"The girl is fair-skinned, smart and pretty, but with all of that comes her arrogance, too," Thathayya's brother tells RK Mamayya and Gayatri Athayya.
Gayatri Athayya clearly looks uncomfortable, but I assume RK Mamayya is used to this man's conniving nature, he comes up with an immediate response. "Even if she is arrogant, which she is not, the arrogance would not be unwarranted, Babai," he tells the baldie, respectfully addressing him as 'Babai'.
His response takes me by surprise. I hadn't expected him to defend me; he didn't have to.
I look at my mother, showcasing my surprise. She looks back at me proudly as though she had expected RK Mamayya's reaction.
"Even so," the baldie eyes me. "Such arrogance is unbecoming of a girl. You are influential people, who must entertain influential guests—"
Gayatri Athayya doesn't let him complete. "Arvi is already a favourite among friends and family. There's no need for her to entertain anyone, it's them that should be respectful to her, she's our daughter-in-law now, and Naveen Annayya's only daughter."
My mother nudges me. "See, my choice is never wrong."
"You chose my in-laws for me?" I ask her. I thought they usually chose a groom, not the groom's family.
She glares at me, unappreciative of my sass. "Anyone that's brought up with parents like Ram and Gayatri is bound to be perfect."
I nod thoughtfully and turn to her when her uncle points out something else of my arrogance. "That's what people say about your upbringing," I mock her. "Mumma, how shameful."
She rolls her eyes. "Anyone with two eyes and a clear mind can see nothing wrong about my children."
I nod slowly with a grin, mocking her. "And every other morning when you complain about the useless children you have? What then?"
My mother turns to look at me with a no-nonsense face. "You are useless, but I won't have someone else say it to me."
I press a hand to my chest, where my heart is. "You're being so sweet, I think it's killing me."
Chuckling, she slaps my arm. "Shut up, and go back to the guest house. The oldie seems like he has something to say."
I feign a shocked gasp, covering my mouth with my hand for extra effect. "Oldie? Is that how you refer to your uncle? No manners at all!"
"Respect is earned, Arvi, and it must be kept. He has done neither."
Can't argue against that. "What does he want to talk about? Thathayya's property?"
Amma nods, looking tired already. "It seems you have knocked some sense into your grandfather. He isn't talking to his brother." Mission accomplished, comrade, I tell myself. "He wasn't going to give anything to his brother's son's before, but he's definitely not giving them anything now."
One of the reasons why I hated my grandfather's brother was that he always said how it'd be a waste to earn so much and give it all away to his girls. Apparently, once you give it to your girls, the property isn't yours, it's theirs. Isn't that what happens with everything? Once you give it away, it can't be yours. However, he says, if given to boys (his sons), the property will still have their family name on it.
My grandfather is a proud father. He had fathered three daughters, and he has always been proud of all three of them. He doesn't agree with his brother at all, but seeing that his brother has little to spare for his sons after years of gambling, he had always had an idea of giving away some of it to his brother's sons.
But now, it turns out so, that even that isn't happening.
My mother always told me that even if you're not around for your family's happy moments, you never leave their side when they're going through rough times.
Family doesn't leave one another hanging, does it? If it does, how is it to be family at all?
A man and his sons, that hadn't once called to check up on my grandfather, much less visit him, were now asking for a share in his properties. How are they to receive anything?
~.~.~.~.~
Following my mother's instructions, we'd gone back to the lake house/ guest house. By the time we went back, Ammamma had the mattresses in the rooms replaced, thankfully.
A maid had gone to the house before us, and laid out some mats in the lawn, for us to sit and watch the still lake.
The lake was still, but it was also a calming sight. Some of us rushed to the comfort of the beds, and some of us stayed behind to sit in the lawn and much on pakoras.
Arjun, who hadn't slept all night because of the travel from Dubai to Hyderabad and then from Hyderabad to Bramapuram, was quick to fall into a deep slumber.
"Mosquitoes must've feasted on your legs," Avni tells Aryan as the last of us sit outside and watch the lake.
