Maan woke up to Dev's loud foot strides. Dev did not bother to look at anyone and simply walked upstairs into his bedroom. Daadima and Maan knew something was wrong.
"Ab isse kya hua?", asked Maan.
"Dunno, dekhti hoon", said Kiara, running behind Dev.
Maan looked around and Daadi answered his question, "Dev ne Geet ko Niharika ke ghar drop kiya".
"Oh ok. Aapne uttaya nahin, mujhe", he said, looking at his watch, to see what time it was.
"Haan hum uttane waale the, lekin Geet ne mana kiya. And I knew you were tired, so we just let you sleep", she said.
Maan got up to fresh up and change when he heard Dev scream, "I don't believe Geet's brother is such a gawaar".
Maan and Daadima both looked at each other. Maan was clearly concerned, after hearing the words, "Geet;s brother".
The day had finally arrived. Niharika's wedding day- Geet was dressed with a beautiful green sari and Niharika was dressed in a red colored lehenga, with lot of golden work. Her cheeks looked pink even without any make-up as she blushed and was shy to even look at herself in the mirror. She was adorned with ornaments that enhanced her beauty. Having sharp Indian features, the ornaments and bridal lehenga, just made her look like an angel. Her innocent smile and the sparkle in her eye, made her look gorgeous.
The guests had arrived and the Handas too were seated among the guests. Geet ran around getting Niharika's stuff ready in her dressing room and preparing eveyrhting at the mandap for Niharika's arrival at the mandap. Achint was already seated at the mandap and performing the wedding rituals.
As Niharika walked towards the mandap, everyone rose to get a glimpse of the beautiful bride. She sblushed as she slowly raised her eyes to catch a glance of Achint. Their eyes for a split of a second and Niharika, immediately looked down. Achint smiled and continued to perform the rituals. Niharika's heart skipped a beat and she did not hear Geet whisper, "Yaar shaadi teri hain, lekin tension mujhe ho rahin hain".
Geet looked at Niharika and realized she wasn't listening. "Niharika, theek ho?", asked Geet, softly, as they slowly made their way to the mandap.
"Haan", said Niharika, lying outright.
Niharika then sat beside Achint for the marriage rituals. Geet went and sat with some of her college friends and joked around with them.
"Teri shaadi hain, madam?", asked one of her friends.
"Arey karungi karungi, kya jaldi hain?", said Geet, smirking.
"Ladka mila?", asked another.
"Arey yaar agar mil bhi gaya to main usse abhi introduce nahin karungi. Wait until the wedding", she said and smiled.
"Achha", they all said together and got to clicking a lot of photos.
Geet's phone vibrated a couple of times, but Geet did not realize because of the noise at the wedding venue. Surprisingly Niharika had not invited Maan or hios family for the wedding. And Geet or Maan did not take any offense. Geet knew that Maan and Niharika had only met each other for very brief periods and never really spent some quality time, to be called friends. They were only acquaintances.
Tumne Geet ko bataya ki uski shaadi cancel ho gaye?", her grandmom asked her father.
"Nahin. Itni bhi kya jaldi hain. Thoda aur suspense continue karte hain. Tabhi to mazaa aayega", he said and smiled.
"Hmmm", said Daadi , rolling her eyes.
Her dad turned to Brij and said, "Beta, jo ho gaya, bhool ja. Teri behen us ghar mein bahut khush rahegi. Yeh main jaanta hoon. Dev se jo jhagda hua, usse bhool ja".
"Haan, sab bhool ja, jis tarah se teri behen yeh bhool gayi thi, ki us Maan Singh Khurana ke wajah se aaj HP mein hamare koi izzat nahin hain", said Daadi, angrily.
"Maa, aap phir se wahin baat pea a gaye", said her dad. "Kuch baton ko bhoolne mein hi khushi hain. Jo baat hume dard dete hain, us baat ko baar baar yaad karke kya faidaa?", he asked.
"Itni aasaan nahin hota-bhoolna", she said.
"Haan, I agree. Koshish kar sakte hain na?", he said, smiling.
Daadi did not say anything. She simply looked away. Brij pondered about what his dad had said. His dad was right. There was no right, thinking about his hatred for Dev repeatedly. At some point, Dev would be a part of their family since Geet would be married to Maan. Therefore, eventually dev and brij would have to get along.
Dev, sat on the steps in the lawn and pondered over the same thing. After his outburst last evening, though he was very angry, he tried to be reasonable. His brothe had told him only one thing, "Dev, like how I love you and would go any extent for you, the same thing Geet would do for her brother and I'm sure he would do the same for her too. Its just that, you two are different. He is conservative and you are not. you have different outlooks and perceptions".
