She bit her lip at his bold statement and said, “We won’t be meeting for a long time now. Not before Diwali I think.” He suggested, “How about Navratri? See if you can come for a day or two. We can go for Falguni Pathak if you do.” Shruti was tempted to, but wasn’t sure whether she would be able to come again so soon.
However, things don’t work out always as we plan.
To be continued……
Both Shruti and Atharva were too tied up with their work during the following days. Atharva got naughtier and bolder while talking over the phone and Shruti would go completely mum sometimes, while at other times she would have to tell him to stop dreaming. There were days when he would be tired and they would barely be able to talk for a couple of minutes.
During one such conversation, Shruti again broached the topic of Minish. She began, “Atharva… have you been noticing of late any change in Minishbhai’s behaviour?” Atharva muttered, “Hmm.. I have. But I feel it’s just because you have mentioned about it. I am telling you again, he is a very straight forward guy and I really doubt that he must be having an affair.”
Shruti shrugged, “Well, we shall see.” He questioned, “Have you got your tickets booked?” She replied, “No.. not as yet. Shall ask papa to get it done tomorrow.”
Little did she know that things would not work in her favour. It was just 5 a.m. in the morning, when her dad came knocking at her door. She was perplexed to see him at that hour and exclaimed, “What happened papa?!” He explained how her mother had been having high fever since night in spite of giving paracetamol and had asked their family doctor to come for a home visit.
Shruti immediately went to her mom who seemed to be in a really bad shape and was throwing up. She had always seen her very strong and so was taken aback to see her in that condition. In a couple of minutes, the doctor came and after checking her, said, “It seems to be an acute bout of stomach infection as of now. She might feel very weak for a few days. Also, she will need to be on a light diet as far as food is concerned. Keep her hydrated with some liquid or the other at regular intervals.”
Shruti felt a sense of responsibility for the first in the coming days. She realised that as kids they take a lot of things for granted and that it demands a lot of effort and planning to keep the house running smoothly. She tried to manage things but failed miserably, owing to her lack of culinary skills. She took her mother’s advice from time to time to understand how to go about it and could barely manage.
Her subzis were still edible but the rotis were of an unspeakable shape and Rohan didn’t miss any chance. He cheekily commented when Shruti was serving food to them, “Papa… I think Shruti is trying to give us lessons in geography!” Both father and Shruti looked at him trying to decipher what exactly was he trying to say. He continued, pointing at the roti, “But you know, looking at this, it’s impossible to know which continent's shape is that.” Shruti was pissed off initially but looking at her dad, mom and Rohan she also couldn’t hold back and all had a hearty laugh.
It was barely two days to go for Navratri and her mom was still very weak. Shruti knew it would be too much stress for her mom to manage on her own, even for two days and decided against it. Atharva was a bit upset but didn’t force her as well due to the circumstances.
Mrs Verma overheard her daughter saying so over the call to Atharva and insisted that she will be fine and can manage, but Shruti refused to listen and thus, didn’t visit Mumbai.
The marriage date had been finalised as 23rd January, 2007. Then began the hunt for the venue which was a tad difficult as it was another auspicious day as per the Hindu calendar, Vasant Panchami. Mr Verma also went to Mumbai for the same so that they could visit a couple of venues and mutually come to a decision. Quite a few good venues had been booked way in advance, so it was quite disheartening.
As Anilji was there in Mumbai, Mr Parmar called up to ask about their progress. As soon as he came to know about their predicament, he quickly suggested, “There is a beautiful ground right near my house. As it would be a winter wedding, the atmosphere is bound to be pleasant enough for the ceremony to be held on an open ground.”
Dilipji and Anilji reached the venue to be met by Mr Parmar over there. The ground was quite huge and easily accessible from the main highway for convenience. They all agreed and heaved a sigh of relief as they had started worrying about the lack of availability of good venues. The dates for sangeet and Mehandi were also finalised in accordance, so as to not delay further preparations. Dilipji had wished to hold Sangeet ceremony in their locality and thankfully, the banquet that he had in mind was available for 21st of January. They immediately froze the date and venue for the same and felt as if a major task had been accomplished.
