Part 3 About Khushi

"She is not a kid but BLIND," the girls exclaimed, making Arnav shocked.

"Whaaaat? Blind? Have you gone mad? I saw her riding a bike..." Arnav said, looking at Khushi, who was searching for her friend and extending her hand fearfully.

"Did she ride the bike INDIVIDUALLY?" The girl questioned.

Arnav stood, unable to answer because Khushi didn't ride the bike individually, but Akash was with her.

"She is going to fall..." the girl said, gritting her teeth.

Leaving everything behind, Arnav galloped down the escalator as Khushi was supposed to reach the floor. Without thinking of anything, he lifted her from the escalator. Before Khushi understood what happened, he kept her on the floor.

"Lavanya..." Khushi called, panicking.

"I'm sorry..." Arnav said.

Khushi was stuck for a second, hearing Arnav's voice.

"Arnav?"

"Yeah...I'm sorry, I don't know, you are..." he stopped, not uttering the word blind.

That was when Lavanya came there.

"I'm sorry, Khushi. Because of this guy, I could not follow you. He stopped me, Khushi," Lavanya complained.

"Actually, I misunderstood you, Khushi... this is the second time you went crossing me. I just am upset with your behaviour. I thought you intentionally irritating me, but I never imagined you could be..." He gulped down.

"You were not wrong, though. People would think in the way you think. You didn't know I'm blind... that's ok."

"Are you really blind?"

"Do you think it's a prank?" She smiled.

"No... I saw you riding the bike that day."

"I don't like people sympathizing with me. That's why I do something with my loved ones. No one, except my friends, knows I'm blind. I don't like to let people know about it."

"Is this why Akash didn't tell us about you?"

Khushi nodded yes.

Arnav was more furious. What kind of brother Akash was! Just because his sister was a blind girl, how could he keep her in the dark? Was not it his responsibility to bring her out? Instead, he was hiding her from the world.

"I'm really sorry for misunderstanding you, Khushi."

"That's ok... don't be sorry... We have to go, Arnav..."

"Yeah..." Arnav took a step from her path and stood.

Khushi left the place, clutching Lavanya's hand. Arnav stood looking at her with an unbelievable stare. He could not believe Khushi was blind. How sweetly she talked with him! How cute her smile was...! He remembered what Payal told him about Khushi.

*You can never see such a confident girl in your life, Arnav. She is amazing*

Yes, she was amazing. Being a blind girl, she needed unimaginable confidence to ride a bike. How did she get such a gut? So what if Akash was there with her? Even normal people meet with accidents every day. It was not easy to ride a bike because it was not a matter of only us but also of the opposite person. How could Akash hide her from them? Leave others. Was Akash closer to him than others?

Arnav was always thinking about Khushi. Poor girl! How beautiful she looks...! She was trying to show herself brave to the world, but Akash was not even ready to declare her his sister.

The next day

Akash got down from the train with his luggage. He saw Arnav standing on the railway platform, and he was stuck. It took a few seconds for Akash to compose himself. He smiled at Arnav, who was managing himself.

"Hi, Arnav... how are you doing?" he stammered.

Arnav didn't smile.

"You here?"

"I'm here to meet you because I want to know something that you are hiding from the world."

Akash was alerted. He understood Arnav was going to ask him about Khushi. He stood silently.

"I didn't expect you would not recognise Khushi as your sister just because she is blind."

Akash was shocked as he didn't expect Arnav to know Khushi was blind.

"I met her in the shopping mall last evening with her friend..." Arnav said, understanding the shock on his face.

"you are mistaken, Arnav. I didn't hide it because she is blind. I hid it because Khushi didn't want me to tell anyone about her."

"But why? How could she tell you so? Won't any of your friends know about her? Won't any friends of yours visit your house ever?"

"They did... until Khushi became blind."

"whaaat? Is not she blind by birth?"

"No... she lost her sight when she was studying in the tenth standard."

"But how?"

"My father and Khushi met with an accident. In that, we lost our father, and Khushi lost her vision. She got hit on her head. It affected the nerve connected to her eyes. She lost her vision."

"Can't she get her sight back?"

"She can but it needs an expensive operation. We need a few lakhs for the operation. Being a middle-class family, we could not spend that much money on her operation as we already lost our father who was the only source of our income. I will do it if I get a good job."

Arnav felt bad for Akash and cursed himself for misunderstanding him.

"Khushi lost her confidence as long as her vision. She cried a lot about her condition. She was just a tenth-grade student at that time. We didn't know if we should feel for our father's loss or Khushi. In fact, we were not in the condition to give her hope because we ourselves were hopeless. How could we give her hope? What to tell her? We didn't know."

"We could have helped you if you had told us your real condition..."

"No, Arnav. Khushi restricted me from telling anyone about her, and she strictly stopped me from bringing any of my friends home. Because of my friend, she made such a decision."

"Your friend? Who?"

"He studied with me in school. He was my best friend. He was with me when my father died. Khushi used to call him baiya but he tried to misbehave with Khushi when she was alone at home. He thought Khushi could not identify him but she did with her smelling sense. As he didn't expect that, he ran from our house. That's the incident that made us lose trust in people."

"Did you leave him?"

"He ran to his sister's house that was in Bhopal. I never saw him after that."

Arnav gulped down hard.

"Just think, Arnav, even normal girls can't be safe nowadays. Then what about a blind girl's condition? This is why I didn't tell anyone I have a blind sister. People would take advantage of our helplessness, Arnav. That's why Khushi requested me not to..."

"But, she spoke to me nicely..."

"I told her about you. Though you guys didn't know about her, she knew about all of you. I shared all my college experiences with her every day. That's how I cheered her up."

"I didn't believe she could be blind because I saw her riding the bike..."

"It's an eyewash... she started doing that to make people believe she is normal... but she rides the bike in the PLAIN road with my assistance...! She came out of the shell a little by little. Her friends helped her to do that. They made her apply for graduation, and she completed two years with the help of SCRIBE. This is her third year..."

"Yeah, I saw her at the university two days ago with her friend."

"Yeah... she would have..."

"How are you guys running your family?"

"We got our father's LIC money. Using the money, my mother built three portions on the terrace. Its rent helps us run our family. After completing engineering, I'm working as a delivery boy while searching for a job. My mother bought me a second-hand bike for the job from her savings... that's how we are running our family."

"I'm sorry, Akash... I misunderstand you."

"That's ok... I would have met you the next day if I had been in Goa, but I had to go to Mumbai for interviews..."

"Khushi told me... how did you give the interviews?"

"I gave my best..." Akash smiled.

Arnav thought something and said,

"If you want, I can give you a job abroad."

"No, Arnav, I can't go abroad, leaving my sister and mother alone in India. If it is Mumbai, I will take them with me," Akash said.

Arnav nodded.

"Ok, we will meet later. Go home. Your mother and sister will be waiting for you."

Akash nodded yes. Arnav sent him in an auto and started his bike. He thought he was the unluckiest person in the world. Compared to Khushi, his condition was much better.

To be continued...