'If alarm clock wakes us up
A cup of coffee keeps us awake.
Who says all bitter things are bad
If you think so, you have a coffee to take.'
A quote by Arjun Shah, A quote for Arjun Shah and A quote of Arjun Shah.
No one except a few sneaky readers now know that quote or it would have been a trending good morning quote in your family WhatsApp group;)
Just as our philosopher-poet Arjun Shah was having his cup of coffee, his wife made an entry.
He expected her usual clicking of her sandals but to his surprise, it was the jingling of anklets that he heard.
He dashed around to see if a witch with anklets is on day duty but to his shock, the intruder was far from being a witch, she was an angel, his angel he claimed in mind.
There Anu was, in orange saree, green bangles, red vermillion, silver anklets and sparkling bindi.
Wow, who needs bitter coffee, if the sweet-sour orange-clad wife is there to take your breath as well as your sleep away.
(Coffee left the conversation due to bitter heartbreak.)
Anu looked at dazed Arjun and raised her brows and Arjun came out of his daze.
"Wow Anu, If casual clothes make you glow
Traditional wear is just making you glitter
Your anklets can be my daily alarm clock
your saree clad self make even better coffee bitter."
Anu and coffee both of cheeks crimson- one as blush, other in anger.
Well, Anu is just a girl who was once an eye candy and coffee was once a sugar whose heartbreak made it bitter. Trust me it's true. :P
"Shut up Arjun."
"I meant it Anu."
"Anyway, pass on my tea."
"Yes, yes. As you like in your tea, it has no ginger but lots of clove and love and tulsi (basil)"
"Thanks, Arjun."
"Arjun, it's the 11th lunar day today, it's inauspicious to pluck tulsi today. Especially, it's tulsi vivah."
Arjun frowned.
"Anu do you believe in these myths?"
"No harm in following the traditions which do not harm someone physically or sentimentally."
"Oh, so it's tulsi vivah today when we marry our plant basil with a stone?"
"That's not stone, it's shaligram. it's a stone form of lord Vishnu."
"Wow Anu, I was unaware of that. So are you going to use your last day of leave to celebrate this festival?"
"Yes but it's more of a ritual than celebration. We perform it every year on this day. we just worship tulsi and Lord Vishnu."
"That explains you wearing a saree. Anyway when you were indisposed you consumed too many basil leaves, it's payback time to tulsi by celebrating its marriage anniversary technically."
"Yes, that's what I like about our culture, we treat everything as living and worship them like plants, animals and even stones" Annu grinned.
"By the way Arjun, does your family follow this ritual?"
"Anu, don't ask, my mom is a staunch believer of traditions but still she is far more open-minded than our generation."
"I already like your mother."
"Your mother-in-law."
Arjun blinked and smiled knowing that Arjun is missing his family. Annu has her parents with her but Arjun is seemingly alone.
It's like he is fighting a court case- Family of Anu and Arjun v/s Arjun. The catch is everyone accuses Arjun and the accused is defenceless with no lawyer fighting for him but that's going to change today.
"Arjun! I am going to my parent's place for this ritual and going to spend my day there. You can also join me." Annu suggested making him feel less lonely.
"Thanks for the invitation but Annu I have some pressing matters at the office."
"Come for dinner at least."
"Are your parents fine with me coming to your home?"
"If I can stay at your home, even you can claim my home yours."
"Sure Annu. I will have dinner at your parent's place. Anyway, I was missing the food made by your mom's magical hands which you used to bring to tiffin."
"Don't you like the food made by me?"
"I do but your mom's food is just 'love' yaar."
Annu huffed and blew her cheeks.
"Sure sure."
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Another viewpoint to look at our lovely dovely couple~
Tulsi Vivah
Link to know more about tulsi vivah- https://youtu.be/sn4eryjFHVo
Hope you enjoy Indian traditions! :D
. . .
[Back to the story]
Arjun was viewing the files, placed in a haphazard manner with his slender, long back slouched on the chair in a harmful manner(as Annu would have scolded him), his eyes fixed in the papers and his legs taking shelter on the table.
