Ranav looks at Maya through the front mirror of the car as she drives with a frown on her forehead. The urge to smoothen the lines of tension in her rises in Ranav. Yet he held himself back and the desire to break free of the chains he kept tying around him only increased. The more he resisted the further he seemed from the truth. Maya gazes at him through the mirror and slowly the frown leaves her forehead and she looks back to the road. They reach the camp by noon and as soon as they get into the camp, Maya is swamped with her friends with a million questions. Ranav finds a place to sit and wait for her as she fills her friends in on the incident. Maya conveniently leaves out the details of her plan and keeps it brief only to the fire and the impact of it on the house. Ranav somehow felt relieved with the fact that she was vague with her friends whom she knew before him when she told him every possible secret after only knowing him for a few weeks.
Maya checks on her patients before she leaves the camp with Ranav. This time, Ranav takes the passenger seat in the front, and they drive much slower as they do not have to hurry as they did when going to the camp.
"Are you hungry?" Ranav looked at Maya expecting her to say 'NO'.
"Hmmm. Let's get something to eat." Maya stops at an old Dhaba. Maya would usually not prefer dining here but there is no other hotel or restaurant for another few miles and clearly, Ranav is hungry so she could only make do.
"What do you want to eat?" Maya asks Ranav. From what Maya knows, Ranav is not a picky eater but still, she can't just order for him like she does with Akshay. Akshay is so indifferent to food that he always lets her order for him.
"Everything seems delicious. How about Chole Kulche and Dal Tadka?" Maya wonders if they can be eaten together. "Oh, they also have Kichidi." That gets Maya's attention.
"Let's get it then."
"Ok" Ranav places the order with some curd and white rice. As soon as the food is served, they dig in. Maya tastes the Kichidi and just as expected, Kichidi can never go wrong.
"Hmm, the food is so delicious," Ranav says with his eyes closed in delight.
"Or maybe, you're just hungry," Maya says with a faint smile. Ranav smiles widely like a little kid, which only amuses Maya. Maya couldn't help but find Ranav entertaining with how expressive he is sometimes and he eats so well that he makes the food look extra delicious.
"My Mama makes delicious Aloo Kachori. She is even good at making jam but as a kid, she used to feed me bread and jam every day and I got fed up with eating it all the time. But the Aloor Kachori she makes is divine if only they had it here. The ones she makes are so crunchy and the aloo inside has such a smooth texture. It's like the Aloo is melting in our mouth." Hearing Ranav talk about his mom, warms Maya. He must love his mother a lot, she thinks. Maya always felt envious towards the kids who had mothers, but Ranav's happiness was so infectious that she couldn't be jealous of it.
"You are making it sound so heavenly now I am craving for it." Maya chuckles at how needy for food she sounds right now. Ranav's accurate description is to be blamed for it.
"If I get a chance I will take you to eat those Kachoris one day." It doesn't escape Maya that it can only happen 'if' there is a chance. In her life, there has never been someone she can indefinitely be friends with other than Akshay. But what she has with Akshay, is it really just friendship? Still, Maya can't deny that she wants to be friends with Ranav. For the first time in her life, she felt like taking the initiative to be someone's friend. Maybe it's because she was comfortable enough to tell him about her life and how easy he finds it is to just be there for her and support her. There was nothing more to hide from Ranav anyway.
"One day, I would like to have those Kachoris and meet the woman who makes them so well." Ranav's smile only widens at the hint of promise in her tone. An underlying promise that one day, she will meet his mother. Ranav can sense that Maya is not so indifferent towards him anymore. He can't help the next words that leave him.
"Friends?" Maya looked at him for the longest time he didn't even realize that he was holding his breath.
"Friends." Ranav smiles widely and Maya returns a small smile of her own.
"Now, you can't escape my questions, Madam."
"I can choose not to answer at all, Mister." Maya smirks.
"Let me introduce myself again, then." Ranav puts forward his hand for a shakehand. "My name is Ranav Sharma." Maya shakes his hand with a silly smile.
"Nice to meet to Mister Ranav. I am Maya. Mridula Rajvansh." Ranav raises an eyebrow.
"You're name is Mridula?" Maya shrugs in nonchalance. "Hmm. Nice to meet you, Maya Madam."
"Are you still going to call me Madam?"
"Are you still going to call me Mister?"
"Yes," Maya says with no hesitation just to pick at him.
"Yes."
***
Maheswari Sadan,
Amish stays in his room after returning from the office in the afternoon and works on his laptop when a knock on the door grabs his attention. Meenakshi stands at the door.
"Come in, Dadi." Meenakshi walks in and sits on the bed facing Amish. "What brings you here, Dadi?"
