FF: Adhura Zindagi (All parts, pg1)

My first FF

(Folks, This FF actually has Jai remarrying Bani and renewing his wedding vows, KS is following suit 😆) - Note - 12/29

Characters are all the same as in KS.
Starts off with 12/7 scene where Rano came upon Jai and Pia.

PART I

Bani was eagerly waiting for Mr.Walia to come back from office, she didn't want to cut the cake until he came back. She wondered where Pia and Rano were? She smiled when she thought about all the surprises that Pia came up in the past years for her birthday. She thought about the necklace that Mr. Walia bought for her as a surprise. She wasn't particularly keen on jewelry, but some how the simplicity and elegance of the piece attracted her. She knew that her choice was along the same lines as Mr. Walia.

Pia sauntered in looking glamorous in a black sari with swarowski crystals, at first Bani didn't notice the necklace, only when Pia came closer, she noticed the necklace Pia was wearing. Bani was confused. Why was Pia wearing her jewelry? Bani thought she saw a self-satisfied look on her face, the same look Pia sported whenever she got what she wanted.

Then she saw Rano running into the house, closely followed by Mr. Walia – both of them were breathing hard. Bani thought she never saw Mr. Walia in that condition before. And Rano, what was going on? Rano was sobbing. Both of them didn't notice Bani standing on the stairway.

"Rano, Please listen to me. It's not what you think. I love Bani, what happened between Pia and I is a mistake." Jai grabbed Rano's shoulder trying to make her understand.

"Please, Rano – It happened in Dubai when I thought that Bani was going to divorce me and that she aborted my child." Jai pleaded for Rano's understanding.

"Pia was comforting me, one thing led to another – we were both trying to comfort each other." Jai's explanation fell on Rano's deaf ears.

The disbelief still in Bani's eyes, the words from her husband ringing in her ears again and again.

"Pia is pregnant with my child, she is threatening to abort the baby – she…"

"Mr. Walia, Pia and their child?" Did she hear correctly? Stunned, she walked in to the room, her presence finally registering with the couple, Jai slowly turned to look at Bani, his face full of anguish, guilt and despair.

She stepped back confused, she must have heard it wrong, Mr. Walia's child, with Pia? It must be some misunderstanding on her part. She shook her head as if to clear her head. She tried to look in to her husband's eyes, why is he unable to look her in the eye, why is he looking so forlorn and guilty. Pia stood with her eyes downward, her silence weighing heavily.

"Mr. Walia", she hesitantly took a step forward, "What is going on?"

He restlessly combed his fingers through his disheveled hair. His voice was husky and low; she had to take a step closer to hear what he was saying.

"Bani, I…" He stopped in the middle of the sentence and turned towards the wall, he tried again.

"Bani, something happened in Dubai between Pia and I". He repeated brokenly.

" I never meant it to happen, I thought I lost you, I was desperate, angry and drunk." He looked cornered.

"I am sorry, it happened, I was desolate and a mistake was committed that night in Dubai, I can not excuse my behavior, I can not offer any explanations as to why it happened."

He slowly turned back again and looked into her eyes, "Bani, I can not tell you how much I hate myself for this, first for betraying the vows we took, for stepping out of the sanctity of our marriage, mostly for inflicting this hurt on you."

"Bani, I love you more than my life itself, I wish so much that this child was yours and mine." He flung his arms in frustration.

"Bani, please say something, anything". Bani stared into his beautiful gray eyes that were full of remorse, a glimmer of moisture appeared in them.

Is Mr. Walia crying? What is he saying to her, is this a joke? Why is Pia so serious? She closed her eyes tightly and opened them again, her eyes encountering the guilty countenance of Pia and Mr. Walia again.

"Bani, Please!" Jai approached her, trying to grasp her shoulders, she shook him off and ran in to the bathroom and locked herself inside.

She leaned over the bathroom sink and became violently ill. She retched over and over again, oblivious to her surroundings – She stopped only when her stomach protested emptily, she looked at her reflection in the mirror. A stranger gazed back at her, her eyes empty, her face pale and devoid of all feelings. She started laughing, her shoulders shook as she laughed; her head flung back, a mad woman's laughter – a crazed look on her face. She didn't know when the laughter stopped and the sobs overtook, gut wrenching sobs wracking her thin frame. Her husband and her sister!! She sat slowly against the bathroom wall, her head framed between her knees. Hot tears welled and slid on to her cheeks.


She felt as if some one sapped all her strength. Her soul shattered, her confidence robbed, her heart broken into tiny pieces.

To think that she almost divorced Mr. Walia to save him from his greedy sister and nephew, protected him from an assassin and lost her beloved child in the process? Her eyes became bitter and hard. She wanted to go as far away from Walia Mansion as possible.

PART II

That was four years ago in December, it's December again, Christmas season, the shops were festive and Christmas stars decorated in the homes, the church bells were ringing constantly. Goa, this time of the year always bustled with activity. The shops along side Beach road were open, the Christmas decorations hanging from their windows. Jai walked past them and crossed to the beach. He was overseeing the construction of his new hotel, the Walia Embassy Suites. It's Sunday and everyone was off. He decided to walk towards the light-house. He took off his Italian shoes, rolled up his chinos – He spotted his driver hovering behind him, he handed over his shoes, put his hands in his trouser pockets and walked on.

The sun was mild and the beach was full. He almost tripped and fell when a toddler ran in front of him. He reached to stabilize her and liquid brown eyes stared, her oval shaped face framed by hair falling straight to her shoulders. Jai's heart stopped beating for a minute, for a minute he was disoriented. She reminded him of Bani. He decided it was the eyes, they were so trusting; the white surrounding the pupil was stark against the brown, the gaze straight and unwavering.

An older woman came running towards them, held the child's hand and started to drag the child away. For an inexplicable reason, the child held on to Jai's legs and refused to leave.

She looked at him imploringly and said in a clear voice, "Can you build a castle for me?" Jai was hesitant and looked at the older woman –

She nodded her head vigorously, "Only if you want to, Mister, I need to go and round up the other rascal, just stay here and don't let her go near the ocean."

Jai was lost, he didn't know what to do. The child looked at him sweetly and tugged him until he was kneeling down on the sand with her. She started patting the sand and signed to Jai to join her. Both of them built a small castle in silence, she kept looking at him through her long eye lashes – Jai felt uncomfortable under the child's scrutiny.

To cover it up, he asked her, "What's your name?"

She looked at him with her liquid chocolate eyes and replied, "My name is Krissy". I am three years and six months old. My birthday is on June 6th."

"I know your name already", She continued.

Jai said disbelievingly, "Oh Yeah?" he wanted to pursue the conversation.

But all of a sudden, there was a whirlwind – some thing or some one came rushing and fell down on the castle, dismantling the work Jai and Krissy did. The chubby and sturdy menace stared at them belligerently – it was as if he expected Jai to confront him.

Jai eyed him coolly and said, "Did you enjoy that, boy?" If he expected the boy to back out, he was wrong.

The lad looked back as coolly and said, "Yes."

He turned to his sister and said in a strict voice, "I am going to tell mummy that you talked to a stranger."

Krissy leaned over and whispered something to him in his ear. The boy looked warily at her and turned to look at Jai. He nodded at her but continued to stare at Jai mutinously.

Jai was intrigued by the two children staring at him, he saw their grand mother approaching them. He spoke in a gentle manner, "And what is your name, young man?"

"Khadoos", Krissy replied gleefully, "that's what my mummy calls him sometimes". "I call him JK. Because it's easier."

Jai was thunderstruck, his thoughts taking him back to the time Bani called him that. He shook his head as if to ward off those thoughts and laughed uncertainly.

The Khadoos folded his arms and was appraising Jai in a methodical manner. He first looked at his Chinos, then at the linen shirt folded at the wrists, the expensive watch, the gold chain that Massi gave him and finally stopped at his face. The boy stared in to Jai's eyes as his own expressive and clear ones missed nothing. Jai noted his eyes were grey.

Then JK slowly and clearly said, "My name is Jai Kishan, You can call me 'Kishan' if you like".

Jai slowly extended his chubby hand to Kishan, and shook the young child's hand, "Nice to meet you, Kishan".

Jai didn't want to let go the child's hand. Krissy came and wrapped her small arms around his neck.

"Thank you for building the castle with me", she said shyly. "You are welcome." Jai reluctantly took his hand back from Kishan and unwrapped Krissy's hands from his neck. He surmised they were twins but not identical.

"Your mom and dad are probably missing you, your grand mother looks tired."

They both looked at each other and said in unison, "That's not our grand mother, that's Mrs. D'Silva, she is our baby sitter".

Jai lost his desire to walk to the lighthouse. He just wanted to stay here and talk to the monsters, who shouldn't be talking to strangers.

PART III

He felt the hair at the back of his neck standing up, it was almost as if he was being watched by some one. His eye started twitching and he felt hot all of a sudden. Suddenly he had a premonition, he knew this feeling from before, he tried to steady himself, his palms clammed with sweat, he clenched them and turned as slowly as he can. He knew it was her before he saw her.

Bani couldn't believe her eyes, even from the back she recognized him, the same broad shoulders, the thick hair around his nape needed a trim. She hungrily took him in, the stiff way he was holding himself told her he felt her presence. Her first reaction was to turn and run, but she knew there was no way of evading him today. She tightened her facial muscles and controlled the fear in her voice.

"Mr. Walia, how are you?" Bani said as calmly as she could.

His eyes devoured her, she looked different, more mature, the innocence in her face still visible but barely so. Her appearance shocked him, she looked so elegant, almost regal. A very plain mustard sari draped her body, displaying her curves. Large hoops hung on her ears, her hair straight and silky cut in layers flew away from her face in the light breeze. Her oval face had no makeup except for her kohled deep set eyes. She made no attempt to hold her hair in place.

