KKB Omnibus - 10 Shades of Life - Tanu Mehta - Upd 15th June - Pg. 6 - Page 4

Hi Guys! Sorry for the late update! So now it's Abhi's daadi's turn - I figured I dont know her name, so she is Preet Mehra here!

Hope you like her story as much as you like and appreciated the others!

Please do leave me a feedback, I would love to know your opinion about my work!

Happy Reading 😊😊

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Abhi's Daadi - Preet Mehra

Once in a while when she chatted with Indu and Swarni di over their favourite cup of chai' that Pragya bahu made for them, memories of her childhood in their pind' would come up. Indu would make a face, because she was but a baby when she had moved to Jalandhar with her parents, and hence she remembered nothing. Swarni di would talk about her abusive mother-in-law and how glad she was that the woman had passed away not long after her wedding. Preet would listen to them and smile. She didn't have such extreme memories of her childhood abode - she had a normal and healthy childhood - maybe it wasn't harsh and that is why with old age when memories weaken, bland memories queue out the fastest. She had loving parents and an equally loving husband later on - these memories, when she thought about them, seemed like memories from another lifetime - she had come so much ahead of all these memories - now they were fast fading away with old age, and they are replaced by comparatively newer memories - her second innings of life.

Preet Sehgal had an arranged marriage with Khushwant Mehra, life was comfortable and gentle on Preet Mehra for the first sixty years of her life - then there was a twist - a twist so great that today when she sat to think of the past, it felt like her life began only after sixty, and all those years before felt like it belonged to someone else. At the age of sixty, like most ageing women, Preet had lost her husband to ill health conditions, but her son Kuljeet with his wife Dalveer and children Abhi and Aaliya was taking good care of Preet with his family. If there was one problem with Preet's life then, it was finances. Kuljeet was an aspiring singer since childhood and he never tried to make any attempt at having an alternate career when his music was failing him - he chose to work hard, and if that didn't work, then harder - he knew he would rise someday in the field of classical music.

Naturally with a home where there were five mouths to feed, and Kuljeet's talent was not recognized, Dalveer had to come out of the shelter of her home to work. She was a teacher in a local public school and that was how he contributed towards the well-being of the family. Preet, once she moved in with her children in Mumbai after her husband's demise, had firstly used up all her husband's savings to buy a small house for her son and his family, since they were staying at a rented property and that made savings even more difficult. She knew Abhi and Aaliyah were growing up and soon would need their educations sponsored. Savings were the need of the hour, if the house rent was sorted for them, maybe they would have more to save.

Preet remembered those afternoons when both her son and daughter-in-law would be out for work and she would be with her grandchildren. She had started sewing, it was a small tailoring startup in the house itself, she would single handedly take orders of blouses and repos and do them for her neighbours for a nominal price. Aaliyah was too young then, she would sit by her daadi and play on her own, and Abhi on the other hand would always be alert by his daadi, fetching clothes from the other end of the room if daadi needed them, collecting money from neighbours, delivering their clothes - and all the while he would keep humming some music. Later in the afternoon Dalveer would arrive and all of them would sew some more, and then she would help Abhi read a little bit for a while before retiring to the kitchen to make the evening meals. While Dalveer would help Abhi with his basic education, Preet would take Aaliyah out in the evening for a bit, so as to not disturb Abhi's studies. Their life was difficult but it had a rhythm, and they were slowly starting to financially stabilize.

One such evening, Kuljeet had just come back from some studio, rejected again like most evenings. He was sitting in the corner of their hall with little Abhi by his side. Abhi was pestering him to teach him a certain tune - when there was a rough knock on the door. Preet got up hurriedly with Aaliyah in her arms and opened the door - there was a neighbour screaming at her, telling her that the public school had caught fire and Dalveer madam was stuck inside. Before she realized what had happened, Kuljeet was rushing out of the door - before going away he had turned to Preet and told her
"Ma, take care of Abhi and Aaliyah for us will you?" and with that he dashed out, to never return.

News had come that Dalveer was stuck in the fire in a room on the second floor of the school, and Kuljeet after entering the building, refused to come out without Dalveer - the fire was so bad that later not even their bodies could be recovered - Preet just hoped that Kuljeet had found Dalveer in his final hour and they died in each other's arms.

Standing by the verandah with Aaliyah in her arms and clutching Abhi's hand, Preet was wondering how on earth was she to take care of her Kuljeet's children, when she saw him coming towards them - Amardip - her young nephew. Amardip was her husband's younger brother's son and Kuljeet's cousin. They weren't very much in touch, but last she had heard, Amardip had married a woman named Parminder and they were settled in Mumbai. When Preet saw Amar, tears of relief ran down her cheeks, at least Abhi and Aaliyah wouldn't die of hunger, someone was there to help them.

