Part 37

Khushi too had no clue what was going to happen... "Give us strength.. Protect us!" She prayed. Her phone rang. Papaji had called. She was happy to hear his voice.
"Papaji," she said happily. "Payal jiji and Aakash ji are getting married. I am so happy for them. They will fix up the date soon. .. " she went on. "That's a good news, puttar. Convey my best wishes to both of them. " Said papaji in a equally happy tone.
"um... papaji... I mean ... you have promised.... I mean..." She blurted hesitantly.
"Yes, what is it puttar?"
"I have no clue what Arnav ji is going to do about our relationship....I don't know how are we going to manage it. The situation looks grim. " she said shuddering.
"Its ok. Calm down, my child. We will see. " he said assuring.
"Will you help us?" She asked the final question. He did not answer for a while and then said. "Khushi I will help You But him? Only if he asks for ..understand?" He said gravely. He knew Arnav would never think of coming to him for help. But he had made up his mind to help Khushi and even Arnav in the process of pulling Khushi out of the mess.
"Khushi I will visit your place in afternoon and talk to you about this. Now I got to go.. have to finish a lot of work". He said.
"Papaji, do you want any help, I can come and help you. Tell me where you are now and I will reach there. We can finish the work together. Oh! Yeah ... I know you have a meeting at 2.30 at Habitat place about your spinning mill proposal. I remembered ... I will come there.." she hung up.
Amma and buwaji had come and there took place another round of celebrations. Getting ready, Khushi hugged everyone and said "I got to go. Papaji must be waiting for me. I have to attend to work..." She ran out of the house to hire
an auto. Buwaji kept looking at her with tearful eyes. "Khusi... no more pain, no more suffering for you... my paramesari... I will not let anything happen to you anymore..." she muttered. She would give her life to protect Khushi.
Khushi reached Habitat Place for the meeting. She took the file from papaji and scrutinized the papers for their completeness. She instructed papaji's assistant about the arrangements for the presentations. He had the meeting with the Government Officials. She went through the power point presentations point and stopped at one slide towards the end of the presentation. Papaji had proposed A&R group as their liaison partners for this project. She called him and showed the slide. "That's right, puttar! Mr. Raizada will be working on this project with us. He will liaison between the government officials. He too is coming for this meeting." ...
Khushi looked at papaji in amazement and admiration. She knew, papaji had done this after coming to Delhi. That slide was added later on. How did he do that? When did he contacted A & R group? And why is he doing that? He has so many contacts in Delhi. Anyone could have worked for him..." She thought. She admired him for his super fast brain and she felt lucky to be associated with him.
"Hope Arnav ji feels the same way.." she thought.
An opportunity for him was knocking the door to clean up the mess. Help was made available... Whether Arnav would accept it or not was the decisive point.
Arnav Singh Raizada arrived exactly at 2.00 in the afternoon. He was shocked to see Khushi there. Mr. balwindar Singh said she had come to help him out in the preparations. They talked about the upcoming meeting with the Government Officials and also checked on the papers. They wanted to make sure everything is in place before the meeting starts.
Khushi was burning with excitement. She was eager to open the personal topic and urge Arnav ji to take papaji's help. Once or twice she tried to open the topic by asking Arnav if everything is ok at his place. He completely ignored her question. Arnav singh Raizada and Mr. Balwindar Singh were deep into talks about the business proposal.
Khushi became more and more impatient. She wanted to talk to Arnav. But both the businessmen did not pay any attention to her. They were getting ready for the high level talks with the officials. They got a message that the meeting is delayed by one hour as a normal practice with these governmental officials. They take it as their right to make people wait for them.
Both Arnav singh Raizada and Balwindar Singh looked little relaxed. Khushi jumped at this opportunity. She said excitedly, "Arnav ji, papaji will help us in coming out of the situation. He will help us in disclosing HIS truth to your family...." She looked at him excitedly. She was surprised to see anger in his eyes.
Arnav could not understand what she was saying at first. Then when she said about Sham, he started burning with anger. How could she do that? How could she tell the family matters to an outsider? How could she not trust him?
"What the hell are you talking about? Khushi, this is a pure business meeting and I don't like to mix personal matter and professional affairs. I do not know what you are suggesting at. This is purely my personal and my family matter and I don't want anyone to interfere in my personal life. Not even you, Ms. Khushi, understand?"
