14th & 15th
Dadi was not the one to get easily bogged down, she immediately started badgering Viveka as to how she could show up to her own “bhai’s wedding” without her new husband
Anu had to tell her off
The army of photo and videographers were taking a million pictures as the guests mingled out under the stars, the location was gorgeous, the ocean roared in between the sounds of swaying palm fronds
Back in Aurangabad, Raanav scrolled through his SM, and found Harsha Shrivastav, he had posted a link to his wedding live streaming site
He stared out the window of the plush Power Engineers’ Exec bungalow and thumbed the link
There were atleast a 100 thumbnail videos of various events
He cursed as his thumb throbbed from slamming it on to the car door
Rajeev Syal texted him “Sir Ma’am has reached Nahan Pier in Koh Lam ”
“thanks” he acknowledged
“We just put her on a ferry from Laemchabang”
“Not the bus route right?” Raanav questioned
“yes sir”
“How is Dad?” “I haven’t received a response to my text” raanav was impatient
“Sir the nurse yelled at me and took the phone away” he chuckled
“Oh really”
“Yes”
“Is Mom there tonight?”
“No sir Rakshit Sir is”
“thanks”
“Anything else sir?”
“Oh no, not really”
After scouring through 20 videos with no luck, he was irritated
He texted Harsha
“Where are the pictures, the videos take too long”
Like the groom was going to answer to the Lord!!
No response
He bugged his wife
“What time do you get on Dec 16? (the day after the wedding, day after tomorrow)
No response
He went back to Harsha’s page found Piyush and demanded to see event pictures
Went to the website on his Macbook and browsed with better luck
There were at least 200 folders, he sorted them by date and hour and minute, and looked at 8 albums with increasing frustration
He found her half way thru the 9th
In a large lounge sitting by her mother wearing a purple lehenga and a shimmering silver blouse
She had henna upto her elbow now (why? He wondered)
(Mrs Asthana and Bua had insisted she better “look like a bride”)
She wasn’t paying attention to the camera, bent over some glossy travel magazine
“Just like her” he thought
Couldn’t spot her in a crowd, not by her attire or attitude
He felt himself stir
Eagerly he went off to the 10th album and then a few more
Cursed colorfully and then found her all over the 14th in a under the moonlight open air bar area
Talking animatedly to a young woman, she was in the next 4 pictures
He texted Rajeev “Does she have a ride home on 16th?”
“Umm.. no sir she is coming in on 21st”
“says who?”
“Oh… the counter agent sent me a text”
“Can I see it please”
“Oh? I thought u knew. Sure sir”
He stared at the text
“Will you be OK if I saw u in 5 days?” he texted Rakshit
“sure Man” his brother responded
“Thanks”
The morning of Dec 15, that Parashar kid returned to Delhi picked up his passport and was on the private Gulfstream headed to Bangkok!
CID
Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon
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