P&P Part III - Page 21

Hey Kalpana how's everything? Hope everything is much better .

Nisha, can we have atleast one of these guys profess their feeling a teeny bit ? May be Vi express how she can’t be alone when he is leaving fir Singapore ? Or pack for him ? Or Ranaav wanting a baby girl like her ? Some little things that they spill from their heart. 🥰

Mountain and Mohammed... and all that.☺️

She texted him that evening

“I am at Rohini and I think I will spend the night here”

“Why?” he questioned

“Umm.. did you want me to come home?” she asked as her cheeks warmed and her heart fluttered the woozy feeling taking hold of her

“Are we going to forget the fight happened and you are just going to tell me I need to get my butt back home?” she thought but didn’t type

“Is it your Grandpa?” he asked after an hour, she found it 20 minutes after he sent the text, buried under all the things they had piled on to Naina’s bed

When she was helping Ma move Naina’s large winter bedding box, a cane box from Dilli haat from one corner to another to make way for a pair of lacquered Kashmiri armchairs Ma had found online

They were beautiful and Ma wanted Naina to have it

The twins were in her room

As Dadu and Dadi slept in the twins’

“Kya matlab?” she texted saddened he didn’t care for her to be home

“Haan tumhare 500 friends hain, ghoomo unke saath” she thought

“Is your Dadu OK?” he repeated exasperated

“Oh yeah!! Why?””

“Just checking”

“Yeah he is fine”

“Great”

She wanted him to text with her back and forth

“Busy ho?” she texted and erased it

“Enjoy your evening”

“thanks”

She asked him after 30 minutes

“Abhi bhi office mein ho?”

She wondered if he could read “Hindi in English” texts like her family did

He rarely spoke the language, leave alone text in English

“Yep” he responded

“Ghar kab jaogey?”

“Not sure”

She didn’t text him afterwards

She invited Rhea over for dinner, hung out, Ma made idli sambar with store bought batter

“Kaun anjaan log ghus jaate hain bhai ghar mein?” he greeted Rhea

Rhea laughed and hugged him warmly

“Kaise maloom Viveka aaj yaha ruki hai?” he asked shocked

Rhea waved her phone

“Cell phone suna hai aapne?” Rhea laughed waving her phone

Viveka appeared and dragged her away

“Papahhhhh abhi aayi yaar” she scowled

Akash’s sense of humor didn’t have any takers

“Iske abhi bacha kyon nahi hua?” Dadi was nosy as always about Rhea

“Ma uske pati ko phone lagaata hoon abhi ke abhi” Akash mocked her

Anu was beyond irritated to overhear that

“Don’t try to be like Rekha?” Rhea muttered as the girls lounged on Ma Papa’s bed whispering as the twins made idlis

Ma had a evening call she was taking in Viveka’s room

Papa was fielding dadi’s complaints in the living room

“Abey Rekha nahi LEKHA” “TANN DON” Viveka giggled

“Wowww…. THAT is a rare name” Rhea and her giggled like 10 year olds

“I don’t try to be like her, I couldn’t yaar, she wears Prada to bed and changes her jewelry 5 times a day”

“Lets look her up on insta

The girls searched up the name combination 10 different ways

Her account was “Private”

Rhea urged her to send a request, Viveka declined

“Arey nahi, I don’t want her to think I am a starry eyed fan”

“Who to tu hai pagal” Rhea laughed

Viveka smacked her with pillows

“Achhaa… ruk… stop stoppp dude”

Rhea played around on the ipad and went from “friend of friend of friend” on “RUMI Tandon’s

“ open FB account and the girls were able to see a bunch of pictures Lekha was tagged in

Raanav was in it from that night he went out

To Viveka for a second it appeared like she had seen him in person

He was so beautiful! She thought whistling air

“When am I getting to see him again?”

“My sisters had to spend the weekend last weekend? Or something, they couldn’t Jan mein, tub hi aa ja”

“I will ask him if he was an underwear model” Rhea laughed

“He will tell you he modeled in even less, you know those strategically placed towel or book” Viveka cracked herself up

“We both are fools… do you have him on your Insta?”

“We could have easily seen her pictures yaar”

They stared at Lekha’s pictures for a good hour in between eating junk food and flipping channels on TV

“I don’t know what I will do after Jan 20 I was supposed to be in IIT-K” Viveka leaned back and sighed

Rhea subbed her head

“Try for Fall”

“I doubt they will like my stalkerish behavior”

“DU mein kar le”

Unlike the stereotypical DPS kids they didn’t always talk in English

Akash had insisted early on that DPS was for academics and not attitude, it helped a lot when she found Rhea, who was originally from Uttarakhand and so was not immersed in the Delhi snob culture

Smrita must have gotten the reverse memo because for her everything was about attitude

Satyen texted her asking where she was

“At Ma Papa’s”

“Kis se poochhkar gayin aap?”

“You” he joked

“No you did not….” He said

“I am sorry” she smiled

“Kaun hai? Honey bunny?” Rhea leaned

“No … my MIL will chop you to pieces” she laughed

“waise teri MIL be fashion icon hai”

“she is very particular” Viveka nodded

She was making light hearted comments but made it a point not to say nasty things, her mother’s advice kept ringing in her ears “Ek baar burayi karni shuru karogey to achhi baat dikhni band ho jaayegi”

“Chalooo betaaa” Anu peeked and begged

“sorry sorry Ma”

The girls ran out

“Naina aa gayi?”

