(Hello friends I'm back. Life is not always smooth and some unexpected situations do pop up at times, it was why I couldn't update. Had low signal, a broken charger and a tab which hung up unnecessarily. Came back home just today and am updating this chap. Excuse me if you found some errors in it. I'm exhausted like nothing. But I'd update regularly from here on as I'm BACK HOME. YAY😇)
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"Where is this duffer he's not picking my phone from yesterday night and he's not in his room either", somya was now searching for Rudra in the oberoi mansion murmuring to herself. It was rakhi today and prinku had been expecting rudra to come to her flat, she very well couldn't come to the mansion.
Soumya had called khanna in the morning to inquire whether rudra was at the office, to which khanna had replied that he was at the mansion. Somya had rushed to the mansion early in the morning, on not finding Rudra in his room she was now searching for him in the other parts of the mansion. As she was passing by shivaay bhaiyya's room she saw the room unlocked. From the time shivaay bhaiyya had left the mansion the room was always locked. So soumya peeked in to the room out of curiosity to find a figure sleeping on the bed there on his stomach. She entered the room to find that the figure was none other than Rudra himself. He was crying hiding his head in one of shivaay bhaiyya's pillows lying on his stomach on that fluffy mattress, he had a rakhi which he had held tightly in one of his hands.
Soumya sat beside him on the bed and slowly stroked his hair whispering
"What happened Rudra?"
Rudra gave no reply
"Rudra shh shh, say me what happened?" Asked somu stroking his head further
"I want bhaiyya and Oo" whispered rudra between his sobs still hiding his head, like a little whining child.
Soumya did not know how to console him, she knew how it was like to loose a brother, she herself had lost her only brother. Even now after many years she couldn't come up to agree that her bhai was gone.Somu too was broken today as it was raksha bandhan, but she had made up her mind to act strong only for her cry baby. Last year she had run away from home on raksha bandhan and her mom had to search for her everywhere. At last her mom had found her in the zoo where she and her brother used to go on raksha bandhan every year till the time he was alive. Even after they became teenagers they used to continue their practice of visiting the zoo every raksha bandhan. Her bhai had died of a road accident when returning from college and since then she was left alone with her mother. When ever she saw the oberoi mansion filled with relations of every type she was always overwhelmed and a tad bit jealous of rudy. Soumu had always wondered how they managed to live so peacefully. She thought the oberois were a perfect family. But now everything was over. Whatever she had imagined and her theory on perfect family was all blown in the air.
Her eyes started watering all of a sudden on thought of those memories and her raksha bandhan resolution of acting strong, which was only a day old was all gone. She too started sobbing.
"Somu why are you crying now?" Asked rudra who had now brought his head out of his secure hiding place, on hearing a sobbing sound that was obviously not his.
"Nothing rudra, just some memories" somu said meekly and added "seeing you cry worsens it more"
"Seeing you cry makes me cry more too somu" Rudra added in his week voice
"So let both of us stop crying together okay" somu added and then both of them wiped away their tears and Rudra got up from his sleeping position and sat on the bed with his legs crossed facing sumo.
"Rudra don't cry, I know its rakhi today but don't worry, next rakhi shivaay bhaiyya will be here, we both will find him very soon together. And then you, bade bhal wale bhaiyya and prinku can tie rakhi together. Just don't cry please" somu said giving him a confident smile hiding her pain.
"You too don't cry somu, Oo will be fine by next rakhi after we'd find shivaay bhaiyya, then you can tie him your rakhi and to shivaay bhaiyya too" now a smiling rudra added. Rudra knew how much somu missed her dead brother and how she had already accepted his brothers as her own brothers. He did not want to cry anymore and make her weak. He knew he'd any how manage to find his shivaay bhaiyya before next rakhi and make everything fine.
"I'm not a cry baby, you cry baby and haan stop being too nice" somu said in response to rudra's assuring words. She knew her Rudra still had the child like innocence although he did not show it to the outside world. To the world at large he was like shivaay bhaiyya the once shrewd businessman.
