Chapter 5

Khushi sat under the shade of the Peepal tree, resting on her folded knees after a tiring day in the sun. She had brought her students to the local government school for an art project, that involved painting murals on the walls of the school building. These murals were inspired by drawings made by the school children in an art activity that she had conducted along with her students.

Looking for ideas to involve her students in some extra-curricular activity, she had thought of the art project that had been slowly gaining prevalence in many parts of the country in the past few years. Having volunteered in such projects for an ex-colleague in Bangalore had helped her understand the nuances of executing such a project. As a child, she had loved to draw, and over the years she had ventured into painting with water colors, but painting murals was something she had to learn as it was quite different from painting on canvas.

The project whose main objective was about connecting nature with art, depicted murals of landscapes, and included aspects of environmental awareness like cleanliness and water conservation. When she had proposed the project to Arnav he had liked it, and together, they had convinced the principal of Ankita's government school.

She felt a little restless and how much ever she tried, she couldn't shake off thoughts about Arnav. She had been doing fine until he came along one day barging into her life, asking for coffee or yelling at her for taking the short cut after dark. He had clearly instructed her that she was not to leave late from college even to take the longer route. He had also designated Somesh as her personal alarm who ensured, that she left at the right time in case he couldn’t be back from the city to pick her up. She remembered him each time the UPS kicked in after a power cut. She also remembered him when she saw his bike which now appeared in her field of vision. She closed her eyes wondering if her imagination could conjure things.

"Sleeping on the job, Ms. Khushi?" Arnav's husky voice brought her out of her reverie.

Khushi looked up, squinting her eyes due to the sunlight. She wasn’t imagining it, he really was here. Today he was wearing a light blue cotton shirt folded at the elbow and beige colored pants.

"Hello?" he said, "I am talking to you."

Khushi sat up before he realized what she was day dreaming about. "What are you doing here?" she asked him.

"I brought some supplies for your little project here," Arnav said pointing her attention to a plastic bag in his hand. "Somesh called me told me you had asked for these – I bought them in the city. Why didn’t you call me?"

"Thank you – I didn’t want to disturb you at work," she smiled at him, "These are paints I was waiting for – we had run out of these colors."

As he sat down next to her Khushi thought he looked tired. She uncapped her water bottle and offered it to him. "How was your day at the construction site?" she asked him.

"It was the usual," he told her as he drank water from the bottle finishing it in a few gulps, "we didn’t receive the materials we were expecting from Bangalore. Work has stalled a bit. I may have to travel to Bangalore to talk to the vendors."

"Anyway, enough about my boring work." He looked at the students busy working on the artwork. "You students seem to be enjoying their day out of college."

"Thank you for arranging lunch for us," she said. They had all received lunch packets from a nearby restaurant. "And of course, for all the supplies as well."

"You don’t have to thank me – it's thanks to Ma's NGO," he quipped, "I should be thanking you for this art project initiative. My aunt started this NGO for helping destitute women and now it can venture into improvement of government schools."

"I think it will nice if the school could have a library," Khushi said, "Ankita was telling me that they don't have one."

"Done!" Arnav replied in an instant, "I will look in to what needs to be done to set up one."

"That's wonderful!" Khushi exclaimed, "I will be glad to help."

Her enthusiasm made him smile. "Why don’t you show me your artwork?"

They stood in front of the mural she was working on. "Did you do draw this?" he asked her, "it's amazing how you do this on a wall while maintaining the symmetry."

It was a huge sprawling tree with long branches, leaves and flowers. The tree and branches were painted brown, the leaves and flowers were still unpainted.

"It's not very difficult actually." Khushi said, "Once you have learned the technique." She added quickly.

"You carry on --" Arnav said, "I will go to the principal and talk to her about the library."

Arnav went around to the other walls and browsed through all the drawings. There was a landscape on another long wall, drawings of flowers, birds on some smaller walls. Looking at the work that was complete, it was clear that the students had put in a lot of hard work. Then he saw the boy who had come in to Khushi's office the other day, walking toward Khushi. The boy looked up at her as she stood on a ladder to paint the flowers with red color. He then picked up the paint brush, dragged another ladder next to her, climbed up and began to paint.

Half an hour later, Arnav walked up to where Khushi was still painting the flowers along with the boy. He seemed to be talking more than painting.

