Dil Beparwah | ✔

Bonus | m is for mumma

And yet Madhu wasn't prepared for the Maanyata who greeted her after opening the door. Cream coloured satin top over cotton pajamas and hotel slippers with a tiny insignia of Yatis over them. Her face was washed and bare, carrying more lines than Madhu had ever seen on it, matching with the increased grey strands escaping her bun. Casual. Uncaring. Ungroomed. She had finally allowed herself to crack.

"You look well," lied Madhu, stepping over the threshold, feeling out of place in her yellow chiffon sari and combed hair, "Here, I got you Navratri prasad."

She handed her a steel container filled to the brim with Champa's famous boondi laddoos, ones Maanyata wouldn't even grace with a taste unless Madhu attached some level of false marketing.

Maanyata didn't comment on the obviousness of both her lies as she carried the dabba over to the kitchen slab, heaving herself up on a bar stool, popping over its lid and stuffing her face with the orange delicacy without so much as a tissue to protect the slab from crumbs. "At least something came out of your love for that shithole."

Madhu ignored the routine jibe, looking around.

Two weeks after her son's wedding, Maanyata's apartment remained a curious mix of old and brand new. Bubble wrapped minimalistic furniture littered the living room, indicating both its residents' preoccupation to bother unpacking. But the walls carried rich portraits of a younger Maanyata and Arvika, along with several pictures of the late Dhwani Yatis. It had been her initial home, one that Maanyata had moved to after her first divorce, taking her daughter with her.

Arnav Deewan didn't have any single portraits, just one with his sister. But by virtue of being its original resident, his twin's childhood dominated most of the spaces. Plaid skirts and gap-toothed smiles of primary school, a kid happy about being the center of attention. That happiness eventually molded into a kind of lonely disposition as the pictures of her middle school years progressed on the walls, steely smile resembling her mothers and her mother's mother. The Yatis smile.

Madhu retrieved a plate from the kitchen cabinet, sliding it under Maanyata as the latter took out another laddoo, casually brushing the crumbs off the slab. "Save some for Arvika too."

The infamous Yatis sardonic smile graced her again. "Arvika is obsessed with the gym these days, I doubt she'll touch this ghee infested calorie bomb."

A third laddoo was taken out of the box as she said that, prompting Madhu to slowly drag the container away from her.

"She's channeling her energies somewhere, that's good right?"

Maanyata took a tissue from the counter to wipe the corners of her mouth. "She's lying to me. After everything that's happened, she's still lying to. And the worst part is I deserve it."

"Rewind a little please," Madhu said, getting to her feet and plugging in a newly unpacked kettle, it's box still on the counter. While water for brewing tea boiled, she went around the living room, pulling on all the bubble wrap and stuffing it in the kettle's empty cardboard box. "Do you think she doesn't trust you?"

"I doubt she ever did. Madhu she..." her voice thickened. Madhu didn't dare turn from unpacking the furniture. No sympathetic looks, no hugs, that will distance her. Soon Maanyata's throat cleared, her tone still muted but calmer. "Raman asked so much of her, stretched her beyond her capacity and she agreed to it all because of me. Arvika has always been my responsibility. She might not approach Binoy and that's okay, I was fine addressing her problems. But now it was me who pushed her in this mess, dragged her down, and not once did she come to me for help. What kind of parent does that make me?"

Returning to the kitchen to throw the bubble wrap away, Madhu poured the boiled water into two dainty China cups, taking out two lavender tea bags from the bowl on the counter and passing one to Maanyata. "Arvika is an adult Maanyata, she's like you. Would you have gone to Dhwani with your problems?"