Chapter 4: Hide-and-Seek

-Archi-

@-Archi-

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Chapter Four

Hide-and-Seek

The beautiful thing about time was that it never stopped. Only to Khushi, that was not much condolence. Every day was the same. Wake up, eat, sleep. Repeat. 

It wasn’t until her brother, Vihaan, called two days ago that she realized a full month had passed since she was married. And in that month, she had seen her husband maybe four times. Despite not having uttered a single word to each other, an invisible pact had been made between them – and it was to avoid each other as best as possible. 

Arnav made sure to leave for work before she woke up every morning and she made sure to fall asleep before he returned. She didn’t have the faintest clue what he did during all those hours that he was gone, and she never bothered to find out either. 

The trouble was figuring out what to do with her time. 

In the beginning, she spent most of her days alone, trying her best to accept the strange new apartment as home. It was the first time in her whole twenty-five years of life that she had so many hours to spare, so in many ways she spoilt herself doing whatever she felt like. 

Lata was of no help either. Being her only confidant, the woman went out of her way to make Khushi’s life comfortable, whether it was cooking her favourite food or bringing DVDs of her favourite movies. It was all very touching.

Only, it didn’t suffice for long. Bored out of her mind, Khushi slowly began to step out of the house, touring the quiet neighbourhood. Sometimes, she would sit in a nearby park and watch strangers bustle about with their daily lives. Other times she would just keep walking until her feet could no longer carry her.  It wasn’t normal, that she knew, but it was peaceful. So she accepted it without complaints. 

On some lucky days, her brother would come to visit, bringing news of life at the Gupta manor post her wedding. Khushi often looked forward to these visits, although she had been at a complete loss of words in the last one.

“Is Arnav even trying to make this marriage work?” Vihaan had asked suddenly out of the blue. 

“W-what makes you say that?” she stammered. 

“Well he spends most of his time at the company doesn’t he? Ever since the merger, I haven’t seen him out of his office.”

Khushi was mum. She couldn’t lie to her brother, but she also couldn’t burden him with the truth, especially since he already held himself responsible for her situation. 

“Are you not telling me something?” Vihaan pressed. “Is Arnav mistreating-”

“No! Of course not. He isn’t mistreating me at all.”

“Then what is it?”

She wished she had an answer. She wished she could tell him something that wasn’t upsetting. No matter how well aware of the troubles in her marriage, she was sure her brother would not be able to digest the fact that she still slept on the couch in the living room. 

“I know you are far from thinking about the future given everything that happened, but tell me honestly Khushi, is this marriage a burden for you? Do you even see a life with Arnav?”

Khushi crossed her arms, feeling as if her brother was now being extremely naive. What was he expecting from a marriage that was purely a contract? So, she cut the topic before he asked any more silly questions.

“You tell me Vihaan, how is the merger working out? Is Papa finally happy with you?”

 Her brother had looked at her in exasperation. Although he was the older one, he was never the superior one. So like always, he succumbed to her unblinking stare and played along. 

Other than that one uncomfortable conversation, the uneventful days dragged on. On one such night, when she was almost half-asleep on her trusted sofa, Arnav stumbled into the penthouse, seemingly on the phone:

“Dammit Myra!” he said furiously. “For how long are you going to ignore me? It’s been weeks! Is this what I deserve? Is this what we deserve? We are not in college anymore, so please stop being childish and just pick up the damn phone!”

Then muttering to himself, he crept past the hall and disappeared anonymously into his bedroom, leaving a strong scent of alcohol behind. 

Khushi let out a sigh, sleep driven far from her mind. It wasn’t the first time she caught him coming home drunk, although it certainly was the first time she saw him retire to his room so quickly. Usually he threw a fit, muttering loudly to himself, sometimes even throwing his phone on the floor, before passing out. 

The first time it happened, she was sure she was dreaming. He had gone back to ignoring her the next day as if nothing was amiss whatsoever. The second time too she was sure she was imagining his voice, until he stumbled into the kitchen and broke all the plates in search for a glass of water. She stopped keeping track after that. 

