Chamkili
Part-13
A Plan and Another Plan...
Sheetal looked around her new
apartment. It was an apartment with two bedrooms, a drawing room and a spacious
kitchen. The apartment was more than just decent, lying some where between
decently spacious and well furnished to luxurious but subtly so, not the
blatant grandness of Shantivann. She liked it in fact. The only problem was it
lacked something or rather someone crucial. There would be time to dwell over
her miseries soon, but at the moment she needed to be focused on the little boy
who was slumped on the couch, uninterested in his surroundings… lost in fact.
That’s not how an eight year old responds to a new house.
Sheetal
had struggled her way through motherhood. There was no lover to hold her hand
in the delivery room as she screamed and cried. There were no mothers or
mother-in-laws to guide her through it… to tell her that she needs to support
her baby’s head while holding him. There were no sisters and sister-in-laws to
tell her that when an infant cried it didn’t always mean he was hungry… no one
to whisper soothing words in her ears when her baby got his first anti-viral
shot… or to accompany her to his school for his first PTA meeting. No, she had
to learn everything on her own. She was just thankful that Aarav was not a very
difficult child. Even as an infant, he would only cry and seek her attention
when in utter discomfort. And as he grew, he learnt to live by himself as well.
He wouldn’t fight with the other kids in the park and then run over to her for
protection. He wouldn’t cry in front of her when other kids would hit him or
whine to make her read him a bed-time-story. He wouldn’t ask his mother to take
an off on his birthday and bake him a chocolate cake or to take him to
Disney-land. No, he understood her situation, their situation and adapted to
it. He had grown to be as independent a kid as he could be. And sometimes, like
right now, Sheetal would look at her son, lost in his own world and wonder that
if she disappeared right this moment would he even notice that she was gone? She
still couldn’t find an answer and that unsettled her. Finally unable to take it
anymore she headed to her room, a little physical distance was easier to handle
than immeasurable emotional distance.
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“Whatever you say Khushi, I am fine
with any destination you choose.” Arnav said as he opened a cabinet drawer in
his office, searching for a file while speaking to his wife over the phone.
“Arnavji, please help me here, I
don’t know anything about these things and on their online tourism pages every
single destination promised to be heaven on earth.” Khushi said, A little
irritation evident in her voice as her husband’s nonchalance had irked her a
bit.
“Khushi, seriously just pick any
place you like and I’ll arrange everything. Believe me it’s all the same, crowded
beaches or swarming mountains; packed churches or crammed museums. Just pick
any place and make it fast, I’ll have to give Aman instructions for
arrangements.” He said, finally finding the file and then coming back to his
desk.
“Arnavji, why are you being like
this? I am taking so much pains for our holiday, scrolling through the internet
pages and looking for authentic sources and asking people’s opinion and… Well, you
know what, let’s just forget about. And anyway I have just started with my job
and you are clearly too busy…” She couldn’t continue further as she felt a lump
growing in her throat and she was pretty sure that those treacherous tears
would soon betray her. She was about to disconnect the call when she heard his
pleading voice.
“Khushi, Khushi listen to me, I
didn’t mean it that way. The thing is just that these holiday destinations have
always seemed quite tedious to me and believe me I really don’t have any
specific preferences as such…” But he was cut short as his wife regaining her
composure a little bit had cut in.
“It’s really okay Arnavji. I know
you are a very busy man and I wouldn’t want to be a distraction of any sort.
And I understand that what you said last night was probably just pillow talk
and I took it too seriously (and made a fool of myself, she though to
herself.). Don’t worry I won’t hold your words against you. It’s really fine.”
Though hurt, she wanted to make the situation light.
“Khushi, you are getting me all
wrong. Of course I want us to spend some time together alone and afar from the
official or domestic environment. It’s just that all I really need is…” he
paused for a bit and then his eyes held a teasing glint and the next he spoke
his voice was husky and his tone teasing.
“… a comfortable room, a sturdy bed
and YOU, sweetheart. These are the prerequisites, all else is manageable. Oh,
and ground rules we won’t be spending much of our time outside the room so it
really doesn’t matter where we go.” Arnav knew his magic was working as he
could hear her heartbeats constantly accelerating, in complete sync with his…
Hamesha.
“Arnavji… aap… hum… wo hum… wo.”
Her cheeks were stained as was her nose, and if they didn’t give her away, the
glazed look in her eyes would surely do the trick.
“Any questions Khushi?” He asked, his
voice still husky and his tone dripping with mirth. “Well, let me elaborate, an
AC because well, I am used to it. The bed has to be sturdy, because when we
were barely warming up and testing the fields, we broke a bed, so now that
things are really in action and the cricket match is on, we should be more
careful. And finally, my dear wife, I need you… to ravish again and again and
again, testing the sturdiness of the bed and challenging it. What do you say to
that?” he smirked imagining the three Os on the face of his blushing bride.
“Arnavji please stop. We can’t talk
about all this over the phone.” He heard her breathless plea.
“Baby,
I haven’t even started yet. And believe me we can do a lot more over the phone.”
