Valley of Flowers Chapter 24

ARNAV came down the stairs and saw the entire Raizada family, including mamaji and mamiji seated in the living room in deep discussion. They fell silent the moment they saw him.

‘Bhai!’ Akash exclaimed. ‘Weren’t you supposed to be back tomorrow?’

‘I came in a day early.’  He replied tersely.

Naniji got up and came up to him. ‘Khushi didn’t come back home yesterday night Chotte,’ she said lines of concern creasing her forehead. ‘I assumed that she had gone to her parents’ house. I found out this morning that she is not there. I was worried and called Akash as I didn’t know how to reach you.’

The doorbell rang and the Garima walked in along with Buaji ‘Why did you call us Arnav bitwa?’ she asked worriedly. ‘Is everything alright?’

‘Khushi is missing since yesterday Amma,’ Payal informed her with a low voice.

‘Bhai, do you think we should call the police?’ Akash asked.

‘No Akash, we don’t need to.’ Arnav said to everyone’s surprise.

‘Thank God you know where she is!’ Naniji exclaimed with relief.

‘No Nani I don’t,’ he said looking at Garima intently. ‘But I am sure her mother does.’ His mother-in-law needed to answer a few pertinent questions.

‘What are you saying Arnav bitwa?’ Garima said with shock.

Arnav gave her the letter and once she finished reading it, tears started rolling down her cheeks. Garima was silent. Buaji snatched the letter from Garima and read through it.

‘I knew this was going to happen!’ She exclaimed emphatically. She looked at Arnav scornfully. ‘Didn’t I tell you this girl had bad blood on the day of your wedding? That day you defended her saying it was the bring up that was important. Now look what she has done.’

‘Jiji please be quiet!’ Garima begged.

‘No, I am not going to be quiet today,’ Buaji retorted. She looked at Arnav. ‘Five years ago this shameless girl cavorts with you and your mother gave us a good dressing down for that.

‘She came home and insulted my brother and sister-in-law about Khushi’s bring up. She saidKhushi had set a trap for her son because he was rich. She also saidshe was not a fool like her brother who had got his son married to Payal. She wanted to get you married to a girl of your level --Lavanya Kashyap.’

Arnav looked at Garima his eyes burning with and his heart filled with dread. ‘Is it true aunty?’

‘Yes,’ she whispered in anguish. ‘Your mother -- warned Khushi to stay away from you.’

‘When was this?’

‘On the morning of Akash and Payal’s wedding day.’

The day of Akash and Payal’s wedding flashed before his eyes. She had ignored him the entire day, had got into an argument with him later, under the stairs and had refused to talk to him all through the wedding in the evening.Khushi seemed to have changed overnight.

‘These people are lying saale saab!’ Shyam exclaimed suddenly. ‘How can they accuse mother-in-law like that? Especially now, when she is no more? Can she come and defend herself?

‘They are trying to cover up for their wanton daughter’s behaviour. She must have done all this for money.’

Arnav’s eyes darkened at Shyam’s insinuation about Khushi, and was also a little surprised by his outcry. He was the last person he had expected to speak up in support of his mother. How much did he even know her?

‘No!’ Garima exclaimed. ‘Sharadaji gave Khushi the money to go away to Mumbai.She cried the entire night after your mom left our house. ‘I didn’t even console the poor soul,’ Garima lamented. ‘All that girl has craved for, all her life is a little love and affection. I failed her miserably! I had always been a little reserved with that sweet girl because I didn’t want to offend my in-laws and also because I had been bogged down by family tragedy in the past.’

She looked at Arnav, her eyes pleading for understanding. ‘I didn’t know what happened between you two at the time but I realized later that Khushi genuinely loved you.’

I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU

Arnav remembered how she had chanted over and over again as he made love to her under the banyan tree. It was at this beautiful moment under the banyan tree, when she gave herself with abandon, had he realized that Khushi had come to mean a lot to him in the last few months.

