FF: Forbidden Love.Part6 Upd-PG27 Imp Note Page 29 - Page 3

Writers' Note: I changed Mr.Kundra i.e., Radha's Husband and Yash's father's name from Kulbushan Kundra to Mohan Kundra. At first I wanted to introduce Mr.Kundra Senior as Grey Character, but later I changed my mind and decided to make his character a positive one. So gave him a positive name. Mohan Kundra will be same as in the Serial.

Part-3 Designer Clothes and MIL Woes.

I was walking out of the library in a daze, unaware of where I was heading towards and all lost in thoughts and suddenly I collided with someone and landed flat on my back.

"I'm so sorry Ma'am" Geeta's voice seemed to be coming from somewhere near by and without seeing her I was able to guess that she was truly apologizing for something which was not even her mistake.. Can she help it if I have very recently acquired the habit of walking around like a Zombie.

"That's completely fine, it was not your mistake. It was my fault, I was not watching my steps" I said while Geeta helped me get up and dusted my dress for which I thanked her profoundly.

"Are you Alright Ma'am?" Geeta inquired as she saw pain reflecting on my face.

"Yes Ma'am I'm okay" I said as I straightened my back and regained my composure.

"Oh Please ,Madhu Ma'am don't call me Ma'am" Geeta said nervously as she looked around to see if anyone by chance have been lurking around while eves dropping on our conversation.

"I will not call you Ma'am, but on one condition, i.e., If you stop calling me Ma'am"

"But Ma'am.."

"Please Geeta, I'm a simple girl just like you and moreover I'm new here, I hardly know anyone and considering the fact that we are gonna spend more time with each other , then why don't we start with keeping aside the formalities, by knowing each other and becoming good friends so that we could enjoy each other's company instead of getting bored. What Say?? Deal?!!"

Geeta gave me a reassuring smile and said "Deal" as we shook hands. "Would you like a tour of your New House??" Geeta asked with enthusiasm .

"Sure" I said excitingly as I had nothing else to do and seeing Geeta warming up to me, gave me a satisfaction of acquiring a new friend in her. Geeta 23yrsold, is a very simple looking girl, slightly shorter than me in height, bit skinny, with wheatish complexion, with big attractive eyes and sweet smile. "Since how long have you been working for Kundras??" I asked Geeta in order to start the conversation and to know something about her.

"Not too long. I joined just two months back. But my mother, she had been serving the Kundras for a very prolonged period. Lets say for past 25yrs. But now she retired as she recently acquired the severe case of Arthritis. Which made it difficult for her to stand and move around easily. Considering her so many years of rendering and faithful service to this household, The Kundras asked her to retire and take rest and also offered her a very good amount for her treatment. But she was apprehensive about getting retired as she was worried about my Kid Brother and my education. You see my Kid brother is appearing for his 10th Board Exams this year and I'm doing PG in History via correspondence, but later planning to appear for IAS exams and we needed money to aid our education. So Mr.Kundra and Yash Sir also took the entire responsibility of our studies, but still apart from Kundras funding My Kid Brother and my education, I needed extra money to buy course books for my IAS preparation and a laptop to feed all the important details, it won't be cheap and I hated to take help from Kundras for everything. So I decided to take up this job on temporary basis. Doing odd jobs and saving my salary for the books and the laptop. By the end of next year, I would have completed by PG and would have saved enough money to buy essential stuff I need to prepare for my IAS. So that's that!! "

"What about your father Geeta Di?? What does he do?? I'm sorry, Can I call you Di??"

"Oh, Of course you can. My father left us and my mom for another woman."

"Oh, My bad. I'm so sorry." I said feeling guilty for asking her about her father.

"Oh don't be. He was a pig and we are so much better without him" Enough about me girl. What about you??"

"Oh same old, Middle Class Background. Dead Mother, Bad Father. All alone nothing much to do or say." I said it in most casual way possible but only I knew how much it hurts inside. But aren't we all same. Geeta Di, Me.. We all had our share of sad stories. But that does not means that we stop living and give away all our hopes. Surely there has to be some reasons for our lives. Surely God has not send us down on earth to just go through sufferings. As they say there is always light at the end of the tunnel and I was waiting for my light.

"Welcome to the club" Geeta Di's words pulled me out of trance and soon enough we were laughing and joking about something, which I don't even remember what it was, but all I knew that I made a good friend in Geeta Di and suddenly my survival in this house was seeming to be more fun and lively than it was till yesterday night.

