Bruised Hearts

Wicked Stepmother

Arnav (impatiently):  What the...!  Mami will you please just get to the point!  Just give us the facts without any embellishments please.

Mamiji (confused):  Hello hi bye bye!  Arnav bitwa...what ij embailijmintz?

Khushi and Madhu clap their hands over their mouth to hold in their laughter as RK grins with amu****t.  Arnav glares at the three for finding humor at his frustration with mamiji.

Tara stares at all the occupants in the room and shakes her head.

Adults are such cuckoos.

Tara:  Daddy...may I please play with your phone?  I am bored.

Arnav (giving Tara his phone):  Here you go princess.  You can also go the the adjacent room and watch cartoons.

Tara (skipping away):  Ok daddy!  Thank you!

Mamiji (muttering to herself):  Yeh embailijmintz kya hain?  Hello hi bye bye...I willj haive to google it.

Arnav opens his mouth to blast mamiji for wasting their time.  But before he could say a word, Khushi cuts in.

Khushi (anticipating Arnav's blow up, interrupts):  Mamiji...please go on.  Please share the information that you gathered from spying on naniji and dadiji.

Mamiji:  Ahh yes Phati Sari.  Tankj yous phor remainding me.  (To Arnav) Arnav bitwa didj yous knowz thait dadiji ij not yours and Anjali bitiya's realwa dadi?

Arnav (confused):  Huh?

Mamiji:  Arnav bitwa...Dadiji ij yourz dadaji's checond biwi.

Arnav (even more confused):  Mamiji speak clearly please!  So what if dadi is dada's second wife?  That doesn't mean that she is NOT my dadi!

Madhu (queries):  Mamiji are you saying Arnav's dad is from dadaji's first wife?

Mamiji (nods her agreement):  Yech bititya.

RK:  So that would make dadiji Arnav's dad stepmother, therefore Arnav's stepgrandmother.

Mamiji:  Egjectly bitwa!  Ishtep graindmaither.

Arnav (understanding now):  Di and I never knew...that she's not really our...(pausing) Actually she is our grandmother.  So what if we don't share blood relations?  She still raised dad so that makes his mom and therefore my grandmother.

Khushi (adding):  I agree with Arnav.  Blood isn't the only factor that makes a family.  The most important factor is love.  Mamiji if dadiji loved dad...I mean Arnav's dad then that's all it matters.  It does not matter at all that she is step.  That's just a word.

Madhu (agreeing):  I agree Mamiji...so what if dadiji is Arnav's stepgrandmother?  It does not diminish the love she has for her grandchildren.  To the world, Malik is my stepfather.  But to me he is just my father, the best father a girl can ask for.  He loves me despite not being his biological daughter.  While my own shaitan biological father wanted to kill me.  So I am sorry.  I don't see what's so important about distinguishing whether dadiji is step or not.

Mamiji:  Bitwas...thatj notz what I maint.  Arre...chorro.  Phirst lichen to puri convairsaton.

Flashback – Dadi's complete conversation with Naniji

Naniji:  I feel quite bad in saying this, but do you even love our grandchildren?  You left them when Dhruv kicked them out of Sheesh Mahal.  Why?  You were ouf their lives for 15 years?  Why?  Didn't you feel the need to see how they were doing?  Those poor lost dears were hit by a series of bomb.  Why didn't you stand by them?

Dadi:  Deviyani...!  What kind of questions are these?  Of course I love them.

Naniji:  I am sorry to even say this but when you got married, you didn't like that you had to look after your stepson, Arnesh.  Did you ever love Chote's father?

Dadi:  Deviyani I won't deny that's how I felt when I first got married.  Who would want to get saddled with a child from the beginning of a marriage?  But I grew to accept Arnesh.

Naniji:  Yes but did you love him as much as Dhruv?  Did you love him at all or you just simply fulfilled your obligations?

Dadi:  Dhruv is my own flesh and blood.  If I gave him more attention and love well that can't be helped. Deviyani I why are you asking all these questions?  Why are you asking whether I loved Arnesh?  I did more than just my obligatory duty towards him!

Naniji:  Obligatory duty?  Sumi...do you hear yourself?  I asked about love and you are telling me about fulfilling obligatory duty.  I am sorry but I entrusted my daughter to your family because of you.  Sumi you had me convinced that you had grown to love Arnesh.  Therefore that love would spill over to my daughter and you would give her the love and respect of a bahu.

Dadi:  Deviyani!  Of course I cared for Nandini and taught her how to be a proper Malik bahu.  Deviyani you are questioning my very character today all because of that home-wrecker?

Naniji:  Sumi you don't know anything about Khushi bitiya so it's best if you don't talk about her.  As for these questions, they have been on my mind for a very long time.  But just didn't have the courage to ask till today.  Sumi you don't stray from your views at all.  Once you have made up your mind, it's set.  And when you married Arnesh's papa, your mind was set against Arnesh.  Today you confirmed that you didn't care a whit about him, and that has spilled over to MY grandchildren.

Dadi:  Deviyani we are going to go around in circles about this topic.  So just drop it.  Are you done with your interrogations?

Naniji:  No I am not!  Today I want answers to all my questions.  Sumi why do you still have a grudge against Rajesh bhaiya's family?  He was your brother!  And he did what was best for you.  Sumi we are too old to hold grudges, so that when we die it will be with a clear conscience.  It's too late for you to make up with Rajesh bhaiyya but his grandson is still around.  Reach out to him.

Dadi (angry):  Deviyani...I have no relations with the Kundra!  He may have been my brother but he most definitely had NO right to make decisions for me!  He took my love away from me.  I will never forgive him for that and I have no wish to cozy up to HIS family.

Naniji (sighing):  Your LOVE, Bhavan Chaudhury, was a mad man.  Did you know he beat his wife to death soon after she gave birth to their son?  Heard the son, Balraj, turned out to be the same as his father.  You wanted to marry into such a family?  A family that devalues girls and beating them into submission is the norm? Rajesh bhaiya saved you from a hellish life.  Instead you got a gem of a family in the Maliks that you are still too stubborn to see.

Dadi:  Bhavan loved me and he would have never laid a hand against me.  I don't deny that Arnesh's papa was very good to me.  But still Rajesh Kundra had NO right to break off my relationship with Bhavan and force me to marry someone else.

Naniji (sighs):  You're a stubborn, blind, old fool.  All I am asking you to do is keep an open mind and move on so the rest of your remaining life you won't be bitter.  As for Arnav and Anjali, if you can't love them genuinely and think what's best for them, then please don't interfere.  For the sake of our long-standing friendship, don't ruin their lives with your bitterness.

End of Flashback

Mamiji finishes reciting the conversation to the occupants of the room.  Arnav, Khushi, Madhu and RK just stare at mamiji.  Horrified at what they have just learned, they just stand frozen, incapable of uttering a word.

Mamiji:  Hello hi bye bye!  Bitwas...I phinished tellingjz yous.  Now yous can speakwa.

RK (whispers):  Rajesh Kundra...that was my grandfather's name.

Madhu (also whispers):  Bhavan Chaudhury...he was that shaitan's father.  My...my...my... grandfather.