The Normal Family

Meeting Shivansh

Shiva's POV

Akhila, Srihari, Sharada, and I, went to Delhi, for a five day trip. Akhila insisted on visiting her 'friend' Shivansh, I told her it was a very bad idea, but has she ever listened to me? She said, "He told us to visit him if we come to Delhi, it will be wrong of us not to. He is a very good friend and had helped me a lot with my career. How many times we have visited your friends when I didn't want to." I reluctantly agreed.

When I entered their house I was shocked, they had the exact same half heart frame we had at home, with their wedding pictures. Shivansh asked us to sit for lunch, he continued to talk to us in a proud and arrogant manner. Arrogance was written all over his face. He looked as if he was not a day over forty at most. I guess that was only because he maintained his physique. Me or anyone else for that matter, can look the same if we tried.

Akhila's POV

I had mixed feelings while visiting Shivansh. This is the place he had been living in, ever since we started our career, I had spent a lot of time here. While we were sitting for lunch, his wife Sonia a simple looking lady, who looked quite young was busy bringing everything to the table. She was still cooking. Shivansh asked her, "How long are you going to take to bring the sabzi, You know I can't start eating, until everything is on my plate." I remember him shouting at a waiter for the same reason. I felt bad for Sonia, I asked her why she was not eating with us. She replied, "You guys finish eating I usually have lunch later." "Are you getting the sabzi, or should I wash my hands." Shivansh asked impatiently. Sonia hurried and presented the sabzi, which did have a lot of salt in it. I never put too much salt in my cooking.

Later, he asked his son Karan to get some award from a room upstairs. I thought it was some award his son had received. But it was his own award from 2 years ago. "I have been receiving a lot of awards lately." he said. "What about you? How is your career going on?" he asked me. "Well, I guess you are focusing on your family more." I didn't reply to this.

His son for some reason thought it was a good time to show his report card as guests were over. Shivansh became angry over seeing one B+ on his report card. He said, "If your grades don't improve before the next test, I am sending you to a boarding school outside Delhi." He turned to  Shiva and started a conversation. Somewhere in the middle he said, "You need to know how to keep your children under control, how to keep your wife under control." These words reminded me of some unforgettable moments. This was the reason we broke up before. After dinner everyone started having Pista Kulfi, that used to be my favorite. We all had one. Shivansh told me, "Remember, you used to eat three of these a day.", "I was young back then." I said smiling. "I am still going to eat three, since I still feel young." he said. I found the situation awkward and went to talk to Sonia who was in the kitchen.

Srihari's POV

I excused myself from the room and went to see if Karan had committed suicide or something. I would have done that if I had a dad like that. I was grateful about my dad for once. The weather had became quite bad, it had begun to rain heavily. I didn't have Wi-Fi, so I went to talk to Karan. I was really good at socializing, and making people rebel. I started a casual conversation with him and then said. "Why are you being such a pushover with your dad, you should stand up for yourself. If I were you, I would have told him, that this was all I could do. Tell him if he shouts at you for a B+ again you will start scoring C's"

Karan actually said this to his dad, even I was shocked, it sounded much cooler in my mind. His dad started screaming at him again, "How dare you disrespect me this way, I am not going to send you to a boarding school, I am sending you to military school. You yourself bring your laptop and google 'Military schools'."

Narrator's POV

Akhila was talking to Sonia in the kitchen, Sonia told her, "You used to work with Shivansh right? He had told me about you." "Oh" Akhila said still lost in thoughts. The women started talking about their lives. Sonia explained how she was a happy housewife. Akhila did not believe Sonia was happy but continued listening. "I decided to quit my job after getting married. We decided to marry each other as soon as we met. my parents were broadminded and said we could meet a few times before marriage, but Shivansh said he was sure about marriage, and didn't want to waste any time. He is old school with a traditional outlook. We had a simple marriage, didn't go on a honeymoon or anything, Shivansh believed those were a waste of time, I agreed with him, but then life went on great."

 Akhila continued to agree with this, knowing it was not true. She suspected Sonia was lying, as the tone seemed really fake. Sonia heard Shivansh shouting at their son, she tried to stop him, but he said, "You go inside, you are the one who is spoiling him." It continued to rain, Akhila thought about how it used to start raining in the evenings she came over, forcing her to stay there that night. 'Both of us used to blame the rain. How silly we had been.' she thought. These memories continued to linger however hard she tried to forget them. They soon left. That day both Akhila and Shivansh started thinking about their early career.

Flashback

Akhila and Shivansh met in the training academy, they started liking each other and decided they would like to spend the future together. Akhila took a posting in New Delhi, because of this. They were both working in the CBI as partners. Soon they got formally engaged in a small ceremony, which included only their immediate families, they decided to have the marriage in a grander manner. They got together well initially because of their similar personalities. The were both really compatible while working, and had solved a few tricky cases, they knew they had a promising future. They were partners at work and spent most of their free time together as well. They were sure to spend their entire life together and often spoke about their future. They had decided on their wedding venue, honey moon location and everything.

 Then one day they had a big argument. They were handling an important case, during one such situation Akhila was slightly hurt, because of a suspect. Shivansh told her not to talk to any of these suspect, as it was not safe. Akhila didn't agree to this, "we are handling the case together." she said. "Look here, I need to make sure you are safe. I don't want you getting hurt again." he told her. Akhila did not listen to this, and disobeyed him. Out of anger Shivansh said he will prefer to work on this case with someone else. 

This disappointed, Akhila she went to him and said, "How could you go behind my back like this, We are supposed to be partners not only in work but in life as well." "I tried telling you to stay away from the case, Those people are crazy, I am just afraid that you may get hurt." Shivansh said. "No, I can make my own decisions." Akhila argued. "Shut up Akhila, Why can't you listen to what I say. You are not understanding anything, all I am trying to do is protect you." he said. "If we can't work together let's break our engagement." she said in the spur of moment. She expected Shivansh to to apologize first while he expected her to. In the end neither of them did, they both valued their ego more than their love. 

Akhila was deeply broken after this, she went back home 'If all the moments we spent together were only worth a moment of anger, I don't want to go into any relationship ever again.' she thought. When she met one of her friends who was settled with a family, she too wanted to have a child. Soon she met Shiva, she was not much interested in him as he didn't have the confidence and high spirit which attracted her to Shivansh, but seeing he was into her she agreed to marrying him. She told Shivansh that she would still like to be friends. 

He agreed to this. He came to their marriage and gave her half of the heart frame they had bought earlier to stick their wedding pictures. He was happy Akhila ended up with a chocolate boy. He told his parents he was ready for marriage, he agreed to marry Sonia, the first proposal that came up. Even though he didn't have much feelings for her. This way both Akhila and Shivansh settled with their respective partners, with whom neither shared anything about their past.

End of Flashback