Valley of Flowers Epilogue

Valley of Flowers – Epilogue

Five Years later….

KHUSHI stood in the garden picking jasmine flowers, standing in the midst of the Plumaria, Ipomoea, Jacqemontia creepers. Suddenly she felt two strong hands enveloping her waist and the rasp of stubble as her husband placed his soft velvety lips on shoulder.

‘Arnav, stop it,’ she admonished him. ‘Our neighbours might see us.’

‘You think those lazy gooses are up this early?’ he continued up her neck, sliding the spaghetti strap off her shoulder. ‘You were so enthusiastic last night.’

The bathroom door opened.

‘Khushi?’ He sat up looking at her from top to bottom.

She stood there wearing a short, red night gown with a deep U.  Lacy nets adorned the neckline and the hem. She looked utterly sexy with her thick khol lined eyes, rose tinted lips and her long black hair on one shoulder.

He gulped as she came up to him. She placed her palm on his chest and pushed him back to lay on the pillow. Then she straddled him and raked her nails across his broad shoulders, his rippling chest, down to his abs and paused at the waistband of his pants. She leaned over so her lips were inches from his. ‘Tell me Mr. Arnav Singh Raizada, what I can do for you tonight.’

She knew he wouldn’t relent. She turned around and allowed him to claim her lips in mind numbing, heart stopping kiss. Then she pushed at his chest. ‘Look how beautifully these plants have grown Arnav.’

‘Why wouldn’t they?’ he said nonchalant. ‘You personally re-designed this garden five years ago.’

‘Thanks for buying me my dream house Arnav.’ Khushi’s face filled with pride as she looked at their perfect two storeyed white house, with white Georgian windows, white pillars and a white picket fence around it.

On their return from Dehradun five years ago, instead of going back to the Raizada House he had driven her to a gated community that was close to their farm house. Just as they entered the gates, she had realized it was the same place Arnav and she had visited on the night of Akash’s bachelor’s party, on her insistence.

Arnav had bought the house from the owner paying much more than what it was worth and had planned to gift it to her on her birthday. But their argument regarding the joint account had made him sceptical and he had kept mum. Then, when she had accepted the car without a fuss he had planned to surprise her with the house on his return from Singapore. Khushi remembered how thrilled she had been at a chance to re-design the garden to her liking. She however had to wait until much later to decorate the house as they had left for their honeymoon to Mauritius the very next day.

They had come back and had immediately left for the US, as Arnav needed to be back to take care of his business. After a two year stay they had returned back when Arnav realized that Khushi had begun to feel homesick.

They walked back into the house. ‘Are we all set for the party this evening?’

‘Well, the event organizers are taking care of everything,’ Khushi replied. ‘There is nothing for me to do.’

He looked at his phone and then back at her. ‘Looks like there is nothing for me to do either – at least for the next half hour,’ He turned on his husky voice. ‘There might be something we could do together.’

‘Arnav!’ Khushi gasped, her heart beating its erratic rhythm as he picked her up in his arms and walked up the stairs.

Later that evening, Khushi stood in the kitchen, staring dismally at the last batch of jalebis, that were burnt beyond recognition. She threw them in the trash cursing herself for her negligence. Even after years together, her husband had the ability to distract her to this extent. Oh well, it wasn’t going to be a big loss as she had made enough already.

When someone tapped her shoulder on her shoulder, she turned around. ‘Di!’ she exclaimed taking Anjali in a bear hug. They walked into the living room and Khushi saw Manav, coming in with a snoozing toddler in his arms. Arnav showed him to the guest bedroom so he could lay him down on the bed.

‘Khushi, the orchids look beautiful!’ exclaimed Anjali.

‘They just began to bloom Di.’ She looked around the living room to see her purple and white orchids, her pride and joy scattered all over the place.

‘You have put your husband to nanny job di.’ Arnav teased.

After Anjali and Shyam’s divorce, Manav had been instrumental in healing Anjali, slowly but surely. It was nearly a year later that he had proposed to her and she had accepted readily.

