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.