Rock-A-Bye Baby [✓]

Shot 5

Omkara Singh Oberoi swiftly and quietly entered the room where his niece, little Shanaya, was supposed to be sleeping. A small smile came upon his face the moment he laid his eyes on her. She was awake, and the girl was sitting up on the bed, playing with the anklets on her ankles. The moment she saw him, she gave him a grin as she held both her arms open to him, wiggling her tiny fingers as if calling him towards her. Omkara, with a smile that had bloomed into a full one, softly walked to the bed, quiet enough to not disturb the nanny who had dozed off. The poor woman seemed to be exhausted, and rightly so; taking care of a child wasn't an easy task, especially when the child had had a fever.

The first thing Omkara did was touch Shanaya's forehead with the back of his hand. He felt the temperature slightly warmer than how it should normally have been. But what did he know about babies? Maybe babies generally had a warmer temperature? He needed to read up on that to do some homework later.

"Daa daa," Shanaya said to him as he sat knelt next to the bed, with his face at her level. She excitedly grabbed his long locks with both her fists and giggled. Then, she immediately moved one of her closed fists to her mouth. "No!" he said with a small frown as he pulled away. He'd heard of children putting just about anything in their mouth, but biting on a fistful of hair was simply gross. Shanaya frowned slightly at him, and tugged harder on his hair, forcing him to open out her tightly closed fists and releasing his long hair from her hold. It took him a few attempts since he was too scared to hurt her tiny hands. His hands looked like that of a giant when he held hers. The moment he was successful, she curled her lips as if threatening him to cry. When he narrowed his eyes, she threw an angry tantrum kicking both her feet against his forearms that were resting on the bed. "You can barely eat food, and you want to chew hair? you know how disgusting that is?" he asked her in a harsh whisper, and she babbled something as if answering him. "Don't talk back, young lady," he frowned, slightly amused at her kicking his forearm. In response, she covered her face with both her palms, and fell face down on the bed, as if trying to hide her face from him or block his sight to her.

"That's not fair! You can't shut me out that way!" he complained, and she peeked at him with one eye. He held both her hands in his, and looked at her with a soft smile. She immediately sat up, looking at him, as if waiting for him to start talking. "I don't know if you'll understand what I'm about to say, but I need to. Apart from you, I don't know if I could say this to anyone," he whispered soft enough to make sure that the nanny wasn't giving an ear. He looked above Shanaya's head to see Miss. Sharma asleep.

"I'm sorry, Shanaya, for being rude," Omkara started off in a contrite tone. Shanaya blinked at him as if trying to absorb everything he was saying. Not knowing how to begin, he heaved a sigh, saying, "I just read your Dada's letter! And now I don't know what to think of it!" Looking at the little girl staring at him with her big green eyes, his lips broke into a smile as he leaned forward and kissed her cheek. Sure enough, she frowned, when his stubble irritated her soft skin, making him grin.

Then, as his smile faded, he said, "You Dada apologized to me in that letter; even on behalf of your mother. But I don't know if I can ever bring myself to forgive them. They hurt me too much, especially your mother. Maybe, just maybe Shivaay is right; Annika may have been a reserved and a closed person. She may have had her different ways of showing love and concern. But that doesn't undo whatever I have felt over the years, right?"

Omkara sighed and continued, still holding her little hands in his. "I loved my brother too much. Maybe, back then, I overreacted when I told him to leave Annika. Maybe I overstepped the line when I told him not to move out of this home. But you tell me, Shanu," the girl looked at him with a smile as he unconsciously called her by her pet name, "What could I have possibly done? I had no one else in the world. My brother was all I had. And Annika and her aunt took him away from me! Maybe their intention wasn't to separate us brothers, but it did happen, right? That's a fact, a bitter reality, and I feel no amount of apology can undo that. No apology can justify the pain, the loneliness, the void that I have felt over the years. Was I wrong in wanting my brother to live with me in our home? Was I wrong in wanting to fulfill Mom-Dad's wish of us twins staying together under one roof? I don't know if I was selfish to do that, but even if I was, wasn't Annika and her aunt selfish too?"