I was lying on my new bed in the afternoon with nothing much to do around the house, getting acquaintance to my new plush bedroom. Suddenly I found myself appreciating the Majestic Bedroom, ostentatiously rich furniture, soothing taupe walls, white carved ceiling and lavish attached bathroom. The room had walk in closet and Queen Size Bed. How come I never admired the beauty of the room yesterday?? Oh yes because I was so busy crying over my faith and unexpected incidents happening in my life one after another. What The Hell Am I Thinking?? Am I really getting happy because I'm getting to stay in a nice and big house with no strings attached to it. When did I get so greedy?? No I'm not greedy, I'm just trying to be happy for time being. At least I deserve this much after going through so much of turbulence and chaos in my life. Didn't I?? HELL!!! Stop feeling sad for yourself Madhu, you are a strong girl and you are a fighter. Remember you are the same girl who got her father arrested for almost a week. I'm not some sissy, sympathy gaining, docile saas-bahu soaps kinda character who would sit and complain about things . I will try to carve my own destiny. Of course I can never thank Yashji enough for his big heart and will try to return the favor someday in whatever way possible. May God bless Yashji, not only for providing me shelter and aid for my further studies, but also for making things easier for me , by not imposing the status of our relationship on me. I guess there is still some goodness left in this world. Just as I was immersed in my own tussle of thoughts, suddenly my bedroom door clicked open and Geeta Di rushed in half-running, half-panting and Very Excited. No, Correct that Hyperly Excited, because she was squealing like a school girl and jumping up and down. But very soon she gained her composure, and came back to being normal.

"I'm so sorry Madhu, for freaking you out with my excitement and entering your room without knocking" she said between sharp intake of deep breaths to compose herself.

"Oh never mind the knocking, you are always welcome to do that. But can't excuse you for all that jumping, squealing and screaming unless you let me know the reason behind your sudden outburst and weird behavior" I was quite amused to see Geeta Di so excited that it was slightly rubbing off on me too without even knowing the reason.

"Madhu, Radha Ma'am called you in her room.."

Before she could complete I cut in "And that is the reason for your excitement, because you want to catch Saas-Bahu's real life drama first hand. I said in a confused and dejected tone.

"Are Nahi Pagal!!! She wants your size and measurement, so that she could have your Made-To-Order Designer Clothes ready in no time, and Guess WHO IS DESIGNING YOUR CLOTHES???"

"Who????" I asked my eyes getting wider in excitement

" 'The Neeta Lulla' and 'The Sabyasachi'" Geeta Di once again squealed and screamed in excitement and started jumping up and down, holding my hands and I too joined her.. It was like dream come true.. I mean only the famous actress gets to wear their Exclusive Designer Sarees and Exquisite Anarkalis. After jumping around for 5 minutes or something we both came back to being our normal self. We both took deep breath, adjusted our clothes, reset our hair, wiped away the sweat from brows and when we thought we are out of our frenzy of screaming and shouting and all the excitement, we got out of my room and half-walked and half-ran to Radhaji's room, to avoid making her and 'The Famous Designers' to wait for me.

In few minutes I was standing outside Radhaji's room. It was much more plush and grand then my room and was build with good taste in mind. Plum colored Walls and Silver Color Antique Furniture gave the room a Majestic and Regal look. The door of the room was wide open and Radhaji's back was turned towards me. She was busy in conversation with the designers. Just as I was about to knock on the door, Radhaji turned towards me.

"Oh Madhu sweetheart, We were waiting for you only. Why are you standing there Darling?? Please come in."

I entered the room and stood besides Radhaji. "Neeta, Mr.Mukherjee; This is my Daughter-in-law Madhu." She said by drawing the attention of the famous designers towards me and making the introductions. "And Madhu this is Neeta Lulla and Sabyasanchi Mukherjee. But Of course you know them. They don't need any introduction."

"But, Of course." I smiled and shook hands with both the famous designers and they reciprocated with same warmth.

Neeta Lulla turned towards Radhaji and said "I must say Radz, your choice in Daughter-In-Law is just impeccable. Your younger D-I-L is just as beautiful as your Elder D-I-L Gauri. Must say, You found a Perfect Match for Rishab."

Radhaji who had a bright smile on her face till now suddenly looked uncomfortable and said "Neeta, Madhu is wife of Yash."

