Meenakshi's POV
Our children were excited about swimming and when they asked me about changing into the swimming dress, I wore it as I didn't want to disappoint them. The swimming dress is also not like which I saw on telivision, it's just a pant and shirt which is not revealing but I felt uncomfortable wearing that. But I anyhow decided to bear it for a while.
In all these, I didn't think about my husband and when I saw his face, he looked didn't seem to look happy at all and seeing his reaction I said, "I'll change it if you don't like it. I just didn't want to disappoint our kids." To which he immediately replied, "No. It's fine. Come let's go" and held my hand and after getting into the pool he said, "If you are afraid just hold my hand." To which I replied, "I'm not afraid and also it's not deep." To which he replied, "But still it's better if you hold my hand. I don't want you to drown." To which I replied, "I know to swim." To which he looked surprised so continued, "My father taught me when I was kid. I would accompany him whenever he would go to swimming. I even know reverse swimming." To which he said, "Wow! You are very talented." I felt happy because of his compliment but immediately after complimenting me he pushed me into the pool shocking me and as if that's not enough he laughed at me, so I caught his leg and tried to pull him inside but he moved away from me and winked at me.
Our children who saw him pushing me into pool, pushed him into the pool making me laugh and later they too jumped into the pool.
After having fun in the pool, we went to the rain dance room where we were supposed to dance to the different songs playing, the kids were excited and showed off their dance moves and also tried teaching us few dance moves but I felt very awkward to dance infront of so many people but my husband didn't seem to have any problem dancing infront of so many people.
After they were tired of dancing, we came out of the room and after spending some more time in roaming around there, we reached home.
A month passed with us visiting various places in Hyderabad and also visiting our relatives in Hyderabad. I was especially glad to visit Shanthi aunt and her family. They were warm towards us as always and the good news was that Shruthi was pregnant again and Aradhya was very excited for the arrival of her sibling. I wasn't able to meet my uncle and aunt as they were not in Hyderabad and I only talked to them on phone calls but my brothers visited us frequently.
After a month
Our children's school started and Aradhya too joined in the same school. We were worried as it's her first timing going to school but she didn't cry at all.
Vijay and Ajay decided to continue the karate classes while Adarsh wanted to continue music classes. But my husband forcefully made Adarsh continue Karate classes as he felt that the morning classes would help him wake up early and also Karate would be better for his lifestyle. Not wanting their younger brother to alone go to the music class alone even Vijay and Ajay continued music classes.
Few days later, when it's almost midnight and when we were deep in sleep, we heard our doorbell ringing. I was having all the negative thoughts as people would disturb others late at night only for emergencies.
My husband opened the door only to see my brothers with ballons and cake. I was surprised seeing them but before I could say anything they said "Happy birthday akka" and said, "We wanted to wish you first but we are already two minutes late."
I was surprised that they remember my birthday which even I forget sometimes. When I was kid, I would wear new clothes on my birthday and my aunt would cook my dishes. Cake cutting wasn't common those days and now seeing a cake with my name engraved on it made me excited.
My brothers woke up our children and they were excited seeing the cake and when my brothers said that it was my birthday they wished me. Later I cut the cake and my brothers asked my husband to first feed me the cake which he did and I did the same to him. But he didn't look very happy. I was worried seeing him upset and didn't know what made me so upset suddenly.
After the cake cutting, my brothers gave me a gold necklace and said, "Akka! This is for you. Amma asked us to give this to you." I was surprised to see such a beautiful necklace. It also looked very heavy. I never thought I would get to wear such a beautiful necklace.
Our children who were busy eating the cake saw the gift and said, "Amma! Why didn't you say it's your birthday today? See we don't have any gift. We will gift you in the morning. Nanna! Where is you gift? Did you buy something for Amma? Show it to us!" To which I replied, "He already gave it to me." Before our children could say anything more my husband said, "Stop eating. Go brush your teeth and sleep. It's already past midnight. Tomorrow morning you have Karate class. You guys should wake up early." They silently went to their room while my husband insisted my brothers to sleep in our home for the night as it was already late.
After going to our room, I wore the necklace and stood infront of the mirror and couldn't stop admiring it. It even had matching ear tops. Everything looked so surreal for me. It was like a dream come true moment. I couldn't control my emotions remembering all the time when I felt envious of seeing others wearing jewellery and all the times when some of our mean relatives commenting on me for not having any gold jewellery.
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