Chapter 36

rulama

@rulama

[MEMBERSONLY]

[NOCOPY]

MARRYING KHUSHI

Part 32

After an eventful mukhdikhai, Khushi changed out of her fancy clothes and helped the others sort out the gifts and clear the living room.

As she binned the laddoos, she looked at Mami standing by her side, counting the pedas.

"Mamiji..." Khushi hesitated.

Mami looked up.

"Why was that fat lady so rude?" Khushi was direct.

Mami laughed.

"Disappointment, Khussi. Disappointment. She wanted to push her aawara daughter on to hamre Arnav Bitwaa's head. Could we lets that happen, Hello Hi Bye Bye? Saasumma refused the proposal as soon as that fat lady made it!"

Khushi's mouth fell open. "She wanted her daughter to marry Arnavji?" Her theory of how her husband would appear inaccessible to other girls, would look like a bad marriage prospect to other families crumbled in to dust.

Mami laughed. "Maana ki hamre Arnav Bitwaa can curdles milk by just looking at it. But the girls are not worried about all that. All they sees when they looks at Arnav Bitwaa is money, successwaa, posijjon (position), jewellery, shapping..."

Khushi stared at her.

Mami said, "Hum samjhawat he tumka! You know gud?"

"Ji. Jaggery."

"Yes, jaggery. You keep a piece of gud on the table. What will happens?"

"Flies will cover it."

"Eggsactly. The girls are flies and hamre Arnav Bitwaa is the piece of gud."

Khushi almost collapsed at the news that she had married a man/gud who was irresistible to women, so irresistible that they became flies to cover him.

"How can they resist him?" Mami asked. "This big haujj (house), shed full of foreign-returned cars, big big business in India and vilaayat, foreign yatra, land everywhere in Delhi, Mumbai, vagerah, vagerah, Sheesh Mahal in Lucknow..."

Khushi felt her limbs tremble.

"Sheesh Mahal? It is Arnavji's? I thought... I thought he was renting it for the function..."

She felt dizzy.

Mami laughed. "Why should he pay rent for his father's building?"

His father's building? Khushi held on to the kitchen platform to stand upright.

Khushi, tum kahan phas gayi? Why couldn't you have asked more about him before bending so that he could tie the mangalsutra around your neck? You idiot! You fool! You Sanka Devi! You Parmeswari!

But how could you ask him what you should have asked, she cursed herself. You were too busy worrying about your dhak dhak and acidity, your colourful dreams, his chumban... If she could have kicked herself at that moment, she would have done so. Very happily.

"His k... kapde ka d... dukaan..." Khushi stammered.

Mami frowned. "Hamre Arnav Bitwaa ownjj AR Designs. His designerjj makes dresses that cost lakhs." Mami smiled at her. "Khussi, remember the blue designer sari I wore for your wedding? Hamre Arnav Bitwaa gave it to me. It costs more than my gold kanganwa!"

Khushi's legs gave up the fight. She slipped down to sit on the kitchen floor.

"Khussi!" Mami was alarmed. "Kaa hui gawa?"

"Kuch nahi, Mamiji." Khushi clutched her head with both hands. "Hey Devi Maiyya, yeh hamne kya kar diya?" she lamented.

"Feeling faintwaa next day aphter marrijj? Hamre Arnav Bitwaa Express train he, par itna phast nahi ho sakat he! Yeh Happy Newjj to naahi ho sakat he!" Mami reassured herself. She helped Khushi stand up. "Shall I call Arnav Bitwaa?"

"No! No!" Khushi was very clear about that. "I am alright now. I... I will go up now, Mamiji." she said.

Khushi sat in the garden hugging Mittu.

"What is happening to my life, Mittu Rani?" Khushi lamented dramatically.

Mittu chuckled.

"The man I thought him to be and the man he is are too different. Too different!" Khushi sighed, hitting her head with her hand.

Mittu sang,

Mose chhal kiye jaaye
haay re haay haay
dekho saiyya beimaan...

"Hai meri phooti kismat! I thought him to own a kapde ki dukaan, he owns a big business! I thought that he was renting Sheesh Mahal. He owns it! Gaadi, bangla, naukar, chaakar, gehne, he has it all. Aur upar se, I thought he would scare off all girls. That no one would marry him. And here all girls are dying to marry him? Yeh kya zamaana aa gaya he?"

Mittu yawned, spreading her wings. Only Khushi would cry at finding out that her husband was rich!

Her phone rang. Buaji!

Mittu flew away to perch on a low branch lest Buaji pull her cheek through the phone.

"Upar se Buaji ka phoone! What can I tell her? That her Arnav Babua is the Viceroy of India? She will die of shock."

Mittu giggled.

Khushi answered the phone. "Buaji, how are you?"

"What can happen to me, Nandkisore? I was not the one who got married! How are you, Titliyaa?" Buaji laughed.

Khushi opened her mouth to lie that she was fine, but found it difficult to speak.

"Kaa hua, Nandkisore?" Buaji became worried.

"I am fine, Buaji." she lied, smiling. "Just missing you."

"Arnav babua kaisen he?" Buaji asked.

Khushi swallowed.

How would Buaji bear it when her Arnav Babua's sach came out and stood before her?

"He is... he is..." ASR''s angry face came to her mind. "...alright. As he usually is."

"Khussi, you have not done anything sanki, have you?"

"Buaji!" Khushi protested.

"Titliyaa, you are happy, aren't you?" Buaji's voice carried anxiety.

The faces of the cruel ladies as they put her down flashed through her mind.

In a voice that shook only slightly, Khushi replied, "Very happy, Buaji."

She had burned her bridges. She had no place in Lucknow now. And her place in Delhi was precarious.

Arnav felt his heart clench at the pain on her face. He should not have shouted at her. And he should not have left her to face the crowd alone on her Mukhdikhai...

When she had travelled to Delhi, she had imagined that at least her Rakshas was hers. That she knew him. That she lo... liked him. That he would be there by her side always. That he would never abandon her. But now... She didn't know her Rakshas any more. She had nobody.