Part 1: Dishoom-dishoom
"Arreyy itni bewakoof ladki ko kaha se utha laye ho" Bua
screamed.
Khushi looked down at
her Bua's clothes. They were soaking wet & it was all because of Khushi.
"Ab khade khade humra mooh kya dekh rahi ho. Niklo yaha se!"
Khushi wanted to apologize but she knew it was no use
talking to Bua right now, she was fuming.
"Ek kaam theek se nahi hota is ladki se!" her Bua added.
Khushi was used to her Bua yelling like this but she was so
tired of it. She couldn't take it anymore. Khushi couldn't figure out if she
was mad at Bua or herself.
It wasn't that Bua didn't love Khushi. There was this one
time last year when Khushi fell really ill & no one but her Bua was home. Bua
took take of her so well, Khushi was surprised. But once Khushi was well again,
her Bua's yelling & insulting Khushi started again.
"Devi Maya, humse kyun kuch kaam nahi hota!" Khushi
complained. "Hum jabhi such karne jaati hain, kuch galat ho jata hai!" she
continued. "Aur yeh Bua? Humesha humare hi peeche kyun padi rehti hai?!"
Khushi was so angry today, nothing had gone right the whole
day. In the morning, she tripped on the clothing line & all the clothes
Payal had recently hung fell down. Next, Garima had told Khushi to buy
vegetables from the bazaar. On her way home, Khushi tripped on the stairs &
all the vegetables fell, some even got squished. And her biggest deed of the
day, the water on Bua. Bua told Khushi to get hot water ready for her shower. Khushi
got the water, went to Bua all happy & exclaimed "Bua Ji!" Bua turned
around abruptly causing Khushi to drop the tub of water & it splashed all
over Bua.
"Aaj ka toh din hi kharaab hai!" Khushi said getting angrier
as she remembered all the incidents of the day.
As soon as Khushi finished her
sentence, she bumped into a man.
"Chote!" Anjali said
from the phone. "Kabhi toh meri baat sun liya karo, breakfast kare bina hi
chalegaye na aaj." She complained.
"Di aaj mujhe bohot kaam hai" ASR answered walking down the
hot streets in Lucknow.
"Main bahar se hi kuch kha loonga."
"Ab mujhe kya buddhu samja hai Arnav! Main bohot acchi
tareeke se janti hoon tumhe. Tum pure din bhooke hi rahonge." Anjali went on.
"Acha Di ab main rakhta hoon." He cut the phone.
Ye Di bhi na, Arnav thought. Ek toh yaha pe kitni gharmi
hai. Aur raste kitne chote hai, meri gaadi bhi yaha nahi aasakti.
ASR was more annoyed than usual today. It was a hot day
& ASR was used to his air-conditioned car. ASR hated walking, he preferred his
car.
He felt bad for hanging up on his sister. He was about to
call her back when he bumped into a girl.
Khushi moved back just enough so she could see his eyes.
There was something…different…about his eyes. The first thing his eyes shouted
was anger but…there was something else too. His brown pair of eyes looked like
they were hiding something. But Khushi couldn't make out what it was.
"Dekh ke nahi chal sakti kya?" the owner of the brown eyes
called out. That snapped Khushi out of it. "Aankhe toh apko bhi di hai Bhagwan
ne. Aap dekhe chaliye na!"
"Apni aukad dekhe baat karo…tum jaanti bhi ho main kaun
hoon?" the angry young man said.
Khushi was already having a bad & now this stupid man
wanted to start a fight.
"Ji nahi! Aur aap jaise ghmandi aadmi ko hum jaanna bhi nahi
chahte hai." Khushi answered.
Who the heck does this girl think she is?! NO ONE talks to
ASR like that.
"Hatto mere raaste sai." He pushed her out of his way.
He was already having a bad day & was in no mood of arguing
with some stupid girl.
The girl ran after him. "Rukiye!" she called out. Arnav stopped but didn't turn around.
"Aap samajhte kya hai apne aap ko?! Aise kaise kisi ladki ko dakha de sakte hai aap? Kisi ne aap ko sanskaar nahi diye kya? Itni akkad dikhayenge toh koi bhi aap se baat karna nahi chaega. Aap ko toh-" she stopped as Arnav turned around abruptly with anger-filled eyes.
Arnav saw the girl's eyes. She was looking into his eyes, she was clearly scared, but for some reason Arnav felt as if the girl was trying to & succeeding in reading his own eyes. No, he had to stop her.
"Mujhse behas mat karo...pachtaogi tum. Aur main apne aap ko jo bhi samjhu, tumse matlab?"
With this he turned around & left the scared girl standing there.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Aise kaise baat karsakte hai yeh!" she said.
Hmph! She turned around & left too.
comment:
p_commentcount