"Hey?" Arnav called out to the boy, "your friends over there are waiting for the ladder. Why don't you go and help them?"

"My name is Srijit," the boy replied curtly, "I am helping ma'am."

Arnav's eyebrows raised at the boy's defiance. "Well Mr. Srijit, if you don't take this ladder back to your friends you will be holding up the work. I will help your "ma'am" finish here."

Before the boy could come back with a retort Khushi intervened, "He is right Srijit," she said looking over at the group of girls, "looks like they have only a stool to stand on. Take the ladder and help the girls. We have very little time before the sun goes down."

As the boy left them, his face rueful, Arnav shook his head. "That boy needs a good spanking."

"You shouldn’t have spoken to him like that," Khushi admonished him, "he is a very sensitive boy. He has some --issues."

"That's just bull@#$%" he told her, "I know why he was acting like that. Brat!"

"Just forget it!" Khushi said and was about to descend from the ladder.

"What do you need?" he asked her.

"I need more red paint and some water to dilute it."

"Stay right there," he told her.

He picked up a new box of red paint, climbed a few steps of the ladder and handed it to her.

"Why don't you come back another day?" he asked her. "You look very tired."

"I can't drag all these kids again," she said, "I will finish it today. Look -- why don’t you go home and rest? You must be tired after a long day at the site."

"Just finish this damn thing so we can go home together." He told her firmly.

As though she could work with him standing below there looking at her.

"Who was the -- lady you were talking to in the city last week?" She asked him in a rush. She had wanted to know who the beautiful woman was from the moment she had seen her a week ago. Although it was not surprising to see good looking women in the South Canara belt, this woman was clearly above the rest. Even from the distance she could tell that the woman looked sophisticated in her mellow orange and pink silk kurta –obviously, a designer apparel.

When she didn’t hear from him, she wondered if he had heard her.

Suddenly he was right behind her having climbed the ladder further up. When she looked at him he said, "It's a little difficult to talk, looking up – " he paused, "you asked me who I was talking to –her name is Rashmi Shanbogue."

"I see." She hoped he would be more forthcoming but she realized that it was not to be.

"Was it work related?" she tried to sound casual as she tried to move her hair out of the way using her arm.

Arnav held her arm and lowered it down. "Well -- she is an old friend," He took off her clip and fastened it on his shirt. She looked down to see his chest hair peeking out from his shirt. There was no way she was going to be able to concentrate on her work now. He gathered her hair in his hands. "Rashmi is trying to set up a bakery business," his fingers brushed the temples, sliding behind her ear, to the nape of her neck sending small electric currents down to the pit of her stomach. "She has a place in mind but she is facing some litigation issues," he secured the hair with her clip. "She wanted my help."

She had a lot more questions in her mind, but she would have to hold them off for later, as she was finding it difficult to breathe. She closed her eyes for a few seconds.

"Are you afraid of heights Khushi?" he asked he softly, " you look like you will fall any moment."

She mixed the paint vigorously, "Not at all," she denied, "I am absolutely fine." Her hands shook a little as she tried to draw the outline of the flower. The paint brush fell from her hand on to the ground below.

"If looks could kill I'd be dead by now," Arnav murmured looking at the students in the distance, "your boy Srijit is shooting daggers with his eyes. What's wrong with that boy?"

Khushi dug out another paint brush from her pocket, thankful of her presence of mind for having extra bushes handy. "Leave the poor boy alone," she bit out, "he has had a heartbreak," she shook her head, "I shouldn't have told you that." She stared back at him.

Arnav looked at her, amusement written clearly on his face. "Did he tell you that?"

"Yeah -- what's so funny?" she said, "it happens at this age."

"Well it doesn't look like the boy just had a heartbreak," Arnav mocked, "he seemed pretty fine to me – I saw him laughing with the girls over there and then trying to make you laugh here."

Khushi's hand stilled. "Looks like you know a lot about heartbreaks," she said turning back to look at him, "how old were you when you had your first one?" She held her breath waiting for an answer.

As Arnav stared back at her a muscle ticked in his jaw. He leaned in closer and Khushi's heart began to hammer crazily in her chest. As she leaned back and looked at him wide-eyed, he raised his hand and wiped her cheek with water. The water felt cold on her fevered face.