What was the point of digging into his secrets when she had plenty herself? What right did she have asking him for explanations, when she had no answers herself? And so, the game of hide and seek continued without pause. 

The monotony broke first thing the next morning, however. Her mother-in-law called, informing her about karva chauthand inviting her to spend the day at the Raizada mansion. There was no choice there, so she agreed with a heavy heart. 

It wasn’t the fasting that bothered her. She once spent three full days without eating anything as punishment from her father for something so silly that she couldn’t even remember the reason anymore. No, what bothered her was how to inform Arnav. She didn’t have his phone number, and she knew he wouldn’t talk to her in person. 

The answer came to her eventually, when she spotted Lata throwing out some old notes of Arnav during her routine afternoon cleaning.

* * *

Khushi woke up before sunrise the following day and hurriedly got ready. Grabbing a pen, she jotted down her whereabouts for the day on a small post-it note:

It’s Karva Chauth today… will be at your mother’s house.

She debated for a few seconds whether to write down a second line, requesting him to come at sunset and break her fast. Thinking that was common sense, Khushi left the message as is, stuck the post-it on his bedroom door and quietly departed for her in-laws place. 

It was Hari Prakash who answered the door. “Come in Bhabhiji, everyone is in the living room.”

Khushi nodded and followed the loyal servant of Raizada mansion to the vast hall, where her in-laws were seated. A doctor was settled next to her aging father-in-law, Shankar, apparently checking his blood pressure. Surprised, she went to greet Satya.

“Oh Khushi, you are here! How are you? Come sit.”

Khushi looked at her father-in-law in response. “Is everything okay?” she asked timidly. 

Satya let out a sigh. “It would have been if Shankar wasn’t being stupid.”

“Oh give it a rest Satya,” Shankar answered. “I thought it was a small thing.”

“You should know better Shankar,” the doctor interrupted seriously. “I explained to you very clearly what complications can arise after the surgery. You should have called me last night, instead of brushing it off as nothing.”

Satya frowned at her husband. “Will he be alright doctor?”

“Yes. Bring him to the hospital for a regular check-up next week just to be safe, but for now, he is okay.”

“Thank you so much,” Satya replied, standing up. “Let me walk you out.”

And the two disappeared, leaving Khushi alone with her father-in-law for the first time ever. 

“Not the welcome you were expecting?” Shankar asked, a smile on his face. 

Khushi fiddled with her duppatta, nervous. 

“Why don’t I give you a tour of the place?” he continued, standing up, leaning heavily on his walking stick. “Something tells me you haven’t see anything but Arnav’s room.”

“You should rest,” she murmured, feeling as though he suddenly looked frail. 

“Oh come on, I am fine! And it’s probably best to get out of Satya’s eye while she is still fuming.”

Khushi couldn’t argue with that, her mother-in-law did look very upset. So, pushing away her inhibitions, she stood up and followed him out of the hall. 

“The doctor said you had a surgery,” she asked while they made their way through an unknown hallway. “What happened?”

“Ischemic stroke… there was a blood clot in my brain. I didn’t even know until I suddenly couldn’t move my left arm or leg one day.”

“How long ago was this?”

“Four months ago, but I was warned to keep an eye on my health. I am not exactly young, so they said it would take me longer to recover.”

Khushi agreed. “So what happened last night?”

“Well it started off as tingling on my left arm… I assumed it was just weakness on my left side, but then by this morning, it became much more than that. I don’t know exactly how to describe it, but it was like the pain wasn’t just in my arm anymore.”

“Was it radiating or extending up to your shoulder?” Khushi asked. 

Shankar mulled that over. “Yes, that’s a good word to describe it actually. I called the doctor right away and as expected Satya got overly worried about it.”

“She is not wrong though. Given your condition, heart problems are expected. You should have called last night.”

Shankar smiled. “And so I have learned my lesson. But just between you and me, if I would have told Satya about this last night, she would have set the whole house on fire and your first karva chauth would be ruined. You may have picked up on it - your mother-in-law is more emotional than all of us put together.”

Khushi couldn’t help but laugh at that. 

Shankar grinned unabashed, before opening a double set of doors. “Welcome to the library.”

Khushi couldn’t believe her eyes. 

