Chapter 9

                                        The Rendezvous!

     Khushi  was hesitatingly  stepping  towards Arnav's  room. Her pink duppatta  could have eventually transformed into shades of dark pink, orange, red, blood red, blue n finally deep blue by now, If it could feel the pain with all the twists and twirls it was enduring caused by those long yet delicate fingers of Khushi Kumari Gupta. 

'Hey Devi maiyya, Why has  he called me here alone when the wedding ceremony is going on in the garden? Ab unke haddse  jyada istemal kiye huye shatir dimag mein konsi jalebi jal rahi hogi ye to bas wohi jane..(Only he knows which poor  jilebi might be burning to coal in his overused brain)..'

  

    And as if to answer her turmoil, her bangles tinkled with soft sounds.

  

       

             Khushi suddenly remembered her and Payal's conversation .As an anticipation sprawled in her mind, a red blush crept over her rosy cheeks. Before she could imagine what would be his exact words if he was up to proposing her today, her brain and heart alarmed in unison that she had reached  her Arnavji's  room..Dhak.. Dhak..Dhak..Dhak! She clutched her choli to control her outrageously drumming heart. Before entering the Den, she thought of calling her Devi maiyaa  for her safety..

       

           

            

              Arnav was pacing in his room as if practicing for Marathon 2013..even those lifeless object unfortunately adoring his room might have felt utter dizziness witnessing this, every other day...His poor heart was putting all its best efforts to deliver blood to His highness' nervous limbs at that faster rate. To succeed in its purpose it had to cut short the supply of brain temporarily, as it was doing since a couple of days  and that was making Arnav more crazy.

      

      'What is wrong with Khushi? Can't she count the minutes in 5? Why is she taking so long to show up? I just need to check her out' 

  

            As he came near the door, he saw the subject of his interest standing there with her hands joined together and  eyes closed ,what looked like praying for something.

      "What the?"  His mouth efficiently passed on  his own set of pleasantries that usually greeted people while his eyes  took the opportunity  to look at her leisurely. He had been so lost in admiring the innocent beauty when she opened her eyes and widened them  into size of saucers  initially due to shock and later hesitance by seeing him in front of her, suddenly.To avoid further embarrassment because of all ogling business he was doing,  he asked her  not leaving his ASR attitude,

"What were  you praying for by standing here? Was it that I would come and hold the door for you? See I don't follow such stupid chivalry , got  it? Now come in and sit."

       

                    Khushi could have turned to window to check the direction of sunrise today if it were daytime. It was the first  in her memory  that Laad Governor had offered her a seat (..except sprawling in his arms every now n then..). She looked at him with curiosity. He was so damn nervous .She sensed it...By looking at his restlessness , she chose to sit on his king size bed awkwardly instead of  asking the reason for calling her there and irritating him more. As soon as she entered inside,Arnav jolted the door behind her and switched off the lights allowing only moonlight enter through open French windows. Her heart missed a beat and to overcome her palpitation she tried to act brave by teasing him.

     "Hey Devi maiyya! Arnavji , did your brain suffer  from child attack anytime soon? That's why you are behaving like a child. Are you trying to lock me inside a dark room and run? But  why? What did I do this time?"

  " Shut up Khushi!"  Her blabbering was making his already crashing confidence system fail. His every extreme attempt to remind himself that it was just another mere deal which he could easily handle was proving futile.

   

   He sat on the recliner and pressed remote button. The wall near the door turned into a projector screen,  projecting a beautiful picture of Khushi  Kumari Gupta.

     

    Khushi gaped at it for few seconds and then turned to Arnav uncertainly. 

 "Arnavji, what is all this? Are you now going to tell what is wrong with me, as you keep telling all the time with presentation?" she asked earnestly.

 "Could you just try and stop your ohh-I-am-so intelligent brain from thinking as well as your see-I-can-talk-nonstop mouth from talking some time and concentrate on important things I am going to present here?" Arnav galled.

    Khushi's lips turned into her favorite jalebi shape 'O' but she kept mum and nodded in agreement.

        

        Arnav got up from recliner buttoning his jacket which was unbuttoned while waiting for her and spoke with business like tone,

  "So Ms. Khushi  Kumari Gupta, here I am presenting you the most important deal of my life... I say so because I  have compromised with many terms of mine to make it more suitable for you. Shall I?"

       

          Khushi's  brain was knocked out with all the  proceedings. She decided not to react until he finishes whatever 'ohh-so-important-DEAL' he had on his mind. So again she nodded positively.

************************

     

                   The presentation started with the brief introduction of the deal with first slide which said 'Proposal from Mr. Arnav Singh Riazada to Ms. Khushi  Kumari Gupta to start a mutual venture of life'. It proceeded with different slides showing terms and conditions of the deal, benefits and sort of adjustments  she needed to do if both of them decide to marry  along with Arnav's explanation on every point. Arnav elaborated  Khushi how it would be more beneficial for her to marry him as she is already knowing his family and she likes his home as well as his family. It will be upgrading her status as Mrs. Arnav Singh Raizada. If she was thinking of working after marriage then it would be easy for her to carry out any plan she was having as Mrs. ASR. The most important issue was seeking the permission of both the families and that was as if already sorted out because of Payal and Akash's marriage. Even this will reduce all the search work her ill babuji needs to do for seeking a suitable groom for her. To strengthen his point, he also presented various articles published in newspapers and magazines saying  Arnav Singh Raizada was the most eligible bachelor in the country.With all these many benefits the only small adjustments she had to make were leaving all the efforts to bring him to different poojas and temples, her attempts to feed him any kind of sweets and her acts to harm his garden like taking mud out of his plants. The only loss she could suffer was to tolerate his temper sometimes as that was very rare case with him as he thought.

 " So, as per my exigently studied deal, It's the most beneficial  one for you. So with all this, you can postulate  now," He concluded the presentation releasing his long held breath finally.

   

    

        If anyone  would have wondered how a frozen glacier at Antarctica looks like then our Khushi Kumari Gupta was the bang on site to watch...