Choti Si Duniya - ArShi FF

137. Arnav Malik's world

This chapter was inspired from a subplot in my other book 'Teri Yaadein' chapter 29 and readers' demands. Especially Adventures and Somoyta ,this is for you guys.

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It was one of the rarest, rarest of the rare occasions when Arnav had the remote. Of TVs, of course. Because despite there being four large screen television sets in Shantivan, one of them being in his kids' bedroom itself, still the TV in his room was rarely available for him and Khushi to watch. Chiku mostly hogged the remote of the kids' room TV to watch cricket matches, so Aru and Pari (and Teddy) would, by default, watch cartoons on his. Honestly, over the years, first when Chiku was the cartoon-lover and now the twins, cartoon programs had automatically become the TRP-toppers in his and Khushi's bedroom. The main TV in the hall was usually under the command of Nani ji and Mami ji, while the one in Akash and Payal's bedroom was obviously out of question for him.

So, today, one of the rarest times, as khushi (and payal) had taken all 5 kids to some other kid's birthday party, he found some free time at hand and a very quiet bedroom. Mostly, he always tagged along wherever kids-and actually- khushi went. He was not used to this quiet in his bedroom since past 14 years. And finally, after asking Khushi for the 10th time how long she and their kids would take to return and getting rebuked by her- 'stop behaving like our kids', he dejectedly switched on the TV.

His first instinct automatically took him to cartoon network- twins' favorite, "Motu and Patlu" was ongoing. But it made him miss them even more. So he flipped to other channels. News- well, he already had enough of that in office, his media people kept him updated. Then Hindi TV shows that Mami ji (and sometimes even payal and Khushi) watched were too idiotic for him. He often scoffed watching the hero take episodes after episodes just to realize he was in love. What rubbish. Who does that?

Finally, he landed on the movie channels. And his fingers automatically paused from moving to next channel as he recognized the movie that was currently playing. It was the last movie he watched before leaving Lucknow. Actually, the last movie he watched in theatres until Khushi came in his life years later and took him to a movie date (don't remind him that date was with entire Raizada khandaan!).

He had missed the starting of the movie. But he remembered it very well, despite that. Despite it being so many years since then. He watched with a soft, wistful smile as the heroine, Rose, stood at the edge of the ship's deck, her arms stretched out like she was flying, and Jack behind her, holding her steady. The breeze blew through her hair, and the ocean stretched endlessly ahead. Jack said something that made her laugh. Then both of them stood there in silence, soaking in the moment. Just the sound of waves and music in the background.

"Arnav, 6 baje ka show hai, bhulna mat (it's a 6pm show, don't forget). Sahu cinema." Raghav Bhatnagar had said

"Not possible today yar, maa ko kya bolunga (what will I tell maa)?"

"Come on, Arnav. Make any excuse. Your sister is getting married, right? Tell that you want to buy something for the wedding. Koi kuch nahi bolega (No one will say anything)." Sameer Sheikh had added.

"What are you thinking, Malik? Haven't you seen the posters? There's a kissing scene in there! where else can we watch it?" the other guy had said trying harder to convince him. And Arnav had found himself agreeing.

14-year-olds. On the verge of being young men. They were like any other teenagers in 1997 sub-urban India. When computers were rare, internet was out of question, and telephones meant landlines or pagers.

Arnav smiled as he remembered that evening. He and his friends had indeed gone to watch 'Titanic' at Sahu Cinema. And he had returned home a fan of that movie, and that beauitful heroine. He even brought a bracelet with the alphabet K (for Kate Winslet), and decided he would give it to her when he met her one day.