Author's note:-
After seeing today's episode. I got a feel that maybe in future we can hope to see the Raos and Deshmukhs integrated as one family. This TS came from there. I hope I'm not boring anyone with my ceaseless writing 🤣🤣🤣
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"Aisha... I understand you are in a hurry but what I can't understand is what exactly are you hurrying for - reaching on time or taking away my time on this Earth."
"Mandaar kaka, this is a Ferrari. It is a crime to drive this under one twenty but only because of you I'm keeping the speed down yet you are complaining?"
"Beta, you are driving at hundred, I don't think that can be called as keeping the speed down by any meaning of that statement. I mean I get your impatience but at least take my poor frail heart into consideration?"
"Oh please! As if you didn't drive that sorry excuse of a bike at ninety yesterday. I mean I was slightly afraid whether all the parts would reach in proper condition."
"You will never let me forget that will you?"
Mandaar Deshmukh sulked and was about to lean on the passenger seat at the back and instantly held his heart and straightened up and caught the packet beside him restricting it from getting thrown out when the car took a sharp turn.
The woman of twenty three sitting in front on the driver seat whooped in mirth and looked back for a glance at the man she called uncle and Mandaar could swear her grey eyes were shining in mirth behind her brown aviators. She gave him her signature grin, pulling her red stained lips till the light hit her beautiful face.
"Never!"
She said chuckling and looking back at the road when the person sitting beside her slapped her arm good naturedly. Mandaar muttered what sounded like the Hanuman Chalisa under his breath and looked aside trying hard to bring his racing heart under control. He should have never agreed to sit in her car. And he wished everyone would drop teasing him about running like a madman yesterday when he got a call from his furious wife.
Then he turned towards the middle aged woman sitting on the front beside the girl and noticed with no small amount of awe how perfectly composed she looks. Calm as the heart of an ocean enjoying how the breeze kissed a few of her raven strands which had escaped from her simple hairdo.
"Pallavi how come you are so cool with all this?"
Pallavi Rao smirked good naturedly and leaned back on the head rest of her seat looking in the sun bleached road in front admiring the canopy of the green glade flying above them with equal speed making patterns of sun light and shade over her cream white skin.
"Mandaar... when you are used to a tornado, a strong gust of wind cannot ruffle you."
Aisha and Mandaar burst out laughing in tandem knowing very well who was the unmentioned tornado in her statement. Pallavi's smirk stretched into a smile and she raised her hand to Aisha's giving her a high fie just before she changed the gears and slowed down a considerable way off from their destination. Mandaar smirked and asked his niece mischievously.
"Oh ho ho Ms. Michael Schumacher! What happened? Direct transition from tornado to evening breeze?"
"Are you crazy kaka? Appa will kill me if he sees me flying this thing in front of the house at this speed."
Pallavi tutted mirthfully and tweaked her nose.
"You will fool no one with that sweetheart. You have your Appa wrapped around your pinky, entire Hyderabad knows that. He would rather find out a fault in the engine than his dear daughter."
She said exasperatedly and came out of the side door helping Mandaar with the numerous packets and other stuff he was taking out from the back seat. Aisha leaped up from her seat and nearly tripped forgetting she was wearing a saree and not her usual jeans making both the elders scold her immediately.
"Amma don't be jealous okay, just because you have to share him now..."
She said cheekily elbowing her mother and ducked to escape her beating narrowly and squeaked taking shelter behind Mandaar who was busy chuckling see their antics.
"Arre Amma why do you always turn silent to violent within seconds? Appa was right, you have started becoming diabolical."
"Wait, I'll tell you why! Enough of your PJs.. Aisha! Aisha.. where are you running? Wait!"
"Mandaar kaka! Save me! Eeks.. mumma! Okay okay sorry! Please don't hit me na.. my hairdo will ruin completely.. Aina maasi took three hours to make it!"
"Pallavi! Oof! These two.. wait you'll fall.."
Aisha ran and nearly missed hitting her grandfather. She squealed in triumph, just the person who could save her from her enraged mother at the moment. She hid behind his back.
"Azoba! Mum has gone cranky save me!"
Vijay Deshmukh who had come out to see the preparations of the decorations being done on outside of Deshmukh house laughed heartily acting like a shield between his beloved daughter and granddaughter for what seemed like the hundredth time.
"Baba! I'm telling you no one will be able to save this one from me today. Your sweet talking won't work. Move..baba! Stop shielding her every time. Aisha wait you.. "
"Arre Pallu what happened? Why are you after the poor girl again? Mandaar what are you doing standing there like an idiot. Your Aai has been asking after you since forever. Go quickly. Pallavi.. arre what happened?"
Pallavi and Aisha stopped running in circles around Vijay and stopped to take a breath and Aisha hugged her grandfather tightly. She had missed him a lot. These few months had been quite hectic. She had been in the US doing her MBA degree from Stanford University there and had come back home only a week before. And now her parents and their families have been plunged into an impromptu wedding.