"You have more paint on your face," he smirked, "I think you are done for today – let's go." He climbed down the ladder.

As her heart calmed down Khushi was thankful for the dwindling light.

Later that night, Khushi clad in a sleeveless top and capri pajamas, sat on the small two-seater outdoor sofa with her legs up on the coffee table. The dimly lit terrace with the beautiful garden had become her panacea. She thought about how Arnav had avoided her question earlier. In the short time, she knew him she had realized that Arnav was a complicated man. She wondered if Payal found it difficult to understand him.

Growing up, she had always found her older sister to be a quiet girl who escaped into the world of books most of time, preferred not to argue with her parents and almost always did what was right. Even her parents had felt that Payal was delicate and wouldn’t be able to handle herself in a crisis – which was quiet contrary to what they thought of her. It was probably because she has been feisty even as a child, giving everyone the impression that she could take care of herself.

There was one thing that Ramya had told her about Payal that matched with what Deepana had also told her, although her words had subtle undertones rather than the more direct way Ramya had said it.

"Payal was so beautiful but I feel she was also quite naïve – she trusted people at face value. I used to get the feeling that she lived in a dream world sometimes – like she was trying to escape reality. She should have been careful who she was associating with.

"For example, when she first came she used to hang out with that -- Vibha who was Payal's family friend's daughter. You probably know her too. She hung out with a group that was into drinking, drugs and sex. Vibha did atrocious things right under her parents' noses. I knew that because I was from this city. I had warned Payal to keep away from that girl the first time I saw her going out with that gang."

Thinking back about what Ramya had said, Khushi realized how difficult it was for students when they stayed away from families. The sense of independence though exhilarating at first could soon turn into an unpleasant experience if one was not careful about it. It was so easy to get carried away with newfound freedom.

Was that why Payal had her heartbroken by Arnav?

She stood up and walked to the parapet well. Where was this man? Arnav had dropped her at home and left after dinner. He was probably at his usual hangout spot at the bar. Her phone rang. It was her mother. "Hello ma. How are you?"

She felt guilty that she hadn’t told her mother that she had moved to Mangalore. If she knew she wouldn’t allow her to stay. Anyway, her mom didn’t ask her too many questions like other mothers did. But today she decided to ask her something.

"Ma, did Payal tell you anything about a friend called Arnav?"

"Payal didn’t tell me anything – maybe she told your dad," her mother replied, "she was closer to him than me."

The question triggered bad memories and the topic had shifted to a rant about her wasted life. Khushi listened silently as she always did, supporting her mother.

She saw Arnav walking toward the house, hands in his pockets.

"Ma, I have to go now. I will call you again." She cut the phone and hurried downstairs.

As she opened the door and let him in, he said, "I was just about to call you – I am sorry for disturbing you this late but I forgot the keys again," he took the stairs silently and began to walk up to his room.

"Did you walk all the way from the bar?" she asked him, stopping him in the first floor living room, "are you crazy?"

"Don't be silly," he drawled, "a friend gave me a ride until the main road. I walked from there.

"Why do you have to drink so much?" she asked him.

"It is not as bad as you are imagining --" he told her, "I am used to this –"

"That's the problem!" she exclaimed, "you are not supposed to be used to it."

Arnav came up to her and grabbed her wrist and dragged her out to the terrace.

"Keep your voice down – ma will hear it." He said raking a hand through his hair. "Why are you being so dramatic?"

"I am not being dramatic!" she retorted angrily, "it is not healthy to drink like this – is this because of a -- woman?"

"What woman?" His face twisted in confusion.

"Earlier today I asked you if you had a heartbreak – but you didn’t answer. I have to assume that it is because of a woman."

There was flash of pain reflected in his eyes but he said, "I have never had a heartbreak!" he gritted through his teeth, "Are you happy now?"

It was probably not a good idea to provoke him but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. "That must only mean you broke her heart." She waited with bated breath.

"Yes –" he answered with stunning clarity, "I have broken countless hearts," he walked to the sofa and sat on it, "after all I am my father's son. He broke my mother's heart."

Khushi was taken aback. This wasn’t really the answer she was expecting. Was he alluding to the fact that his father had re-married after his mother had died? For a young child who had loved his mother deeply, it might have seemed like a betrayal.

