#5. Baby's Night Out

Rudra picked Risha in his arms and sighed. The night was going to be rough, he was sure of that.

Risha, 10-month-old, had managed to crawl her way out of his grip across the length of her nursery, babbling her way.

He had let her be, as he had arranged her cot, making sure her Plushy Bear was at a hand's reach. Jai had designed the room in such a way that it gave Risha the freed to use the room without harming herself.

"Let's call it a night, captain," he tickled her tummy and she laughed, filling Rudra with a warmth that he never could understand. He picked her up and picked a book to read. Maya insisted on reading books to her as she slept.

Nandini entered the room and offered to take in Risha with her, but Rudra denied her off politely. 

"Maya will video call in about 5 minutes,"

"It looks like we are in no mood to sleep,"

He looked at Risha. She leaned towards her grandmother, who chuckled at her granddaughter's antics and took her in her arms. His phone rang and he received his wife's call.

"How was the meeting?"

"It was amazing, I can't wait to get back home, Pune is stuffy,"

"Just say it that you miss me,"

"You wish," she laughed.

Risha turned to her father, hearing her mother's voice. Nandini helped her in his lap.

"Say hello to Mumma, Shona,"

Risha touched the mobile phone and seeing her mother got excited and started hopping in her father's lap.

"Uff! So much excitement," Maya laughed and kissed the screen.

"Give Mumma a flying kiss,"

Risha touched her palm to her lips and then on the screen.

"I miss you baccha, can't wait to come back," Maya whined on the call.

"Did you give her the medicine?"

"Yes, the doctor says that she is fine now, but we should continue with the dose, it's flu after all," Nandini spoke.

"You should rest," she continued and the Maya kissed them good night and hung up.

"You miss your Mamuni?" Rudra asked her daughter who started wailing when the screen turned back to her photo.

"She will be back tomorrow,"

Maya had to leave for Pune for an urgent meeting and had planned on taking Risha with her, who caught flu and Maya couldn't wiggle her way out of the meeting, no matter how much she tried.

"Maa, even you should go to sleep,"

"If you want, I can wait with her,"

"Nah, we are good," Rudra rocked on her on his shoulder. She rested her head on his shoulder and started chewing her fist. Nandini pulled it out of her mouth gently and kissed her forehead.

"Wake me up if you need anything,"

She smiled at her son-in-law and left.

Rudra held Risha in her lap and continued reading to her, initially, she refused to stay put, suddenly being reminded of her mother and then her eyes lids started growing heavy and she fell asleep.

"Not so resistant, are we?" Rudra chuckled as he realized that his daughter was asleep and lay her on the cot, keeping the teddy bear next to her.

Rudra loved such moments with Risha. Being the mother, Maya always had an upper hand when it came to her and though it was kind of wrong to say, Rudra wished for some time more with his daughter. 

He still couldn't forget how his hands trembled as he held Risha for the first time, and he laughed at his slightly younger self, now, because holding Risha felt like second nature for him.

He couldn't believe that Risha was his, he made her. She was something so beautiful and pure that sometimes Rudra felt destiny was joking with him and that he wasn't her father, that she was an ethereal angel that had descended from heavens and though he knew that was far too stretched, he honestly felt that.

He still remembered the slight disappointment that pinged his heart when he realized that Risha had no physical resemblance to him. From her high cheekbones to piercing brown eyes, it was all Maya.

But Nandini had laughed at him softly and had said, " Wait for her to grow up, she will be so naughty, and my Maya was a peaceful child, temperamental, yet, peaceful,"

And she was right. From the day Risha had managed to turn sides to the day she crawled, she had them all on her little finger and even at this age, had slight affinities to getting herself into dangers.

The soft snores against his chest made him gaze at her and cover her with the quilt Rajeev had sent. Almost the whole room was filled with stuff from the UK, except the cot that was Maya and Rajeev's, when they were kids and a few toys that Risha had managed to bring back from their childhood house when he had heard of Maya's pregnancy.

Rudra kissed Risha's forehead and closed his eyes, and suddenly she clutched on his finger, making him open his eyes and smile at her and then close again.

If Nandini came at 1 o'clock to see the father and daughter sleep peacefully, she didn't say so to anyone and just put off the lights and closed the door.