***part 14-i***
Sitting on the couch in the living room, he had been working on his laptop for the last three hours, sipping his third cup of black coffee. "I need to talk to her right away. Track her phone and get the location. Call me as soon as you know." He was speaking on the phone with someone.
Tracking phones!!! I am so out of my league here.
I am baking chocolate chip cookies for the kids. Ria is sitting by me in the kitchen watching the timer of the oven. She feels an overwhelming need to monitor the whole process when I bake. Virat comes up to the kitchen for refilling his coffee. I don't say anything but I see his lips curve into a crooked small smile from the corner of my eye. He knows I am counting, he knows it is pissing me off. He hasn't eaten anything since morning and was drinking coffee by the liter.
I try not to think about it. I decide to break my news to him now. I don't want him to freak out when I am leaving the house later.
"Virat, I have found a school for the kids. I have an appointment for an interview later today."
He looks at me surprised first, and then thinks about it for a minute before replying. "What's the hurry? It has not even been a week since they came here. Let them transition to here. And we are still finding information about that attack."
"Oh please, they transitioned long back. God knows when you will solve this thing. We can't sit at home idle waiting for you." I frown.
"We?" he asks burrowing his eyebrows.
"I am going back to work too. The ad firm I used to work for in India, they have a branch here in the city and they said I could keep my job if I want." I say without looking at him.
"And do you want to?" I feel his direct gaze on me.
"Yes, ofcourse." I still don't look up at him. Its not like I need to give him an explanation.
"Manvi, you don't have to work. I earn way too much money anyways. There is no need. You know, I made 300,000$ in the last three hours." He says, a little too happy with himself.
"Good for you." I smirk sarcastically.
"Oh please don't tell me you are not impressed by that." He grins, sitting beside Ria on a kitchen stool, trying to figure out what she is attentively watching over.
"Humility isn't really your thing, is it? Regardless, my work has nothing to do with you. This is me and my career." I explain.
"After marriage, you said you would not work even if I forced you to and that you only wanted to spend as much time you can in your art room." He reminiscences.
"That was in a previous life. I don't do art now. I work in an ad agency and I am pretty good at what I do and make pretty good money too." I explain, once again.
"You don't do art now? Huh! That is such a shame. You are one of the most talented artists I have known Manvi. You shouldn't give up on your passion." He is lecturing me now.
And only he can be so annoyingly persistent!
"Passion is for losers. It was gotten me nowhere. I am happy with mundane and practical." I don't really mean that. The truth is that I don't feel like painting anymore, I never had the time and even if I did take out the time, nothing comes off from my head anymore. It had all dried up a long time ago.
"Well, You can't work. Not right now." He says.
This is so going to be a fight!
"That is not your decision to make Virat. I will be safe. I will stay here and drive to work directly and come back home. I will not go anywhere else."
"No Manvi. It is not safe. Please don't defy me on this one thing. It's very ugly out there. You cannot handle it." His voice is full of concern. He is trying his best to convince me.
"I have experienced some very ugly things Virat. My decision stands. I want to take the kids for an interview. And I want to go back to work. I don't want us to be on lock-down anymore."
"Momma, I can't find Mr.Wiggles anywhere." Nikki comes in with a long sad face.
"I think we need to go shopping before anything. I need to buy new shirts for my son." Virat observes looking at the shirt Nikki is wearing with contempt.
Nikki was wearing a shirt which said "mommy's little honey."
"Don't sprain your neck Virat. My son has enough shirts. That's his best one!!!"
"Exactly my point." He is still gawking at Nikki's shirt.
I shake my head and leave him to his thoughts and look for Mr.Wiggles with Nikki.
"I am not done talking about all that." He shouts after me.
I search for Mr.Wiggles everywhere but I don't find him. I am looking in the living room around couch Virat is lying on and he looks at me with a smug face. His face looks more smug than usual. I smelt something fishy."Where is Mr.Wiggles Virat?" I ask, standing over him with hands on my hips.