Karthik, Kaushik, Pranav and Prithvi had gone to Vijayawada to bring liquor after waking up from a nap. I hadn't thought they'd go through with it but turns out they are. They asked us to tell the maid she can leave by seven so that no one knows of our little party.
"Why though? His blood must've been bitter like he is," Rohan comments.
"And yours is sweet? Is that why they left yours to be?" Avni asks Rohan.
Rohan shrugs, sipping his Thums Up (taste the thunder). They don't have coke around here, anywhere in this town, so we settled for Thums Up.
"Maybe they didn't want diabetes," Rohan offers.
Aryan, the one that was stung, rather harshly, remains silent through it all. I touch the puffed areas indicating the sting of the mosquitoes.
"Your hand's cold," Aryan remarks, sighing. "It's soothing."
"Magical hands," I boast playfully, winking at him. Effects of anaemia, more like.
"Avni, bring some moisturiser," I tell her, inspecting Aryan's legs. The mosquitoes really seem to have feasted on his legs.
"Ew. I don't want any moisturiser," Aryan rejects the idea. Avni looks at me, asking if she should bring it, and point indoors, asking her to go and get it.
"What do you mean ew?" I ask him, sternly. "Look at your legs."
"Moisturiser is sticky and gross," he complains, pulling his legs back, out of my hands.
"Moisturiser will feel cold against the skin. And look at how you've scratched yourself," I reprimand. The scratch marks are evident against his dry skin.
Avni hands me the moisturiser and lies down on the mat, looking up at the sky. I stare at Aryan, not saying a word until he stretches his legs out to me.
Calmly, I rub the moisturiser onto the mosquito bites. "Rakshasi," Aryan grumbles. [(Telugu) she-devil]
I pout, feigning sadness. "Did I tell you that I meant to be an angel?"
He looks back at me with an expression that says I-can't-deal-with-you. It's one that I'm awfully familiar with.
"Arjun Bava," Rohan brings to notice the six-foot-three-inches human that is leaning against the door to the lawn.
"Hello," Arjun greets with a smile before he walks over to us and sits down next to me.
"Hi, Bava Garu," Avni sings, sitting up.
Arjun chuckles at the greeting. "What's up, Maradalu Garu?" he asks, playfully. [Maradalu (Telugu): the term used to address a sister-in-law that's younger than you and/or your spouse]
She sighs. "What will I say, Bava Garu? I only know of college and home." At this, my eyebrows shoot up. "You are the one that goes on trips across the world. You should tell me."
"Ah, so you do go to college? Occasionally, is it?" Arjun teases her. When did these two become such good friends?
Avni dramatically places a hand on her chest, gasping out in apparent shock. "I may not be going to Oxford or LSE as your Arvi did, but I do go to college."
Arjun beats me to the response. "My Arvi does a lot of things that no one else can," he says back, playfully.
My Arvi?
I look at Arjun, my eyebrows raised to touch my hairline and an amused smile playing on my lips. What next, dude?
"Okay, I think we should go now. Byeeeeee," Avni calls out, running back into the house with Rohan and Aryan in tow.
"That one's a smarty," Arjun remarks, moving closer to me.
I hum, moving away. "Uh-huh. I wonder what to say about her Bava Garu," I say, turning to look and see whether or not they're gone. Once I'm sure they're gone, I look at the lake.
"You could say he's a hottie, considering that her sister moves away from him like she's going to catch fire."
"You give yourself too much credit," I mock him. "It's just that my brothers and sister and your sister are inside, along with a maid who'd consider it scandalous that we're even sitting out here, alone."
"As if you jump at me, given another place or situation," he mocks back.
I clear my throat, trying to dissipate the awkwardness I feel within myself. "I've always wanted to live in a house by a waterbody, you know?" I find myself telling Arjun. "Well, preferably by the beach, but I guess a lake works, too."
"So you like beaches?" he asks, holding my hand.
I shrug, lightly. "I've always felt a connection to them. I like the beach."
Arjun hums, tracing patterns on my palm. "I always made it a point to visit at least one new beach every year," I tell him. "I haven't been on one this year, though. I think this year's a miss."
"Last year, I went to Greece. It's a great place. And their food..."