Tring Tring TRRIINNNGGGG!
An iPhone tune echoed in the room and Arjun sat back up in a split second. He took the phone in his hands and rubbed his eyes with the other, in order to wake up for his wife.
"Hello?"
"Ajju! "
"Calm down! What happened?"
"You forgot! You need to come to my house right now!"
"Why?"
"To whitewash the ceiling. YOu doofus! I told you it is Tulsi Vivah today! "
"Ohh! Right. yeah. But I thought you were joking!"
"I was not! I was damn serious when I invited you!"
"Calm down! I am coming."
"No! Now don't come! I don't want you here! I don't want you to come just out of pity! Bye!"
"Wait!"
"What?" Annu spoke through gritted teeth.
"Wait! I want to come!"
"You know what? Come, Don't come, I DON'T CARE!"
'Why is she so damn adamant on this tulsi vivah ?
And a notification tune ringed in his ears.
It was a notification from the reminder.
"Of course! Oh my God! How could I forget this! Oh no! I an dead!'
And he stood up with a jerk and ran towards the door.
He raced towards the Boss's door and halted abruptly. he slowly knocked on the door.
"Boss? May I come in?"
"come in."
Neeravan Shah's deep voice echoed from wall to wall.
"Boss? Arjun here."
Neeravan Shah, who was seated in his chair facing the wall, smiled but the smile eroded as soon as it had appeared. He turned around only to see his Sinister son.
"What?" He asked.
Arjun hesitated but said firmly.-"Sir, I wanted to take a leave for half day."
"Any particular reason?"
"Umm... Yes, Sir a personal reason."
"Is someone injured or-"
"NO Sir! umm I umm I-"
"Don't ever cut me."
"Sorry, Sir."
"So, I was saying that it is very clumsy and unprofessional of you to ask it at such short notice. Work is tight right now as you know already."
"Yes sir."
"But, seeing your record, you have not missed a single day this year and the previous one, therefore leave is granted." He said with a firm tune, yet his love and warmth as a dad couldn't be camouflaged as a cold and rude statement. He turned around again and pretended to continue his work, while Arjun continued to beam towards his dad.
"Do you want to waste your leave in my office? You better do some work if you are."
Arjun flowed out of the moment instantly and remembered the current goal.
"Umm Thank you sir! Bye Sir!"
And he rushed out of the office but hit the window door.
It is true after all, Married couples do start to become like each other. ;D
Even the cold Neeravan Shah couldn't conceal his laughter. He just managed to suppress it until Arjun rushed out of the office with a hand on the face and moans and groans rushing out his face.
'My little boy is now a Married man after all...' thought Neeravan Shah
*proud dad moment*
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knock knock
Annu with a sour mood opened the door and found Arjun waiting for her.
Correction - found Traditional Arjun waiting for her!
Arjun stood there and wearing a traditional Indian Kurta along with a pyjama carrying a plate full of laddoos and candles put in each of the laddoos.
"Happy birthday Annu. I know you always wanted to go to a Laddo-Land, well I can't take you to it, but I can surely bring a laddoo land to you. Come on! Blow the candles!"
Annu couldn't help but smile and she felt her eyes become wet.
She invited Arjun in, and he turned off the lights. She blew the candles.
"You remembered?"
"How could I forget?"
"By putting it on the reminder."
"Shit!"
Both of them laughed. Annu hugged him.
Arjun went to turn on the lights and his eyes settled on a late aged man who stood with his hands on his hips and was thoroughly inspecting him.
Arjun bent down to touch his legs and take his blessings, but the sturdy man didn't let him do that. He stopped him midway,
and instead, hugged him.
Soon he left the grip, Arjun stood there dumbfounded.
"Son, I don't believe you did all this for our daughter. I am sorry for every allegation I have put on you. Instead, I should thank you sincerely. Thank you, son."
"Uncle-"
"Dad."
Arjun beamed, "Umm, Ok, Dad, It is my duty to do so."
"I know I am not supposed to ask you, who did it and why you did it, I am sure it was something major. Let bygones be bygones and if Anu and you are starting yur life as couple, even I should regard you as my son-in-law."