"I know it is difficult -- but you have to try and understand your father." She knew how hard it was for children when parents behaved in a manner that was incomprehensible to their little minds. She went up to him, sat beside him. "I don’t think it was easy for him either."

"I don't think you understand –"

"I do – even I thought that my father had broken my mother's heart," she whispered, "but after they divorced he didn’t even survive beyond a year."

Arnav turned toward her, his face rife with concern. "I am sorry Khushi!"

"He died a year ago –alone," she said her eyes brimming with tears, "I wish I had visited him but I was too busy being angry with him." She had never told anyone about this. "I didn’t want to make my mom angry." Tears streamed down her cheeks.

"Sshhh, don’t cry," Arnav pulled her to himself and took her in his arms. "it's alright," he rocked her, "it's not your fault."

"Now my mother is bitter all the time still blaming him for all her life's troubles." She sobbed, "Dad was not perfect but he did the best for us financially and never deliberately caused us any harm –

"But if I try to explain that, she thinks I don’t love her anymore. Then I feel guilty because she sacrificed so much –"

"Khushi listen to me," he held her face in his hands and looked deep into her eyes, "Your parents' life wasn’t what they expected it to be. It's sad." He wiped her tears with his fingers. "But It is not your burden to carry. It is a parent's job to protect a child and not the other way around.

"Thoughts like these can bog you down and stop you from doing things that you really want to do in life. Just remember that."

His words, and the warmth of his embrace felt like a soothing balm on her soul, providing her with a long-awaited comfort. When Khushi opened her eyes a little later, she noticed her face nestled into Arnav's neck, her hand clutching at the opening of his shirt and her legs folded at the knees, on his thigh. Arnav had slept as he was seated on the sofa last night, with his legs up on the coffee table, his arm around her shoulder as his head rested on her head. If this was a dream she didn’t want to wake up from it.

As sunlight hit her eyes, Khushi woke up in her own bed. Arnav must have brought here, she thought stretching out the kinks in her body. She suddenly remembered the dream she had just had. In the dream, she was bawling, throwing a tantrum demanding the sketch pet set that Payal had received as a birthday gift. Then she had it snatched from her hands and run. Why was she having this dream after all these years?

Chapter 4

 ARNAV walked down the stairs and saw Khushi in the kitchen, stirring a pot over the stove. She had been practically invisible in the past week, somehow managing to keep out of his way.

Had he done something to offend her during the UPS repair? Being intoxicated always lowered his guard and that was not a good thing. As far as he could remember he had been very careful – although, it had taken him super human effort to resist himself when she had moved her hands from his back and almost slipped them into his waistband. No Arnav don’t go there, he warned himself. They had been put into an awkward situation and there was no point in reading more into it. But there was no harm done in asking for cup of coffee, was there?

"Can I get a cup of coffee?" he asked her, leaning on the kitchen counter.

She started a little as she heard his voice, and then she turned around. "Sure." She said as she went about preparing it for him. She placed the cup on the counter.

Her nonchalance was beginning to irk him.

"How do you know I like to drink in a steel cup?"

"Aunty told me." She stared back at him, her khol-lined eyes simmering with annoyance.

He had felt the oddest sensation when she had wiped the sweat off his fore head, looking at him with those beautiful almond shaped eyes. But he knew better. He wasn’t one of her college boys drooling at their teacher.

She wore a long two layered kurta -- a printed blue on plain red, with ties at the sides of the waist on top of white skirt with a red border. One of the strings on the kurta had come undone and in a bid to resist the compulsion to tie it up for her, he stepped out of the kitchen.

As Khushi walked into the dining with some plates, she saw Ratna's children, Kushal and Ankita, walk into the house, Ratna in tow. The boy came running toward Arnav and wrapped his arms around his waist.

"Arnav uncle, thank you for the cricket kit!" The eight year old Kushal who had just lost his two front tooth, smiled proudly.

"Hey Kush!" Arnav affectionately ruffled the child's hair. "have you been selected for the school team yet?"

"Of course!" he shouted loud enough for the entire house to hear.

"Thank you for the book Arnav uncle." Ankita said in a low voice.

Ratna walked up to him. "You spoil them with all these expensive gifts Anna," she said her face beaming with happiness.

