Shehnaaz Kaur Gill Shukla and Sidharth Shukla did not face each other or rather, snuggle together like everyday as they slept today and there was a good reason as to why there were three pillows demarcating their respective boundaries on the bed.
"Paani hai na tere side par?" without turning to look at her, he asked in almost a whisper, knowing that she was wide awake.
"Hmm" she replied, not wanting to open her mouth and speak as yet. She had a frown on her face and kept gazing at the moon from the window in their room. There was tension in the air and both of them could not sleep but did not feel like talking about the underlying issue/.
Three weeks ago, at 5 AM in the morning while getting ready for an early morning shoot, Shehnaaz collapsed in the bedroom. Though she regained consciousness within five minutes and resisted being taken to the hospital at the ungodly hour, Sidharth did not relent and they came back with faces which could not stop grinning - she was five weeks pregnant! They were going to be parents.
After having been married for five years and a couple of failed attempts to conceive, the news came as a surprise after they had given up trying. Sidharth's mother was the best mother-in-law there could be on the face of the earth as she continued supporting her all through the process and would give back to anyone who would question them on when they were going to have a baby. Shehnaaz's mother would indirectly hint at the looming question, but given her feisty answers would never have the courage to put up the question in a straight-forward manner. There were ups and downs on the way to their attempts to conceive but being together and so madly in love made every blow trivial and every celebration twice as sweet as it always was.
Both of them wanted Sidharth's mother to be the first one to know but she was not in town for the month and they wanted to break the news personally. After contemplating on how to do i, they had decided to tell only the mothers over the weekend when they had a family video call scheduled with them and savour the news between the two of them for just four days but God had other plans. Two days later, while he was on a shoot working night shift, Sidharth received a call from a panicked Shehnaaz who could barely tell him between her sobs that she was cramping and spotting lightly. His heart came out of his mouth as he rushed back home and took her to the hospital. Thankfully, after staying at the hospital overnight just for precaution, they were told that what had happened to her was normal and she would be completely okay if she could stay off her feet for a week and rest.
While Sidharth wanted their mothers to be told about the situation the same moment, Shehnaaz was against the idea. "Nahi...abhi kuch ho gaya toh sabka dil tootega. Teen mahine tak mujhe nahi bataana kisi ko bhi. Maa ko bhi nahi" she had requested in tears and he could not argue.
Things became better for them after both of them took a week's off after requested a doctor friend for a medical advice for viral fever, lest their absence from their respective shoots at the same time could be questioned. It was all over the news and the families got worried as well. But Sidharth managed to act all notorious and tell them that they were just chilling at home after being sick of their tiring scheduled and in fact, were even planning a road trip.
She felt better with the rest and Sidharth's obsessive pampering. She was having smooth days - no nausea, aches or pains. At most, she would just feel tired and sleep off to wake up to good food, aromatic candles and a husband ready with a bottle of oil to give her terrific massages. All her head massages to him all these years were being repaid, they would joke.
Sidharth was over the moon and at times, would find it difficult to hide his grin while talking to others - be it family, friends or even the doodhwala. Shehnaaz teased him for days about how he was beaming while telling the milkman to increase the milk supply by a litre per day and was dying to tell him also that it was because she need to drink more milk since she was pregnant.
