Maami ki Behen ki Beti ✓

5. mirchi, haldi aur tel

Shiva had lost it.

The error 404 which ran in his mind years back, kept running in his mind again. What was he doing and what was happening? Everything that happened past Dev's wedding, especially that night where he held a crying Raavi in his arms, that incident changed everything. He was getting more insane by the second, because an old Shiva Pandya would never go to Prafulla's house, never get desperate to search for someone, never fumble with words. 

And then, those two ghostly Raavi and Shiva were adding fuel to the fire by being around and bringing Shiva back to the past. 

"Shiva?" Gautam yelled, throwing the pen on his brother and Shiva looked at him. "Dhyaan kaha hai tera?"

"Su che Gaumbi?" He asked, confused.

"I told you to help the customers, but you nodded and sat there, playing with rice." Shiva looked at his hands, dipped in the rice sacks and he got up immediately, making Gautam chuckle, "Dhara ka asar tujhpe toh nahi hua na? Even she has the habit of zoning out like this. Like bhabhi, like devar." 

"Accha?" Dhara stopped at the entrance, hands on her waist, eyes narrowed at Gautam who was caught red handed. "Gaumbi?" She asked and Shiva now smiled, taking the few steps towards his sister-in-law, "su bole che?" 

"Haan, Gaumbi su bole che?" Shiva asked, wrapping his hands around Dhara who held his chin, "tell me again?" 

Gautam gulped, hesitating and thankfully few customers walked in on the same time and he pointed at them, "Kaka, kaki," He said aloud, walking past Dhara and Shiva, addressing the customers, "thank goodness for you two." He mumbled, helping them while Dhara sat back on the counter, reading the accounts book. Her mental math would always be her second best ability.

Her first best ability was of course, reading Shiva's mind, just as an open book.

"Shiva, did you forget to take this with you?" Dhara asked Shiva who was arranging the sacks for deliveries, he looked back and bit his tongue. He had forgotten in all the haste to take the one thing he was supposed to, the kheer ka dabba. "Shiva, kharab ho jayega."

"Main kha lu?" Gautam asked from behind the shelves.

"No," Dhara glared at her husband, "not after what I heard you talk about me." 

"I was appreciating your ability of zoning out," Gautam tried to pacify Dhara by his sweet words but Dhara was too smart too fall for that, "Dhara, please."

"No,"

In their cute bickering, Shiva smiled, arranging the cereal boxes in the shelves after he was done with the sacks. They were an ideal couple for him, they were what he wanted if in case he did get marry to someone. But then, he was no Gaumbi, with all his rage and impulsiveness and no one could be Dhara, with how salient she was. 

The only girl he had in his life was his childhood was the one he fought more than India must have fought for its freedom.

Raavi

His mind was spiraling into those unnamed, unsaid emotions again, his heart singing a melody and his eyes once again finding the little chaotic demons, this time they were here in this store. Little Shiva behind the counter where Dhara was right now, and little Raavi was seated on the counter, like she owned this shop.

Shiva tilted his head, trying to guess their age, they looked somewhere around fourteen this time, both of the kids now growing through puberty. Shiva had his angry face all the time, and Raavi had grown a step more closer to being the most beautiful, her hair were always playing with the wind. Fourteen year old Shiva was listing down the shop's goods that had arrived that day since Gautam was nowhere around and fourteen year old Raavi was smelling the raw mangoes she had in her hand.