by Anamika GK
“Okay” he replied.
“Okay. I mean good. Phew! I was so tired of all this silent treatment. And bade papa would like it too if we get along for real. Sooner or later he would have caught on, he is very intelligent you know. And I mean what reason do we have to not talk to each other? We both did not want to marry each other. When we fought that night you did not know about me. Next day you did try to apologize, in yoru own peculiar way, which we should not talk about as our opinions differ on that. But now that we will become friends, we will take care to not hurt each other. I am sure it will be great”, Khushi spoke in a delighted manner.
“Yeah”, he replied, not sure as to which part of her tirade was he agreeing to. It then struck Avish that what exactly has he just signed-up for, recalling her chatting sessions with his dad and buaji.
“Great then. I have also planned a dinner for your birthday tomorrow at an awesome restaurant. At Dum-Pukht” she excitedly informed. “Have you heard of it?”
Avish just shook his head in denial.
“So that means it'll be a novelty for you. Brilliant.The food is yumm…. , trust me. Bade papa and I love that restaurant, Karan chachu not so much and buaji is neutral. But it’s okay. I am sure you'll love it. And buaji is going to cook your birthday lunch for you. Bade papa asked us to keep everything low-key, that is why there is no party. Do you want a party? I can arrange it if you want. You just give me the list of your guests”, Khushi offered.
“No. Your plan is nice”, Avish started moving towards the dining hall.
“See, we've already started agreeing on things”, Khushi chirped and followed him out of the kitchen.
Later that night, Avish laid in his bed with his hands folded under his head thinking of his first proper birthday celebration that took place an hour back, in the very house where he was born. Birthdays didn't matter to Avish. When they had once upon a time, his parents were too busy fighting among themselves to pay any attention to him. How was he supposed to enjoy his grand impersonal birthday parties when he knew that his parents have just fought and will fight again as soon as they see the last guest off? And when they had eventually paid attention to him, he had already been packed off to the hostel.
In London, his mother used to celebrate his birthdays at her house, but that was part of his those memories which he wanted to completely erase from his mind because whenever those birthdays came to his mind, he could not help but wonder if his mother saw him just as Raizada's property document since the day he was born or did she ever actually love him, even once? A closure would have been nice. He would have liked to hear it out from her own mouth what she had to say about the things she had written in her diary and those photographs and about his fake signatures on property transfer papers. But that will not happen now in this lifetime, he sighed. Anyway in last five years, he has come to expect his dad's call at midnight to wish him birthday and an exquisite gift arriving by parcel next day. Their relationship was on a mend all these years and he did not find the need to ask him to join him on his birthdays. In fact, he preferred the solitude of his apartment in New York and company of his work on this day. Except for adding a year to his life, he did not see any other purpose of this day.
And today also he was expecting his dad to wish him, and at the max buaji to join him. Never in his wildest dream did he think that Khushi will forget their rather strained equation and arrange a midnight surprise for him, and a birthday dinner tomorrow as well. Also that her chachu, whom he surprisingly found really easy to get along with, will fly down to wish him. And then she surprised him with her friendship proposal. She never ceases to surprise him, first her fighting with him, then her impossibly childish behavior for the last month and now with her sincerity to bury the hatchet. Well, he was glad that she initiated the peace-making and he accepted. If nothing else, she was at least a non-complicated human being, so unlike him. And truth be told, he really appreciated her enthusiasm for celebrating his birthday. He knew he will cherish this midnight celebration, all his life.
As sleep started engulfing him, Avish's last thoughts were scattered between his dad's warm hug, buaji lovingly warding evil eyes off him, Karan & Khushi bickering while putting candles on the cake, their singing birthday song so loudly and Khushi's smiling face in the glow of his birthday candles.
Chapter 9
A smiling Kalyani, a happy Sumer, a serene looking Karan and a half asleep leaning-for-support-on-her-chachu Khushi, stood in front of magnificently beautiful Radha-Krishna idol in the puja room of Raizada Mansion. And with them stood a silent and curious looking, quite detached from religion but getting attached to people in the room, Avish. It was his birthday morning and buaji was reciting a special prayer for the occasion in which everyone's presence was ordered by her. Avish did not consider himself an atheist and neither was he a believer. Frankly speaking, with the kind of existence he had had, existence of God was the least of his concerns. He gave buaji a faint smile as he bent a little for her to put a red tikka on his forehead.
When told on breakfast table that he and bade papa were going to office, Khushi had found it hard to believe that someone would go to work on their birthday. Even bade papa takes a leave on his birthday and spends the day with me and buaji, and Avishji is so much younger than him. Then why is he not enjoying his day? Karan chachu is here, I am here, buaji is here. Bade papa is going to office only because what will he do at home without the birthday boy. Can Avishji not think of anything fun to do with so many people with him on his birthday?, she wondered. She was ready to help with ideas if he would want, but that was the whole problem, he did not want any. He was as usual on phone with Aman, talking to bade papa about business or conversing with chachu today.