He was visibly disturbed and felt insulted. How dare she discuss his family matters in front of an outsider? How dare she talk about it in this place. He was disgusted with all this. He got up from his seat in a jerk and said.."I think I should leave... the things are getting diverted. I came here only with the business intentions and not for anything else. If this is what is happening, I better leave now."
"Mr. Raizada, please be seated. I have no intentions to talk about your personal matters."
"Khushi, I request you to leave for now and wait outside till the meeting is over. " He looked stern.
Khushi unable to understand what was her fault went outside all lost. She was confused with the reaction of both these businessmen. She waited outside with bated breath.
"Please, be relaxed Mr. Arnav Singh Raizada" Papaji said in a steady and calm voice. Arnav singh looked at him and sat down with his anger subsiding a bit. He could not believe Khushi could do this. She was almost on the verge of ruining his business reputation.
"I am sorry Mr. Balwindar Singh" Arnav came back to his senses.
"Its Ok. And I am sorry for my employee's behavior, Mr. Raizada. I take full responsibility for this and apologize. I understand, this is not the place and time to discuss personal matters. Please forgive us for this. I will make sure, we interact strictly on business terms, Mr. Raizada" Balwindar Singh said it in apologetic tone joining his hands. Arnav singh Raizada recollected himself completely and a faint smile appeared on his face.

"He knows, how to turn people to his side" He thought admiring Mr. Balwindar singh's business prudence. Relaxed, he started off with the business discussion.
The meeting went on well. Both of them discussed exactly and coherently working perfectly on their strategy. The next step was to complete the legal formalities between the two business houses and executing the powers upon A and R Group to deal on behalf of BTR Group (of which Kolkata Fashion House was one of the 18 group companies). Mr. Balwindar Singh shook hands with Arnav Singh Raizada congratulating him on this success and their new venture.
"We may have to complete the formalities Mr. Arnav Singh Raizada and I may require your company documents. I may require your shareholding composition too. These are the papers and terms of contract from our side. You may want to consult your advisers. " Keeping a file in front of Arnav Singh Raizada, Mr. balwindar Singh outstretched his hand for a shake. Arnav singh lingered there for a moment and said goodbye to Balwindar Singh and went out. Balwindar Singh Stayed back.
Arnav came out. He saw Khushi pacing restlessly. She came forward hurriedly and opened her mouth to speak.
"How dare you, open this before him? Don't you have commonsense, you silly girl? How dare you discuss my personal matters with him" he yelled at her in rage.
"Don't you dare do this again, understand? You or anyone for that matter, have no right to interfere in my personal and family matter, Khushi, you better understand this" He told her threateningly raising his index finger.
"But I am also involved in this... this is my concern too..." she blurted looking scared at his rage.
"This is outrageous, Khushi .. Its my family and I know how to solve my problems, you understand? Are you questioning my capabilities, are you worried about your interests in solving this?... then its fine, Khushi"... He took a deep breath to declare...
"Then its fine Khushi kumari gupta... I will take care of my personal and family problems. You decide what you want to do. The ball is in your court now, you decide whether you want to attend your sister's marriage or stay out of it..." He looked at her aghast face and turning his back marched out with a glint in his stride.
She stood there like a statue. She could not take in anything he said. His last statement only echoed in her mind. He had snatched away all the happiness from her.
Papaji came out. He looked at her horror struck face. He felt sorry for her. "But she needs to know.... " He thought. "You need to know when to start and when to stop, puttar. to know that you should not poke your nose in all the problems and all the decisions others take. You should learn to draw the line. You should not take everybody's problems personally. to keep yourself away from others problems, learn to keep your dignity, my dear child." He said it gravely.
"Papaji... " Khushi blurted.. "He... he did not even listen to me..." She sobbed.
"Khushi... Your haste has done the damage. This was not the right time to do all this .. understand? You invited this by your impatience..." He looked stern.
She was doomed. Even papaji did not approve of her behavior and took his side. She had lost it. She knew papaji would not say this to her without reasons. She understood her mistake. She understood that she did the damage to herself. This was like hitting a self goal. She sat on the chair crestfallen.