But had he told that to the girl who had trusted him implicitly? N0. He had equivocated.

‘Even if my sister-in-law did offer money, Khushi could have refused,’ Mamiji interjected.

‘At the time even I was surprised that she took the money,’ Garima said quietly. ‘But she later told me that Sharadaji threatened to ---‘ She paused.‘ ---Khushi didn’t want to see her babuji in trouble.’

‘How dare you accuse my mother-in-law of blackmail?’ Shyam exclaimed. ‘Do you think a woman of her stature would have stooped so low as to implicate your husband in fraud?’

Garima looked nonplussed as she shook her head. ‘I was trying to say that she threatened to stop Akash and Payal’s wedding if Khushi didn’t comply with her demands. Payal’sbabuji would have been devastated ---’

‘Oh no!’Nanaiji put a hand to her head. ‘Sharada…’

‘Don’t believe their lies Naniji!’ Shyam told her.

‘I agree with damadji. ‘Sharada was spoilt and arrogant but even I find it hard to believe what these people are accusing her of. I think they are lying!’

‘Amma, please don’t say thing likes that.’ Akash said in his mother-in-laws’ defence.

Arnav walked up to Shyam and raised his hand and slapped him right across his face. A shocked gasp went through the room as everyone froze with shock.

‘Arnav!’ Shyam roared back in anger holding a hand to his cheek.

‘So my mother blackmailed Khushi,’ Arnav said brown eyes simmering with intense rage. ‘How did you know about that?’Anjali’s analysis of Shyam’s nature a week ago, had made him extra perceptive. In the midst of the chaos he had not missed Shyam’s goof up. 

‘I never said that! It was she –‘

Arnav slapped him again. ‘Aunty never mentioned fraud. You said my mother wouldn’t have stooped sow low as to implicate Khushi’s father in fraud. If she didn’t – then you must have.’

‘Have you gone mad Arnav?’ Mamiji exclaimed. ‘Why are you hitting damadji like this? How can you believe these people over your own family?’

‘They are my family too!’ He said loudly and clearly.

‘You are angry because, you went against us to support Khushi in this house!After all that you did for her, what does she do? She leaves you with this.’ She waved the letter in her hand.

‘NO!’ He roared. ‘Everything that Khushi wrote in this letter is a lie,’ Arnav said defiantly. ‘She only wrote this letter because I told her about a letter my mother gave me after she had left me five years ago – a letter she never wrote in the first place.’

A little while ago

As he paced about his room, hehad accidentally stepped on a plastic bag and as he kicked it aside, a small square object slipped out of it. It looked like a walk man. He took the bag and spilled its contents on the floor. They belonged to Khushi. It looked like she had forgotten this bag in a hurry.

He squatted on the floor as a familiar object caught his eye. It was a tattered navy blue T-shirt with the words –“I was an atheist …..until I realized I was God” written on it. It used to be his. He remembered that this was the t-shirt he wore when he had rescued Khushi from the hooligans at the Shiv-Gauri mandir. He had asked her to get rid of it so no one in the house found out.

He found more. The movie tickets of the movie where he had held her hand, a paper napkin from the Taj Mahal resort where they had spent New Year’s eve before Akash and Payal’s wedding, hoards of picture clippings of his articles in some business magazine in the past five years.

On a second look, he realized that walk-man was his too. He had given it to Khushi ten years ago during their trip to the Valley of Flowers. The he saw a diary dated ten years ago. He opened it.

There were picture clippings of Madhuri Dixit in some movie. He read through some of the things she had written and his jaw tightened at the plight of the thirteen year old girl.

“Today again Buaji told me about me about not being their blood. I don’t understand because we both have the same blood group”

“What can I do if my teacher recommended me to the old Mrs Raizada for the dance classes? I don’t even want to go there, but now she says I have to go. I will do anything as long as she doesn’t talk ill of my sweet amma”

“Anjaliji is planning to take jiji and me to Dehradun during the holidays. My amma used to tell me that her nani lived in a small town near there. I am so excited.”

