Epilogue
"God Paarijat how I missed you"
She woke up gasping, her sensations overwhelmed by the smell of the night flowering jasmine also known as the Paarijat. The small, fragrant white flowers with their fiery centers were raining down on her. In the deep shadows of her room, she saw the faint outline of a tall figure, hands extended, the final few flowers pouring out of his hands and onto her body.
'Maan.' Her heart sang. He was finally home and her whole body vibrated with the need to jump out of the bed and hug him fiercely. She wanted to curl up in his arms and die. But alas...
She took a deep breath and opened her mouth to end the interlude, she wasn't sure was a figment of her imagination or a dreamy reality. However before she could make a sound...
Another voice piped in...
"Papa who is Paarijat?" A tousled head peeked out from under the bedsheets. There were absolutely zero traces of sleep in the big eyes exactly like his wife's that looked up at him with wide eyed curiosity. She held out her arms to him eagerly to be picked and cuddled.
Maan looked at his daughter with startled eyes and his wife looked up at his mischievously while hiding a smile at her daughter's question.
"Papa is talking about the flowers beta." Geet replied.
His sharply intelligent daughter looked at her mother with blatant disbelief.
"You mean to say he missed the flowers in our backyard more than he missed you, me and Ravi?"
Before either of them could formulate a reply to her question, the remaining blankets were thrown back and three more rumpled sleepy heads poked out their heads and screamed in joy on seeing Maan. All three of them jumped out of bed and raced towards him.
"Papa, papa, papa. You are back. I missed you so much papa. More than all the candy in the world." Screamed his three year old son, Ravi and launched himself into his papa's waiting arms.
"Yay!!! Chachu is back." The two remaining boys clung to his knees.
Great!! Not only had his kids invaded the bed but his sister-in-law's son and his brother Ved's brat were also added into the equation. He adored all of them to death and had planned on looking in on them later after he had spent some much needed lone time being welcomed home by his wife. He had been away for the past two weeks and had been desperately waiting to get back to them and especially to her...his Paarijat.
As he let down Ravi and looked towards Geet, he saw his daughter Mishika, curled up by her side patiently awaiting her turn to be hugged. His heart squeezed in his chest when he looked at this daughter of his who was an exact replica of his wife in looks as well as her temperament.
"Papa papa where is the candy train you showed me on Skype?" His son was tugging on his trousers trying to get his attention.
He bent down and ruffled Ravi's hair. Maan had known he would have no peace until the toy was in Ravi's hands and so he had packed it separately. He gave the suitcase key to Arav, Shefali's son.
"Go open the bag and take the packages on which your name's are written. Leave Mishika's gift right there."
The three boys' raced off to investigate their gifts and Maan lifted his arms to his daughter.
She came to him eagerly and hugged him tightly.
"Let's open my gift tomorrow papa. I missed you papa, but papa mamma also missed you very much. I saw her hugging your photograph last night. She only does that when she really really misses you, you know. We were all supposed to sleep at Nani's place tonight, but I thought mamma wouldn't miss you so much if we were all sleeping with her. Papa can we include mamma in the hug right now. Coz I know mamma is waiting for her hug too."
Maan's eyes stung and he squeezed his daughter tight to his chest as a giant wave of love washed over him. This little girl was a miracle he and Geet had created together. Her name Mishika meant a gift of love and that was what she was, a really precious gift born out of their love for each other. She had more love in her heart than was measurable by any human standards. She was a gentle soul just like her mother and he wanted to be her armor and shield her soft heart from all of life's storms. Even though he knew he could not do that forever he was going to try his damnedest to be the father she deserved.
Overwhelmed as he was by emotions, he walked over to Geet with Mishika in his arms and laid his head on her shoulder to hide the tears that blinded him. She understood his dilemma and passed a soothing hand over his back and hugged him and Mishika to herself gently.
The poignant moment was destroyed by Ravi who was the joy and light of their life, named after the great Rabindranath Tagore who had been so instrumental in their journey towards each other.
"Me too me too. I want to hug mamma and papa and Mishika." With that the little tornado jumped on all three of them with giggles and a candy smeared mouth.
Arav's voice reached Maan's ears. "Chachu nani told us to come back once you are back so we are leaving. Good night." They raced away to the Handa household next door.
Maan looked down at his whole world that was lying on that bed and a sigh of contentment arose deep from his soul.
Just as his eyes were drifting off to sleep his daughter's voice reached his ears.
"Papa I am still waiting to know who is Paarijat?"
Ye Hai Mohabbatein
Arjun
Sensational South
156