Hey Guys! Back with another OS. Would love to hear your views on this one:)
PriRa OS: Parallel Universe 2.0
A pink Disney princess bath towel hit Ram in the face. Pihu who was standing beside him giggled. He grabbed the towel and used it to gently wipe his daughter who was soaked in water from head to toe. And then another towel landed right on his head. Pihu laughed again but a little loudly this time. “Shhh” ram whispered and then they both shifted their gaze in the direction from where the towels were thrown.
Priya was muttering something in anger as she continued picking out a fresh pair of clothes each for Ram and Pihu. And when she heard the laughter, she turned and glared at both of them. “Both of you are impossible. Bilkul sharam nahi hai” she blabbered.
Priya had had a very hectic day at the summer fest that her college had organised for 1st year college kids. By the time she got free, it had started raining heavily. The Priya from 5 years back would have cursed the rain gods and taken out her raincoat before sitting in her auto. And now she smiled and entered the car and just relaxed peeking at the rain through her car window as the driver strode the car towards home while “bade ache lagte hain” played on the music system.
When the car stopped in the driveway of the Kapoor Mansion, the sight infront of her just melted her heart. Ram and Pihu were playing in the rain in the front lawn. She admired them from a distance and then she realised something and her smile vanished in a second. Pihu had just got better after a bout of fever last week. Priya was aware of the love for rain that her husband had and now he had slowly and swiftly passed that on to his daughter. But Priya was also well aware of the very strong immune system both father and daughter had that 5 minutes in the rain would make them both fall sick.
“Ram” she called him. Both Pihu and Ram who were busy playing stopped on hearing her voice and looked at her. The look on both their faces told her they were planning to be mischievous and hide this rain celebration from her. “Party spoiler is here” Ram mumbled to himself.
“Papa apne to kaha tha mumma ko aane mein time hai” Pihu asked him accusingly.
“Beta, mujhe thodi pta tha mumma ki ghadi mein 1 hour means 25 minutes” Ram said apologetically. And then they both shared a meaningful look and smirked. “1 2 3” Ram counted and then at 3 they both ran further away from the driveway towards the end of the lawn.
Priya was infuriated. Ofcourse they knew she was not going to step under the rain so they were taking advantage of the situation. Her dislike for rain had reduced over the years but not to the extent that she would get drenched at the drop of the hat like someone she knew. But she did give in once in a while when Ram and Pihu would pester her to play with them in the rain.
“Ram, Pihu, come home” she shouted but those brats ignored her and continued throwing the ball at each other. “That’s enough” Priya fumed. She took out the scrunchie from her bag and then tied her hair. “Mr Kapoor, Ms Pihu Kapoor, get inside both of you RIGHT NOW” she ordered.
Ram and Pihu panicked when they heard the names they were usually called when they were in deep trouble. One look at Priya with her hair tied in a pony and they both immediately stopped and headed inside while still maintaining a distance from Priya who followed behind them after getting her belongings from the car.
She sighed looking at the mess on the floor as both Ram and Pihu had left a trail of water while heading towards Ram and Priya’s bedroom. And now they were standing in a corner in the room while Priya got them towels to dry themselves. She picked out their night clothes and shut the wardrobe loudly.
Ram and Pihu looked down as she came and stood infront of them. “Kiska idea tha” Priya asked and both of them kept quiet.
“Aise kaam krne mein team work to bhar bhar ke umad rha hai. Abhi cupcake ka naam lo to dono ladne lag jayenge” Priya taunted.
She handed him the clothes and told them to get in the shower. She sat down on the bed frustrated and called out Tarun. When he did not appear she got up and went downstairs to ask one of the servants to clean the floor and ask Tarun to make hot chocolate for Ram and Pihu.
When she did not see anyone in the main hall and the dining area, she wondered where everyone was. “Maybe Tarun is busy doing something there” she thought as she headed towards the kitchen. The sight that greeted her in the kitchen was something she had not imagined.