He paused but as he had expected, he didn’t hear anything but her errant
breathing. And the next moment she had disconnected the call. Arnav had a cocky
smile on his face, proud of the fact that he could fluster her, arouse her so
much even on the phone. Arnav made a mental note to call her more often; he
enjoyed a flustered Khushi way too much to resist. He wondered what her
response would be to dirty talking. He couldn’t wait to give her lessons on
that.
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It had been more than a minute that
Lavanya had entered Khushi’s cabin and she was still to notice that 5”6 figure
standing right in front of her desk. The blush stained cheeks and glazed eyes
told Lavanya more than she wanted to know and couldn’t help but smile a little
at her Chamkili’s condition.
Well, Khushi had been working at
Kala for over a week now, and though the initial response of everyone was very
friendly, but since her husband had pulled that stunt in her office, things had
gone pretty much down-hill from there. Lavanya was more than glad that she was
there for Chamkili for except her everyone in the office was barely formal with
her. Every single person openly distrusted her and was secretly jealous of her.
Her team-mates were in fact worse than others, most of them barely speaking to
her, and some even hostile to her. Khushi hadn’t said anything to anyone but
Lavanya had taken things in her hand and given everyone except Celina James and
Samay an earful. The external hostility had ceased then, but of course the impact was limited to external hostility only and that was an open secret. Celina and James
though conscious of her were at least cordial and Samay, being the absolute
delight that he was, was the only one who was genuinely friendly with her,
helping her through all the obstacles of this professional world, when she
wasn’t there. Despite all, she was happy for her friend because naivety,
charming as it may seem, wasn’t really a thing to cherish for life. And the
inhospitable circumstances at the office were in fact just what Khushi needed, to get a taste of the real world. She needed to know it for she would have to
face it, if not today then tomorrow, so why delay the inevitable. And here at
least Lavanya was there to guide her through all this. Their friendship had
shone brighter than ever in these last few days. A girl-friend was definitely a
must for every girl.
Deciding that she had waaited long
enough and that it was time to snap Khushi out of it, she cleared her throat a
little loudly and her Chamkili was back with her.
“Umm, Lavanyaji when did you come?
I…I was just thinking about something… I mean some new designs. How about we
design something in a combination of red and pink?” Khushi blurted out the
first thing that came to her mind.
“That’s a great idea Khushi…”
Lavanya paused for a bit and saw Khushi in the process of exhaling a breath of relief
and so quipped suddenly,
“Only, we already have two designs
in the red and pink combination and to top it all it was already your
idea.” Lavaya had a knowing smile on her face.
“Wo, Lavanya ji I… I was just
thinking about… I wo…” Khushi was struggling to frame a coherent sentence and
so Lavanya finally came to her rescue.
“Khushi, believe me I really don’t
want to know what you a thinking about. Of course I do have a fair enough idea
of what it might be, but I’d rather not scandalize my innocent mind with details, especially
during the office hours.” Lavanya finished with a sly smile on her face and
Khushi all but burned with embarrassment. Now, Lavaya would have loved to take
thid=s forward but right now she was way too busy to continue. She hadn’t even
had a mani-pedi this entire week so…
“Okay okay, now stop blushing, I have
to tell you something important. Actually, the client meeting with that Spanish
firm that was to happen today, it has been postponed to Monday and Mr. Kapoor
said that the client has demanded that the entire designing team be present in
the meeting. So, yeah that’s it. Okay then I’ll see your in the team meeting
later. Bye” And saying that she turned and left.
Had she
stayed even a second longer, she would have seen the blush disappear from
Khushi’s face as it paled in shock. For, just about a minute ago Arnavji had
called her to inform that their tickets to Paris
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Arnav felt like he was at the top
of the world. Just the thought of spending an entire week with his wife in a
far away country had him giddy with excitement. Not too long ago he had
informed Khushi about their final bookings and had also like a thorough
gentleman made her aware of all the plans that he had for their honeymoon and
of course every single one involved her and a sturdy bed. Well, sturdy tables,
chairs, shower stalls, walls and doors would also do, after all these were
variables, she was the only constant in his life as well as his fantasies.
Someone knocked at the cabin door
and he all but grumbled a very reluctant come-in. Sheetal walked in with a
small smile on her face and after they had exchanged pleasantries, Sheetal then
gave him some papers for his signatures. He was flipping through these papers,
conscious to go through every single one of them, while having a light conversation
with Sheetal about her new flat and Aarav. The last sheet remained now and
Arnav frowned slightly as he wasn’t aware of what the paper said.
“Sheetal, what is this.”
“Oh sorry, I had thought that I
would talk to you about it befor giving out the papers but I guess it just
slipped my ming. Actually Arnav, I remember you saying that you wanted AR to
focus extensively on its developing over-seas market and so when a friend of
mine told me about this, I thought I might as well just ask you.”
Arnav was busy going through the
paper. It was fairly simple Arnav decided as he picked up the pen. Well, of
course he’d have to run a background check on this company before taking any
final decisions and since the papers only required him to give his official permission
for a formal presentation. He would go through the designs later, he decided.
Well, he was absolutely sure of Sheetals capability as far as designing was
concerned.
Sheetal collected the papers and
then walked out of the room, now an evil smile on her face.
To be continued...
Love,
Srija :)
To be continued...
Love,
Srija :)
