Setting: It’s been five days since Raghav and Pallavi's wedding, they're at loggerheads, obviously. Nikhil has convinced Baba to let Pallavi keep working in the sari shop after he and Krishna and Keerthi tell Baba the whole truth about the shop (her working extra jobs cooking to make up the rent money, Jagdish anna blackmailing her, etc.) Baba is still mad at Pallavi, but now he regrets more than ever that he let Sharda and Jaya fix Raghav and Pallavi's wedding.
It’s early in the morning, Pallavi opens her eyes, she’s been sleeping on the far corner of the bed, avoiding Raghav as much as possible. Raghav refuses to let her sleep in a guest room to torture her, but she knows her sleeping here frustrates him more than it annoys her. She wakes up, and gets out of the bed slowly, making sure not to wake up her ‘husband.’ She cringes at the word, how can HE be her husband, what did she do to deserve this?
She runs to the bathroom to shower and change for the day, choosing a dark blue sari to wear. The same sari she was wearing the day she shoved that horrible trophy back in Raghav’s hand. She tiptoes out of the room and decides to make herself breakfast. One of the workers has already started, however. “Pallavi madam, Akka. Aap yahan kya car race hain,” he asks. “Mujhe naashta banana hai, acne ke liye. Please.” The worker walks out of the kitchen silently, not letting her know that he’s worried what Anna will say if he doesn’t make Anna’s protein shake and breakfast on time. Pallavi decides to make idli and sambaar, Amma had said she might drop by for breakfast the other day, and Pallavi wanted to show Amma that even if she hated Raghav, she was trying…trying at least a little to be a proper bahu. As she’s finishing up the sambaar, her phone rings. Keerthi is on the phone. She says, “Akka, main air Amma ahi aa race hain, naashta ke liye, uske baad hum dono shop chase jayenge? Teek hai?” Pallavi, a little sad because she missed cooking for Milind Kaka and her old family, “yea sure, Keerthi, main darwaza khol thi hun, I just finished making breakfast.”
Keerthi and Amma walk in the mansion, immediately Pallavi touches Amma’s feet and asks for her blessings. Amma is delighted that such a beautiful, cultured, and intelligent woman is her daughter in law. Amma says, “Are, tune kyun naashta banahiye, mera beta tumhara kyaal nahin raktha kya?” Pallavi, smiling grimly, hides the fact that Raghav has done nothing but yell, taunt, and glare at her for the past four days, says, “It was my pleasure to make food for you Amma.”
The three of them sit down at the table, and Pallavi serves all of them. Amma asks, “Raghav kahaan hai?” Pallavi looks down, “he’s still sleeping.” Keerthi, “I can wake him up, he loves idli and sambar!” Pallavi immediately says, “no!” Amma and Keerthi look surprised. Pallavi continues “I mean, he’s probably tired right, and he only drinks protein shakes most of the time, so…” she trailed off. Amma, understanding that Pallavi didn’t want to start her day with Raghav’s horrible mood, curses her horrible son in her mind. “Pallavi is right Keerthi, if anyone wants to eat breakfast they have to get up at a reasonable time.”
The three of them finish eating, and Pallavi goes back into the kitchen to clear the plates, even though the workers try to convince her she doesn’t have to. Amma and Keerthi smile…Amma thinks to herself, “Kaash, Raghav bhi Pallavi jaise sudhar jaye…”
Raghav walks down the stairs, and is elated to see Amma and Keerthi in the dining room. “Amma, Keerthi, aap dono yahaan?” Amma asks, “Why, can’t we visit?” rudely. Raghav, not wanting to spoil his mom’s mood, “It’s not that, if I knew you were coming I would have ordered your favorite food…” Raghav sees the idli, sambar, chutney, and coffee on the table. “Amma, why did _you_ cook! I pay people to do that.” He starts yelling at one of his workers standing in the corner of the dining room, but before the worker can say anything, Raghav says “koi baat nahi, it’s been a long time since I’ve had my mother’s cooking.” He serves himself, and starts to eat. Keerthi’s about to tell him the truth, but Amma stops her, she whispers to Keerthi “at least he’s not drinking a protein shake, if you tell him Pallavi made the food, he’ll spit it out. Iss par hum koi bars nahi oak sakthe hain, he’ll only be healthy if we use crooked measures.”
Pallavi walks back in the dining room, not noticing Raghav, she asks Keerthi, “shall we go, we can drop Amma back home on the way?”
“Saree ke dukaan, you too should sit down and eat, you won’t get these amazing idlis every day you know.” Raghav says.
Pallavi turns around, looking at Raghav, but she doesn’t feel like telling him she cooked the food, what did it actually matter, “I already ate, thank you.”
Amma and Keerthi are smiling quietly, and Raghav is confused, basically licking his plate clean of sambar. “Why are you all smiling, what’s funny?”