"Bani", he husked, swallowing hard. His heart ached, she looked so beautiful, he wanted to take her in his arms and wanted to hold her and never let her go. They stared at each other until Bani dropped her gaze to the sandy beach. He looked thinner than before; he must have lost at least a stone (20 pounds). His steely gray eyes had hidden depths she did not see before. The top two buttons on his linen shirt were undone, displaying the brown column of his neck. She saw him swallow hard.


As they stood in uncomfortable silence, the children rushed to her and hugged her from behind. "Mummy, can we get some ice cream?" They seemed to have forgotten all about Jai. Jai was rooted to the spot, these were Bani's children? He felt faint, swaying on his feet. 'I am three years and six months old." The child's voice kept repeating in his head. This can't be so, does it make them his children? Was Bani three months pregnant when she left Walia Mansion? His head was trying to compute the math.

The shock hit him in waves, he thought he was having a heart attack. He felt the bile rising in his throat, he wanted to puke his guts out. He fell down to his knees on the sand trying to get a grip on himself.

Bani gathered the children and started to walk away.

"Bani, Stop!!" He bellowed. Bani looked back at him in anguish. His eyes pleaded with her to tell him what he wanted to know. A gamut of emotions swept across his face. Anger rushed from within, it took him by surprise. He controlled it in the nick of time.

"Mrs. D'Silva, can you do me a favor and take the children and buy them some Ice Cream? You can have some if you like," He handed her some money. Mrs. D'Silva looked at her mistress questioningly, before taking the money and the children with her. He could not tear away his gaze from the departing children.

Bani could see that he was furious, she braced herself for his tirade. She wasn't disappointed. Jai lashed at her, "They are my children, aren't they?" Bani was silent. "Answer me, Bani – They are my children, aren't they?"

There was no point in lying to him. "Yes, they are" Bani's voice came quietly.

Part IV

He was half expecting her to lie, he was floored for a minute. But then Bani was always a straight shooter, she never lied, only covered up the most important truth.

He stood up and grabbed her by her shoulders and shook her mercilessly until her teeth rattled, "How could you do this to me, Bani?"

She clenched her teeth and tried to push him away. He was too strong for her. Bani's eyes welled up with tears, she raised them slowly and looked at him.

"How could you do it to me, Mr. Walia? Our marriage was a mistake but I thought we were getting along, you gave me hope, Mr. Walia, I believed that you were beginning to love me. Every look you gave me said that you cared for me, every action that you took said that you respected me! Why did you do this to me, Mr. Walia – With my own sister!!" Bani's face was red with anger.

"You always talked about how lonely you were. I thought you and I were the same, the loneliness in both of us was holding us together." Her voice was bitter. She tried to release his hands off her shoulders. This time, she was successful.

"You made me deprive of my family when I needed them the most. I had no one with me when I gave birth to the kids, I had no one when they cried in the nights and I was exhausted from the lack of sleep. Mr. Walia you don't know how much I have been hating you, every waking hour of these last three years, I cursed you, I wanted you to be miserable. How dare you ask me, how I can do this to you?" Bani was in a rage, she looked extraordinarily beautiful.

"I looked for you everywhere, you wouldn't listen to me; you didn't even give me a chance to explain." Jai accused her.

Bani was aghast at what he was saying. Was he mad?

"You expected me to stay and listen to your explanations?" the words came out from Bani in a shocked whisper.

Jai's face reddened at her remark.

"I fought for you Mr. Walia, when Jigyasa aunty and Ranveer tried to fleece you of your property, I was there for you. When some one tried to shoot you, I saved you, at the expense of my child." She stressed "My". "You see, Mr. Walia, I take my vows seriously, I was not the one that you intended to marry, but it happened. From that day forward, I was with you thick and thin. I was there with you for better or worse." She paused for a deep breath. "Now I know it was only for worse." Sarcasm dripped with each word.

"Mr. Walia, I told you one day, that I can not see you in any other woman's arms. I may be from Mt. Abu, but I was not going to be your doormat, I am not a sati pati-vrata."

Jai's silence gave her strength.

"Mr. Walia, I sent you the divorce papers when I left, my lawyer told me that you didn't want to sign them." Bani looked at him inquiringly.

"I never pursued it because I didn't want any contact with you before. Mr. Walia, I want the divorce now, I am getting married on February 14th, valentine's day."

Her words hit him like shrapnel, he wanted to punch something, anything, most of all the guy she wants to get married.

Bani continued, "Sameer wants to adopt the children. We will be moving to the US."

"No way, no hell – over my dead body. Sameer can take a leaping jump for all I care." He menacingly replied. "They are my kids, they will have my last name." He caught himself in the act of taking a threatening step towards Bani.

He needed to tread lightly, he should think with a cool head. He needed to come up with a plan to get Bani and the children back in his life, even if he had to use underhand methods.

PART V

"Look, you and I need to talk, this is not the time or place for this. First I need to meet my children and get to know them." Jai's mouth twisted bitterly, he stressed the word "Children".

On cue, the twins came back, their faces and T-shirts smudged with ice cream. Their innocent faces were so cherubic and adorable, Jai's eyes welled up with tears, he blinked them away rapidly.

He missed the first three and half years of their lives; their first smiles of recognition, their first steps, first teething, changing their soiled diapers, feeding them in the nights, soothing them to sleep when they cried, their first words. He wasn't there to capture every one of those moments through photographs and video. He wasn't there in the labor room with Bani, helping her through the labor or to cut their umbilical cords.

His anger at Bani was spiraling upwards. Bani will pay for this.

He kneeled down again in the sand in front of them, solemnly looking at them. They stared back unblinkingly at him. Krissy broke the silence, her child like voice piping into the tension.

"You are our Papa, we know you because, we have a picture of you in our bedroom. We see you before we go to bed and when we wake up." That explained why the children treated him with familiarity. At least Bani didn't lie about their father.

Krissy innocently continued, Mrs. D'Silva told us, "Mummy and you had a fight and she ran away – that's why you don't live with us."

She leaned close to his ears and whispered, "JK and I fight sometimes, but I am too scared to run away, and I don't want JK to run away either."

Jai shut his eyes tightly, trying to hide the pain he was feeling. He opened them again and smiled gently at his daughter and whispered back and confided, "I didn't want your mom to run away either. I promise that she will never run away and take you from me again."

Jai could see that JK was more reticent about being friends with his papa…Jai had his work cut out. It looked like Bani's stubborn streak flowed in JK's veins after all.

He tried to change the subject by asking them questions about their nursery, their friends and their teachers. Krissy talked mostly, he was really impressed with her language and vocabulary. JK was mostly listening until Jai started talking about sports. Jai was pleasantly surprised to hear that the children already knew how to swim, play soccer and even read.

Bani was nervously standing, twirling her pallu. He noticed how uncomfortable she was, she was on the verge of bucking away.

He finally stood up and said to Bani, "You and I have to talk, can I give ride to all of you?"

"Mr. Walia, thank you for the offer, but we have a ride. Sameer is coming to pick us up right now."

Jai thought to himself, he had enough of this Sameer chap. Sameer is not going to marry Bani, nor will he adopt his children, nor will he give rides his family in the future. By hook or crook, his family will be back in the Walia mansion soon, very soon. Jai was even willing to pay Sameer off to get out of Bani and the children's life. After all money talked.

With that resolved, in his mind – he replied to Bani so only she could hear his words, "I will wait and meet him, we will all go for lunch at the revolving restaurant. I will decide if he is worthy to be a step-father to the Walia children." He continued, "And Bani…you are not moving to US with my kids, the only place you will move is to Mumbai." With that said, he once again turned his attention to the kids.

Bani's nervousness increased two-fold when she spotted Sameer walking towards them with a camera around his neck. He was thirty years old, tall, muscular and handsome. His casual clothing belied his wealth. His attire was Jeans, a polo shirt and sun-glasses – he looked more like a typical foreigner and straight out of college than a successful serial entrepreneur. Sameer Bhavsar – a self-made billionaire, sold his company four years ago in the US and invested his money in India – he was also a philanthropist, helping many non-profit organizations within India.

Bani's shut her eyes, recollecting the events four years ago.

Distraught and depressed she landed in a bed and breakfast inn, in Goa. Mr. and Mrs. Rodreguez took her in, they were getting old and needed help managing the inn. They offered her the job and thankfully she accepted it. She had no idea she was pregnant until she fainted one day and Mrs. Rodireguez told her that she could be pregnant. Little by little, she drew the story out of Bani, nursed her back from her depression, and assisted her through out her pregnancy. After Mr. Rodreguez passed away, Mrs. Rodriguez offered Bani equity in the bed and breakfast inn and retired as a silent partner. She often babysat the kids and treated them as her own grand-children.

Sameer showed up three years ago, he was bumming around in Goa and found the bed and breakfast inn quaint and charming. He also fell in love with Bani and decided to hang around for the next three years. He repeatedly proposed marriage to her for the last two years and she finally accepted his proposal on her birthday this month. Now he wanted to take her back to the US where his parents and sister lived and adopt Krissy and JK as his own.

Sameer sauntered to them lithely and hugged the children with easy affection. He looked in to Bani's eyes and said, "Honey, did you miss me?" Bani blushed and nodded as she averted her eyes from Jai's interested ones.

Jai missed nothing in their interaction and kept staring at the couple. He wanted to grab Sameer's hand away from Bani's shoulders and punch him in the face. Jai barely suppressed his jealousy and anger and extended a hand to Sameer.


"Hi Sameer, I am Jai Walia, Bani's husband." He lazily smirked.

Sameer automatically stretched and took his hand in a firm shake. His eyes were confused briefly before they became blank.

