ShivIka FF: An Ishqbaaaz Rising *3.7 Updated* (2nd July, Page 82) - Page 15

awesomee... its so gud to see all charecters are explained in the show... dnt knw wat role he have... just a namesake charecter..

Omg

Beautiful chapter.

Wow superb

Originally posted by: fallingpieces

OMG forgot to make a super important point- I love the internal dialogues of your characters.

I guess this kind of follows on as the "authentic conversation" thing because it's kind of them having conversations with themselves? But yeah, well written internal dialogue that lets me really get in characters' head is kinda my jam.

Originally posted by: pritzz

LJ my love... I have no words to express what a dreamy fairy and magical land you are creating here... I am so in love with every sentence you have framed to such perfection... the story here is giving me peace from all the nonsense around... the way each member of the family is unmaksing their Hidden Human - the Good human which they had been hiding from the world in the name of class and royalty... 👏

You are a wonderful wonderful writer... brilliant 👏

2.7 O Bros'

"O, I am telling you that envelope has some supernatural power"

"What?"

"Ha! I mean didn't you see - bhaiya ne aise react kiya jaise uss envelope ne uthkar unhe koi 440 vault ka jhatka de diya. Aise toh bhaiya sirf Annika didi ko dekh ke react karte the. Ab woh unke envelope ko bhi dekh ke aise react karte hai? To obviously like Annika didi her envelope also must have some supernatural power na?"

"See - logic O!"

"Rudra, shut up!"

His brothers were arguing.

Of course they were arguing - and he almost wanted to smile at that.

Almost.

But the dull anguish in his chest reminded him of the day's revelations even as his eyes slowly adjusted to the faint light that was now streaming into his room.

It seemed that he had somehow ended up on his bed - and was now surrounded by all the men of his family.

And as his eyes slowly started focusing, he could see the worry clearly etched on each of their faces and his immediate reflex was to try and get up. But even as he felt his dad help him to sit up straight and then lean back his head on the headboard, his eyes continued searching for someone else.

Someone he knew wouldn't be there. Someone who by all reasoning shouldn't be anywhere near him.

But he couldn't help but whisper the most sacred desire that he had kept burning in his heart - the name that sent him into a whirlwind of emotions that both paralyzed him as much as left him with some unknown trepidation - almost like he had been waiting for this his whole life.

"Annika?"

He knew she wasn't there.

Every single sense in his body screamed that she was nowhere near his room at that time - but her name was his heart's prayer and he almost choked back a dry sob as the realization seeped in.

He felt his dad and bade papa inhale sharply in response, but both hesitated - stalling - probably in an attempt to gather their thoughts.

He could see Omkara smiling faintly as he shared a knowing look with the youngest Oberoi brother who was now grinning from ear to ear.

But none of it really mattered. She wasn't there.

The dull pain was magnifying...and all he could do was wait.

"O... I didn't know that Annika didi has a medical degree?"

That got his attention.

Om bit back a grin as Rudra was instantly rewarded with the reaction that he was so obviously anticipating.

"What?"

Om tried putting on his best poker face as he completely ignored Shivaay's confused reaction and innocently asked - "Ha, mujhe bhi..."

"What the wuck!"

Rudra couldn't hold his grin anymore as he jumped and almost rolled into Shivaay's side as Om burst into a fit of laughter.

"Aur kya?" Rudra was now busy focusing on his biceps as he looked at him from the corner of his eye.

His dad and bade papa obviously couldn't help but join in on the teasing as well - and as for him, Shivaay, he could only continue to look both confused as well as almost resigned at them four.

At this point, he was almost expecting that there was something else that he didn't know about Annika.

But before he could actually drown into another overwhelming wave of guilt... Rudra had continued in the same deadpan tone: "Yeah... because normally when people come to consciousness they normally look around for some form of medical help... especially if that someone is obsessively trying to become the first businessman in the world to open a personal pharmacy club... so I thought Annika di must be a doctor."

Shivaay stared blankly at his youngest brother who was now steadfastly looking at him with a miraculously straight face.

He rolled his eyes at that.

Of course.

But before he could respond in his characteristic style of hitting him on his head upside down, bade papa was now saying something as well.

For a moment he was so taken aback that he could only stare at his uncle unbelievingly.

Bade papa is joking around with us?

"No Rudra - this is not always true. Actually this is only the first stage of becoming an extremely normal whipped husband"

Did bade papa actually just crack a joke - he was too shocked to react.

