Maami ki Behen ki Beti ✓

15. Lag gayi Lanka

Dhara's heart sank when Shiva's tear drop fell on her back and she hugged him, comforting him, "toh rokh le, usse." She said, softly.

"Nahi rokh sakta," He shook his head, breaking the hug and wiping his tears. "Shiva sab kuch hai, gawaar, jaahil, badtameez," Dhara cupped his face, shaking her head as he continued, "Shiva bewakoof hai, paagal hai, jangli saand bhi," He held her hand, "par khudgarz nahi. Khudgarz nahi," 

_

"Raavi?" Anita said as they sat once again, trying to clear up the mess Raavi's room was. "You coming to the fun-fair right?" 

Raavi folded her clothes, placing them in the bag, "nahi dii," She shook her head, taking a hold of the old books, "Shiva nahi aa raha hai." She looked at the diaries and shook her head, these were the old tales of their childhood where she had written essays about her crush Dev and how crazy she was for him.

She threw them in the dustbin pile, wondering why did she not burn these.

"Kyu?" Anita tilted her head, enquiring about this newly formed friendship, "Shiva nahi toh kya, hum sab toh jaa rahe hai na? Aur waise bhi, Shiva ko ye sab kaha pasand." 

"Pasand hai usse," Raavi replied, nonchantly, folding few of the clothes laying on the bed. 

"tujhe kaise pata?"

"Kya Anita dii?" Raavi shook her head, wrapping few photo frames in the newspaper. "Bachpan se jaanti hu usse, of course pata hai."

"Accha?" Anita asked, edging closer, "Toh bataa, Shiva ka favourite color kaunsa hai?" 

Raavi sighed, "he likes blue, but he pretends to like black so everyone can think he is this deep dark soul."

"Aur khaana?"

"Dhara dii ke haath ki jalebi, bazaar ki chikki aur mere haath ka khaman,"

"Aacha baata, Shiva ko sabse zyaada kaun pasand hai?"

"Dhara dii, aur uske baad Gaumbi aur Kaki, phir uske bhai."

"Aur..."

Raavi finished wrapping the frames and looked at Anita, "ye KBC khelne mein mazza aa raha hai?" She asked, not understanding why her sister was asking so much about Shiva. "And I am not going to answer anymore questions."

"But why?"

"Because I do not need to prove to anyone that I know Shiva."

"But do you know that yourself?" 

Raavi froze and after a couple of seconds, met Anita's sharp eyes. "Matlab?"

"Paagal hai tu," Anita chuckled, taking the photo frame Raavi had thrown in the waste pile. She wiped it with her hand and gave Raavi the picture, as the latter looked at it.

It was a childhood picture of them.

Dev, Krish, Shiva and she.

Dev was smiling softly at the camera, his hands holding Krish's and the curly hair cutie was showing all his teeth, facing the camera and then to the right was Shiva and she. Shiva was looking at the camera, a slight smirk on his face and his two fingers behind Raavi's head, indicating devil horns and Raavi, she was only looking at Shiva, happily instead of being angry.

She did not remember the incident well, but it was Gaumbi who had clicked their picture and she was some ten years that time. She was smiling because Shiva agreed to be in the picture besides her but of course he wanted to spoil the picture by those devil horns, and she like an idiot, fell for it.

"Shiva aur tera rishta," Anita pointed at the two little kids, aside from others, "hamesha se aisa hai, you two fight with each other, for each other and but can never stay apart from each other."