There seemed to be a few pages missing from the diary and then there was a page where she had written Arnav plus Khushi inside a heart shaped design in the center of the page while she seemed to have scribbled her signature all around it. On closer inspection, he realized that the letter K was beautifully blended with the letter A making it look like one single letter. Something flashed to him.

He looked for the letter he had thrown on the floor, picked it up and straightened it out. Her signature was the same. She signed in English and not hindi. He hurried to the wardrobe and opened the drawer. He took out a diary and found the letter he had preserved for the last five years – the one his mother had given to him when he had come back home. The sign was in hindi. Not only that, the handwriting in the letter was different from the one Khushi had left for him. She did tell him that she hadn’t written any letter. So why had his mother told him that it was Khushi’s? Who had written this letter?

Now he knew who had written that letter five years ago. He looked at Shyam and walked toward him. ‘I thought the letter had been written by Khushi because it was in pure Lucknowi hindi.’ He caught hold of his collar. ‘What I --and probably you --didn’t know Shyam, was that Khushi doesn’t sign in hindi. You wrote that letter five years ago. Why would you do something like this to people you didn’t even know?’

 Arnav raised his hand to punch him when Shyam screamed, ‘Rani Sahiba!’

Just as Arnav loosened his grip, Shyam ran toward his wife who was standing just inside the main door with Dr Manav on her side. ‘Your brother has gone mad! He is saying ---‘

‘I know Shyam,’ Anjali said quietly. ‘I heard everything.’ She raised her hand and slapped him hard, tears streaming down her cheeks.

‘Di!’ Arnav rushed to his sister who would have collapsed if Manav hadn’t caught her in time. He looked at Manav, ‘what happened to Di?’

Manav looked at Arnav and spoke gravely. ‘On Khushi’s birthday we went to return the slipper she was wearing when she fell from the stairs. They told us that the slipper hadn’t cut because of wear and tear. It had been neatly cut with a blade.’ He looked at Shyam intently.

‘Don’t be ridiculous!’ He exclaimed. ‘Why would I want to do that?’

Anjali looked at him, her eyes flashing with anger. ‘Because you wanted to be the sole beneficiary of dad’s house.’

 ‘What nonsense!’ Shyam exclaimed. ‘Are you accusing me just because babuji wrote the will in my name?’

‘No, I am accusing you because you killed him!’ Her voice echoed all over the house.

‘What ?’ Arnav was astounded by his sister’s words.

‘You know babuji died of a heart attack in the hospital.’Shyam looked at Manav. ‘You were there Dr Manav.’

‘Something triggered the wheezing that led to his heart attack,’ Dr Manav said. ‘I checked at the hospital. You were the one who came to give him lunch that afternoon.’

‘So what?’ he countered. ‘Anyone could have come in after me.’

‘Let’s not waste our time with him Manav,’ Anjali interposed herself. ‘We found Raju with the black mail money you paid him for his silence.’

Shyam went completely still.

Dr Manav explained that after realizing that her slipper had been tampered with, Anjali and he and gone to Ashray to enquire with the proprietors about her dad’s care. There they had found that the boy Raju, who had been assigned to take care of him had absconded to his village in UP since the day Anjali’s dad was admitted to the hospital. Through his friend, they had traced him to the village and after a week of search had found his house. When the police took him in for questioning he had confessed to everything.

In the blink of an eye Shyam ran across the hall and into the utility to get to the back door. Arnav was on his heels and caught him just as he reached the garden. Arnav had him pinned against a tree and began pummelling his face.

‘Where the f#$% is she?’ he raged. ‘Where is Khushi?’

‘I don’t know!’ He screamed in pain when he received a blow to his gut.

‘Don’t play games with me Shyam! I know you have a hand in this.’