"I am not spoiling them," Arnav said, "I am encouraging their talent. Kushal is crazy about cricket – he could become a cricketer one day." He looked at the girl, "Ankita, the book I gave you was written by a girl who is just a little older than you are. She is the daughter of an acquaintance of mine from Bangalore. I believe she had blended Indian mythology into the modern times and written an action adventure that young people are reading these days. I am sure you will find it interesting."

The girl looked at Khushi. "Akka, you will help me if I don’t understand something, won't you?"

"Sure." Khushi smiled back.

Arnav turned toward Khushi, "Can we get some extra breakfast?" he asked her, "we will all eat together in Ma's room today." Then he smiled, "Please?"

Khushi looked at Arnav's face for a moment, "Of course."

A little later, Khushi and Ratna walked into Mrs. Rai's room armed with idlis, sambar and chutney. Soon everyone had a plate in their hand.

"Khushi, you are outdoing yourself each day," Mrs. Rai, complimented her, and then looked at Arnav, "she is learning Mangalorean cuisine by looking at videos on the internet."

Arnav raised his eyebrow. "Is that right?" he quipped, "can you make chicken gassi one of these days?"

"Arnav!" Mrs. Rai exclaimed, "Khushi is vegetarian."

"Don’t worry Khushi akka," Ratna said quickly, "I will teach you."

Mrs. Rai touched her palm to her head. "Ratna!"

Khushi couldn’t control her laughter. "That's alright aunty. Don’t worry about it."

Her eyes crinkled at the corners when she laughed. As she tucked her hair behind her ear in an unconscious gesture Arnav noticed that she wore long-drop silver jhumkas embellished with red beads that matched the attire she was wearing this morning. She looked breathtakingly beautiful.

Then their eyes met for a moment as she looked up at him. "I am getting late for college." She quickly excused herself.

"If you wait for me, I will give you a ride," Arnav said, "I was going to come and meet you there anyway."

"I don’t think I can wait," she told him abruptly, "I have to leave right away." She said and rushed out of the room.

He wanted to tell her that it would probably take the same time if she planned to walk but it was obvious she was avoiding him.

Later that morning, as Khushi sat in her room entering some data in a desktop computer, Arnav walked in looking stylishly casual in a red and black checkered shirt.

She smiled politely. "Here are the accounts files that you had asked for", she said, "The accountant, Mr. Rao, left them for you here. Wouldn’t it be better if he was here to explain things to you?"

Arnav took off his aviators, "I have an MBA in finance," he said, "I don’t need him to explain anything – unless I find inconsistencies." He sat in the chair opposite her.

As Arnav began to look through the files, Khushi realized that he intended to work sitting right in front of her. Two of the buttons on the shirt were undone, exposing his chest hair. It was completely unprofessional. She wanted to go up to him and button his shirt for him. Oh God! She needed a distraction.

"You studied MBA?" Khushi asked him casually, "which IIM?"

"It was an American university." He said absently as he continued to browse the file.

Khushi was curious. "Harvard?"

Arnav looked up from his files, "I couldn't get a full scholarship for Harvard," he said, "I studied at Ann Arbor University Michigan." He paused.

Khushi couldn’t believe that the son of Arunoday Singh Raizada of AR Industries would only depend on a scholarship. Was he one of those rebellious children who refused help from parents?

"Did you get a full scholarship for this one?"

"No," he said,  "I worked in Bangalore for two years after my graduation, and after that I went to Detroit through my company – they sponsored my education while I worked part time for them."

Before she could ask him any more questions, a group of girls walked in to meet her to clarify doubts regarding lessons. It was clear from their behavior that they were trying to catch a glimpse of Arnav and since this was the third batch of girls that had come in since morning, Khushi was at the end of her patience.

"Are you teaching some subject here?" he asked her after they left.

"I am just substituting for the English teacher who is on maternity leave."

"I didn’t know they taught English here."

"Well it's an one year certification course in communicative English," she explained, "most third year students take this."

"So you are a counsellor and a English teacher." He continued to look at his files, pulling on his beard absently.

She wished he wouldn’t do that because it made her wonder how it would be to touch it. She rubbished the thought immediately. "That's the advantage of having done my B.A in Psychology, English lit and Journalism." She smiled proudly. "I can work in any of the three fields."

