Chapter 18

Chapter 18

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[NOCOPY]

“Geet, as we are thinking to start our relationship, I wanted to start by keeping you updated about my plans”

“Really? I am so happy, at last you are including me” and she circled her hands around him

“Tell, I can’t wait to hear”

“So, next week I am planning to visit my family. I thought, if you would want to accompany me. Just so that you can know my family. What do you think?”

Geet loosened her hands from him, brought a smile on her face “Maan… wooo..”

“Geet, there is the occasion and my Mom wants me there. She will be very happy if her whole family is there. So, if you are there, you will get to know about my family and they will get to know you.”

“What is the occasion?”

“Occasion does not matter, the main thing is we will have family time together”

“In your family, you have your Dadima, your mother, your dad and your two siblings, right?”

“Geet, they are yours too, it’s our family. You want us to start our relationship as husband and wife and in that case, my family is yours and yours mine, right?”

“Maan, when did I say No” but Maan could clearly see the hesitation in her face. Her submission was still limited to Maan.

“So you will be coming with me?”

“Maan, don’t take me wrong. As far as I know, your apartment in Mumbai has only two rooms and so many people. Have you planned how everyone will adjust?”

“We are family Geet. We will adjust. That’s how family works. Annie is abroad so Dadima sleeps alone in her room. You and Dadima can share a room, Vicky and I, we are used to sleeping in the hall” Maan himself had to gather so much guts to ask Geet to share the room with his family. He knows she has high standards but he has to put forward his point and let her know his idea of a life partner.

Geet was shocked to hear that Maan could even think of her to adjust with his Dadima in one room?

“Maan, I have a better idea. Can we get a bigger house, maybe in Juhu for your family.”

“Geet, It’s off topic and that will be a future plan. As of now they are all happy in that house. I am visiting my family for a function and my mother waits for it enthusiastically, she celebrates it in her own way. She will be very happy if you accompany me there. This will also be chance for us to know each other more as husband and wife”

Geet did not know if she was ready to go and live in the middle class society apartment of two bedrooms with so many family members, sharing a room with an old lady. Maan was different, he was her husband, a charmer in all ways, and has taken her heart. He is beyond the thought of class for her but not anyone else. And staying in that small house with so many people sharing a room like the way he is suggesting, the whole feeling itself suffocated her.

“Maan I am really very-very fond of you. I cannot deny your request but I don’t think I am ready for living in that house with so many people in such a small house. But you know, we can do one thing, invite them all here and your mother can do her celebration as she wish”

“Geet, just like people here are eyeing our relationship and we have to make a presence so that any finger does not point to you and your claim to your throne. My family as well is bearing the taunts. You know, in any society, your high class or my middle class, their son moving out and staying in his wife’s house is already tagged as a spineless man”

“You and spineless? I have not met a man with confidence and power and personality like you?”

“What people think doesn't affect me but my family has to bear indirect taunts. You know they never complain but I know they are bearing all this. But I also know that you cannot adjust there and the queen of Handa Empire is not expected to stay there, for the sake of society, I will not ask you to do it. Even if people in society pressurize. But you, not visiting my family even once when their son has shifted his base, people do make talks, Geet. “

He paused. Maan never placed his problems in front of anyone. But Geet has asked him to share his problems with her, and put forward his points as well. She has the right to know his views and problems. She wanted to understand his idea of a relationship, so he will explain to her. Of course it is she who has to decide.

“Geet, I stand for you, with you here, whenever you need. Similarly, now when my mother is doing this small celebration, if you would stay with my family for a week, their happiness will have no bound and also it will boast them in front of society. I am immune to what people say but my family is not hard headed like me.”

“So you are bargaining your support for me?”

“No Geet, I am trying to explain how in husband and wife relationship, we need to stand for each other”

“If I am not comfortable or say not prepared for it as of now, will it be a deal breaker for us to move on as life partners”

“No. My idea of this relationship can be different from yours. I am coming from a different background. Does not mean you have to agree. In that case if you want us to get into a relationship, you have to tell me, what is your idea of this relationship?” Maan immediately back off on her allegation.

“Maan, I think we should know each other first, spend time with each other and then family will automatically get included”

“Fine. Then tell me, how do you think we should approach getting to know each other? What do you expect from my side“

“Maan you are angry?”

“No Geet. My giving idea is making you feel I am bargaining with you for my help. So now I am not giving any idea, we will go by your ways”

“Maan you are hurt, I didn’t mean to.”

“I understand, I am not upset. You tell me what do you suggest or expect from my side”

“Maan, can we start our marital life”

“Can we? how? We are already staying in the same house, I am there for you whenever you need me, what more” Geet could see Maan completely taking a back foot. He wanted her to speak up now

“I mean to say… tum samjho na”

“Physically, you mean?” he came straight to the point.

Geet came closer and again circled her hands around his nape “Can we not? You are making me sound so desperate. But isse sari duriya mit jayegi”

“How? I mean how do we start it? Main yahan tum wahan” he signaled her room upstairs

“Can you not move to that room upstairs?”

“No. That is out of the question”

She made her face - “Akkdu”

“Akkdu? You are calling me Akkdu. The world is calling me spineless”

She placed a finger on his lips “Maan please don’t call yourself that. Okay fine, for our relationship, I will move in here. But Maan, here on the ground floor all the servants have their room. If I come and stay here on the same floor, how will my image go?”

