Chapter 7

As Khushi walked back home in her usual route from college, a strange feeling enveloped her. It suddenly hit her that she missed riding on the bike with Arnav. This past week he had been coming back late in the nights, helping Rashmi meet lawyers in the litigation case. He was also leaving early for the work at the construction site, as the materials required had finally arrived. It was her fault for getting attached to those stupid bike rides, she thought to herself.

She stepped into the house and walked toward Mrs. Rai's room; after a knock, she entered it to see a man seated on a chair next to the bed. He stood up and walked toward her.

"Hi there!" he said affably, "you must be Khushi – we have been talking about you all this time."

Khushi looked at him curiously and turned toward Mrs. Rai.

"Oh, I am sorry – I should have introduced myself," he grinned, "My name is Manav – Arnav's junior in college, best friend and partner in crime."

When Khushi looked surprised, he said, "I mean in business." He grinned.

Manav was a lean, good looking man of average height. His glasses made him look intellectual and it was obvious from his clothes that he was he was fashion conscious. With his clean-shaven face and neatly combed hair, he looked completely different from his friend.

"Khushi, can you please show Manav to Arnav's room?" Mrs. Rai asked Khushi, "they will be sharing the room."

"Sure aunty."

"Go ahead and take some rest Manav," Mrs. Rai suggested, "Arnav should be here by dinner time."

As Khushi led Manav to the room Manav said, "Aunty has been telling me you are working in the college as counsellor. It must be interesting."

Khushi realized that his curiosity was natural and she sensed a comfortable vibe coming from him. "Well, this is the first time I am working as counsellor but I am really enjoying it. I would like to continue working in this field going forward.

"That's fantastic!" Manav exclaimed, "the field of psychology is quite fascination. If I wasn’t in the technology field, I might have tried a hand at it myself." Manav was unable to stifle a yawn. "Sorry."

"You must be so tired after your journey," Khushi said quickly, "there is hot water in case you would like to take a shower. I will get dinner ready as soon as possible so you can go to bed soon."

"Thanks Khushi --  a shower is exactly what I need," he said, "and don’t hurry up on my account. I can wait for dinner. I am not that hungry."

A little later, as Khushi stood in the kitchen making rotis, she heard Manav's voice. "Something smells really good."

"It is nothing much really," she said, "I didn’t know you were coming."

"Well, even Arnav doesn’t know," he smiled, "I wanted to surprise him. So where is this guy? Looks like the construction project is keeping him on his toes."

If he only knew that it was a woman – a good looking one at that -- who was keeping Arnav on his toes, Khushi thought to herself.

"So, do you also work with Mr. Raizada?" She asked him curiously.

"Mr. Raizada?" Manav looked a little perplexed. "Oh, you mean Arnav's dad." He laughed. "It is so like Arnav not to talk about his personal life. He doesn’t like to gossip or speculate like normal people do."

Manav's remarks were beginning to make Khushi even more curious than she already was.

"Arnav and I are into business together -- almost six years now," he explained, "Right after my graduation, I went to the US to do my Masters. A year after that Arnav came to do his MBA. After he completed it we started a company together -- we are into creating gaming software – AR, VR – that kind of stuff."

Khushi was flummoxed with this piece of information. "I thought he worked in his father's business."

"Well, Arnav works for his dad too," he munched on an apple he'd picked up from the fridge, "A year after we started our company, Arnav's dad wanted him to come back. He took the opportunity to open a branch in India. Three years later, a big company bought our product for a whopping sum and we made a huge profit. That has given us both flexibility to do what we want.

"We are also into serious trekking. Arnav is fitter than I am though."

That explained Arnav's muscular frame she thought as images of Arnav's bare torso flashed through her mind, creating a somersault in her stomach.

"Watch out!" Arnav's voice brought her out of her reverie. In an instant, he had caught her hand before she touched the hot frying pan. "What the f@#$ were you trying to do?" His eye brows twisted with annoyance.

