All the haba-juba nonsense is over and Abhigya have been living happily together with no misunderstandings for 3 months now and were enjoying spending as much time together as possible...
...
It was a pleasant evening and Pragya, Abhi, Rachna and her little baby were doing something they all agreed they should do more often. They were all sitting on a picnic mat, outside on the Mehra Mansion lawns, enjoying the wonderful, cool breeze that was playing about around the garden and pool side. Rachna had spread out on the mat, getting some shut-eye, and was smiling to herself listening to the banter of Pragya and Abhi as they played with her son.
"Listen Chu, tomorrow, you and I will go eat ice-cream together," decided Abhi, smiling. "We'll get the chocolate flavour- no! Cookies and cream? Pistachio? All of them!" Seeing the glint in Abhi's eyes, his little nephew stared at him for a while, blinked and went back to playing with his rattle toy with his Chachi, Pragya as his partner-in-crime.
Pragya scoffed. "Suniye, I'm not going to let you use my nephew as a way to do what you want to do.
"What do you mean?" Abhi sat up a little to look more directly at Pragya but she was too busy playing with the baby to look back at him.
"My chand-ka-tukra (piece of the moon) can't eat ice-cream at his age! You're just using him so that you can eat some! Like last night, you told Dadi you were ordering pizza because I wanted it! When did I say that?!" Pragya reminded him.
"No, I just want my Chu to eat some ice-cream! I wasn't thinking for myself-"
"- Is that so?" Pragya finally looked up to face Abhi before shooting the question, "Chocolate?"
Without thinking, Abhi made a clicking noise with his mouth and said, "Nah, pistachio."
"Ahh... I thought so..." Pleased with herself, Pragya looked back to her nephew and continued playing with him, "See, your Chacha, Mr Abhishek Prem Mehra, has already decided on an ice-cream flavor for himself."
Annoyed, Abhi pulled the baby closer to him and away from Pragya, "Listen Chu, don't listen to this Mogambo Chachi. Tomorrow, you and I- boy's day out."
Pragya sat up, threateningly, and glared at Abhi, "Mogambo! You're calling me that again!"
"Toh (So)? If you're acting like Mogambo, I should call you Mogambo', right?!"
"Fuggy is bad enough! And what the heck is Chu'?"
"My new name for my nephew. Chu' from Bachu' (child)."
"Oh great, another lame nickname."
"I think it's very cute. Very 21st century," Abhi mused.
"21st Century my foot," Pragya shook her head and sighed, turning to face the baby again. After a moment of thinking, Pragya looked up again, her eyes wide, shouting out Hooo!' as if she had come to know a huge revelation. "'Chu' isn't from bachu'! It's from Chachu'!!! You want him to say Chachu' before Chachi'!!! You!!!" Pragya shook her finger at Abhi, infuriated.
"Bakwas!" Abhi shook his head violently, trying to defend himself, "Trust me, Pragya! That isn't it! And stop pointing your finger at me!" Abhi managed to catch Pragya's finger mid-air. Teasingly, he pulled the finger closer to his mouth, as if he was going to kiss it at any second, but Pragya quickly tug it free with newfound determination.
"From now on, I shall call him, Chi'!" Pragya announced.
"Chhii! What a bad name!" Abhi disapproved.
Pragya turned to the baby and started calling out 'Chi!' Seeing his competition taking action, Abhi followed suit and shouted out 'Chu!' They both were trying very hard to catch the attention of their nephew, saying their nicknames for him in various tones, but he was much too busy rolling out on the picnic mat to care about these two kids.
Rachna was now laughing quietly to herself. She listened to the rather amusing scene and thought to herself, At this rate, his first word will be 'Chichu'!' Such a moment was quite normal in the Mehra family. Abhi and Pragya were the children of this family- not when they were alone, but when they were both together. They argued about the strangest things but Rachna figured that showed how much they loved each other. It was evident that the two enjoyed and they were not like this with anyone else. And everyone knew that despite their fighting, the two loved each other immensely and their fights were only an excuse to talk exclusively together, uninterrupted. Rachna remembered that the Pragya di she knew before was quite different to the Pragya bhabhi she knew now. Both were beautiful people with golden hearts, but this Pragya was more childish, freer and-
Rachna took note of how unusually quiet it had suddenly become. She opened her eyes and turned her head slightly to see Abhi's finger on Pragya's nose. They were both looking at each other, as if lost in each other's eyes, while her baby gleefully rolled around in front of them. Abhi put a hand to Pragya's cheek, slowly moving in closer to her, his eyes on her lips, as if they were about to kiss. Rachna held her breath, both feeling guilt and excitement at seeing the rare moment of the two being so openly affectionate towards each other. Just as Abhi pulled in for the kiss, Rachna's baby gave out a little, high-pitched sneeze. Hearing this, Abhi and Pragya suddenly broke out of their trance to look down at the baby. The baby was looking up at them innocently with his big, brown eyes, slightly confused himself. Abhi and Pragya looked at each other and broke out into laughter before happily playing with their nephew again.
Rachna turned back to the sky and closed her eyes again. That's it. Pragya di is happier now too. They both are... Rachna remembered the two before they had properly known each other. With that, she said a little prayer, wishing that the family remained this happy together forever.
622