and answering all her doubts! She had also made a few friends, Nihar Kashyap aka NK and his twin sister Lavanya. Although, throughout the first few classes, she felt someone's eyes on her and when she looked in that direction, she saw a boy looking, rather glaring at her. She had never met him before, and thus wondered what she had done to him that he was so angry. Even her friends NK and Lavanya agreed that this boy was looking at khushi and were wondering what was going on.

And that was when, the same boy- Arnav, came and stood in front of Khushi!

"What is your problem?" he asked, without any preamble.

Khushi was stumped! Her problem? She didn't even know him! And she said so,

"Why would I have any problem? You were the one who was glaring at me throughout the classes."

"Great. So, you noticed it huh?"

"Not just her, we also noticed it!" NK said and a girl beside him- Lavanya nodded, although, Arnav felt she was rather checking him out!

"Then please tell your friend to not bore other students with her inquisitiveness and reserve her questions."

"Listen mister, unlike you, some of us come here to actually study and learn. And last I checked; classrooms are for asking questions to teachers. So, if you are "bored" with this, maybe you shouldn't be here."

Arnav's anger rose hearing her say that. "Who are you to tell me where should I be and where not? I am Arnav Singh Raizada; I decide where I want to go."

"Good for you. So, you keep deciding that and excuse us as we actually want to utilize this time to eat our lunch than standing with an arrogant fool like you." Khushi said and turned to NK and Lavanya, "Chalo guys, we'll go."

Soon, the trio left, with NK dragging Lavanya with him...

Arnav stood angry and insulted seeing her audacity to call him arrogant AND a fool. All at once! How dare she? Ms. "Boring questions"!

While Khushi kept cursing that "Arrogant fool" for wasting her time and calling her questions boring! How dare he?

And thus began the famous rivalry between Arnav and Khushi!

Throughout the next months, they constantly kept fighting, arguing at any given opportunity and with or without reason!

--*--

Days flew by and soon it was time for the end of first semester and a 3 weeklong break. And one thing that their college had asked the students to do during this break was get their basic medical checkup done and submit it to the college as was their record keeping process.

Like everyone else, Arnav too got his tests done and the reports sent to his home address. And to another stroke of destiny, his reports were received by his dad, Arvind Singh Raizada!

As he opened and read the reports, Arvind was surprised to see it, especially Arnav's blood group being A positive. Both he and Ratna were O positives and as far as he had studied and knew about medical science there was no chance that their kid could be A positive! Until now, they had never had to have any bloodwork done for either of their 3 kids or at least he hadn't paid attention to the blood groups.

But now, curious, he decided to talk to his doctor friend, Anirudh Mehta and sure enough, Dr. Mehta confirmed his doubt, there was no way either of his kids could be A+!

That only meant one thing!

Arnav wasn't his child! And of course, neither Ratna's as he trusted his wife's loyalty.

He knew if he mentioned this to Ratna she would be hurt, as she loved Arnav a lot, so he decided to have more solid proof and then tell her.

He managed to get Ratna and Arnav's hair samples and his own and through Dr. Mehta, he got their DNA tests done.

And sure enough, it proved what he feared. Arnav was not their child!

That meant, their child was swapped at birth.

All these years, he and Ratna had been raising and pampering someone else's baby while their own was being raised God knows where!

.

.

Khushi's parents had been devastated at realizing the same thing as Arvind did, although not through same process, but through the hospital where Garima had supposedly given birth to Khushi 18 years ago.

It was after Arvind got to know the truth, he had started making some enquiries about the hospital and specifically about the staff that worked there 18 years ago in the specific month and year. And a scared hospital authorities contacted Shashi Gupta when they realized they had indeed erred as their records had showed Raizada couple had gotten a baby girl while Guptas had a baby boy but during the power failure, the nurses or someone mistakenly had swapped the babies, and no one seemingly got to realize it!

The hospital authority was requesting Shashi Gupta to forgive them and also convince Arvind Singh Raizada to not sue them.

However, they had no idea how conflicting it was for both sets of parents to digest this difficult truth, especially for the mothers, Ratna and Garima! The child they raised with so much of love was suddenly not theirs while they also started longing for their actual child whom they had never even seen in 18 years! There was of course an option to let things be and let the children be raised wherever they are. But these were not exchanged clothes, these were their own flesh and blood that was switched!

So, both couples decided to meet and then divulge the truth to both the kids!

.

.

Arnav could not believe what he was hearing. At first, he thought it was some joke! He was not his parents' son? Then who was he? He was being told to go and live in some stranger couple's house, call them as his parents, how could he? He was so used to things here, he belonged here, didn't he? Turned out he did not!

