What If? - IPKKND | slow updates

Fourteen

17 October 2009
Juhu, Mumbai

Closing the mouth of her safety pin, Khushi tucked the pleats of her aubergine zari tissue silk saree inside her petticoat. Securing it with a safety pin, she looked at her reflection in the mirror in front of her. She gently adjusted the bindi, correctly in the centre of her forehead. Combing her hair, she was quite surpirsed at the image in front of her.

An unabashed smile was plastered on Khushi's face and it seemed to have been stuck. The past week had been heavy on the account of a certain Raizada, but there had been a silver lining to it all. Her rendezvous with Vikram a few days ago had rendered her happy. They had been in constant touch with each other. Exchanging life notes over text. In fact, Vikram had begun reading Feluda in a breakneck speed.

"Bitiya, are you ready?" Garima asked her daughter.

When Garima had met Khushi after a break of a couple years, she had been quite proud at the woman she saw in front of her. Garima became emotional, Khushi had begun to resemble her birth mother Rashmi. The zeal that seemed to be driving Khushi, was something that Garima had always seen in her elder sister's eyes.

Whatever the circumstances, Khushi (and Rashmi) had always jumped right through with their heads held high. And the one thing that she absolutely dotted on her neice and sister, the result was always secondary.

Garima wished she could learn a lesson or two. Maybe she would have been living with confidence if she had acknowledged the spirit that Rashmi lived with.

"Amma, I hope you are okay with all this?" Khushi enquired, just as she finished screwing her earrings.

When Garima didn't reply, Khushi sighed a little softly. She could see her aunt stuck in a deep thought. And Khushi was really hoping Garima wouldn't touch the topic that had been a cause of conflict in their house. Not today.. Today she was in a good mood. And she would be damned if she let that bloody Singh Raizada change it.

"Amma, I want to tell you one thing."

Garima nodded a little distracted. Khushi sighed, leaving the earring on the dressing table. She closed her eyes, trying to muster some strength to reveal what she had hidden from everyone.

"In the few weeks that I had been living in the Raizada house, I was not really living as a daughter-in-law. That man didn't even marry me with proper rituals. It was a contract marriage. And everything that happened in front of you, was all a part of a clause. Including the time we spent at your house."

Garima looked at her sister's daughter, a little too stunned to react. She had been privy to the atrocities that Khushi had faced in that year. But never had Khushi ever spoken about it in the past couple of weeks. It had only been once.

"I was as good as captive Amma. Those were really bad days." Khushi sighed as she trailed the strings of her pearl necklace around her neck. Her mind betrayed her to a memory, not older than a month ago.

"There were times when I felt that he loved me. Maybe he did. Maybe he still does. But. I am unable to compete with his toxicity. We romanticise love so much that we sometimes forget we are all humans. In that relationship." Khushi chuckled, "If I can even call it that! I wasn't there. It was Arnav, his anger, his revenge and his insecurity. There was no place for any other person."

Garima kept a warm hand on Khushi's shoulder and wiped a stray tear that betrayed her. She led Khushi towards the bed and made her sit. Offering her a glass of water, Garima nodded her head softly. SHe hated to see her niece like this. And what tugged her even more, in those six months, Garima hadn't really been fair to Khushi. Even if she had forgiven her niece, Garima knew in the corner of her heart, she hadn't forgotten.