'Chotey?! CHOTEY?!!!' BANG. BANG. BANG. 'CHOTEY OPEN THE DOOR!!'
Anjali's strained voice woke Arnav and Khushi with a start.
'Di?!' They both exchanged an anxious glance and then hurried to open the door to find a dishevelled Anjali staring at them. She had been crying again, tear tracks covered her cheeks while fresh ones poured out of her eyes. She stared desperately at Arnav, with hopeful eyes that he would be able to take her out of her misery. Solve her problems and make all well in her world as he had always done.
'Chotey. Chotey...'
'Di? Di what happened?'
'I don't know...he..Chotey, he...he's not answering...I...I do not understand. This has never happened before...Chotey do something...I think we need to call the police...somethings wrong...very wrong. I can feel it...Chotey...' Anjali frantically choked out between her sobs.
'Di...Di relax...come in. Di...come sit down. Khushi...water. Di, Di just breathe. Breathe.'
Khushi immediately brought the water from the night stand and gave it to Arnav. He took it and made Anjali drink, calming her down and making her speak coherently so he could understand what had made his Di so agitated this morning.
'Chotey. Chotey, he is not answering my phone. He did not even come home last night. I'm so scared. Something serious must have happened. He has never done this before. He always calls, makes sure that I know where he is. Chotey, I'm really scared. What if he got into an accident, what if...what if...' The end of that sentence was drowned in a fresh round of tears.
But Arnav was still confused. He calmed her down again and patiently asked, 'Who Di? Who has not come home?'
Anjali stared at him baffled. What was wrong with him, was it not obvious...
'Shyam ji, of course Chotey. Who else would I be talking about?!' exclaimed an exasperated Anjali.
Arnav turned ghostly pale. The last phrase brought back his old bete noir with startling clarity, as if someone had pressed the High-Definition button on his memories, making all his dark memories ominously clear. It was happening all over again, he was falling, falling into that deep dark bottomless pit again. The same pit he had fallen into at the age of 15. He was losing her all over again. As Anjali's penetrating eyes looked at him, annoyed at his unusual slowness this morning, Arnav closed his eyes to try and keep himself together...but all the time the therapist's voice echoed in his head again and again. Miss Raizada's depression leads her into denial. She blocks off all her painful memories and creates an illusion around her, where her world is perfect. When this happens you need to be extra careful when dealing with her, and have to ease her into the truth. For sudden revelations could cause her to tip over the edge, from where only a miracle could bring her back...You need to be very careful with her Mr Raizada, she has a very delicate mind frame, the least amount of pressure could prove to be fatal for her...
'Chotey? Chotey are you listening to me? We need to act fast, you need to find out where he is, he could be in serious danger, Chotey...he is a lawyer after all. Only God knows what kind of clients he has to deal with...what if...what if one of them tried to hurt him. Chotey?!!'
Anjali ferociously gripped him by the arm and shook him, bringing him back to the hell in his room. He opened his eyes and knew his nightmare from yesterday was not over yet, and was not even close to being over, but was in the mood of getting worse and worse. He wondered how much of this he would be able to take before he finally broke...Anjali's frantic behaviour bought him out of his devilish reverie...No. He couldn't break, he was Arnav Singh Raizada, no one could break him. He had to stand strong and remain whole. He would not lose his Di, not again. Not now, after all that he had already lost. His Mother. His...his Khushi. No! He would not let his Di fall into that pit of depression again as she had after their mother's death. No, he would bring her out of this hell, and would make sure she survived it. She had to. Coming to this resolve, he heaved a deep breath and started working on his mission to save his Di.
'Di. Di, relax. Sshh. Listen to me. Listen to me, I'm your Chotey right? I have always made things right have I not? So I will this time too Di. You know I will. So sshh...stop crying. Jija Ji is fine, I talked to him last night Di. He is fine, you were unwell yesterday so he did not want to disturb you Di that is why he called me and told me he had to go to Pune for some urgent work. He will be back in a day or two. And about him not answering his phone, that's probably because he is in a meeting Di, or may be it discharged. I'm sure he will call you back soon and then when he does you can give him an earful for not talking to you ok? But for now please relax Di. All is fine.'