‘I swear I don’t know where she is,’ Shyam said as blood oozed from a cut in the lip.After a couple of punches more he began to beg. ‘Stop! Don’t hit me!I really don’t know where she is!’ He screamed and a malevolent look entered his eyes. ‘I guess she ran away in shame when she found out that her mom had been having an affair with your dad!’

The entire Raizada family who had just followed them, gasped in shock while Arnav froze. ‘What?’

Shyam slipped his hand into his pocket and took out the photograph of Arnav’s dad and Khushi’s mother and threw it on the floor. ‘See for yourself.’

As Arnav picked up the photograph, his face went pale.

Anjali came up to him and took the photograph. ‘This photograph is obviously fake!’ She said emphatically. ‘Dad didn’t have any affair.’

Arnav looked at Anjali his eyes brimming with unshed tears.

‘Arnav?’ she said and began shaking her head.

‘I found this photo in your father’s belongings, Anjali,’ Shyam began to laugh. ‘Look --the sort of family you come from!’ He jeered. ‘Mom was a conniving b@#$%, dad was an adulterer and your brother has probably married his own half-sister because the lady in that picture is none other than Khushi’s mother!’

As an audible gasp went through the family members, Arnav lunged at Shyam and wrapped his hands around his.‘One more lie from your mouth and you won’t be fit enough to talk!’  Akash and Manav rushed to his side and extricated him with effort.

‘Why don’t you ask your …..current mother-in-law Garimaji?’ Shyam coughed out. ‘Ask her if this photograph is fake.’

Everyone looked toward Garima staring at the photograph in her hand. Her face looked like she had just seen a ghost. She raised her head and looked at Arnav. ‘Arun Malik was your father?’ she whispered.

‘Oh God!’ Anjali exclaimed in horror. ‘Is it --- true? My father and Khushi’s mother?’

Arnav felt like the entire world was falling around him. He didn’t want to hear the answer. He began  to walk away from there when he heard Garima’s yell out.

‘No No No! The woman in the picture is not Khushi’s mother!

Arnav stopped in his tracks and turned around, his face twisted in confusion.

‘She is Khushi’s aunt Gauri – her mother Gayatri’s twin sister.’

Arnavfelt the life seep back into him. He turned toward the policemen. ‘I think you should take him now,’ He indicated toward Shyam. ‘I am pretty sure Khushi gave Shyam fifty lakhs. You can confirm by checking the serial number from my bank. I am not sure he is telling the truth about Khushi’s whereabouts. Get it out of him.’

Manav accompanied the police assuring Anjali that he would take care of the formalities.

Arnavurged everyone to go back into the house. Once everyone had taken their seats he turned toward Garima. ‘Khushi’s mother had a twin sister? She never told me.’

‘We have been living together for more than twenty five years and she hasn’t told us!’ Buaji grated.

‘Payal’s father knows,’ Garima said quietly.‘I swear I did not know that  your dad was Arun Malik --- Since Sharadaji and you had the name Raizada we never could make that connection.’

‘Please continue aunty.’ Arnav urged.

‘Gauri and Gayatri were my beautiful, identical twin sisters, older to me by three years. They were inseparable and had decided to marry brothers or best friends so that they could live close to each other.’ She reminisced with a wistful smile.

‘Our family were very good friends with the Maliks and socialized a lot with them. Arun was their only son and Ajay was his best friend. We all grew up together.’

‘During the summer Arun came home after completing his engineering in Delhi, he and Gauri realized that their friendship had turned into something much deeper. Luckily for them, our fathers decided that Gauri and Arun should get married so that the friendship could be turned into a family relationship. Arun and my sister was ecstatic that they had their elders’ blessings. Around the same time Gayatri had also fallen in love with Ajay.’

‘Shameless girls!’Buaji commented.

‘It’s not a crime to fall in love Buaji,’ Anjali interjected. ‘Please continue auntyji.’

‘Four years later, as Gauri completed her degree, my father brought up the topic with Arun’s father. To his shock, his friend told him that he had never taken that verbal promise seriously and had fixed Arun’s match elsewhere. He did not divulge information of the match and my father was too proud to ask. He came back home hurt and angry and declared that he would get Gauri married to someone else. He forbade her to meet Arun.’

