Chapter 33 Frozen hearts..will they melt by Deepti
Chapter 33
With Anjali’s engagement fast approaching, everybody soon got busy with the preparations and Kushi spent the next three days almost with Anjali, hunting for Anjali’s engagement dress. Anjali totally relied on Kushi’s choice since she was the one who had better knowledge in the matter of patterns and colors compared to her and since Kushi was not of the compromising types, it took her three good days to finally find what she was looking for – a beautiful pink lehenga with an exquisite silver zardosi work. The duo later purchased the matching accessories and finally made it home by evening, victoriously.
Once they were back from the shopping, they assembled the elder women in the living room, to exhibit the purchases.
“This lehenga is so pretty…Anjali will look beautiful in it”, said Devyani looking at the lehenga while checking the zardosi work on it.
“So true…she will look like an angel in this! You made a good choice, Anjali”, said Sakshi who was thoroughly impressed with Anjali’s dress.
“Ya, indeed it’s a great choice.Worth the hunt you girls were on! It’s perfect for the occasion, Anjali”, added Aarthi agreeing with the other two women.
“Excuse me ladies!! Who are you all giving the credit to??? It was me, who selected this dress. Do you even know how many stores we hopped to find this one, which finally pleased me?”, asked Kushi placing both her hands on either side of her waist.
She would have gone over it but stopped as she witnessed Arnav, coming down the stairs right at that moment. Zipping her mouth she went and sat next to Devyani and
started checking the lehenga as if she were to write a thesis on it.
“Ya Ma…it was indeed Kushi’s selection.I was totally confused looking at all those dresses in that store. I just left everything to her and she finally picked this one for me. The credit for the selection, definitely goes to her”, said Anjali, looking fondly at Kushi.
“Really!! Then, you did a great job by picking this dress, Kushi. We give the total credit to you. Now, are you happy??”, asked Sakshi, teasing her daughter.
Everyone looked at Kushi expecting her to react but to their utter surprise, Kushi didn’t even nod her head. In fact, not a word that Anjali or her mother uttered, got registered in Kushi’s head as she was busy counseling herself, from the moment she spotted Arnav.
“Kushi, I’m warning you! Don’t even lift your head! Don’t dare to look at him! Just ignore! Ignore! Ignore”, muttered Kushi as she kept chanting the last word as a mantra.
“Now what’s wrong with this girl?? Just now she posed like a Jhansi Ki Rani, all set to fight with me for not giving any credit to her. What happened to her all of a sudden?”, whispered Sakshi in Arathi’s ear, looking at her daughter who was talking to herself staring at the lehenga. Aarthi simply responded with a shrug as she was equally surprised to see Kushi like that.
“Right on time, Arnav! Come and have a look at my engagement dress”, said Anjali breaking the silence in that room on seeing her brother who was on his way to exit the living room.
“God! Now why is Di calling him? Knowing that it’s my choice, he will definitely say that it’s horrible”, muttered Kushi.
“Sure, Di”, said Arnav as he changed his path and walked towards the group.
“He was good on his way. Unnecessarily she called him”, thought a worried Kushi.
As he reached the group, Arnav noticed that half of the Lehenga was in his Dhadhi’s lap while the other half was in Kushi’s. He approached them and stood right in front of them to get a better look at the lehenga.
With each of his step towards her, Kushi felt the raise in her heart rate and finally when he came and stood near her, she was all nervous for once again. Since her head was completely bent all she was seeing was his knees, which were closer to hers. As she sat there moving nervously in her seat Arnav tried to study her.
He didn’t come across her for the past three days and somewhere he knew that she was trying her best to avoid him. Even now, when he is standing so close to her, she wasn’t even lifting her head. “Looks like our last encounter affected her greatly!”,thought Arnav looking at her. ” As if it didn’t affect you!!“, mocked his heart.
“How is it, Arnav?”, asked Devyani breaking his reverie. “It’s Kushi’s selection!”, she added, providing the additional information.
“Great!! Now he will definitely say that it’s disgusting. Go ahead!!I’m all ears! Spit out the venom..what’s the delay??”, muttered Kushi as she prepared herself for his scorching criticism.
Arnav took 10 good seconds before he came up with an opinion and then to Kushi’s astonishment, he said, “It’s nice! ”
For a second Kushi was not sure about what she just heard. Keeping her index finger in her right ear she moved it vigorously just to make sure that she heard him right.