Khushi looked at the empty pan and realized she had forgotten to put the rolled-out dough on it. "I thought – I didn’t realize –" She looked up at him, his eyes brows creased. She had missing him and here he was getting angry at her.

"Khushi are you okay?" Manav's voice broke into the moment.

Arnav's eyes changed from annoyance to shock before he turned his head to look at Manav. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Manav walked up to him and gave him a hug. "Between the time difference and your busy schedule, I have hardly been able to talk to you man. So, I decided to take a short vacation."

A few days later, Khushi sat on the rocks, that lined the entire stretch of the Maravanthe beach looking as the waves crashed on the shores. Some of the students had suggested this beach for the college trip as it was just about an hour's drive from Udupi. It was one of the most beautiful beaches of its kind that she had ever seen as the river Souparnika ran parallel to the beach separated by a highway, for almost 10 Kms before joining the Arabian sea. As it was winter time, the sun wasn’t too harsh although the cool water made it a little uncomfortable to enjoy like one would normally do in the summer. That didn’t seem to deter her students as they frolicked and played with absolute abandon.

A little further away she saw Arnav playing with Rashmi's six-year old daughter Sanvi, as Rashmi stood on the shore watching the duo in an indulgent manner. When Arnav and Manav had joined a little later by car, they had brought Rashmi along. It had come as a surprise to learn that Rashmi was a widow with a small child.

"Would you like some churmuri, Khushi?" Manav sat down next to her, holding out a packet of the spicy mixture of puffed rice mixture.

"They look like a happy family." She said the dreaded words before she could stop herself. In the last couple of weeks, she had started to wonder if there was more to Arnav and Rashmi's relationship.

"To think that it might have been a real one." Manav said.

"What do you mean?" Khushi looked at him wide-eyed.

"Rashmi was Arnav's girlfriend in college."

"What?" Khushi was stupefied to hear this.

Looking at Khushi's face Manav leaned back in surprise. "You didn’t know?" he asked her, "should have guessed that Arnav would not have shared this. He doesn’t like talking about that."

Khushi's heart thudded in her chest. "What happened?" she asked trying to sound casual hoping her inner turmoil wasn’t obvious.

"Well, let me start from the beginning," he began, "Rashmi was my classmate and we were both Arnav's juniors by a year.

"Most of the students kept away from him as he had created this image of being an ill-tempered, dangerous person who got into fights. People also thought he was into illegal activities. I have no idea how he had developed that image. I too kept away in the beginning.

"Shortly thereafter, I got involved with a friend who introduced me to drugs. It was so bad that I failed some subjects in the first semester."

"Really?" Khushi was shocked.

"One day during my second semester, Arnav came to the house where I was partying, completely high on drugs. He dragged me out of there, gave me the lashing of my life, took me to his house and helped me get out of the habit. Luckily, I wasn’t so far gone and I was able to recover without medical aid."

"Oh, my God!" Khushi exclaimed.

"I owe my life to him." Manav looked away, raking a hand through his hair.

Manav continued. "Before the second semester exams he began to tutor me because I had arrears from my first semester. During this time, Rashmi who also needed tutoring asked me if she could join and I pestered Arnav to agree as I had a crush on her."

"Why am I not surprised?" Khushi said dryly.

"Yes, most of my classmates and senior boys were interested in her."

"But I guess she was interested in Arnav."

"Well not at first," Manav said, "when we entered second year, our tutoring continued and it seemed like Rashmi was completely taken in by his brilliance but she was keeping a distance because she came from a very orthodox family and her father was a very strict man. In fact, she had hidden the fact that she was getting tutored by Arnav. Her father was under the impression that she was being tutored by a lecturer from college."

"What about Arnav?" Khushi wanted to know, "was he --taken in by Rashmi?"

Manav sighed, "Of course he was. No man could have resisted her."

A bewildering disquiet filled her as he heard this.