Dev had tried to answr back, but Naintara stopped him, "Dev, I think you ought to realize that there is already enough trouble for Veerji and Geet. You, out of all people, should not be adding to their worries".
Maan could not have agreed better. She was right. He should actually help them solve issues rather than complicate them further.
Dev, took a deep breath and looked at his phone. It was 8 pm. He walked down to the dining table and found no one. He was surprised. It was not like; people in their family would be later always.
"Kahan hain sab?", he asked, Nakul.
"Saab, Maan saab outhouse mein dinner karenge aur Daadima abhi dus minute mein aayenge. Kiara beti bahar gayi hain aur Naintara madam bhi aayenge, daadima ke saath hain", he said and walked into the kitchen to get some water.
"Hmmm, Kiara is waqt kahan gayi hain?", Dev wondered. He was too lazy and hence sat at the dining table. He called Maan and couldn't get through.
Geet, finally checked her phone and saw messages from Maan.
"all ready for the wedding? How is Niharika doing?", was the first msg.
"Geet, don't you have your phone with you?", was the second message.
Geet smiled and replied, "Maan, I loovveee you".
Before she could even take her eyes off the phone, she had received a message from him.
"Geet, I don't need to know that. Just answer my questions", he replied.
"Oh well, why don't you come and see it yourself?", she texted him back.
"I don't like to attend weddings and I am not invited either", he said.
"Oh I see, what would you do at our wedding then?", she asked.
"Well, if given an option Geet, I would prefer skipping the whole wedding thing and go straight to ……………. ;-) ", he texted back.
Geet's eyes widened and she replied, "Besharam hain aap"
"Geet, I said I would skip wedding and directly proceed to have food. Such yummy food at the wedding. What were you thinking, Geet my love?"
"Maan, you know that is not what u were thinking", she texted back.
"Then what was I thinking?", he asked.
"Nothing, let it be. I have to go now", she said.
"Go wehre?", he asked.
"Maan, its my best friend's wedding", she reminded him.
"Geet, okay! Call me later", he said.
"Maan, you need rest, so just sleep after your dinner. Don't wait for me to call", she said.
"Hmmm, ok", he said and stopped texting her after that. She too and went and joined niharika's mom at the mandap.
"Sari achhi hain", said aunty.
"Thanks aunty", she said and blushed.
"Where did you get it?", she asked her.
Geet did not know what to say. This sari was gifted to her, by Maan. She simply told her that she had got it in one of the malls in S'pore. Aunty smiled and looked at what Niharika and Achint were doing.
Geet, in the meanwhile, recollected the incident. Maan was out of town for a few days and he was so busy that he could not call Geet at all. Geet, who usually never takes offense about Maan not calling her or texting her on a regular basis, this time was pretty angry, because there was absolutely no information about him.
Maan, knew Geet would be angry. But he dint have a choice. He was busy with too many meetings and held up so badly. One evening, he was a little free and he went to the mall. His sister, Kiara, had also flown down to attend the meetings. Therefore, that evening he had to go shopping with her. She took him straight to a sari shop. He refused to go in.
"Veerji aap bahar kyun wait karenge?", asked Kiara.
"Tum pagal ho gayi ho kya? What will I do here?", he asked, her angrily.
"Veerji just come and see me select saris and may be help me select saris too", she said, with a smirk of her face.
"Kiara look, I am not interested. So just go, finish your shopping and come back.", saying so, he looked at his watch and said, "See, its 6:25pm now. I want you, out of this shop by 6:40", he said and looked away.
"What? 15 minutes? Veerji, no woman on this planet will ever come out of shopping so soon", she argued.
"Right, then you be the first one. You are losing tinme by standing here and arguing with me. See, I would drag you, out of this mall, by 6:45pm irrespective of whether you are done with shopping or out", he said.
Kiara nodded her head in frustration, rolled her eyes and ran into the shop yelling, "Veerji ke saath kabhi shopping kabhi nahin jaungi"
Maan giggled, "That's exactly what I want".
Maan, then walked towards the railing and leaned on it. He checked a couple of emails and while doing so, he heard someone say, "Woh green sari bahut acchi hain, lekin tumhein suit nahin karegi". He simply ignored it and continued to text and the discussion about the green sari continued in the background.
Maan was irritated, "Oh damn that green sari", he thought and looked up, irritated at the people who were discussing about it. This green sari was displayed on the inside of the huge windows at the entrance of the shop.
He looked at the sari for less than fraction of a second and pictured Geet in it. In the next 30 seconds, he was walking towards the shop. He walked inside and asked the salesman in the shop to pack the sari for him. No, second thoughts or confusion, Geet would look stunning in this sari.