“Di will look fabulous in it”, added Arnav, hearing which Kushi shot up her head.
“What did you just say?? Can you repeat it”, she asked looking incredulously at him.
Though he was glad that she was finally looking at him in the eye, “Why?? Did you become dumb??”, asked Arnav.
“Anyways, I just said that this dress is nice and Di will look fabulous in it. Enough??”, he continued, repeating his own words.
“But, I was the one who selected it. So in spite of knowing this, do you still think that it’s nice”, asked Kushi , who was still not able to believe that he liked her selection.
Everyone around her smiled hearing her question while Arnav replied saying, “So what if you selected it? You didn’t make it right? So my opinion is unaltered.By the way, what are you taking the credit for? The designer of this dress and the people who created this beautiful intricate work should be the ones who should be given all the credit. Not the one who selected it.”
“I bet, even if it was our Shyamlal, he would have picked the same lehenga from that store. What say Shayamlal”, added Arnav, spotting Shyamlal who entered the living room with a tray of tea cups.
As Shyamlal responded with a broad smile, Kushi just stared at him blankly.
“So stop taking credit for something which you don’t deserve”, taunted Arnav arching his eyebrows.
“Aaaa”, reacted Kushi gaping at Arnav while the others in the room tried their best to hide their smile, looking at Kushi’s confused state.
“I won’t be coming home for dinner, Mamma. I have a meeting…will be late”, said Arnav turning towards his mother. As Aarthi responded with a nod, Arnav bid a bye to everyone and walked towards the main door.
“Oh ya!! Let me know if you need an appointment with an otolaryngologist. I will arrange for it”, said Arnav addressing Kushi just before he took an exit from the house.
“Otto.. what?”, asked Kushi looking baffled at the other women who were equally clueless about what Arnav just said.
“He was talking about an ENT physician”, said Anjali enlightening everyone around.
Once she became aware of what his words meant, Kushi picked up a cushion and turned around to throw it at him. Finding him nowhere around, ” Arghh!!!”, she screamed squeezing the cushion in her hand.
As everyone burst out laughing looking at the expression on her face, Kushi glared at them in response. And when they tried to control themselves from laughing, ” It’s very funny for you people , right!! Laugh how much ever you want to. Because the day you all get to see what I’m capable of, I bet you will be left speechless. That includes the one who just left mocking at me”, threatened Kushi.
“How? And speechless means, is it the same way just like Arnav made YOU ?”, teased Sakshi, controlling her smile.
Kushi narrowed her gaze at her mother saying, “You just wait and watch ,Maa”, as she raised from the couch. And she left to her room stomping from there, leaving the other women wonder what she was up to.
************************************************************************
The engagement day of Anjali and Karan soon followed and since it was the first big function happening in their family Shashi and Aakash tried their best to make sure that all the arrangements were perfect. And Arnav took care of everything under the guidance of his father and Shashi. Shantiwan was illuminated with bright lights and was decorated beautifully with flowers, to welcome all the guests.
Since there was hardly any time left for Karan’s family to arrive, the elder women busied themselves in getting ready for the event while Kushi was in Anjali’s room, helping her to get ready.
Kushi pleated the dupatta and was draping it on Anjali’s shoulder when the knock on the door interrupted her.
“Just a second”, answered Kushi while pinning the dupatta to the blouse.
Once she was done with it, Kushi opened the door and glared at the people in front of her.
The three girls who knew the reason behind that glare said, “SORRY”, in unison.
“Do you have any idea what time it is??”, asked Kushi, angrily.
“Hmmm it’s 6.15”, replied Pragya sheepishly, after checking her watch.
“I KNOW THAT…. I asked you all to come at 5 not 6.15. In spite of knowing that Di needs our help how could you all come so late. The engagement is at 7 and Jiju’s family may be here any moment now. And just look at me…I literally look like a maid while you all are decked up like the Maharani’s of Mysore. When should I get ready?? Couldn’t you come a little early”, said Kushi scolding her friends for being late.
“What is the main cause for your anger? Is it YOU looking like a maid or is it we looking like Maharani’s?”, teased Preeti, in her usual style.
“Step inside and I will let you know what it is”, threatened Kushi.
