A lot of hard work is hidden behind nice things. This chapter is to show the pain every child with working parents go through. Being a student is not easy.
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There he was entering the garden dressed in a navy blue slim cut shirt and beige casual pants with his sleeves rolled up; tired eyes probably due to travelling; messy hair with few resting effortlessly on forehead; sweat beads shining on his forehead and neck under the twilight sky of the hot evening...anyone could fall for that royal smile of him.
His eyes roamed all around as if were to check whether everyone had arrived. There was yearning as well as excitement in his magnetic eyes to meet his best friend. He came and gave his first hug to Krishnakumar muttering a greeting. Rakesh jumped from his place and throwed himself on Ashwin shouting "machan" and he hugged him back tightly and both parted after a dramatic hug. Arjun muttered in an irritated tone " thuu... shameless people as if they haven't met for ages. silly fellows came home from the same university 2 days back." which caught the attention of the two machan duo. Ashwin turned saying "you are jealous da. isn't it macha?" Arjun along with the 3 girls thupified/ spitted.
That's when Ashwin crooked his neck pretending to take a glance at Sivaangi for the first time in the evening and said "congratulations madam... for your merit pass. very good" Sivaangi chuckled saying "ellam ungal aasirvatham guru ji / all because of your blessings guru ji" and Ashwin smiled shaking his head and wounded his arms around Rakesh locking his neck.
Vanathi who came with extra cookies cupped the cheeks of Arjun and Sivaangi in each of her 2 hands muttering "my golden kids". She left Arjun's cheek and fed a chocolate cookie to Sivaangi and placed a kiss on her forehead. Sivaangi hugged Vanathi by her neck and Ashwin stood there with admiring eyes looking at the beautiful bond shared between his favorite cousin and his lovely mom.
All sat along with Ashwin and continued their chats with tea.
Rakesh and Ashwin had come home for 20 days semester vacation 2 days back. The results were out at 12.10 in the midnight and the whole family didn't sleep the entire night. Binni's family started their journey in the morning and reached for lunch. Ashwin had to visit a couple of banks to handover some files on behalf of his father.
The elders were tired due last night sleeplessness and a busy day today so they all retired to their respective homes after tea and cleaning. Mahalakshmi discussed about their dinner before dismissing. Vanathi and Lakshmikanthan went back to their home along with children. So it was only Sivakumar, Mahalakshmi and Binni's family left.
Sivaangi came after having a body wash changing into comfy clothes. She saw Rakesh texting on phone smiling to himself and she knew who was it, definitely there was nothing she didn't know about her brother. Mentally making a note to tease them later, she headed to her room and rested her head on the bed.
She wondered how life changed overnight. Yesterday at the same hour she was shivering with nervousness and anxiety as she knew the result day was not far.
Past 3 months weren't easy. she didn't do anything productive in these 3 months after her exams. she came here last time soon after finishing her finals and today... the two visits were too contrasting to be compared. she didn't know how she had done her exams. these 102 days could have been the worst days of her life. no school, no classes, no meetings with friends; she felt she was being deprived of her every little happiness. She was home all by herself within the 4 walls while her parents were busy rushing to hospital day and night.
Her life was quite narrow during the last few years. Her world revolved around only school, tuitions, home and rarely a visit to her native place. It wasn't easy to sacrifice everything and direct all her attention to only biology, chemistry, physics for 2 years and 10 months when her peers were enjoying their life with trips, social media, girl hangouts, party etc... She lived her life to the fullest when they all gathered for festivals at their natives. Her cousins were her major source of happiness. But it was not constant. since she chose to do studies online her joy became restricted only twice or thrice a year.
Hence Sivaangi was determined in her mind to spend the upcoming days after exams by having fun and catching up with other teen things and girl stuffs she missed to do in these years.
She completed her school life, she thought she was free from exam stresses finally because that was the only thing that bothered her and nothing else. But was it really?
In a house of 4 huge floors with balcony in the uppermost floor with a BBQ corner, plenty of rooms to accommodate their relatives during holidays and a well planned infrastructure with all facilities, she would be there sitting all alone in a the dining of eight for her breakfasts and lunch.
