Fanaa
01
Inspired by this word prompt~
On Wattpad
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(n.) destruction of the self; “destroyed in love”
The world seemed to narrow down on her. She needed to breathe . Just breathe for a moment. Stumbling over thin air, clutching her kurta Khushi reached her room.
The room was beautifully bathed in moonlight tonight. Her favourite window lay within an arch. The architecture was old fashioned as her friends had teased. But she didn't care. After all none of her friends could boast of the moon greeting them at their bedroom window in such a way.
Her heart wailed as the beauty failed to impress or comfort her. Nothing could assuage her tension tonight.
It all began earlier that evening, when buaji decided to drop the bomb on her unsuspecting self.
——
“Khushi bitiya, I am not in the position to take care of you alone now. Fufaji’s pension is barely enough for us. Ever since Payal got married, things have changed. We can’t really accept her offer of money anymore ! What will people say!”
“Buaji! What are you-? I am going to graduate in a few months. I’ll get a job in any media company in the country. Please stop being so regressive!”
Buaji had frowned, completely crossed with her now highly educated niece. Wielding her ability to cry in a wink, she whined,
“God has taken away my two brothers too soon! I raised both you girls alone! Payal’s mother was respectable and so she got married into the Malik family. But your parents? They had you out of wedlock! The whole of Lucknow society knows! And now no family of good repute will marry their son to my poor bitiya!”
Khushi rolled her eyes. These dramatics had happened too often. Buaji was from a generation of “name”, “reputation “ and “respectability “. How could she explain to her sweet aunt that she never really cared for such things.
“Buaji please. Marriage doesn’t interest me-“
“Just like your shameless parents!” Buaji gasped.
“No, I mean men buaji. I am just not interested in getting into the whole marriage scene. I will happily be a spinster for the rest of my life. We won’t need to worry about money once I start working.”
“How long will you live with me? Marriage is a non-negotiable bitiya! Who will take care of you after I have gone?”
“Old age homes! Do you know buaji, some senior citizens now self check into such centres? Luxurious ones, where I’ll spend my last days in peace?”
Khushi gleefully smiled, her eyes dreamy.
Buaji sat there spluttering, her head resting on her arm.
“This girl! Nothing will help her see sense! Manorama ji was right, Mr Raizada is the one for her..yes, that’s it”
Khushi sat up straight, not believing her ears.
“Mr-Mr who?”
“Mr Arnav Raizada. You know the one we met at Payal’s wedding. Very quiet type but very rich. He owns AR News. So wealthy, so respectable. Akash’s father was worried about him. I mean he is thirty six and yet he hasn’t settled down. There were some talks of his wedding a while back but….alas! Now, Manorama ji called me this morning, for you of course.”
“Wh-what?! He’s thirty six and I am twenty one! Do you even realise that?”
Even if Khushi tried to guilt her buaji for trying to set her young niece up with an older man, she couldn’t deny that she had noticed him during the wedding. A girl would have to be blind to not notice that man! Actually not even a blind girl could be immune to his perfume.
What was it exactly, she couldn’t tell. Oud? Bergamot? Dark chocolate?
Whatever! That man was too perfect. He had worn a matte black sherwani. Skipping all other events, he had landed up at the reception. The dim lights hadn’t done his profile justice. Broad shoulders, a physique James Bond would have possessed if he was real and eyes which felt deeper, darker than any man should possess.
Of course, she had been just a speck on the wall for him. But what really surprised her was that other girls didn’t seem to notice him. She did spy an occasional older woman go up to him and place their manicured hands over his arm or his shoulder like a claw, but no one around her saw the appeal at first.
Preeto had just shrugged, calling him “well dressed”, while her sister just smiled, calling him “a mysterious man, an enigma”.
“The Raizadas are rumoured to be all like that Khushi. Akash said the Malik family is an open book compared to them”, Payal had carelessly remarked while donning a pair of beautiful rubies. Another magnificent gift by her wealthy fiancé.
———
Now with Mr Raizada’s proposal propelling buaji into a mission, Khushi wished he had been an enigma enough to never even attend the reception.
Her sister’s mother in law was now a pain in her behind. How could she think a young promising journalist like her would be happy being married to a man more than a decade older than her, not to forget much wealthier. Heck! He was a billionaire!
The idea of being a trophy wife was absolutely abhorrent to her! She knew Lucknow high society. Having observed it well enough from the borders, she knew that the Maliks and Raizadas were patriarchal enough to want heirs.
She cringed at the concept, and that helped her to make up her mind. Even if she lived the rest of her life in poverty, she won’t be succumbing to this trap called ‘marriage’ to a wealthy, powerful Raizada.
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