'In Pune? Really Chotey? Oh that takes a load off my mind. You know how scared I was, why didn't he call me? He knows how worried I get, he should have called me. And you Chotey? Why didn't you tell me, you should have told me before...I was so worried!'
Arnav gave a soft laugh to soothe his Di. Only it wasn't a laugh but a muffled cry of despair. 'Di' he said, as jokingly as he could to defuse the situation. 'Di, when did you give me the chance. You came in here this morning all guns blazing without even giving me the opportunity to understand let alone respond.'
Anjali gave an annoyed look at her younger brother for joking about her agitated behaviour. But she forgave him, she never could be angry with her Chotey. 'Ok, enough laughing at my expense.'
Arnav gave a little smirk, 'Come on Di, I bet in all this year's worth of worrying that you squished into one morning you did not even remember to take you vitamins...now you may forget to worry about my little neice but I don't. Seriously Di sometimes I wonder how you manage all your worrying that you do about me, Jiju, Akash, Mami, Mama, Nani, lakshmi, OP, HP, JP... I mean do you have a special method or schedule...morning worry about hubby, after breakfast worry about OP, midday worry about lakshmi, noon...'
'Ok. Ok I know I over reacted and jumped to conclusions, you don't need to press it...'
'Press it?! No Di I'm serious I really want to know, do you have a schedule and can I have look at it...' continued an amused Arnav bringing the intended smile on Anjali's face.
With that little banter continuing the two siblings went arm in arm out of the room, leaving a baffled Khushi staring after them. Trying to figure out what had just happened. What was going on in the mighty ASR's mind now? Why had he lied to Di? Shyam was not in Pune he had been thrown out of the house yesterday, by Arnav himself. And why was Di behaving like this, she knew very well all what had taken place yesterday, he had been thrown out right in front of her, so why was she behaving so irrationally? And why was Arnav ji lying to her? What was happening?
Anjali's strained voice woke Arnav and Khushi with a start.
'Di?!' They both exchanged an anxious glance and then hurried to open the door to find a dishevelled Anjali staring at them. She had been crying again, tear tracks covered her cheeks while fresh ones poured out of her eyes. She stared desperately at Arnav, with hopeful eyes that he would be able to take her out of her misery. Solve her problems and make all well in her world as he had always done.
'Chotey. Chotey...'
'Di? Di what happened?'
'I don't know...he..Chotey, he...he's not answering...I...I do not understand. This has never happened before...Chotey do something...I think we need to call the police...somethings wrong...very wrong. I can feel it...Chotey...' Anjali frantically choked out between her sobs.
'Di...Di relax...come in. Di...come sit down. Khushi...water. Di, Di just breathe. Breathe.'
Khushi immediately brought the water from the night stand and gave it to Arnav. He took it and made Anjali drink, calming her down and making her speak coherently so he could understand what had made his Di so agitated this morning.
'Chotey. Chotey, he is not answering my phone. He did not even come home last night. I'm so scared. Something serious must have happened. He has never done this before. He always calls, makes sure that I know where he is. Chotey, I'm really scared. What if he got into an accident, what if...what if...' The end of that sentence was drowned in a fresh round of tears.
But Arnav was still confused. He calmed her down again and patiently asked, 'Who Di? Who has not come home?'
Anjali stared at him baffled. What was wrong with him, was it not obvious...
'Shyam ji, of course Chotey. Who else would I be talking about?!' exclaimed an exasperated Anjali.
