Chapter 12

KHUSHI couldn’t believe she had landed herself into this mess. It began when she had started looking for a washroom so she could change into dry clothes. She had left the pond before the men, and had slipped away without letting Anjali and Rashmi know, hoping to be back before they could realize she was gone. She had overheard one of the college girls talking about the ladies' washroom that was located a little interior to the left, just before the waterfall.

She did not realize how far she had walked to find the washroom but the need use the toilet had increased her desperation with each minute. After she had locked herself in the toilet to change her clothes, she had realized that it was a men's washroom when a group of men entered the washroom and used the urinal. The men had started making lewd comments about the college girls at the waterfall and she was quite sure they were talking about her as well. She had kept quiet waiting for them to leave, but then one man had tried to open the door to the toilet, and began to knock on it when the door wouldn’t open.

She had frozen. As the man tried to turn the knob over, and over again, she heard the clang of the knob as it fell on the floor with a deafening sound and rolled off until it came to a stop. She heard the man swear loudly before stomping off in frustration when he heard his friends call out to him, warning him they would miss their ride back.

It was only then it hit her that she would miss her ride as well. She had frantically tried to search for her phone only to realize that she had left it with Anjali earlier. What if no one else came? Not many knew about this washroom and it was almost closing time. She shouted for help, screaming at the top of her voice. All she could hear was the cawing of crows.

An hour later, Khushi was convinced that she was stuck. What would she do when darkness set in? Heart pounding wildly, she shouted again to no avail.

Khushi

Was someone calling out to her or was it her imagination? From the past one hour, she had imagined this a few times and now it was starting to scare her.

"Khushi!"

It was Arnav! "Arnav – I am in the washroom." Khushi shouted, relief washing over her.

In less than a minute, Arnav was at the toilet door. After hearing from her about what had happened, he made a futile attempt to fix the knob to turn the lock.

"I will have to break the door Khushi," he told her finally, "step back as far as possible so I don’t hurt you."

As Khushi stepped back, Arnav managed to kick the door open in his third attempt.

"What the f@#$ happened?" Arnav asked her his face filled with disbelief.

Khushi ran straight into his arms and hugged him tight.

"Come on!" Arnav said roughly, "we have no time to lose. We will have to get back to the entrance ASAP." He called Manav.

Arnav explained to her that when they had realized she was missing Manav and he had started looking for her while Aarav had taken Anjali and Rashmi back to the entrance so they could meet the driver and explain the situation. The driver had fussed about the wait and had told them he had to return to Hebri for another appointment. He had told them that the other vehicle waiting there for another party could bring back the others.

Then, Rashmi had received a call from her mother who had informed her that Sanvi was running a slight temperature. On hearing that Anjali had urged Aarav to take Rashmi to Hebri in case of an emergency, convincing them she would take the next ride back to Hebri. When Arnav had found out, he had sent Manav back to take care of Anjali.

After reaching Hebri, Aarav had taken Rashmi back to Udupi in a taxi as Sanvi's fever had increased considerably. Arnav had then told Manav to leave on the last ride back to Hebri, in casae a search party had to be organized.

"Anjali should have left with Aarav," Arnav said, "but it looks like it was a day of stupidities."

"I am sorry." Khushi said in a low voice.

Khushi couldn’t believe how a day that had started so wonderfully had turned into a nightmare because of her one silly mistake.

"After I found you, I informed Manav right away. Hopefully he would have arranged a ride for us."

After fifteen minutes wait at the entrance Arnav swore loudly. "F@#$! My phone is out of charge. I don’t know if Manav found a ride for us or not. Do you have yours?"

"If I had mine, do you think we would be in this position?"

After pacing about for another minute Arnav said, "Let's start walking along the road we came on. I think it's better than waiting around."

"Yes, you are right." Khushi agreed even though her body was aching because of all the swimming she had done after a long time.

After half an hour, there was no sign of the vehicle, or any vehicle for the matter of fact. The moment of decision came when they stood at a fork.

