Ladies . .this is my second OS. Thank you so so much for appreciating the first one. This one was inspired by the thread on Rewatching Old Episodes by Amri. It really made me miss the time IB was zingy, fun, innocent and fresh. It made me long for the old Shivaay and Anika and somehow this popped in my mind.
The timeline is set at before the wedding but after Anika has been cleared of the chip leak accusation. Please be kind and give me some feedback - good and bad both are welcome 😊
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It was a quiet Sunday in the Oberoi Mansion. The family was having one of those rare lazy days with the youngsters sleeping in and the elders lounging in the garden. Om was using the solitude and silence to finish his latest sculpture. All was at peace or seemed to be. But not Shivaay Singh Oberoi. That particular kanji-eyed gentleman, dressed upto the nines as usual, was pacing in his room downing his fav cup of espresso a. k. a kaali coffee. Most of his Sundays at home were spent in the kitchen cooking a brunch for his O-bros and Prinku but today he wasn't feeling like it which was alarming in itself. Even more alarming was this feeling of unease, of something not being right, of something missing that had assailed him as soon as he had got up
Shivaay shook his head to drive off the restlessness attacking him and decided to walk across to wish good morning to his brothers. As he was walking, thinking of various ways to wake up his youngest brother who seemed to have imbibed kumbhkaran in his soul, he never realized that his feet were carrying him in the opposite direction, towards THAT room. On autopilot he came and stopped near the door of THAT room - the room SHE had setup as her office.
It was a Sunday so today was her holiday but he could still feel her vivid energy bouncing off the walls. Before she had set up her office here, no one had even remembered that this room existed. However now it was the most popular room in the OM. His brothers often dropped by to get their daily dose of Anika-isms. Prinku was a permanent fixture as she was thrilled to have her best friend in the house. His mom and badi-ma kept walking in and out to discuss the various wedding details and his Daadi too couldn't resist the charm of the wedding planner she had hired, often seeking out her company. For gods sake he had even seen Bade Papa and Papa once stopping by to congratulate Anika on a job well done after some event she had organized for one of their business contacts. Everyone had visited that room except him. He had never entered the room except that one time on the first day to warn her off. He never entered the room when she was around, though he was often found in its vicinity. However he wouldn't have revealed the reason even if someone had asked him at gun-point The truth was that he liked to hear the laughter and fun echo in the passage and loved the camaraderie that this room brought amongst all the old and young members of OM.
However, today this room was empty. Empty of all the laughter, the noise, the activity and the hustle-bustle associated with it daily. So he decided to walk in. He could smell her as soon as he went in. A unique combination of violets and something exotic that he could never put his finger on. It rankled that he, a connoisseur of perfumes, had not been able to identify the scent that seemed to be uniquely hers. He walked in further towards the desk she had set up for herself along with a comfy arm-chair. There was also a rocking chair for Daadi, bean bags brought in by Rudra and Soumya, cushy sofa chairs for mom and badi-ma and bright & comfy rugs for Prinku and Om. A sofa-cum-bed also adorned one corner in case someone wanted a shut-eye in the middle of the chaos, he thought with a mental eye-roll. How she ever got any work done was a constant surprise.
Though the only piece of furniture he was interested in today was her desk or rather what was on it. She had left her diary, or her Chakor as she insisted on calling it, on the desk and he had been looking for a chance to get his hands on it since long. He was pretty sure that she had made more than one caricature of his in it. As he opened the first page he could see the bold heading of "Billu Ki Shaadi" written in her curly hand writing. The diary was surprisingly well organized with each event having its own sections with tasks and sub tasks under it. Along with these were the details of timelines, vendors responsible and their costing. Of course there were her eccentric comments as well. Case in point - " Phoolwale Chandu kaka ke saath zor se baat karni hai. Unhe left kaan se kam sunayi padta hai. Pichli baar dus kilo gende ki jagah dus kilo kele bhej diye the. "
As he flipped the pages he saw the cartoon she had made on the day just before Rakshabandhan when he had been telling her what menu he had wanted. He had been so annoyed and angry then, but now in hindsight he could see the humour in it. He remembered the adorable expressions on her face when she had been caught. WAIT ...What? Did he just think she was adorable ? Err.. he quickly slammed the diary shut and was about to walk out when he stopped by the post-it wall she had created. He could see various colourful post-its she had put there to remind herself of the immediat stuff she had to do. As he started reading the notes, he was amused to see the girl just couldn't stop talking even in her notes. Her post-it notes were longer than the emails he wrote. As he went down a particular section -
"Get the store cleaned to see if any more fine-china crockery is available" ,
"Order 1000 orchid blooms for the upcoming cocktail event - billuji's favorite flowers" - How did she know that?,
"Rent out 200 vases in white and silver for the orchids - billuji prefers silver to gold" - Huh? When had he told her that?
"Ask the decorator to set up the theme in blue - billuji's fav colour" (PHAT THE WUCK!! - was she spying on him?)
"Order billuji's fav cuisine - Italian - from the caterer and take Om along for the tasting." OK this now getting too much - TOO much.
But the one that took the cake was the last one which he was squinting to read as she had written so much on a small piece of paper.
"URGENT - Re-order billuji's medicines from the medical store Tia had mentioned as his current supply is almost finished. Stone Singh Oberoi dawai bhi aise khaate hain jaise chotte bachhe chocolate khaate hain" . He read this twice and could almost feel her standing right next to him mumbling this under her breath. As he read it a third time a small smile came on his face rapidly increasing in size and he strode out.
When he walked out of the room, he ran into Om who had taken a break from his work for the weekly O-Bro Sunday brunch ritual and was coming to Shivaay's room to escort the chef to the kitchen . Om noticed Shivaay coming out of Anika's office with a big grin on his face - which was a beautiful but an extremely rare sight. "Kya baat hai Shivaay- aaj to bahut khush lag rahe ho ? Kuch special hua hai kya? " he queried softly. "Aisa kuch nahi hai Om - Just a nice day" replied Shivaay as he put his arm over his brother's shoulder and directed him towards the kitchen. He suddenly felt like cooking a full English breakfast today. As he walked towards the kitchen with a spring in his step, he realized that the restlessness had vanished.
Anupamaa
Kumkum Bhagya
