Seeing the Light

Doubts Being Sowed

"bechain hai, khush nahi hai tho shadi kyun kar rahi hai? aisa faisla liya hi kyun jisse baad mai pachtana padega? khush nahi hai tho sagai kyun ki? kisne kaha tha haan keh ne ke liye? kisine zabardasti ki thi kya" (If she is feeling restless, and unhappy then why is she getting married? Why did she take such a decision, which she will regret later? If she isn't happy then why did she get engaged? Who told her to say yes? Did someone force her?) 

His voice started to break "jisse pyaar nahi karti, jiske saat reh nahi sakti uske saat poori zindagi kaise bitaigi" (How will she spend her whole life with someone whom she doesn't love, with whom she cannot live?) He stopped all of a sudden, realising that he was speaking to his sister, he muttered something under his breath and walked into his wash room, purposely avoiding to look directly into Anjali's eyes.

Arnav's tirade confused Anjali, with each sentence that he uttered, Anjali kept getting even more confused. She knew something was terribly wrong from the way Arnav was refusing to even look in her direction when speaking, and his voice.. she was very certain she heard it crack.. 

There was something deeper in the words that he uttered.. but what? She looked towards the bathroom door, "Chote itna gussa kyun hogaya tha? itna pareshaan? itni chinta kab se karne lage hai Khushiji ke baare mai???" (Why did Chote get so angry? so upset? Since when did he start caring so much about Khushiji?) Anjali walked out of his room, deep in thought.

***

Khushi helped Payal set the table for breakfast, Garima was feeding Sashi his breakfast, but her eyes kept darting to Khushi, Sashi her unease, felt miserable for the fact that he couldn't do anything but watch. Last night Garima had shared her concerns with him, after his sister had fallen asleep, Garima told him that she felt Shyam had ulterior motives, and wasn't sincere. At that moment he wished for some miracle to happen, he prayed for God to put some courage into his wife, so that she would talk to his sister about her concerns.

He knew his sister was stubborn, even though he had repeatedly shared his worries with her she had stuck to her judgement of Shyam as a good person. He knew that shifting her from her stance was difficult, which is why he had started to do the investigating on his own. He had never given his explicit consent for the alliance, he hadn't anticipated Shyam to be such a menace, if he had known, he wouldn't have confronted the man all alone.

Now he sat there helpless, watching his daughter walk around like a zombie. From the day she had gotten engaged, he had not seen her smile even once. He didn't know the reason why she didn't want to get engaged to Shyam, he didn't need to either. As a father, even of Shyam had been a good man, if his daughter was not happy with the alliance, he wouldn't have forced her into it. 

He knew his sisters actions were fuelled by her love for him, and furthered by Shyam's manipulations.. but he knew she was going over board with her support for Shyam. Sashi would never have, in a million years, agreed for his daughter to go on a dinner date with her fiancé, he didn't know why his sister had agreed to it, without even consulting anyone else.

For now, his only hope was on Garima, she had started to suspect the man, he hoped she would take a strong stand tonight, and not allow Khushi to go out with Shyam. Knowing the real truth about the man, he did not trust his intentions one bit.

"Areyy SankaDevi.. tumne yeh chudiyan kyun pehne hai?" (Hey SankaDevi.. why have you worn these bangles?) Madhumati's voice brought Sashi out of his thoughts. He looked towards the dining table, and saw Khushi holding her half filled plate, looking confused, his sister tutted "Shyam babua itne pyaar se tumhe oo" (With so much love Shyam got you that) she searched for the word in her mind "haann.. bracelet.. oo bracelet taufa mei diye hai.. tum kaahe usse nai pehni?" (Yeah.. bracelet.. He gifted you that bracelet.. why don't you wear that?)