"I don’t remember seeing this on the way in." Khushi said.

"We were distracted Manav's chatter," he said, "alright I see some footprints on this muddy road. I think we should take that one."

"But the other road seems a little better," Khushi said, "feels like the road vehicles might take."

"If you are absolutely sure -- we will take that." Arnav's eyes seemed to throw a challenge at her.

"Let's go with your choice." Khushi said telling herself that she had no rights to make decisions.

As they started to walk on the muddy path, it seemed to get narrower and the foliage seemed to get denser. When Arnav took Khushi's hand, she was thankful, for she didn’t know how long her legs would support her. When she heard the sound of running water, she tugged at Arnav's arm and he reluctantly walked with her toward it. What they saw then rendered them speechless. They had come upon a picturesque landscape of another little water fall amid the green foliage and brown mountains while a blue stream flowed a few feet in front of them.

"Isn't it beautiful?" Khushi exclaimed. Her face with aglow with pure joy.

"Yes, it is," he said, looking at her, "but if we don’t leave now, I think we might become part of this beautiful picture soon." He said as he dragged her back to the path.

An hour later, Arnav and Khushi reached a small village. They realized that it really was a small settlement with absolutely no facilities of any sort. Getting a ride out of that place at night was simply impossible and that was the last of their worries. It was quite clear that there would be no accommodations either as there were only a few small huts scattered here and there and some tenements in sight. Arnav walked to a small shop and made some enquiries as Khushi walked across and sat on a platform under a tree across from the shop.

"It seems that we might have taken the wrong road." He told her sheepishly as she came back. "There are no restaurants or hotels – nothing."

She had never seen him so worried. "What do we do now?" Khushi asked him.

"I have ordered two cups of coffee." Arnav said, "I need to think."

Khushi began to cry. "I am sorry." Arnav walked up to her but she moved away from him. "I didn’t know all this was going to happen," she said, "It was an honest mistake."

Arnav pulled her and took her in his arms. "Shhhh Khushi, don’t cry. I am the one who should be sorry for landing us in this mess."

"What?"

Arnav looked at her. "We should have waited at the entrance," he said, "What if Manav had sent a vehicle for us? Instead I decided to walk – and then I chose the wrong road –"

As Arnav stood consoling Khushi, they found the shopkeeper staring at them holding two cups of coffee in his hand. "Please don’t cry madam – I have a room if you need to stay for the night."

 He turned out to be their savior. He told them he could accommodate them in a room that belonged to one of his tenants who was currently out of town.

Khushi entered the room while Arnav stood outside talking the man. The room was designed like a tiny studio apartment, not more than 20 feet in length and 15 feet in breadth. There was a divan on the left wall and a small table for four on the right wall. There was small TV just next to the door. The rear end of the room had a narrow kitchen, a bathroom and what seemed to be a tiny bedroom made of cardboard walls with a tiny ceiling fan hanging from the roof made of asbestos sheet. A bulb in the center of the room seemed to be the only light in the room.

"I don’t know what I am doing!" Arnav grumbled as he walked inside. "For all I know this man – His name is Manjunath by the way -- could be an axe murderer."

"That poor man doesn’t remotely look like an axe murderer. Especially when he even gave you his name."

"How do you know?" Arnav asked, "have you seen one before?"

Khushi couldn’t suppress a laugh. Just then the power went out. "Oh no!" Khushi exclaimed, "power outage."

"Or a ploy of the axe murderer to come and attack us in the dark."

As Khushi continued to laugh Arnav said, "I am not joking here. I am quite upset!"

Khushi found a hurricane lamp in the kitchen and she lit it. "Why are you upset?" Khushi asked him, "I am enjoying every bit of it."

"What?"

"This was an adventure of a lifetime for me!" Khushi exclaimed, "The waterfall was spectacular – but then that was expected. This walk through the jungle to this village was the most exhilarating journey of my life. "

"Looks like you didn’t get out much Khushi." Arnav said.