Arjun said nothing but just smiled. Then he saw his mother-in-law standing with her eyes locked on the unfolding scene, which she had merely hoped every day since the incident. She was at moon, earth and heaven at the same time. She was over the moon ; in the seventh heaven when she saw the new member getting accepted into the family.
Arjun went and took her blessings as well.
"All my blessings are with you. After all, you are my best and only son-in-law beta."
Arjun flushed.
"Hey! it's MY Birthday!" Annu roared.
The remaining trio looked at each other and lumps of laughter came.
It was just as Annu had imagined in her childhood. It is the general yet unique fantasy that every girl wishes to have.
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"Come on everyone! Dinner is ready!" Khushboo Seksariya's shrill voice echoed all through the locality.
And all of them sat down for a delicious, fingerlickious dinner, a dinner which Arjun thoroughly enjoyed. He finally got the warmth he had missed ever since the disastrous night.
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Meanwhile in another whole big wide house, another puja was going on.
An middle aged yet elegant woman held the tray in her hand and worshipped the tulsi, surrounded by the other woman of the family. Aunt Aishwarya, Arjun's paternal aunt, Aunt Amita, another paternal aunt, his grandmother, Kashmira ji, and many more women surrounded the innocent plant, filled with positivity. But what did the innocent plant know, about the negativity that the aunties were going to emit.
They surely weren't going to miss the opportunity of taunting the most successful businessman's wife, were they? After all society does all other research about each other for this purpose...(The sad reality of desi life)
"So... Naina! How is our chubby little Arjun?" Aishwarya Auntie made an "innocent" comment. It has a question mark, but it was simply a comment meant to make our Naina shah feel ashamed. After all, they all knew the incident, by heart, yet the comment was raised.
"He is fine, I believe."
"Well of course, he would be! The child just got married! This is the best part of the marriage, it is only after this phase, that it becomes stale as an vadilal icecream!" Aunt Amita jumped in between.
"That too a love marriage! It is these love marriage that tears the whole family! It is true! History repeated itself, that too in the same house..." The Queen of the household gave the comment.
Arjun's family had really been torn apart from the whole family, just because Neeravan Shah followed his heart, and married Naina Shah, the one who made him who he is. The well-experienced family members were not the ones who encouraged him, they were not the ones who pushed him to be who he really meant to be...
But who in our puerile society would understand? After all, DNA matters more than the heart bonds...
"Beta ma par jo gaya hai! " Aunt Aishwarya, regaining the edge, threw the camphor into the small fire, making it roar! ( Arjun had taken after his mother)
The winner of the Battle of making the snidest comments goes to Aishwarya auntie! Can we have some "Applause"!? No, actually the formal achievements are met with hearty applause but the societal achievement of demeaning someone is met with evil snickers of aunties.
Naina Shah, you might have imagined, just roared and threw the plate into the air and all the kumkum, haldi, chandan on the plate was transferred to the head of Aishwarya auntie. Naina just played Holi with her biggest enemy.
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in her daydream...
In reality, she just sighed, but it must have been so heavy that the fire in the candle in the plate vanished and she had to ignite it again in order to continue the puja.
Meanwhile, the situation wasn't any different in the gents' section.
Neeravan Shah was surrounded by both his brothers and his sister's husband. They were his brothers in terms of blood, but they were his darkest nightmare in terms of brotherhood. They are demotivators, always letting him down. it was perhaps their bitterness, that used to fuel him up to work even harder. And now, he was the one on the throne of the Shah empire.
'Now who's laughing, eh? ' He used to think.
"hey, Neeravan! Bro! Saw your ad in the newspaper today! Stop being so successful, leave some economy for us too!" Bitterness dripped from his tongue, Jealousy stuck out from his tune just like weed pierces the earth and comes out, being of no use to anything, just spreading negativity everywhere around it, sucking every ounce of positivity around...
"Well..." Neeravan Shah's face turned red, not with happiness but anger. There was just so much bitterness in his mind for them, that every word that came out of their mouths was merely bitter to him. Well, the truth is, they were.