The whole kitchen was a mess. Flour was spilled everywhere, half cut vegetables and some pasta soaked in water lying in a bowl. “What is this” she looked on horrified and then covered her nose when she pulled the lid from the pan on the stove. She felt nauseous looking at the red paste like thing with some chunks of tomato still visible. She heaved a sigh of relief when she saw that the stove was shut off. “Atleast the kitchen is not burned down” she consoled herself as she remembered the conversation she had with Tarun in the afternoon.
Around 4:30 pm Tarun had called her to complain about how Ram and Pihu had invaded his kitchen and thrown him out. They were trying to make some new kind of pasta from scratch. “That must be the sauce. Ughh” Priya emptied the contents of the pan in the dustbin as she tried not to puke.
When tarun had offered to help them, he and all the other staff members were told that they had the day off. Tarun had complained to her about how his beloved kitchen was taken by the terrorists. “Terrorists” was the name assigned by the group of Taruns to father-daughter duo. All the servants were already in distress since morning when they got to know that Ram was taking a day off and Priya was not going to be there at home. They feared summer vacations as that meant Ram and Pihu both at home without any surveillance from Priya who usually had to take up the duty to organise curricular activities in college.
She quickly cleaned the kitchen and then made hot chocolate. When she entered the bedroom, Ram was blow drying Pihu’s hair as Pihu sat bundled in a towel looking like a little Polar Bear. Their cuteness was the only thing that saved them from Priya’s wrath on most days. She handed one cup to Pihu as Ram kept the dryer away and combed her hair to remove any clumps in the hair. “Ahh, popsiee” pihu shrieked as Ram had pulled on her hair a little roughly. “Sorry sorry” Ram pacified her.
“Mumma aap krdo” pihu pleaded as ram tried to comb but was entangling more of her hair.
“Acha ab mumma ki yaad aa gyi” Priya fake scolded pihu.
“That’s not fair” Ram told pihu. “Maine uss dine kitne ache se aapki pony bnayi thi school jane se pehle” Ram felt insulted that they were ridiculing his combing skills.
Pihu looked at Priya and they both smiled. He had made a loose pony and then pihu had told him that it was good because he had already wasted half an hour trying to tie her hair. If she would have told him that it was not correct, he would have continued wasting time instead of accepting defeat. So Pihu like the smart child that she was, picked the comb secretly while Ram basked in his success praising himself on how he had won the challenge and Priya had lost. She had gone downstairs and got Priya to fix her hair and told her about how daddy was so bad at making a pony.
Priya wiped the milk moustache from Pihu’s face as pihu handed her the empty cup claiming she came first as daddy had only completed half of his milkshake. Priya got pihu dressed for bed as Ram sat drinking his milk.
“Chlo, it’s time to sleep” Priya told pihu and Pihu made a face. “No” Pihu said cutely. “Papa ne promise kiya tha cindrella wali movie dekhenge” Pihu pouted. “Priya…” Ram tried but Priya glared at him. “Aaj ke liye bohot masti ho gyi hai. Koi movie ni dekhne ko milegi.” Priya gave the final verdict and Ram and Pihu complied making a sad face. “Good girl” Priya said as she hugged pihu and gave a good night kiss and then Ram picked her up and both father daughter headed towards Pihu’s room. Ram loved spending time with Pihu reading a book to her and then making her sleep as this was the only time he got to spend with her alone after returning from office and Priya gladly gave them some space as she enjoyed some alone time which she hardly got after marriage and then Pihu’s birth.
When Ram came back from Pihu’s room, he found Priya sitting on her side of the bed reading a book. He smiled and then sprawled out on the bed and then scooted a little to lay his head on her lap. She changed the direction of her book to have a close look of his face.
“Had dinner?” he asked her. “Hmm, there was an after party in college.” She replied
“What did you guys have?” she asked. “Pasta” he replied and she stared at him.
“wo wala jo maine dustbin mein fenka?” Priya mocked him.