"You mean the pink pig?" he lifts his eyebrow.
"Yes. The pink pig. Where is it?" I demand.
"I gave it Liz, to wash it." He says without turning from his laptop screen.
"What?" I scream.
"Yeah it was very dirty. Manvi you should take care of these things, you don't want the kids to get infections, do you?" He chuckled.
I run to the washer and open it. It was already done washing. I fish out Mr.Wiggles from it. He isn't pink anymore, he is white, snow-white. "Mr.Wiggles?" my voice drops.
"Momma, what's that?" Nikki comes to me.
"Mr.Wiggles bud. All that color was dust and dirt. Now he looks squeaking clean. Right Manvi?" Virat comes in, takes it from me and gives it to Nikki.
Nikki is looking at Mr.Wiggles examining him carefully. He drops it down "This isn't Mr.Wiggles." He runs back to his room to look for him there.
"You bleached my son's toy??" I move in to throw a punch.
He comes forward taking me up on my challenge, our noses where like an inch apart "You bought my son a pink toy?" he retorts.
I push him away. "Seriously Virat?? You could be such a chauvinist, I had never even imagined. I bought that for Ria but she never touched it. Nikki liked it from day one. You cannot see you son show some sensitivity? You cannot see him get emotionally attached to something just because it is a tad bit feminine? You disgust me Vadhera. Perhaps, if you showed some of that sensitivity, you wouldn't have considered women to be objects of sex."
"You got all that material from me washing that stupid teddy?? Shit woman, you are getting over-the-top dramatic."
"The drama hasn't even started yet! Ab dekho tum, you better figure out a way to console your son when he starts his tantrums. Get out of my way.."
"'...and stop gulping down gallons of coffee and eat some food, you... caffeinated-toy-bleaching-money-minting-cellphone-tracking-psycho maniac." I stop, turn and blurt out. I had to get that out of my system. I pick up Mr.Wiggles and go towards Nikki's room.
I hear him chuckle and I turn around, he was shaking his head amused but stops when he sees me throwing angry stares and backs-off.
~~~
"How many are cookies did we bake bunny?" I am in the kitchen, scraping out the baked cookies and Ria is still watching over.
"Fifteen." She replied after counting twice.
"If you eat one, how many will there be?" I ask.
"Why will I eat only one?" She is tensed.
"No bunny, I am talking math."
"I want two." She decides.
"Ok, if you eat two, how many will there be left?" I ask giving up.
"There won't be any, Nikki will eat the rest." She replies.
I look and her and take a deep breath."Ufff! I need to be extra nice to your math teacher."
"Maaanvi!" I heard Virat yell. He is coming into the kitchen from his study.
"What?? Why are you shouting?"
"I don't like the school you chose. I picked another one. If you want to check them out, we can go now." He says texting someone on his phone.
"Oh? Why is yours better than mine again?" I ask.
"Because they were amenable to my security conditions in the campus. They will allow my men inside the school." He replies, still on his phone.
"Oh? You are making Blanco repeat kinder-garden then? And the school, does it have good rating? A good child personality development program? cognitive enhancement structure?" I inquire.
He stows his phone away and looks at me like I am speaking a different language "I don't know what all that even means but I think I would like to have them home in one-piece more than anything right now."
He is kind of right. Its only kindergarden for godsakes. "Ok. So the interview is today?"
"Interview for?" he asks puzzled.
"Admission into the school." I reply with a 'duh' tone.
"You are funny. Do you even know who I am? If my kids are studying in a school, 'I' need to interview the school faculty to see if they are worthy of me and my kids?" He is laughing.
I shake my head. "Oh wow. They say money brings in a god-complex. Now I get to see first-hand. Ok, for starters, I want my kids to go through the same process the rest of them go through. No special treatment. I don't want them spoilt and taking things for granted, like some of the people in this room."