But the others were apparently were not as shocked because even as he openly gaped at the unraveling scene in front of him... each of them dissolved in guffaws of mild chuckles.

"It is an essential journey that every man has to travel Shivaay" his dad momentarily paused between his laughter and patted his shoulder knowingly.

But even as the others slowly stopped to look at them, he continued solemnly

"Because if you don't then your wife will ensure that you are dragged through the whole damn way..."

That was it.

The pushing edge of an already brimming end... chuckles turned into an all out riot as everyone excluding him (of course) dissolved in beauts of mirth.

A part of him obviously realized the hilarious part of the joke - and there was the same lightness that he had frustratingly felt the night of the wedding - acknowledging - almost marveling at the miracle that had ensured that he had gotten married to Annika.

But the saner part of him was baffled even now at the intuition - how could this even have begun to happen?

This was also the same part of him that had questioned each of his actions that had led to their wedding of course.

Why had Annika even been an option?

Why had he gotten the new pre-nuptial drafted especially for her?

Why had he gone chasing after her when she had wanted to escape?

Why had he forced Annika to sign on the wedding register before they had gone out to perform all those rituals when it would actually just have been easier to pretend none of it had even happened without those legal formalities?

Why had it felt like he was destroying a piece of himself as he watched Annika break down each step of the way that he was dragging her?

But the most baffling of them had actually been the question that he wanted to shout out at her - more so now when he actually knew that he had been so clearly manipulated into disbelieving her.

Why hadn't she slapped him the moment they had entered his room - the twenty or so minutes they had first been left alone in his room by his family?

Even as the questions burned him, he couldn't help but marvel at the sight in front of him.

This was probably one of the very few times that he had ever seen his dad, bade papa and his brothers laughing together. And like each time, it gave him immense peace.

And just for a miniscule second, the sight worked like a balm on his anguished and burning heart.

But even as he felt his facial muscles turn into a small smile, the truth that he had learned that morning continued to make him burn from within.

So it was with a pained smile that he gave into the hug that Om and Rudra had pulled him in now.

He forced himself to put on a smile when Om made the ab awkward hai' comment. And he only managed to stiffly nod at his dad who looked him in the eye and asked him to reconsider all his decisions about his marriage.

As if he could not not think about her.

But it was actually only bade papa's next words that really brought him crashing into reality... "I know what you have done Shivaay"

His eyes snapped right onto his bade papa's face at that.

Of course he would know.

"And I know why you did it."

He felt his dad and even Omkara and Rudra listen attentively as bade papa now started pacing back and forth in front of his bed.

"Shivaay, our Oberoi name is exceptionally important - in ways you know this better than anyone else in this room. There is a lot of things attached to this name - brand value, pride, and most importantly your grandfather's integrity."

Omkara stood up straight at that.

"Mr. Oberoi -"

But bade papa put up his hand silently at that - but he didn't look angry.

He just walked to his son and for the first time in almost a decade, Shivaay saw him place a comforting hand on Omkara's shoulder.

But he was more shocked at what he said next.

"Son, please, let me finish."

Omkara mirrored his surprise it seemed.

So Shivaay just sat up a little straighter. And to be honest, he really didn't know how to react anymore.

"I think even Shakti can tell you about the day when papa had come home with the approved papers for our first cotton textile factory."

And as he said that he looked at his dad who was nodding silently in agreement.

Continuing, he stared out of the window into the poolside as he spoke... "Papa came home and handed over the papers to ma. Then he looked at us and said something that neither I nor your dad can ever forget."

"Every brick that will be built from now on will speak for our family - and one day when we will have had enough - each of this brick will talk to the world of everything that our family stands for: hard-work, integrity and pride."

Shivaay felt his eyes moisten slightly.

He knew this.

His grandfather had told him this same thing himself when he was five years old - it was actually just before Rudra was born that is and Omkara was almost three.

He remembered the day as if it had happened yesterday.

Dadu had sat him in his favourite armchair in the library - and he had felt like he was passing through some sort of a sacred passage - his bade papa had done this, his dad had done this... now it was his turn.

He was pulled back from his memories when bade papa continued...almost somber.

"But papa also talked about compassion, love and the absolute significance of family - something that both me and your father forgot even as we moved to new successes every year."

Bade papa now looked slightly frustrated and his next monologue was thus coming out slightly confused - as he tried to lay out everything that he seemed to be struggling with.

