This one's for you Avi.
Happy Birthday, sweetheart.🤗
Chapter 8
Maan had been looking for her the last twenty minutes or so, and had finally found her center stage right next to the bride and the groom.
It had been three months since he had last seen her waving a teary goodbye to him.
He sighed as he looked at the boxes and gift wraps piled up at the groom's feet. He knew without a doubt that she was the instigator of whatever prank was happening on stage.
Geet Handa was up to her usual antics.
Some things never changed.
He grinned and approached Rano aunty whom he saw calling out to Geet in vain from a distance. After exchanging pleasantries and enquiring about the details of the stage fiasco, he pointed her in the direction of his own mother who was eager to meet the Handa duo.
He waited patiently and was a little irritated when long minutes passed and she had still not noticed him standing there just off to her left.
So, when his gaze fell on the chocolates, the devil inside him urged to upstage her reply, knowing that would bring her attention right back to him.
If her glare was any indication then he had her full
attention.
However, the cross look in her eyes melted first to astonishment and then to joy as she gazed at him.
"Maan." She squealed as she rushed towards him, the whole drama she had staged completely forgotten on seeing him there.
"Just one moment, little saali saheba". Mahesh called out.
"Thank you for making my marriage a little melodious. He pointed to the candy then asked her to bend a little closer and whispered something in her ear.
"Jeeju you are the best." She squealed and raced off the stage.
He wasn't sure when or how, but Maan suddenly found himself racing alongside her hand in hand to...he had absolutely no clue.
"Maan when did you get here?"
"Oh so this is what papa meant when he said there was going to be a surprise at the wedding?"
"Who else is with you?"
"Oh it is so wonderful to see you."
She was racing, she was panting and yet her jabber box was still running at full volume.
He laughed out loudly in exhilaration. She was one crazy kid, unlike anyone else he had ever met.
They were soon into a hallway with doors on either side of it.
She let go of his hand and stopped at one of them and knocked.
Someone opened it and before the person on the other side was aware of what was happening, Geet raced inside and kneeled beside the bed at the center.
Maan watched her as she contorted and wriggled underneath it and fished something out.
The person who had opened the door gasped belatedly and tried to grab the bag that Geet was hanging on to for dear life.
"You can't take the groom's shoes from here." She called out indignantly.
"Ahh!! Mystery solved. Good luck getting those shoes out of her hand, lady." He muttered under his breath.
Geet dodged the other woman smoothly and hurried towards the door where he was standing.
He did a double take as he saw her properly for the first time.
Her dupatta had slid off to one side and huge poofy sleeves were covering half her skinny arms and...what the hell was that on her chest. He knew it was rude to stare but he could not draw his gaze away from the strategically placed flowers.
She came closer still and he lifted his gaze to hers and his eyes were glued to her face.
He was mesmerized or was it hypnotized.
There were round concentric circles on her forehead. Well they were not exactly round, but intricately drawn circles that moved every time she shook her head.
What was that thing called again? Ah yes. A bindi. It reminded him of something. What was it? He stared at the circles and a sudden lightbulb went off in his head.
"The doordarshan logo, that's what." He exclaimed loudly. He could practically even hear the music that accompanied the logo.
(The old doordarshan logo that Maan sees on her forehead😆)
[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-7JmGB9BRA[/YOUTUBE]
(The music for those who want to hear it😆)
"Huh? What nonsense are you spouting Maan. Mission accomplished. Come on let's get away from here." Geet called out.
And she had dared to call him a fashion disaster. Well he would just see about that.
She was hugging the bag to her chest for dear life and chattering away dime to a dozen.
Suddenly the loudspeaker from somewhere outside started playing, Ek do teen char paaanch che.
"God please not again." She groaned painfully.
"52." She muttered.
"What are you counting?"
"The number of times I have heard that bloody song this week."
"The song as you know is about how she is waiting for someone to return. The idiot, however, keeps turning up as someone else, she doesn't find him and the whole vicious cycle begins again, giving me sleepless nights.
"Huh? What do you mean Geet?" Maan looked at her thoroughly confused.
"Hold on. Just wait for it."
Right on cue came a second song from another loudspeaker somewhere...My name is Lakhan sajno ka sajan mera naam hai Lakhan.
"Yep Anil Kapoor has been re-incarnated as Lakhan and Madhuri is still screaming her head off for him in Tezaab and we poor souls have to bear the consequences."
He grinned at her silly nonsense and twisted her nose.
"Hey Madhuri's my favorite and I love her dancing in that song."
"Hah. Typical men. You all like Madhuri's dancing in that number don't you. She is aptly named Mohini, the beautiful enchantress who lures men."
"On the other hand, men are waxing poetics about Anil Kapoor's exotic mustache in Ram Lakhan and that fascination is something that I just cannot relate to. Geet cast a sarcastic gaze at the growth above his lips.
