One Shots #VariaSquad

All Grown Up

Alia P.O.V.

You never realises how quickly time passes. Sometimes it feels like time is moving so slowly and a day can last a week and you wish for time to speed up. And then there are the times when you wish life had a rewind button. Like when you look at the calendar and realise that you've been married for twenty years, you're daughter is turning eighteen in a week and your son is fourteen.

There are moments when I feel this life has been a dream and I'll wake up next to Varun and the past twenty or so years will just not have existed.

I know that it's too real to be a dream but sometimes I wish it was, or at least parts of it, like Shanaya and Veer growing up. I can still remember back when I would panic because I would wake up in the morning and Veer wouldn't be in his room. Me and Varun would frantically search the house only to find that Veer had crawled into bed with Shanaya at some point in the night.

Now, they won't even share a room for one night in a hotel, but they still love each other. Veer is fiercely protective of Shanaya, despite being younger. He takes after Varun in almost every way. Out of our two kids, he's taller, not by much, but he is. He also looks like Varun, almost a mirror image, although his face is more round and he has my smile. He has a love for the gym, movies, food and reading. He's a force to be reckoned with if you mess with his family, especially Shanaya.

Shanaya is more like me. She's barely an inch taller than me and looks more like my sister than my daughter. She could probably pass as a Bhatt as opposed to a Dhawan if it weren't for the fact that she has Varun's eyes, mishevious smile and hair. She inherited my love for shopping and acting and Varun's reading habits and love of chicken. She also has a love for movies but that just comes with being part of a filmi family.

Right now our family was more filmi than I thought possible. Considering the family I grew up in, that's saying something.

I had just come home from shooting for an ad and had walked in on Shanaya and Varun having a staring competition with Veer looking on with an expression that was a mix of concern, exasperation, amusement and annoyance. He was the first to notice me.

'Ma! Finally you're home!' He exclaimed. Varun and Shanaya both turned to me.

'Alia, tari chokri ne kaink kehyde toh.'(tell your daughter something.) Varun said to me, gesturing at an angry Shanaya.

'Tari chokri nati?' (She's not your daughter?) I asked, going to stand by her.

'She doesn't want to listen to me.' He complained.

'Papa, hun bhi kochu, you're being ridiculous.' (Even I'm saying.) Veer spoke up.

'Okay, someone tell me what's going on.' I said.

'Mummy, mane bare jawuche ne Papa won't agree.' (I want to go out) Shanaya whined.

'Varun, let her go out. She's almost eighteen, what's the big deal?' I was shocked he would say no, he hadn't had a problem with either of them going out until now.

'It's not just that she wants to go out. She wants to go out with a boy.' Varun told me.

'So what's the problem? When I was her age, I was always with you and Sid.'

'Ma, dad and Sid chachu were your friends. You weren't dating them.' Veer put in, grinning. Shanaya glared at him.

'Shanaya, you know the rule.' I told her.

'Papa's rule isn't fair! I am not going to wait until I'm twenty to date a guy.'

'That was just a joke. But you know you can't date a guy we haven't met.' Varun told her.