Lost Chances - A RiKara FF Chapter 17 on Pg 64 (05/04) - Page 8

And while she'd been ready to be his wife for a long while now, Omkara was proving to be too much of a gentleman and Gauri had no idea how to approach him about it.

Worrying and fretting about it had brought about the second most welcome change in Gauri's life - Anika didi and her khidki-tod ideas ki dukaan. Anika had always been a welcoming and affectionate jethani since day one, but the emotional turmoil of their own lives had never given Gauri and Anika the chance they needed to connect. But that day, connect they did.

For some reason, Gauri felt so comfortable around Anika that she'd opened up about things she didn't even discuss with Om. And in return, Anika had declared that while they might not be related by blood she was mentally adopting this perfect little person as her sister. Thus the unparalleled duo of Anika di and Chutki was born.

Five months after that infamous week at Om's private retreat in the mountains, and about a month after Anika and Gauri's heart-to-heart, when their first anniversary had come around, it was Anika who convinced Shivaay to give Omkara and Gauri a special vacation as a gift. And it was Om who thanked her from the bottom of his heart for her understanding and support, when they got back from their two weeks off with relaxed smiles and glowing faces.

It had taken Gauri two more days before she could do anything but blush whenever her eyes met Anika's, but her thanks given in private was every bit as heartfelt and involved quite a bit more giggling and girl talk.

Anika and Gauri were essentially very similar in nature - Sweet, generous and with a sunny disposition until their loved ones were threatened or harmed, then you'd better be ready for some serious damage cuz they could make you wish you'd never been born. With them finding their sweet spot, the house was soon merrily ringing with their distinctive vocabulary, which each of them seemed to automatically understand and incorporate into their own dictionary of obscure terms for everyday words.

They got on like an entire mansion on fire and would go on to become each other's biggest strength and confidante after their husbands. Shivaay and Om were obviously delighted with this new relationship in the beginning, but that was before the brothers knew just how much trouble their wives could get into and could also get them into.

The most dangerous combination however was that of Anika, Gauri and Rudra. If those three were even seen together at any point of time, the rest of the family prepared itself for the destruction about to be wrought.

Rudra had never been happier than when Anika became a part of the family and more importantly, part of the OBros. She was the only one in the entire family he'd allowed to be part of their special OBro moments and he was a solid bhabhi ka chamcha devar. Anika was like the coolest older sister figure ever in his eyes and the two were adorable when plotting and planning their little schemes. The addition of Gauri to this dynamic only acted like icing on top of a cake.

While Rudra couldn't have imagined his O picking someone like Gauri for his life partner, he had no doubt, even from the beginning, that she was the one for him. Even from the Chulbul days, Rudra shared a comfort level with Chulbul/Gauri that when her confession and the reveal had happened, his only comments had been that he was glad Chulbul was a girl because he'd seriously been worried for his O bhaiyya and that he was also happy to have such a pretty bhabhi.

That he had accepted her so openly in a time where almost the whole house was united against her had endeared the youngest OBro to Gauri immensely. Rudy might be a simple, easygoing person but in times of need, he was a rock for his brothers and ready to work his fingers to the bone for them... that he'd extended the same trust and care to include her was incredibly special for Gauri.

Their bhabhi-devar relationship had only gone from strength to strength when Rudra later found her to be an invaluable ally when it came to planning. Gauri and her internet chachi were a force to be reckoned with and the addition of these two to the already amazing Anika-Rudy team resulted in some of the best pranks ever, not to mention foiled takeover plans and enemies of the family defeated left and right over the course of the next few months.

Gauri's addition to the family had been experienced by the various family members in different ways. For Shivaay, she was a source of relief and happiness because in her, he knew that his brother had found his soulmate. Every day he spent observing Gauri and her interactions with her husband, his conviction grew stronger that this was the perfect partner for his strong yet soft brother.

Shivaay had fought his own feelings for Anika for such a long time, almost invalidating their own relationship due to his personal insecurities and idiosyncrasies that now he'd understood just how much precious time he'd wasted when he could have been happier than he thought possible. Now that Gauri was in Omkara's life, Shivaay really didn't want his brother to make the same mistakes that he had...

Prinku was one of the members of the Oberoi family who even her own family members frequently overlooked. Quiet and shy, with an almost crippling fear of confrontation, she'd been the sheltered princess of the family until the fiasco with Ranveer.

Gauri's introduction to their family had happened shortly afterwards and for the first time in quite some time, Prinku felt sorry for someone other than herself. The girl, who could barely be four or five years older than herself, was being accused of so many heinous things by her own brother but Gauri had stood still, held strong in the face of such violent criticism and anger directed at her.

