Anchored Tempest - Page 2

Waiting to see how this unfolds.

Am sure its going to as lovely as all other stories.

Just one request though can you please give closure to Ranaav and Viveka?

Truths

“U just tell her na, you had to take ur kid to school and didn’t take the staff bus” Roshan her colleague in Guest Billing department whispered over the aisle

They had uniforms, a lovely peacock green blue saree, a cotton version and a crepe version. It rained 10 months in Mumbai, she didn’t wear hears today out of sheer irritation

She had walked two blocks in rain to pick up the six sarees from the dry cleaners last night, she rubbed her eyes, the contacts in her right eye bothered her real bad

Her eye was quickly turning bright red

She dabbed it and continued working

The delivery guy had crashed his scooty she was told

“Shhhh, don’t say it loudly” Mrunal just stared at her screen

She was the head of Billing and Credit, she mainly worked with large multinational companies’ Accounts departments to reconcile unexplainable charges

She had 7-9 people on her team at any point

She didn’t have a stellar resume, she went to a party school, St Xaviers in Mumbai and barely scraped through a IHM Diploma.

The last 10 years had taught life and career the hardest way possible

“Sahara team we were going to transfer the credit to the Goa resort”

“No that was only 7 people out of a team of 142 people” Roshan reminded her

“Neeti ko kehna padega” Mrunal reminded herself about the charge

“How many did we credit?”

“27” “Reverse it before you pull the afternoon reports” Roshan whispered

“OK I am down two people today, I cannot pull the reports and do the recon yaar” she whispered

The boss was a tyrant, Mr Debashish Sen, he darted many glances outside, to check on Roshan and Mrunal

He was on to Mrunal

Maybe he wanted her fired, she did not know

She was Credit manager, Roshan was Manager of Customer Billing

She needed to keep her act straight and was not

Jaidrith’s school called at 11ish to report he had thrown up, she panicked and stood in the stairwell and talked to the school nurse

She had accidentally added jeera instead of ajwain in his besan pancake

He was allergic to jeera

Her face paled, she could go pick him up

She had two “acquaintances” but no dear friends

Both lived in Khar, one was the nurse in her labor and delivery room, same age as Mrunal… her name was Sai Holkar

She texted Sai “Tumhi aata Jai gheu shakata?”

“Nakko…mee feri maarat aahe” she texted back immediately

Mrunal didn’t know if it was truth or a lie… she was suspicious and untrusting and skeptical of everyone

She called the school again after pacing the stairs for 10 minutes, rubbing her eyes and pressing her contact down in her eye

“How is he?”

“He is fine” the nurse chuckled

“Oh?”

“He didn’t want to do PE” she laughed

“So he didn’t throw up?”

“He said he wanted to and did it one time bas wohi… abhi he is watching me post a video on school safety”

She was irritated by Jai’s absolute mortal fear of doing any group activity

“No pick up?”

“No” said the nurse

She heard footsteps, Database, report building team was on the 10th floor, Debashish was walking down the stairs after forcing that team to build a report secretly

The same report Mrunal would run at 2 PM

He wanted it NOW

So he could pick at it so when she presented at 2 he could tear her up

She almost dodged him, too late

“Ms Ghatge” he nodded

“I thought of getting steps to go to my car to get another pair of contacts”

“And waste 40 minutes?” he nodded

“I would have worked late” she nodded

“Sure” he cackled sarcastically.

“You think I will leave at 5?” she smiled hoping to make small talk

“I KNOW u will Ms Ghatge”

“U cannot make such confident statements so casually Debashish”

“I can when I know the truth” he nodded giving her a sharp look, tapped his iwatch and left her

He knew she left at 5 SHARP she had to run to Jai’s school, after school day care was only until 6:30

She had gone over 6 times already in the 3 months of school

The fine was Rs.250 for each time

They only allowed 20 a year

She ran to the bathroom carrying her purse she always had multiple extra pairs in there, and removed her contacts, To reveal the MOST beautiful blue eyes, nobody in this office had seen her real eye color… Madhao Rao Ghatge, Sagar Ghatge’s father had the same eyes… They were Deshahasta Brahmin or as they say DEBRA, hence the blue green eyes.

She knew her eyes… she never looked at her reflection in the mirror even at home she wore her contacts without looking

She took them off at night with no bathroom lights

That was the first thing people noticed about her

He was drunk? Smitten? Stricken? Infatuated? With those eyes as well

She quickly bend down and rinsed her face and pulled out a new box hurriedly

Who is this HE Nisha? Seems to love her eyes… ah Haan!

