" I missed u guys so much. "
Arya said giving into our hugs. She was tired to her bones.
"So sorry I'm late. I had a surgery which took longer than expected. " Her tone reflected her tiredness.
"It's alright. We were just catching up." Mahi replied cheekily with a smile.
"Really? Anything new since I was gone" Arya asked curiously.
"Ms. Mahika here, got a new job as a dance teacher " I piqued in.
"OMG congrats. That's such a great news !! Do you like it ?"
"I love it. The children are really nice and it makes me happy to share my passion with them. "
"Well we need a treat "
"And you will get it with my first salary"
They had known Arya for only a few days but she already felt like family. That's the beauty of some relations. They barge into your life and take up a place permanently and she wasn't complaining.
"I bought you guys something. I don't know if you will like it but yeah maybe just open them and don't tell me whether you like it or not. "
Arya said passing us both a parcel each.
I opened mine to find an exclusive set of all the Jane Austen books.
"I remember you telling me that you love books. So I hope you like it? I know you could've bought it here but it reminded me of you so I just bought it and didn't think..."
"I love it. Thank you"
I interrupted her overcome with emotions. I never thought she would buy me anything and this was really thoughtful of her.
"Me next" Mahi yelled with excitement.
Mahi opened it to find multiple packets of English biscuits and a Paddington bear plushie
She hugged the teddy to her heart
"I love it. OMG it's so soft."
"I am so glad you guys love it. Trust me when I say this I was hella nervous in giving these to you. "
They were in a small , not really famous cafe in hopes that no one would see and recognise them.
Dhwani ordered cappuccinos for her and Arya and a boba tea for Mahi.
"Btw what was the surgery you were talking about?"
"It was just a bypass surgery. It should have ended hours before but some complications arose during the surgery and we had to be extra careful. " She explained.
"Arya how did you become a cardiologist this young?" I asked her suddenly interested in the calculation.
"I got admission at my school when I was about to turn five. I was younger than all my classmates. I cracked NEET in the first attempt when I was 17. But I am not gonna lie the fame that came with my job was only because of my last name and it increased again because of my new last name. " Arya replied
"I guess all of us went through that. The sudden surge of fame that comes with the 'Singhania' name. " I said thinking about how the media and paparazzi used to make me anxious in the beginning.
" The plus point for me is being a Ms or Mrs is not a big deal. It can change throughout your lifetime but you can't say the same for the Dr prefix. " She replied with a wink.
"Well I have kept that name out of my art always. Mahika Rai is a Kathak dancer and she always will be. Never am I ever going to let anything else come in between that. " Mahi said with pride.
" I am so proud of you Mahi " I said looking at her.
"I am proud of both of you. "
" I know jiji. I am proud of you too. " Mahi replied warmly.
" Bhabhi if you don't mind, what happened between you and Veer Bhai?"
Mahika looked between us both worriedly.
" I am sorry if I was insensitive. I was just curious. " Arya said, apologetic.
" No it's alright. You have a right to know. Afterall you are family "
" Veer and I had a love plus arranged marriage. A thing people don't understand is that being lovers and being a married couple is an entirely different thing. When you are lovers both of you find time for each other throughout the day. You get lost in that fantasy land daydreaming. But when the same people get married they get dumped with new responsibilities and duties. "
"The amount of time they get for themselves start decreasing. In our case , we were so preoccupied with our work and duty that we forgot to find time for US which in turn lead to some very horrible misunderstandings."
"Things were a bit bumpy between us , we were having fights almost every other day and then one day he accused me of cheating. We had this huge fight and in between all that I lost my child. Veer wasn't there with me during that time when I needed him the most."
"I guess both of us realised it was not going to work out between us anymore. I value my respect more than anything in my life. So when it came to love I still chose respect. "
"I am so sorry bhabhi. I shouldn't have asked. You truly are an inspiration bhabhi. " Arya said sincerely.
"No it's okay. Everyone knows. Well except Rehan"
"He doesn't know? " Arya inquired surprised.
"I didn't tell him. He loves his brother but he love me more and if he finds this out I don't know what he is going to do. " I replied as a matter of fact.
A waitress came with their order and the tension started to evaporate a bit.
"Oh yeah I forgot to ask. Mahi did you know about the child dhruv Bhai has admitted in our hospital?" Arya asked Mahi.
"Which child?" Mahi replied confused.