"Why is everything an argument with you Manvi?" he is angry.
"I can ask you the same." Right back at you Vadhera!
"Fine! I will call them and tell them that we are coming for an interview."
"Fine!"
~~~
So Nikki and Ria are dressed up nice and clean, ready for the interview. Virat walks in wearing his patented white linen shirt and grey blazer over it, looking extremely hot. I try not to dwell on that. I am wearing a sweater suit; I wanted to go for a motherly yet formal look. Ria is having cookies and milk. I was careful to give her only one cookie because she gets extremely hyper when she has too much sugar.
"Where is Nikki?" Virat asks.
I look around and he is not around. Virat and I search the entire house. He wasn't there anywhere.
"Virat, I can't find him." I was almost on the verge of crying, panic-struck.
"Where did you last see him Manvi?" His voice equally worried.
"I dressed him up and then asked him to go have a snack with Ria. Then I went to fix myself. I haven't seen him after that." My eyes were filling up.
"Manvi relax." He said, but he was tensed up too. We stood there in the living room, thinking crazily about various possibilities.
Virat looked at Ria, she was sitting calmly munching her cookie. "Ria, do you know where Nikki is?" he asks her.
"uhh-ha..." She said without looking at us. We both run to her side. "Where is he sweetheart?" Virat asks her.
"Under the bunk bed." She says non-chalantly.
"Under the bunk bed?" we both chant back and run inside Nikki's room and scoop down, and there he was, lying under the bed looking morose. "Nikki, buddy, what are you doing in there? Please come out." I ask nicely.
"I want Mr.Wiggles." his voice is so low, he was crying.
"Nikhil Vadhera, come out right now!" Virat ordered.
"NO! I WANT MR.WIGGLES." he shouted from below the bed.
I try pushing the now-bleached Mr.Wiggles in but it is thrown right back at us mercilessly.
I glared at Virat. "This is all your fault, you get him out now!" I hiss at him from under my breath.
"Nikki come out bud, we will go shopping and pick out a better toy. Whatever you want." Virat was trying to slide himself inside but it wasn't big enough for him or even me. He tried to use his hand but then Nikki moved further inside, quite unreachable.
"Mr.Wiggles Mr.Wiggles Mr.Wiggles." he kept chanting kicking his legs up and down.
I don't know what to do, I look at the time, we were getting late. I take pale Mr. Wiggles and go into the art room which I never visited. It had all my old materials including some spray paints. I fetch my hair-dryer and I get to work.
I come back to the room after a few minutes. Virat is lying flat on the floor, looking inside and pleading him. "Please bud, your mom is going to kill me if we don't make it to the interview. Why don't you continue this after we come back. Okay, tell me what you want, I will get anything you want." Nikki has stopped responding to him.
"Why don't you give him your money Virat, maybe he will fall for it." I reply. My tone was dripping with sarcasm. Virat looked at me with a sad face. I try not to linger on it.
Lesson learnt hard way I am sure!
Here give this to him. I hand Mr.Wiggles back to him. He is much pinker than before as I didn't find the exact shade. Virat looked at it and he was actually very glad to see it. "Mr.Wiggles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" he shouted feigning Nikki's excitement.
"Where?" we heard Nikki's voice. Virat placed it on the floor far away from the bed so that Nikki could look at it but couldn't reach it. Within a second, we saw Nikki crawl out and pounce on it. Crisis diverted. Thank god!
Virat looked at me guiltily and then at Nikki who was hugging his lost toy delightfully. "Mr.Wiggles..." he kissed it lovingly.
"I am sorry." Virat whispered. I shook my head disapprovingly and walked out carrying Nikki. Virat followed us silently.
As we stepped into the living room, I saw Ria sitting on the kitchen stool and still munching a cookie. Liz was in the kitchen cleaning up. "Liz did you give her another cookie?" I asked.
