Close to HOME
It was not only Khushi who was hopelessly
irritated with Arnav's regular attempts to impress her with his professional
tactics but even Shyam was so frustrated with his Sale sahab! No matter how
many brilliant ideas he had provided him which were competent enough to win
over Khushi Kumari Gupta's naive heart; but Arnav would always end up upsetting
her more. Even the plan of visiting Lucknow was flop.When he joined them on
second day at Lucknow, Arnav had surprisingly crept into his shell again.He had
refused to join family picnic and even stayed aloof at the moments they all
spent together. Shyam tried to know the reason behind his withdrawal but could
not have gathered much.
Poor fellow, only if he could
know what had his Sale sahib
been through, the night before his arrival.
flashback
Arnav continued to draw his
legs towards parking place drown in melancholy unknown to the outer world.The
whole evening had been an emotional roller costar ride for him.He was
overwhelmed by the different feelings peeping in heart and then slowly securing
places in his mind one by one. He was envy of NK for effortlessly making HIS
Khushi laugh in her own tinkling sweet sound which he could never do, angry at
Di as she could think of NK as a potential life-partner for Khushi plainly
ignoring him to consider for that place,
vehement for whatever had happened few minutes back.He had never
experienced such vivid expressions together in his history of 14 years. What
was the sudden change? Was he losing control over his own mind? Was
some kind of weakness enveloping his whole existence? Shall he forfeit
his every belonging again like that dreadful day in past? What if
something like that happens again? He would not able to stand up this
time like earlier .He would shatter into pieces if he was put to bear the pain
again.Who will hold on to him then ?'' And at that instant he felt a tug at his
hand bringing him out of his musings.He turned to find the source and saw
Khushi holding his hand indicating he was crossing over his parking place.
He looked at her.She was radiating with some serenely promising
aura. Her soft hazel eyes were reflecting a smoothing assurance .She was
his only hope if anything bad happens again.Only she could make him stand up on
his feet if he falls. She was his alone strength. Suddenly he grabbed her in a
tight embrace as if his life depended on it.A cool zephyr passed through his
every nerve as he experienced her warm touch. His over beating heart
composed remarkably achieving its own normal pace again when he heard her
heartbeats echoing in that quite place.Dhak
Dhak Dhak Dhak...! And eventually his body relaxed with
tranquility. His senses could no more hold back with all the longing he felt at
the moment as they were drenched in a strong desire instantly making him aware
of their close proximity. His grip loosened unknowingly with overcoming desire,
that scared him too .
Khushi instantly took a step back as his grip
loosened. She was confused about what has took over him suddenly. Her another
step to increase the distance made her back rest at the door of his car. She
peeked into his eyes hesitantly ..those normally chocolaty orbs were
darkened by desire n overpowering passion now.A shiver ran through her spine
making her dizzy. She gulped watching those burning flames of yearning in
his eyes, suddenly turning the cool breeze around them into a hurricane that
would blow her away. She had never felt these kind of jitters before which
would make her knee melt. It is another thing to blow a whistle when Salman
Khanji makes romance with his heroines in his movies but to stand up in
front of a lasciviously boiling volcano which happens to be your love too and
not to mention the bounteous looks of the man adding more flames ,must be
something what people call as chutzpah.And before she could seek any support to
restrain herself from sinking to the ground , his hands rested at her
sides providing her most aspired buttress. She clenched her dupatta
tightly to control her quivering hands but could not do anything with her
trembling lips when she saw him leaning down and closed her eyes in
anticipation '..
Arnav ran his tongue around his dry lips n bent down in anticipation to
wet his equally dry throat, his entire attention was held by those plump
,luscious shivering lips.He felt he would die with thirst if he immediately
dint drink that life giving sweet potion. He leaned down,counting every nanosecond
needed to cover remaining distance between them. His mind went numb
anticipating the heavenly feel of touching those lips when something blocked
his path of serenity. He looked irritatingly at whatever had stopped
him and found two delicate palms resting at his chest. Khushi was shoving him
back with whatever strength had left in her fuddled state. He looked at her
confused, meaning to ask 'What?'
