The Goenkas reach the Sharma house the next day morning. Akhilesh, Surekha, Vansh, Kairav and Arohi arrive at noon. Akshara, with the help of Muskan and Ranav, helps them in. As there was not enough room for them to stay, Akshara arranged for some of them to stay in Neelima's(Muskaan's grandmother) house. Five years ago, Neelima passed away from cardiac arrest and since then the house has been rented for a while but right now it is empty and ready to use. Until her last moments, Neelima was worried for Abhinav and it bothered Akshara that Abhinav had to deal with this pain as soon as he woke up. Abhinav asked for her as soon as he woke up and after hearing the news, he could not hold in his tears as he let the grief flow in Akshara's arms. It seems that he was able to digest the reality that 18 years have passed pretty well than Akshara imagined. Ranav hugged everyone and when he hugged Arohi, he looked over her shoulder expectantly.
"Where is Roohi?" Arohi smiles at Ranav as she knocks on his head lightly.
"We met after such a long time and all you ask about is Roohi. The last time you came home with Abhi, you didn't even meet me and immediately left for the camp." Ranav gives her a toothy smile and pulls her into another hug.
"Of course, I missed you so much, Masi(Mother's sister). I was just wondering why you didn't bring along that monkey. Did you finally take my advice and drop her at the zoo?" Arohi just shakes her head.
"Actually, I thought about it but you see, every family needs a monkey. Since the Sharma Family has one, the Birla family needs one too."
"Are you calling me a monkey, Masi?" Ranav pouts as he says.
"I didn't say your name, though. Anyways, Roohi will arrive with Abhi. They'll probably be here by evening."
"Oh. Why didn't Father come with you guys?" Ranav thought they would all come together.
"Actually he was delayed with some work, so Roohi also stayed back so she could give him company."
"Hmmm."
***
Maya clicks the send button with a heavy heart. She stares at the mail that she just sent to the Trinity hospital. She has applied for the hospital as an intern for speciality training. The plan played out in her head when she found out that Rishabh works at Trinity Hospital as an equity analyst. Maya felt lucky that Rishab happened to work at a hospital's financial department, which served as an opportunity for an MD graduate like her to get a closer look at his life. Especially with her profile, there is no way they can reject her. Maya skipped 2 grades and graduated high school when she was 15 years old along with Akshay, who was 2 years older than her. She then got her medical degree when she was 20 years old and went ahead with the 2-year foundation programme, which is a work-based training to develop clinical skills for speciality training, in one of the best hospitals in London. After the training, she was offered to continue her speciality training there but she refused in hopes of getting the post at Birmingham Hospital.
The next thing she does is meet Amish. Amish was found asleep in his office chair. He must've fallen asleep after a long tiring day and Maya didn't want to wake him up. As she was about to leave, Amish woke up from his sleep, startled and confused by his surroundings for a minute. He recovers quickly as he clears his throat and adjusts himself in the chair.
"Maya. What are you doing here? When did you come?"
"Just now, Bhayya." Maya takes a seat across the table from Amish. She grabs a pen, swirling it in her hand as she looks at Amish with her eyebrows furrowed. "Um, About the offer from Birla Hospitals." Amish sits upright in his chair, moving to the edge in anticipation of her decision. "I would like to decline it." Before Amish could try to convince her to change her mind. "But I am not saying I wouldn't work at all. It's just that I have a different choice of hospital in mind and I have already applied for it. I also applied for Birla Hospital but this is not the intake period for them and it is only right for me to respect the rules. As I said, I refuse to get any special treatment, so I want to get an opportunity that I worked for. So, please, allow me to show you that I can do it by myself. Please?" Maya knows that Amish won't force her to do anything.
"Fine. I know you can do anything if you put your mind to it, Maya. All I gave you was an opportunity provided by someone who thinks of you as capable." Maya smiles widely as she stands up from the chair, walks over to Amish to hug him, and skips out of the room happy. Amish is left surprised and unable to hide his happiness because Maya is growing closer with him day by day. She gets excited with him, laughs along to his jokes, taunts him once in a while and stands by his side most of the time. She is so comfortable in his presence right now. The suggestion of Maya's marriage has been long forgotten by Amish, but Meenakshi had other plans. Meenakshi Rajvansh was not a woman who would give up after failure. The failure only pushed her to play a longer game.
As soon as she emerges from Amish's office, Aditya pounces on her from behind, startling her into letting out a squeak.
"ADI!" Maya smacks him on the shoulder twice with her hands as Aditya ducks to escape. "Are you mad?"