"Oh, I'm so sorry Radz, I did not knew that Yash re-married." Neeta said with look of surprise or rather say shock etched on her face.

Radhaji was getting more and more uncomfortable with each passing second and as far as I was concerned, I did not knew where to look at or what to do at that moment. I felt like I'm sitting in a movie theatre watching some foreign language movie without subtitle. Suddenly Radhaji's voice broke my thought process.

"Yes Neeta, as you know Yash is still young and has his whole life ahead of him and after Gauri's demise he almost gave up on life. He became a total workaholic. So we thought that it would be good for Yash if he re-married. As you know Yash, he does not believes in pomp and show, he desired that his marriage should be a private affair, plus Yash is going on business tour to Canada in two week and God knows how long he would have to stay there. So we wanted to conduct the marriage asap. Thus we did not get much time to invite many people. It was a very private and simple affair, with close relatives and some family friends. As you know that we Kundras do not like to make our Private life, Public unlike other Leading Industrialists and Self-Claimed Rich and Famous Personalities. We do not believe in making Tamasha of our life in order to hog the limelight. We are simple people with simple lifestyle."

Some how Radhaji's last statement did not go well with Neeta Lulla. As for Mr. Mukherjee he seemed to be least interested in knowing 'Who's who and What's what.' He was busy multi-tasking, flipping the pages of book containing different designs and patterns, simultaneously giving instructions to his assistant and in between discussing some details with a person on the phone.

"Ok Neeta and Mr. Mukherjee, I will leave you two alone with Madhu ,so that you people could work in peace. I don't wanna cause any disturbance." With this Radhaji left me alone in the room with Neetaji, Mr.Mukherjee and their assistants.

"Madhu I must say you have a very beautiful complexion and your Almond color eyes compliments your complexion very beautifully.

"Thank You" was all I could manage to say at that moment as I was feeling very nervous. But it seemed that Neeta hardly acknowledged my answer and continued her discussion with Sabyasanchi as though she was never interrupted .

" What do you say Sabya?? What's your opinion??" Neeta asked Mr.Mukherjee

"Yes Neetaji, I think Pink, Peach, Mauve, Pastel, Baby Blue, Light Shades of Yellow, Subtle Oranges with mixture of Red, Violet and Aqua Green with go with her complexion and compliment her looks, as for the Sarees, we can experiment with both Bold with the mixture of light colors mixed with Golden and Copper borders and sequences perhaps."

"I agree with your color choices Sabya. So now that we have finished deciding on the color combos and patterns we could discuss the designs later, which I don't think would be a problem either, as she has a perfectly curvy figure." This time I did not bother say Thank You to Neeta as I knew that it would go unnoticed as well. Just then Radhaji made a re-appearance .

"So Neeta, how's everything going??"Radhaji asked with a somewhat fake smile.

"Oh great Radz," Neeta returned the fake smile with a tired and bored one. Then she turned to Mr.Mukherjee and said "I think we are almost done here, so we would let our assistants take over. They could complete the formality of taking the measurements, while we discuss the patterns and designs in my office. What say Sabya??"

"Sounds Perfect to me!!" Mr.Mukherjee replied with the same tone which he had maintained since his arrival.

"Ok Radz, we will take your leave now as we have to get started on the designs, plus Fashion Week is just fortnight away, so we are in a very tight schedule. My asst. will look after the rest of the details. Bye Darling" Neeta Lulla and Mr.Mukherjee air kissed Radhaji as they took their leave.

The assistants of Ms.Lulla and Mr. Mukherjee got busy in doing their job and I left with nothing much to do, so I diverted my attention towards my brand new Mother-In-Law Radha Kundra. Radhaji was blessed with very fair and flawless complexion, chocolate brown eyes with heavy lashes and thick bee-stung lips, must be botox, slightly voluptuous but curvy figure. She looked like a woman in her Mid 40's though I'm not sure. Suddenly my reverie was broken by the sound of the ringtone coming from Radhaji's Mobile.

"Oh, that's great, and from when the first semester would begin?? Oh by next week!! Ok fine, Thanks once again. Radhaji disconnected and call and looked at me with big smile on her face. "Congrats Madhu, You have got admission in St.Xaviers's College and your First Semester Classes will begin by next week."

"But Aunty??"