"Wow you have covered two in this current job – what was your previous job?"

Khushi smiled brightly. "In my previous job, I worked for a start-up company as Instructional Designer. It involved creating e-learning course material."

"I see."

"Can I make a suggestion?" she asked him suddenly.

"Sure."

"I think the students need some extra-curricular activities apart from their regular courses. Right now all they do is attend classes and go back. If there was some sort of sport or cultural event they could participate in it will really help them build more confidence. And I also thought –" she stopped.

"Go ahead. " He prompted her.

"The college could organize a trip for the students," she said tentatively, "it could be somewhere close."

"Alright, come up with a plan about all that you suggested. I will look into what can be arranged."

Just then a young, good looking boy with light eyes walked in. "Ma'am I have to talk to you!' he said anxiously.

"Srijit, you know counselling is after college hours." Khushi said, "you can't skip classes."

"Please ma'am!" The boy looked at her with pleading eyes.

Arnav stood up from his chair. "You take care of this boy," he told her, "I have to go to the city now."

"I could get into trouble for this." Khushi lamented.

"Don’t worry I will talk to Mrs. Shenoy." With a reassuring smile, Arnav walked out of the room.

That evening as Khushi began to walk home, her thoughts went back to the morning. The children's happy faces had brought a lump to her throat. When Ratna had told her Arnav was paying for the children's education, she hadn’t thought much about it. She knew that some well-to-do people in her acquaintance who did the same. But Arnav's interaction with the children went beyond the limits of philanthropy, as he had given them meaningful gifts that would bring them happiness and fill their life with wonderful childhood memories. These little gestures made a world of difference in a child's life.

Suddenly she noticed that darkness had set in, making it difficult for her to see clearly. When she had left the college she had forgotten that in winter, the sun set was earlier than in other seasons. She took her mobile phone and switched on the torch. After five minutes, she heard rustling somewhere behind and her heart began to beat fast. She was just half way from home. Was someone following her? What if it was that stalker the girls at college were talking about? They had even said that he had flashed some of the hostel girls. Oh God! What was she going to do if he showed up here? She began to run. Then she noticed someone coming down the path ahead of her. She froze.

"Khushi?" Arnav came up to her, shining a torch at her face.

Khushi looked up her unable to believe her own eyes, and then without warning she threw her arms around him. "Thank God –!"

He wrapped his arms around her. "What happened?" he demanded, "why are you shivering?"

"Nothing." She felt warm and cozy ensconced within his strong arms.

"Hold on," he said, "did someone follow you?" he looked behind her in the dark.

It was all her imagination triggered by the conversation with the girls at college. "No -- no one came. I was just freaked out because of the darkness." She mumbled into his chest.

Khushi wished she could just stay like this forever. That feeling brought her out of her senses. "I am fine now." She stepped away from him.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her by his side as he led the way. They walked in silence for the rest of the way until they had reached the house. Then he turned around.

"Why are you late?" he asked her out of the blue.

"After my English class, I had a session with a student." Khushi explained.

"Why the hell did you use the short cut?" he demanded angrily.

"I didn’t realize when I started –"

He didn’t let her finish. "Somesh told me about a stalker -- a flasher – when you hadn’t returned by sunset ---"

"But –I am alright --"

"You refused to accept a ride from me in the morning and when I texted you in the evening -- you once again refused. Why do you have to make me worry like this?"

"Who told you to worry? " she hit back in anger, "I live alone in Bangalore and I am used to coming back home late. I can take care of myself."

He took one step closer. "But you are not in Bangalore – and here you are my responsibility dammit! Do you understand that?

"What are you going to do?" she stared back at him defiantly, "are you going to chauffer me around day and night?"

They stood so close that they could her each other's ragged breaths. "Try me!" Then, he took a step back. He held the door open for her and once she had entered it, he secured the locks and went up the stairs taking two at a time.

Khushi walked into the kitchen to pour herself a glass of water, feeling cold and bereft.

A week later, Khushi sat across from Ramya at Creambowl ice cream parlour in Udupi city. Ramya was tall, had thick straight hair, deep set eyes and those bee-stung lips that women went under the knife for. But all those features together made her formidable rather than attractive.

