CASE IS DONE 6.11
Kartik celebrates New Year with his GF
Kartik Aryan Sympathy
No Sympathy For Hrithik
Happy 1st Anniversary Manvikians
Ikkis flops at the box office
SRK explains the actual meaning of most misunderstood word "Jihad"
Started Rewatching Jodha Akbar and addicted once again.Hoping for S2
Mahadev and Sons-Colors
PARTY AT PODDARS 7.1.26
Nache Nache Video Song - The Rajasaab
Step Five- Small But Significant
Anika wasn't sure what was happening.
Shivaay had been... weird. Not that the man wasn't always weird, it was just that he'd apparently decided to up his weirdness game.
The morning after the 'Kitchen Incident', Anika had snuck downstairs at 6am only to find Shivaay sitting in the living room pretending to casually read the previous day's newspaper. She rolled her eyes and looked for a copy of an interior designmagazine amongst the pile of assorted magazines kept on the coffee table.
Seeing her, he cleared his throat and awkwardly put down the newspaper. "Ah. Anika. It's er, you. What a, erm surprise."
Anika pulled a face at him. "You know I wake up early so I can leave before anyone else wakes up. What are you doing up so early?"
"I have to go in early. To the office. Mishra wanted, I mean, there's a deal I have to- I just have to be there early. Yeah. That's all."
"Why are you talking like a wind-up doll?"
He coughed. "I'm... not?"
"Sure." She found the magazine she had been looking for and straightened, about to leave. That was when he suddenly stood up, startling her. "Anything else, Mr Oberoi?"
He cleared his throat several more times before Anika lost patience with him.
"Do you want to say something to me or are you hacking up a furball?"
He looked like a deer in the headlights. "Anika erm, how is that deal going with the Bhattacharyas?"
Anika's heart started pounding, remembering how he had so easily stolen a signed tender from her. She needed to plan the Bhattacharyas' 50th Anniversary party or risk destroying the fragile reputation her company had finally started to build. Cautiously, she had sought out the most inoffensive and non-committal reply. "We're working on it."
Shivaay had scratched his arm, trying to appear nonchalant. "Oh. That's erm, great. So you're not worried about Vani Kotecha poaching them as clients?"
Suddenly furious, Anika had pulled off Chandni and held her up to Shivaay's horrified face. "I worked my ass off on a presentation for them and a plan for the event. If you dare interfere and convince Mr and Mrs Bhattacharya to give it to that snake in the grass, Vani Kotecha, I swear to God I'll..."
Breathing heavily, she put Chandni down and back onto her left foot. "I'll do nothing." She shrugged. "What can I do when my opponent is the great Shivaay Singh Oberoi? You've already proven time and time again that anything I have, you can take and anything I want, you won't let me have. If you make them switch to Vani, I'll just try again and again until I either find a client who won't do whatever an Oberoi commands, or have to give up my business."
Shivaay had looked genuinely stung by her quiet, defeated words. "I would never-"
Anika had cut him off by scoffing in his face. "You've done it before and you'd happily do it again. It's okay. I'll deal with it." And then, not giving him a chance to respond, she left.
She had received a call from Mrs Bhattacharya later that day. She had answered the phone ready for the disappointment she was certain was coming. "Hello is that Anika?"
"Yes, good afternoon Mrs Bhattacharya, how can I help you today?"
"Ohh, excellent. I just wanted to confirm with you for the event. Where should I send the deposit?"
"Huh? You're- you're confirming? You want me to plan your event?"
"Yes. Your pitch was fantastically detailed and really paid attention to what we want as opposed to what would be the most shockingly expensive and unnecessarily fancy. Shall I transfer it to you or would you prefer a cheque? Come over first thing tomorrow morning with the contract."
A few minutes later, Anika hung up the phone and then immediately picked it up again.
"Hello?" came the low gravel of her husband's voice.
"Did you speak to Mrs Bhattacharya today?"
"Yes she called to ask me whether-"
"Well you'll be saddened to know your interference didn't work, you ten-eyed rattlesnake."
"What did you just call me?"