The library, as Shankar called, was at least two stories high, housing countless rows of just books. A set of ceiling high windows allowed sunlight to filter in, while squashy couches occupied the corners of the room. Why on earth was she not living in the Raizada mansion? Her boredom would not even have come into question. 

“The books are arranged by subject mostly,” Shankar explained proudly. “And then by alphabetical order. There are no archives yet, so it’s been difficult to catalogue what we have and what we don’t.”

“How did you even get all these books?” she asked, her eyes raking over the geography section. 

“My father was a librarian back in the day. He collected all kinds of books and spent all his free time reading and organizing them. It drove my mother crazy – she was illiterate of course. Women at that time were secluded to the house and family, so I don’t think she appreciated the beauty of literature as much as my father did.”

Khushi looked at Shankar, trying to understand what he meant. If he really did pity his mother, than why was his own wife, just a housewife?

“Of course, at the time, even I didn’t understand my father much and that probably drove him crazy. I didn’t see the point in pouring over books when the world was quickly becoming a battle of the rich.”

“Is that why you started the company?”

Shankar nodded. “Yes, but now when I look back, I wish I spent more time with him and these books. There is some beauty in them, that much I see now. Maybe once I retire, I can finally sit down and read them all.”

Khushi simply nodded, her mind processing all the sudden information. The Guptas had a long history of wealth and power that somehow never diminished over the generations. Perhaps that’s why she didn’t value the family business as much as her father-in-law did. 

“Come on,” Shankar said. “We still have a lot of rooms to discover.”

They spent the rest of the morning touring the peaceful poolside hidden in the middle of the mansion, the well-kept lawns surrounding the driveway, the billiards room housing an enormous pool table before finally coming to the study, which appeared less like a workspace and more like a room full of memoirs.  

There were endless photos of the three Raizada children, from their birth all the way to their marriage. It was remarkable how much Shankar documented their lives. 

“I didn’t want to miss any part of their childhood,” Shankar explained, watching her examine the photos. “Given my work, I had no time to be there physically, so I made sure I could at least be there mentally.”

Khushi was suddenly reminded of how bare her father’s office looked back home. 

“But when I heard some of the stories though, I was glad I wasn’t involved,” he added with a chuckle. 

She didn’t follow. “What do you mean?”

Shankar pointed to a photo of Arnav and Lavanya as teenagers, amidst what appeared to be a holi party. “The amount of trouble these two made, I don’t know how Satya survived to be honest.”

“And Anjali Didi?”

“She was definitely the quietest of the three. I don’t know what pact they made, but Arnav and Lavanya listen more to her than they do to Satya.”

“That’s not true!”

Khushi turned to see her mother-in-law walk in with a tray laden with tea and breakfast. Shankar pressed his lips, guiltily. 

“They listened to me too,” Satya continued defensively. “Stop telling my daughter-in-law lies!”

“What is this?” he asked, changing the topic. “You know I am fasting with you right?”

Satya set down the tray on a nearby coffee table. “Absolutely not. You heard what the doctor said, you need to take your medications on time and for that you need to eat.”

“Don’t be silly, one day of fasting will do nothing.”

Satya looked at him sternly. “Don’t push me Shankar, my patience is already far too thin with you today.”

To Khushi’s utter surprise, Shankar immediately dropped the topic and began to eat his breakfast in silence.

“Did you eat in the morning before sun rise Khushi?” Satya asked, turning to her. “I told Lata to make sure she made food before she left yesterday.”

Khushi nodded. 

It was lie. In a hurry to leave before Arnav woke up for work, she didn’t touch anything that was made for her. Of course, she was in no position to explain that to her mother-in-law. 

“Good. Why don’t you rest then? Anjali and Lavanya will be over soon, and you three can maybe go spend the day shopping?”

Khushi smiled half-heartedly, wondering how much stranger this family can behave. 

As she waited for her sisters-in-law to arrive, the thought of her husband kept festering panic through her mind.  She hoped desperately that he would read the post-it and have the sense to show up and break her fast. 

But if the last month was anything to go by, she knew that she was hoping for nothing less than a miracle. 

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