At first, Prinku felt sorry for the girl, then she felt a strange sort of anger at her brother for the way he was talking about her... she didn't know anything about this woman in front of her but for some reason, she felt a sort of kinship with her. The third and strongest feeling that hit Prinku was admiration... even though Gauri was being lambasted for various crimes she stood up to every one of them, answering in a calm and slightly shaky but steady voice.

Once it was decided by Dadi and Bua Maa to have her stay at Oberoi mansion, it was Prinku who first approached Gauri with some clothes and supplies, trying to make her feel a bit more comfortable in the house. Gauri, who'd observed the shy Prinku as Chulbul, wasted no time in trying to bring the young girl out of her shell, and succeeded where all else had failed. They bonded on their surprisingly similar taste in new music and the simple joys of life, somethings that Prinku hadn't been able to connect with Anika on, what with her being a firm old Bollywood Salman Khan fan and a force of nature all by herself.

What started that day, had slowly built into a close friendship between bhabhi and devrani, almost as close as Prinku had been with Anika. Slowly but surely, Gauri and Anika, working silently in tandem over the next year or so, had been able to bring Prinku out of her shell, building her self-confidence and making her comfortable enough with social commitments that she was now giving press conferences by herself when it came to news about her charity.

Soumya hadn't found much through which to connect with Gauri initially. Her first impression of Gauri hadn't been great because then, her bade baal waale bhaiyya hadn't been on good terms with Gauri. Soumya had been out sick during most of the Chulbul period and the only fact that remained in her mind was that this girl had lied to her bhaiyya for a long time.

Omkara was the one who'd first accepted Soumya as being part of his family when even Rudra had been keen on excluding her. So Soumya's loyalty to her brother kept her from softening to his so-called wife for quite some time. Gauri for her part, hadn't tried to force any interactions with anyone in the house, cognizant of the fact that most of these people were understandably pissed off by her lying to them. It took them quite a while to find their feet and get comfortable around each other and even that might not have happened had it not been for that day when Soumya's late brother inadvertently brought them together.

It was a Saturday and with pretty much everyone in the house either out or busy with their own thing, Soumya had been cleaning around the room she'd bogarted from Rudra when her eyes fell on the tin jewelry case she'd set on the dresser and pretty much forgotten for a while. Soumya wasn't much for jewelry and makeup, believing for most of her life that a woman's beauty lay inside... in her personality and her character. Meeting Rudra and falling for him had briefly caused her to question her own beliefs but she'd since bounced back.

That day, with nothing better to do, Soumya idly picked through the jewelry box, holding up one piece after another of some small jewels that her mother and grandmother had left her. As she pulled out a delicate pearl necklace that her brother had gifted her for her sixteenth birthday, it broke apart and the tiny pearls rolled everywhere across the room causing Soumya to cry out in alarm. It was fortunate that Gauri, who'd been passing by, heard her cry and stopped to investigate.

Finding the usually happy and cheerful Soumya in tears staring sightlessly at the floor was more than a bit disconcerting to her. Within seconds, figuring out the problem, Gauri was on her hands and knees alongside a sobbing Soumya, hunting for the wayward pearls. Even with the girl in an extremely emotional state, it had taken Gauri a bit of persuasion to let her help Soumya

Mujhe koi help nahin chaahiye. I can do it myself... agar aap ko kuch aur kaam hai to aap jaa sakte ho'

Soumya ji... hume pata hai ki aap hum se naaraaz ho lekin abhi ke liye wo bhool jao. Hum apna mooh bhi nahin kholenge... aapse baat nahin karenge... pakka. Lekin hume ab madad karne dijiye... ye haar aap ke liye bahut special tha na, pehle in motiyon ko samet lete hain phir hum yahaan se chale jaayenge'

Between the two of them, they'd found every pearl that had rolled out, Gauri had meticulously checked behind the couch, under the bed and even in the tiny space under the closet in the corner to find each and every missing pearl. Once they were all found Gauri had silently taken them away from a morose Soumya and brought them back an hour later, securely strung up on a strong and resilient silk thread.

Ye lijiye Soumya... hume pata hai ye necklace aapke liye bahut important tha. Humse abhi ke liye yahi ho saka. Humne socha ki aap baad mein jab mauka mile isko kisi johori ke paas lekar jaa sakti hain. Tab tak ke liye ye nahin tootega... To hum chalte hain, aapko aur disturb nahin karenge'

Stop... Gauri... Gauri bhabhi. Rukiye... Thank you ye sab karne ke liye. Ye necklace mere bhai ki aakhri gift thi... Jab aapko pata tha ki main aapse naaraaz thi to aapne ye sab mere liye kyun kiya? Itna pareshan hone ki zaroorat kya thi?'

