P&P Part III - Page 13

Feel bad for everyone going through power outages and icy conditions. Southern states are not prepared to handle them. Good to hear you are back home ErrantNomad.

Smrita is doing her best to tone down the interactions with Viveka's family. Aakash and Satyen have hit it off really well and that does not sit well with her. She has no choice but to be present so she is doing what she can to create the distance. But Satyen will enjoy the food and connect with the family despite her. Raanav is not quite there yet but she is losing her hold there as well.

Naina is at least talking. Things are not back to normal between her and Viveka and might never be again. Her major beef against the family is that she did not get support. Akash was feeling guilty that they did not support Naina when she lost her job. I don't think she deserved any support on that front. You can not be that unprofessional and expect people to support you. But if the family did not appreciate her achievements, then they do have a reason to feel guilty. Academic achievements are not the only worthy ones.

Smrita attracted Satyen's attention while in College and married him. Satyen was rich and Smrita not. How similar are Smrita and Naina in that way.

If Naina did end up marrying Inder, I hope she does not turn into another Smrita.

Smrita might have married rich but her class, unfortunately is still just a little above Mariana Trench level. Just because someone does an aarti or wears traditional clothes, does not make them lower in class. I don't think she will ever change. Viveka might have to live with that like Anu puts up with Dadi and hope Raanav would understand the dynamics between his mother and wife.

I remember Rakshit had come over to the Mathurs along with his dad after Viveka had agreed to Raanav's proposal. So this time his wife did not allow him to visit the Mathurs.

When Naina said that she knows Smrita is a Dhamija, a Punjabi, did she mean to tell Viv that she knows more about the family than Viv does? Was she mocking her? And really I don't get why she has to bring in money matters always regarding her sister's marriage. Viv was happy wearing the new dress and Naina had to ruin that little joy too.

These guys are majorly private Pritee. Texas doesn't want to be connected to the national grid. This state is known for trying to run a parallel economy or likes to believe that it a separate country . Now we are like rassi jal gayi par bal nahi types.. and in my opinion too much of attitude and ego to hold its own.

Hey Nisha. Thank you . I understand the pace of life we lead. No biggie. The very reason why we put in dedicated hrs of work, sometimes with no real direction is to improve our quality of life. And when that doesn't reward us when we need it the most and when it goes back to a question of dramatically roti, makaan aur kapda like how this past four days have been for us, it gets pretty frustrating.

Texas grid tries to work on the model of low cost pricing, free market and deregulation .... blah, blah,blah. So there are some utility providers who don't lock-in a wholesale price and that whole sale price of electricity in Houston shot up from $ 22 / megawatt hrs to $ 9000 when 4 million Texans went out of power, they asked their patrons to look for other providers . They could generate zilch power out of any resource and the power infrastructure collapsed.

For quite a few of us, it became a question of roti, makaan when we did not have power, heating or water for three days. It was a nightmare that started Sunday night and wouldn't end until Wednesday evening . Lucky few those that had power were generous to take in friends for a day or two. People had frozen pipe situations, or pipelines busted , the home temp went to 30's as it was -17 outside, stores, hotels too had no power , the whole state collapsed for three frickn days

Texas is one strange cookie.....after living here for more than 15 years I always want to sing Taylor Swift’s song you need to calm down to some of the folks here. 🤣

Life isn’t boring that is for sure. We were without power and water for 2.5 days( and nights). Thankfully we had gas and a gas powered fireplace otherwise we would be sitting in the car for warmth.

I hope heads roll for this utter fiasco. The governor and junior senator should be rolled off a cliff to start with.

I am so sorry to hear that Kala and Kalpana. But Ted Criz's Cancun trip is unpardonable. Just when I start thinking Republicans are right about the Dems. Some guy like Ted goes and screws it all up and they lose my sympathy.

I am ashamed I backed Hillary and Obama

Andrew Cuomo killed 10s of thousands in nursing homes and blackmailed people into not releasing true numbers because he feared Trump will demolish him

It all came out any way. I HATE the sight of him

He represents everything thats ugly about politics

looks like he will only have his "emergency powers taken away"

While Cruz is being asked to resign

The double standard of Liberals is going to manufacture another Trump

Tab bhi nahi sudhrenge yeh log!

Shameful!

I was watching the evening news, looks like things are still not back to normal. I was sorry to hear that, people's fan blades frozen toilet water frozen and such

TX has hurricane and deep freeze and illegal problem, CA has wildfires and illegals. Both places have the best jobs

In the NW we dont have such crisis, but there are NO jobs. Unless you want to work for a restaurant or a farm, ID, MT, WY all jointly suck big time😡

Research

Viveka looked at the balcony nervously trying her best not to display her feelings, Satyen and Smrita both caught that unfortunately

Satyen greeted her with kindness, Smrita too shockingly! Though secretly Smrita rejoiced she had snipped that romance

Anu was in the kitchen with Dadi and Bua she missed how Naina was received

Raanav peeked as Satyen called out to him

His gaze encountered Naina’s and a look of shock passsd through

Viveka was in his line of sight, he appeared unperturbed like a good lawyer whose opponent had just presented some incriminating evidence that might damage the victory chance