***

Ever since Preet had the children had moved in with Amardip and Parminder, their life had changed - earlier there was no money but there was love - here at Amar's house, though Amar loved and respected Preet and tried very hard to take care of Abhi and Aaliyah along with his children Raj and Aakash - they were always scorned at by Parminder. She had obviously not taken the addition in their family in a healthy way - it meant more number of dependents - though she would directly never say anything to Preet, but she would make her work in order to compensate. Parminder would never do any household work after Amar left for work in the morning - Preet would silently do all the household chore and never complain - somewhere she was indebted to Amar. Parminder had her ways of differentiating between the children of the household - when she packed lunch for the children, she would always give Raj and Aakash the healthier share and leave small helpings for Abhi and Aaliyah - Preet would watch silently. She would also notice that after Raj and Aakash left with their lunches, Abhi would casually come to the kitchen to collect his and Aaliyah's lunch and when nobody was looking he would open his lunch box, take his food out and put that also in Aaliyah's box to make her lunch sufficient. Preet would shed a tear of helplessness and sigh seeing her grandson growing up way faster than his years.

Over the years, if there was one more thing that was strongly developing in Preet, it was her soft corner for this little boy who Abhi had befriended - another orphan, who was dependent on his uncle - Purab. He was nature wise just the opposite of Abhi - calm, composed, soft and somehow less ambitious - Preet wondered why he was less ambitious when the circumstances were the same for both Abhi and Purab's life - somewhere down the line she understood - the zeal to ambition within both came from the desire to be financially stable - but the desire to be so was stronger in Abhi than Purab - it was because, Purab wanted to be financially independent just for himself - Abhi had a greater driver - Aaliyah and Preet herself - Abhi wanted to take their responsibility, keep them happy and hence it was a stronger motivator than the wish of taking care of one's own cost - this was where Purab and Abhi differed - This according to Preet made Abhi reckless for earning a lot of money and this at the same time prevented Purab from earning money recklessly - his need wasn't that strong.

In the harshest of times in her grandchildren's childhood, Preet had seen Abhi stand by daadi and meticulously work for hours for her, she was too old and sometimes couldn't complete all the household work herself - Aaliyah would never notice, but Abhi would and with a quirky smile and a slight hum in his lips he would push her to rest and take over her work - he use to work way more than any boy of his age and he was more responsible than any boy of his age, both towards Aaliyah and Preet - he not only helped Preet with household chores, he would take care of her medicines and health too - Preet felt she was Abhi's last cord to having a parental figure around him, someone to go hug when he needed a shoulder, he would do anything to keep Preet healthy - Preet was what kept Abhi in his right place and frame of mind, he did part time jobs to fulfil Aaliyah's small wishes too, he helped her with studies - all the while with a tune humming in his lips - and Purab helped him in all these. Purab and Abhi together had formed this bubble for Aaliyah, where she grew, unaware of their hardships in life. Preet silently wished that one day she would marry her Aaliyah to her Purab.

Whenever Preet had a hard time with Parminder, she would keep quiet and shut her eyes and imagine the day when her Abhi would take over - she would be at peace that day - he would take care of everyone, even Amardip and Parminder's family - she knew Abhi would never stay indebted to anyone.

***

Abhi was no more just Preet's grandson - he was the nation's heart throb - Rock Star Abhi! Her grandson had finally succeeded, but much of her teachings were lost in the way - he was now high headed like Aaliyah - he had forgotten himself - he couldn't differentiate between well wishers and sly free riders - Preet felt unsuccessful in someways - she had long since understood Aaliyah was too pampered since childhood to be brought on the right track, but she wasn't too much worried about her - Purab would take care of her eventually. But Abhi? Who would take care of him the way Purab would take care of Aaliyah? Preet knew she was too old to have a moral impact on her grandchild - he had forgotten the value of life - he was always surrounded by shallow lives who manipulated him for their benefit and Abhi wouldn't notice - this way Abhi would be milked away to the last of his penny Preet worried, but all wasn't lost - all she had to do was find someone who could reinstill the Abhishesk Prem Mehra back inside Abhi the rockstar - some one just like her - simple, caring and someone who valued life beyond materialistic possessions. Only she had to be young, so that she had all the time in the world to change Abhi - someone like the bespectacled girl she gifted the wedding dupatta to, today morning at the mall for her wedding - the dupatta she wanted to pick for Abhi's future wife - someone like her, what was her name? Haan Pragya.