“Sorry Sorry…I was just kidding. Between, the truth is ,even if you don’t deck up, you will still look stunning.That’s what you are, a NATURAL BEAUTY. But it’s not the same case with us. We need to spend hours in front of the mirror to look presentable for the occasion. Hence the delay. So please forgive us for the crime we committed and let us in”, said Preeti, trying to calm down her friend.
As Kushi gave them way, the three girls barged into Anjali’s room and stood staring at Anjali who was all dressed up for the event.
“Wow Di!! You look so pretty”, said Pragya.
“Really Di,the dress.. make up….everything is perfect. You are just beautiful”, remarked Nisha.
“Thank you!! Credit goes to your friend. She was the one who took care of everything.Starting from my dress selection to my makeup”, said Anjali.
As the trio looked at Kushi, she lifted her non existing collar, arching her eyebrows at Preeti.
“Well done partner!! I’m booking you now itself”, declared Preeti.
“FOR WHAT???”, asked the others in confusion.
“To stay with me at the time of my wedding and take care of my attires, accessories, hair and makeup”, clarified Preeti.
“Did I miss anything else?”, she added, for which the others shook their head.
“Good! So what say Kushi?”, asked Preeti.
“I will think about it”, said Kushi, mocking her friend.
“You can think about that later but first go and get ready… we will help Di”, suggested Nisha.
“Ya..Kushi… I’m all done except for the bangles. So you go and get ready. The guests will be here any moment now”, said Anjali getting tensed.
“Okay okay! Stop worrying.I can manage and will be back in no time”, said Kushi. After instructing her friends about the order in which the bangles should be worn Kushi finally went to her room to get ready.
“We are glad that most of your friends got married and don’t live in Delhi”, said Preeti addressing Anjali, as she started arranging the bangles in an order.
“Why??”, asked a confused Anjali.
“If you had them around, you wouldn’t have invited us for your engagement ,right! That’s why”, said Preeti.
Anjali slapped on Preeti’s shoulder and said, “Even if they were around.. I would have definitely invited you three”.
“Really !! That’s so sweet of you, Di”, said Nisha.
Anjali smiled and said,”I had to invite the three musketeers of my Kushi. If not your friend would have had my head on her platter”. As the trio stared at her in response, ” I was just kidding!!”, said Anjali.
The chit chat in Anjali’s room continued while Kushi was getting ready in a rush in her very own room.She took a quick shower and picked the peacock-blue and green color anarkali suit, which she recently bought for the engagement purpose. While she was trying to get into it, the elder women who were ready by then, came to Anjali’s room to check on her.
“It’s good that we left Kushi in charge of this. Look, what a job she has done! Everything is just perfect. Not too much or too less.You look so pretty Anjali”, said Devyani who was totally impressed with Kushi’s perfection. Sakshi and Aarthi totally agreed with her.
“But where is Kushi??”, asked Sakshi, not seeing her daughter around.
“She is getting ready, aunty”, replied Pragya.
“We are going downstairs. Time to receive the guests.As soon as Kushi is back, you all come down with Anjali”, said Aarthi instructing the girls before she left from there.
Before going downstairs Sakshi knocked on Kushi’s door and asked her to hurry up and bring Anjali downstairs as soon as she was done . Kushi answered her mother without opening the door as she was busy getting dressed at that moment.
Once she was done with her hair and makeup, Kushi adorned her hands with green and blue bangles and picked her heart-shaped earrings and wore them for the first time. She jiggled through her jewelry box to find a matching necklace for her ear rings. She tried a couple of them but nothing matched her ear rings and since she liked the ear rings very much she didn’t feel like changing them. Finally, giving up her search, she left her neck bare and gave one final glance to herself in the mirror.
“Not bad!!”, she remarked looking at her reflection and dashed towards Anjali’s room.
“Come on girls!!Let’s get Di downstairs!!”, she said, ignoring the looks of appreciation which were directed towards her.
Once they reached the living room, leaving Anjali with her friends, Kushi went around to have a glance at the arrangements She was going towards the kitchen and was looking sideways at the flower decoration when she went and collided with someone.
“BANG!!!!”
-Deepti©
Note: Sorry about this text format as I post this chapter through phone.