She stammered confused not knowing why that is a bad thing. "She said she was hungry." Liz said finally.
I let out a deep breath. "How many?"
"Three momma, there is twelve more." Ria replies grinning widely, flashing her brightest smile.
"Oh, now you count!!"
~~~
We were finally out. We were riding in Virat's fancy new car. He was driving it. I am sitting in the front and the kids were buckled up in their respective seats at the back. I turned around to check on them, Nikki was sleeping cuddling with Mr.Wiggles. Ria was looking out on the window.
"Blanco ain't around?" I ask, wondering why Virat was driving.
"He is in the car behind us. Randy is in the car ahead of us."
I feel like a freaking politician in a freaking convoy.
"I still love driving, if that's what you are curious about. Especially if it is this baby." He added, caressing the steering wheel, grinning. I roll my eyes.
"Faster dayddy" Ria shouts. He looks at her smiling and presses on the gas. We were soon moving in the traffic like a rocket, shuffling lanes. He passed Randy's car. I wave at him. He picks up the speed too and follows us. So all three cars were speeding along on the interstate like it was a scene from fast and furious. Ria is giggling and shouting "Wohooo!!" If I wasn't used to riding with Virat this fast, I would have probably gotten a heart attack.
Virat's phone rings. He switches on the speaker. "On speaker" he answers the phone.
"I have found the info. But, we need to act fast." Said a male voice.
"Where?" Virat asks. We had reached the destination and I get off the car unbuckling the kids. Nikki is up now, looking rested and happy. Blanco and Martin park on either sides and they were looking around. Blanco enters inside, probably to look around before we go in.
"In downtown, along with a boy, five years old." I couldn't help not hearing the conversation. Virat turns off the speaker. He is listening with full attention.
"Okay, do it." He hangs up.
My phone rings now. Virat is carrying both of them in his arms. I walk beside him. I answer my phone.
"Hey babe, how is it going?" Oh my god! It's my best-friend Swetha.
"Sweths!!!! You are calling from a local number?" I am shrieking with excitement.
Virat is shaking his head. I had forgotten how much Virat and Swetha hated each other.
"I am here, in New Jersey for a few days. I met a guy. How is it going with Virat? How is Ria? Nikki?" She attacked me with questions.
"Yeah, everything is fine. Hey, can I call you back, we are going in for a school interview for the kids." I reply realizing we were almost there.
"Ofcourse, I am messaging you the address of the resort I am staying in, its on the lakeshore, its amazing. Drop by if you can. I am dying to see you."
"Okay. I will call back. Bye."
"Bye Mannu. Good luck with the interview."
~~~
We were sitting in front of a school principal. She was a pleasant looking lady but I couldn't help noticing her staring at Virat a little more than necessary, blushing when he offered her his hand. I roll my eyes.
Jeez woman, he is here with his kids!
Nikki is sitting with me and Ria with Virat. Ria was singing a song. I can see the affects of all the sugar she had.
This is going to be such a chaotic interview, I mentally resign myself to the worst.
"I just want to make sure that you know all the measures we are going to take for security. We don't want any differences later." Virat opened with a question about security. That doesn't surprise me at all.
"Ofcourse we don't and we won't. I had a long chat with your manager. We are very accommodating when it comes to the children of accomplished people like yourself." She was batting her eyes lashes looking at Virat.
And I feel like punching her! Look at me too, atleast for the sake of etiquette you bitch!
"What is the process for selection?" I ask. I feel Virat rolling his eyes at me. I ignore him.
"Um, I am going to ask a few simple questions to get to know them and they we have an activity room inside where there is a standardized protocol to measure the ability of kids." She answers me and her eyes are back on Virat.
"Ok, why don't we get started then?" I snap at her. Virat is amused, I am sure he noticed that I am getting pissed at her.
"Ofcourse Mrs. Vadhera. Why don't we start with your son first, he seems quiet and ready." She made a dig against Ria and her humming.