After meeting Deepana, Khushi had attempted to contact Ramya by sending her a friend request on Facebook. Though Ramya had not replied to any of her earlier messages, she had suddenly replied a few days ago letting her know that she was available to meet as she was planning to visit her parents in Udupi.

"I wouldn't have recognized you if I hadn’t seen your pic on FB," Ramya's comment didn’t come as a surprise anymore. "So you moved to Udupi from Bangalore?" she asked her eyebrows raised in surprise, "why would you do that? This is such a small town. Nothing happens here."

Khushi laughed, "I am just taking a break," she explained, "from the fast-paced life in Bangalore."

"I could never do that," Ramya said, "I live in California now and I simply can't imagine living anywhere else. I don't ever want to come back and live in a place like this. If not for my parents, I wouldn’t step foot into this town."

People were running away from something or the other, Khushi surmised.

"It couldn’t have been all bad right? You must have good memories of your college days," Khushi reminded her of the reason they were meeting.

"Is that what they told you?" Ramya asked, her tone laced with sarcasm, "that we were the famous eight?"

"Excuse me?"

"I will be honest with you Khushi," Ramya said, "I was never really a part of that group. I only hung out with them because I happened to be friends with Rahul and Rakesh – we studied together in pre-university. In fact -- neither was Rakesh – speak of the devil! Here he is."

To Khushi's surprise Rakesh came up to the table. He was tall, dark and a big guy with a receding hairline. He looked just like in the pictures that Rishabh had shared with her.

"Khushi, have you met Rakesh?" Ramya asked, "Rakesh came all the way from Bangalore to meet me." She said, "of course he will also visit his parents who live here." She added.

"No we haven't met," Khushi said looking at him with a smile, "hello Rakesh, I am –"

"Khushi," he completed the sentence for her, "I heard all about you from Rahul when I attended his wedding earlier this month."

"I missed it!" Both the women exclaimed in unison.

Just then the waiter served them with their ice creams. Ramya had ordered a square slice of butterscotch ice cream, with a topping of chocolate sauce, nuts and chocolate shavings. Khushi's order was a bowl of cut bananas with nuts, a scoop of vanilla ice cream, strawberry sauce and a cherry on top. Rakesh politely declined Ramya's offer to order an ice cream for him.

As Ramya and Khushi dug into their ice creams, Rakesh told them that it was only Rohit and him at the wedding as Deepana was resting at home due to fatigue, Rishabh was traveling and Vishakha was in the States.

"I don’t think Vish would attend the wedding anyway," Ramya said, "she was crazy about Rahul."

Khushi's eyes went wide with surprise. Rahul and Vishakha? "I didn’t know they dated during college." Khushi said.

"Of course they wouldn’t talk about it now when they are married to other people. Rahul couldn’t commit to her, and so Vishakha on a rebound, agreed to an arranged marriage with an NRI, got married within the year and flew to the States. After all the trouble she took to hook him –"

"Don't start Ramya." Rakesh warned her.

"Come on Rakesh!" Ramya exclaimed, "You know it was true. Who are you trying to protect?"

"They were our group!"

"Bull@#$%!" she swore. "What group? You know very well that they didn’t care about us."

"Will you stop raking up the past?" Rakesh said, "all that happened a very long ago." Just then the phone rang and he excused himself. "I am sorry but I have to take this call."

"Rakesh has always been like this but he is still better. It is Rahul who ditched us and blended completely with the "it" gang."

It seemed like Ramya hadn’t gotten over the bitterness of losing her friends to the new kids on the block. But she had to bring back Ramya to the important topic before she got sidetracked again.

"Can you tell me about Payal and Arnav Singh Raizada?"

" I will be honest and tell you I don't know too much because I really wasn’t part of the core group. Personally, Payal didn’t seem to be the kind of person Raizada would go for. But who knows?

"Anyway, there was a discussion about their relationship and subsequent breakup. After that, I could sense a lot of tension in the group. Payal was isolated from the group during our third year."

Khushi vaguely remembered Payal being a little down during that time. But she had always assumed that it was the stress of studies that had made her look so downcast.

"I didn’t know how to help her because we weren’t close. In fact the only person who stayed by her was Rakesh."

"I see." Khushi was taken aback by this piece of information.