"During that time another incident happened," he said solemnly, "one girl from the first year – from my junior batch, happened to get involved with the same gang. At a party, we noticed she was being offered a drink that was spiked, and before things could get out of hand, Arnav intervened and they backed off."

"Who was that girl?" Khushi asked her heart beating with trepidation.

"Her name was Payal." He paused, "apparently, she had been hanging out with them as she knew one of the girls who was her family friend."

Srijit came up to her. "Khushi ma'am I want to talk to you about something."

Khushi looked up at the boy impatiently. "Srijit, can't you see I am talking here?" she snapped, "please go and enjoy with your friends."

"Ma'am please this is important!" Srijit exclaimed.

"Srijit," she rubbed her temple, "I am not working today – I too need a break sometime."

She felt guilty when she watched the boy walk away with a fallen face.

"Please continue." She urged Manav, "You were talking about this girl – Payal."

"Right -- after that incident, she joined me in Arnav's fan club," he joked, "I mean she joined the tuition class as well. I think Arnav was trying to keep an eye on us more than anything else."

"So, did you all only hang out at tuition class?" Khushi asked cautiously.

"Not really, we went on a hiking trip once with a few other friends, we also used to watch movies. Arnav used to visit Payal, at her at her hostel sometimes to talk to her."

"It's possible that this girl may have developed feelings for Arnav." She stated quickly.

  "She knew better than to develop any feelings for him because she was aware of Arnav and Rashmi."

"But you said Rashmi wasn’t interested –"

"I never said that," Manav cut her off. "I said she was keeping a distance which changed the next year which was Arnav's final year of college."

"I see."

"You know there was one time I thought he might have had feelings for Payal," Manav said out of the blue, "The day Arnav came back from Bangalore after his holidays – he had gone to some party with Payal and her friends at some resort on Malpe beach."

Was he referring to the time she had seen Arnav for the first time? She wondered.

 "That night he came to see me, he was in a strange mood. He told me he wanted to break it off with Rashmi.

"He said he had been thinking about it and wasn’t ready for it. But a few days later, he told me he couldn’t do it because Rashmi had accepted his proposal and was ready to be his girl-friend." He laughed. "Poor guy was stuck."

"So, they dated during his final year." Khushi said.

"Yeah, we also had so much fun that year because Arnav's family bought a beach house near Suratkal. They came down from Delhi for the house warming. That was such a grand party –"

Khushi didn’t want to be side tracked with other details. "I wonder what Payal thought about Arnav and Rashmi dating."

"She didn’t know because Rashmi wanted this to be a secret," Manav said, "I was the only one who knew about this."

"Poor Payal."

"Khushi, it wasn’t like that," Manav looked at her curiously. "Let me tell you something from my experience. When students stay away from family, it is hard to deal with studies, peer pressure, relationships and many students tend to get lost. In such situations friends become your family for a brief period.

Manav's words mirrored the same things she had thought about some time back about students staying away from their family. From what she had heard about Payal from her friends earlier and now from Manav, it seemed like adjusting to campus life had not been very easy for Payal.

"What Arnav did for me is something I will always be indebted to him for. I am sure Payal thought the same. We both loved him for what he did for us."

Manav was trying to tell her that there was nothing more than friendship between Payal and Arnav.

"What happened -- after Arnav left?"

"After Arnav completed his final year, he went to Bangalore for his job. Without him I had to double up my efforts and was so completely focused on studies and my preparations for GRE that I lost touch with Payal. Rashmi had stopped coming to college. She only came to write her exams. One day, I found out that Rashmi's wedding was fixed to a rich man from her own community. After our final year, she married and left for Dubai with her husband."

"Oh God!" Khushi was horrified, "But why did Rashmi opt for an arranged marriage?"

"Arnav won't talk about it." Manav said, "maybe he will tell you one day."

Khushi looked at him in surprise. "Why would he do that?"