"Ye galat hai , Arnavji'"(This is wrong,Arnavji..)She spoke
groggily.
"Kya?"(what?) Arnav asked chafed.
She
just glanced at his eager lips.
"Khushi, we soon would be getting married.." He spoke as a matter of fact to end that unnecessary delay.
Her eyes filled with accusations. She spoke in warning tone, "I haven't yet said 'Yes' to you Arnavji..! And
besides that, it's not about getting married or not. It's about my morals. How
can I let someone do...do..th..This to me...without even knowing he loves me or
not???" She looked at him expectantly. His eyes
gleamed with some unspoken emotions. Khushi predicted what would be
coming from his mouth if he let it speak now. She hopefully gathered all her
strength to hear those words she would die for.
His eyes got softer for a second or more and... suddenly putting
up their usual guarded expressions, he opened his mouth with immense control
over his fury just to say "It's
late.You wait here. I'll bring Di"
He removed
his hands freeing her from their secured room and went leaving utterly
disappointed Khushi behind.
------------
Shyam was getting ready to leave for his Court standing in
front of the mirror, lost his mind in thoughts about Arnav .
"Shyamji, you don't pay even half of the attention to me, as much you
pay to yourself." Anjali said
with mocking anger.
He,startled
at the voice being unaware of the witness of his Heebie- jeebies. It
was very unusual of him not to come up with an equal retort to Anjali. But
today somehow it seemed a very odd day for every man of the family. Shyam
answered as if talking to himself, "Anjali
,you were right. It's a difficult task to bring Arnav into our world."
A concern took over her
suddenly.She came close to him and asked worriedly ,"What happened,Shyamji? Has anything happened between you and
Chote?"
"I have
failed to trace out Arnav." He answered sadly.
"But Chote is in his room.Or did he again go out of reach? Wait I call
him and scold. He has become..."
Without letting
Anjali to start her usual list of chote's don'ts,Shyam spoke ,"I could not find Arnav in him ,Anjali! There is only The businessman
Arnav Singh Riazada not Arnav." He let out a sigh
and continued,
"He is
unable to understand any cardinal business.It's really difficult to make him
experience those magical words 'Love'. I have miserably failed in doing that."
Anjali was overwhelmed
experiencing her husband's concern for her Chote. Her lips curved into genuine
smile.Holding his shoulders,she assured him,"Don't you
worry Shyamji.We will do something, I will help you. If he is Arnav Singh
Raizada then I too am Mrs. Anjali Singh Raizada Jha. I have the best of
both the worlds from business as well as your law."
And folding her
hands to her chest she boasted ,"And I am
the one best matchmaker ,you know? But before I help you with this matter ,you
have to accept your defeat" She winked.
Shyam let out a chuckle
at her naughty wife. "I was fighting an already lost
battle, Rani sahiba" and he bowed down to her
animatedly.
The laughter of the duo could not reach
to perturbed room of Arnav.
*********************************
Aman and Arnav were
discussing about Mr.Agarwal's deal in ASR's cabin. Arnav had studied it
thoroughly and told Aman to make some changes. Aman nodded in
agreement and said,
"ASR, I'l make changes accordingly and soon give you the modified copy. I
know we can seal this deal on your terms."
"If
only it could happen with every deal, Aman.." Arnav spoke vaguely staring in vacant.
"ASR,
Please pardon me."
Arnav took a thoughtful pause
before asking him,
"Do
you believe in marriages , Aman?"
"Yes I
have a great faith in marriage system. And I am engaged." The one thing Aman had not failed to learn from ASR in those many
years is, not to let your inner thoughts speak with even an inch of muscle of
your face... At least not in front of ASR. So even if he was surprised to the
core for having this out of the blue discussion with ASR ,he simply did
not show it.
"Ohh, so when is the marriage?"
"Whenever
you sanction my leave application." He was acute with his answers.
ASR smirked at this
and asked cautiously,
"So
what did you make to choose that girl? Is she more suitable for you?"
Now Aman could not control himself from
letting out a sigh before answering.