"Sir, its an expensive piece", said the salesman, just to be on the safe-side and alert his customers.
"Just pack it, please. I'll pay", he said.
"Yes, Sir", said the salesman and packed the sari. Maan walked towards the counter and was about to pull out his credit card, when he heard some woman run behind. He casually turned back and saw Kiara, holding a few saris, and sweating and panting.
He immediately took the saris from her hand and gave them to the man at the billing counter and said, "Kya haal bana rakha hain apna? Tum aurtein shopping ke liye kuch bhi kar sakte ho", he said, angrily.
He pulled out a couple of tissues from the tissue box at the counter and handed them over to her.
She wiped her face and hands and was still panting.
Maan turned to the man at the counter and said, "Please bill all these too" and turned back to look at her. She looked a little relaxed now.
Geet's sari was packed and the salesman came to handover the sari to him. "Sir, the green colored sari", he said.
"Oh thanks!".
Kiara raised her eyebrow and cleared her throat, but did not say anything. Maan did not react too. After the billing was down, Maan and Kiara took all the sari bags and walked out of the shop and Kiara checked her watch. It was a little past 6:40pm. Maan noticed that and smiled.
"do you want to eat anything?", he asked her.
"Ji Veerji, lets have some GREEN tea", she said, sarcastically and Maan understood what she meant.
"Kiara, main…" and she cut him off, "Since when have you started giving explainations Veerji? I thought you don't give explaination, even of the world is coming to an end nor do you justify your stance irrespective of what people think", she said.
"Ofcourse. Nevertheless, I do give explainations to people who matter the most to me, Kiara", he said and smiled.
"What ever", she said and walked straight to the car.
Two days later, Kiara and Maan had arrived in Delhi and Geet had come to the mansion to meet Daadima, unaware of the fact that Maan and Kiara were back. Geet had given up hopes that Maan would call her or text her, until he came to Delhi and she did not even bother to find out when he was supposed to come back to Delhi.
Geet was in Daadima's room and talking to her. Maan, always had a habit of coming to his Daadima's room after every trip. And he did the same that day too. Kiara had walked in with Maan and both of them were kinda surprised to find Geet there. They did not expect her at that time of the day. Geet looked at Kiara and smiled and Kiara smiled back and hugged both Daadima and Geet. Maan hugged his Daadima too. He looked at Geet and she did not have any expression on her face. He did not say anything. He simply sat beside his grandmom and Kiara sat beside Geet. They spoke for sometime and Kiara told Daadima about the mall incident where she was given only fifteen minutes to shop.
"Oh well, you shouldn't have gone shopping with him, honey", said Daadima, "Don't you know how he is?", she said, laughing.
"Daadi, I dint know he would just gimme fifteen damn minutes", she said, rolling her eyes. Maan looked at Geet and she still did not have any expression. She was only relieved that he was finally back. She did not look at him, well she dint have to. He was right there. She could feel his presence and she knew he was looking at her.
"So did you manage then?", asked Daadima.
"Oh don't ask! I had to run around the shop like crazy, selecting saris for you, Bhabhi and myself", she said, "people in the store thought, I had lost it"
"Hmmm, so Maan should be happy then. You managed to make it there in fifteen minutes", said Daadima.
"Oh ofcourse. He had other reasons to be happy Daadi" and she looked at Maan with a grin on her face.
"Like?", said Daadima.
"Green sari", said Kiara, very casually and looked at Maan.
Maan smiled and Geet understood a green sari was on its way for her and so did Daaadima.
"Oh I see", said Daadima, smiling. Kiara had then got a call and made her way of the room.
Daadima spoke to Maan for sometime and Geet got up, "Daadiji, main chalti hoon, kaafi late ho gayi hain".
"Haan Beti, Maan drop karega", she said and picked up the keys from the table in front of her and gave it to Maan.
"Ji, change karke aau ya abhi nikloo?", he asked Daadima. Daadima looked at Geet.
"Daadiji, unhein aaram karne dijiye. Main chali jaungi", she said.
"Main change karke aata hoon", said Maan and walked away, saying, "aaram baad mein karunga".
Thirty minutes later, Maan and Geet were in his car.
"Kaisi ho?", he asked her and she said, "Theek hoon, app kaise hain?"
"Theek", he said. "Are you angry?", he asked her.
"I was, but I am not", she said.
"Why?", he asked her.
"I hate you for this Maan", she said and paused. He waited for her to speak. She continued, "I was very angry. You did not call, you did not even text. I sent you so many messages, yet you haven't responded. But the minute I see you in front of me, all the anger just vanished in thin air. I hate you for doing this to me. I was very determined to scold you and actually even beat you up for making me go through so much stress about your whereabouts. But the minute I see you walk in, smiling, everything- all the anger I had, all the scoldings and swearing I had, I forgot", she said and stopped.
