Chronicles of Life

#chap47 #chroniclesoflife #Sagas_by_Irvika #sweetlovestory

She bit her lip at his bold statement and said, “We won’t be meeting for a long time now. Not before Diwali I think.” He suggested, “How about Navratri? See if you can come for a day or two. We can go for Falguni Pathak if you do.” Shruti was tempted to, but wasn’t sure whether she would be able to come again so soon.

However, things don’t work out always as we plan.

To be continued……

Both Shruti and Atharva were too tied up with their work during the following days. Atharva got naughtier and bolder while talking over the phone and Shruti would go completely mum sometimes, while at other times she would have to tell him to stop dreaming. There were days when he would be tired and they would barely be able to talk for a couple of minutes.

During one such conversation, Shruti again broached the topic of Minish. She began, “Atharva… have you been noticing of late any change in Minishbhai’s behaviour?” Atharva muttered, “Hmm.. I have. But I feel it’s just because you have mentioned about it. I am telling you again, he is a very straight forward guy and I really doubt that he must be having an affair.”

Shruti shrugged, “Well, we shall see.” He questioned, “Have you got your tickets booked?” She replied, “No.. not as yet. Shall ask papa to get it done tomorrow.”

Little did she know that things would not work in her favour. It was just 5 a.m. in the morning, when her dad came knocking at her door. She was perplexed to see him at that hour and exclaimed, “What happened papa?!” He explained how her mother had been having high fever since night in spite of giving paracetamol and  had asked their family doctor to come for a home visit.

Shruti immediately went to her mom who seemed to be in a really bad shape and was throwing up. She had always seen her very strong and so was taken aback to see her in that condition. In a couple of minutes, the doctor came and after checking her, said, “It seems to be an acute bout of stomach infection as of now. She might feel very weak for a few days. Also, she will need to be on a light diet as far as food is concerned. Keep her hydrated with some liquid or the other at regular intervals.”

Shruti felt a sense of responsibility for the first in the coming days. She realised that as kids they take a lot of things for granted and that it demands a lot of effort and planning to keep the house running smoothly. She tried to manage things but failed miserably, owing to her lack of culinary skills. She took her mother’s advice from time to time to understand how to go about it and could barely manage.

Her subzis were still edible but the rotis were of an unspeakable shape and Rohan didn’t miss any chance. He cheekily commented when Shruti was serving food to them, “Papa… I think Shruti is trying to give us lessons in geography!” Both father and Shruti looked at him trying to decipher what exactly was he trying to say. He continued, pointing at the roti, “But you know, looking at this, it’s impossible to know which continent's shape is that.” Shruti was pissed off initially but looking at her dad, mom and Rohan she also couldn’t hold back and all had a hearty laugh.
It was barely two days to go for Navratri and her mom was still very weak. Shruti knew it would be too much stress for her mom to manage on her own, even for two days and decided against it. Atharva was a bit upset but didn’t force her as well due to the circumstances.

Mrs Verma overheard her daughter saying so over the call to Atharva and insisted that she will be fine and can manage, but Shruti refused to listen and thus, didn’t visit Mumbai.

The marriage date had been finalised as 23rd January, 2007. Then began the hunt for the venue which was a tad difficult as it was another auspicious day as per the Hindu calendar, Vasant Panchami. Mr Verma also went to Mumbai for the same so that they could visit a couple of venues and mutually come to a decision. Quite a few good venues had been booked way in advance, so it was quite disheartening.