Pacing again now, he looked at the floor as he spoke.

"Choices. Always choices - then consequences - life is all about these two things. But somewhere we start losing ourselves when we get too busy dealing between these two. Good or bad, you deal with each choice and then its consequences. And life moves on. Specially when you have responsibilities - especially a responsibility like a legacy."

He paused as he turned to look at first his dad and then the three younger Oberoi men.

"Because being an Oberoi is a legacy, isn't it? And how do you run away from a responsibility that you are born with? Especially you three - you didn't get to choose any of it did you?"

Somehow the words echoed in his ears then.

He had heard something like this before.

Of course... Annika had told him something very similar what seemed almost an era ago.

But before he could go down that road, his father's voice interrupted his thoughts. "But somewhere between dealing with this responsibility and in the absolute greed to take this legacy to a new height that probably couldn't even be imagined then - we lost the essence of this legacy."

Bade papa looked like he was struggling - and Shivaay recognized the struggle instantly - it was of a practiced to perfection mask slipping.

Bade papa was letting them see his vulnerabilities?

"Could haves, would haves and should haves - each of these weigh on us heavily today - but I want you -"

Bade papa looked at me straight when he spoke this.

"I want you to make the right choices, Shivaay"

And his father's eyes almost trembled with unspoken emotion as he said - "we are a family Shivaay - and now, whatever your choice - we will stand by you. Each one of us."

Shivaay felt a single drop of wetness on his cheek and he realized that he was crying.

Bade papa walked towards Rudra and Om who were looking at him with an expression he couldn't really place himself - because it looked more of a mixture of longing, shock, gratitude ... as well as undeniable love.

Bade papa touched each of their cheeks lightly and then turned to look at him when he spoke.

"Shivaay choices dictate our life. And making choices from my head has more often than I would like to admit led me into trouble - and its more so when there was an alternative choice that my instinct and heart were telling me to pick instead."

As the last words died in the air... the tensed silence in the room was almost palpable.

Shivaay was now feeling every part of his burning with an even harder intensity. Words burned into his consciousness...images of her... images of his brothers... and then images of her lighted fresh waves of fires in him.

His consciousness was guilty - and there was a tortured struggle that threatened to drive him to insanity.

On one hand he was struggling with the guilt that he had destroyed the one thing that he had started cherishing above anything else in this world by letting himself be manipulated.

And this guilt was clawing him from inside.

Then on the other he was frustrated that his own emotions were beyond his control - and this went against his each instinct.

And of course there was also the absolute shock that his own friend - someone that he had grown up with had manipulated him.

However, the one thing that he had struggled with the most- the one thing that had haunted him since the day of the godforsaken wedding was the look in her eyes.

He had always found her eyes not only absolutely hypnotizing but in absolute likeness of her own character.

Like their owner, her eyes too spoke to him in ways that left him incapable of any other thought.

That day her eyes had turned from fiery to shocked... then from shock to grief... and then there was a trembling surrender in them that had rendered him paralyzed for moments.

If he were asked even now to name these emotions he would probably not be able to explain them to anyone. But there was just something that broke within him when he saw her grief. Of course he was never going to actually harm her brother - even entertaining that thought was beyond reasoning. But he also knew that she would also know that.

So to break her, he had to break his image of him in her eyes.

And he knew that she would buy it.

Of course she would.

She had a weakness.

And if there was one thing that he knew, it was to know exactly how to use a weakness against someone - perfectly. It was something that he had used about a million times. So, of course she had fallen for it.

But he had not been prepared for the way he would be feeling seeing her resign like that. It felt like someone had knocked the very air out of him.

He felt like he was falling to pieces and he couldn't fight it because he was himself ensuring the destruction.

And he had felt this before too.

When he had left Annika crying in the rain - somehow winning had never felt so bitter and heavy before.

Shivaay shook himself.

But before he had time to start sorting out beginnings and ends of his own consequences - he realized that bade papa had come and sat in front of him.

He felt him stroke his now bandaged hand comfortingly - lightly. The tenderness shocked him as much as noting that he hadn't even realized that he had actually injured himself somehow.

"Trust yourself. Trust your heart - let love in Shivaay"

--------------------xx--------------------

2.8 The Confrontation

Loved the chapter. Hope you update soon.

Wow! That was heart touching. Everything about the Oberois that pull us in, the reason most of us watch this show is right here in the words you have beautifully woven together. This is splendid!

Ana

That was hell of an update
Continue soon