"Well, there are just so many cases of youngster crimes now aren't there! They weren't there at our times eh brother?"
"Sure."
"But nowadays, the parents don't often pay much attention to their children and! That's when they get out of hand. And then they go acting like adults and take matters into their hands, say marriage, don't they?!"
"Only if the parents would pay more attention to kids rather than work!" The eldest one gave free advice.
After all, how considerate our society is! free advises! We Indians don't need psychologists, there is a self-proclaimed therapist stationed at every corner.
They have solutions for every problem...
After the problem occurs... How fortunate!
"Sure brother." Neeravan Shah said through gritted teeth.
And the family-lynching of Neeravan's happy spirits continued...After all, a Family gathering of narrow-minded families like ours is not lit with Diwali sparkles or holy holi fire but just raging flames of jealousy, rage, and selfishness.
Meanwhile in the juvenile section-
Meera kept arranging the drinks and the snacks on the table.
"Hey, Mickey!" Aarav came and stood beside her.
"hey, Aru!"
"So! Arjun here?"
"Nope. As you perfectly know, I don't want to talk about him."
"Sure." He raised his eyebrows and made a 'why so scrunchy?' expression.
Soon the other cousin came, who was the same age as Aarav, Kaushik.
"hey! Where is Arjun? Our indispensable member!! hey Mickey! here you are!"
"Yeah! hey Kaushik! how are ya?"
"Better than ever! Just had a promotion! Hold your breath, you are now looking at the head of the Department - Mr Kaushik Shah! Yeah!"
"Oh my god! Great yar! Look at all of us! "
"yeah! hey! You heard about Arjun? he is now the Financial manager of Shah and Co."
"Of course! After all the guy knows how to get what he wants, By hook or by crook, I mean possessiveness at its height! The way he married! Didn't even invite us! We haven't even met the bhabhi! I-", her other cousin ranted out to provoke Meera.
Meera couldn't control it.
"Well, at least he doesn't speak about your drug business behind your back, eh Aarav? At least he doesn't keep reminding you of your loan huh? Kaushik? At least he doesn't give double-meaning statements as you all do under the tag of "caring"!! Well if that's what caring is, I love you all!" Meera snapped.
That's when she had an epiphany- No matter what mistake our loved one commits, we can charge them for some time but not jail them for life imprisonment in the cage of hatred.
She still cares for her only brother even after he practically trapped a poor soul.
She always believed that what we give is what we receive, if Arjun has hurt a girl, the cycle of misery continues and ends on him in some way or other and that's what is going to happen. There is a reason when we say to every woman abuser whether he had a sister or mother at home.
Meera was so proud of her big bro but she couldn't forgive him for forcing someone to marry him.
She fished out her phone and opened Instagram, meanwhile, both of the crook cousins beside her heard the clanking of the mobile screen. Meera did something on her phone threw it on the sofa and made her way towards the balcony, away from all the negativity that pushed her on the edge in front of all her relatives. Soon a feeling of remorse took all over her, and she started crying instantly.
Her now curious cousins instead of running after Meera to console her and know what was wrong, picked her phone to see what was wrong but not out of concern for Meera but mere evil satisfaction.
They saw a picture of Arjun with his wife doing tulsi pooja that an unknown number has sent her.
knock knock
"hey." Ragini Mathur entered the room. She was perhaps the only one who actually cared about the family. She cared a lot about her elder brother, Neeravan Shah. But being the smallest one meant only one thing- ingénue... She couldn't spend much time with her brother, yet the time spent by her with his brother, the positivity that she gave, was far more than his brothers gave him in a lifetime.
"hey," Meera said through sobs.
And no more was said afterwards.
Ragini simply sat down beside her and patted her back.
"What happened Meeru?"
" Bua, Arjun was very wrong forcing someone to marry but somewhere today I thought he must be lonely that we are not with him in this festival, but he is celebrating tulsi-vivah with his wife. I am miffed with him for forcing Anu for marriage but they both are so happy and here my parents and I have to bear taunts of other aunts and uncles on his behalf."