It looked like it was her birthday and not his, for their enthusiasm levels for the occasion matched the statement completely. Him and bade papa were to come back by lunch and Khushi consoled herself that it would be best if he spends his day as he pleases, especially when he had agreed to her dinner plans amicably. What does she know of about his work anyway? Could be something important for all she knows and getting him angry by interfering on his birthday was the last thing she wanted to do, friendship or no friendship. So she swallowed all the suggestions and advises dying to wriggle out of her tongue, and let it be. She decided that she had met her chachu after a month so she should spend the day with him, and thus got busy.
But by the time lunch time arrived, Khushi's resolution became history. After consulting with her chachu, she decided to arrange a movie screening for whole family in the home theater upstairs after lunch. No way on earth could she let someone spend their birthday working. How boring is that? So she presented the idea which was accepted by Avishji after some selling from them and majorly after bade papa's nudging.
“Hai re Nandkishore”, Khushi mimicked buaji perfectly, for she had a lot of practice. “What is all this? First you wake me up at the ungodly, or rather too much of a godly hour of six and then you make such heavy lunch. What if I fall asleep before dinner today? I'll blame you, I am telling you”, she whined while sitting on dining table.
“Hariprakash, bring babyji some salad”, buaji yelled without missing a beat, and started serving her beloved nephew who would have preferred ‘that’ salad very much.
“What? Wait! I am eating. Buaji, I was just kidding. No way I'll skip on your cooking”, Khushi slowly started eating delicious looking chole-bhature and matar-kachoris with imli chutney. Buaji tried to hide her smile. The mother's heart in her was happy beyond measure that her daughter was eating the food kids her age gorge on, even if it is just to honor her cooking, else she eats like a bird, adducing that since she cannot, run or jog, she has to eat sensibly. So before she sat down to eat herself, she planted a fond kiss on her Titaliya's head, making her smile brightly.
“You've got mail”, Khushi suggested while eating. It was her favorite movie, and she was the one who had come up with movie idea in the first place.
“I a
m not watching that God forsaken movie for the 15th time”, Karan declared.
“Me neither”, Sumer mumbled, hearing which Khushi frowned. So he hastily added, “Let Avish decide. It's his birthday.”
“I don't like romantic comedies”, Avish confessed to a hopeful looking Khushi, making her sigh in defeat.
After a lot of inputs from everyone, Avish finally picked the movie Inception. Just when they were headed to the home theater upstairs after lunch, Avish got a work related call which he picked and motioned everyone to continue and that he will follow in a few seconds. After finishing the call when Avish turned back to look at the stairs expecting everyone gone by now, he found four people still climbing up the stairs at a snail pace, and making it look like it was the most normal speed to climb up. Khushi and Karan were walking ahead of his dad and buaji, all of them giggling about something, with Khushi holding the railings for support and Karan holding her shoulders for extra protection.
How well they all have adjusted to each other, he mused. His family to Khushi's limp, Karan to the fact that his niece will stay with Raizada's, dad to the responsibility towards his deceased friend's family and buaji showering her motherly love on children who were not hers. In spite of living in this house for more than two months now, he still has difficulty believing that relations like this existed in this world. Let alone the world, in his own house where he thought all relationships are fated to die out of suffocation. That moment, he rued the fact that life had made him selfish and aloof over the years, that he was not one of them, far from it actually. In order to safeguard his emotions and interests, to save whatever dignity he could amid being disowned, cheated and neglected that he could, he just had to stop caring about everyone else at one point. Looking at the four figures that disappeared at the top of the staircase, he sighed for things that could not be undone now. He was far too jaded and his faith in happy relationships had frazzled out long back. However much he appreciated his dad's, buaji's, Khushi's and even Karan's efforts to make him feel a part of this unit, he seriously did not know whether he will fit in this ‘family’. The very next minute he shrugged away the emotional thoughts, into which he found himself relapsing far too often for his liking after coming back to India, and made his way upstairs.
When Avish came to the living room in the evening, all ready for the dinner, after two hours or so of finishing the movie, he found Karan and Khushi sitting side by side on the couch talking to each other. Avish had asked about the dress code for the restaurant and when Khushi informed that he can dress as he pleases, he had kept it semi-formal with dark blue jeans, white V-neck t-shirt and black blazer. Khushi herself was dressed in floral print yellow skirt, white plain sleeveless kurti and yellow scarf. Karan, who was going to go to the airport directly from the restaurant, was dressed in faded blue jeans and black button down shirt. He sat down on the opposite couch and smiled a little at the chachu-niece duo, and before Karan could open his mouth to start the conversation or Avish could ask where his dad was, buaji's voice reverberated in the room.
“Did you not invite your Jhansi ki Rani for dinner?” she asked, while setting the pallu of her blue saree on her head.
While Avish did not quite catch the meaning, Karan grinned and Khushi agitatedly replied, “Her name is Riya.”
“Same. Is she coming?” buaji said unfazed, still fiddling with her slippery silk pallu. Titaliya always invited her for birthdays, etc. so Kalyani had made the inquiry when she found her best friend missing today.