"I
don't allow my brain to intervene into matters where I don't need to sign
legally for my decisions, ASR! Rather I opt for my heart in those. I did the
same thing here." And he dared to do something
which he had never done before ,not even in his dreams.
"And if this was a sort of advise seeking then I would suggest
you to do the same."
ASR confirmed, his decision of
choosing Aman as his P.A was the most righteous one. Aman just knew what
exactly he has to do at every time.
"You
may go,Aman" He said curtly.
Aman collected all the papers
and moved towards door. Before he went out, Arnav called him,
"And
Aman ,fix your marriage date this month. But make sure you manage some
temporary arrangements for your role before going on a long vacation."
Aman showed his gratitude with a
genuine smile and headed towards his cabin.
As Aman left the cabin,
Arnav swirled himself back on his leather chair. Holding hands back on nape
,lost in his old dreading memories.
'Everybody,every damn
body tells me to listen to my heart. But why? Why should I listen to that dumb
organ who knows no logic. It is the reason of everyone's sorrows, pains. Ma
used to listen to her heart always then what happened to her? She lost her life
because she blindly trusted her heart. She never paid any heed to the
alarms her brain rang. What happened to Di, when she chose to marry that
bas***d Varun by listening to her heart? Her marriage was brutally
broken. And...and the man who was called his father had immense faith in his
brother. And what he did? He overtook all his business making his own brother's
children orphan. His past was ruined because his family had opted their hearts
over their brains...that bloody organ..'
He
picked the paper weight kept on table unable to control his anger towards every
unfortunate thing happened in his past and threw it on the wall hoping at least
that will pacify his bad temper.The poor paper weight shattered into
hundreds of pieces with a thud and spread out on soft carpet of the floor. He
glanced at all those throbbing pieces.His face was as usual deprived of any
emotion but eyes'his eyes pouring out lava which was burning inside. Not that
those broken pieces could cool him down but instead every single piece
brought a new piercing memory along.
Akash
had come to office to sign on some important papers before leaving for his
honeymoon today. He was passing by Arnav's cabin when he heard the sound of
something cracking. He thought over whether to peep in or not and making a
decision,knocked on the cabin door.When his knock was not replied for a minute
or so, he opened the door as a concern took over him.
Arnav was railing over his chair
with eyes closed.
"Bhai,
what happened? Is everything okay?" He asked looking at all those scattered glass pieces and entered
carefully.
"..."
"Bhai?" He raised his voice.
Arnav opened his
eyes and looking at his cousin's worried face , suddenly asked something which
would be totally irrelevant to him,
"Akash, why
all people choose to trust their hearts over their brains while making
decisions?"
Akash was confused
hearing his question. ASR was the least expected one to talk on issues related
to heart nor he ever gives damn to what people do. As he understood that
something has gone terribly wrong with his bhai he chose to answer the question
instead of asking a reason behind it.
"You
know Bhai, Science teaches us that heart is nothing but an another organ made
up of flesh and its function is only to supply blood to our body. But in
our lives we hardly remember those lessons because what we experience is;
it is made up of all kinds of emotions and feelings. It is one of the purest
thing in human life as it can't think beyond noble emotions like
love, trust or hopes. Any man needs the higher strength to follow his heart
over brain. Because heart can't take any decision on selfish ground or
calculate the possible risks of it like brain. So the one who follows his heart
is the strongest one and not all but only brave people can trust their hearts
while making decisions without thinking about their outcomes. Because brave are
never afraid of results to their decisions."
Akash had
rarely seen his Bhai with such a lost and defeated look. So his brotherly
concern made him ask,
"What's wrong ,Bhai? Has anything happened which I must know? If
it's something serious I can just postpone my trip."
Arnav suddenly caught his guards
on as he realized that he is making Akash worried. He rose from his seat
pulling his usual neutral mask on face and greeted him,
"You are getting late for your flight Akash. Wish you very happy
honeymoon" He hugged him with pure warmth.
"Yeah,
thank you Bhai. Hope,I could wish you the same one day.."
"Bye Akash!" he freed his
cousin from the embrace.Enjoying such rare emotional moments with his
brother,Akash left the room still uncertain about what may have happened to his
Bhai.