Taking every bite of her food reluctantly, she had wondered 'how amazing it would be for her friends to have their moms beside them the whole day. How would it feel to spend holidays helping them in kitchen chatting about random things or taunting relatives or about their plans for the future'. She would chuckle sadly realizing why her friends used to jump in happiness when they got holidays and and she used to be sad of missing her precious friends. Afterall she had to be alone at home or with her brother who was a boring person to spend time with.
Sometimes she thought the loneliness inside of her was going to explode through her skin and sometimes she wasn't sure if crying or screaming or laughing through hysteria will solve anything at all.
She had so many plans to do once she finished the exams. She wanted to learn cooking in which she was very weak at; stitching which she had no clue about; baking, she loved doing it. She wanted to study ICT since she didn't choose that as one of her basket subjects. She wanted to help her juniors by teaching one of her 3 subjects because teaching was her passion and habit since childhood. But she was not ready to do it out of fear on how would her exams results turn up. And her parents were not able to manage time to find a safe place for her to learn any other life skills.
She felt like a failure when she wasn't able to fulfill any of the bucket list things she had planned and loneliness added fuel to it.
But today... this one day made all her sorrows and pain vanish in the air. She was living the happiest day of her life right now.
This is what every girl with dreams longs for. To see pride in their parents' eyes.
It was all worthy she thought. She would have enjoyed the pain she was going through if she had known that they were leading the path to this day of her life, TODAY is all what she prayed for. She thanked god wholeheartedly for everything.
Her lips curved into a thin smile. It was a moment to be framed. She wiped her face and got up to realize that she was shedding lone tears. Were they out of her pain or were they happy tears. She didn't want to research because she was already full; Full of emotion...
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She turned her head sideways and was shocked to find her brother entering her room passing the wide open door. Sivaangi panicked. Did he just come come or he saw her crying already. He came with his phone, " Sivu, Ashwin is asking if we can go on a night drive. like at 8 probably? He was asking if we could go in our car or he has to take Laksh uncle's car along with Arjun and the girls."
Sivaangi's eyes twinkled with surprise but it suddenly narrowed as she frowned "he called you first to ask this without informing me ?" Rakesh chuckled and knocked his sister's head saying "girl you and your silly possessiveness. he had decided it already that we are going on a drive and called me just to check the car thing. don't worry I am sure your best friend has planned it for you. We are just a company. Poor me who was driving 6h after a sleepless night yesterday and this duo doesn't want me to get a peaceful sleep" he said and moved to his room leaving a pouting Sivaangi.
Not a minute had passed and her phone rang bringing a smile onto her face. "Ashwineyyy" her screen flashed. She answered in the 2nd ring. "where are you" asked his excited voice. "home" replied Sivaangi curtly pretending to be angry. "okay what you doing? unless you are tired we can go on a drive. I mean all 6 of us and we can ask Shakthi and Shravan to join us too. I just felt bored at home "
Sivaangi chuckled silently. "are you there" he frowned not hearing his friend who talks non stop. She didn't want to make it awkward for him so she replied immediately " yes yes that's a great idea. you know i love night rides. I will be ready by 8 ok? " Ashwin smiled as he knew it. His chirpy friend was back.
Here Sivaangi smiled to herself, he speaks lengthy sentences only when he wants to reason something so that she wouldn't misunderstand him. Yes Ashwin was afraid to confess that he was planning this for his best friend. But he wanted to enjoy with all of them like they usually do.
And there's the start to their adventures... another beginning of fun at their natives...
Hello, how was this chapter?
Was it weird to see the friendship of Ashwin and Sivaangi? Naming each other to be best friends but acting weird?
Wait for the upcoming chapters to know the reason behind. but let me know your guesses.
Did you like Ashaangi's meet? I know that is not what you expected. but please trust me i wanna take it slow since i want the main focus of this story to be conveyed properly. it is not just only about love.
I wanna say myself and the world that we are born with a purpose and dreams and hardwork matter.
Does any of you have both parents working and have suffered like this ? I have and I still suffer it.