"Rakesh can be a great friend – because he is extremely sensitive in nature -- like a teddy-bear."

Khushi wasn’t sure if the Rakesh would appreciate Ramya's candid description of him as teddy-bear, but she wanted Ramya to continue.

"Did you know if she had started seeing Mr Raizada again during the final year."

"I have no idea Khushi." She shrugged. "I was caught up in my own life."

"Can you tell me what happened on the night of the farewell party?" Khushi asked her, "Apparently, Payal had an argument with – Ah – Mr. Raizada?"

"That night I was hanging out with my with my juniors who had thrown the party for us, I didn’t see Raizada but at one point I saw Payal -- she seemed very distraught. Then the "group" took her aside and they all seemed to be having a heated discussion with her. As usual I was left out. Then I got bored and left the party."

"Wouldn’t it have been a police case?" Khushi prompted her.

"Of course it was! It was a complete mess --" Ramya said, "I was summoned to the resort. When I got to the resort there was a huge crowd -- reporters, TV channels, faculty and student standing in line for the questioning. Since it was more of a private party for our department there weren’t too many students for the investigation. I was sent to a conference room where the police had set up their interrogation unit. The others from the group were already present looking completely washed out, considering it was such a big shock.

"When we were left alone, Rishabh discussed the option of revealing what they knew to the police. But the rest of the gang wasn’t sure if that was a great idea.

"This is an experience no one should ever come across in their life. The local police here can be very intimidating because in their eyes everyone is suspect. It was horrifying.

 "My father was a very well-known person in the area. Thanks to the strings he pulled, I was separated from the group. My questioning happened very fast and once it was established that I had left the party early, I was allowed to leave.

"If you ask me, even if they had told the police something, they might not have had been able to go through with the follow up that was required."

"Why not?"

"Think about it Khushi -- our final exams was in the following month. After that they all left for Bangalore. Vishakha's wedding was fixed, Rohit, Rahaul and Deepana were trying to find jobs. Rakesh worked for a friend's start-up company and Rishabh had bagged himself a plush job at a big MNC. Moreover, Rishabh's dad was a politician. I don’t know if he would have supported his involvement in this case."

Khushi realized that this was probably why Deepana hadn’t wanted to bring up this topic.

Ramya continued. "I am sure the police did a thorough investigation before ruling it as accidental drowning. So in my opinion the allegations were baseless.

"Khushi -- do not believe everything people tell you or judge people based on that. It is wise to use your own discernment."

Just then Rakesh returned back to the table.

"I was just telling Khushi about the night of the farewell."

A flash of sadness passed through Rakesh's eyes which he quickly covered up. "I am sorry ladies, but I will have leave now," he said, "something urgent has come up at my parent's house. Ramya, I will try to meet you in Bangalore before you leave. It was nice meeting you Khushi."

As they watched him walk out Ramya said, "It is hard for Rakesh to talk about all this. He is big softie."

"Khushi I need to get going as well," Ramya said looking at the time, "My daughter will be driving my parents crazy by now. It was nice meeting you! " She walked out of place as breezily as she had walked in.

A little later Khushi walked on the street thinking that the conversation with Ramya had brought in a different perspective to the whole story. She needed some time to process all the information she'd just received.

Just then she saw Arnav talking to a woman from across the street on the other side of the traffic signal. The woman was stunningly beautiful. It wasn’t a big surprise to see him in the city because he came here regularly to oversee his construction project.

As her phone rang she picked it up.

"You are in the city right? Tell me where you are," Arnav's husky voice rang out, "I will pick you up."

Since the day she had asked him if he would chauffer her around, he had done exactly that, dropping her to college in the morning and picking her up on the way back. She had accepted it without a muster.

"I am right here." Khushi said as Ramya's words rang in head.

Do not believe everything people tell you or judge people based on that. It is wise to use your own discernment….

As Khushi sat behind Arnav on the motorcycle, the warm breeze blew her hair behind her. Soon, the smell of the sea hit her nostrils -- she could see the blue ocean on one side, the green coconut groves on the other. Even after three months, she still felt surreal that she lived in a place like this. But what really made this feel like a dream was that she was with a man like Arnav Singh Raizada. No, it wasn’t a dream – more like an alternate universe. Because the current universe didn’t allow her to have dreams like these.