~.~.~.~.~
I woke up to the sound of the door opening and closing in the middle of the night. At first, I ignored the sound and turned on the sofa to go back to sleep and then realised what happened.
I sat up on the sofa that I had been detained to, for the night.
I look over the sofa, tracking the sound of the fridge opening with a creak. The light from the fridge flashes on Kaushik, and I calm down.
Heaving a breath of relief, I get off the sofa and walk the cold floor over to Kaushik. "You've had too much to drink today, already," I whisper to him, throatily, trying to creep him out.
It works, Kaushik jumps back from the fridge. His hand flies up to close his mouth, while his eyes open wide.
I close my mouth, trying to muffle my laughter, though spurts of laughter leave me.
"Why are you up?" Kaushik asks, pulling the last can of beer out of the fridge, in addition to the one he already has.
I grab one out of his hands. The urge to gulp it down is astonishing, especially for the middle of the night, after I was woken up by sounds.
"You weren't exactly being quiet, you know?" I ask rhetorically, feeling the coldness of the can, and resisting the urge to open it and gulp it down.
"You wake up at the slightest of sounds," Kaushik blames me for ruining my sleep.
I pass him a tight-lipped sarcastic smile, popping the tab of the beer open. I hope the look of accusation on my face is enough to put him off me drinking, but it turns out that it isn't, because his eyebrows are raised to touch his hairline.
"Don't tell," I warn him, leading him out to the lawn where Arjun and I were sitting earlier.
"Remind me again, why you don't drink when there are people around you?" Kaushik asks, trying to reach for my can.
I turn away from him, plastering my lips to the opening so that he doesn't attempt it again. "They're not as accepting as you are, Bava," I attempt flattery.
Kaushik lets out a small laugh, rolling his eyes. "It never works with you."
I nod to myself, accepting it. "I can't hold alcohol," I confess, sipping into more of the contents of my can. Yet, I've wanted to drink.
Since there's no mat, we sit on the threshold of the door, leaving the door open, and hoping against hope that the mosquitoes won't fly in.
"You don't remember after drinking either, do you?" he asks, sipping his own beer.
I shrug in response. "It gets fuzzy. Not to the point that it's a whole blank, but to the point that based on the parts I remember, I decide I don't want to remember anymore."
"You also get awfully chatty after a few sips," Kaushik remarks rudely, sighing in pleasure as he takes sip after sip.
"You've had too many drinks this evening," I observe.
He hums, agreeing. "I've been..." he squints into the sky, trying to complete his sentence. "I've been experimenting," he says. "I've been experimenting with my drinking capacity."
"Basically, damaging your liver?" I offer.
He chuckles. "You don't rub the truth in broken-hearted people's faces, Janaki Arvi."
Okay... "Um, how drunk are you?" I ask Kaushik.
"I'm not drunk," he denies, "I will be able to remember this conversation tomorrow."
I would, too. I'm having a beer. One. But I don't bother correcting Kaushik or telling him about those bits.
"Why's it not doing anything?" he asks, frustratedly after a few minutes of silence, startling me.
I look at him in surprise. Kaushik's supposed to be the mysterious guy stereotype, not the frustrated guy.
"I've been drinking for a whole evening, hoping to forget something! Anything! Everything! All I can remember is her!" he yells, throwing his can out into the lawn.
Her.
"Kaushik Bava," I rub his arm sympathetically. "Drinking doesn't help everyone forget." Some of us are blessed— or not so blessed, with the attribute. "Talking helps, though," I offer.
He sighs, leaning back against the threshold, helplessly. "I love her, Arvi," he says and sniffles. He chuckles sadly. "I love her so much, it hurts."
He shuffles in his place, turning to look at me completely. Looking at Kaushik; heartbroken, helpless, lost, it hurts me.
"You've seen Deepthi, haven't you?"
I nod.
He smiles reminiscently. "I first saw her when I was in Engineering college, the second year.
"I saw her with Arjun and his friends, and a few other girls, jumping over the walls of the college grounds to watch a movie— her favourite, Dhanush's movie. I had gotten out of college early because my classes had been cancelled. I was attending a call, right beside my car when she jumped over the wall."
