Chronicles of Life

#chap59 #chroniclesoflife #Sagas_by_Irvika #sweetlovestory

Shruti continued to look out, lost in thoughts when she felt something around her neck. He was bending over her from behind and said softly, “A small gift for you. Hope you like it.” Shruti was yet again taken by surprise as she felt a delicate heart shaped pendant with a gold chain. Her eyes portrayed her emotions and for a change, she was speechless for a full minute. The next moment, she got up and hugged him tight, when unknowingly a few tears escaped from her eyes, wetting his tee. She said in a wobbly tone, “Love you loads Atharva.” He kissed her forehead and whispered, “Love you too jaan.”

To be continued….

They returned back on the next day by evening. Shruti didn’t want to go back in the real world but then, did she have a choice? It was evening by the time they reached and were warmly welcomed by all.

The following days were spent in the preparation for Minish and Rhea’s engagement ceremony. The ladies went for shopping Rhea’s engagement outfit. Shruti could feel Rhea’s hesitance in voicing out her opinion, since she had gone through the same a couple of months back. As such, Minish was there throughout and she could see him taking extra care to make Rhea comfortable, which made her grin.

Before they knew, it was already time for the engagement day. It was Shruti’s first function after her wedding. She was looking forward to it more so as she would get to meet her own family. It had been almost a month since her wedding and because of the distance between the two cities, their own mini honeymoon and then the engagement function, she hadn’t got the opportunity to visit Nashik.

She was overjoyed to meet her parents after so many days. Her extended family had also been invited and she sat back and enjoyed with them, back to being bubbly talking Shruti. She freely distributed her ‘gyaan’ on cooking that she had been able to achieve in these days and everyone laughed hearing her. While sitting with the ladies and cousins from her family, at one point, she even ‘corrected’ her mother about the correct way to temper the dal, and everyone around doubled up with laughter. She airily said, “Oh Mumma. Wait, I’ll show whenever I come home.” Jyotiji was happy to see her daughter trying to learn and mould herself. She always knew that Atharva would take very good care of Shruti but still, every house has its own system and rules and regulations.

Rhea and her cousins were super talented and quite a bit into dancing. They had put up a couple of lovely performances, which was applauded by all. Rhea’s mother was equally graceful and one particular dance on the song, ‘Ye betiya toh baabul ki raniya hai’ between the mother and daughter was so lovingly and beautifully done, that it brought tears in everyone’s eyes, specially Shruti and her mom, since they had recently gone through it. The engagement ceremony was carried out and Shruti relived through her own, and felt as if that was ages back. The ring ceremony and cake cutting was done with a lot of cheering in the background.

Just like every function, post the ceremony, the crowd broke into impromptu dance, when Atharva asked for Nashik dhol to be played, which zapped Shruti. She gleefully noticed that Atharva was much more relaxed on that day compared to their functions and teased him when he drew her to dance, “Atharva, you seem to be in a different mood today. Itna toh khud ke sangeet me bhi nahi naache.” He grinned sheepishly saying, “Hmm ya. I was somehow tensed then. But today I can enjoy.” She could see that he was really enjoying himself and was genuinely happy to see him that way after a long time.

The function went off very well and with reluctance, Shruti took leave of her parents. She became all sentimental while hugging her parents and Rohan. Nainaa and Abhinav also took leave and everyone bid adieu.

After reaching home, Shruti was about to change into her pajamas when she realised she would need help with her blouse. She smirked knowing that ‘someone’ would be more than happy to be at her service. As if on cue, she found Atharva following her in but got busy on a call. She waited patiently for a few minutes till his call was done. Even after that, when he was preoccupied with his thoughts, she cleared her throat to grab his attention.