“No. She has gone for two months tour to Orissa. She is arranging camps for children there”, Khushi said with a hint of pride in her voice.
“To do what? Teach them her vocabulary of cusswords and skill to pick up fights?”, Karan butted in, poking Khushi on purpose, for he knew how much his Laddoo is in awe of her older best friend.
“To vaccinate them. And she is very well spoken. It's just that she deals with weird sort of illiterate and rude people that she has to behave like that. And I don't want to discuss this with you chachu. It's Avishji's birthday, we are going to my favorite restaurant, don't ruin my mood”, she fumed.
“Who are we talking about?”, Avish asked.
“Riya di. She is a social worker and my best friend. Well, one of my two best friends. Other is Rishabh. He is in USA right now”. Happy with the diversion, Khushi provided in detailed manner.
Avish had a vague recollection of this name Rishabh in Khushi's context, but before he could ponder over it, he heard Karan needling Khushi, “Buy one-get one free type of best friends. She befriended the sister and got the brother for free.”
“What is your problem chachu? Just because Riya di introduced me to Rishabh, does not mean he is for free”, Khushi glared at him.
“With the masterpiece sister like that, he cannot afford a price tag Laddoo. He won't find any takers”, Karan grinned, at his irritated niece.
“Don't listen to him, Avishji. When you'll meet them, you'll love them. They are such nice people, both of them”. Khushi felt an acute need to defend her old friends in front of her new friend, due to her chachu's remarks.
“Hey, when did I say that they are not nice people. At least Rishabh is nice”, Karan interfered, making Khushi close her eyes in exasperation. She knew Karan chachu loved to pick on Riya di, with Riya di being no less and she was being victimized for taking her side.
“I am sure they are very nice people”, Avish agreed, mostly out of formality.
“Yes. They are. And I am sure you all will like each other and become good friends too. I'll introduce you guys soon”, Khushi smiled warmly.
Avish nodded a little in response, not sure if he even wanted this introduction.
“Trust me, Avishji. You'll seriously love both Rishabh and Riya di. No matter what he says, even chachu loves to hang out with them and you will fit-in into our group just right. And then I am always there to help if you have any issues, right?”, her eyes shone like the bright sunshine of her attire, with a genuine assuring smile playing on her lips, in response to his non-committal nod.
Out of nowhere, maybe the word 'fit-in' doing the trick, but looking at her smile at that particular moment, a little emotion flickered in him, that at least someone is hopeful that he can fit-in somewhere, other than the business world when he himself has lost any such hope. And the irony of the fact, that it was the same girl who he had wanted out of his father's life for ten long years who had thought so about him, wasn't lost on him. However, putting that thought somewhere in the back of his mind after his dad's arrival, he left for his birthday dinner with everybody. Avish loved the food as predicted by Khushi and the dinner went perfectly fine. All of them returned home after dropping Karan to the airport. Normal life resumed back and Khushi and Avish's friendship started taking its baby steps, quite literally, for it started wobbly and was an experience in itself.
Befriending Khushi was not as simple a task as Avish would have liked. Used to an incommunicado status, all his life, Khushi's talking stamina gave him acute headaches first few weeks. Specially, because she was trying ‘extra hard’ to get along with him. Then Avish figured that the only way to get some peace in Raizada Mansion is to lock himself up in his room, for outside of it you are at Khushi's mercy, depending on how much she is feeling like talking that day. But, how long can he restrict himself to one room? It became clear to him after a while that his dad's beloved Laddoo was a real piece of work, and he will have to up his listening and responding capabilities in order to survive her friendship, actually in order to just plain simple survive.
And Khushi could not agree more. Making friends with Avishji was definitely not an easy job. How can he stay so quiet all the time? Does he not have thoughts or details of his day to discuss? How can you just go on living, keeping everything inside you? And she could see him irritably pinching the bridge of his nose many times when she tried to strike a conversation, but purposely ignored it. Everyone around the house is giving too much into his ways. Its time s
omeone tells him that staying this quiet is not a healthy thing. Specially, when he is surrounded by family who is eager to share their heart out to him and listen to his, particularly bade papa who looks so eager to listen to anything his mute son decides to share with him. He is no more alone, and it’s high time he starts appreciating that. So she did not give in to his silent demand to leave him alone. Khushi was anyway never short on perseverance, and so she persisted for the sake of her bade papa and for the sake of her new friend, hoping for him to get the hint that she is not going to let him wallow in his beloved solitude and silence. All this and the fact that Avishji was a clean slate who did not know much about her, and was out of touch of Raizada Mansion and Delhi, made telling him things much more fun.
As a result, after around 4-5 weeks of his birthday, Avish became perfectly capable of listening to Khushi at breakfast, at dinner and after that too. Headaches disappeared and surprisingly he even found himself enjoying her chattering sometimes. Sometimes being the keyword. As a side result of his increased stamina, he also realized that he talked more with dad and buaji now along with Khushi, who was impossible ignore when she had thought otherwise. Of course he could not talk like her, for that was a feat which he cannot achieve in this lifetime.