“Aao beta I know you’ve met Naina, but say Hi”

Raanav approached her and gave her a hug

Naina hugged him too

Viveka felt a wave of unexplained anger at how good they both looked, together

Naina was tall lissome, elegant and always dressed to the tee in fashionable yet tasteful attire, she was wearing a modern pantsuit like kurta set in grey and blue

“How are you?” Raanav asked politely

“I am good, I am good” Naina nodded

“Umm.. how is… umm”

“I am no longer employed so you cant ask me” Naina’s eyes twinkled with amusement

“Ah”

“Yep I took an untimely vacation and so I had to quit” Naina discreetly shared only so much

Viveka wondered leaning on the living room wall how it might have been… Naina was a dreamer, Raanav was a realist

They would have been wonderful together

Raanav was standing by his mother at Bua’s that night, Inder was out and about setting up the fireworks table, beefy and Salman Khan like, Naina fell for him instantly instead

Raanav and her paths had crossed over and over again

He provoked her relentlessly and proposed they marry to help Satyen convalesce

Raanav asked some polite questions about what Naina had worked on and mentioned he had met the Architectural Digest photographers when they had come home to do the photo shoot not too long ago

“I don’t know any of them personally” Naina said matter of factly

Smrita watched Viveka observe Raanav Naina with interest, “Interesting” she told herself

Satyen was being shown some documents by Akash about bank policy on foreign trade agreements

Between the TV blaring, Dadu anD Fa chatting loudly, and the twins doing a selfie marathon to music in their room and the pressure cooker whistling in the kitchen Viveka used the dissonance to stare at the two humans she loved, one she loved to the moon and back, and the other she was in love with, so much in love with, her heart fluttered when he neared her

Raanav turned from Naina and looked at Viveka

“Viveka seems to believe fashion/lifestyle photographers seem to be compensated disproportionately compared to beat newspaper fotogs” Raanav mocked his wife gently

Pulling her out of her “How would it have been if my model husband had fallen for my gorg sis”

Viveka sputtered and turned red as if caught spying

She could not recall when she even said that comment

“Veev cares too much about social justice” naina said quietly

Raanav nodded his eyes on his wife

Naina excused herself

“Do you have some data to back up your claim?” he flirted with Viveka

“Mujhe to yaad bhi nahi kab kaha maine” she said worried “But aren’t fair wages important? The local newspaper guy stands outside the politician’s house on Teen Murti Marg for 8 hours to get a sound byte, garmi mein, sardi mein” she explained “Mujhe to yaad nahi maine kab kahi yeh baat tumse” she looked at him confused, through those large frames, sniffing signature style pushing her glasses up thoughtfully

She took Raanav’s breath away, she made him think about things that had never mattered to him, he had lived in Aurangazeb Rd/Prithviraj Rd all his life and driven by the noisy herds of reporters.

There were many waiting outside their gates on days earnings announcements were made or a deal or a merger was struck

He had no sympathy for them… had… had he repeated in his mind weakly

Satyen smiled when he watched his son and DIL deep in conversation

“I think good memory is not only going to serve me well professionally but also in my personal life” Raanav nodded

“Kya keh rahi thi tumse Naina” Viveka wanted to know.

“About the homes she has worked on” he said curiously looking to detect what seemed like little plumes of jealousy?

“Veeev betaaaa, yaha aao to” Bua called her

“Do u like UP ka khana? She asked attempting to abandon him

As if, if he said he didn’t care for it, it would mean he was categorically rejecting her

“Sure” he shrugged

“Waise Maine Ma ko kaha hua hai tum bahut picky ho” she said thoughtfully.

“That bad huh?” he laughed

“ Tumhari choice hai, koi kya kar sakta hai” she nodded sagely, accepting it

Piyush came in hanging up on the call

“Lets go downstairs man, and ask him how much he paid for it”

“Kaha ja rahe ho aap?” Akash quizzed

“Mamaji we spotted a 40? 50? Year old Ford I think, we want to know kiski hai”

“Aapke bete kohhh meri Missus bahut pasand kartin hain” dadu spoke loudly with a looong drawl

“Khushi hui” Satyen folded hands in prayer “Yeh batayen ki aapki POTI ko who kitne pasand hain?” Satyen demanded

Smrita was texting the “haps” she looked up

She had to know… right now

And it better not be good news she looked at Dadu also

“Ajee who to anusandhan (Research) kartin hain… patrikaon mein… to kaafi sankhya aur sambhavnaon (statistics and probability) ko study zaroor kin hongi” Dadu cracked himself up

Satyen turned to Akash and smiled knowingly

Akash had a penchant for cracking himself up too

They both were simple, smart men Satyen realized

“Oh how lucky is Raanav” he sighed mentally

“OK… I didn’t get ANY of that old man… it better have been “Viveka is not sure what she wants” Smrita thought mentally

Waiting to see how the evening unfolds itself.

Good to see Naina and Ranaav talk.
So Ranaav how are you planning to make viveka feel secure since you observed it right.

Please please make her feel most treasured person of your life.