Arnav turned ghostly pale. The last phrase brought back his old bete noir with startling clarity, as if someone had pressed the High-Definition button on his memories, making all his dark memories ominously clear. It was happening all over again, he was falling, falling into that deep dark bottomless pit again. The same pit he had fallen into at the age of 15. He was losing her all over again. As Anjali's penetrating eyes looked at him, annoyed at his unusual slowness this morning, Arnav closed his eyes to try and keep himself together...but all the time the therapist's voice echoed in his head again and again. Miss Raizada's depression leads her into denial. She blocks off all her painful memories and creates an illusion around her, where her world is perfect. When this happens you need to be extra careful when dealing with her, and have to ease her into the truth. For sudden revelations could cause her to tip over the edge, from where only a miracle could bring her back...You need to be very careful with her Mr Raizada, she has a very delicate mind frame, the least amount of pressure could prove to be fatal for her...
'Chotey? Chotey are you listening to me? We need to act fast, you need to find out where he is, he could be in serious danger, Chotey...he is a lawyer after all. Only God knows what kind of clients he has to deal with...what if...what if one of them tried to hurt him. Chotey?!!'
Anjali ferociously gripped him by the arm and shook him, bringing him back to the hell in his room. He opened his eyes and knew his nightmare from yesterday was not over yet, and was not even close to being over, but was in the mood of getting worse and worse. He wondered how much of this he would be able to take before he finally broke...Anjali's frantic behaviour bought him out of his devilish reverie...No. He couldn't break, he was Arnav Singh Raizada, no one could break him. He had to stand strong and remain whole. He would not lose his Di, not again. Not now, after all that he had already lost. His Mother. His...his Khushi. No! He would not let his Di fall into that pit of depression again as she had after their mother's death. No, he would bring her out of this hell, and would make sure she survived it. She had to. Coming to this resolve, he heaved a deep breath and started working on his mission to save his Di.
'Di. Di, relax. Sshh. Listen to me. Listen to me, I'm your Chotey right? I have always made things right have I not? So I will this time too Di. You know I will. So sshh...stop crying. Jija Ji is fine, I talked to him last night Di. He is fine, you were unwell yesterday so he did not want to disturb you Di that is why he called me and told me he had to go to Pune for some urgent work. He will be back in a day or two. And about him not answering his phone, that's probably because he is in a meeting Di, or may be it discharged. I'm sure he will call you back soon and then when he does you can give him an earful for not talking to you ok? But for now please relax Di. All is fine.'
'In Pune? Really Chotey? Oh that takes a load off my mind. You know how scared I was, why didn't he call me? He knows how worried I get, he should have called me. And you Chotey? Why didn't you tell me, you should have told me before...I was so worried!'
Arnav gave a soft laugh to soothe his Di. Only it wasn't a laugh but a muffled cry of despair. 'Di' he said, as jokingly as he could to defuse the situation. 'Di, when did you give me the chance. You came in here this morning all guns blazing without even giving me the opportunity to understand let alone respond.'
Anjali gave an annoyed look at her younger brother for joking about her agitated behaviour. But she forgave him, she never could be angry with her Chotey. 'Ok, enough laughing at my expense.'
Arnav gave a little smirk, 'Come on Di, I bet in all this year's worth of worrying that you squished into one morning you did not even remember to take you vitamins...now you may forget to worry about my little neice but I don't. Seriously Di sometimes I wonder how you manage all your worrying that you do about me, Jiju, Akash, Mami, Mama, Nani, lakshmi, OP, HP, JP... I mean do you have a special method or schedule...morning worry about hubby, after breakfast worry about OP, midday worry about lakshmi, noon...'
'Ok. Ok I know I over reacted and jumped to conclusions, you don't need to press it...'
'Press it?! No Di I'm serious I really want to know, do you have a schedule and can I have look at it...' continued an amused Arnav bringing the intended smile on Anjali's face.
With that little banter continuing the two siblings went arm in arm out of the room, leaving a baffled Khushi staring after them. Trying to figure out what had just happened. What was going on in the mighty ASR's mind now? Why had he lied to Di? Shyam was not in Pune he had been thrown out of the house yesterday, by Arnav himself. And why was Di behaving like this, she knew very well all what had taken place yesterday, he had been thrown out right in front of her, so why was she behaving so irrationally? And why was Arnav ji lying to her? What was happening?
*****
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