Chapter 3: Misunderstanding

"Oh they are the Gupta sisters, and the youngest one with them is a girl that they babysit," Mrs. Sharma said, "Why do you need to know about them?"

Then Anjali explained to her how they wanted to fix a rishta with them for her brother and needed to contact them. Mrs. Sharma gave Anjali her phone number and said that she would talk to them about it and call her in the evening.

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Garima was cleaning the kitchen when she heard a knock on the door and went to open it. Opening the door, she found one of her neighbors, Mrs. Sharma standing there.

“Sat sri akal, please come in,” she said and stepped aside to let her in.

“Sat sri akal, Bhenji,” Mrs. Sharma said.

Garma went back to the kitchen, with Mrs. Sharma right behind her.

“Do you want anything to drink?” she asked.

“No, I just wanted to come and tell you some great news,” Mrs. Sharma said.

“And what is that?” she asked.

“This morning I was at the Mandir and met Anjali,” she said.

“Kaun Anjali?” Garima asked. (Who Anjali?)

“You know, Arnav Singh Raizada’s sister,” she said, “She said they wanted to fix her brother’s alliance with your daughter and asked me to talk with you guys.”

“An alliance with their family?! But they are so reputed, why would they want to fix an alliance with us?” Garima asked.

This isn’t the time to think about that, rishta’s like this rarely ever come,” Mrs. Sharma said, “She said if you guys wanted to, they could come over tomorrow and talk over it before taking it any further.”

“It is very hard to find a good rishta these days, so maybe we could talk to them,” Garima said.

“So should I tell them that it’s a yes for them to come over and talk about it?” she asked.

"But did they tell you which one they wanted to fix the alliance with?" Garima asked.

"No they didn't. But it's Payal I think, who would want to fix a rishta with Khushi?" Mrs. Sharma said her name with disgust.

"Mrs. Sharma!" a bellowing voice came from behind them, and they turned around to see Sashi standing there, "You can come into my house that is fine, but you have no right to disrespect my daughter."

"She isn't even your own daughter," Mrs. Sharma muttered under her breath.

“Some relationships are stronger than just blood relationships,” he replied back.

“I know that Sashi Saab, but you know how society is? It’s hard to find suitable matches for girls like Khushi in today’s world, so I was just stating the facts,” she said.

“I know that Mrs. Sharma, and one day I will find my Khushi a suitable husband that will respect her and accept her for who she is, regardless of her flaws,” he said.

“Till then ,should I agree with Anjali’s offer and tell her that they can come over tomorrow?” she asked.

“Yes, you can tell them that we’ll meet the tomorrow,” Garima said. Mrs. Sharma said by to them and was about to leave when she bumped into Payal and Khushi who were just coming in. They greeted her and then she left.

“Why was Mrs. Sharma here?” Payal asked.

“Well there is some great news,” Sashi said.

“What is it?” Khushi asked sitting down at the table.

“A rishta has come from a family for your sister,” Garima said.

“Kya?! Sachi?! That’s great news!” Khushi exclaimed and hugged her sister.

“They said that they will come here tomorrow to talk about it, so you both need to help me clean the house,” Garima said and they both agreed.

“But who is the rishta from?” Khushi asked curiously.

“Arnav Singh Raizada,” Garima said.

“The businessman?!” Khushi exclaimed. She had heard a lot about it him in the news and often people spoke about his great success.

“Yeah him,” she replied back.

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“Hello?” Anjali said picking up the phone.

“Hello, can I speak to Ms. Anjali?” the voice on the other line said.

“Yes, that’s me,” she said.

“I’m Mrs. Sharma speaking, we had met earlier at the Mandir in the morning,” Mrs. Sharma said.

“Oh yes Mrs. Sharma, how are you?” she asked.

“I’m good. I had talked to Mrs. Gupta this morning and they agreed for your family to come to their house tomorrow morning and talk about the rishta,” Mrs. Sharma told her.

“That’s great news, thank you for talking to them for us. Could you give me their address so I can write it down?” Anjali asked and Mrs. Sharma gave it to her.

Hanging up the phone, Nani noticed that Anjali had a big smile on her face.

“What happened Bitiya?” she asked her.

“Nani we have to go see the girl for Chotte tomorrow,” Anjali said excitingly.

“Really?!” Nani asked.

“Yeah, they agreed to talk about the rishta tomorrow, so we have to go over tomorrow,” she said.

“That’s great news, I’ll tell Hari Prakash to get sweets for the Takha,” Nani said.

In the evening time every tone was eating dinner and Arnav came down the stairs to join them.

“Chotte do you have any important meetings in the morning tomorrow?” Anjali asked.

“No I don’t,” he said sitting down.

“Okay, that’s good,” she said.

“Why?” he asked.

“Because tomorrow morning you’re not going to office, we’re going to the girls house to meet her family and her,” Anjali said and then they heard a coughing noise coming from Akash who had just choked on his water.

“Bhai you’ve already chosen a girl? That was fast, under 24 hours,” he said looking up at him.

“Akash it wasn’t just under 24 hrs but--” Anjali started off but was interrupted by Arnav who asked her for some more sabji. Of course he didn’t need anymore sabji, he was just trying to avoid the topic, Anjali knew.

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The next morning Garima made sure everything was ready and cleaned. Would the other family want to straight away do the Takha or would they just want to talk about it today? She thought. While she was lost in her thoughts, there was a knock on the door.

“There here,” she said to herself.

“Don’t worry Garima, everything will be fine,” Sashi said and went to open the door. The Raizada’s walked in and settled down on the sofa. Garima was about to close the door, when Anjali told her that Arnav and Akash went to park the cars, so she left them open.

Buaji brought in the refreshments and offered them to the Raizada’s. Both families introduced them to each other and right then Akash and Arnav both came. Nani asked Arnav to come isit by her and Akash sat by Anjalis.

“As Mrs. Sharma had probably already spoken to you, we have come with a proposal of my grandson Arnav for your daughter,” Nani said.

“Yes, Mrs. Sharma did speak to us about this. But we can’t--” Sashi was talking only to be cut off my Anjali.

“Beta we don’t want any money or dowry for this rishta. Yes we might be a high reputation, but we still stick to what is morally right. My grandson likes your daughter and she is the only thing we want. No other unnecessary things,” Nani said.

Sashi and Garima were both happy that they didn’t want anything else, this was the kind of family they wanted for their daughter to get married into.

“Now if you could please call her so we can see her and talk about it with her also,” Anjali said

“I’ll go call her,” Garima said and left to get her daughter.

“Payal let’s go,” she said entering her room.

“Ji,” Payal said and got up then turned around, “Khushi you come with me also.”

“No it’s fine, I don’t want for them to say anything about the rishta because of me,” Khushi said.

“But Khushi,” Payal said.

“Payal just go by yourself, I’m not going to let you ruin this moment because of me,” Khushi said and Payal agreed on her insistence.

Everyone was waiting downstairs and the heard footsteps coming. Garima came in with Payal and had her sit down, “This is my daughter Payal.”

Everyone had a smile on their face, except for two people. Arnav looked up and was left surprised. Anjali, who was sitting next to him looked at him and noticed his expression, this wasn’t the girl that he liked, she thought.

 

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