Titaliya

Chapter 3

It was ten years since she'd seen her grandmother. Sharda had walked away dejected that day, leaving her only grandchild behind in the hands of a couple she thought woefully ill-equipped.

"Beta, you've gotten so thin," her Nani said as she walked in.

Khushi smiled. Grandparents were always the same, it seemed. She walked forward and hugged her Nani. She regretted all the years she'd never visited. All the years that she'd bowed to Garima and Shashi's silent request to keep Nani out of her life.

New wrinkles had formed on Sharda's face. Her once dyed hair was now a shimmering silver, styled elegantly in a layered bob. Simple platinum jewelry shimmered at her wrists and ears. Sharda wore a simple kurti and palazzos. She slid off her Gucci sunglasses and took another look at her.

"Nice to see Aditi took over your wardrobe," she commented. "Aditi, darling, call for some tea, will you? The flight here was terrible. I really do need to buy a private jet."

Sharda placed her hands on Khushi's hair and smoothed it down.

"Now, beta. Tell Nani what happened."

The tears which were all but forgotten started again. She leaned on to her nani's shoulder. Khushi worried her tears would soak through Sharda's designer kurti, but the tears just didn't stop. Her nani patted her back and urged her to disclose what had happened.

Khushi started at the beginning. At the ill-fated wedding in Lucknow and her public humiliation. She told her Nani everything, and couldn't stop even as she watched Sharda's anger rise. She told her Nani about how she almost loved the man that was the cause of her ruin.

"Aditi," her Nani growled. "Every media channel who broadcast this... End them. And that Arnav Singh Whatever... let's show him-"

Khushi interrupted, "Nani. I just want to leave this all behind. Let them live as they wish. I don't want to go out of my way to destroy things. I want to look towards the future."

"Yes, you said you wanted to disappear?" her Nani asked. "I have a way to do that."

***

Her grandmother took her around Delhi, to parts of the city Khushi had never seen before. They travelled in a fleet of black sedans with tinted windows. Nani added a pretty black wide-brimmed hat to Khushi's ensemble to make sure no one on the roads caught sight of her face. High-end boutiques, a hair salon, a spa, to lunch at a upscale restaurant with more unfamiliar foreign food, and finally back at the hotel.

She recalled how in the past she had even stopped talking about her nani. When the little girls that came for the Kanya Pooja asked about her Nani, she told them should would tell them later.

It wasn't the money her Nani spent that melted Khushi's heart and bridged the gap of a decade of unfamiliarity. It was the care. She hovered around Khushi, tweaking this and adjusting that. Every time something looked good her Nani clapped her hands together and looked proud. During the entire day, they'd walked through Delhi holding hands and giggling like schoolgirls.

Khushi looked at herself in the floor-length mirror. Her new shoulder-length hair was tipped in pink, as she requested it. Her nails shone with a fresh manicure. The outfit Aditi chose had been replaced by a pretty white and blue sundress, properly accessorized with nude block heeled sandals. It felt strange, wearing something that revealed any part of her legs above her ankles. Khushi looked into the mirror and steeled herself. This was her future. She couldn't let the old Khushi of Lucknow, sheltered girl and perpetual sacrificial goat, get in her way.

She twirled around, and the skirt moved like a song. She felt like a new person. She'd lived in the city for a year and still been called a country bumpkin. Chamkili. Now, in one day, she finally looked the part of a city girl.

The only thing that stood out was the mangalsutra around her neck. She took it off quickly and replaced it with a small diamond pendant her Nani had brought her from New York. The mangalsutra went into the jewelry box. Out of sight, but not out of her mind.

For the first time in her life, she felt truly beautiful, truly herself. She would turn heads. Looking the way she did, it wouldn't be easy to disappear. But it was easy to be someone very unlike Khushi Kumari Gupta. She stepped out of the bathroom to the waiting gaze of her Nani.

"Nani. This is all very-"

"Have you ever heard this, beta? The best place to hide is in plain sight."

She never had. Looking the way she did, it made sense. Half the people in Laxmi Nagar wouldn't recognize her now. She twirled around once for Nani. Aditi applauded and smiled.

"Now comes the hard part, beta. Appearance, we can change in a matter of minutes... It is the rest that is difficult. You've accepted that you are a Bharadwaj. The expectations people have from you have just increased exponentially. What do you want to do with this valuable life of yours, beta?"

Her nani looked at her in expectation. For the first time, Khushi had no words. No one had ever asked her what she wanted to do. There were no conditions in her Nani's question. She could be free to do anything she wanted, as long as she reached Nani's expectation of perfection. Whether she wanted to be a chef or a seamstress, an actress or a businesswoman, her Nani would want her to be the best in her field. Her Nani would help her make all her dreams come true.

The old Khushi would've wanted to open a sweet shop. But she didn't want a simple life anymore. Simple lives were easy to mess with, easy to uproot. Khushi spent so much of her life feeling powerless. Now, she wanted power.

Khushi leaned forward with her hands on her hips. She shared a conspiratorial smile with her Nani.

"I want to be everything you want me to be, Nani."

Writer's Note

The dress I imagined Khushi to be wearing is the picture above. I thought it was gorgeous.

I'm writing Khushi to have changed a bit. She'll still be funny, a bit crazy, lovable, but she'll be tougher in this story. Harder to break, and ready to fight for herself and the people she loves. She'll think more, become more calculating.

Give me your thoughts and suggestions. Comment, vote, and rave about this to your friends!