‘I haven’t put him up to anything,’ Anjali retorted. ‘He insists on doing this when we go out as he is so busy with the hospital.’

‘When do you plan to go back to work?’ Khushi enquired.

‘Since Aarav has turned two, he will be ready to go to play school very soon. I am going to start part time from next month,’ she explained. ‘I miss going to work.’

Manav came out of the bedroom. ‘The inmates of Ashray miss you more. Every time I visit, they ask me when you will be back. They don’t care about me at all.’ He sighed.

‘Stop the drama Manav,’ Anjali said affably. ‘You know they love you.’

‘Chachu!’ Ashu barged in like a tornado and Arnav picked him up in one sweep. ‘Did you get it?’ he asked excitedly.

Arnav put him down. ‘Go look in the shoe closet.’

‘Bhai, you spoil him too much,’ Aakash came in holding his one year old daughter in his arms. ‘That’s a 5000 rupees bat.’

‘Well a GM Icon bat doesn’t come for less and my budding cricketer has got to have the best.’ Arnav said proudly. ‘We might have the next Sachin Tendulkar in the making.’

‘Jeeju, put Akshara down next to Aarav in the guest bedroom.’

‘I simply love the style of your furniture Khushi,’ Payal said looking around the living room. All the furniture had been shipped in from their house in the US. The sofa flanked by huge table lamps, was a soft beige with a self design and the mahogany furniture contrasted it beautifully. The curtains and carpet matched to perfection.

‘When you came back, I thought you were planning to stay with us’, Akash said tentatively. ‘Bhai, please bury all hard feelings and come back home.’

Arnav looked at Khushi first and then turned toward Akash and Payal. ‘There are no hard feelings Akash,’ he began. ‘Mama and mami have always thought that the house belonged to them. It will be hard for them to accept me as the owner of that house, how much ever they try. I think we should just let it be. I never ever had any intention to stay at the Raizada House in any case. The house is a little too big for my taste.’

He continued. ‘Moreover, I have no say in this. This house was chosen by Khushi ten years ago. I go live wherever she tells me to.’

‘What crap!’ Khushi said hitting her husband’s arm. ‘I was the one who followed you to the US Mr Arnav Singh Raizada.’

‘But I made sure you were able to continue teaching dance to your students via web cast, didn’t I?’ Arnav raised his eyebrows cockily and Khushi agreed with a smile.

‘Were you able to finalize the deal on the dance school Bhai?’ Akash enquired.

There was a pin drop silence while Payal threw Akash a sharp look.

‘What deal?’ Khushi’s eyes were wide with curiosity.

‘That’s alright Akash,’ Arnav put Akash out of his misery. He looked at Khushi. ‘Mrs Bedi called me some time back. She is going away to the US to live with her son. She asked me if I was interested in buying the school.’

‘What?’ Khushi was astounded. ‘She didn’t tell me a word about this.’

‘I told her not to.’ Arnav opened a drawer in the centre table and took out the papers. ‘I was going to surprise you today.’

As all eyes turned on Khushi, she leaned in and kissed him on his cheek. ‘You think I can do this?’ She said tentatively.

‘Of course!’ he said without blinking an eye. ‘You will be able to reach out and help those who are interested in the art but can’t afford it.’

 ‘So you both packed for your trip tomorrow?’ Anjali said breaking into their moment.

‘I am still having second thoughts about it.’ Khushi muttered as she stood up.

‘We have to go Khushi,’ Arnav said looking at her with disbelief.‘The head of Sarpanch of Ghangaria has personally invited us.’

‘I heard you made a huge donation to build the towns surrounding the valley,’ Manav said.

‘It was just money Manav,’ Arnav said. ‘The people of those towns are the real heroes. Once it became habitable they went back and rebuilt their homes with their own hands.’

Suddenly there was a noise and both Arnav and Khushi rushed upstairs.

