“Hello ji! Welcome to Kudi Ambarsariya i.e. Mehek’s world! This is my third blog of the day! It has been so eventful that I had to start recording to keep panic at bay! This again is an awkward position. I am hiding in that stranger’s car. You would be wondering how I got into his swanky BMW? The person who got his clothes also returned his keys, I just took the liberty of taking them along! No one will look for me here. Daarji has sent his army all about the haveli looking for me. I climbed the verandah wall while they were looking for me. Billo, our cook, saw me jumping but she is a good friend, I know she won’t rat me out!” Mehek nervously blabbered on into her smartphone.
“Yaar, you guys won’t believe what I pulled off today! I mean I did something again after the ‘besan-wali-holi’! I can’t tell but I wish I could tell you people!”she blushed and giggled when she recalled how surprised he had been by the tricky manoeuvre she had displayed just a few minutes back.
“Let’s not talk about it! So, now I am waiting for Biji, my grandmother, Naseebo Rani to come home and take the case of her dear husband. Anyways, can you see how Daarji is scolding my cousins?”Mehek tried to laugh but it sounded hollow.
“Rabb di saun[I swear to God!], I am now feeling bad for my cousins. Should I go and take the punishment?” Mehek mused but shivered at the thought.
“No! It is not worth it and it wasn’t my mistake. I will make it up to the kids later. See you guys!”Mehek shut down her video blog as she spotted someone nearby.
“Hun ki pasoori pay gayi?[What has gone wrong now?]”Naseebo Kaur Gill, fondly called Biji, swore under her tongue as she entered her own house and witnessed the kids and entire domestic help crew standing in a line.
“We were gone only for an hour Biji! Haye, I am so worried for Jassi’s wedding,”her daughter-in-law’s eyebrows creased with worry.
“Waheguru will take care! Don’t worry! Let me see what has now ticked off this old man! He has made my house an Army camp!”Naseebo said.
“Where is Mehek hiding?” Retd. Major General Satnam Gill roared.
“Why are you harassing my kids?”Naseebo roared louder as she entered the verandah.
“See, what your favourite grandkid has done!”Satnam was consumed with fury as he recounted the incident.
“It is just a little besan! They are kids, they are supposed to be naughty! Should oldies like you and me be naughty?”Naseebo hollered back.
“You always let her get away with everything! Look around at the mess she has created!”Satnam replied in rage.
“Why don’t you look around? I have at least fifty people coming over in an hour for lunch. Cooks haven’t started cooking because you have turned the whole house into a bootcamp. What will I feed the paronas(guests)…your salute? It is a wedding house not your army base! It was my bad destiny that my aunt got me married to you…”Naseebo started cursing and crying over her bad luck.
Satnam looked hassled with the culmination of the whole episode. He could handle everything except women crying, especially his wife. Naseebo was well aware of this and didn’t believe in leaving any opportunity to use this to bring the old man to his senses.
“Enough! Ask your darling grand-daughter to come over and apologise to Jassi’s senior! I am appalled at the treatment a defence officer was given in my own abode,” Satnam dismissed his wife without another thought and walked away to the peace and quiet of his own room.
“Yaar, meri hi shaadi main, mera band bajaya tune Motto! (You embarrassed me at my own wedding)!” Jaswinder screamed at his younger sister as he paced the room.
“Biji please tell him, it wasn’t my fault,”Mehek whined but it fell on deaf ears. She tried explaining the whole scene to him, but he was hyperventilating.
“Squadron Leader Abhiraj Kapoor…You drenched Kapoor Sir with besan?
“I feel no less than a criminal Veerji(brother). I am so sorry…”Mehek started apologising but before she could complete her apology, she had a change of heart.
“Wait…one minute…Abhiraj Kapoor…isn’t he the same ‘Khadoos Kapoor’? Your trainer at NDA who used to give you punishments day in and day out?” Mehek said indignantly.
“Oho!”Naseebo sighed dramatically.
“I refuse to feel guilty! At last Khadoos Kapoor learned a lesson!”Mehek said.
Jaswinder left the room muttering choicest utterances.
“I am telling you! Jassi is suffering from wedding nerves!”Naseebo told her favourite grandchild.
Abhiraj had changed and was moving towards the staircase when he heard his name being called out by someone. He realised it was Jaswinder scolding his sister.
Although, he would never ever do this in normal circumstances but, today his brain had no control over his actions.
“It is ok to eavesdrop sometimes!” he consoled himself.
“…..isn’t he the same ‘Khadoos Kapoor’? Your trainer at NDA who used to give you punishments day in and day out?”a mellifluous voice emanated from the room, enchanting him till he realised the words spoken were ‘Khadoos Kapoor’.
“Khadoos Kapoor? I knew that I was hard on the trainees but why should she call me ‘Khadoos Kapoor’?” he asked himself. “But why am I concerned about what the girl thinks about me?” he asked himself again, completely taken aback by his own reaction.
“She is cute though!”he mused to himself as he walked away.
By the time Mehek went down, ‘the Khadoos Kapoor’ had already changed and was having tea with Daarji. He had his back towards her, but she still felt the need to duck behind the servants to hide her presence. Her aim was to reach the kitchen to meet her grandmother and mother for another round of damage control.
“Thankfully, both have tackled their respective better halves at their ends,”Mehek sighed to herself after meeting the women.
She quickly escaped to her parents’ room to get a better view of the stranger that she had so mercilessly tortured today. Her heart had been beating erratically since the time she had seen him shirtless. She opened the window and there he was.
“No less than a Bollywood hero! Big expressive eyes, chiselled cheeks and a thick mane of hair. Yaar, is he a pilot or a model?” she felt a blush creeping in on her cheeks.
“Hayo rabba Mehek…you have become shameless!” she chided herself.
Abhiraj was having tea with Senior Gills when he felt a pair of eyes on himself. He looked around but couldn’t find the source.
“Why am I behaving like this today?” Abhiraj asked himself again.
“You said something?”Satnam asked him.
“No sir…nothing at all!” he quickly brought his attention back to their conversation.
“It’s just this filmy setting and drama that happened to me today,”he rationalised. “In-flight prognosis: The current course of action appears unviable, you must establish firm control over yourself,” he warned himself.
“I don’t think he spotted me!”Mehek gasped and hid behind the curtain as Abhiraj looked directly in her direction. Her heart was racing and threatening to jump right out of her mouth.
“Mehek, why are you hiding in our room? Come here, there is so much work to be done,”her mother called loudly from across the courtyard.
“Oh no! He must have heard it too! And now I have to cross the courtyard too! How embarrassing!”Mehek cried to herself and went towards the courtyard.
“Aaah!So, I wasn’t wrong! I knew someone was there,”Abhiraj suddenly felt elated but doubled his efforts to listen to the old man.
“Mehek Kaur Gill, get yourself here right away!”her mother screamed at her again.
“Mehek Kaur Gill. Toh yeh naam hai humare qatil ka![That is the name of my culprit]” Abhiraj whispered to himself as the girl blitzed across the verandah in a jiffy, leaving a name and her fragrance hanging in the air.
Dear readers,
Do leave a comment if you enjoyed reading the story!
Loads of Love,
Aashima Arora