“That was the first batch, second wala acha tha, acha nahi balki bohot acha tha” He gloated. But the reality was that both Ram and Pihu had given up halfway and then ordered pizza and called it a day.
“Kitna acha tha wo mujhe kitchen ki halat dekh ke pta lag gya.” Priya said and then started the mandatory lecture
“Toofan macha rakha hai aap dono ne ghar mein. Bilkul bache ban jate hain aap Pihu ke saath milke…” but before she could continue, he sneezed loudly which shook his whole body. She glared at him and he averted her gaze knowingly.
“Pta tha mujhe yahi hona hai. Main mana krti hun to main boring hun, unromantic hun. Abhi mushkil se wo theek hui hai aur ab aap bimar ho jao. Mera yahi kaam reh gya hai dono ke piche piche ghumti rahun” She looked at him angrily and then placed her book on the side. She stretched her arm to get to the balm bottle which was in the medicine tray on her side table.
In the 5 years, as their family grew from 2 to 3, the medicine tray had also expanded its horizon and another small tray had found its place on her side table which was now filled with some of the medicines for pihu and the rest were the ones that did not fit in Ram’s overflowing tray. The only medicine that belonged to her was this zandu balm which she felt like she needed on a regular basis when Ram and Pihu teamed up to create ruckus.
She put some balm on his forehead and massaged with one hand as she used the other hand to caress his hair smoothening his unruly locks and softly running her hand through his hair. She massaged a bit and then closed the lid and cleaned her hand with a wipe.
She picked her book and he pulled out his phone opening his social media. They did their own thing as a comfortable silence engulfed them. They usually spent some time everyday just snuggling in bed, him on his phone while she usually read a book before going to sleep.
He smiled as he scrolled through Instagram watching reels, his favourite time pass these days while his old school wife thought that it was an utter waste of time and refused to make an account stating she was doing absolutely fine in her life without these crazy apps. But this had not deterred Ram as he had fought with her and finally got permission to make one for pihu which was obviously handled by him. He did post some of Priya’s photos and videos with Pihu on that handle and just hoped no one from the family told her about it.
He watched the next one and then tilted his head to show her the video on his phone. She stopped reading and looked at the reel. There were some 6-7 cute little puppies running on the footpath.
“Priya yr, ek hum bhi le len” Ram tried his luck. Priya ignored him and shifted her attention back to her book. She had refused him a 100 times and it seemed like her “NO” did not work anymore. So now she had started acting like she did not hear whenever Pihu or Ram came to her with their demands.
“Hum ek adopt kr lete hain. Tumne kaha tha na ki roadside puppies cute hote hain. To hum ek ko apne ghar mein nahi rakh sakte? Pihu ko bhi kitna acha lagega.” He said. “Itna bada mansion hai, bichara ek kone mein reh lega to tumhara kya jayega.” He pleaded.
“sure” Priya replied
“seriously” ram asked as he could not make out if she said that tauntingly.
“Ofcourse, roadside puppy can stay in the house and Man of the house can stay on roadside” Priya replied
“Haan exactly main bhi to yahi keh rha hun ki puppy can stay in the house” he said mindlessly and 10 seconds later his mind registered what she was implying.
“What, EK SECOND” he pulled himself up and sat cross legged looking baffled.
Priya took the chance and pulled the comforter and put her book on the table and lied down.
“Tumne mujhe kutte ke sath compare kiya. Nahi, compare nahi, tumne mujhe kutte ke sath trade kr diya. Matlab itni si value hai meri iss ghar mein” he accused her.
She suppressed her smile and turned towards his side and picked his phone and switched off the lights while he was still sitting in the middle of the bed.
“Good night Mr Kapoor” she said
He stared at her sleeping form and muttered “meri baat khatam nahi hui hai ” but he didn’t get a reaction from her.
“Good night Mr Kapoor” he repeated that sarcastically as he sat in complete darkness thinking of ways to get back at his wife for this insult.
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