Her man loved her eyes. Where is he now? How did they drift apart?

She has a tough boss watching her every move. Micro managing bosses are the worst.

Why does she hide her eyes? There must be a story behind it.

The tyrant of a boss is waiting for her to slip.. how is she going to give him the slip? 😲

The he, presumably the kid's father.. was attracted to her eyes but later ditched her?

Must be so hard.. a single mom with little to no support, a not so nice boss AND being heartbroken! So much that she refuses to look at her own pretty eyes.. 😭

Witchcraft

They met while she was wasting her time with the IHM diploma, she would spend all day sleeping and all night bar hopping with Amruta, growing up with privilege and being ultra stunning there was nothing she needed to set her mind to, she did not need goals or aspirations.

They had had 10 chance encounters until she came up close and personal without her sunglasses on …….. deciding to talk to introduce themselves

Mrunalini stood out in a crowd, heads turned, people noticed her height and then her eyes… usually in that order

He noticed her eyes, because she was level with him in height

Aatreya Rao…

“You have witchcraft in your eyes” he had modified the Henry V quote followed by an audible gasp like he almost did not believe they were so blue… for real.

Nobody at home cared who she was with or what she did

Joy of being an only child, she decided. Mother never really cared where she was, they only talked to each other when they were fighting

“If you had listened you would know Aai”

“I know I am not supposed to have a life when I pull a baby out of me, too bad I DO” Falguni would mock her

Mrunal could do nothing right acc to her

“Ask Baba”

“Baba can be there”

“The driver should know where Baba is”

“You are my AAI” Mrunalini would yell

“I DON’T know HOW” Falguni would scorn

She didn’t want to be mother to someone who was stunning and looked like the adulterous man she married.

She had aspirations though, that she would have a relationship with her mother, early on, that bubble had burst, when Falguni had discovered her daughter was a clone of her husband in the looks department, tall light skinned and with blue eyes, she did not go on a mission to show her off to friends, she started to resent her.

Some of it had to do with Sagar’s dalliances early on.

The money was good and connections were superlative, Falguni stayed on

Every time she looked at her daughter she was reminded of Sagar, she tried not to show it at first but slowly, began sending Sagar to every school event and appointments.

“I want mother daughter trips Sameena” Mrunalini wept on Zahra’s couch (Sameena’s parents house)

“Hmm”

“I am willing to forgive her for not being there, for judging me, but I want everything she gives Raima Savarkar

“You can recreate everything with Jai you know?”

“I DO, he doesn’t have anyone else”

Zahra had two younger kids at home, Jai was close to one of them Zainab, but frequently did not want to stay or or hang out

Today was one of the good days

“Have you heard from your Dad?” Sameena asked thoughtfully

“NO… I think he thinks if he makes Amruta reach out to me I will forgive him, It just GROSSES me out…” Mrunal tried not to cry

“Don’t think of what goes on behind closed doors”

“I just feel like if I stay in Mumbai I will have to think about them hear about them… I DON’T want that” Mrunalini got up and paced the room restlessly

“That is great BTW, have you thought about what you want to do?”

“For what?” Mrunal turned to Sameena and found her checking her texts

“I apologize”

“No its OK”

“I mean about moving out of Mumbai”

“I don’t know…. Do u think I can be peaceful here?” Mrunal begged

Nobody had the answer to her happiness

Talking to Sameena made her feel relaxed

It was like rain showers after a 45C day, but quickly the sun came back out again

“Jai is doing well I see” Sameena smiled staring at the balcony

“He threw up at school and refused to go to PE” “On Tuesday”

“Oh”

“His allergist wants to do another back patch test” she nodded

“Yeh to achhi baat hai na?”

“Yeah, its overdue, Ive paid so much to school for late pick up I kept postponing the test”

“If he can eat more things, you two should go on a holiday”

“Where?” Mrunal was shocked

“Aap soch lo” Sameena got up, this session had gone on for over 2 hours, almost 2:30

“That would be nice…”

“I took a bunch of notes, I will send you something to read”

“Can we meet next week?”

“I have exams” Sameena made a face

“Hmm”

Sameena handed her a card for a kids singing playgroup thinking it might help Jai, Mrunal didn’t wear contacts when she visited Sameena, one of the few people who she bared her eyes to… and of course the only one she bared her soul to

How hard some peoples lifes are,sometime it feels so blessed to have atleast one to trust love and rely

Having unstable parents and the repercussions on her mental health because of it… having a super allergic son and an Aatreya Rao it is 🥺

Love the name Nisha