"Are you a loudspeaker? Are you a truck horn? Are you Jasmeet Dadi?" Maya looks at him shaking her head. "Then, why are you so loud?" Maya palms her face and rolls her eyes at him.
"When will you get rid of this habit? It looks cute when Dad does it. It looks horrible when you do it. Because of your habit of questions, I am starting to pick it up too."
"I don't mind. We will be a family of question boxes then." Aditya smiles cheekily while Maya again rolls her eyes at him. Amish emerges from the room with eyes wide open.
"What happened? I thought I heard Maya scream." Amish asks the pair and they break into giggles.
"You explain," Maya says.
"Why me? You explain. You are the one who screamed." Aditya replies, still giggling.
"You are the one who jumped out of nowhere!" Maya places her fists on her hips, giving Aditya an annoyed look.
"Now, I get what happened," Amish says as he looks at his younger siblings as his lips break into a smile.
"Not my fault, though. How am I to know that Maya has been practising her vocal cords to be so loud?"
"Right, my fault, right?" Maya lunges towards Aditya and he immediately takes a step back and sprints away followed by Maya, who chases behind him. Amish looks at them, smiling to himself, feeling relieved to see them cheered up after a long time, having nothing to worry about. Maya and Aditya slip into the kitchen causing chaos as a worried Parul tries to break them apart. Maya refuses to stop as she takes every chance to tickle Aditya. Aditya runs to where Kaushal is in the living room, hiding behind him for refugee as Maya approaches him. Maya again takes a go at catching him and he slips away yet again. They had done this a million times since childhood but it finally felt normal doing this here in Rajvansh Sadan. Finally, the house started to feel like home.
The house she didn't want to set foot in, the room that could never be hers alone, the family that she wouldn't accept and the people she couldn't face, it all grew on the foreign-return siblings who had never experienced a joint family. It all grew on Maya. The only thing missing is her father. Abhir Rajvansh.
***
The Goenka family:
The eldest in the house is Swarna Goenka, who is suggested to be taken care of all the time in the comfort of their home because of her old age. Manish Goenka, Swarna's husband passed away 9 years ago naturally in his sleep.
Akhilesh Goenka, Manish's brother, is the head of the family, and the decision-maker. Surekha is Akhilesh's wife.
Kartik Goenka is the son of Manish Goenka and his first wife, Soumya. Naira (Singhania) Goenka is Kartik's wife, also Akshara, and Kairav's mother. Akshara is named after Naira's mother, Akshara (Maheswari) Singhania. Arohi is born to Kartik and his second wife, Sirat.
Shubham aka Aryan Goenka is Manish and Swarna's son.
Vansh Goenaka is Gayathri and Vivaan's son. Gayathri is Naira's cousin sister and Vivaan is Akhilesh's son.
The Birla Family:
The eldest of the family is Anandvardan Birla, husband of Mahima Birla.
Manjari Birla is the wife of Harshvardhan Birla, who is Anand's brother.
Abhimanyu is Harsh and Manjari's son and Ranav's biological father.
Niel Birla is Abhimanyu's half-brother and Arohi (Goenka) Birla's husband. Roohi Birla is born to Niel and Arohi.
Parth Birla is Mahima and Anand's son and Shifali's husband. Shivu is Parth and Shifali's son.
Ranav aka Abhir Sharma/Birla is born to Akshara and her ex-husband, Abhimanyu Birla.
Maheswari Family:
Vishambarnath and Rajshri Maheswari are the head of the family.
Mishti Maheswari Aggarwal is the adoptive daughter of the head couple after her father, Naman Aggarwal, was convicted of murder. Her biological mother, Karishma, remarried and refused Mishti.
Shourya Maheswari is the son of Vishambar and Rajshri, husband of Varsha.
Kuhu was born to Shourya and Sneha through an extramarital affair and was adopted by Varsha and accepted into the Maheswari family.
Ananya Maheswari is Shourya and Varsha's daughter.
The Rajvansh Family:
The head of the family is Meenakshi. Kaushal is Meenakshi's younger brother.
Nidhi Rajvansh is Kaushal's wife and mother of Ketki and Atul.
Abhir Rajvansh is Meenakshi Rajvansh and Mehul Kapadia's son. Kunal is Parul and Mehul's son
Mishti Rajvansh is Abhir's wife and Kuhu is Kunal's wife. Kunal and Kuhu have no biological children. Kuhu is Maya and Amish's surrogate mother.
Aishwarya is Ketki and Rishab's daughter.