*Updated* FF: Pyaar, Ishq aur Mohabbat (Page 54) - Page 14

Meet the Singhs!

Author's Note: Ranbir's surname is Singh, as my beta very kindly pointed out to me, which explains the title. Enjoy the chapter, and do press the LIKE button if you liked the chapter!

(Ranbir's house, Mumbai)

Anant woke up with a splitting headache. He blinked his eyes repeatedly to get rid of the strong light that was hitting his eyes. Opening his eyes blearily, Anant was shocked to notice that he wasn't in his room! He racked his mind to what happened the last night, but all he could remember was going to a nightclub with Rits, Ranbir and Appy. The more he tried to think about the previous night, the more his headache intensified. Covering his face with a pillow, he tried to sleep, but was rudely awakened by Ranbir.

"Oye hoye mere sher! Ab uth bhi jaa, 10 30 baj chuke hain!" said Ranbir cheerily, holding a mug of coffee in his hand.

Listening to this, Anant jumped out of the bed, only to fall back because of his headache.

"Yaar, lagta hai tera hangover abhi tak nahi utra! Koi nahi, tu thoda fresh up kar, main mom se kehke tere liye nimbu paani banwaata hoon." said Ranbir kindly, noticing his friend's disheveled state.

Anant literally tumbled out of the bed as he felt his way towards the bathroom. He came to realise that he possibly had gotten drunk at the nightclub, as Ranbir had mentioned something about a hangover. He freshened up as quickly as he could and slouched his way towards the dining room.

"Good Morning Anant beta, kaise ho aap? Sorry kal raat we couldn't meet you, humare club mein party thi so we were there. Ranbir ne bola that you're having a hangover? Beta, itna alcohol nahi peena chahiye tha! Anyways, yeh lo nimbu paani, and an aspirin. It should help. I hope tumhein breakfast mein cereal aur toast pasand hai? I got up really late today, isiliye zyaada kuch nahi bana sakti," said Ranbir's mom, in a kind voice.

"Nahi auntyjee, yeh kaafi hai! Main sharab nahi peeta, lekin shaayad us drink mein kisi ne kuch daala hoga. Agli baar se toh main aise jagah jaaoonga hi nahi!" replied Anant rather meekly, as he swallowed the aspirin.

"Nahi beta, aise jagah mein jaana bura nahi hota. Haan bas, yeh dekhna chahiye ki jo aazaadi tumhara parivaar tumhein deta hai, tum uska galat faayda toh nahi utha rahe ho naa?" said Ranbir's father rather wisely.

"Jee unclejee, is baat ka khayaal rakhoonga."

While Anant's family was extremely strict and conservative, Ranbir's family was exactly the opposite. He lived in a small house with his parents, and was a bit spoilt as he was the only child. Both his parents worked as managers in different companies, which allowed Ranbir to do mostly what he wanted, but he never crossed his limits.

All this was rather new to Anant, who was staying over in Ranbir's house for the first time. Even though they'd been friends since they were children, Anant was not allowed to stay over at Ranbir's place for too long as his family thought he might get influenced by their modern culture. Seeing the casual atmosphere at Ranbir's house, the openness of his parents, made Anant ponder about the culture with which he had been brought up with all his life.

Soon, Ranbir's parents left, which left Anant and Ranbir alone.

"Chal, coffee peene chalein? Vaise bhi tujhe Navya ko Rits ke phone se call karna hai naa?"

"Mujhe Navya ko call karna hai? Lekin usne toh bola tha ki hum baat nahi kar sakte!" replied Anant, astonished.

"Tujhe seriously kal raat ka kuch yaad nahi hai? Chal coffee shop mein sab bataoonga. Chal!"

(Navya's house, Mumbai)

Meeta was packing her bags to leave for Kanpur. Since Navya had left, the house was rather silent, which did not suit Meeta at all! She was used to having all her kids around, laughing and talking. But what Navya had done was outrageous! Instead of focusing on her studies, she was wasting her time with some random boy, who was surely going to hurt her? Sending Navya away wasn't the best decision she'd made, but she didn't have a choice. She had to nip this right in the bud, before things got worse. And by saying this, she reassured herself and continued to do her work, as if nothing had happened.

(Caf Coffee Day, Mumbai)

"Toh tum sab keh rahe ho, ki nashe ki haalat mein maine ajeeb tarah se dance kiya, apne aap ko embarrass kiya, aur Navya ko raat ke 12 baje call kar ke pareshaan kiya?" said Anant in shock as he finally learnt about his antics of the previous night.

"Haan bhai, yeh hi hua! Usne toh bola bhi ki aaj woh tumse baat karegi!" said Appy in exasperation, as she said a line they'd all been saying for the past quite some time.

(Navya's Tayaajee's house, Kanpur)

Tayeejee walked around the house, supervising all her hired labour help decorate the house. She snapped at most of the workers as she was walking around, instructing them to straighten everything and put up everything perfectly in place. While walking around, she came across Navya, who was supposed to be making garlands out of flowers to hang around the house. Instead of doing so, she was fiddling with the flowers, and staring at her handphone.

"Yeh mumbai ki choriyaan aur unke phone! Mari kitna dekhegi us phone ko? Kiska itna zaroori call aane waala hai ki tu kaam dhaam chod ke us muye phone ko dekhe jaa rahi ho?" shouted Tayeejee in anger.

