Prescribed Insanity

Chapter 3: Meet and Greet

"Chotte, when Ashish and Garima are here, you will touch their feet like Anjali does. Don't make me glare at you to do it."

"Nani you know I don't believe in touching feet. I find it incredibly stupid."

"Then you will feel incredibly stupid while doing it, but you will do it. Let them not think that I did not raise you two right."

"Nani it's 2019. Literally no one cares."

"I care in 2019 and I will care in 2029 if I am alive. And one day when you have a little son or daughter of your own and they refuse to touch your feet, then you will realize."

"I would be profoundly pleased if they don't Nani. Trust me."

"At least you just agreed to having kids in the future. I consider that one battle won."

"What the-! DI, if I end up saying something now don't you Chotte Chotte me."

"Nani, Chotte, if you two are done, I can hear a car outside. Can we please not scare our guests away at the very threshold of our house? Yes? Good."

****

Ashish and Garima Gupta were greeted with much vehemence at the main entrance of the Raizada mansion, their two daughters following in tow, the younger one literally dragging her feet to the threshold. The girls walked forward and touched Devyani Raizada's feet who gave lengthy blessings and hugged them both. Nani then nudged an elbow into Arnav's sides and he grimaced, before joining his hands in a quick gesture of traditional salutation and got a solid glare from Devyani Raizada. While he chose to ignore the glare, the real shock for him, however, was yet to come.

Garima Gupta was famously a little extra in life. She was known to express emotion, any emotion, with all enthusiasm her tiny frame could muster. Those who knew her, had either grown accustomed to her exuberance in emotional theatrics or had developed the prudence to meet her from a safe distance. Arnav Singh Raizada did not know her, and hence, had no such forewarning. Unmindful of his lapse in conventional etiquette, Garima Gupta walked forward and pinched his left cheek (which coincidentally happened to be on the side of the aching tooth), and then stretched it out till as far as human skin cells are biologically stretchable before releasing the cheek and then patting it not too gently for good measure, all the while with a grin on her face.

Arnav Singh Raizada could double over with pain in that instant. He shut his eyes, clenched his fists and winced.

Anjali, well aware of her brother's existing dental woes gasped and covered her mouth. Devyani Raizada felt sorry for her grandson but also sadistically made a mental note to remind him later that this is how karma worked and if he had just touched Garima's feet, he might have escaped his current agony. The dentist in Khushi didn't take two seconds to figure out from the wince what exactly had happened and no one in the room (except the victim himself of course) could have a better idea of what pain Arnav was in that moment. She almost winced with him, but then was reminded of their last meeting, and sniffled a little laugh. Arnav caught her doing that, and looked at her with an expression that usually precedes a homicide. Khushi caught his glare and immediately schooled her features back to normalcy, and pretended to dust something off her kurti.

Garima Gupta seemed to notice nothing. Grin on face still intact, she continued, "I cannot believe this is Arnav beta. So handsome, just like Shaurya bhaisahab. Eyes just like Nandini's, God bless her dear soul. And SO tall! When I saw you last beta, you were only this big," she demonstrated with her hands just how big, but then realizing her estimation could only be true for some specific species of rats, she widened it a little more till it looked reasonably believable. "And this is Anjali bitiya?," she turned towards Anjali, "come here bitiya, what a pretty young woman-"