Chup Chup Ke: Part One

 Khushi and Arnav are expecting their first child and want to keep the secret to themselves for a while.

“So, we’re agreed? We won’t tell anyone until the third month. Yes Khushi?”

Khushi nodded and Arnav pulled her into another excited kiss and back towards their bed.

***

Arnav crept into the room slowly, not wanting to wake his nephew who was a world champion screamer whenever he was awake. The thought that his own child might be cut from a similar cloth gave him a pre-emptive shudder.

Anjali was sat on the bed next to Krish typing on her phone but looked up at his arrival. “Chotte is everything okay?”

He nodded and sat on the bed next to her, taking her free hand in his. “Di you’re happy now aren’t you?”

Anjali took his face in her hands, she knew how much her happiness meant to Arnav and that he needed constant reassuring. “Chotte, I have never been so happy in my life. I have a beautiful son, and Karan loves me so much, we don’t always agree on everything and I wish he was in India more but that’s good. I can see now how real his love for me is compared to…” She left the name unspoken and continued. “And I have the most wonderful brothers and sister-in-laws. What more could I want?”

They both looked over at Krish who mumbled in his sleep and shuffled closer to his mother.

“Di, Khushi’s pregnant.” The moment of comfortable silence was broken. Arnav who prided himself on always calculating what he was going to say and when was as shocked by his slip of the tongue as Anjali was by the contents that had fallen from it.

“Chotte? Are you serious? You’re going to be a… I’m going to be a Bua?” Her eyes had filled up and she didn’t know whether to cry or scream from happiness. She started to get up from the bed intending to congratulate Khushi immediately.

Arnav held her hand tightly and looked quickly at the door behind him “No Di, you don’t understand.”

“But…”

“I promised Khushi, you can’t tell anybody!”

“Okay, okay. I won’t. But I’m so happy! I can’t believe my Chotte is going to be a father.”

Anjali’s tears, no longer content to be excluded from the party joined the brother and sister as they clutched each other with wide matching smiles.

***

“Amma, just sit! I need to talk to you.” Khushi had been trying to get her mother alone all morning but the time had passed inordinately quickly with cups of tea and pakoras, a trip to the bazaar, and massages to Buaji’s head and arms for her various aches and pains. The time was drawing nearer when the driver would return to take her back home and she felt she would burst if she didn’t tell somebody soon.

“What is it bitya?” Garima sat down on the sofa having checked on her husband and his sister who were both snoring identical mid-afternoon snores in their respective bedrooms.

“Amma, I’m pregnant! You’re going to be a grandmother again!” She and Arnav had only decided a couple of months ago that they would try to have a baby of their own and they had expected a much longer wait so she felt completely ill-prepared. She needed some guidance and Arnav could hardly begrudge her some motherly advice. Although she thought it was probably a good idea if he didn’t know she had told Amma. “You have to promise not to tell anyone though, you can’t even tell Arnav that I’ve told you.”

“Khushi! What lovely news. Of course I won’t tell anyone. Except your Babuji of course.”

Khushi grinned, “I already told him as soon as I arrived this morning.”