“Aa rahi hai, Papa ne baat ki”

“I want o record her reaction on seeing those chairs”

“Aunty sach mein kitni beautiful chairs kaha se mili aapko”

FB, friend ke friend ke friend se” Anu laughed serving the girls

Viveka texted Raanav

“Ghar chale gaye?”

“Still at work”

“Kyon?”

?”

“Didn’t go hang with friends?”

“Are you wanting me to?”

“Mujhe laga main nahi hoon” she said

And regretted it

It was not a regular marriage

Like Papa hung out with friends when Ma was traveling

High society husbands probably hung out with friends whenever they wanted to

Ughhh… Ufffff

“My friend Rhea is here” she said

He didn’t say “Really? Tell her I said hi”

Or anything

“Great” was all she got

She didn’t text him goodnight or anything

The next day she went to Shahpur Jat with work at JNU dwindling now

She reminisced the time when Mrs Gulati first told her she was going to be gone

She made a inventory of everyone in Faculty she knew of and how many had kid number one and not two

“Wonder why they wont have a second one” she wondered riding the Metro to her NGO warehouse

She worked until 5

Rathiji asked her when he should come get her

“5?”

He was there at 4:45

When she got in the car

“Maine subah Rohini se Metro le liye tabhi aapko mana kiya”

“Sir ne kaha hai phir bhi meri duty waha hai jahan aap ho, aage se main subah Rohini pahunch jaaoonga” “Jab aap mayke jao” Rathi was apologetic

“Kis sir ne?” she asked curiously

“Bade saab ne Ma;am

“Ah”

“Of course…. It cant be the Parashar kid! Caring so much, can it?”

He took a call

“Jee sir… jee jee sir, bilqul sir… jee” “Thank u”

“Ghar se tha?” she was nosy she wanted to know if Lekha had lined up for the next appointment

“Nahi… Ma’am Raanav Sir ka phone tha, aapko ghar chhodkar pick up ke liye bulaya hai”

“Vasant Vihar?”

“Umm.. nahi Ma’am Gurgaon, ek nayi sales office hai shaayad”

“Aap Gurgaon chale jao main wait kar loongi”

“Arey nahi Ma’am”

“Nahi, please, aap Gurgaon hi jao”

They were in Gurgaon by 6 fighting traffic

She found the name in the gleaming lobby, took the noiseless elevators

The building looked like it was only occupied from this morning

The lobby was insanely opulent, she realized they worked like they lived

Parashars were something else

A gleaming marble spiral staircase wound up like screw threads to a glass ceiling, spectacular floor to ceiling waterfall on one end and a wall to wall LED screen on the opposite wall

Humans seemed like tiny insects in the massive glittering space

“Viveka Mathur”

She introduced herself at the lobby

The girl gave her attention she would give any visitor, uncaring but civil

“Who do you want to meet?”

“Raanav Parashar”

“Oh?” the girl looked at her like

“Do I look like an idiot?”

“He is the Chief Legal Counsel” she explained

“Yeah” Viveka nodded

“Umm.. Ma’am you need appointments for meeting the C suite execs

“I don’t have one I am sorry”

“Please sit” she was instructed

A thin young girl (surprise most were size zeroes or less) walked up to her “C. RAY” the name badge said

“Your name Ma’am?”

“Viveka Mathur”

“You don’t have an appointment, I am going to go check to see if he made it himself”

30 minutes later

“This way Ma’am” “Ms Ray” in the stylish biz skirt and a extra large ipad instructed her

Took her to a closed conference room, they were named after grains… apt for a company that makes and sells farm equipment she thought with a half smile

The girl knocked and opened and announced her “Ms Mathur”

The Parashar kid sat at the corner of the longggggg table by himself with a million documents strewn

He looked up,

“Do I know a Ms Mathur?” he muttered slyly getting up lazily

“She said she knows you sir”

“Did she?” he checked his wife out

The intern/assistant was confused

She had no idea Raanav was mocking Viveka

“did she say why she is here for?” Raanav asked his employee

“No I didn’t… I am sorry.., I should have…. We can reschedule” Ms Ray promised

“No I can take care of it” Raanav nodded shutting the door behind her ushering her out

As he leaned on the door and folded his arms across his chest

Ranaav might be super Happy to see his wife.

Let the fire work begin Nisha.

Viveka wants him to care enough to ask her to come home. These two seriously need to start expressing to each other.

Yeh Viveka ka kuch zyada nai hogaya🙊🙊she want to be a Mathur..which is perfectly fine..but she could've just said she's raanav's wife atleast🥴he got irked..😂😂

So Ms. Mathur went to see Parashar kid !! I bet he is ecstatic. This is the first time I guess Viv took an initiative to approach him. It's a good sign.

We saw a glimpse of how Anu raised her kids. With sound advice to make twins help in cooking. Viv is mixture of Anu and Akash.

That was a good move Viveka. Go visit him at work and invade his space a bit.

Loved the title..."Tu naa aaya toh hum, chale aaye" 😆

But given the circumstances, it's difficult to say who really is Mohammed and who is Mountain 😁

Khair, Parashar kid seems to be mighty pleased to see Ms. Mathur go out of her way to show up at his work. Is this her way of saying she missed him ❤️?

A special mention to the values ingrained by Anu & Akash in their children. “Ek baar burayi karni shuru karogey to achhi baat dikhni band ho jaayegi” - This is such precious advice. Life would be better for so many of us if we could just appreciate the positives instead of focusing on the negatives.

Hello Nisha

I have been one of your readers catching up and have loved your interpretation of the story. It touches many dynamics of Indian families and generations and I love the characters..everyone is so unique and you can love or loath them! Just wanted to drop a note that you are doing such an amazing story writing!