With Anjali’s engagement fast approaching, everybody soon got busy with the preparations and Kushi spent the next three days almost with Anjali, hunting for Anjali’s engagement dress. Anjali totally relied on Kushi’s choice since she was the one who had better knowledge in the matter of patterns and colors compared to her and since Kushi was not of the compromising types, it took her three good days to finally find what she was looking for – a beautiful pink lehenga with an exquisite silver zardosi work. The duo later purchased the matching accessories and finally made it home by evening, victoriously.
Once they were back from the shopping, they assembled the elder women in the living room, to exhibit the purchases.
“This lehenga is so pretty…Anjali will look beautiful in it”, said Devyani looking at the lehenga while checking the zardosi work on it.
“So true…she will look like an angel in this! You made a good choice, Anjali”, said Sakshi who was thoroughly impressed with Anjali’s dress.
“Ya, indeed it’s a great choice.Worth the hunt you girls were on! It’s perfect for the occasion, Anjali”, added Aarthi agreeing with the other two women.
“Excuse me ladies!! Who are you all giving the credit to??? It was me, who selected this dress. Do you even know how many stores we hopped to find this one, which finally pleased me?”, asked Kushi placing both her hands on either side of her waist.
She would have gone over it but stopped as she witnessed Arnav, coming down the stairs right at that moment. Zipping her mouth she went and sat next to Devyani and
started checking the lehenga as if she were to write a thesis on it.
“Ya Ma…it was indeed Kushi’s selection.I was totally confused looking at all those dresses in that store. I just left everything to her and she finally picked this one for me. The credit for the selection, definitely goes to her”, said Anjali, looking fondly at Kushi.
“Really!! Then, you did a great job by picking this dress, Kushi. We give the total credit to you. Now, are you happy??”, asked Sakshi, teasing her daughter.
Everyone looked at Kushi expecting her to react but to their utter surprise, Kushi didn’t even nod her head. In fact, not a word that Anjali or her mother uttered, got registered in Kushi’s head as she was busy counseling herself, from the moment she spotted Arnav.
“Kushi, I’m warning you! Don’t even lift your head! Don’t dare to look at him! Just ignore! Ignore! Ignore”, muttered Kushi as she kept chanting the last word as a mantra.
“Now what’s wrong with this girl?? Just now she posed like a Jhansi Ki Rani, all set to fight with me for not giving any credit to her. What happened to her all of a sudden?”, whispered Sakshi in Arathi’s ear, looking at her daughter who was talking to herself staring at the lehenga. Aarthi simply responded with a shrug as she was equally surprised to see Kushi like that.
“Right on time, Arnav! Come and have a look at my engagement dress”, said Anjali breaking the silence in that room on seeing her brother who was on his way to exit the living room.
“God! Now why is Di calling him? Knowing that it’s my choice, he will definitely say that it’s horrible”, muttered Kushi.
“Sure, Di”, said Arnav as he changed his path and walked towards the group.
“He was good on his way. Unnecessarily she called him”, thought a worried Kushi.
As he reached the group, Arnav noticed that half of the Lehenga was in his Dhadhi’s lap while the other half was in Kushi’s. He approached them and stood right in front of them to get a better look at the lehenga.
With each of his step towards her, Kushi felt the raise in her heart rate and finally when he came and stood near her, she was all nervous for once again. Since her head was completely bent all she was seeing was his knees, which were closer to hers. As she sat there moving nervously in her seat Arnav tried to study her.
He didn’t come across her for the past three days and somewhere he knew that she was trying her best to avoid him. Even now, when he is standing so close to her, she wasn’t even lifting her head. “Looks like our last encounter affected her greatly!”,thought Arnav looking at her. ” As if it didn’t affect you!!“, mocked his heart.
“How is it, Arnav?”, asked Devyani breaking his reverie. “It’s Kushi’s selection!”, she added, providing the additional information.
“Great!! Now he will definitely say that it’s disgusting. Go ahead!!I’m all ears! Spit out the venom..what’s the delay??”, muttered Kushi as she prepared herself for his scorching criticism.
Arnav took 10 good seconds before he came up with an opinion and then to Kushi’s astonishment, he said, “It’s nice! ”
For a second Kushi was not sure about what she just heard. Keeping her index finger in her right ear she moved it vigorously just to make sure that she heard him right.
“Di will look fabulous in it”, added Arnav, hearing which Kushi shot up her head.
