Satataharitam - Short Stories On Narayana

Hatching Plans in Vaikuntha

Parvati barged in, right through the doors of Vaikuntha, the grin on her face extending from one ear to another. She had a cup of some sweet she had made in hand. Vishnu opened his eyes and propped himself up on his elbow, watching amusedly as Parvati entirely ignored his presence to hug Lakshmi with the greatest excitement in the world.

"I suppose I'm invisible today!" he quipped, rolling his eyes.

"Oh I hear voices of invisible people in Vaikuntha today." Parvati countered, looking at Lakshmi with mock concern.

Lakshmi shook her head and laughed. "You're both the pettiest siblings I've seen."

"You'll see pettier ones soon, Priye." Hari glanced up teasingly at Sudarshana and Sesha, and the latter hissed at him, supposedly annoyed.

"What does that mean, you Mayavi?" Parvati asked, eyes narrowed.

"Where's your husband? Let him come and I'll tell you both."

"Wow, trying to be mysterious, are you?" Parvati laughed, and Lakshmi high-fived her. "Okay, my darling brother, I brought you some of this, look!" She scooped some of the sweet she'd made and showed it to him, coming close to feeding it to him as he watched with an open mouth, until she took it away and fed Lakshmi first instead.

"Oh my god, you really are the pettiest I've ever seen." Hari was frowning and scowling as dramatically as he possibly could.

Lakshmi laughed while telling Parvati that it was a delicious sweet and all. "Don't give him any now. He'll not even let Vinayaka and Kartikeya eat it the next time you make some!" she said, before winking at him. "Right, Hari?"

Before Hari could whine again, Parvati stuffed some of it in his mouth and punched him in the arm, not very delicately. "Grow up a little so that you can actually seem like you are my kids' uncle!"

"Paru, if you keep spoiling me with sweets like this, there's no way I'm growing up. Besides, I'm glad to be like your kids. They're the most entertaining anyway. More than you for sure-" He earned the sharpest pinch in the universe from Parvati right at his bicep and he nearly screamed.

"You don't mess with someone who rides the lion, Natha!" Lakshmi sang.

He looked at Parvati, eyes all narrowed in supposed rage (Parvati was rolling her eyes at the acting). "You don't mess with an actual lion, Shivapriya!"

"Oh yeah? What will you do?"

Hari stepped towards her menacingly and everything, only to grab the bowl from her hand, burst out laughing, and run around the coiled Sesha like he was an actual child. Parvati promptly chased him, because she loved the sweet as much as him, and there was no way she was letting him win so easily.

Shiva walked in with the most empathetic expression towards Lakshmi, shaking his head as he saw a fully grown pair of siblings running around like they were insane.

Sesha with his thousand heads bowed before Shiva, hoping he would be able to get the attention of his Prabhu and Mata Parvati, so they would stop running. Shiva smiled at Sesha and just sat down, rolling his eyes and beginning to chat with Lakshmi about something beyond the intellectual capability of anyone else. Of course it was about their respective spouses.

"When I feel like slapping them sometimes for being such children, I begin to chant, 'I love them. I love them. I love them.' It seems to work. Never once have I even scolded them for running around like this." Shiva said, marvelling at his own patience.

"I ignore them and they eventually just stop. 'cause ultimately, what they want is our annoyance!" Lakshmi said, laughing. "Let's have some tea while they fight over one morsel of the sweet?"