Navya was startled as she didn't realise that she'd stopped working and waiting for Anant's call. But what could she do? After listening to his drunk voice last night, she was desperate to know what happened and how was he now. But what if he completely forgot that he had to call her? He was pretty wasted when she spoke to him the previous night.

"Sorry Tayeejee, woh dhyaan hat gaya. Abhi kaam shuru karti hoon." replied Navya rather meekly.

To Navya's immense shock, her phone chose that very same moment to ring, and she could make out it was Ritika calling. Tayeejee saw this, and got more angry. She was already suspicious that Navya was having an illicit relationship, and now all this was just fueling her imagination. Without letting Navya touch the phone, she snatched it, hoping to catch her boyfriend red-handed.

*PHONE CALL*

"Hello Navya, kaisi hai?" asked Rits rather cheerily.

The gang had realised that it would be safer for one of the girls to call first, in case Tayeejee or someone else picked up the phone, which was why Rits was on the other line.

"Navya nahi, uski tayeejee. Le, us se baat kar! Oh Navya Rani, zara jaldi baat kar apni is saheli se! Yahaan pe bhi kaam ki koi kami nahi hai! Toran ke baad, tumhe dulhe ka kamra bhi sajaana hai!" said Tayeejee, as she handed over the phone to Navya, rather upset that it was not a boy who called her.

Navya took the phone and went into her room, and then spoke.

"Rits, kaisi hai? Anant hai kya?"

"Haan, usi se teri baat karvaani hai. Leh, baat kar!"

"Navya?" asked Anant.

"Anant! Tum theek toh ho naa? Idiot! Kal sharab peene ko kisne kahaan tha? Tumhe pata hai main kitna pareshaan thi? Agar kuch galat ho jaata toh? Aur tum club mein gaye hi kyun the?" said Navya in a rush, as she was genuinely worried about him.

"Jab tum mujhe daat ti ho naa, toh mujhe bahut accha lagta hai Ma'am!" replied Anant, not believing that he was actually talking to Navya.

"Ab yeh sab baatein karke topic ko change mat karo. Kal tumne sharab kyun pee Anant?" asked Navya sternly.

"Maine nahi pee! Woh, Ranbir ne mere liye kuch order kiya, aur us hi mein shaayad sharab tha! Main toh club jaana hi nahi chahta tha! Main toh apne kamre mein baithke tumhare photos dekhna chahta tha!" said Anant in a huff.

Ranbir, Rits and Appy who were listening to the conversation, burst out into peals of laughter listening to that line. Anant looked at them rather angrily, stood up from there and walked to the end of the caf where no one could hear them.

"Anant! Mujhe itna miss kar rahe ho?" asked Navya laughingly.

"Obviously! Lekin tum toh maze kar rahi hogi! Karo karo! Meri chinta kyun hogi" replied Anant in a rather kiddish tone.

Navya smiled, she missed this the most about Anant. He could make her smile in the most difficult of times.

"Anant, main tumhe yahaan bahut miss kar rahi hoon! Poora din sirf tumhare baare mein sochti hoon, aur raat ko tumhein khat likhti hoon."

"Sach?" asked Anant in delight.

"Sach. Anant, mujhe ab jaana chahiye. Tayeejee yahaan pe kabhi bhi aa sakti hai, aur mujhe bahut kaam hai. Apna khayal rakhna."

"Theek hai. Is baar nahi rokoonga. Agli baar jab milenge, toh tumhein jaane hi nahi doonga! Pakad ke rakhoonga!"

"Koshish toh karo Anant!" said Navya, laughing, as she hung up.

*PHONE CALL ENDS*

Navya was glad that she could talk to Anant. Now she'd be able to live for the next few weeks, just with his memories, knowing that he was waiting with open arms for her when she got back to Mumbai. And with that thought in her head, she went out to help with the decorations.

(Bajpaayee House, Mumbai)

"Bhaisahaab, yeh ladki theek hai. 18 ki hai, aur ghar mein apni maa ka haath bata rahi hai. Khandaan bhi theek hai, aap zara is se dekh lein toh accha hoga?"

"Nahi. Hum is sab ko abhi nahi dekhenge. Shaadi se lautne ke baad, hum sab mil baith ke ladki tey karenge, phir baaki sab ko is ke baare mein bataayenge."

"Jaisa aap theek samjhe Babujee."

Om put the photos back in the envelope and kept in the middle of a pile of files that he'd kept, as he had some work with it later. All of them walked out of the living room, to do their respective work.

Mohan came home from office rather late that day. He had a lot of work from his office, and his father had brought home some of the files he needed. While walking up to his room, he saw a stack of files in the living room, and he went to sort out the files he needed. While taking his files, he noticed an envelope, with the return address of the kulguru. Looking around to make sure no one was there, he opened the envelope, to find the photos of the prospective brides for Anant. He kept the photos back in place, and sat down in shock. He realised that Anant had to know about this, as he knew Anant was not interested in getting married, and it was evident, this was being done without anyone's knowledge. He decided to talk to Anant as soon as he could, before it got too late.

Spoilers for Chapter 5: The Mishras reach Kanpur!