‘But Arun managed to meet Gauri somehow and explained to her that he was not interested in the match and begged her to elope with him. But she refused. She told him that she couldn’t put Gayatri and my marriages at stake. She advised him to go back and marry the girl of his father’s choice.’

‘Sounds like a movie story,’ Mamiji said caustically.

‘It’s not a story!’ Naniji retorted. ‘Garimaji is telling the truth.’ She looked at Arnav and Anjali.

‘We saw your father for the first time at a common friend’s wedding in Delhi,’ Naniji began. ‘Your Nanaji and I realized that Sharada was very taken in by him. So we enquired about him and found out that he was almost engaged to another girl. The marriage broker told their match was “written in the stars”

‘Sharada was very upset and insisted that she would marry only him or not marry at all. Your Nanaji was forced to send the proposal to Mr Malik. He responded positively and the marriage was fixed.’

‘What happened to Gauri?’ Naniji said softly.

‘She refused to marry anyone. Dad was already under stress when he found out about Gayatri and Ajay. He refused to let Gayatri marry him. As a result she declared she wouldn’t marry either. But Ajay loved Gayatri so much that he told her he would wait for her as long as it took.’

‘Unable to explain to his relatives, my father sent both my sisters to live with our naniji in a small town near Dehradun. He began to search alliances for me and with great difficulty I finally married Payal’s father. Soon after that my dad passed away.’

‘You hid the fact that you had a sister until Gayatri came to our house when you were pregnant with Payal,’ Buaji said angrily.

‘According to my dad they both were dead. He didn’t think he was hiding any information.’ Garima explained. ‘Gayatri was forced to come because I was confined to bed in the final stages of my pregnancy.My mother was sick herself and Gauriw ent to Lucknow to tend to her.

‘The moment Gayatri saw Payal, she knew she wanted to get married and have a child of her own. She and Ajay took my mother’s blessings, married and settled down in Lucknow taking care of my mother. Gauri went back to Dehradun. In three years Khushi was born.

‘Gauri came to Lucknow to take care of Gayatri and she fell in love with Khushi so much that she stayed with her for a year.’

Arnav turned toward Garima ‘Dad met a woman at a fair when I was seven years old. It was Gauri wasn’t it?’

Garima nodded her head sadly. ‘Gauri suddenly expressed her wish to go to the fair that day. Normally she didn’t go anywhere but that day she wanted to – for some reason. She found you, lost and crying and when she waited for your parent’s to show up she was shocked to see Arun.

‘They talked for a long while catching up about their lives. Arun wanted to meet her again but she had refused. The next morning Gauri packed her bags and left.

‘Arun came by a few weeks later to Gayatri’s house as she was living in my father’s old house. When Gayatri told him she had gone back to Dehradun he decided to go there to meet her. Gayatri panicked and called Gauri.

‘When Arun reached Dehradun he had no idea of the shock that awaited him. Gauri had consumed poison and was dead.’

‘That’s when dad met with the accident,’ Arnav said slowly looking at Anjali. ‘He was on the way back from Dehradun.’

‘It wasn’t anybody’s fault,’ Garima said. ‘Gayatri told me that Gauri had been depressed from a long time. When she saw Khushi it had gotten worse because she had come to realize she could never have such a child of her own. She was a broken woman.

‘She didn’t want your father to leave his family and come to her at such a vulnerable stage in her life. She was afraid she would give in to him as she still loved him..That is why she took her own life.’

A little later, Arnav dropped Garima and Buaji home. After Buaji had gone inside the house, Garima shut the door and stepped out in the porch.

‘Arnav bitwa,’ she began in a low-voice. ‘Khushi was very small when she came to live with us. ‘Since Khushi’s mother had refused to marry and eventually married her love after so many years, jiji had a bad impression about her. Sheincessantly taunted Khushi about coming from bad blood. I wish I had stopped her. I wish I had told her about her mother and Gauri.