"Absolutely right!" Khushi agreed, "I was very little when we went on a vacation to Ooty." She remembered how the four of them had huddled together on the bed in the hotel room because of the cold and for some odd reason had no winter clothes with them. "I haven’t been to a vacation in ten years."

Arnav looked at her his brown eyes serious. "Khushi don’t ever vanish like that again. I was so scared when I couldn’t find you."

"Thank you for finding me." Khushi raised herself on her tip toes and touched her lips to his.

As Arnav pulled her closer they heard a knock on the door. The shopkeeper had brought them food.

"Yeah definitely an axe murderer." Khushi teased Arnav as they sat at the small table to eat their dinner. "You have some serious trust issues, don’t you?"

Arnav remained silent, lost in thought as they ate their dinner. After they cleared the table, Arnav used the washroom. "I will take the divan here. You keep the lamp in the room."

"Here is a clean bedsheet," she said handing over a sheet to him, "I found some in the cupboard here."

After half an hour, Khushi heard Arnav struggling on the narrow divan. She went up to him. "Arnav, take the bed," she said, "you won't be able to sleep with half your legs hanging out like that."

Arnav stood up and as she made a move toward the divan, he caught her hand and took her inside the tiny bedroom. As Arnav lay down beside on her the narrow bed, Khushi's heart began to pound wildly in her chest.

"I am sorry if I find it difficult to trust people," Arnav said, "my mom died before she could teach me about that."

Khushi realized he was upset about her comment. "I am sorry – I didn’t mean it like that."

"Why do you have to be sorry?" Arnav murmured in the dark, "My mother trusted my father who broke her trust. Not only that he also broke another woman's trust."

"Arnav –"

"I know my aunt told you about my dysfunctional family set up."

Khushi turned around and hugged him tight in an unconscious gesture realizing too late that she was inviting trouble.

"Ah now I understand the reason for the hug the other night on the terrace," he said as he moved her face to look down at her, his brown eyes simmering in the golden lamp light. "But whenever you do that – it makes me want to do this ---"

He captured her lips in a searing kiss, slipping under her shirt to cup her breast.

"You have no idea how much I wanted to do this in the car." He made a wet trail across her jaw down her throat.

"Arnav – I " she said in a feeble attempt to stop him but it ended up sounding like a moan, egging him on further.

Sliding his knee between her legs, he pulled her bra down to touch the smooth skin of her breast. As he rolled an erect nipple between his fingers, Khushi arched her back pressing her softness into his arousal.

"Please!" she whispered when she meant to say "No", unable to fight her body's craving as she clutched at his arm.

Arnav moved back to her lips, slipping his tongue deep into her as he pressed her down on the bed, his hips moving in tandem with his tongue.

Just then they heard a knock on the door. Manjunath was calling out at the top of his voice. "F@#$! This man will wake up the entire neighbourhood!" Arnav swore as he left Khushi to answer the door.

Arnav came back inside ten minutes later, and slipped in beside her and wrapped his arms around her.  "I had sent a message to Manav from Manjunath's phone as he wasn’t picking up. He just replied and Manju thought it might be important. I spoke to Manav finally. He hadn’t been able to arrange a vehicle. He tried to come here with the van but he couldn’t and had to turn around. I told him not to worry. By the way I found a ride for our journey to Udupi tomorrow morning.

"Khushi?"

As Khushi remained silent, Arnav touched his lips to her head. "You must be so tired from the ordeal. Sleep well." He said as slumber claimed him in seconds.

Two days later, Khushi sat in her office her thinking. Anjali had left for Delhi, on the morning of New Year day, as she had to host a party for her husband's VIP guests, disappointing Manav who had wanted to spend the day at the beach house. Manav was leaving in the next couple of days, the same day that Mrs. Rai intended to leave for Bangalore with Aarav. They had also been discussing a possibility of her going to the US to stay with her son for a few months. She was sure Arnav's project was coming to an end and soon he would be leaving for Delhi. She felt butterflies in her stomach when she thought about her uncertain future.

