This one is for Sravanthi_86 for binge reading bikhre moti, all 28 stories, 117 chapters in 2 days!!!
--*--
Arnav and NK were fiddling with different items in their kitchen, trying to make idli-sambar and luckily at that moment Arnav's phone rang. It was his mother, Ratna's call.
Arnav wiped his hands on his trouser sides and picked the call, turning on the video.
"Hello Amma. Cariyāṉa nērattil aḻaittīrkaḷ (You called at the right time). Me and NK need your help."
Just then his younger sister, Adhira also came there and took the phone from her amma's hand, directing the screen towards her, "Ēṉ anna (Why bhai)? Khushi refused to help?" she asked with a teasing smile, "We saw the photos she shared last week, and we could see how she has mastered idli-sambar. It looked delicious!" Adhira exclaimed making Ratna give a fond smile thinking of khushi and arnav slightly blushing at his sister praising his girlfriend.
Arnav belonged to a middle-class and progressive tamil family who hailed from Chennai. Well, his Appa did. His amma Ratna Rao was from telugu speaking family from Hyderabad. His parents were both software engineers and had met during their engineering days. Later, they had a love marriage. Having broken region and language barrier themselves, they were fully supportive of Arnav's choice Khushi. Moreover, they had spoken with khushi many times and with her sweet nature she had won their hearts, especially Arnav's amma's and his sister Adhira's.
Ratna took the phone back from Adhira and chided her, "Don't tease your brother, adhi. And look at the time, it's late evening, khushi must be at her home. How could she help Arnav?"
Arnav smiled seeing his mother take Khushi's side. His parents knew about khushi's dad's opinions about love marriages and hence they agreed to wait until Arnav and Khushi tried their ways to prove their love to Khushi's papa.
NK butted in as he was feeling very hungry, "Aunty, I know you all love khushi and talking about her, but I am really starving. Can you please help us with Sambar recipe?"
Ratna chuckled at NK's whining like a small kid and said, "Sure. Where are you at? Do you have all the ingredients?"
"Yes, we have onions, red chilies, tomatoes, red pumpkin and-"
"And your homemade sambar masala, amma." Arnav said to make her happy.
"Don't forget to put jaggery and tamarind." she said and then continued to make sambar for the rest of the call.
--*--
Shashi had returned from Mumbai the next day and the project he had signed there needed him to deploy his best employees on it. Most of the team he chose were all experienced people, but he also chose a few new joiners and Arnav was one of them.
Khushi too had hoped to be part of it but her dad who always went off performance of any person, decided to choose only the best candidates and unfortunately neither khushi nor Aman nor Sheetal or NK classified.
It was past 6 pm and most of the staff had left for the day. Except for Arnav, NK (because he had to wait until Arnav left as they shared the car) and Khushi. She had not gotten a chance to talk to Arnav the entire day today and she wanted to speak with him before going home.
Finally, after waiting for a few more minutes, she went near him and knocked on the side panel of his cubicle.
"Yes Khushi." Arnav said, without even looking up.
"Arnav, we didn't talk at all today, you didn't join us for lunch too. I was thinking we can grab some coffee before going home?" she asked, with a lot of hope. she was feeling low because of not being selected and then arnav had legit ignored her entire day. well maybe not with that intention but still.