The recognition hit Jai in waves, this man was in Forbes, billionaire under thirty for three years in a row. Jai was yet to hit the big books. He paled as he thought about his earlier plan of paying this guy off.

PART VI

Still holding his hand, Sameer asked the children to turn around and look at the ocean to see if there were any dolphins.

Sameer's iron fist met Jai's face with a massive force, Jai suddenly found himself sprawled on the white sand, holding his jaw, his lip was beginning to rapidly swell. He tasted the salty blood in his mouth. Jai lay there stunned for a whole minute, disoriented.

"What the hell?" Jai thundered, still down.

The children turned to see what was going on, Sameer blocked them from seeing Jai's face, he assisted Jai in getting up, with a satisfied smile lurking on his face said pleasantly in an American accent.

"I have been meaning to do that for three years. That is for Bani, I still owe you one for the children."

Jai was mad like hell, but couldn't do much in front of the children -
Flushing deeply, he looked at Bani who was staring at him with her mouth agape. Mrs. D'Silva was trying to hide her smile and failed miserably.

"So you are the infamous Mr. Walia. Well, Well, Well! We finally meet after all."" Sameer's voice dripped with sarcasm.

"Uncle, we don't see any dolphins, you were joking", JK was disappointed.

"Yes, I was JK – I was just fooling around. How was your day at the beach?" Sameer inquired.

"Umm, I met papa – we recognized him right away." JK was proud. "Krishna even built a sand castle with papa, papa cried when he hugged us." JK was revealing to Sameer innocently.

Jai hung his head in embarrassment. But he picked up on the fact that Krissy's name was Krishna. So Bani respected his wishes and named the baby after his mother!! Did she love him still?

"Look, I would like to take the children to my hotel, I will bring them by in the afternoon, we can go to dinner later in the evening." He stated in a rush.

Bani wanted to scream and say "No", but she knew that is not going go very well with Jai.

"Mrs. D'Silva can come with us, if you are not sure about my intentions." Jai bitterly stated.

Bani looked at Sameer beseechingly, she needed his support – she didn't want to let go of the children. Sameer hesitated…he himself was a product of a divorced parents using the kids as pawns in their battles.

"Bani, it's entirely up to you, I know you are a very fair person, you will always do the right thing. I will wait in the car for you." He retreated back to the car without looking back.

Bani's tension was passing onto the kids - she saw their faces crumpling with disappointment and uncertainty. She made up her mind that she will not use them as a weapon against Mr. Walia.

She nodded her head in compliance, told Mrs. D'Silva to have JK and Krissy's backpacks ready.

She turned to go, her countenance one of loneliness and dejection. Jai's voice stopped her.

"Bani, they will be safe with me, I will not take them away from you." He suppressed the desire to say, "Like you did."
"Let's meet at the revolving restaurant at 8:00, can you send the kids their clothes, I am in the penthouse suite at Walia embassy suites."

Bani nodded her head and reluctantly walked away.

With the kids in tow, Jai walked back to the car. Both of them fell asleep promptly on the short way back to the hotel. Jai carried them into his suite with the help of his driver and tucked them in his king size bed. He pulled the EZboy closer to the bed and observed them to his heart's content.

His brain started planning on how to win Bani back from Sameer.
He took a pen and paper and started to jot down.

How to get Bani away from Sameer and into Walia mansion
A) Refuse to give her a divorce - Sameer will probably hire a competent lawyer using all his money
B) Kidnap Bani and the kids – Bani will hate him for it, and it's hard to manage 2 three year olds to stay put
C) Kidnap Sameer and lie about his whereabouts – hard to trap a billionaire without getting caught
D) Put a contract on Sameer – Nah, he didn't want to end up in jail.
E) Get Sameer a new girl friend – Roshni or may be Sonali? He surmised they were poor competition to Bani.

His jaw started to throb, his disbelief still visible in his face at what Sameer did to him.

What do you think Jai decides? Give me your feedback and vote on the options available to Jai.

PART VII

Jai – in Walia Embassy Suites penthouse apartment.

His head started to hurt now, he picked up the phone and called Aditya. Aditya answered the phone after the third ring.

"Adity" Jai's deep baritone voice came across the phone line.

"Jai, my dost – Kya ho raha hai", Aditya's voice on the other hand was light and cheerful.

"I found her." The statement came in a rush.

An uncomfortable silence fell on the other side.

"Bani?" Aditya's voice doubtful and hesitant.

"Yes, Adity, she is here in Goa, And…Adity, I have twins, a boy and a girl – twins.. they are adorable". Jai's voice broke down with emotion.

"Jai, what are you talking about? Have you gone mad – Bas karo yeh sab". "I know you are missing her but now you are beginning to imagine things." Aditya was quick to admonish Jai.

Jai laughed drily, "Adity, I am telling the truth, I am here with my children, they are mine – I can't wait to show them to Maasi and Daadi. Adity, I need your help in bringing them back to my home, their place is with me."

Jai quickly told Adity, how he met the children and Bani, he also confided to him about Sameer. He asked Aditya about his advice.

Aditya asked Jai to tread the water carefully; they discussed the situation for a few minutes and hung up.

The children started stirring in the bed, Krissy was the first to get up, she looked at Jai and smiled sunnily and stretched her hands so he could pick her up. Jai hugged her tightly and for once in his life, broke down, crying unashamedly. Krissy kept patting him on his back trying to soothe him.

JK got up, gave a snotty look at Jai and said in a clear, adult voice – "Boys don't cry!!" He sounded so pompous, Jai thought, no wonder his mom called him "Khadoos".

Jai didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He gave a hug to his son and said brokenly, "I do."

"It's Ok for men to cry if they are sad, but today, I am crying because I am so happy." JK looked at him in confusion, and shrugged in an adult like manner.

"I am hungry! I want to go and see mummy. Take me home." He ordered in a brusque manner.

As Mrs. D'Silva washed them and gave them a snack, Jai made discrete phone calls to his lawyer and Rano.

Rano was beside herself with happiness. Her sobs on the other side brought fresh tears to Jai's eyes. He gave clear instructions to Rano about what needs to be done when they arrive in Mumbai.

He wore a black shirt, an Armani suit. He skipped the tie. As he combed his hair, he spotted some more gray at his temples. As he thought about Sameer's youth, he wanted to run to the hair salon downstairs to get his hair dyed. He controlled his impulsions tightly. For once, Jai Walia, the hotelier, the debonair, dashing devil looked uncertain and unsure.

He briskly called downstairs to reserve his favorite table upstairs in the revolving restaurant and walked in to the elevator with JK, Krissy and Mrs. D'Silva.

Bani and Sameer on the way to the Walia hotel.

The silence was heavy in the car, Bani couldn't bring herself to look at Sameer, she felt claustrophobic in the car. She clutched at the door handle and looked out miserably.

Sameer glanced at her sideways, he couldn't bear to see Bani in this condition.

He suddenly pulled the car to the side of the road and braked hard. Bani came out from her reverie, her shock at the morning's events clearly wreaking a havoc on her usually reserved countenance.

"Bani.." Sameer spoke quietly – "You do know this would have happened sooner or later, don't you?"

She nodded her head miserably.

"Bani, why do I get the feeling that you still love the 'ba***rd'?" "Did you ever stop loving him?"

Bani choked, sobbing heartbrokenly.

Sameer stared into the long and lonely road ahead, "I guess that answers my question." His voice was bitter and hard.

"I will kill him if he makes you cry, I want him to suffer like he made you suffer. I am not going to make this easy on him, that's my promise to you, Bani." Sameer was firm.

"Bani, I have waited for three years, but I am not such a masochist that I will marry some one who is in love with another man", he laughed wanly.

Bani covered her face with her hands, now crying openly. "I am sorry, I am so sorry…"

"Don't be, better to know this before we got married than after. So…what do you want to do now?" he questioned her.

"I don't know, all I know is I can not go back to that house and look at Pia and their child. I am not that strong." Bani muttered brokenly. "I can not see them together!!" she was adamant.

"Right now, I have a funny feeling that Pia or her child are on Walia's priority list" Sameer said under his breath, as he put the car in the driving gear and brought it forward.

The restaurant

The table overlooked the ocean, the children sat in the high chairs, their little bodies squirming restlessly as they waited for their Mom and Uncle Sameer to show up. He listened with amusement and pride as the kids sang nursery rhymes animatedly. Jai's fingers rapped on the table as he kept looking at the entrance.

Sameer came in, confident and casual in Khakis with an open collar polo shirt and a blazer – Jai felt overdressed, he quickly shrugged out of his jacket and hung it on the back of the chair.
He should have known about the "frigging American casual lifestyle", he thought miserably.

Bani was dressed again in a simple red sari with black border, sequins interspersed lightly through out. Her red blouse was simple too, a black border piped on the short shoulder sleeves. Black hoops with long tear shaped red drops adorned her shell like ears. Her hair hung straight, long and silky. She looked breathtakingly beautiful.

Jai couldn't stop staring at her. Sameer sensed Jai's attention on Bani, and drew her closer to his body, his hand wresting lightly on her narrow waist.

Blood rushed to Jai's cheeks, jealousy hitting hard and fast. His clenched his fists, his knuckles almost whitening. As the twins spotted their mother, they ran to her, hugging her legs and smiling into her face. Bani automatically hugged them, tears burning at the back of her lids.

Jai got up and walked toward them, his eyes unwavering on the mother and the children.

PART VIII

Bani felt his gaze on her before she saw him. She kept her eyes to the ground.

"Bani – Sameer…Thank you for coming," Jai said formally. Sameer nodded at him, a smile lurking on his face as he spotted the bruise on Jai's chin. Jai colored but tried to keep his cool. He walked them toward the table.

Jai ordered the food for the table, Bani's favorite Chinese food and food for the kids from the children's menu.