"You heard. Yeah. She just called and confirmed."
Silence. Anika imagined Shivaay resisting the urge to spit with rage. "How great for you."
"Yeah." And then, in a gesture of immaturity she just hadn't been able to resist... Anika had blown a raspberry down the phone at him before slamming down the handset.
""""""""
Shivaay had been left staring at his phone in stunned silence.
Mrs Bhattacharya had called him earlier today, to ask whether he had found Anika's work on his wedding personally satisfactory. His feedback had been honest, and glowing. After all, Anika really had gone above and beyond to make sure his wedding had been more than 'satisfactory'...
Shivaay had already debated and decided against doing anything to actively help Anika's business. Though he was certain a few phone calls from him could do wonders for her small but reputable and rapidly growing Events Planning company he knew Anika well enough to know that were he to do so, she would deliberately sabotage everything he'd had a hand in, regardless of the cost to herself or her business.
Anika wanted to do this herself and though his name would be a jump start, would open so many doors she didn't even know existed... he knew she would never use it.
And Shivaay really was trying his utmost to respect what Anika wanted. Even if doing so meant unintentionally welcoming even more hatred from her.
He groaned as he remembered how his attempt at having a friendly conversation with her had gone that morning. He'd thought talking about her work was safe. Something she could show off to him about and be proud of. He even brought up the Bhattacharya deal Mishra had unearthed to allow her to explain how she had managed to woo such powerful and influential a client.
But it had backfired spectancularly, only succeeding in raising her heckles and making her defensive. She truly thought he was an immoral monster who would ruin her life just for the sake of it.
It had upset him until he thought again of everything he had done to her in the short time they had known each other.
As he sighed and slumped back into his chair, he supposed it was a pretty astute assessment.
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If you asked Anika why she did it, she wouldn't really be able to explain. This was fair, she supposed, as she doubted Shivaay would have any response if asked why he let her.
But so it was that every morning, without fail, Anika would dip her finger into the pot of sindhoor she kept first on her own and now on Soumya's dressing table to place an almost imperceptible streak of red at the start of her parting.
Shivaay, being wired to have the mindset of every predator, had always seen the sindhoor as something husbands wanted their wives to do: to have their wives mark themselves as taken. Tell the world that they were the possession of another man and therefore off limits to anyone else who may wish to make a move. But now that he was thinking clearly, now that he was no longer blinded by jealousy or anger or pride, now that he was trying so hard to see things from Anika's perspective- this line of reasoning simply did not make any sense.
Why on earth would Anika allow Shivaay to have any claim over her? To ward off other, doubtless far more suitable suitors when he himself had thus far never rightfully exerted any rights over her (put aside, for a moment, his occasional caveman moments), nor extended to her any of the rights of a true wife?
Why would women like Anika, strong women who were otherwise so fiercely protective of their independence, allow themselves to be marked in such a way?
And that was when it struck him. Shivaay figured that if he were a character in a TV show, this was the moment when there would be several zoomed-in shots of him from various different camera angles looking up in shock as the truth finally slapped him (metaphorically) across the face.
Of course.
It was a gift.
Anika. Women like Anika. Wives all over the country, all over the world. It was not a man's demand on his wife, it was a wife's gift to her husband. The sindhoor was not for the world to see. It was for the husband himself to see that his wife accepted both him and her bond with him.
Shivaay had no idea why Anika had been giving him this gift every day, over and over and over again.
All he knew was that he didn't deserve it and could think of no way he could show her that he finally understood the value of what she had been doing.
An idea suddenly striking him, Shivaay jumped out of bed as though hit by a bolt of lightning and ran out of his room. He knocked on Soumya's bedroom door at 6am, knowing Anika would be awake inside. She opened the door expecting anyone but him and then been startled as he had pulled her outside, a finger pressed to his lips to silence her.
"What do you want?"
"What time do you start work today?"
"I'm going to Mrs Bhattacharya's house at 9 but don't worry, I'll leave the house by 6:30 so you don't have to-"
"Come to breakfast."
"What?"