A little later, when they came down they held a drowsy toddler in each arm – their two year old twins Ananya and Kritika.

‘They look so adorable!’ Anjali exclaimed as Arnav and Khushi came down and sat down on the sofa. The twins dozed right back to sleep in their parents arms.

‘You are lucky you got twins Khushi,’ Payal said a little wistfully. ‘At least you don’t have go through pregnancy again.’ Payal wasn’t very happy with the fact that she had put on a lot of weight after the birth of her second one.

‘Lucky?’ Khushi said looking at her in disbelief. ‘Do you know how tough it is jiji? If Amma hadn’t been there to help me I don’t know what I would have done.’

‘And who told you Khushi won’t be going through pregnancy again?’ Arnav said nonchalantly.

‘No way!’Khushi’s eyebrows snapped together ominously.

‘I want a boy so I can play cricket.’

‘Arnav!’

‘Ok ok you can decide when you go to Dehradun tomorrow,’ Anjali winked at her brother.

Before Khushi could open her mouth again, the bell rang announcing the arrival of the elders, which was a cue to get the twins ready for their second birthday party.

Later that night, Arnav changed into his pajama pants and sat on the bed, browsing through the pictures on his iphone. He looked at one picture of the entire family and smiled. Mamiji kept a possessive hand on her grandson Ashu, mamaji standing docilely next to her. Garima held her granddaughter in her arms standing next to Shashi uncle who had recovered from his long illness, while Buaji looked grim faced. Akash stood next to him with his arm around Payal who stood sideways trying to make herself appear thinner.

He looked at the joyous face of his sister her arm around Nani, while Manav stood on her other side holding their son. In the middle of this group, he saw himself and his three angels. These last five years with Khushi had taught him the importance of family. He was glad Khushi had convinced him that they should get back to India. How could he miss all this?

The twins had enjoyed themselves immensely playing with their cousins and had happily gone with Payal and Akash who were keeping them for a few days until he and Khushi came back from Dehradun. This brought him back to the little fight he and Khushi had a little earlier.

First off all she had insisted on cleaning up and ended up coming late to bed. And then she had spent half an hour on the phone with her mom giving her instructions about how to take care of the twins. He had been miffed when she had told him she was having second thoughts about going on the trip and then she had told him he didn’t understand a mother’s feelings and walked into the bathroom and banged the door shut.

Two days later, Arnav and Khushi stood, looking at The Valley of Flowers in its full glory. ‘Arnav, it’s back!’ Khushi said emphatically clutching his arm to her breast. Then she sobered down. ‘I hope we never have to see devastation like what we saw five years ago.’

‘Khushi, what we saw was a result of man’s greed, the constant need to make money of everything. This was nature’s way of telling mankind that enough is enough. Until this gets into people’s heads, I don’t think we have seen the end of this.’

Arnav was in a sombre mood and Khushi knew that it was the result of the cold war since the night of the party.

‘Arnav I am sorry,’ she said turning toward him, her almond eyes searching his face. ‘I know I have become a little fussy since the twins came. I –‘

‘You can be as fussy as you want to be sweetheart,’ Arnav said pulling her into himself. ‘It’s your right as their mother.’

Khushi smiled radiantly, hearing words that were not uncommon to her ears anymore.

‘But it is also my right to complain,’ he quipped tongue in cheek.

Khushi went on her tip toes snaking her arms around his neck and looked deep into his caramel eyes. ‘I am listening.’ Her eyes dropped down to his lips.

Hell! Arnav swore under his breath as his head moved of its own volition to claim what his sweet wife was so blatantly offering, as the Valley stood witness to the effervescence of a love so pure that it had endured storms again and again only to get stronger with the passage of time.

Back in Delhi, two little girls slept peacefully in their great grandmother’s house after listening to the story of a prince and his princess, caught in the midst of love, hatred, deception and the ultimate triumph of love over hatred. Naniji ended the story saying they lived happily ever after, and why not she thought silently -- afterall they were written in the stars.

The End