Maan smiled and pulled over to the side of the road. He took her hand in his and she pulled it away. "Don't! I hate you and you know it very well", she said.
"Yes I do", he said and bent forward and kissed her cheek.
"I told you, don't com near me", she said and pushed him away.
"Geet", he said softly and she found herself melting at the sweetness and affection in his voice.
"Maan, I need to go home", she said.
"I know. I will drop you, don't worry", he said, smiling. He pushed his seat backwards, picked up a bag, and gave it to her.
"Ohh the green sari?", she said, smirking.
"Geet, Kiara made enough fun of it, now you don't make anymore", he said. She smiled and opened the box and yelled in excitement. "Its so pretty. I'm wearing this for Niharika's wedding".
Geet was brought back to her senses when she heard her mom call to her, "Geet, utho kya kar rahin hain?"
Geet looked around and found everyone standing and Niharika and Achint were ready for the phere.
Geet took a deep breath and asked Niharika's mom slowly, "Auntyji how long will the wedding take?"
"Its almost over beta. Another few minutes", she said, "Are you hungry?"
"Oh no no, just aksed", she said and went to drink some water. She called Maan. Maan had just finished a call and immediately took her call.
"Maan, I want to meet you, I;m coming", she said.
"What? Is the wedding over?", he asked.
"No", she said.
"Are you crazy? Its Niharika's wedding and you want to leave the ceremony and meet me?", he asked.
"No, after the ceremony is over", she said.
"Geet, it would be too late. We'll meet tomorrow. We anyway have some guests coming for breakfast. And I wont be having breakfast in the mansion because of the guests. So you can have breakfast with me", he said.
"Guests?", asked Geet.
"Yes. I dunno who. Daadima did not tell me and I did not ask wither. I simply told her, I would quietly have breakfast in the outhouse and keave for office".
"I don't care. After theceremony I have to meet you", she said.
"Geet, you are being unreasonable", he said. "I don't want you, missing anything at your best friend';s wedding. It's a very special day for her and you ought to be with her", he said.
"I'm missing you, Maan", she said.
"Geet, look talk to me for another few minutes. But after that you will go back and spean time with Niharika and be a very active part of her ceremony. I don't want you regretting later, about missing out on some of the best things at the wedding", he said.
Geet remained silent and did not say anything. She was thinking. As always, Maan had knocked some sense into her.
"Okay, tomorrow morning for breakfast", she said.
"Yes done!", he said and spoke to her for a couple of minutes and hung up.
The wedding had went well and Geet was really happy for Niharika. Achint was a very guy and Niharika would be very happy with him. Geet thought they looked adorable together and wished they stay that way always. Geet danced at the end of the ceremony and pulled Niharika and Achint too. Everyone in the family danced for sometime, and the guests joined in too.
Geet went to bed at 5am the next morning. She was extremely tired after a lot of helping and running around. They had managed to get Achint and Niharika in one room, and got on, with the rest of their work. Despite, sleeping late, she managed to be at the Khurana outhouse, by 9am, looking pale and tired. Maan was already at the table. He poured her some coffee in a mug and handed it over to her.
"Geet, you should have slept", he said, while picking up the newpaper. She pulled away the newspaper and he looked at her and smiled.
Daadima welcomed the Handas to the mansion. Geet's father touched her feet and took her blessings and so did Geet's mom.
"I'm so happy to see you all, here!", she said, smiling as she greeted Brij, his wife and Geet's sister Heer.
Naintara walked out to welcome them too and greeted them.
"Devanshi hasn't come?", asked Daadima.
Heer spoke up saying, "Ji nahin Daadiji. Devanshi Daadi is very tired after the wedding. So she is resting at home".
"Oh ok", said Daadima, leading them inside the mansion. This was the first time, Geet's parents and her siblings had come to the mansion and they, were stunned at the magnificence of the mansion, much the same way Geet was, when she came for the first time.
They were seated in the living room, when Dev came walking downstairs and saw Brij. Daadima introduced him to the Handas and he smiled at each one of them including Brij. Brij smiled back too.
"Geet's not here?", asked Dev.
"No, she said she was too tired to come. And she dint know we were coming here", said Brij, very politely and Dev was amazed at Brij's politeness.
"She dint know you were coming here, meaning what?", asked Dev.
Daadima spoke up and said, "Dev, some questions are best unanswered now. But eventually you will have all the answers. May be a matter of an hour or so, Son", she said, smiling and Geet's dad agreed.
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