"I... just come to breakfast. Please?"
A long pause.
"Are you going to insult me again, Shivaay?"
In the still dark of winter's dusk, and alone in the empty corridor, she finally used the name she had forbidden herself from using. Anika looked into Shivaay's eyes and expected the truth, so he gave her it and prayed that she would believe him. "No. I promise."
She nodded. "Okay. I'll be there."
""""""
"Oh hi there Anika Bhabhi, I'm so happy to see you!" Rudra came running over and high-fived Anika before taking a seat at the table, Omkara walking in just behind and giving Anika a warm smile.
"Good morning, Anika."
"Good morning Rudra, Om."
The other adults soon came pouring in, giving Anika nods and/or smiles as they did so. Nobody mentioned Shivaay's press conference from a few days ago. Anika was glad to see Shivaay really had followed through on making sure none of them said anything to her about it. Good.
He owed her at least that much.
She knew that they all wanted to say something to her, however, when Pinky walked into the room and upon seeing Anika sitting between Priyanka and Soumya, turned a rather odd shade of puce and giving her a forced smile that looked as though it had been stitched onto her face by a blind toddler practicing the running stitch.
It gave Anika a sense of smug satisfaction she knew probably wasn't exactly dignified. That she, Anika, the supposed 'Cheapde Seductress Queen of the Filthy, Money-Grubbing, Ladder-Climbing, Classless Middle-Classes', had been right about Jaanu all this time and that the high and mighty Shivaay Singh Oberoi and his pretentious, all-about-appearances mother now knew that.
She felt... vindicated. But not enough to rub this in their faces. No. Being smug in silence was somehow far more satisfying than dancing a merry jig and sing-songing "I told you so."
As Dadi finally entered the room and gave Anika a beaming smile and hug before taking her seat at the head of the table, Anika was aware that only one person was missing.
Only one seat was left unfilled.
The one opposite her own.
As the doors opened and she heard the sound of his shoes on the marble floor, Anika refused to look up. An odd silence fell over everyone and she felt the atmosphere shift. Rudra started hissing something to Omkara who stopped him with a sharp "Shut up, Rudra."
As the sound of Shivaay scraping back his chair and sitting down echoed around the room, Soumya grabbed Anika's forearm and squeezed it. Anika knew that was a sign that she should look up.
But she couldn't.
She didn't know what Shivaay had done, but she knew she didn't want to see it.
Anything which could cause this kind of reaction from the entire Oberoi family couldn't be good.
But he had promised.
She wanted to believe that meant something.
Shivaay reached out and took a paratha from the large platter between them. It was as he started spooning some bhaji onto his plate that Anika finally looked up.
Every other person around the table seemed to have been holding their breath waiting for that moment.
For a few seconds, she didn't notice anything. Saw no reason for them all to have gone so eerily still, for them to have given way to complete silence, frozen in place as they watched Shivaay calmly begin to eat breakfast.
And then, she did.
Her own breath left her in a whoosh as she stared, transfixed, at her husband's hair.
Specifically, his parting.
More specifically, the streak of vivid red powder in his parting.
Anika, if asked, would not be able to explain to anybody why she wore the sindhoor and so for the life of her she couldn't even begin to contemplate why her reluctant husband-by-compulsion had decided today to wear it too.
Realising that if she didn't speak soon, one of the Oberois would probably pass out, Anika said the first thing that popped into her head.
"You know sindhoor is for wives, right? Tell me, Mr Oberoi, are you considering a sex change?"
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Hellooo. Thank you all SO MUCH for all your comments and I apologise for the late update! I had issues with striking a balance between Shivaay earning redemption and Anika being a pushover and I've written so many half-chapters with Shivaay and Anika doing different things and behaving in different ways, but nothing felt right. And then today's episode happened with the sindhoor and I just... I mean, I know we all roll our eyes at the "ek chutki sindhoor" dialogues, but it finally sparked an idea and I ran with it. I hope you enjoyed it! Sorry if it's not as funny as previous chapters, sometimes I have to sacrifice humour for progression. 😆
Cricket
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