"See who is speaking, I'm always nice it just took you so long to understand" rudra said faking anger.
"Arey duffer leave it lets fight later, I forgot to tell you something important"
The moment somya had called him duffer Rudra was sure that somu was back to normal. He did not want to show his pain to her and make her weak or broken.
"Prinku is waiting for you from morning she has to go to her store too. Come on let's go quickly"
"I totally forgot about her let's get there soon" saying so Rudra hastened quickly out of bed. Before going out of the room he went toward the huge framed photograph of his bhaiyya and bhabhi which was kept on a slab in their room. It was taken after their second marriage. Both of them had very big smiles pasted on their happy faces. He kept his rakhi on the slab in front of the frame and walked out after saying somu that he'd come soon. He went to his room to get dressed.
After rudra had left soumya too walked towards the frame and took something out if her small back pack. It was nothing other than a rakhi, she too left it at the place where Rudra had left his rakhi. She also had made a plan to tie her rakhi to bade bhal wale bhaiyya. She knew he came home very late on every Thursdays and to her luck rakhi had fallen on a Thursday this year. After he slept he knew nothing. So this was the time she had planned to tie him the rakhi. She knew Om had never said anything to her ,so she thought he loved her like he used to do in the past. But on the other hand he never spoke properly to her as well, so this made her to think he didn't want to associate with her like in the past. So she had learnt to distance herself from Om. But it didn't mean she didnt love Om bhaiyya she loved him like everyday and would do her duty as his sister. She didn't want to disclose her plan to anyone not even to Rudra.
After that she rushed towards rudra's room shouting "Are you ready duffer? Come soon... we have to buy prinku a gift as well. I'm sure you might have not bought one"
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A splash of red, a pinch of white,an amount of pink was mixed to get the proper texture. Then the new discovered colour was painted on a white surface. The painter who was creating this piece was undoubtedly the man of true ideology Omkara singh oberoi. He was painting three hands tying a rakhi to another hand. He had a smile playing on his lips. His forehead had temporary wrinkles which showed he was paying keen attention to his work. He dipped the paint brush again into the paint and carried on his painting hunt which he wanted to perfect.
He was now painting the hand which the other three hands were tying a rakhi to. When he was doing that his eyes showed an unsaid anger and had unshed tears, while his lips had that painful smile. He was working on his art sincerely, with utmost silence in the background, when a feminine voice disturbed the earlier isolated atmosphere,
"Om wanna have some tea?" Asked the feminine voice and handed over him a cup of tea in one of those earthen cups which omkara preferred. The three brothers always had tea in those earthen cups when they had their boy's talk by the pool side every evening since their childhood days from the time the three were big enough.
"Why not, thank you. Keep it there ill wash my hands and come" said om with a smile and went to clean himself up.
"Missing your brothers " asked the feminine voice
"Too much" Om gave a clipped response.
"Why don't you speak to Rudra atleast now?" Asked the feminine voice with curiosity
"I'm too guilty for that now" Om again gave a clipped response sipping his tea
"When would the right time come Om if not now. Will it dawn anyday soon?"
"It'd when I find shivaay"
"But when would you find him, it has been about nine months since then if I'm not wrong, right om?"
"Very very soon that day would dawn Ishana"
After that silence prevailed as both of them sipped their tea.
---Yes the owner of that feminine voice was ishana and what connection Om had with her would be revealed only with time---
(Ishana is not a con girl here and never was one in my story and neither have ishana or om met like it was shown in the series ishqbaaaz. She is a bit different here. Remember this guys it's very important, om and ishana had never had an encounter like shown initially in ishqbaaaz. How they met here in my story and what they are would be described as the story progresses🙏)
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Thank you for your unconditional love guys, hope im able to live up to that. I hope I've replied to everyone who had commented previously. Sorry for doing it too late, the reason was undoubtedly some unexpected situations that popped up in my small trip as I said earlier.
Vote,comment and support like you guys always do 💗.
____yours loving phoenixwriter99(Tabitha).