Dark Night Dawning

Chapter 3

That evening, when Arnav came back home from work, he was extremely tired. He had another call scheduled in the next fifteen minutes. He sat on the living room sofa, laid his head back on it, closed his tired eyes and yelled at Hariprakash for a cup of coffee.

He opened his eye when the aroma of freshly brewed coffee reached his nostrils. 'What the _____?'

He saw Khushi standing in front of him with a cup, a smile on her lips. There was something different about her. She was wearing a saree. There was nothing wrong with wearing a saree. He even liked them. The women in his house wore sarees. But he had seen nothing like this one. It was in one of the oddest shades of pink with a bright gold border which she had pinned up on one side and then brought the pallu over her head in a ghoongat. No one except naniji did that in this house.

Then something caught his eye beyond her. He turned his head to see a bunch of kids staring at him.

'What's the hell is going on here, Khushi?' asked Arnav.

'Your coffee, Arnavji' answered Khushi demurely.

'I know that!' he exclaimed rolling his eyes, 'I am asking about them,' he said pointing to the kids.

'Oh, they are my students, Arnavji,' explained Khushi, 'When I came out to make coffee for you, they just tagged along.'

'Tell them that this is not a circus and that they should wait for you in the room,' said Arnav impatiently, 'Moreover why did you come out here to make coffee. Where is Hariprakash?'

'I told Hariprakashji that I will be taking care of all this from now on,' she said, 'Would you like me to take your laptop bag upstairs?'

'What?' asked Arnav incredulous, 'No!'

'Alright,' she said, 'If you don't need anything else I will go back to my tuition. Please let me know if you need anything else Arnavji.'

Khushi walked back taking her students along with her, leaving Arnav totally confused. What was she up to?

Couple of hours later, Arnav on call with a client, paced about the room, deep in conversation. Suddenly, he found Khushi standing in front of him. Why had she crept up on him like that? She made a sign that it was time for dinner. He made a sign for her to go away. He resumed his meeting. In about 5 minutes she was back. After this process repeated two more times, he put the phone on mute.

'Khushi!' he exclaimed, 'Can't you see I am in a meeting? Leave me alone.'

'It is very late Arnavji,' she said firmly, 'You will have to eat you dinner now, so that you can take your medication.'

'Are you serious?' he asked her anger rising in him.

'Yes!' she said coming up to him, she took his blue tooth device and threw it on the bed.

'Do you know what this is going to cost me?' he asked her with an incredulous stare, 'This client is very important.'

'So what?' she said nonchalantly, 'Ask them to call you tomorrow.'

'They are overseas,' he said with gritted teeth, 'Do you even know what that means?'

'Whatever!' she said, 'Health is more important.'

'Go down Khushi,' he said gritting his teeth, 'I will be there in 5 minutes.'

When he came down 10 minutes later, he saw Khushi standing by his chair. He realized that she was determined to continue with this drama. When he sat on his chair, she began to serve. After 5 minutes, Arnav began to pray for this ordeal to be over. To begin with, she was hovering about while he ate. He hated that. Then she began to talk about people he had no idea about. She told him about some funny incident about a relative from Lucknow who happened to be a theatre actor.