Making Her Mine- An IPKKND story.

Chapter 9 - Inspection

Arnav regretted everything less than 10 seconds after it all arrived. First, there was a hullabaloo in the neighborhood when the air conditioner arrived. The whole neighborhood was like his house, where everyone thought everything was their personal business.

And when he was signing for the deliveries, the looks on his in-laws' faces made him realize his mistake. Buaji looked humiliated, Garima Aunty looked embarrassed, and Khushi looked livid.

"Arnav bitwa, why did you have to order this? We are getting a new cooler," Buaji said.

"It's okay, Buaji. It's going to be useful for the house anyway," Arnav replied, trying hard not to say the wrong thing. But then it was made worse when the delivery man handed him some bags and said loudly, "Here's all your soaps and towels."

"Er—I am used to using my own things, so..." Arnav muttered, heart sinking.

It was grim. They installed the air conditioner in Khushi's room and left. But he couldn't bring himself to turn it on, so he pulled out a t-shirt from his luggage bag and sat down to work, ignoring the heat and irrationally feeling like his work was sub-par because he wasn't dressed properly.

There was some commotion outside, and Amma and Buaji were whispering at the door. Arnav sighed and went outside to check.

A gaggle of women in brightly colored sarees were sitting squashed together on the couch in the living room, craning their necks eagerly as he stepped out.

"Arnav bitwa, these are our friends and neighbors," Buaji said, looking a bit guilty. "They've come to meet you."

Khushi emerged from the kitchen with a tray laden with tea and snacks. She shot him a glare before heading to her neighbors.

"Uhhh," Arnav said, unsure of what to do. Talk to these women?

"Come, come, Daamad Ji, let me introduce them to you," Buaji was saying as she pulled him towards the group and sat him, rather forcefully, on an empty chair beside the women.

The women giggled and eyed him like he was a zoo animal. "Waaah, he is so handsome," one of them said. She looked ancient and had one giant yellow tooth protruding from the front of her mouth. Nobody dared subject him to this kind of thing at Shantivan. But after the whole aircon and soap and towel incident in the morning, Arnav didn't know how to extract himself out of this situation without causing more offense.

There was a barrage of questions. Was he educated? What did he do? Some truly annoying comments about how lucky Khushi was to have married so well, into such a wealthy family. He avoided looking at Buaji or at Khushi.

Arnav sat with a grimace plastered on his face, feeling like this was among the most excruciating moments of his life. Finally, finally, all the tea was drunk, the women chorused once more about how handsome he was, and handed Khushi some money. There was some tussle over the money, with the women forcing it into her hands while she tried to give it back.

"Always keep our Khushi bitiya happy, and always be at each other's side," the old woman said as she limped away, after mussing his hair and caressing Khushi's cheeks.

"I will," Arnav replied automatically and caught Khushi's eyes. A not-so-angry glare—the briefest one—before she looked away.

It was impossible to get any work done in this house. It was too hot and too noisy—two-wheelers drove past every other minute, always tooting the most miserable sounding horns as they passed this house. Voices and laughter rang all around him, as if the whole neighborhood, the gol-gappa and bhel and chaddi-banyan sellers were sitting against the walls of this house. He gave up.

Lunchtime was also miserable. It was even hotter, and the family was feeding him more boiled vegetables while they ate curries that smelled divine. How could he quietly tell Garima Aunty that he didn't need "healthy" food? He made a face and caught Khushi looking at him, a sly grin on her face. She was enjoying punishing him.

No, he would have to figure out something.