I hate her already!
"Sure, I make Nikki sit straight in the high chair in front of her." I am stiff and cold. I am sure I am sending out bad vibes to the lady but I don't effing care.
Virat is watching my reaction carefully. "Hey, don't let her get to you. It doesn't matter to me." he whispers into my ear.
"It doesn't matter to me!!" I scowl at him and he backs off shaking his head.
"Whats your name sweety?" she asks Nikki, turning her chair to face him. Nikki still has Mr.Wiggles in his hand. Virat doesn't like it, but he doesn't say anything, after what happened earlier.
"Nikhil Singh Vadhera." He replies. Virat is watching him all proud, he had taught him to say that.
"Whats your father's name?"
"Virat Singh Vadhera."
"What does your father do?"
"He runs a big company." And she continued asking him more about Virat like I didn't exist in the room, looking at Virat and smiling at him everytime Nikki answers.
How about you ask him something about me for a change?
I was cursing her in my head. I hate this school already.
After she was done, she calls someone on the phone. A girl in her early twenties walks in, she looks very pretty. The principal introduces us to her and she smiles warmly at me and briefly at Virat. She is not affected by him. I like her. I was so glad to learn that she is the teacher, Daisy was her name. She takes Nikki inside to the activity room.
Ria is playing with Virat's watch, humming twinkle-twinkle. Usually I would have flipped out on her but I don't care here. Virat puts her on the hot seat but she is not done playing with his watch. He chides her and turns her towards the Princy who was still eye-f**king my husband. I shouldn't care about this anymore, but this is so damn unprofessional. I don't want to send my kids to such a school. And she seriously thinks I won't notice? Virat comes back to his seat beside me.
"You have white paint on your face." Ria points out to the lady.
I almost fell off my chair at Ria's comment. Frankly, she was right. The lady had too much make-up, looked like a white cake. Right now, I am glad she has too much sugar in her body. I suppress my laughter and regain my composure.
"That's just her face Ria. It's not polite to say such things." I say, with a bloody cold tone.
Virat turns his face towards me and he is staring at me bewildered. I shrugged a she-deserves-it.
"Sorry for that. She just had too much sugar today." I flash her a big fake smile.
"That's'um..fine." she smiles a little, awkwardly. That's right bitch, I noticed everything!
"Well, let's start. What's your name hon?" she turned guiltily towards Ria.
"Well. Let's start. What's your name hon?" Ria replied. She was playing shadow. Good god! I didn't open my mouth. I am enjoying this too much.
"um, I am Ms. Tuner. What about you?"
"um, I am Ms. Tuner. What about you?" Ria was giggling.
Tuner looks towards me, I don't say anything. I am mad and I don't care. "Ria! Not here. Answer Ms. Tuner." Virat tells her.
Ria doesn't reply. She is humming her song again.
"Manvi, do something." Virat is telling me in my ear. I shrug again. Tuner doesn't know what to do. Virat is holding his head. He looks at me again. Seeing that I wasn't going to say anything. He walks up to Ria and lifts her up under his arm.
"Excuse us." He says and walks out. She is kicking her legs and yelling "Let go!!!"
So it's me and Ms. Tuner sitting in silence. She breaks the silence first. "You can watch Nikki through the see through window if you want." She says.
"I'd like that. Thank you." I say. She gets up and leads me inside and I follow her. We look through a one way window. Nikki is in front of a computer bursting yellow balloons on the screen. Ms. Daisy was watching him. "It's an exercise to measure the IQ, we make a more thorough assessment once they join and the program we have is personalized, tailored specifically for each student. If a particular student is brighter than the others, we make the exercises challenging enough for them so that it complements their capabilities. We also nurture their creativity'" she went on about her program. It was pretty good. This was the most sensible thing she talked about since we came in. I nod approvingly.
