Chapter 3

[NOCOPY]

Part 3 -

That night as she laid in bed, for the first time in her life sleep evaded her.

Even when Shilpa and her were best friends, she had always felt a possessiveness towards all the members of the Pandya family. She had never liked the fact that Shilpa had a crush on Shiva. She had tried different tactics to get her off Shiva’s back. But it didn’t work out.

And then one day, immediately after their 12th exams during a family trip a huge brawl had broken out between them. Shilpa’s and Raavi’s family had been there. Both the girls had pounced on each other, pulling each other’s hair and pinching and kicking. Mausa pa and Shilpa’s father had pulled them apart.

But till now, no one else knew the reason as to why the two girls who had been best friends since childhood hated each other with a vengeance.

Raavi tossed and turned, restless without knowing what the outcome to Dhara’s question was. Would Shiva say yes? Then would she have to share the Pandya family with Shilpa? 

“Nahi nahi!” she thought. “Shiva kabi haan nahi karega, usse to marriage ke shabd se hi allergy hai. Raavi, tu itna tension kyun le rahi hai,” she assured herself.

“Par Raavi, Shiva toh apni bhabhi ki baat kabhi nahi taalega,” she said to herself as worry crept back into her mind.

She thought of calling someone and asking them about what went about after she left. She was almost convinced that Shilpa wanted to marry Shiva to get back at her for all those years ago.

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The next day morning, Raavi had dark circles under her eyes from not getting even in a wink at night. She looked into the mirror and sighed, “uss Shilpa ke chakkar mein meri haldi ke picture karab ho jayenge.”

She thought of calling Shiva and asking what his reply was, but every time she reached for her phone her heart squeezed, dreading the answer. 

“Hey bhagwan, ye mujhe aisi kyun lag rahi hai,” she said rubbing her chest trying to ease the tension.

“Raavi, tum ab tak ready nahi huyi? Phuyi bula rahi hai, ek gante mein teri haldi hai,” Anita said coming into her room.

Raavi jerked out of her thoughts and started to get ready.

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One hour later, they’d all reached Pandya Nivas. Her eyes immediately looked around for any signs of Shilpa. But she didn’t find her or any of her family, she breathed a sign of relief as she saw Shiva standing alone staring at her.

Her breath left her lungs and she was struck speechless like the previous night when he looked at her in his towel.

She immediately looked away, the dread in her chest from last night easing completely. It was replaced by a different sensation, she felt butterflies in her tummy. 

She looked up again but he was missing. She felt weirdly disappointed but was happy that he didn’t decide to marry the devil. And her signature smile appeared on her face for the first time that day as she skipped to join the ladies to dance her heart out.

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As the ceremony was about to start, Gaumbi came forward and said that he had an announcement to make. 

“Jaise aap main se kayi log jaante hai, ye Sharma ji hai, humari family ke kaas dosth. Aur ye Shilpa unki beti. Aaj Dev aur Raavi ke saath, Shiva aur Shilpa ke bhi haldi hogi,” he announced as a girl stepped forward from the crowd and hooked her arms through Shiva’s.

Raavi saw red. Her chest constricted with some unknown sensation. The smile left her face as she openly frowned at Shilpa, who had spotted her too and seemed to be revelling in her victory.

Raavi clenched her hands in her yellow skirt. She wanted to break something or someone’s head. 

She thought back to four years ago.

After the last of their 12th standard final exams, Shilpa had come up to Raavi and told her that their family was relocating and that she wanted to tell Shiva about her feelings before she left.

Raavi couldn’t say no to her, especially since she was leaving town. So they both got on to a scooter and faked an accident with Shilpa pretending to have a sprain in her leg, just as Shiva was passing by on his bike. They asked him to help take Shilpa home, while Raavi stayed back with the scooter, all the while wondering why her heart told her that she had made a huge mistake.

Later, Shilpa couldn’t stop gushing about how sweet Shiva was to her. And how they had even stopped for ice cream on the way to her home.

Since then Shilpa had acted as if she had all rights on the Pandya family. Whenever Raavi went to Pandya Nivas or the store, Shilpa would be there.

Raavi tried to keep her patience for a week. And then one day during their trip, another friend of theirs who had tagged along and told her about how Shilpa had told her that Shiva had hugged her.