He chuckles. "I still remember when I first saw her. She was wearing white jeans that she had ruined after jumping onto her knees. I later taught her how to jump over the walls and not land on her knees."
Kaushik jumped over walls in college? Oh-kay...
"She was wearing white jeans and a mint-green top, a girl of eighteen. I'd only been nineteen when I first saw her. I don't know how it happened, or why I would do something like that, but I later asked Arjun to introduce me to her."
Arjun introduced Kaushik and Deepthi?
"I knew Arjun from Hyderabad, and Arjun knew Deepthi. I'd liked her after first meeting her, but she didn't like me back until much later. A lot of push and pull later, we got into a relationship. And then, her parents got wind of our relationship. They didn't approve."
"Why not?" I ask Kaushik, perplexed. Why would someone not approve of Kaushik?
He chuckles darkly. "They had someone else in mind, someone they wanted their daughter to be married to; some fucker. She said she'd deal with it, that she wouldn't let go, and then a rough couple of months. Finally, she wrote me a letter, asking me not to look for her until she comes back. She wrote that she loves me and that she will sort it all out and come back for me."
He rubs his face tiredly, sniffling. "But we're supposed to deal with all of it together, aren't we, Arvi? They're not just her problems, they're our problems, obstacles to us. After eight months of absolutely no contact, she's come back."
"Has she tried to meet you?" I ask him.
"I've avoided meeting her," he says. "She needs to understand what she's done wrong."
Oh, my God. Now I know why Arjun and Kaushik are friends, birds of a feather flock together. Both of them are dumbarses.
"Kaushik, you idiot," I whisper-yell at him. "You don't hurt yourself, hoping they'll realise. You don't avoid her like that. What an idiot you are, Kaushik Bava! If you want her to know, talk to her, argue, yell, do whatever, don't hurt yourself waiting for her to realise something she might not even be aware of!"
"How can she not be aware? She knows what she's done, hasn't she?" he argues back.
"How is she supposed to know how you feel if you don't talk to her about it?"
He calms down for a few moments, not saying anything. I sip the last of my beer and put the can aside. It's not strong enough to make me high, but it's got enough alcohol to make me loosen up.
"What did I tell you about rubbing the truth in broken-hearted people's faces?" he asks, after a prolonged silence.
I laugh. "Sometimes, you need to hear it. Talk to her, Kaushik Bava. Not over the phone; talk to her, face-to-face," I motion to the both of us, indicating that it must be something like this. Maybe I'd learnt things about communication from a certain dumbarse like this one, but they're not bad. Come to think of it, face-to-face communication is always better than a call.
Kaushik nods, standing up. "Thank you, Arvi."
I wink at him and voluntarily hug him. "Happy Rakhi, Kaushik Bava."
He chuckles, hugging me back. "Happy Rakhi, Arvi."
He pulls away. "Don't tell Rohan that we wished each other first," Kaushik says. "He wanted to be the first to do it."
"Okay," I agree, smiling.
~.~.~.~.~
"Now you take Anna's blessings," Ammamma says.
Karthik grins widely, adding to my reluctance. "Go on, go on," she urges, evidently very excited.
"How excited are you? Arvi's going to touch your feet," Pranav interviews Karthik.
I bite the inside of my lower lip. Contemplating it. "Arvi Akka, you first," Avni nudges.
"Take a picture!" Rohan yells, "it's a moment that must be captured."
"Stop with that face," I demand of Karthik.
"I'm not allowed to smile now?" he asks, apparently taken aback.
"Since when is smiling a crime?" my mother asks, supporting her favourite.
"Look at his face! He's not smiling! He's very excited about it! I'm not touching his feet if he looks like that!"
"He's your elder brother, you have to take his blessings," Ammamma says.
"You're all ganging up on me! Ask him not to look like that. Otherwise, I'm not touching his feet!" I cross my arms over my chest.
"Karthik," Nanna says, and that's enough for him to drop the shit-eating grin on his face.
Now, it's my turn to grin, wide. "Look at your face now!" Karthik says. "Stop doing that!"