She thought about the wonderful bike ride back to Udupi as Manjunath had magnanimously lent Arnav his brand-new Yamaha bike. The memory of the trip to the waterfall would be etched in her mind forever.

That night, after Arnav had come back after talking to Manju, she had pretended to sleep, afraid of her own treacherous feelings.

Now that she had admitted to herself that she was in love with him, the only thing to do was to tell him the truth about her identity. But she was afraid. What if he hated her for her deceit and walked away from her? She couldn’t bear to face his hatred.

She came out of her reverie when she heard her phone. It was Rakesh.

That evening, Khushi sat across from Rakesh in the very same restaurant she had met him the last time.

"I have fifty missed calls from you," he told her, "I was out of the country for work."

Khushi explained to him about her reason for her desperate attempt to reach out to him.

"Mr. Shenoy told me that you had some important information regarding my sister's death."

Rakesh looked at her seriously. "Why are you interested after all these years?"

"Rishabh, Dee – they told me that Payal's death may not have been accidental," she said, "Rishabh also said that when he filed a complaint to the police about Mr. Raizada –"

Rakesh didn’t let her complete as he laughed dryly. "Is that what Rishabh told you?" he asked her, "I don’t understand what he is trying to do. The problem with him is he can't resist a beautiful woman."

"What do you mean?"

Rakesh had a faraway look in his eyes. "Did he ever tell you he was crazy about Payal?"

"What?" Khushi wondered why Rishabh never disclosed this to her. It felt creepy when she thought about him being interested in her now.

"Since our first year," he said, "but she was interested only in Raizada who dumped her."

"Ramya told me you helped her."

"Yes, I did." Rakesh went on to explain that Deepana and Vishakha, busy with their own love lives with Rohit and Rahul respectively, had shut Payal out, forcing her into loneliness. This was something even Ramya had mentioned. "It was in out fifth semester."

"Did she talk about Mr. Raizada?"

"No," Rakesh said, "she was obviously protecting him."

 "In the next semester -- she and her room mates had patched up and everything seemed fine in our group. During final year, she started seeing Raizada again."

Khushi found it difficult to comprehend what was going on in Payal's mind at the time.

She didn’t want to lose focus. "Did you see them together?" she asked him. "Wasn’t Mr. Raizada working in Bangalore at the time?"

"It is not too far to fly from Bangalore," he pointed out, "Payal didn’t go back to Bangalore during the semester break during her final year." He told her, "she used to drive toward Raizada beach house using Dee's scooty. I have seen her on the Highway plenty of times."

"Why do you think that Rishabh didn’t file the FIR?" Khushi wanted to come back to the topic.

"I think that because it was I who filed the FIR," Rakesh said, "the others weren’t even ready to give witness that they saw the argument between Raizada and Payal."

"Why not?" Khushi was genuinely surprised by this piece of information.

"Because of their reputation."

 The night of the farewell party, they had all decided to stay back in the resort and had booked three rooms. The three girls Payal, Dee and Vishakha were supposed to be in one room, while the four boys Rahul, Rohit, Rakesh and Rishabh were to share the other two.

After the party, the boys had stayed back in the bar drinking until closing time. Afterward when they were ready to go back, Rakesh had noticed that Rahul and Rohit had entered two different rooms.

"It was only later that it hit me that Rahul was sharing the room with Vishakha and Rohit and Dee were sharing the other one."

"Where was Payal?"

"I began to wonder about the same thing," Rakesh said, "I wanted to ask Rishabh about it but he seemed to be busy on the phone. Then he got off the phone and came up to me. He asked me if I could sleep in another room as he was getting a girl – our junior, over to the room."

Rakesh must have felt like he had been let down by his friends that night, thought Khushi.

"Ramya was smart to have left the party," Rakesh continued. "I decided to go back home because I had enough of this bullshit but I had to wait it out for some time so I could get sober enough to drive back. As I walked along the hallway, to step into a small lounge which had a sofa I noticed a couple going into the room on the opposite wing. It was Payal and Arnav Singh Raizada."