Nikhil Deshmukh had finally found out the love of his life after yeras of deliberations and hunting. It was a rare marriage as the bride was three or four years older than him but the Deshmukhs being glad that he had finally found someone hadn't bothered much even if having certain conservative mentalities formerly about it.
In this entire melee Aisha had barely got the sight of her grandparents who have been super busy running around the entirety of Hyderabad in an effort to get their youngest married within days as if he would change his mind the next second itself.
Pallavi smiled seeing Vijay chatter with her daughter completely forgetting about her while they entered the house. She had never imagined in her wildest dreams that Baba would finally accept her marriage. And what was no less than a miracle he had accepted her husband as well. It was one day several years ago when she came to Deshmukh house and saw Raghav and her father sitting together immersed in a rather deep yet somehow emotional conversation.
She had asked both of them several times after that, that what changed? What had happened? But they never kind of said anything clearly. But whatever it was she was ecstatic that the last string of separation had been mended finally. And it seemed to be stronger than ever when they welcomed Aisha. Vijay Deshmukh was utterly entranced with his granddaughter much to both Raghav and her amusement and satisfaction.
Mandaar Deshmukh's return had been a shocker for them all. It was an emotionally charged and horrendously difficult time for both the families. The truth behind his apparent demise, his loss of memory then subsequent gain of the same had taken them all by a storm. It was a difficult both a difficult decision and an easy one as well for Pallavi. She had dwelt a brief time in how her life would have been with Mandaar regretting her loss for some days and had felt strangely restless. But at the end, her heart had taken the decision for her. She could not go back even if she might have wanted to at one point. She couldn't because she had already given her soul to someone else. Had locked it with another man so tightly that neither him nor her could ever be free again.
And frankly as she looks back, she smiles at that time. What had she been thinking? It was never a choice. And never will it be. She loves Raghav Rao. And she will choose him every time. She had felt bad for her ex husband when he had confessed that he loved her still but she replied to him honestly. Mandaar had taken it like a sport and that was a very long time after which she finally met him again. This time both having enough space and time to move on.
Mandaar had married Nilanjana, a very sweet happy go lucky woman who incidentally had come to Deshmukh Saree Emporium as a customer. There's was an interesting love story. Pallavi had felt that chapter of her life had been closed with their marriage as she and her husband had put flowers into the fire as he walked with his new bride around it seventeen years ago.
Pallavi had built her own life from ground up again. She had started with opening an online store for her boutique sarees and it had exploded from there and now she had a whole corporation working under her. Raghav had subsequently taken Jayanti Jewells to new heights opening multiple showrooms across the world. Keerti had moved on with Sunny who was surprisingly not so bad like she had originally thought. She had thought they could never be more happy. But tragedies never seemed to leave her tail.
Jaya suffered a stroke and got paralysed. That was yet again a difficult time. They had to manage everything. Jaya lived for another six months before passing away leaving Raghav broken. There was a time she thought he would never smile again. But he healed with her care and her love and they started living again hoping for a brighter future.
That is when Aisha happened. That little creature was a bundle of joy. She ran both her parents ragged yet they could die for their little girl. Pallavi had not known for a very long time whether she should be happy seeing her husband and daughter's bond or jealous. Aisha liked she had previously said had her father wrapped around her little finger. Raghav was completely, utterly, incomprehensibly besotted with his daughter. It was such a treat to watch him play with her, talk in some baby language with her with was illegible to all except them it seemed, run around the entire mansion at her heels. Pallavi shudders to think what might happen when Aisha wants to get married. She'll have to look for a ghar-jamai.
And surprisingly Mandaar had taken to her daughter as well. Aisha and Mandaar loved pulling each other's legs most often. A trait which she had shared with Milind kaka.
Pallavi felt her eyes sting thinking about her beloved uncle who passed away a few years back. It had been a pretty horrible car accident and she remembered supporting the grief stricken Deshmukh family for days at an end while crying in Raghav's arms in the nights. It was a difficult wound to heal but time had mercilessly healed it yet. Now she remembered only the happy moments.
Then her attention went back to her daughter who had by this time taken upon herself the duty to paint Sulochana Deshmukh's nails with a gaudy neon pink colour while laughing with her assembled group of cousins.
To be honest, Aisha Rao had most of her family wrapped around her. No one could refuse her anything, no one could remain mad at her for long, no one could resist her. Pallavi looked at her daughter and felt such a fierce tug of protectiveness in her heart that only a mother can. Aisha was a perfect blend of both of them. She had her mother's compassion and kindness in her heart and her father's astuteness and mischief. She was made like a rock internally just like her and had an erupting firebrand personality just like him. She balanced both of their traits seamlessly and had evolved into something more beautiful and better than them both.