On the other hand, Khushi started crying when she got to know the truth that her maa papa were not her real maa papa! This was not fair!!! She loved her maa and papa so much. Every time her papa told her she made him proud, she rejoiced and every time her maa caressed her head, her worries went away. And now suddenly she was being told that these two weren't her parents but someone else were...

However, no matter how much they wanted to deny, the truth wasn't changing. Their parents- or now their foster parents- allowed them enough time to accept the truth. It wasn't easy for them either.

But slowly, both Arnav and Khushi accepted the truth. The 18-year-olds who were born on the same day matured into adults at the same time and due to the same reason!

However, what had made them more disturbed was they now belonged to each other's families, and even if disinterested, they had to become sort of friends!

--*--

Over the next few weeks, Raizadas and Guptas slowly started to get to know their own kids, Khushi, and Arnav, respectively. And things started making sense. Not only to the parents but to Khushi and Arnav too. Like why Khushi was always so interested in studying business or why her eyes were hazel like Ratna's, and Arnav who was more interested in college canteen and restaurants around the campus than classes or why his hair were slightly curly like Shashi's!

The biggest challenges were, however, adjusting in their new homes and lifestyles. It was decided between both the families that they would let Khushi stay with the Raizadas over the weekends and Arnav with the Guptas. And once they both got more familiarized with their environments and comfortable with it, they would think of letting the kids stay there for longer duration. This adjustment was, of course, as difficult for both the parents, as they had never been away from their kids- who were now their foster kids- for so long.

At first, Khushi was very surprised to see such a large bedroom with an attached bathroom for her in Raizada mansion and a separate car at her service. She was used to having a small room in their modest Gupta house and sharing a bathroom with her parents. Similarly, for Arnav it was uncomfortable to get used to living in such a small house, with no servants and doing most things on his own and not to forget a small car that was common between him and his now-parents Shashi and Garima!

.

.

And then, slowly, Arnav learnt to adjust to his new lifestyle, started accepting it as well as admiring the values that Shashi and Garima tried to teach him, like being self-dependent than on a servant for simple things like doing laundry or serving food, and value of saving money...

Khushi too, started to learn what it meant to not having enough attention of her parents who were business-runners and had many hats to wear as against how Shashi and Garima could spare enough time for her. She started learning the art of multi-tasking from Arvind and Ratna, started learning how to get 'work done' from the people that worked for them without hurting or belittling them!

It was soon the end of their first year in college and a lot had changed in this one year.

Arnav and khushi had a journey from being enemies to being cordial with each other. NK became a mutual friend between them, while Lavanya's crush on Arnav faded away when she saw that she was more attracted to his lifestyle of rich boy than him as a person...she then became a good friend of arnav as she was of khushi.

It was their final exam that day and after completing it, the friends were sitting in the college canteen. After chatting over the papers, and then the plans for the upcoming vacations, almost everyone started leaving for home, except arnav and khushi who stayed behind.

"Khushi." he said after they were the only two sitting around the table.

"Hmm?" she asked in a way for him to go-on.

"I am sorry for misbehaving with you initially and calling you miss 'boring questions'. Your parents- er- I mean my parents really feel proud of you for the way you are." He said, truth reflecting in his eyes.

Khushi smiled, "I am sorry too arnav, for calling you an 'arrogant fool' and for fighting with you for so long. Arvind papa and Ratna maa have really taught you well and it's their teaching of good manners that you could say this to me today." she said with a soft smile.

Arnav's smile widened.

"So, friends?" he asked, raising his hand to hers

She looked between his hand and his face and then gave her hand to his, "friends."

That day started a new relationship between these two people whose destinies were tied to each other since their birth.

Years went on, and eventually both families decided to live nearby so both the kids could easily juggle between homes. They also went on vacations together and the bond between both families only kept growing. Arnav won over Shashi and garima's hearts and khushi had become Arvind and ratna's dearest daughter!

Soon, their BBA degree ended, and both the kids got an admission for their MBA from Harvard, making their parents amused.

"Looks like these two would never leave from each other's lives." Ratna said.

"I suggest we get them married to ensure that, Ratna jiji." Garima said, making ratna wholeheartedly agree to it, Arvind frown at the idea and Shashi surprised with it.

While Arnav and khushi's eyes widened in shock, the thought sounded too scandalous to them!

Well, they had to wait for a few more years and see Garima had indeed predicted the future!

--*--

A/N - The idea was inspired from an American sitcom of the same name. I initially wanted to use it for arshi's kid being switched at birth but didn't have a heart to do so :) And then thought it fit perfectly for Arnav and Khushi, thinking what if the mighty proud Arnav Singh Raizada was not a super-rich Raizada and what if Khushi Kumari Gupta was not a daughter of a halwai but they were switched, and thus this OS. Hope you all liked it <3

Also, pls note, here on, all special edition OSs will be updated in this book only :)