“What did you just say?? Can you repeat it”, she asked looking incredulously at him.
Though he was glad that she was finally looking at him in the eye, “Why?? Did you become dumb??”, asked Arnav.
“Anyways, I just said that this dress is nice and Di will look fabulous in it. Enough??”, he continued, repeating his own words.
“But, I was the one who selected it. So in spite of knowing this, do you still think that it’s nice”, asked Kushi , who was still not able to believe that he liked her selection.
Everyone around her smiled hearing her question while Arnav replied saying, “So what if you selected it? You didn’t make it right? So my opinion is unaltered.By the way, what are you taking the credit for? The designer of this dress and the people who created this beautiful intricate work should be the ones who should be given all the credit. Not the one who selected it.”
“I bet, even if it was our Shyamlal, he would have picked the same lehenga from that store. What say Shayamlal”, added Arnav, spotting Shyamlal who entered the living room with a tray of tea cups.
As Shyamlal responded with a broad smile, Kushi just stared at him blankly.
“So stop taking credit for something which you don’t deserve”, taunted Arnav arching his eyebrows.
“Aaaa”, reacted Kushi gaping at Arnav while the others in the room tried their best to hide their smile, looking at Kushi’s confused state.
“I won’t be coming home for dinner, Mamma. I have a meeting…will be late”, said Arnav turning towards his mother. As Aarthi responded with a nod, Arnav bid a bye to everyone and walked towards the main door.
“Oh ya!! Let me know if you need an appointment with an otolaryngologist. I will arrange for it”, said Arnav addressing Kushi just before he took an exit from the house.
“Otto.. what?”, asked Kushi looking baffled at the other women who were equally clueless about what Arnav just said.
“He was talking about an ENT physician”, said Anjali enlightening everyone around.
Once she became aware of what his words meant, Kushi picked up a cushion and turned around to throw it at him. Finding him nowhere around, ” Arghh!!!”, she screamed squeezing the cushion in her hand.
As everyone burst out laughing looking at the expression on her face, Kushi glared at them in response. And when they tried to control themselves from laughing, ” It’s very funny for you people , right!! Laugh how much ever you want to. Because the day you all get to see what I’m capable of, I bet you will be left speechless. That includes the one who just left mocking at me”, threatened Kushi.
“How? And speechless means, is it the same way just like Arnav made YOU ?”, teased Sakshi, controlling her smile.
Kushi narrowed her gaze at her mother saying, “You just wait and watch ,Maa”, as she raised from the couch. And she left to her room stomping from there, leaving the other women wonder what she was up to.
************************************************************************
The engagement day of Anjali and Karan soon followed and since it was the first big function happening in their family Shashi and Aakash tried their best to make sure that all the arrangements were perfect. And Arnav took care of everything under the guidance of his father and Shashi. Shantiwan was illuminated with bright lights and was decorated beautifully with flowers, to welcome all the guests.
Since there was hardly any time left for Karan’s family to arrive, the elder women busied themselves in getting ready for the event while Kushi was in Anjali’s room, helping her to get ready.
Kushi pleated the dupatta and was draping it on Anjali’s shoulder when the knock on the door interrupted her.
“Just a second”, answered Kushi while pinning the dupatta to the blouse.
Once she was done with it, Kushi opened the door and glared at the people in front of her.
The three girls who knew the reason behind that glare said, “SORRY”, in unison.
“Do you have any idea what time it is??”, asked Kushi, angrily.
“Hmmm it’s 6.15”, replied Pragya sheepishly, after checking her watch.
“I KNOW THAT…. I asked you all to come at 5 not 6.15. In spite of knowing that Di needs our help how could you all come so late. The engagement is at 7 and Jiju’s family may be here any moment now. And just look at me…I literally look like a maid while you all are decked up like the Maharani’s of Mysore. When should I get ready?? Couldn’t you come a little early”, said Kushi scolding her friends for being late.
“What is the main cause for your anger? Is it YOU looking like a maid or is it we looking like Maharani’s?”, teased Preeti, in her usual style.
“Step inside and I will let you know what it is”, threatened Kushi.