"I'm not allowed to smile now?" I repeat his words, except adding some drama to it for the effect. I blink innocently.
Karthik narrows his eyes at me. "Fine. Whatever," he says, accepting defeat.
I dim my bright grin down to a smile and bend to touch his feet, to seek his blessings. "Picture!" someone yells.
"I'm going to burn your phones if you take pictures," I warn them.
I sit on the floor with my legs tucked under me and touch his feet. Karthik bestows his blessings upon me and sprinkles the akshathalu (rice grains mixed with turmeric) on my head.
I stand up, and Avni goes next.
Next, we hold the aarti plate, turn it around Kaushik, thrice, and smear a pinch of kumkuma (sindoor— red coloured pigment, made from powdered red lead) on his forehead.
I take a rakhi from the plate and tie it around his wrist. Kaushik is the easiest and fastest of all because he's the courteous brother. While the rest of them...
After being forced to seek a grinning Pranav's blessings, I demand that Prithvi take my blessings, more as a joke than anything.
"Okay," Prithvi agrees, and bends to touch my feet, but I quickly bend, holding his legs before they touch my legs.
"It was a joke," I tell him, well aware why he would do it without any protest.
"No, no. You are my elder sister, won't you give me your blessings?" he asks, acting so innocent, it almost makes me believe in his act.
"You will always have my blessings," I assure him. "Don't touch my feet."
"No, Arvi Akka, let me do it," he insists, pulling his hands away from my grip. I fold my legs under me, holding his hands again.
"No, Prithvi, please," at this point, I desperately beg him. "My feet are very ticklish. I know what you want to do. No."
"But Arvi Akka—"
"No."
"But—"
"No."
"Then why did you ask at all?" he asks, standing up, once he's proved his point. All because I asked him to touch my feet?
"I didn't think of how evil you are," I tell him, standing up, once I'm sure he won't attempt it.
He grins, wide. "Fine, I won't tickle you," he concedes.
"No, Prithvi. I was only joking. You don't have to touch my feet." I side-hug him.
"Why, Arvi?" Sunita Pinni asks. "Let him do it."
"It's okay, Pinni. Let him be."
Once we're all done, Pranathi Vadina ties a rakhi around Arjun's wrist and gets on her knees even before anyone asks her to.
"You're ten months younger, Pranathi," Arjun says, jumping back. "Get up."
"Younger is younger, Arjun," Jyothi Aunty says.
"No, Peddamma," he refuses.
"Pinni," Pranathi Vadina appeals her case to Gayatri Athayya.
"Let her do what she wants, Arjun," Gayatri Athayya says.
Talk about a completely opposite situation. "Learn from them," Sunita Pinni says, pointing to the brother-sister duo. "All of you create such a ruckus."
Well, it was Rakhi after seven whole years. For the rest of the day, I wore a smile that couldn't have been wiped off my face. This trip has been all things I hadn't expected it to be.
We celebrated our first Rakhi in seven years, as a whole, with everyone present. I had started to let my guards down around Arjun. Kaushik had finally talked about what was bothering him. I had started to feel like I was family, to the Kona-s. My grandfather finally realised what a douche his brother is. Aryan was talking to all of us, just a little more, but progress is progress.
A/N
Hello! What did you think of the chapter? Personally, I wasn't very satisfied with it. The rakhi scenes, especially. I've always had in mind to write one of those because Arvi's got so many brothers, and it's obviously special to them, but I think I could've done a better job with it. I'll come back to it when I edit the book after completion.
Not much of Arvi and Arjun in this chapter, but I hope to have more and more of them in the coming chapters. How was Kaushik's story? Not too bad, I hope?
Let me know what you thought about this chapter!
Next update is on Monday next week! But I must warn you, I'm starting to become increasingly busy with school and studying because of the upcoming board exams. I'm sure to find the time and write, because like I've said before, writing helps me breathe. But the updates may be irregular by one or two days.
I hope you're all doing well and good! Feel free to share your own Rakhi stories, or exam stress, or anything that has happened this week! I'd love to know what's happening in your lives!
With love,
A.