“Your husband is staying on the same floor as them, how does this go with you?”

“Tumhe fark nahi pardta.“

“Aur tumhen. Just like you are concerned for your image of sharing floor with them, how much does it concern you about me doing the same”

“Maan woo” Geet was not understanding Maan’s pain of his wife giving everything about her more importance than him, her comfort, her respect. She claimed she loved him but going into a relationship like this would suffocate him.

“You want us to start but I have been compromising on all ends. I am okay to do that Geet, but this one thing , I cannot. Zidd he samjhlo meri, but this one thing you have to agree if you want us to proceed that way.”

“Okay okay, I will. So you be back from your visit to your family and then I will work on it”

Maan knew Geet bought time because now she has to move into this room.

Me, mine and Geet Handa - this is all she is sticking to yet claiming to start life with him. How? What does she mean by it? Does she even know what exactly she wants? She wants him for her, not yet ready to give herself to him. This is what he could conclude.

Maan sighed when she left. One side Geet’s presence around him pulled the strings of his heart in a way he had never imagined and on other side she was nowhere near to his idea of a wife. But he didn’t want to put his energy into analyzing it. He needs to focus on his setup, and cannot let anything deter him from that.

Geet was pacing in her room. She knew she had messed up big time. But in any case she is not ready to stay in his apartment with so many people. She is Geet Handa and she is high headed, this is her. Everyone knows her for this attitude and she does not shy away from showing it. What Maan asked her to do, she could not. But declining him, she felt she did hurt him. She has to do something to please him before he leaves.

Maan had his small bag packed and was about to leave when he felt a pair of arms encircling him from behind

“Ready to leave” Maan turned with a smile “Hmmm…”

“I am coming to drop you”

“I have booked the cab” “Then cancel it because I am dropping you”

“It’s not needed, Geet. You have meetings lined up”

Geet in her usual way, hanged herself on him “Any meeting is not above my husband. My secretary has already postponed some and canceled some”

“I am not able to accompany you, doesn’t mean I will just let you go like this. One week I have to stay away from you. Do you have any idea how tough it is to not see you around? I am coming to drop you, that’s final”

Maan sighed and canceled the cab.

All through the way, Geet sat beside Maan with her hand in his hand

“I really really really… will miss you so much. Tum manoge nahi”

“When did I say, you won’t” “And you”

“I asked you to come with me. Anyways, Geet you just drop me in the VIP lounge and leave.”

“Okay”

Maan left for a week’s time with family. That day Geet canceled every meeting and directly reached his room

“Maan, I love you, love you so much. You asked me something I could not give you but it is also true, saying No to you has such a strong after effect on me. Tumhen na kehna bilkul accha nahi lagta mujhe. You mean so much to me, Maan. I did hurt you, uff bhi nahi kerte tum. Why don’t you fight with me? You distanced me by just agreeing to me. Now you want me to come to this room - hmm. I will do it, for you only Maan. Then maybe I will really win your heart.”

Maan hardly was found in house, but today that he has left, Geet felt that she has nothing to do, everything seemed so boring

She later called her Mom and shared her confusion with her Mom

“Are you crazy Geet. You got such a brilliant chance to show Maan your commitment to this relationship and you just let it go”

“Mom, Maan understands that my way to the relationship is different. It does not have to be same as his”

“But doing anything for your partner is just something that anyone in love will do. Geet, you are far away in the path of love.”

“Mom, how will you feel if anyone says to you that you do not love Dad. Will nNot like it, right? I love Maan, deep down I love him, how can you say I don’t?”

“Geet, time will only teach you. But let me tell you one thing. Maan is extremely compromising. Don’t stretch the elastic beyond its limit dear. I am afraid you will have to pay hard. “

“You do not need to be afraid, my husband understands that my way is different”

“Fine, in that case, is it not your duty to understand what your husband wants”

“I love Maan, is all I know”

“Okay, what is the occasion of celebration in his family, did you ask”

“No. Had I talked more on that topic and still declined going there would have hurt him more. So I did not dig into it”

“Geet, maybe it was something related to Maan?”

“No Mom, it sounded like some annual tradition. Maybe some puja or some ritual.. I don’t know”

“Geet, even if it's a ritual, that is your family ritual. That is your family now dear, you belong to that family. You should have been there. Geet, it is a marriage, a family. Not that Maan and you are Gf-BF in live in”

“Okay let me call his Mom and find out what the celebration is for. Or better, you call you mother in law and respectfully talk to her, say sorry for not being able to visit and that you will definitely try next time”

“Mumma, I have never talked to her. I am not comfortable. This time when Maan comes, I will ask him to make me talk her”

Rano disconnected. She was angry at the foolishness of her daughter. She felt Geet was giving an open invitation for Maan to fall for any girl who shows compassion. She was scared for her daughter. If by Geet’s doing Maan loses his patience and leaves Geet, Geet will suffer most. She has fallen badly for Maan but is taking him too much for granted.

Next - Geet collaborates with Devendra Chaddha of Chaddha Group of companies, a top 5th rank business group in the country. What will be Maan’s reaction to this collaboration?

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