“Sorry Sorry…I was just kidding. Between, the truth is ,even if you don’t deck up, you will still look stunning.That’s what you are, a NATURAL BEAUTY. But it’s not the same case with us. We need to spend hours in front of the mirror to look presentable for the occasion. Hence the delay. So please forgive us for the crime we committed and let us in”, said Preeti, trying to calm down her friend.
As Kushi gave them way, the three girls barged into Anjali’s room and stood staring at Anjali who was all dressed up for the event.
“Wow Di!! You look so pretty”, said Pragya.
“Really Di,the dress.. make up….everything is perfect. You are just beautiful”, remarked Nisha.
“Thank you!! Credit goes to your friend. She was the one who took care of everything.Starting from my dress selection to my makeup”, said Anjali.
As the trio looked at Kushi, she lifted her non existing collar, arching her eyebrows at Preeti.
“Well done partner!! I’m booking you now itself”, declared Preeti.
“FOR WHAT???”, asked the others in confusion.
“To stay with me at the time of my wedding and take care of my attires, accessories, hair and makeup”, clarified Preeti.
“Did I miss anything else?”, she added, for which the others shook their head.
“Good! So what say Kushi?”, asked Preeti.
“I will think about it”, said Kushi, mocking her friend.
“You can think about that later but first go and get ready… we will help Di”, suggested Nisha.
“Ya..Kushi… I’m all done except for the bangles. So you go and get ready. The guests will be here any moment now”, said Anjali getting tensed.
“Okay okay! Stop worrying.I can manage and will be back in no time”, said Kushi. After instructing her friends about the order in which the bangles should be worn Kushi finally went to her room to get ready.
“We are glad that most of your friends got married and don’t live in Delhi”, said Preeti addressing Anjali, as she started arranging the bangles in an order.
“Why??”, asked a confused Anjali.
“If you had them around, you wouldn’t have invited us for your engagement ,right! That’s why”, said Preeti.
Anjali slapped on Preeti’s shoulder and said, “Even if they were around.. I would have definitely invited you three”.
“Really !! That’s so sweet of you, Di”, said Nisha.
Anjali smiled and said,”I had to invite the three musketeers of my Kushi. If not your friend would have had my head on her platter”. As the trio stared at her in response, ” I was just kidding!!”, said Anjali.
The chit chat in Anjali’s room continued while Kushi was getting ready in a rush in her very own room.She took a quick shower and picked the peacock-blue and green color anarkali suit, which she recently bought for the engagement purpose. While she was trying to get into it, the elder women who were ready by then, came to Anjali’s room to check on her.
“It’s good that we left Kushi in charge of this. Look, what a job she has done! Everything is just perfect. Not too much or too less.You look so pretty Anjali”, said Devyani who was totally impressed with Kushi’s perfection. Sakshi and Aarthi totally agreed with her.
“But where is Kushi??”, asked Sakshi, not seeing her daughter around.
“She is getting ready, aunty”, replied Pragya.
“We are going downstairs. Time to receive the guests.As soon as Kushi is back, you all come down with Anjali”, said Aarthi instructing the girls before she left from there.
Before going downstairs Sakshi knocked on Kushi’s door and asked her to hurry up and bring Anjali downstairs as soon as she was done . Kushi answered her mother without opening the door as she was busy getting dressed at that moment.
Once she was done with her hair and makeup, Kushi adorned her hands with green and blue bangles and picked her heart-shaped earrings and wore them for the first time. She jiggled through her jewelry box to find a matching necklace for her ear rings. She tried a couple of them but nothing matched her ear rings and since she liked the ear rings very much she didn’t feel like changing them. Finally, giving up her search, she left her neck bare and gave one final glance to herself in the mirror.
“Not bad!!”, she remarked looking at her reflection and dashed towards Anjali’s room.
“Come on girls!!Let’s get Di downstairs!!”, she said, ignoring the looks of appreciation which were directed towards her.
Once they reached the living room, leaving Anjali with her friends, Kushi went around to have a glance at the arrangements She was going towards the kitchen and was looking sideways at the flower decoration when she went and collided with someone.
“BANG!!!!”
-Deepti©
Note: Sorry about this text format as I post this chapter through phone.
Awesome. You posted two at a time .
ReplyDeleteThank you!
Waiting for the next update. This is an awesome story.thank you. Can you please post it soon. Could read till ,54 but not after that
ReplyDeletePlease please please update the story!
ReplyDelete