‘That is the only reason why Khushi believed Shyam. I hope my little girl is okay.’ She began to cry.

‘I will find her aunty. I promise.’

He came back home and went to straight to Anjali’s room. She lay on nani’s lap crying. She sat up and hugged him.

‘I am sorry I didn’t believe you earlier Di --,’ Arnav said, ‘—about mom.’ He looked at Naniji. ‘I don’t even know her anymore.’

‘It was our fault really,’ Naniji said sadly. ‘Your Nanaji pampered Sharada a lot as she was his favourite. There was nothing he wouldn’t do for her. He would get her things before she would ask for it. Mahendra’s resentment for your mother starts from this fact.

‘After Sharada got married to your dad, she realized her mistake. She realized that though she had managed to get him physically, he was lost to her mentally. He was a perfect husband to her but her insecurities made her a bad wife. It miffed her to no end that she couldn’t make him dance to her whims and fancies. She couldn’t adjust with his middle class family in Lucknow and urged him to move to Delhi. He refused. When Anjali was born, she came here and refused to go back until he came and cajoled her to go back with him.

‘Then you were born and it seemed like things were okay for a few years. Then he met with the accident and things went downhill from there.

‘Once she lost your dad she latched on to you, Chotte. So much that she ignored Anjali her eldest who also needed her love.

‘Your Nanaji and I worried about her behaviour but what could we do? She was our daughter. We felt bad for her.’

‘So all that she did was a result of her insecurities,’ Arnav surmised rubbing his eyes.‘She sent Khushi away from me and brought Shyam into your life. God she ruined our lives didn’t she Di?’

Anjali sat next to him. ‘No Arnav,’ she touched his cheek. ‘She couldn’t quiet manage to do that. The love Khushi and you have,is too strong for that.’

‘But Di, you didn’t deserve the life she chose for you.’

‘Mom was too disturbed to comprehend the consequences of her actions Arnav,’ Anjali said serenely. ‘She had a failed marriage behind her, she knew you were upset about Khushi, her dad had just died and her brother was kicking her out of the house. Shyam had pushed her into a corner. She had no choice but to give in to his demands.‘I wish she had confided in me. I could have helped her.’

‘Di, take care of yourself first,’ Arnav said, ‘you have gone through quiet a trauma yourself. You know I am there for you, right?’

‘Now that I know I have my brother backing me up I have nothing to worry about do I?’ She smiled through her tears. ‘I have my whole life ahead of me. I am not going to sit and mope around.’ She wiped her tears.

‘She never understood that she was the other woman, did she?’Arnav said out of the blue.

‘What?’ Anjali’s eyebrows snapped together in confusion.

‘I am talking about mom. Think about it Di,’ Arnav said, ‘dad might have been happy if he had ended up with Gauri and mom might have been happy if she had met the person meant for her.’

‘I still can’t believe dad was in love with another woman.’ Anjali said. ‘Aren’t you angry with him Arnav?’

‘For the first time in years I am not,’ he said. ‘In fact I think I finally understand why he became that way.’

‘That’s because you have finally understood what it is to be in love,’ Nanijisaid. She looked up at him. ‘I know you don’t believe in all this…..but Khushi and you are also written in the stars, chotte.’ Naniji said, reminding him about his childhood days when she used to tell him mythological stories of prince and princesses.

‘I believe Nani.  said simply and nodded his head.

It was the wee hours of the morning, when Arnav went back to his room. He looked at the items Khushi had collected over the years and his eyes filled with tears. The time he had spent burning in hatred, Khushi had only loved him more and more. Five precious years.An image of an eighteen year old Khushi as she stood in front of his mother, flashed in front of his eyes and he fell on his knees tears flowing down his cheeks.

His agonized cry echoed through the walls of the huge Raizada House and up the heavens above, loud enough to pierce the heart of humans and ghosts alike.