Maan touched the peach fuzz that was still not all there and shrugged mentally.
"When will all you men learn that a mustache does not a man make." Her disgruntled voice announced.
"Every other guy I have seen at the wedding is trying to grow a Lakhan on his lips. Look at that guy over there. His looks like a caterpillar has breathed it's last above his lips."
"And that one over there. Sheesh. My Kapus has better whiskers then that and mind you, she's a girl."
"That one three seats away from us, his looks like a Maggi noodle that's been overcooked."
"Eww Geet. I love Maggi. My Maggi eating heart has forever been scarred." He sighed dramatically.
"I overdid it, didn't I? But my opinion is firm. Mustaches are overrated." She tossed back her pony tail airily.
"Did you know that in Victorian times there were actually cups and spoons with built in guards for mustaches so that the precious lip fuzz was protected from getting food stains and crumbs lodged in that jungle. They even had separate mustache combs for grooming it."
"See that proves that mustaches have been the pride of men through the ages. Don't diss a moustache so easily Geet. It is part of a man's macho makeup." He tried defending all mustachioed mankind.
"But why? I mean seriously. Let me ask you? Do you feel macho about your eyebrows?"
"Eyebrows? Umm no." He quirked one questioningly.
"But see, at least eyebrows have the important function of expressions. Like you just raised yours and I knew you were asking me to clarify myself. But what part do mustaches play in making men feel macho? Aren't they just brows for your lips and that too non- expressive ones. Do men think women are impressed by their lipbrows? Why even the King of Hearts in a deck of cards does not have a mustache."
Discombobulated.
It was a word he had come across when he was preparing for his GRE and had wondered when in life if ever, he was going to use such a complicated word.
That word perfectly described his current state of mind.
The volatility at which the conversation was flying off in various tangents had his mind reeling.
He opened and closed his mouth several times, trying to find an appropriate comeback, only to find his mind a complete blank.
When you couldn't defend...attack.
"Poor roses. Oh the delicate beauties, so crushed by the weight of those inhuman shoes."
"Huh.?" The sudden complete change of subject when she was so passionately defending an argument left her floundering for a moment.
What roses? She wondered and looked at her feet to see if she had actually stepped on any flowers.
And...then her mind caught up with his random frivolous statement. She gasped and looked down at her chest only to see that the dupatta she had carefully wrapped around her upper half was now hanging around her neck exposing the ugly roses on her dress and the shoe bag was indeed resting on them...trampling the offensive things as he had put it.
Could the ground open up and swallow her, the roses and shoes, please.
He wasn't actually looking at the roses, but she could definitely see the smirk lingering at the corner of his lips.
She blushed a fiery red and hastily dragged the dupatta down to cover herself up.
He looked at her then and realized from her blush that the positioning of those roses had made his statement sound very ...uhh!!!
Damn it...he'd sounded like a pervert.
Maan why did you have to open your mouth. You know smart comebacks are not your forte, you moron.
"I... ummm. Geet I'm sorry. I did not mean it that way. I mean...Oh crap." He was digging himself deeper and did not know how to get out of it.
"Anways, Geet what's up with those bhatura sized sleeves? And you called me a fashion disaster for upturned sleeves. Those things are huge."
She looked at him and grinned.
Thank God...disaster avoided. He sighed in relief.
"Ugly, aren't they?" She lifted a poof and giggled.
"Very."
"But Maan, what is a bhatura?"
"Geet you mean to say you have never in your life tasted chole bhature?" He gave her an incredulous look.
"Nope. Never. Mamma mostly cooks Goan cusinie. She is not one for exotic foods."
"How about restaurants?"
"There are hardly any in Goa, except for Kamat's which serves the standard South Indian fare and Baba takes us there ever so rarely."
"Geet. Let's go" His voice vibrated with excitement.
"Where to?" She laughed.
"To Hyderabad. To my city. I want to show it to you. The foods that I love, the places that are my favorite. My cousins, uncles, aunts and my nani. Come meet all of them. They will love you."
"You are crazy. Mamma would never agree."
"Don't worry about that. My mother has probably convinced her by now. Ok so, I usually reside in the hostel, but right now it's vacations. Rano aunty, you, me we will all stay at my nani's place."
"I am missing papa and Meera di so much. Also, it's my birthday next week and I want to spend it with them. I have never celebrated one without them."
"Geet come on. You have spent the last fifteen with them, haven't you? Give this one birthday to me. I promise to make it memorable."
She still looked dubious.
"Don't you want to see the house where your dad ran away to when he was about your age?"
"My dad ran away?" Geet's eyes turned wide as saucers.
Maan knew he had her then.
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
Indian Mythology
Chakravarti Samrat Prithviraj Chauhan
Shiv Shakti
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