Seeing the Light

Spiteful Words

Anjali watched Arnav walk away towards the kitchen, things seemed to get clearer and murkier at the same time. She turned her gaze towards Khushi, the omnipresent exuberance was missing from the young girl's face. What was happening? It was very clear that something was bothering Khushi.. most probably to do with her sudden engagement.. and then there was Arnav - his words, his anger.. his behaviour.

There was definitely something going on that she was unaware of.. something that involved Khushi and Arnav.. Anjali sighed internally, getting her brother to open up was nearly as impossible as boiling an ocean... Khushi was a little bit more approachable, but even she could be as stubborn as Arnav when she wanted to. One thing at a time, Anjali told herself, first lets try and find out if Khushi's restlessness is indeed regarding her engagement or was it something else that was bothering her.

"Kya yeh teek rahega Anjaliji?" (Will this be fine Anjaliji?) Khushi's voice jerked Anjali out of her thoughts, she hadn't heard what was said, so she looked at Khushi and at the saree on her hand, made a calculative guess "Arey yeh tho unka favorite color hai.. yeh bilkul teek rahega" (Hey this is his favorite color.. this will be perfect!) The young girl gave a small nod at those words and placed the saree aside. 

It was only then Anjali noticed Lavanya was no longer seated with them, and she enquired Khushi regarding the same and found out that Lavanya had received a call from her mother, and she had gone to her room. Anjali nodded her head contemplating something in her mind "Hum yeh sab room mei rakh kar aate hai Khushiji" (I will put all this away in the room and come Khushiji) she started to pick up the sarees, and as she expected Khushi stood up volunteering to help her, she smiled at the young girl.

Khushi helped her place the sarees inside her wardrobe, Anjali was searching for the right words to broach the topic with Khushi..  "Khushiji.. bura na maaniye.. hume aapse kuch poochna tha" (Khushiji.. don't mistake me.. I wanted to ask you something) Khushi gave her a small smile "Kal se dekh rahi hu aapko.. aap bohot hi bechain lag rahi hai" (I am watching you since yesterday.. you seem to be very restless) Khushi tucked her hair behind her ear "Kya aap aapke sagai se khush nahi hai?" (Are you not happy with your engagement?) 

Khushi went stiff, and quickly dismissed Anjali's concerns, saying that it was nothing, and Anjali didn't push further, but she had become absolutely certain that there was some issue. She saw how Khushi's whole demeanour changed at the mere mention of her engagement. 

Khushi excused herself and walked out of the room as fast as she could, her pace had slowed down when she started to descended down the stairs, as she was concentrating on separating the bracelet from her shawl, the darned little thing had caught on the fabric and unlike with Anjali's saree, it seemed more difficult to remove the bracelet from her shawl.

Feeling frustrated Khushi tugged on it a little too hard, and the bracelet broke off in two halves, One was hanging on her shawl, and the other fell to the ground. Arnav, who was coming up the stairs, stopped just in the nick of time, saving the bracelet from being crushed under his weight.

He picked it up, and stood straight.. he looked at Khushi's face, there was a mixture of fear, sadness and relief. He looked at the broken piece of jewellery in his hand, one look at it and he knew it wasn't the best quality. What sort of man gets something so cheap for his fiancé? 

He felt something stir in him, He wouldn't be ASR if he showed his concern openly, so he did it in his usual manner "tumhari fiancé se kaho agar usse tumhare liye taufa mei kuch dena hi hai, tho kuch behtar khareed ke de" (Tell your fiancé if he has to give you something as a gift, then he should buy something better)