Jai looked at Sameer mockingly, "I know what Bani likes, she likes shrimp with extra garlic sauce."

"Walia, Waqt badal gaya hai, Bani no longer eats shrimp, you know why?" he paused briefly, "I am allergic to sea food!!!" He leaned forward and whispered so only Jai could hear – "You know I can't kiss her when she eats shrimp." His voice was plaintive.

Jai bristled with anger, his jealousy became a burning fire. Sameer brushed off the daggers and swords Jai aimed at him the rest of the evening with relative ease and grace.

Bani sat as if she was sitting on a bed of thorns through out the meal. The conversation mostly revolved around the children. Jai admired the way Bani handled JK as the rambunctious kid tried to make a cocktail with water, milk, soda, salt, pepper and sugar. She kept a close watch on the kids, saved them from toppling the drinks couple of times, adjusted their bibs, and wiped their hands and mouths. His eyes clouded with regret all the years he lost with his family.

Suddenly, there was a commotion; Bani recognized the voices as they came closer.

She stood up and turned around. Rano stood there, lean and tall, her long hair still the same, her eyes covered with the schoolmarm glasses. Her eyes glittering with moisture, she looked at her sister.

"Di…" She reached Bani with a lack of grace. The sisters shed tears discretely as they embraced each other tightly.

Bani looked over Rano's shoulder- she saw Aditya, Maasi, Dadi and Raashi wiping away their tears. Raashi was as big as a house and obviously pregnant. She looked as if she was ready to pop.

Bani bent down to touch Maasi and Dadi's feet, they blessed and hugged Bani. Both of them wept as they cooed and fussed over the children. Krissy was shy as they showered attention on her and JK was reserved and aloof and tried to keep them at bay. Maasi thought with pride, he is just like Jai ?

Bani spied Ranveer hanging out by himself in the back. A smile hovered on Ranveer's lips, it surprised her as she no longer saw the previous animosity in his eyes. It occurred to her Sahil, Jigyasa were missing at this "re-union".

Aditya beamed openly, he never could control his feelings.

Sameer knew the lines were drawn for the battle, he cynically muttered under his breath, "Walia, so this is your ammunition!!"
So what's the chakravyuh (Abhimanyu's war plan in Mahabharata), obviously Walia would have a trick or two up his sleeve. Sameer some how knew Jai's motto is "all is fair in love and war."

Sameer knew that Bani was a lost cause for him, but he had no intention of making it easy for Walia. He wasn't going to leave Bani at Walia's disposal until he found out what happened four years ago and what Jai's intentions were with Bani and the kids. He was going to pretend that all was well between Bani and him for a while at least. He kept staring at the beautiful girl, with tears streaking her smooth cheeks. He whistled silently, "So…This is Rano, the intelligent and guileless younger sister of Bani." He wondered where the duffer of her husband was.

"Di, I am so angry with you, how could you leave me and go?" Rano accused her sister, "Why didn't you call me? tell me I have become a maasi? Did you forget that you promised papa that you will take care of me" Rano was hitting out with pain and anger at Bani. Bani flinched as she thought of their small family promising that they will take care of each other on their dad's deathbed. It reminded sharply of Pia – her face paled and she lost all color. Sameer was angry at Rano, he thought that Rano was being insensitive to Bani.

Jai sensed what was going on in Bani's mind. He wanted to bring her out from the past, he quickly spoke up and introduced Sameer to every one as Bani's boy friend. Sameer saw the Jai's khaandaan moving forward and stepping in front of Bani. He, more or less knew where their loyalty was, he was clearly the outsider. The "Khaandaan" reminded him of Italian mafia, they would probably stop at nothing to get Jai and Bani together.

Sameer followed Bani's greeting by touching the elder's feet. The older women stepped back a little, it's as if they didn't want to bless him.

He tasted some pad thai in his mouth as he wondered about the plan one more time.

He turned to Adiya to ask him about his work, suddenly, he felt his tongue swelling up-It felt as if there was a concrete block on his tongue. Suddenly he knew that Jai read the article in Forbes about his allergy to fish and sea food. His last thought before he fainted was, "Walia – I didn't know you are so underhanded"

Tomorrow: Departure to Walia mansion.

PART IX

Sameer slumped from his chair and fell on to the carpet in a heap. Confusion reigned everywhere. Bani quickly left the table and took Sameer's head onto her lap, she reached into his jacket pocket and took out the anaphylactic epipen and injected him quickly. Shocked, everyone kept staring at Bani and Sameer. Krissy and JK's faces started crumpling as if they were about to cry. Aditya gathered them with Mrs. D'Silva's help and took them to show the Christmas tree standing in the lobby.

Jai did not miss the intimacy of the scene unfolding, Sameer's head cradled in Bani's lap, the worry in Bani's face. Jai looked how lifeless Sameer looked at this moment. He looked at Rano's face questioningly – Rano looked guilty like hell. Jai closed his eyes frustratedly, and thought "Rano…what did you do?"

Sameer's eyes flickered and slowly opened. He looked at the audience surrounding him, concern etching in their faces. He almost wanted to take advantage of the situation and corner Jai. But looking at Bani's worried face, he ditched the idea.

"Shahrukh Khan aagaya kya? Sab lok autograph ke liye wait kar rahe ho?" He asked Dadi mockingly.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, Dadi touched his cheeks and brought them to her face, in a gesture of blessing.

"Arre, Puttar, main to Hrithik ka fan hoon, idhar sign karoge?" She showed her forehead to him.

Maasi started laughing heartily, every one joined hesitantly except Rano and Jai.

Sameer peeked into their faces curiously, he couldn't gauge their emotions. Hmmm…Dal mein kuch kaala hai!!

Bani spotted Rano's eyes guiltily looking down, she grabbed Rano's shoulder forcefully and took her to a side.

"Rano, this is exactly how you looked when you put the frog in Mrs. Sheetal's drawer and crashed Pia's scooter into the wall." She berated her sister, "Do you know what could have happened to Sameer, he could have died. You and Mr. Walia – how dare you play this dirty trick?" Bani was shaking with anger.

"Di, it's not Mr. Walia's fault, he didn't know about it. I thought the allergies were only minor – I am so sorry." Rano confided, her voice laden with a mixture of guilt and shame.

Bani did not believe her. "I know how much Mr. Walia wants the children back in his life" Bani continued, her mouth twisting bitterly – "But this paramounts to blackmail, bringing everyone here, trying to make me feel guilty…"

"Di, it's been four years since I saw you, Maasi, Dadi, Aditya uncle love you like you are their own daughter, and Rashi – she loves you like a sister, they missed you – Mr. Walia never told us to come, he called to tell us to stay home and he was going to convince you to bring the children to the Walia mansion to show us. He couldn't stop us from coming." Rano was defiant and stubborn. "I don't like this Sameer guy anyway. He seems too confident of himself."

"Di, I always thought that you were a fair person, but today you proved me wrong. You are taking your anger about Mr. Walia on all of us. What did we do wrong? What did the children do, how could you punish them for Mr. Walia's supposed crime?" Rano charged accusations at Bani.

For once, Bani didn't have all the answers. She looked broken. She didn't really understand the bit about the "Supposed crime."

Sameer saw the interactions between the sisters, and came to Bani's rescue. He threw a pure look of hatred at Rano. He opened his mouth to give a piece of his mind to this witch of a girl. Cute but a witch nevertheless.

Bani raised her hand and closed his mouth, she shook her head gently at him. She marched briskly to where the khandan was waiting. She looked up at Jai and said quietly.

"You win, I will bring the children to Mumbai, but on one condition – you will give my a divorce by the new year. I will give you unlimited rights where they are concerned, weekends, summer and winter vacations, but I will be moving to US in Feb. No negotiations, no arguments, no cajoling will make me change my mind. Also I will stay in the outhouse with the children, but Sameer will have to stay in the house. The only reason I am coming there is to make sure that the children get adjusted properly" Bani rushed into a speech.

Jai looked relieved, the first battle was won –

With a sincerity that was heartfelt, he thanked her for her decision.

Masi, dadi, Aditya, Rashi looked relieved.

"Oh, Mr. Walia – one other thing - I don't want to see Pia's face when I am living with you, I hope you will respect my wishes." Bani's face was stony.

Rano opened her mouth to say something, Jai raised his hand and stopped her mid-way.

"Rano, all in good time!" He admonished her. Sameer observed this interchange with interest.

Ranveer stepped forward just at that moment, to touch Bani's feet – "Mami, I hope you are doing well – Itna Khoobsoorat aur pyare bachoan ko maine kabhi nahi dekha!!" he said shyly as he wrapped an arm around Raashi's thickening waist.

Bani looked at him aghast, "Is this Ranveer? What happened to him in the last four years?" He looked so affectionate and loving? She noted the way that Raashi was looking at him, with unwavering love and adoration!

She looked around for Sahil, he was no where in sight. She hesitantly asked Rano, "How is Sahil?"

The color left Rano's face – Bani noticed that there was no sindhoor in Rano's parting, no mangal sutra in her neck. What was going on?

Bani instinctively knew something was drastically wrong, she hoped that she was not the cause of Rano and Sahil's breakup. Bani felt a deep urge to breakdown and cry.

Jai sensed what was going through Bani's mind, he intervened and said, "What happened was for the best, Bani – trust me! Rano is better off without him. The divorce happened for other reasons, it had nothing to do with you and I. Sahil is with Jigyasa in Malaysia, he is married to Mr. Virani's daughter now – he is working with his father-in-law in the import/export business. Jigyasa is living with them now."

Bani wasn't so sure how to take all this, she still blamed herself for Rano's marriage breakup. She should have been there for Rano.

Sameer grinned cheekily, this is getting really interesting, he didn't understand why he was happy about Rano being single, but suddenly he was. It might not be too bad living in the Walia mansion for a while.