That reminded her where were the two most important people in her life?
She heard Raghav's voice as she walked into Sharda's chamber and the sight stopped her in one step. Raghav was sitting on the ground in front of her mother who was resolutely looking at the other side fighting with all her might to reject his ministrations. Raghav looked distressed. Pallavi quickly made a calculated observation and deduced the reason. Yesterday when they had gone to the Temple for making arrangements for prasad for the Old Age home both run, one of Raghav's numerous enemies had attempted to kill him again and failed miserably.. again.
Baba and Sulochana kako knew about it because they had overheard them but Raghav didn't want anyone else to know the same. His was a dangerous lifestyle even though he hadn't involved himself in any less than legal activity since his marriage to Pallavi, still some of his business rivals weren't the forgetting or forgiving type so ironically his family had gotten acclimatized to these hazards with time.
Yet Sharda Aai was someone Raghav didn't want his brush with death to be known. After Jaya passed away Sharda had been the only mother figure left in his life and somehow through the years, their relationship had strengthened and blossomed into something beautiful. Sharda was fiercely protective of Raghav and was probably the only one who could shut him up with a look other than herself of course (she took special pride in terrifying her husband after all). It looked Sharda had lost one son to get back two in return. God never forgets to reward people for goodness.
But from this scene it looked like despite all their best efforts she had come to know. Nothing was hidden from Aai it seemed to her. She stood there leaning against the doorway, her hands crossed over her chest and looked at them debating whether to help her husband or leave him to his fate. The alternative was tempting.
"Aai.. listen please. I am sorry really. Forgive me na. You know how these things are.. I didn't wish for you to know because you would have been tensed. You are already busy with all the wedding mania and over that.."
"So you decided not to tell your mother that you almost got killed."
"Arre Aai, not even a scratch has occured. The bullet.."
Pallavi slapped her forehead and Raghav bit his tongue immediately coming to know his blunder as Sharda's eyes widened at that. She ran her hands over him pulling him closer searching for wounds frantically.
"Bullet! You got shot!"
"No Aai.. I might have but.."
"Might have!!!"
"Arre.."
Pallavi laughed and entered the room thinking to save this idiot before he digs his won grave deeper. She came and sat beside her mother and put her arms around her tightly ignoring her half hearted protests to feign anger at her.
"You don't even think of pacifying me. Pallu! You hid this from me too.."
"Aai, you know how hyper you get. See for yourself. Your pressure will fluctuate needlessly and you'll end up bursting a vein if you continue like this. Leave it! You know this man and his antics. Forgive him..."
Raghav instantly made the cutest puppy face he could muster and nodded making Sharda giggle finally and he grinned finally managing to make his mother in law eat the piece of fruit he had brought to pacify her with. Sharda mock glared at him chewing the watermelon.
"Raghav! Leave with the watermelon already."
Sharda said making Pallavi laugh harder. Raghav shook his head in negative.
"Nah! Your daughter has educated me on the benefits of watermelons. You must have it. And that reminds me... how did you even come to know about this?"
Sharda saw Vijay enter the room with a big plate filled with the materials needed for Shagun and stop short hearing Raghav's words. Pallavi saw him gulp dryly once and start walking back as if to escape the scene. She stifled her laugh and looked at Raghav catching his eye and he frowned at that.
"Vijay has always been a terrible liar as both of you know. It wasn't completely his fault that I am terrifying enough to squeeze the truth out of him."
Vijay who was shaking his head at his wife vigorously stopping her from revealing his name deflated. Raghav turned and looked at his father in law who smiled at him weakly. He sighed and dropped his head and stood up throwing his hands.
"I knew it!"
"Raghav it wasn't my fault.. actually.."
"It's okay Marathi father in law. I get how it feels to be a henpecked husband. I have a first hand experience in that."
Uh wrong thing to say...
He looked at Pallavi who had risen, her eyes huge in anger. He geared up for a hasty exit.
"Ghamandi Rao!"
"Saree ka dukaan! Aisha is calling me! I'll talk to you later. Bye!"
"Raghav! Raghav wait you..arrgghhh! Ye baap aur beti milke mujhe pagal kardenge. Huff!"
She turned around and saw her parents standing there trying to hold back there laughter with much difficulty. She crossed her hands and glared at them.
"Now what happened to both of you? Did I say something funny?"
"Both of you still behave like children. Even after so many years, you have a grown up daughter yet. Pallu... sachi mein bhai... kya karein hum tum dono ko leke."
Vijay said laughing and Pallavi almost pouted like a sixteen year old and stomped away.
"Kya karenge aur? What can't be cured must be endured!"
She smiled walking away, savouring the vestiges of her parents laughter reverberate behind her not noticing the person standing in front until she almost collided with her.
To be continued
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