We walk back into the room and look through another window in there. There were kids playing in the playground. "I wanted to ask about the nature of your family Mrs.Vadhera." Ms. Tuner asked.
I was taken aback. "What do you mean?" I ask.
"Don't get me wrong. I ask this to all the parents. We would like to know if the kids have a healthy, functional family. If not, we make sure they get counseling to deal with their situations. You know with parents being separated at such a high rate these days, it makes it very difficult for the kids. They develop various kinds of difficult personalities and behaviors due to this. We just want to help the kids." Ms. Tuner replied all professionally but I knew she was prying. She was prying for information. She must have read the numerous articles in the media. She was making a dig against me.
I was shocked. I couldn't reply. I couldn't believe the audacity of this woman.
"Our kids are fine Ms.Tuner. Me and my wife couldn't be happier with our marriage and we are more than capable of dealing with our kids personalities. It would be better you would stick to your doing your job. Our personal lives are none of your business." I felt Virat's hand around me. I was a bit shaken up.
"Yes ofcourse Mr.Vadhera." She looked beaten down. Virat was very intimidating.
"You alright baby?" he asked me pecking my cheek. This was for her. His way of saying back-off. I didn't mind or move away. I smiled weakly. "Yes."
"Our daughter is ready for you." Virat smiled at her politely.
She nodded and left us both by the window. I look up towards Virat, he is staring down at me, with his hand still around me. "You turned quite green in there. She doesn't mean anything to me. Why are you so bothered by her?"
"I am not." I try to move away. He is holding me in place.
"I love you too much to even look at anyone Manvi. I hope you can see that one day." He tells sincerity gushing out in his voice.
"not look, just sleep?" I whispered looking into his eyes. It was brutal. I could see his whole face stiffen up, he turned red. He pulled his hand away angrily and walked out.
I walked back in to the interview room. Virat was sitting next to Ria. Ria was on her best behavior. She was behaving exceptionally well. I watched her in awe. Virat was looking at her and smiling. "She is very good in Math." I tell Ms.Tuner.
"Alright, I think Ms. Daisy is ready for you." Ms.Tuner said and the whole thing repeated.
"Bye daddy." She waved at Virat while going in.
"Good luck sweetheart, break a leg." He replied smiling.
"What did you do to her?" I asked honestly surprised at her perfect behavior.
He didn't reply. He didn't even look at me.
Silent treatment!
~~~
We were waiting in a longue until they finished up. It was been twenty minutes. Virat was not talking to me. He was on the phone. He seemed to be upset about something other than me.
"Kya huva?" I go and ask him.
"Someone tried to enter the house." He tells me gravely.
"What?"
"Who?" I ask
"Patha nahi. Security is here with us, so it was easy. Only Liz and Martin are at home."
"Are they okay?"
"Yes, Nothing happened. They couldn't enter because they didn't have the entry code and alarm started buzzing."
"Who is this person Virat??" I am really scared now.
"Whoever it is, they are not professionals. They seem pretty amateurish in their work, leaving solid leads. We will find them soon."
"Relax Manvi, don't worry." He added. I probably looked very frightened.
"But, I don't want to go home today. I am going to send couple of guys to make sure the house is clear and we will go back tomorrow morning. We will stay out today." He added.
"But where?"
"We can check into a hotel Manvi."
"Swetha said she is staying at a resort with a friend. We can meet them and stay there until tomm morning." I looked at him, he was thinking. He and Swetha cannot stop fighting and most of those fights are about me. I know he doesn't enjoy being around her. But, I really wanted to see her.
He smiled. "Well, I can't say no to that puppy face. Tell your friend to behave. And forward me the address." He said smiling some more. I didn't realize I was making a face but I was happy he agreed.
He is not angry anymore!
Ms.Tuner comes for us and we go back to her office.
~~~
Part 14 is still not done! will upload part 14-ii in a day or two.
Edited by bluebolt - 12 years ago
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
Health and Fitness
Anupamaa