Keerthi says, “oh nothing. Amma shall we go?”
Amma says, “No, I’ll go on my own, you two go, you’re getting late.”
Pallavi and Keerthi walk out, Pallavi doesn’t give Raghav a second glance. But he’s glaring at her, remembering her anger the last time she wore that blue sari.
As soon as Keerthi and Pallavi reach the door, Amma says, “Raghav, I didn’t make the food, Pallavi did, it was good wasn’t it.”
Raghav, shocked. Pallavi doesn’t wait to hear what Raghav has to say, even though Keerthi is giggling and lingering at the door.
Raghav thinks, “damn it, I praised Saree ke Dukan’s food without even knowing it. I can’t have her getting a big head. I’ll tell her to stop cooking from now on, if she doesn’t like what the workers make, she doesn’t have to eat.”
Two days pass by, Raghav hasn’t stopped Pallavi from cooking breakfast, and sometimes she makes dinner. She doesn’t make it for him, and Amma and Keerthi hadn’t visited again either. She makes it for herself, cooking is the one thing, besides designing sarees that she knows she’s amazing at. And it’s not like she can practice kathak here in the house anywhere, she doesn’t want Raghav to yell at her about it. Raghav on the other hand, never directly asks her to serve him food, in fact, she doesn’t even realize he’s eating her chapati, pav bhaji, bharleli vangi, biryani, pesarattu, and so many more marati and andhra dishes that he loved. His opinion of her was softening, and he even began thinking…”maybe she really didn’t poison that food with Anjali that time…” But he didn’t let Pallavi know any of this, and Pallavi was just as cold to him.
Pallavi leaves for the shop, and this time she takes the leftover breakfast with her as lunch, and as Raghav notices this, he’s furious. “Ah, so she’s taking it today so I don’t get to eat it. This Pallavi, she is evil to the core, won’t even let her husband eat.” Raghav goes to his important client meeting later on an empty stomach, in a bad mood…remembering all the horrible things Pallavi did to him. Imagining her laughing at the sari shop as she ate her lunch…which could have been his breakfast.
Keerthi and Pallavi are going over the accounts at the shop when Aakash and says “Keerthi, come quick, Amma has collapsed!” Pallavi and Keerthi are shocked, they catch an auto as quickly as they can to Amma’s house. “Did they call an ambulance” Pallavi asks as they reach the house. “Yes I did,” says Aakash but they haven’t arrived yet. Pallavi tries to wake up Amma, but nothing works. Keerthi is distraught. Pallavi says “Let’s call Raghav.” Keerthi says, “No, last time Amma was in the hospital, Raghav didn’t help her but instead she got so angry her condition worsened, I can’t do that to her, no matter how much she’s trying to fix her relationship with Raghav.” Pallavi ignores this and calls back the auto, “take us to the hospital quick.” Keerthi and Pallavi carefully carry Amma into the auto, and get her admitted in the hospital. Pallavi still thinks she should call Raghav, and when Keerthi’s distracted with Amma, she calls him. He doesn’t answer. She calls him three more times, no answer, straight to voicemail. The doctor comes out after examining Amma and says, “we have her breathing again, but it seems she needs a pacemaker, it’s a very common procedure, but with her previous surgeries and her rare blood type…we might run into complications. Pallavi immediately asks “what’s her blood type?” The doctor replies, taken aback, “O-positive.” Pallavi says “great I can donate, it’s no problem.” Keerthi is taken aback…could it be that Pallavi also donated blood the last time Amma was here?”
The doctor takes Pallavi to another room and as she’s getting stuck (too many times by an incompetent nurse who can’t find a vein) she keeps trying to call Raghav. “Kya hai, Saree ka dukan,, aah main bahuth busy hun, were bakwas nahi hone much.” Pallavi groans and says “shut up, and get to the hospital, Amma collapsed and the doctor is talking about surgery.” Raghav is immediately furious, kyun ki woh too gusse main hi rehta hai, na. “What!? What did you do???” Pallavi has already hung up the phone because the nurse has poked her hard, finally getting a vein.
By the time Raghav gets to the hospital, Pallavi is almost done donating blood, but Raghav meets with Keerthi first. “I told Pallavi not to call you, why doesn’t she listen to me.” Raghav says furiously, “I don’t give a damn about Pallavi, how is Amma?”
“She’s fine now, Raghav, the doctors have started her surgery, and they have extra blood on hand because…” Pallavi walks into the hall, hiding the bandaid inside her left elbow with her pallu, and shakes her head at Keerthi slowly. “Because?” Raghav asks.
“Because, the blood bank is full today, so they have her blood.” Keerthi finishes, confused as to why Pallavi doesn’t want Raghav to know how she donated blood.”
They sat in the hospital for hours, Raghav pacing, not looking at Pallavi, while she comforted Keerthi...
Continued…
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