Tomorrow: Pia and Pushkar's story and Jai's attempts to win Bani back.

For all the silent readers, thank you so much, for all the people who left encouraging comments my thanks, gracias, merci, danke, shukriya and dhanyavad. Keeps me motivated to write.



I am soooo mad with Sahil – what an Idiot, that's what happens if you marry some one who is a retard.

PART X

Rano, Maasi and Dadi insisted on coming to Bani's B&B Inn. Jai reluctantly went upstairs. Raashi, Ranveer and Aditya went to their respective rooms.

Rano was really impressed with Bani's secret garden bed and breakfast inn – on the way to the inn, she learnt that this was the first of Bani's hotel and she had eighteen of them through out the country. Sameer had helped her to expand the inn into a chain. The inns sported signature gardens that looked like mini vrindavans.

Bani had thousand questions to ask Rano, she barely contained herself. Bani tucked the children in bed and kissed each of them on the forehead.

The older women were really tired after the long journey and the excitement. They slept in the room Bani gave them. Sameer was still oozy after the allergy incident and excused himself.

Rano was waiting for Bani outside. The two sisters went into each other arms and sobbed their hearts out. Once the weeping was over, Rano said, "I need to tell you about Pia"

Bani turned into a stone, "I don't want to know."

"Di, After you left, we came to know Pia's taxi went down in a ravine in Tirupaty. I was so mad at her, but she was my di, I still loved her with all her faults. Mr. Walia was so depressed when you left, he couldn't be bothered. So Pushkar and I went to Tirupaty. we could not find Pia's body or the taxi driver's. It was almost as if she never existed on the face of the earth. Pushkar never gave up, he kept looking for her." A sad look passed over Rano's face.

"I was having my own issues with Sahil, he could not blackmail Mr. Walia anymore, Mr. Walia could care less about what people thought of him. He fired Sahil on the spot and asked him to leave the house and take his mother with him. He left Ranveer alone, only because of Raashi, because she was so close to you. My marriage broke to pieces, Sahil was so weak, he couldn't take it the defiance from me, and the rejection from his family members. He wanted a divorce, I was more than willing, I just wanted to have nothing to do with the Walias." She paused briefly to take a long breath.

"After my divorce, Papa (Aditya) helped to start a small industry manufacturing eye wear and accessories. It's become quite successful". Rano had a grin on her face. "It's called 'Ranban' (Like Rayban) she named the most fashionable eye wear company in India. She looked mischievous, "Aditya uncle named it, after you and I".

"Coming back to Pia, it turned out that she didn't have the accident after all, she came back a year later, she had a child, a cute little boy with her. She told all of us, that she didn't want to hurt you and that's why she left and she concocted a story about the accident in Tirupathy. She tried living alone with the baby for one year, but you know she is not used to taking care of a baby and trying to make a living through hardship."

"But too bad for her, Jigyasa aunty had something up her sleeve, she showed us a DVD that contained Mr. Walia and Pia's so called mistake in Dubai. It clearly showed that Mr. Walia never had the one night stand with Pia, didn't even take his clothes off, in fact his last words before he went to sleep were "I Love you Bani, I can't live without you." The very same night, Pushkar and Pia had a reconciliation and the little boy is not a Walia but he is a Shukla."

"Pia begged everyone for their forgiveness, Pushkar took her back because of the child – but he couldn't live in the Same town, he went to Singapore with his family."

"Di, Mr. Walia and I searched for you everywhere, we even gave newspaper advertisements in every major city – nobody could find you."

"Di, I have seen Mr. Walia reaching the rock bottom, he went into a depression, he became an alcoholic, he couldn't forget you – when he received your divorce papers just before you disappeared the face of earth – I thought he would murder the delivery boy who brought the papers."

"It took him a long time to recover from this path, yes, I was there with him, he and I shared the Same pain, we loved the JKe person who didn't think of us one minute." Rano accused angrily.

Bani was so shocked, she just fell to her knees and started sobbing, the sobs wracking her frame, Rano came to her and took her in her arms, both of them started crying one more time.

PART XI

Sameer

After a fitful sleep, Sameer woke up – he knew what he had to do, he loved Bani dearly, but he wondered if he really loved her like a lover, he just wanted to take care of her, make her feel better (like the strays that he always took in when he was younger). He knew she never showed only platonic interest in him, never even touching him or kissing him once, even after he proposed to her. It also seemed clear that she loved Jai with all her heart, but he wasn't sure about trusting Walia. Sameer make up his mind to prolong this engagement until he found how things work out between Jai and Bani. In the mean time, he had some work to do with Ms. Rano Dixit.

Rano

Rano couldn't sleep either, she tossed and turned and was scheming with ideas on how to get Sameer out from Bani's life. Bani and Jai belonged together, this American gringo needs to get out and let them be. She cringed when she thought about the way he almost died because of her. Guilt hit her hard; she thought she will try to be nice to him today. She will somehow take his attentions away from Bani by some other means than seafood and shellfish. She gently took the glasses from her face, put them on the nightstand and dozed off.


Rano was awakened rudely at seven o'clock in the morning; an obscenely cheerful person was singing a hindi song with an American accent, quite badly at that. She bristled with anger, got up from her bed, her hair all mussed up, her eyes puffed with lack of sleep. She opened the window and glared at the singer. She saw Sameer working out in the garden without a shirt, he looked up and saw her in the window. It was too late for Rano to hide from him.

Sameer started singing even louder,

"Mere Saamne Waali Khidki Mein,
Ek Chand Ka Tukda Rehta Hai,
Afsos Ye Hai Ke Wo Humse,
Kuch Ukhda Ukhda Rehta Hai"

Rano was seething in anger, how dare he, he is engaged to be married to her sister and singing these songs to her. She purposefully put her glasses back on her face and gave him the evil eye.

Sameer, changing the lyrics of another popular song belted out some more verses.

Koi ladki ne chashme se dekhi,
Aage se dekhi, peechhe se dekhi,
Upar se dekhi, neeche se dekhi
Dil ka haal kya banayi, yeh dil waali

She opened the patio door and marched out in the garden, her silk nightgown sweeping royally behind her.

She put hands on her waist and poked his bare chest with her finger.

"You!!" She bellowed, "Who do you think you are? Kishore kumar?, you are disturbing the peace and quiet around here – stop it, right now." She ordered and turned her back and marched off.

Sameer threw back his head and laughed. He was beginning to enjoy this, he always loved fireworks during deewali!!

He put a shirt on went inside to get a cup of decent coffee, he missed starbucks…

Maasi and Dadi were in the kitchen with Krissy and JK. Dadi was telling them the story of "Kuch Kuch hota hai". Maasi was shaking her head in resignation. They had bowls of cereal and small tublers with orange juice in front of them.

Dadi and Maasi asked him what he wanted to eat for breakfast, and fussed all over him when he said he just wanted coffee.

Rano was sitting at the table, her face covered with the newspaper, her glasses almost falling off while she dozed.

Sameer helped himself to some coffee and filled a large mug with the SAMe and set it in front of her.

Krissy ran and got her glasses from her room, poor tyke, she had her eyes tested recently and they found she needed to wear glasses.

Krissy wore the glasses that were a size too big for her on her little nose, just like her aunt and started nodding off, imitating Rano.

Everyone started laughing hard and Rano woke up with a start, looked at the audience. She eyed Krissy with the glasses and her mouth opened in a big Oh.
"You too!! Oh my poor baby!!" - She came and hugged Krissy affectionately, her eyes tearing up.

Something in Sameer's gut squeezed, "come on SAMmy, old boy – you are getting too sentimental" he told himself. He himself started wearing glasses at the age of four. Now with Lasik, he had no need for them, but suddenly he wished he wore glasses.

Rano looked at the mug of coffee in front of her, then at Dadi and Maasi – She said, "App log bhool gaye, I don't drink coffee, I only drink milk every morning and night!". Sameer was deflated when he heard this, he hated milk, he always imagined his wife and him going out to starbucks to get coffee after their morning jog. "What is she, a three year old, to drink milk every morning and night?"

JK shyly looked at his aunt and asked her, "Maasi, do you want to come swimming with Uncle Sameer and us? Uncle Sameer taught us how to swim", he proudly declared.

Rano was touched at this little boy who was so grave, sensitive and serious. "JK, I would love to come with you, but I don't know how to swim, can I just come and watch you?"

Sameer shook his head in mock resignation, too many things stacking up againt Ms. Rano Dixit, first the milk, then the swimming….he always assumed that he would marry a swimmer, after all he himself was a champion swimmer and surfer. Not promising at all……

Next: Bani and Jai


PART XII

Bani

Bani was not able to sleep that night, Rano's words about Jai kept ringing in her ears, her heart wanted to sing loudly, Mr. Walia was never betrayed her trust, he loved her. She felt sad about all the time that was lost, the time they could have spent together, loving each other, bringing up their children. She lifted her hand to wipe the tears from her face, she felt the engagement ring that Sameer gave her, she suddenly stilled thinking, how can she tell Sameer that she doesn't want to be married to him anymore? He waited for her three years, he supported her through thick and thin, took care of her children like they are his own – how?

She didn't even if she can ever go back to the Walia mansion, there are too many unhappy memories – she started remembering in a flashback, how the three sisters went to Jai, how they were insulted by Jigyasa, Ranveer, Roshni – she remembered Jai, sarcastic, surly and cruel. She remembered how she got married to Jai when he was in love with Pia.

For some reasons, she also remembered their first night on June 19th, she still remembered it every small detail about the night, the kisses, the caresses, the mastery with which Jai loved her.

She had the worse moments of her life with him but also the best moments of her life. She doesn't know what to do anymore, divorce Jai and get married to Sameer, or break the engagement with Sameer and put the life back with Jai?

She finally fell asleep, tired and confused.