He gave her a knowing smile. "Because there is something between the two of you."

"You are mistaken!" Khushi said in a rush.

"I have known Arnav for more than ten years now," Manav said, "In this past one week -- I noticed the way he looks at you."

"Khushi ma'am – Srijit has walked into the ocean and refuses to come back. The tide is increasing –"

A dread formed in Khushi's heart and she stood up, and ran as fast she could.

"Khushi, wait!" Manav called out behind her.

She had failed as a counsellor Khushi thought as she ran into the crashing waves. How could she turn away a boy who had come to her for help? She was becoming so obsessed with her agenda that she was losing track of reality. What would she do if something happened to him?

She saw him farther away from her and just as she thought she would have to swim to get to him, she found herself being dragged back by a pair of familiar hands. Her struggles were of no use as Arnav picked her up, and deposited her on the shore.

"I will talk to you after I go and get that idiot out of there!" he barked at her, his eyes angry slits.

"I could have –"

He was already running into the waves and as Khushi watched in horror, a huge wave swallowed both Arnav and Srijit. Her heart stopped for a moment and when she thought she was going to faint she felt a pair of arms catch hold of her as Manav came up next to her.

Khushi covered her face and turned into Manav's shoulder for support.

"Khushi look," Manav touched her shoulder gently, "they are fine."

Later that evening, Khushi sat in the living room talking to Rashmi. Arnav and Manav had taken Srijit in the car to drop him to his parent's house in Udupi city. Rashmi and her daughter had traveled back in the tour bus along with Khushi and the rest of the students.

"Your daughter is so cute," Khushi complimented Rashmi, "Does she miss her father a lot?"

"She hardly remembers him as she was just three years old," she said, "but she misses my dad who adored her immensely. After my husband's death, my in-laws filed a case against me for property. My father couldn’t take it," she said, "the worry killed him last year.

"I don’t know what I would have done if Arnav hadn’t come here to help me with the litigation case. It is very hard to deal with lawyers all alone."

Rashmi had made sound as though Arnav had come here for her rather than for his aunt.

"I am sorry to hear that Rashmi." Khushi felt genuinely sorry for Rashmi's misfortune. "You have done a wonderful job of raising Sanvi."

"Thanks," Rashmi said, "It is hard to manage alone sometimes, I still wish Sanvi could have a father in her life." She smiled wistfully.

"Well, that is still possible," Khushi said reassuringly.

"It is not that simple Khushi," Rashmi said, "Not everyone accepts a woman with a child, here in India. My daughter doesn’t easily socialize with people either. But I was so happy to see her play with Arnav today.

Rashmi had a faraway look in her eyes. "The choices we make decides our fate, doesn't it?" She sighed, "But there are some things that still make me want to believe in second chances --" She looked at Khushi, "Sorry – I am ranting. Do you need any help with dinner?"

It seemed like Rashmi had some regrets and was hoping for a second chance with Arnav. "No thanks. I think I will make some salad for the lemon rice." She stood up and walked to the kitchen.

"I don’t think Arnav will like lemon rice," Rashmi said following her. "I remember how he used to hate it when we were in college. In fact, he didn’t really care much for South Indian food."

"Really?" Khushi asked surprised at the information, but he eats south Indian food now --- in fact he loves South Indian breakfast." He even makes world class chutney, she wanted to say but refrained from it.

"It's probably because he doesn't have a choice," Rashmi said confidently, "during college he had a male cook from Orissa who would make him his favorite north Indian cuisine."

"Ah dinner is getting ready!" Manav came up to the kitchen. "Awesome!"

"Oh you are back," Khushi said, "how is Srijit doing?"

"Can we get some dinner please?" Arnav came up behind Manav, "I am famished."

Soon the four of them sat at the table eating their dinner.

"What about Sanvi?" Arnav enquired, "Will she not have dinner?"