"Meera calm down." Ragini bua said caressing Meera's hair.
"No Bua! Dad was always right, he always brought shame to the family."
"Meera, I know Arjun wronged when he forced that girl for marriage but you cannot blame his entire character due to his one-act. He never followed the crowd but always paved his own way and he did the same thing with his career choice that's why your father resented him but that doesn't mean he shamed our family."
"What do you mean to say bua?"
Bua just smiled and said----
"Love the sinner but hate the sin."
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At Anu's Parent's place
"It is believed that a woman named Vrinda had a boon that her husband would be immortal as long as she remains faithful to him. Brinda was very soft-hearted but his husband was a devil.
In order to defeat the devil, the gods decided to break the faithfulness of Vrinda.
Lord Vishnu took the form of Vrinda's devil husband and tricked her to marry her.
When Vrinda realized the deception of Vishnu, it was too late and her husband was dead. Now that he was no longer immortal due to Vrinda's infidelity.
Vrinda burning in cold fury cursed Vishnu that he will turn into stone and his only family and wife Goddess Lakshmi will pay for his deeds.
Since Vishnu was converted into stone but married Vrinda nevertheless. Vishnu in stone form was called Shaligram and Vrinda is referred to as Tulsi.
That's how Khushboo narrated the story of Tulsi-vivah to Anu. Only the mother-daughter duo was present, Arjun and Anu's father, Shyam had gone to purchase ice cream for them.
"Mom, technically Tulsi aka Vrinda was tricked into marriage so that her groom aka Lord Vishnu could slay the devil in disguise aka her devil husband?"
"Yes, you know Lord Vishnu suffered a lot due to the curse but it was worth it for the welfare of all."
Right then Shyam and Arjun made an entry with cookie cream ice cream.
Annu was still pensive---
'Vrinda was technically deceived by Vishnu into marriage but then that deceitful marriage was for her and everyone's welfare. She was very angry with Vishnu and Godess Lakshmi who was Lord Vishnu's family suffered a lot due to the curse.----------> Vrinda's situation resembles so much to mine. I was forced to marry Arjun. I was so furious with him for his betrayal and his family is also suffering a lot due to our marriage.
Hence,
Tulsi/Vrinda= Ananya
Lord Vishnu took the devil's form to marry Vrinda= Arjun was no less than the devil in my marriage
Hence, Lord Vishnu= Arjun
Goddess Laksmi's misery = His family's woes
The devil husband of Vrinda who compelled Vishnu to deceive Vrinda = The mastermind of this entire game who compelled Arjun to deceive me.
But who is the mastermind?'
ANNNNUUUUUU!
"WHAT?" Annu was miffed at Arjun to interfere with her epiphany.
"Your ice cream has melted down."
"So-what I can drink like cold chocolate?"
"I didn't know I will be alive to see my daughter abandoning ice cream and thinking something else. Annu, you have changed after marriage. Earlier ice cream used to melt you and not otherwise." Shyam was horrified by the fact that ice cream is no longer in Annu's priority.
" Don't exaggerate Shyam. When you have a sweet husband, you don't need sweet ice cream. Isn't that true Annu?" Khushboo asked.
Annu groaned and Arjun blushed.
"MOM, DAD."
"What?" Both the parents blinked innocently.
" It's time for us to go home," Annu announced.
Arjun's heart tugged when Annu referred to their makeshift penthouse as home.
While Arjun and her parents were delighted to see Annu accepting her new life, she was more intrigued by the curse of her new life.
She had to find ---- who was the mastermind?
One thing she was happy about was that she found the lead with the mythological story of tulsi vivah to find the truth.
Eat myth to burp truth...
Another thing is Arjun cannot be the evil one, maybe a pawn but not a villain.
Yo guys,
4000 words. Woah
Probably the longest chaps with so many scenes and dramas and realizations. Annu discovered reality with the help of mythology. Sometimes past helps us with the present incredibly and Anu proved it. Anyway, it's just the realization when she realizes Arjun is not at fault.
on that note---
Muso likes noodles and Sumo likes pasta
HASTA LA VISTA!!!