"A girl. I think her name is Komal. It was a hit and run case I guess but he took care of the complete expense and he comes to the hospital everyday to visit her and was even sits with her for a few hours."
"I don't know how much of this is true but the story was spreading like wild fire among the staff. Some say he was guilty of the accident and others say that it is his illegitimate child which is preposterous cause from what I know the girl is a teenager. "
" This is the first time I am hearing about such a thing. Actually we had a fight last week and I am currently staying at my house. We haven't even talked over the phone. "
" It's okay. I am trying to end these rumours. "
"Well you know what I am going to say it , they are assholes. The three of them and I don't give a shit anymore. " Mahi replied confidently
"Oyy don't say anything about my brother. ";I rebuked.
"I am with Mahi. " Arya replied with a slight giggle.
The three of us stared at each other for a moment then broke into peals of laughter.
"I missed you guys so much. " Arya said in between her laughs.
"Well we missed you too Dr Arya. We missed you too. "
______
Long ago there was a prosperous king in the kingdom of thiruvithankoor ( Travancore). His court was adorned with many wise jems and the brightest of them was Vararuchi.
All the other courtiers were jealous of Vararuchi for his quick wittedness and wisdom. Hence to trap him , they dared the king to ask Vararuchi the hardest questions from science and the Vedas to test his capabilities.
The king asked his favourite Courtier questions one after the other , all to which he gave the correct apt responses which left everyone present there in shock.
The last question was " Which is the most important part and dialogue in the Ramayan?"
This question had Vararuchi in a pickle. He asked the King 41 days to find the answer.
After 41 days he was back at the court with his answer.
"Oh great king. Your servant has found the answer to your wise question. Please let me present it to you. "
Saumithra upadesham or the advice of Sumitra is the most important part of the Ramayana.
He started again. And here I present you the shlok:
"Ramam dasaratham vidhdhi;
Maam vidhdhi Janakathmajam;
Ayodhyam ataveem vidhdhi;
Gachcha thatha yatha sukam."
(My dear son! From this moment onwards, you consider Rama as your father Dasaratha; consider Janaka's daughter, Janaki as me, (your mother), consider the forest as Ayodhya, and depart with a happy mind. Farewell to you!)
______
"Rehan? When did you return? "
"Yesterday" He replied taking in the surroundings.
I was in our penthouse. To be exact, I was sitting at the personal bar in the penthouse.
"Where were you Bhai ? Do you know where all I searched for you? "
" I had some urgent work " I replied groggily.
"Yeah I can see that" he said looking at the alcohol filled glass in my hand with distaste.
"When did you become an alcoholic?"
"I don't know. Most probably when you 'Bhabhi' decided to leave me" I replied with a chuckle.
"Don't make her to be the villain. I don't know what happened between you two but I am 100% confident that it was you who fucked up. "
I shrugged.
"And I don't disagree with that. I fucked up hard time. "
"Glad to know that you accept it. Now are you planning to come back home or what? Everyone is worried. "
"No"
"Why?" He asked exasperatedly.
"I can't Rehan. That house feels lifeless without her. Everything there reminds me of her. Her laughs still linger in our room but so does her cries. You won't understand. "
He didn't retort to that.
I gulped down the liquor and poured myself another glass.
" That's enough Bhai. You are already drunk. "
"Who are you to stop me? Huh?"I asked staring at him defiantly.
",Your brother. Now come lets go Home. "
"Home. I don't know that place. "
Rehan rolled his eyes at my reply.
"What happened this time Bhai? What happened that bhabhi is ready to leave us?"
"You are also going to hate me if you listen to it. "
" No never. I can never hate you. "
"Fair enough. But still no. "
" If you bottle everything up , you are just going to feel suffocated. Atleast tell me. Please Bhai. I can't see you both like this. " His eyes had the silver lining of tears.
"Okay" I let out a deep breath.
Rehan sat beside me.
I started.