Raavi went ballistic. She immediately set out to find her.

Shilpa was lying on her stomach on a meadow of grass, blushing at her phone.

“Kya kar rahi ho?” she asked gritting her teeth.

“Mere boyfriend ke picture dekh rahi hoon,” came the cool reply.

“Shiva sirf mera hai. Agar tu uske paas bhi aayi toh mein teri taang thod dungi,” Raavi screamed taking her phone from her.

Irritated, Shilpa stood up trying to get her phone back, “Shiva mera hai. Tumhare paas toh Dev hai na. Tum kisi ek ko hi choose kar sakti ho. Draupadi nahi ho.”

“Na hi main Draupadi hoon, na hi tu Gauri. Isliye tu Shiva ko date karne ke sapne chod do.”

“Tum dekna, ek din mein Shiva se shaadi karke rahungi,” Shilpa shouted.

“Mere hote huye ye kabhi nahi hogi! Shiva sirf mera hai!” Raavi shouted back. And a huge brawl ensued, after which Raavi and Shilpa never spoke again. 

And a few days later, Shilpa’s family relocated and Raavi was back to dreaming about Dev, completely forgetting about how she momentarily became unreasonably possessive over Shiva.

And now all those emotions came back to her. Her mood was completely off as Shilpa was made to sit next to her. And everyone came up one by one to apply haldi on them.

Raavi averted her gaze away from her, everyone asked her why she was frowning but nothing registered in Raavi’s mind. She was in her own world where she was punching the lights out of Shilpa eyes.

“Kaisi ho, bestie?” quipped Shilpa from next to her.

Raavi gave her a mean look.

“Aakir mein Gauri ban hi gayi,” Shilpa said smirking at her.

“Abi shaadi nahi huyi hai, itni math udd,” Raavi gritted out.

“Vo bhi ho jayegi,” laughed Shilpa.

Raavi was about to get up and strangle her when Krish arrived with the haldi water for both of them.

“Ye Krish, in dono mein se meri bacchi ka paani kisme hai?” her Mausi asked Krish.

Krish thought for a second, he hadn’t realised the importance of matching the right pot to the right bride when Dhara had given them to him. But also, he didn’t want to appear silly in front of his Maami.

“Yellow waali, Raavi bhabhi ke liye hai. Aur orange waali, Shilpa bhabhi ke liye,” he said taking a wild guess and left before any more complicated questions could be thrown his way.

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Shiva and Dev had gone to take a bath when he returned. “Krish, tu sahi pots dekar aaya hai na?” Dhara questioned him, “orange Raavi ke paas, aur yellow Shilpa ko.”

Krish gulped, his eyes widening. “Ay Krish, agar tune sach bol diya toh baval ho jayegi,” Krish thought.

He started nodding, “haan haan, bhabhi. Aapko mujpe barosa nahi hai kya. Mein kabhi galat ho hi nahi sakta,” he said and ran off to find his partner in crime.

“Shivaaaa Shivaaaa,” he shouted banging on the bathroom door.

“Ay gadhede, naha raha hoon, tu bhi saath naheyega kya,” Shiva shouted from inside.

“Arey yaar, jaldi bahar niklo,” he said continuing to bang the door.

A minute later, Shiva came out. “Tu mujhse maar khaana chahta hai na. Hadh hai, nahi nahata toh sab zabardasti bej dete ho, aur nahata toh itni disturbance.”

“Shiva, bakwas mat kar. Bahut badi kaand ho gayi hai.”

“Kya kar di tune?” Shiva asked.

“Meine tumhari haldi waala paani Raavi ko dhedi. Aur Shilpa ko Dev ka,” Krish said closing his eyes, waiting to be blasted.

Shiva let out a dry laugh. Last night when he was desperately looking for a way to end his Raavi madness, Dhara bhabhi had come to him with Shilpa’s proposal. He knew that he could never love Shilpa like how he loved Raavi. But he’d thought that maybe fates didn’t want him to be with Raavi. So, he’d said yes.

But now, it seemed like the fates were playing with him. Taunting him with what he could never have.

“Chod Krish, sirf paani hi toh hai,” he dismissed and walked away.

♥️

Part 4 - Page 10