"What happened yesterday is not a good thing, Amish."
"Yes, Dadi. Of course, our house being on fire is certainly not a pleasant incident." Amish smiles tightly as he wonders if Meenakshi already knows the truth behind it.
"It is also not a good omen on such an important day."
"You mean, Kuhu Chachi's birthday." Amish can't help the mocking tone as he knows that there was nothing so special about yesterday. They never even celebrated Kuhu Chachi's birthday before so her birthday was just an excuse to get people's attention towards Maya and Aditya.
"Not just that, Amish. It was Maya and Aditya's birthday party too and everything got ruined because of that fire."
"Not everything, Dadi. We are all safe and no one got hurt. Isn't that something to be happy about?"
"Yes, thank god no one got hurt. But how could such an accident happen on such an important day? Everything was so well taken care of, how could things go so wrong?" Meenakshi says as if she is not the one responsible for the fire at all but the irony doesn't escape Amish.
"What are you trying to say, Dadi?" The impatience in his voice prompts Meenakshi to dig in quickly.
"I mean, it can't be coincidental. After all the drama that happened right before the fire. The paintings and Maya. How is it that the paintings were safe from the fire?"
"Are you suggesting that Maya has something to do with the fire?" Amish knows exactly what Meenakshi is saying but for the sake of her pride, he is giving her every possible chance to end this game right here.
"Of course not. She is my granddaughter. How can I possibly think that she would do such a thing? I am just saying that Maya kept the paintings safe, but why did she think that the paintings would be unsafe in the house to begin with?"
"Because there are too many people in the house who don't like those paintings."
"She could've taken out the paintings after the party. Why was she in such a hurry to move the paintings?" This is all that Amish could handle.
"Dadi, I know what you're implying. You think Maya is behind the incident. What I want to know is do you think Maya was the only one behind it? And you have nothing to do with it?"
"What are you implying, Amish? Are you saying that I would hurt my own family in such a way?"
"That is the thing, Dadi. I am not implying any such thing, just like you are not implying that Maya was the one behind the fire." Meenakshi goes silent for a moment as she realizes that Amish is not in the dark about Maya's plan as she had assumed, but now that he knows there is not much she can hide either.
"Then, you know everything. And are you going to let her be like this, Amish?" Since Meenakshi can no longer play the victim card, she can only go head-on to make Amish anxious about Maya's unusual behaviour.
"Maya can get emotional sometimes, Dadi. But she is not someone to let this kind of mistake repeat."
"Do you know what yesterday means? Maya could go to such lengths to make her point. She's capable of doing anything and do you really trust her to not do anything of that sort in the future? Maya can get emotional but the consequences of her emotions are far too many. The hatred that she is harbouring will only take her deeper into self-destruction."
"That will never happen, Dadi. She has two brothers as pillars. I will never let her go down that part."
"But will that be enough? Don't you think what Maya needs is another chance at life?"
"What does that mean?" Amish is now confused about where this is going.
"Maya is 24 years old this year. Don't you think we should find a nice match for her? Maybe a new beginning is what she needs right now?"
"Maya is too young to get married, Dadi." It baffles him that Meenakshi thinks that marriage is the solution for all this mess created by her. He had seen the consequences of choosing the wrong partner and losing the right one. He cannot possibly make a similar mistake with her sister. There is no way he is going to let anyone push her into a marriage she's not ready for. "Moreover, Maya just started her career. She needs to get a stable job and some work experience. She has so many ambitions..."
"And a marriage would not affect any of that. She can be a doctor, climb up the ladder and reach every height of her dreams, but with a family of her own."
"Dadi, Maya is not ready for marriage. She is too young and she is my sister. She just came to India. If anything, I would like to spend more time with my little sister without any kind of external pressure. Maya's marriage will be at her own will when she's ready and no one will push her in the meanwhile. None of you will talk to her or try to convince her to a marriage right now."
"Fine, Amish. It is up to you since you want to be the one making decisions for your sister. But as her elder, I have the right to put my opinions in front of her. Let her decide what she wants in her life."
"Go ahead and say that to her, Dadi. It's not like you don't know her anger. So go ahead and tell her to get married and see what happens." Amish knows his sister enough that he is sure she will refuse Dadi's idea in the most humiliating way. He tried to save her some face but since Meenakshi is so insistent, let her take Maya's wrath alone. Amish get back to his work as Meenakshi leaves furiously. Her plan fails yet again, but she can't just give up. Everything she's doing is for Maya. The only way to stop the tragedy that would be a marriage like Abhir and Mishti's is to move quickly. She has to find the perfect match for Maya. Only then can she be assured that Maya will not marry the wrong partner.