"We had gotten into a fight about some things at the office and were not talking to each other. It was a mutual descision to give each other a bit of space. "
"Then one day I came to see her and her assistant told me that she was in a meeting and didn't allow me to meet her. When I asked her later she said it was none of my business. She was very rude about it and was acting weird. "
"This was when that bloody Susheel Shekhar came back into our lives. He was visiting her often and I had proof of their meetings from her assistant herself but Dhwani denied all of it. "
"The last stroke for me was when he came to meet me. He made me think that she was... She was cheating on me and me being the fucking idiot I trusted him. Trusted that behanchod(sister fucker) over my love. There is not one day that I don't regret about it. "
"That night I confronted her the words that were exchanged were vile. I was drunk and was not in the right mind. I know that is not a justification for my actions but still I was drunk. I accused her of cheating and I stormed out of our house. I was afraid that she will leave me too like our mother. I was afraid of being alone again. "
"You can cry Bhai. It's okay. I am here." Rehan said noticing my brimming eyes and gritty voice.
" I don't know what exactly happened after that. A few days later I got to know that she was pregnant and that we had lost the child. Can you imagine hearing the most amazing and heartbreaking news together?"
My voice was breaking and tears were streaming down my cheeks.
"I couldn't face her Rehan. I promised to never make her cry when we married and now when I look at her face , I know that her red eyes are because of me. She wanted to be a mother Rehan. It must have broke her and I wasn't their for her. "
" I don't know what to do Rehan. I honestly don't. I love her. I really do and I am sorry. Please tell her I am sorry. " My words were mixing into each other as I felt my eyes droop and I was soon buried in the sands of sleep.
"I love you Bhai and today your brother is promising you. Bhabhi will come back to our house as the Badi Bahu of the Singhanias , as the Mahalakshmi of our family. "
Mahika was coming back from the cafe when she noticed a very familiar car infront of her house.
A much more familiar figure was standing near it.
"Can we talk for a second?"
"Just for a second?"
"Mahi please " he said again opening the car door.
She looked at him warily then entered the car without another word.
"I am sorry for what happened at the event. But I promise you none of it was intentional ..."
"Who is Komal ?" Mahika asked suddenly.
"What?"
"Who. Is. Komal. ?"
"How do you know her ? "
"Can you answer my question or not ? "
"She is a homeless orphan "
"Why the sudden urge to be a humanitarian?" She scoffed.
"Can you not interrupt? I am just doing what I think am right" Dhruv replied exasperatedly.
"Yes absolutely that is what you have always done haven't you ?"
"You thought it was right to hurt me you thought it was right to push your family away. You thought it was right to break my heart again and again.
Is there anything else? Anything more?"
"Mahi I am sorry. I know it is not enough to repent for all that I have done but still sorry"
"No. Let me complete. You are vile and selfish and all you care about is yourself. "
"But you weren't exactly a victim either Mahi I know you had a choice. A choice I thought you would take thinking about me. I am not the only selfish person here Mahika. You are selfish too. " Dhruv replied, impatient.
"Yes I am selfish. I am selfish because I am in love and it is not the selfless innocent kind. It is the deep selfish Heartbreaking one. "
"Is there anything else you want to know Mahi?"
"Why do you hate Abhinav Shekar so much ?"
Dhruv's fingers curled into a fist at his mention.
"He is a bloody pervert and womanizer. The night she died he misbehaved with her and we got into a fight. You know her father did not approve of our relationship yet he gave in just for her. I am the reason she is dead.
"Do you know how it feels Mahi to see the life leaving the eyes of a person who you love.
A person should never feel that. It is a pain that can drive you mad. "
"What do you want me to do Dhruv?"
"Please come back. Not for me , but for Chachi, papa and Rehan. "
"Dhruv one more thing. Do YOU know how it feels to see the person you Love living their life like a living corpse. You feel so worthless because you can't do anything about it. That helplessness can drive a person mad too. "
"I love you Dhruv and a part of me always will but I am not going to put my self respect under question anymore. "
"I don't deserve your love Mahi , why can't you understand that. I don't deserve it. "
"You don't get to decide that for me now, do you Mr Singhania?"
"I accept your apology " with that she exited the car.
â
Word count - 2825
This took me really long to complete
1. I had flu
2. It was my birthday last week
3. This was a very important chapter and I felt it was not upto the mark. Hence it was a lot of writing, deleting and editing
The small story is not actually complete. He actually goes on a trip to find the answer and this is the starting of "parayi petta panthirukulam " or the 12 sons of parayi. It is a Kerala folklore and is my favourite story ever. I added this part to showcase Laksmana and his love for his brother and sister.
Hope the wait was worth it.
Anyways please comment more guys. I feel demotivated with the no.of comments I am getting.
Hoping for lots of love and comments
With lots of love
Aswa_maya
"Whatever happened , is happening or will happen is for a reason"