"Sanvi is sleeping upstairs in Khushi's room," Rashmi said, "She ate a lot of junk food earlier and all the playing around in the beach, has made her very tired."

"How is Srijit?" Khushi repeated her question, miffed at Arnav for not answering her query earlier.

"He is doing fine," Arnav said, "he was just a little spooked when the wave hit us like that. But I had reached him on time."

"But his parents weren’t happy," Manav piped in. "They gave Arnav an earful for having been careless."

Khushi paled. "It was my fault." Khushi said in a low voice.

"Will you stop saying that Khushi?" Arnav said angrily, "He is an adult. If that irresponsible boy walks deep into the sea, in spite of being warned of the tide, how can it be your fault?"

"I told you he has issues." Khushi protested.

"If he has issues that will make him walk into the sea like that, then his parents should be informed so that he can get into serious therapy. He should start seeing a psychiatrist who can prescribe him pills."

Khushi remained silent, picking on her food without interest.

"Arnav," Rashmi intervened, trying to change the subject, "I was telling Khushi earlier about your cook Babul. Remember he used to cook all those wonderful dishes for you?"

"It was me who loved his cooking, more than Arnav," Manav quipped, "Arnav barely tolerated him."

"You never liked lemon rice." Rashmi said looking at Arnav was seemed preoccupied. "Arnav – I am talking to you." Rashmi prodded.

"That was a long time ago." Arnav looked at her, "I am not that fussy about food anymore."

"Which was the place we used to go for ice cream?" Rashmi asked Arnav, "it was the place where the gud-bud ice cream was out of this world."

"It was called Sheetal ice cream parlor." Manav replied again, "I loved that beach side cafe where we used to get that mouth-watering fish fry."

As the three of them talked about their college days, Khushi felt like an outsider. In a quest to find out about Payal, she was losing focus of her own life. What was she doing?

"What about you Khushi?" Rashmi turned around and asked Khushi. "Do you like sea food?"

"Khushi is vegetarian," Arnav replied before Khushi could say anything. As Khushi looked at him he said, "but she makes great kori gassi with neer dosa."

Khushi looked at him, her eyes going wide with surprise. She had made the Mangalorean style chicken curry with Ratna's help, but she had sworn her to secrecy. Looks like the loud-mouthed maid had spilled the beans on her.

"Can you make it again for me Khushi?" Manav implored, "It has been a long while since I have had it."

Khushi wished she had not made that curry for Arnav.  "It was Ratna who actually made the gassi. I only made the dosa." She mumbled.

"Yeah right!" Arnav said sardonically his brown eyes trained on her, calling her out on her lie.

"Well you will all have to make do with traditional Brahmin food next week," Rashmi said, "I am inviting you all for lunch next Friday – it’s an auspicious pooja at my uncle's ancestral home."

Later that night, Khushi sat in her room, folding her clothes into a neat pile. Arnav and Manav had stepped out to drop Rashmi to her house and weren’t back yet. Her mind wandered to the conversation she had with Manav earlier at the beach.

According to Manav, it was Rashmi who was in a relationship with Arnav – a fact that others weren’t aware of, in lieu of her need to maintain secrecy.

Manav's words came back to her.

"What Arnav did for me is something I will always be indebted to him for. I am sure Payal thought the same. We both loved him for what he did for us."

Since Arnav had saved Payal from a potential disaster, it was highly likely that she had developed feelings for him, his relationship with Rashmi notwithstanding. Had she hoped that Arnav would eventually reciprocate her feelings one day? Even though Manav didn’t seem to think that way, had Payal somehow been instrumental in the breakup of Rashmi and Arnav she wondered. She didn’t know whether to be happy or sad that it was not Payal who was Arnav's girlfriend.

"Khushi?"

Khushi heard Arnav call out to her softly, but she remained silent, letting him think she was asleep. Tears streaming down her cheeks, she got into bed and covered herself with the blanket. She scrunched her eyes shut trying to block out his face from her mind and heart.