Jai

Jai needed a drink very badly, but he swore off drinking about a year ago, when he reached the rock bottom – he had drunkenly fallen face down in one of the hotelier's conference.

It was only Maasi's tears and Adi's threats about giving up his friendship made him go to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings – he kicked the booze out from his life, but he couldn't push Bani out from his memories. Every waking moment, she was in his thoughts, every time he slept, she was in his dreams. He hated himself for all the tears he caused Bani, he relived the moments of his arrogance, his snobbishness hurt her, how he never made it easy for her. His heart bled every time he thought about how he kept throwing Pia's name in Bani's face when they first got married. He couldn't stay in the bed any longer. The clock showed 6 am.

He got up and donned sweats and T-shirt that fitted his body's contours. (Thank God, he had lost the 25 or so pounds and was looking slim and trim). He sat on the chair and put on his running shoes, lately he had taken up running ten miles every day, it took him an hour and half but it cleared his mind when he ran. He went down to the lobby and asked for the directions to go to the Secret Garden B & B inn.

He called Adi who answered groggily and told him where he was headed and asked him to get a change of clothes to the inn. Then he set out in the direction of the inn.

At the Inn

The kids were trying to drown Sameer in the swimming pool, he threateningly picked them and threw them in the water again making them burst into peals of laughter. Despite of herself, Rano was being pulled towards this man. She guiltily started, "Chi, what was she thinking, he is her sister's fianc." Her mood was totally spoilt, she got up and went inside, she needed to get away for a little while.

She went into Bani's room, Bani was asleep, she looked exhausted, her emotions taking toll. Rano stared at her sister for couple of minutes – her sister who was innocent, the straightforward now had an air of maturity and depth that she didn't have. She still looked petite and slim even after having the twins. Bani stirred in her sleep and opened her eyes. She looked straight into Rano's sad face, then smiled briefly.

"Sorry, I overslept – What are the kids up to?" Bani asked Rano. Rano excitedly told her what all the kids did that morning. For the first time, Bani felt what she did four years ago, by taking off from Mumbai was utterly wrong. She denied the kids all this love from her aunts, uncles and grandparents. She remembered the astonishment and utter disbelief in Mr. Walia's face when he looked at her and the kids and made the association at the beach.

She knew how she felt when she saw him, she wanted to fly into his arms, touch his face and smoothen the hair that was getting ruffled in the sea breeze.

She shook herself out of her reverie and got up from the bed. She gave bath to the kids after their swim, dressed them up in JK in short overalls and Krissy in a short skirt with a T-shirt. She quickly finished her morning ablutions and dressed in a simple black sari, with a yellow polka dot blouse with short sleeves, piped with black ribbon around the necks and at the end of the sleeves. She wore long earrings that almost came to her shoulders. She quickly put kohl around her large, expressive eyes and a lip-liner. She touched the lip-gloss to her luscious lips before exiting her room.

Jai stopped in front of the inn- it was a little over 12 miles from the hotel to the inn. It seemed like he covered a long distance in a short time, may be it was the desire to be with Bani. It was funny, even though he was delighted to have the children and instantly loved them; It was Bani who was in his blood, his heart, his soul and under his skin.

He entered the lobby of the inn and was told to go to the guest house behind the inn to see Bani singhania (her mother's maiden name).

He strode to the back, the first thing he saw was Bani looking extremely beautiful, in a black sari, bent over and leaning into the swimming pool, struggling to lift a scruffy looking dog out of the water. Jai walked closer and pulled the dog out, he held it far from him to stop the dog from shaking the water over him too.

Over the dog's head, their eyes met, it was as if they were never apart, losing themselves in each other's souls.

PART XIII

After endless minutes, Jai bent down to put the dog. Immediately it lifted it's leg against his and started to pee.

"Oh My God!! This dog really needs to be disciplined", Jai said with exasperation as he moved away from the dog – now he needs to have sneakers washed.

JK came running and lifted the scoundrel and started to tickle the
Dog, he looked up at Jai and said, "This is my dog, his name is 'Tramp', Krissy has one too, it's called the 'Lady', mom named them because Lady is nice and Tramp is such a rascal". He looked around for Krissy, she was brushing Lady's mane and trying to braid the dog's hair.

Jai looked mockingly at Bani, "Lady and the tramp, how original!!"
For the first time since the encounter on the beach, Bani smiled. Jai stared once again, he knew he was her slave once again – just a look, a smile turned him into jelly.

However, they had more serious things to talk about. Aditya, Ranveer, Rashi came in just then. They brought Jai's clothes and shoes. Bani directed Jai to Sameer's cottage to take a shower in the guest suite.

Jai was extremely happy that Sameer and Bani were not sharing a house, a room, or a bed yet. He took a quick shower and came out. Aditya in the mean time, roped everyone to play gin rummy. Dadi, Maasi, Rano, Sameer, Adiya were playing seriously. Looked like the stakes were pretty high. Bani and Ranveer were entertaining the kids, while Raashi looked on. She was dreaming about her own child playing in this happy setting.

Jai walked towards the smaller group, he said quietly, "Bani, can we go for a walk and talk?" Bani nervously fiddled with her pallu, she kept looking at Rano to come to her rescue. Rano was completely immersed in playing cards, and she couldn't be bothered.

Almost against her volition, she got up, Ranveer waved them off and said he is completely capable of taking care of the children and after all, he read enough books about childcare and rearing children. Raashi was amused by his cockiness, but told Bani and Jai to leave.

Over the next half an hour, Ranveer found exactly how interesting his life is going to be handling children. He had to take each of the kids to the bathroom twice, stop them fighting with each other four times, keep them jumping on the glass table six times, warn them off of writing on wall a dozen times. He was exhausted while Raashi looked at him with pride.

Second Chance

An uneasy silence ensued between Jai and Bani for a while. Finally, Jai stopped and turned toward Bani.

"Bani" He husked. Bani couldn't look up into his face, she was so skittish, she looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

"Bani" Jai repeated. "I have to say something to you, I don't want to rehash all the things that happened four years ago, but I want to say this. Five years ago, when we got married, it was for all the wrong reasons- our marriage was based on a foundation of lies, deception, mis-understandings. I am not proud of my behavior throughout the marriage. You were young and impressionable- I took advantage of you in many ways, I was cruel, inconsiderate, opinionated and plain obnoxious." He paused briefly. He looked at her wryly and said, "Stop me anytime, you feel like it!"

Bani smiled suddenly, "Don't forget incorrigible, snobbish, pompous and a dictator", she added to the list.

Jai smiled, his eyes twinkling, "Aren't you going to add sexy and handsome to the adjectives."

They both laughed again.

Jai became serious again. "Bani, we never started our marriage on an equal footing, you were so young, I was a cynical old coot!! I want to do things differently with you this time around. I want to date you, court you, woo you, fall in love with you - make you fall in love with me this time around. If I have to compete with the likes of Sameer Bhavsar, so be it – I know he is younger, richer, funnier and kinder than me – but you and I shared something a long time ago, I am hoping that you would give me a chance to achieve that happiness we had one more time. Will you give me a second chance, Bani? Not for the children's sake, not for the family sake, but for you and I?"

Bani's heart stopped beating, her eyes were trapped in his stare, he looked so sincere, so handsome, so…

Then she suddenly remembered Sameer, her misery returned in full force. "I can't – Please!! I can't be unfaithful to Sameer, this is not right!!"

"What's not right is you and him, we are still married to each other, for God's sake!!" Jai's voice was brittle with anger and frustration.

"What if I choose not to give you a divorce?" He looked down his aquiline nose at her.

So, the old arrogant Jai was just beneath the faade, Bani decided. She was boiling with rage.

"You, You – pig headed man!!" Words failed her. "I love Sameer, I am not breaking my engagement with him for you. I am marrying him, whether you like it or not!" She marched off in a huff in the direction of the inn, leaving him staring at her furiously.

"Over my dead body" Jai swore under his breath. "Damn you, Bani – I won't let you marry him" He screamed at her graceful back, staring at her swaying behind. After a couple of minutes, he ran behind her and stopped her in mid-stride. He was going to try different tactics on her.

"Look, I am sorry, I am really sorry…OK, I will give you a divorce but on one condition. If you stay with me in the house, in the guest room – he hastily corrected her misdirected notions, until you get married in February, stay until the kids adjust to the new place, new people and Sameer can stay in the outhouse instead."

Bani was shocked at his suggestion, but she knew she had no choice in the matter. She was cornered and she knew it.

"I hate you, Mr. Walia" She glared at him, and she turned her back on him, marching off once again.

Jai wanted to grab her and kiss her senselessly – she can be so bloody, bleeding unreasonable!!

PART IX


BANI turned her head to look at her twins. They were playing on the beach like a pair of seal pups, wriggling, and jumping in and out of the waves that were washing gently onto the white sandy beach.

"Be careful, you two," she warned, adding to the older twin, "JK, not so rough."

"We're playing cops and robbers." He defended his boisterous tackling of his twin. Cops and robbers had become their favorite game this summer, although Krissy was the reluctant participant in this game.

They had their father's night-dark hair, thick and silky, and olive-tinted skin. Except Krissy's eye color was hers, while JK's eyes were exactly as his dad's, she reflected ruefully.

"Told you I'd get free." Krissy laughed as she wriggled dexterously out of JK's grip.

"Careful. Mind those rocks and that pool," Bani protested, as JK brought Krissy down onto the sand in a flying tackle that had them both laughing and rolling over together.

"JK, look—a starfish," Krissy called out, and within a heartbeat they were both crouching side by side, staring into a small rock pool.

"Mum, come and look," Krissy called out. Obligingly she picked her way across to them, crouching down in between them, one arm around JK, the other round Krissy.