"What?" Khushi almost shouted aloud. "Are you sure it was them?"

"Payal was wearing jeans and a short pink kurta and she was the only one dressed like that as all the girls wore dresses that night."

"What about her companion?" she asked curiously, "Did you see his face?"

"I told you they were going toward their room. How could I see their faces? The man was the same height and build. He was wearing the denim jacket and the red cap that Raizada usually wore to college."

"But –"

"Think about it Khushi. Why would Payal go with some stranger to his room?" he asked her, "it had to be her lover's room, isn’t it?"

"What happened after that?"

"I left!" he exclaimed, "I was disgusted by everyone's behavior that night." He was silent for several moments. "But if I knew what was going to happen I would have stopped her from going into his room."

"Why didn’t Rishabh and everyone else tell me this?"

"Because the information about Payal's misbehaviour also includes the information about their own." He pointed out, "this was something they wanted to obliterate out of their minds. So much so that they have forgotten it. That is why I was surprised that they told you about that night. "

"I don’t understand," Khushi said, "are you talking about them spending the night with the boys? It wasn’t really a crime."

 "You have no idea about how people in smaller towns perceive these things," Rakesh said, "especially the police."

"Rishabh, Rahul, Rohit and myself are from South Canara and we knew about the police here. That is why after discussing it amongst ourselves we decided not to go forward with the complaint."

"But you changed your mind."

"Yes, right after the incident we had to study for our final exams and after we finished we had jobs to start right away. Do you know Payal had bagged a job through a campus interview?" He paused. "But I couldn't sleep at night. After a month, I came back and filed an FIR."

"But it looks like the police didn’t find Arnav guilty." Khushi said tentatively.

"Those are perks of being the son of a rich industrialist," Rishabh said with scorn, "He was thick friends with the ACP, Ajay Singh Rathod. It didn’t even go to trial. They told me there was lack of evidence. A month later he ran away to the States. That was the end of the story."

Khushi's hands began to shake. Was Rathod the same policeman from Mangalore?

"You said you left the resort that night – why are you so sure he is responsible for her death? What do you think happened?"

"Because he was the last person who she was with. She must have become a nuisance to him. I think he led her to the ocean and let her walk into it."

"She drowned in the pool." She pointed out.

"Of course not!" He looked surprised, "What made you think that?"

Khushi was shocked. "But my parents told me —" She paused wondering what they had exactly told her. She couldn’t recall. Even the newspaper clippings didn’t really mention that detail. It had just mentioned accidental drowning.

"That would have taken days to find her." She whispered in anguish.

"Of course, when she didn’t turn up at the hostel her roommates informed the college and they called the police and your parents. But for some reason your parents hadn’t been reachable for a week. That's when some fishermen had discovered her body."

Khushi sat silently digesting the information she had just received.

"Even Prahlad refused to run the story about Arnav Singh Raizada, preferring to just print a general article about the accidental drowning."

"Did you ask the newspaper to print an apology?" she asked him curiously. "About five years ago?"

He shrugged his shoulders. "What was the point?" he said, "they didn’t print the article I wanted. Moreover, the article is true. She did get into bad company of Raizada." He said with a chilling clarity.

He seemed to think she got was she deserved, but if that was the case, doggedly trying to file a FIR was a contradictory move on his part. Rakesh Kasargod seemed to be a very complicated character.

" I came here thinking you were really trying to find out what happened to your sister. Your questions seemed weird but I realize now that you are hoping Raizada is not the culprit, aren’t you?" He asked her out of the blue.

"Thank you for your time Mr. Rakesh." Khushi stood up.

He continued in the same vein. "The way you called him by his first name makes me think you know Raizada quiet well. Have you fallen in his trap as well Ms. Khushi?

"There is something in that man that draws people like a moth to a flame. You sisters are the birds of, the same feather after all."

Khushi left, quivering from top to toe as she walked away from his piercing eyes.