Dark Night Dawning

Chapter 12

The next morning the Raizada family was on its way to the Lord Shiva temple. This temple was situated 8 kms from Dehradun, on the banks of a stream. It was known as the Tapkeshwar temple. It had got this name because a drop of water always dripped from the rocks on the Shivlinga placed inside a cave. A special pooja was conducted on the full moon day of every month. As the Raizada family stood in reverence inside the shrine, the priest completed the aarti and distributed the prasad.

'Thankyou Shiviji for saving Laad Governor's life. And you too Devi Maiyya, I will come to mandir as soon as I return to Delhi.' Khushi said a silent prayer.

Arnav looked at the expressions on his wife's face and knew that she was probably having her one way chat with God. He couldn't help that small smile that stole into his lips.

'Thank God you were saved yesterday Chotte!' exclaimed Anjali, 'I don't know what I would have done.'

'I think we should thank Khushi, don't you Di? People say that pregnancy makes women emotional, but with you one can never say.' Arnav teased his sister to bring her out of her melancholy mood.

'Yes we are going to thank her,' she smiled through her tears, 'That's why we are going to have a special dinner in her honour tonight at the restaurant.'

'There is no need for all this Di.' Khushi's heart swelled with happiness at Anjali's sweet gesture.

'Don't spoil our chances of getting a party Khushiji' joked Akash.

The Raizada family returned to the hotel and lunched at the restaurant downstairs. Akash and Payal had decided to go to the Kempty falls which wasn't too far from the hotel. On the way back they would visit Gun hill from where they could see a good view of the Himalayan ranges one side and the Doon valley on the other side. Mamiji refused to go as she was motion sick and was tired of traveling on all the winding roads. Mamaji stayed back to give her company. Anjali and Naniji wanted to rest in their rooms. Arnav told them that he had to go to the mall to buy and new phone as he had lost the one he had during the fall. After that he would be working in the business centre as the crisis in the office was still going on. Though Khushi would have loved to see the falls, she decided to go to her room to rest as she no intention of being kabab mein haddi between her jiji and jeejaji.

Khushi lay on the bed thinking about the past day's event. She had been shocked to see Arnav at the cliff. It made her realize that life could be so fleeting. One moment you think the entire world is in front of you and the next moment puff....it's all gone. There are so many things you want to tell someone, but you keep procrastinating thinking that there is a lot of time. Then one fine day it is too late, as that someone might not even be there in your life. She knew that she and Arnav had grown a little closer during their Nainital trip. He had changed his mind about their 6 month marriage and had made it a permanent one, hadn't he? Though that decision might have had something to do with the last night they had spent together in Nainital. But she couldn't deny that they had grown closer even after that in the two weeks she took care of him while he was injured, and then the week when Lavanya came to stay with them. She knew what she had to do. She would have to tell Arnav about Shyam and would have to accept whatever consequences the revelation would bring about. Maybe Arnav would also tell her the reason for their marriage. Was there a possibility for a fresh start?

Arnav was in the business centre working with the team in US who were struggling to fix the problem there were in. Each passing hour was making it obvious that he was needed there. He would have to leave tomorrow night. As he furiously type out an important e-mail his thoughts strayed to the freak accident on the Cliffside. He still couldn't believe the way he had fallen over. Even more freakish than that was the way Khushi had saved his life. She could have lost her life trying to save him. What did that mean? He knew that he and Khushi had grown closer in the past few weeks, in spite of his intentions to stay away from her. He had always thought that it was a physical attraction, but was it just that or was it something more? Was there a possibility that he had misjudged her somehow? He would have to ask her about Shyam.