"Come on. And I'm the cop, remember." JK urged Krissy to get up, already bored with the rock pool and its inhabitant.

Kids, Bani thought ruefully. But her heart was filled with love and pride as she watched them dart away to play on a safer area of smooth sand. She turned to look back towards the hotel on its rocky outcrop, while still keeping her maternal antennae firmly on alert. This inn was, in her opinion, the most beautiful of all the hotels she owned.

She looked back at her children. They would miss Goa, and the wonderful they had all enjoyed here.

"Remember," She had told herself wearily, "whatever I am going to do, I am doing it with love—for you and for him."

She owed Jai that much; he had lost so much. Yet, he had given her so much, not just the kids, but he had given some things that were beyond price: self-respect, emotional self-sufficiency; But what Sameer gave her were far more important in life; he gave her the ability to give and receive love in a way that was healthy and free of the taint of destructive neediness. He had been so much more to her than Jai whose love destroyed her.

Determination burned steadfastly in her eyes, turning them as dark as the heart of an onyx. She had been poor before, alone, without the support of her family — and survived.

The worry of the last week had stolen what little spare flesh she had had from her body, leaving her, in her own eyes, too thin. Her watch was loose on her wrist as she pushed the heavy weight of her sun-streaked dark hair back off her face and kept it there with one slender hand.

"Watch, Mummy." Obediently she obeyed JK's demand that she watch as he and Krissy turned cartwheels. One day soon they would be telling her not to watch them so closely. As yet they hadn't realized just how carefully she did watch over them. Sometimes, with two such energetic and intelligent kids, it was hard not to be over-protective—the kind of mother who saw danger where they saw only adventure. Her own thoughts silenced the ever ready 'be careful', hovering on her lips. "Very good," she praised them instead.



Jai stood in the shadow cast by the rocks and looked down onto the beach. His mouth twisted with angry contempt and something else.

How did she feel now? He wondered, knowing that fate had reneged on the bargain she had struck with it, and brought her into the close proximity of her husband, who she ran away from.

Had she cursed him, her sister, or herself? Did she still feel that he betrayed her trust? And what of her kids? Jai believed that the father should be a part of their upbringing. This belief hardened his mind to pure steel. He had never and would never let anyone deflect him from his chosen path, or come between him and his single-minded determination to get his wife and children back into his life.

With that thought firmly in his head, he made some phone calls to make sure that inn's were taken care of in Bani's absence. He told the domestic servants at the Aligarh beach house to make sure the house if ready to receive the two children and make the rooms comfortable for their stay.

Although, he knew he was playing a dangerous game, he decided that Bani and the children needed some alone time. He needed accomplices to make sure that Sameer was out of the way, who better to assist him than Adi and Rano, along with the rest of his loving family?

He briskly walked in and sought Sameer – He told him that all of them are leaving to Mumbai that afternoon. Sameer bristled at the authoritative tone Jai used, but didn't protest much.

Mumbai

Every one was exhausted when they got home to the Walia mansion. Bani and the children were told to stay outside by Maasi and Dadi, although Jai was impatient with them, he resisted the temptation to argue with them. They came out with 'aarthi' plate from the prayer room, put tikka on all of their foreheads and welcomed them with the 'deep'.

Bani was touched while the kids felt important. As soon as they settled down a bit and ate their lunch, Sameer was taken to the outhouse by Rano and Adi. They showed him the outhouse and where things are. The place was stacked with food, newspapers, books, video games. He checked his laptop, he could do most of his project work, but there was network for email and communication. He looked around for his cell phone and couldn't find it. He got up to look for a phone to dial out, but found there was no telephone. He went to the front door and tried opening it, found it was locked from outside. With a sinking heart, he realized he is going to be held a captive in the outhouse.

In the meantime, Jai asked Bani if he could take the children out for ice-cream. Although Bani was not too keen on this, she nodded her head. However, Krissy had other ideas, she kept asking her mother to accompany them on the ride. Reluctantly, Bani left with them. She felt tired, sleepy and grumpy, after the ice-cream she started dozing off. Jai stared at the top of her head as she fell asleep on Jai's shoulder. The car finally rolled to a stop in front of the Aligarh Beach house. Jai raised a finger to his lips to silence the kids, he lifted Bani into arms and strode into the house. Before he left, he signaled to the driver to leave and go back home.

He knew she will hate him for this, but he had no choice. He hoped that Rano and Adi would keep Sameer entertained at the Walia mansion. He went to the master bed room and laid Bani gently on the bed and pulled a blanket over her thin frame.

PART XV

Jai had the maids get two cots for the children into the master bed room. After talking non-stop with him, they too started dozing off. He helped them change into their pajamas and tucked them in after reading them a story. He put on a cotton pajama bottom on and climbed into the bed next to Bani.

He stared into her face for a long time. Against his volition, he reached out to her face and smoothed a lock of hair that fell on her face, then bent down and kissed her forehead. She stirred in her sleep, mumbling something and caught his head and brought his lips to her mouth.
For Jai, it was as if the thirsty, wandering person in the desert found the oasis. As she snuggled closer to him, he deepened the kiss, his arm circling her narrow waist. His other hand started caressing her slowly, first her earlobes, then her cheeks, he rubbed her shoulders with his thumb pads. His hand traveled to her waist, spanning her ribcage. Then he slowly circled her navel and spread his fingers over her flat stomach. Her sari slipped down a little, his fingers felt a long and thin scar on her lower stomach. His fingers stilled, his eyebrows coming together in a frown. He felt the scar again, feeling the slight bump under his thumb. This must be the scar from the C-Section. Rano told him about the long labor and the Ceasarian, Bani had to go through at the birth.

Bani burrowed her body closer to him, feeling the warmth blazing though her from his shirtless body – She felt as if she was on fire….
She grabbed his head and started kissing him back passionately.

Jai felt as if he died and went to heaven. If he died in her arms today, he would be a happy man. Slowly he turned her on her back and dragged his mouth to her chin, nibbling the underside softly, the he licked her throbbing pulse on her neck, and finally moved further south.

"Jai", Bani breathed in sharply!!

"Mmmm, Bani, you are so beautiful, kiss me back, Bani", He ordered huskily.


PART XVI

Bani stirred sensuously and lifted her arms to circle them around his neck. Jai suddenly came back to reality. The kids were sleeping in the room, Bani would wake up and hate him for taking advantage of her. He groaned under his breath and slowly removed her arms from his neck. The more he tried to move away from her, the closer she kept moving towards him. He gave up trying to ward her off and covered the blanket over both of them.

"Bani, you are killing me!!" he thought to himself. He could smell her freshly shampooed hair, her talcum on her body, the perfume at all the pulse points – every breath she took, he felt against his chest. He gave all attempt to sleep, it was the most pleasurable yet most torturous night of his life.

Bani woke up at the first light, completely rested, she tried to stretch languorously, but felt constrained because something or someone was holding her tight. Alarmed, her eyes flew wide open.
Shock hit her in waves, what was she doing here in the king size bed, sleeping next to her estranged husband?? She remembered this bedroom vaguely, Aligarh beachhouse??

She felt the warmth of his body next to hers, his heartbeat thudding against her ear – was everything she felt last night real? Did she and Jai….she noticed too late, he had no shirt, her sari was in a disarray….She wanted to shrivel and die with shame, how could she do this? How could he? Jai Walia – suddenly it hit her, she was brought here to the beach house without her knowledge, she was put in his bed, she was kissed and god knows what else…..She was furious, she removed his arms around her and got up.

Jai missed her warmth and was trying to encircle her again, she substituted a pillow as her replacement. He burrowed his head deep under the blanket and flung his arm over the pillow.

Lady and Tramp came running, they licked Bani as she sat on the edge of the bed with her head in her hands. She showed no response to their cheerfulness. They went around and started licking Jai on his face…

Wet, warm licks around his ear lobes, the corner of his mouth, he opened his eyes, his lids heavy and full of desire…He yelped when he saw the two little canines lustily tasting him all over his face. The children woke up and were sitting in the bed looking at Jai and giggling away….He came out from his slumber rapidly, his arms lifted the dogs and placed them on the floor and shooed them away.

He sat up shirtless on the bed and stared at his children giggling away. They looked so adorable; the tears started burning behind his lids. He opened his arms wide - they hesitated only for a minute before running to him. Jai hugged them tightly until they wriggled their bodies uneasily. He loosened his hold and started to tickle them. The next few minutes were chaotic beyond belief; wrestling, tickling, rolling, and pillow fighting until all three of them were exhausted.

Bani stood by the window watching them, her heart aching at the sight before her. She hated him, but she hated herself more for denying her children this…

The maid came in carrying a tray laden with breakfast, orange juice and coffee. Bani told her to take it back to the kitchen and she and kids will come and join in a few minutes.

She quickly brushed the children's teeth, and washed their faces before sending them to go eat their breakfast. Jai was standing by the window, a knee length robe hung loosely around his muscled frame, the sash was open.

Their eyes caught and held on for endless moments. Finally, Bani opened her mouth…

"You were sneaky and dishonest with me - If you were open and
truthful, things would have been so different." Her voice broke. He didn't know whether she was talking about the past or the present.

Bani continued, "I loved you so much, more than life itself, more than the sisters I raised, but you were so selfish, you were so scared of losing me and being alone, you decided I wasn't mature enough to handle the truth, every time I turned around there was a secret, whenever I turned around, there were these jealous relatives of yours who wanted to pull the rug away from under my feet – you were blind to the happening in that house. Or may be you were not blind and didn't care if my sisters and I were treated badly." Her accusations were hitting him like arrows.

"Listen carefully, I am not coming back into your life again. I can not live my life with uncertainty, I can't take it this time around" She turned to go.

Jai reached the door before she touched the door knob, he closed it quietly and stood against the door blocking her exit.

