Her Old Wounds! MishBir Short Story

Chapter 1: Blast from the Past

The car ride to Maheshwari Sadan was pretty awkward and filled with silence amongst the couple. All three of them were pretty affected by her silence. They tried to make their small talks regarding the festival and the details about it but got no response from Mishti. Mishti just kept looking outside the window. Kunal asks Mishti if she would help him with the rituals as he knows Kuhu might not be of any help, much to Kuhu's offense, Mishti just vaguely says yes and looks away. As they reach, all four of them step out of the car. While Kunal and Kuhu walk towards the door, Abir helps Mishti with her dupatta that got stuck with the car door. Mishti is about to say something when she hears Kuhu scream with excitement, "OMG! #bestsurpriseever! Badi Dadi! Choti Dadi!". Realizing that Singhania's have arrived for the festival, Mishti just freezes with shock. Abir notices the change in expressions on her face. They then hear Kuhu scream names of their cousins. He wasn't able to judge whether Mishti was happy listening to that or sad. Frankly, even Mishti wasn't able to decide on that. As much as she was ok with her cousins, she was definitely not ok with the elders of that family. As much as she would have wanted to meet her cousins, she definitely didn't want to meet her Dadi, Badi Dadi, Dadu, and Tayaji. She hasn't been able to come to terms and found a way to forgive them for giving her way to Maheshwari's the way they did. Mishti closed her eyes with frustration and a lone tear slide down her cheek. Abir extends his arm to rub off that lone tear but they hear everyone walking out and Mishti just rubs off her tear, to make sure no one notices it. Mishti puts on a strong, smiling face in front of everyone. She lovingly greets her cousins Naira, Gayatri, Naksh, her Bff Kartik and her jiju Samarth. She gets down on her knees to greet and hug her nephew, Kairav and Vansh. As the elders approach them, Abir bends down to get their blessings while Mishti just folds her hands and greets them "Radhe Krishna". While not everyone paid attention, Rajshri and Abir understood Mishti's actions and hence to not make things more awkward, Rajshri requested everyone to go inside the house and they can continue the chit chat.

Singhania kids then decided to go back in their past and share their stories about Mishti and Kuhu with Abir and Kunal. Since Mishti stayed with Singhania's more, they had more stories about Mishti to share than Kuhu, which wasn't really liked by Kuhu. Kartik and Naira especially made Mishti feel really special. They felt that more than anyone, it was Mishti who had the most rights on them and their son. It was because of her"KaiRa" even existed. Some stories of Mishti surprisingly shocked Abir but he knew that his angry chorni was always special. So her stories will be as hatke as she is. He felt very proud of how proud KaiRa were about Mishti and how at such a tender age, she understood what love was. He smiled at himself thinking how even after that, he had to do things to make her realize their love for each other. He looked towards her. Her silence, her sadness beneath her smile wasn't hidden from him. He decided to do everything in his power to make her feel special and bring back that long lost smile back. As everyone decided to sleep, Kairav and Vansh insisted on sleeping with Mishti Masi and Abir Mausa, as they both wanted to hear Mishti's version of Kartik's and Naira's love story. Since they were newlyweds, both Naira and Gayu stopped the kids from being stubborn but Mishti insisted to let them sleep with her. She thought maybe this is the only time she is going to get with the kids.

"Mishti, this isn't the first and last time you are going to meet the kids. You can surely visit us. Kids would love to have you around" mentions Samarath lovingly.

Mishti just smiled towards him and said "Of course Jiju. But the paths which leave me behind, I look upon them as a point of no return." Noticing the silence in the room that her sentence created, Mishti covers up by saying "I don't know when I will come and now everyone is so busy in their own life that it is obviously difficult for us to meet every now and then. So whatever time and moments I will get with them, I will use them to the best of my ability". Everyone smiled while Devyani exactly knew what Mishti meant and why. She was guilty. She definitely was. She wanted to make it up to Mishti. She wanted to embrace her and ask for an apology. But she didn't know whether she even had that right anymore and looked towards Rajshri. Rajshri just closed her eyes and signaled her to not worry and that everything will be ok.