Hume aap bahut achi lagti hain Soumya ji... Aap Omkara ji ki choti behen hain aur Rudy bhaiyya ki patni... is hisaab se to aap humari bhi behen hui na? Agar ek behen apni doosri behen se naaraaz hai iska matlab ye to nahin ki wo apni behen ko manaane ki koshish bhi na kare?'

Lekin hum aap par koi haq nahin jataa rahe hain. Hume bas aap achi lagti hain aur hum aapki madad karna chaahte the...'

With that Gauri left Soumya in a mild state of flux and guilt at having treated her so harshly. Slowly but surely things improved after that, their interactions losing the awkwardness that pervaded them day by day until Soumya was helping Gauri with her English studies and Gauri was designing outfits for her younger sister left, right and center.

Dadi was fine with whatever made her grandsons happy and Gauri seemed to be a lovely child on the road to making her precious Omkara a happier man than he'd been ever before... that was more than enough of a certification for her.

Shakti Singh Oberoi didn't really have an opinion beyond the fact that she seemed to know her religious practices and looked like a sanskaari bahu. Of course, Omkara could have done better but who was he to say anything when the children of this generation weren't even listening to their own parents.

Pinky was predisposed to not liking Gauri purely for the fact that she wasn't khaandani, a fact that still needled her about Anika, something that her heera beta Shivaay didn't seem to care an iota about now. She'd stayed well away from Omkara's wife, interacting with her only when politeness and family matters demanded it, which had everyone else in the family sighing in relief.

Tej Singh Oberoi was disgusted by the fact that his own son had picked some uncivilized village girl from the middle of nowhere with no background or wealth so to speak of, to be his life partner. He'd had so many ideas for his son's marriage... a tie up with some of the best and most well-known families in the entire country. The first Oberoi scion had bungled it magnificently by marrying that orphan Anika, paving the way for his Omkara to take the reins and show the world how a business empire and a family was run. And in this too, his son had consistently disappointed him... but sadly no one asked for Tej's opinion of his elder daughter-in-law. And had they asked, they would have considered his disgust with her a major plus point for her side.

That left Jhanvi... a mother and now a mother-in-law that was in a state of flux. She knew for a fact that she'd been strong armed by Bua Maa into accepting Gauri during those initial days when she'd found out Chulbul's secret. Had Bua Maa not been around then, Gauri probably wouldn't have remained in their lives. She had sent Gauri away when she came to know of her reality. She convinced herself it was because she wanted to save Omkara from the heartbreak the truth would cause but Jhanvi knew that she was not being entirely truthful either. While she loved her son to bits, they'd never understood each other emotionally. Jhanvi had no idea what had prompted her son to marry this girl, if that was what had actually happened... And not knowing about it, she was prone to being overcautious.

It hadn't been her choice to go through all the drama with Kaali Thakur and Svetlana, half of which she still blamed Gauri for on her bad days, but they'd all gone through that mainly because of Tej Singh Oberoi and his many proclivities. The fallout of that had resulted in Gauri's secret being revealed in front of the family... a situation where she didn't speak up in defense of her so-called daughter-in-law.

It was Bua Maa who'd firmly taken Gauri's side and insisted along with her own mother-in-law, that the farce of a marriage between Omkara and Gauri be given a real chance. While Jhanvi had nothing personally against the girl, she was sweet and generous, quite simple and god-fearing, but she wasn't what Jhanvi felt her Omkara needed as a partner for life. Omkara had given up so much of his own life and childhood for her, due to the troubles between her and his father, she didn't want Om to settle for anything henceforth. And settling when it came to one's life partner was the worst thing he could do. And so, even after a long heart-to-heart with her mother-in-law when she tried to convince her that keeping the relationship intact was the right thing to do, Jhanvi wasn't prepared to give the girl a place in her heart.

Though she wasn't openly abrasive and condescending like Pinky, Jhanvi never called Gauri her bahu, never gave her the family heirloom necklace and never really gave her any special attention. Gauri didn't draw any attention to her mother-in-law's treatment of her, not wanting her husband to get in on the problem.

With relations souring between mother and son due to the separation drama with her husband, Jhanvi was now left with almost no communications with either her elder son or daughter-in-law and would hence only later come to know just how much said daughter-in-law had worked behind the scenes to bring mother and son closer once again.

Though new relations were being made and broken within the four walls of the Oberoi mansion, outsiders knew pretty much nothing that went on after the surprise wedding of the second Oberoi heir and independent millionaire artist Omkara Singh Oberoi. As far as they knew, the only big news was that all the younger Oberoi men were now taken and no longer playing the social scene.

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That's that for the flashbacks... for now. Hope y'all liked the update...

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