Shruti was to go to Shah’s Residence a week before Diwali as they were yet to go to the designer for her reception outfit as well as Sangeet. The days were having wings of their own and Shruti felt as if even 24 hours were less. She was scurrying around to get her stuff done. For Nainaa’s wedding, she had been equally active and the work had seemed to be divided. This time, it was all on Shruti’s shoulders since Nainaa was married and in Mumbai. Priyanka did help her though, as much as she could. This had taken a toll on her, which had led her to shed a couple of kgs more combined with her strict diet and workout. She kept justifying whenever her mom mentioned about it, that she was eating healthy and cutting down on the calories, that’s it.
Before she knew, it was already time to go to Mumbai. The packing took up quite some time, as she would be staying there for almost 10 days this time. Also, they will be going out a lot… adding the festive clothes and accessories to that, it ended up into 2 bags as she didn’t prefer carrying one huge one. The lovebirds were glad to see each other.
By the time she reached home, it was already 8 p.m. and in a short while they had their meal and were done. This time around Mrs. Shah seemed to have accepted much better that Shruti would be sleeping in the boys room and didn’t create a scene, much to Shruti’s relief.
Post dinner, Shruti, Atharva and Minish were in the room flicking through the channels when Shruti insisted, “Sports channel please! US open tennis tournament is going on… should be interesting.” And all three settled down to watch the championship which kept them glued for long. It was a nail biting match between the 19 year old sensation, Maria Sharapova and Justine Henin Hardenne. During the match, Shruti animatedly said, “Papa loves following football and tennis… I remember me and papa arguing about who will win in between Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf in one of their matches. I used to adore Steffi… she was so cute whereas Martina had that attitude to match her harsh obnoxious looks. No offence, but I always favoured Steffi.”
Atharva and Minish were quite surprised to listen to her talking so spiritedly about it, more so as she was describing about her banter with her dad. They couldn’t even dream about having that kind of a conversation with their dad.
It was pretty late in the night by the time the match got over. In between, Minish had received a call and he went out of the room, talking to someone in hushed tones and Shruti gave Atharva a ‘told you’ glance. Atharva simply shrugged and before he could comment, Minish came in. Atharva felt like asking his brother, but then refrained from doing so.
Meanwhile, Maria finally ended defeating Henin, won her second Grand Slam final title and was bathing in her success. However, before the match got over, Atharva had gone to sleep and both Minish and Shruti grinned seeing him.
They were going through the highlights of the game as Shruti wanted to see, since they had missed the start. Little did Shruti know that Minish was having a battle of words with his beloved, Rhea. She had wanted to talk to him, since it was only at night that they would have a talk. Minish had come out of the room and told her in a hurried tone, which had pissed off Rhea. He had promised that he will call her up in a while and had gone back to the room. When she again messaged him to talk, Minish replied, ‘Not now love. Atharva has slept, bhabhi is awake and it would look odd if I go out. So keeping her company.’ Rhea fumed and texted, ‘What kind of a person is your brother?! I mean seriously… his fiancée is visiting and he coolly goes to sleep?!’ Minish suppressed a chuckle and wanted to defend his brother, but knew that Rhea was right. He naughtily replied, ‘Hmm.. I agree. I wouldn’t bat an eye lid if you would be at home for the night.’ Rhea replied, ‘High hopes Minish… I stay just two minutes away. I won’t be staying overnight like Shruti bhabhi.’
Shruti had been observing him for a while now but didn’t comment. She pretended to be engrossed in the game and before they knew, sleep took over both Minish and Shruti. They didn’t realise when they slept, leaving the t.v. and lights on.
It was early in the morning when Atharva woke up to see…..
To be continued….
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