Radhaji cut in before I could complete my sentence. "Oh please call me Mom sweetheart."

"Mom..!!" Suddenly a sharp and unexplainable pain rose in my chest and a stray tear escaped my eyes. The very name of the relationship was giving me pain equivalent to 1000 snake bites. My Mother whom I loved the most, betrayed me, left me alone in the hands of that monster who calls himself my Father. I did not knew weather, I would be able to address someone with this name or trust this relation. "I'm sorry Aunty, I can't. I have no intention of hurting you or disrespecting you, but I hope you would understand my situation."

"Oh that's fine Honey, Aunty is just fine. It's ok I can understand, you lost your mother recently in most tragic and unexpected way and you need some time to come out of that situation. It's completely fine by me." She said it in a way as she was discussing some news from yesterday's newspaper. "So Beta, You were saying something??"

Radhaji's question distracted me and I somehow managed to push the painful memories in the farthest corner of my heart and shut the door. I fought back my tears with great difficulty and composed myself before I could bring myself to speak. "Aunty I was saying that I have already completed my first year in English Literature in Queen Mary's College for Women. So I was thinking that I will continue my studies in the same college so that I don't have to repeat the first year again."

"No Madhu, You can't study in Queen Mary's College now."

"But Why??" I tried to argue with her.

"Because Sweety.." Radhaji said in a sweet but ominous tone ".. Queen Mary's is a Government College and its Non-Autonomous. Where as St.Xavier is a Private and very Prestigious College. It has been Accredited with 5stars by the National Council of Accreditation and its Autonomous. They don't accept just any student for their Mass Comm. Course, Especially Arts student. But since, Rishu is the College President and we also have a very good relations with Father Albert D'souza, who is the Principle of the college. He accepted your application and was kind enough to give you admission in the Mass Comm. But no matter how good our relations are with the Principle, you still have to start from the beginning, so you will repeat your first year in the new college."

"But Aunty, I'm not interested in Mass Comm. I want to study English Literature, because its easy, and I like it very much." I said in a matter of factly tone.

"Madhu, let me tell you one thing. You are now the Daughter-in-Law of Kundras and not the daughter of some Balraj Chaudhary. With Kundras name tag comes responsibility, poise, grace and class. In future you would be attending many Social Events, Business Parties and Private Affairs. You will meet many important and influential people. You would be under constant scanner of Page3 Media and PRs' who would watch your each and every move like hawks. One Faux Pas from you and they will have a field day making fun of you. So in order to deal with such people you have to think like them and behave like them and it could only be achieved if you study Mass Comm. Not only this course will teach you the nuances of Media but will also make you smart enough to strike an intellectual conversation with Celebrities and important Personalities, because from now onwards you would only be mingling with the crowd of famous people. This course will make you smart, it will provide you an edge above others and it also has better job opportunities. Not that you need one, as you are a Kundra now, it was only for the additional information."

"But Aunty'!!!" I was getting more and more exasperated with her each sentence and her constantly cutting my words in mid-way and not letting me complete my sentence was not helping either. I was ready to blow, but she couldn't care less and she did it again. Once again she cut in my sentence and continued from where she left, ignoring all my attempts to speak or counter-argue with her.

"End of Conversation!!" She accentuated every word in the same sweet and ominous tone which she used before. It automatically made me shut up and surrender. "I'm sorry Sweety, as much I would like to stay here and chat with you, but I have to go now, since I have some prior commitments. I guess we are done here, Bye sweetheart, and take care." She air-kissed and went away leaving me behind fuming in rage and anger.

P.S. With all due respect to Miss.Neeta Lulla and Mr.Sabyasanchi Mukherjee, I did not mean to disrespect them or make fun of them in any form or manner. I just took creative liberty as they are very famous designers of our country and I admire their collections a lot. The Queen Mary's College For Women, St. Xavier's College and Father Albert D'Souza is just a figment of my imagination. I did not intend to hurt or disgrace any person by this name or demean any college or institution by that name if there is any in Mumbai.

P.S.S. I know I promised Rishab's entry in this part, but I'm so sorry I got carried away with Radha's character, as she would have grey shades in the story and will play a very pivotal part in this story, in future. So wanted to establish a strong base for her, which would help you understand her clearly. But I pakka promise Rishab's entry in the next part. I cross my heart. Please comment, share your views, anger, frustration, tomatoes, chappals everything is welcome. Thank you.