He held her by the shoulders and whispered to her, she could barely hear his words.
"Bani, you can't go!! I won't let you, not this time around, Please", he begged her.

"Yes, I was insufferable, I was blind, I was selfish and I did not look after you as I should. But Bani, you kept secrets from me too, you treated me like a little kid that needed to be protected from Jigyasa and Ranveer, you didn't have enough trust in me that I could take care of myself. You were always trying to dig into my past and trying to remind me of the forgotten things, and Bani, I want to be your protector, no man likes it when his wife wants to be his savior and protector while he is blind to what's going on."

"For both of us, things need to be different in the future. We both made mistakes, mistakes that were really costly, I still don't know why you aborted our first child, but whatever reasons, I trust you, I am not going to question you, ever – but I wish you would tell me, on your own volition – I could have hired detectives to figure out what happened but I didn't."

"One more thing, Bani – the only reason I brought you here was because, I don't want Sameer to influence your decision. I could have taken advantage of you last night, but I didn't – I want you to want me when you are in your senses, I want you to love me, like I love you," He looked at her disbelieving eyes, "Oh, Yes! Bani, I love you more than our kids, although they are precious, they are not as precious as you are!" He reached and touched her face, ran his thumb over her quivering lips, then slowly he bent and touched her lips with his own.

"I love your lips," He whispered against them, "I love your eyes," forcing them to close as he kissed her eye lids, "I love your hair", he kissed her parting, "I love your graceful neck", more kisses, "and I love your beautiful..", she dragged his head down and closed his lips with her own to stop him from talking.

Jai clutched her hair and dragged her away from him, breathing heavily…"You can only have me, if you tell me you love me," although he said it jokingly, his eyes were completely serious.

Bani's eyes fell away shyly, she couldn't bring herself to look him in the eye.

"Mr. Walia, mai to aap se bahut pyar karti hoon", "meri zindagi to bahut adhura rahegi, aapke bina" ( I love you very much, my life is incomplete without you), he could barely hear her words.

His arms came around her and lifted her bodily, his lips closing on hers in a deep, passionate kiss.

They broke off only when they heard the kids giggling, Jai reached behind and brought them into the circle and together they were complete.

PART XVII


"Can we stay here a few more days?" Bani asked Jai while eating breakfast. "I really am not ready to be with the whole family right now." She explained.

"I seriously think I can't…" Jai mumbled. "I have some thing planned."

"What do you mean?" Bani questioned him. She didn't understand his reluctance to stay, she thought he would welcome the alone time with her and the kids.

"It's a surprise, we need to be at the mansion day after tomorrow." Jai was scared of her reaction.

"I thought we agreed there were no surprises," Bani was disappointed.

"This is not that kind of secret, it's a good surprise." Jai refused to let her in on the secret.

Bani looked at him suspiciously, his eyes were shining with excitement and nervousness. Something was really up.

"Oh, one more thing, Bani, I can't sleep in the same bed with you until we reach Mumbai." Jai looked defeated when he said it.

What the hell was going on? He chased her, he kidnapped her, he told her he can't live without her, he kissed her senseless…now he was telling her that he can't sleep in the same bed as her? What kind of joke was that?

Bani stomped off from the breakfast table in a huff. Jai ran after her into the bedroom, but she slammed the door on his face and locked herself from inside.

Jai was thinking to himself –

Bani, I want to make this perfect for you, for us – the first time around, our marriage started off as a lie, I am going to marry you again, make you mine, with saat phere, mangalsutr, sindoor and the whole works, but this time, I want to see, know that, I am marrying you – I want our first night to be perfect. I want today and tomorrow to be just you and I getting to know each other without the sexual tension between us. I want you to be like the maiden untouched before the marriage, I want Aditya to give you away in kanyadan. I want this to be a surprise to you!!

Instead of saying all that, he knocked on the door and begged Bani to let him in. "Bani, mere baat suno, darwaza kholo", Bani refused – she was angry as hell…Jai didn't know what to do!!

Loud enough for her to hear, he started quoting Omar Khayyam,

"A loaf of bread, a jug of wine, and thou beside me singing in the wilderness. And wilderness is paradise now …"

He heard no reaction from Bani, drastic situations called for drastic measures…

He started singing from 'Laila Majnu', his voice completely toneless (Besura, just like when he sang to Bani during Anu's engagement party)


Meri Aankhon Mein Hain Tu
Meri Saanson Mein Hain Tu
Tu Hi Mera Sapna Hain
Tera Hi Yeh Dil Hain
Jo Mere Seene Mein Dhadakta Hain

Meri Aankhon Mein Hain Tu
Meri Saanson Mein Hain Tu
Tu Hi Mera Sapna Hain
Tera Hi Yeh Dil Hain
Jo Mere Seene Mein Dhadakta Hain

He thought he heard a laugh from the other side of the door, "Bani, Please," He cajoled her, "you will see, why I am doing all this very soon".

Bani started to think (Not good, Jai, Bani the bond is rising to the hour), she will have her ways of finding out what he has in mind – She hasn't read all those Sherlock Holmes novels for nothing.

She opened the door slowly and walked close to him. She hugged him close, rubbed her slim yet sensuous body against him, one of her hands strayed to his bottom, then she stood on her toes and slowly kissed him on the corner of his lips, she lingered there for long minutes and then her fingers pinched him on his bottom cheek – She slowly whispered in his ear, "you know, it's Ok, I think they say, abstinence is good for the soul", then she turned around and walked in to the bathroom to take shower. Two can play this game, can't they?

Jai opened his eyes, they were tortured beyond endurance – the sweet witch is going to drive him nuts in the next couple of days.

He needed company and real fast!! Then he thought about Sameer, he doesn't need any competition yet, he has to endure Bani's torture for two more days.

He called Adi and Rano, barking orders at them for making all the arrangements at the temple. He talked to Maasi and told her about his plans, she was ecstatic.

Walia Mansion

Rano was thrilled, she was proud of herself, the way she kept Sameer out of trouble. She couldn't wait to go and tell him about Jai and Bani's reconciliation.

She knocked on the outhouse door, only to listen to silence from the other side, she knocked again, this time harder. She was getting worried about him, what if something happened to him, as it is, he is allergic to foods and has lizard phobia (fear of the lizards), and this time of the year, the lizards do come into the Outhouse.

She retrieved the key out of her jeans, and opened the door, she walked in, she couldn't see anyone – all of a sudden, she heard a bolt hitting home and she turned around to see Sameer standing against the door, hands folded against his chest, glaring at her.

Damn, Damn!! How could she fall for this dumb old trick?

PART XVIII

Rano closed her eyes in frustration, "Damn!!!" She cursed again.

Sameer started clapping his hands, "Wah, Wah!! Amazing!! First you poison me, next you kidnap me, what else do you have planned for me, let your bodyguard goons beat me up?" each word he softly spoke came and hit her like arrows.

She was miserable; she started shaking her head negating him. "I didn't mean to poison you – I read that you were allergic to seafood, but I didn't know how bad, I just thought it will put you out of commission for a couple of days, I am really sorry, I would have never…" she broke off in the middle.

"Oh! Yeah, what about kidnapping me and locking me up in this hell hole?" he was belligerent.

"This outhouse is not that bad, and besides, I am not really sorry that we have locked you up!! I wasn't going to let you come in between my Di and Mr.Walia." She responded with determination.

"Really, is that right? And what right do you have to make that decision on behalf of Bani, did you ask her if she wanted to be with Mr. Walia? Did you ask her whether she thinks I am wrong for her? Do you always jump to conclusions about what's right and wrong? Don't you think you are being a little too judgmental?", Sameer was like a criminal lawyer questioning the accused.
Rano had the grace to look ashamed. He came close to her and whispered seductively, his lips almost touching her temple.

"Dear Rano, or is it that you suspect that I may be more interested in the younger sister than the older?"

She thought she heard him wrong, Rano's eyes widened behind her wide rimmed glasses. She was furious!! She raised her hand to give him a well deserved slap.

He caught her hand, before it reached his cheek. He twisted it behind her, holding her captive –

"Now, Now – Mrs. Bali!, is this anyway to treat your guest?, I thought a Mehmaan is like a God!! Aren't you suppose to cater to my every need?" His tone was suggestive.

Rano was shocked at his audacity, "What are you suggesting?"

"Hmmm, let's see, I am bored out of my mind, I know there are bodyguards waiting outside to break-in the door if you as much as shout – I wondered if you would entertain me?" Again she reddened at the double entendre (meaning) in his speech.

"Mrs. Bali, all I am suggesting is play cards with me or if you like just talk to me", he cajoled her. "Please? I can grovel, if you think it will help?" Then he made a theatrical gesture by getting down on his knees with his hands folded, "Pretty please!!", then he made the cutest puppy face she has ever seen in her entire life.

She hated herself for succumbing to his charms – She rudely swept herself out of his way and said, "That's Ms. Dixit for you, I am no longer Mrs. Bali."

"Thank God for that", pat came the sardonic reply.

She didn't know what to make of it. She changed the subject and asked him if he wanted to eat anything. Then without waiting for his reply, she went inside the kitchen, and started looking though the refrigerator for making Spanish omelette.

He followed her into the kitchen and made himself comfortable on the kitchen counter.

"So, it looks like you know all about me – you seemed to know that I like Spanish Omelette, what else do you know, the color I like?" She stiffened but didn't make any response to his statement.

"You know that I like red, is that why you are wearing red today?" he looked amused. Hearing this, Rano turned to look at him aggressively, "That is so not true, your favorite color is baby blue, not red – I read in business week", she stopped talking as she looked into his eyes that were twinkling with mischief. He looked so smug, she wanted to wipe that smile off of his face.

She turned back to the cutting the vegetables, the knife in her hand attacked them viciously.

He put up his hands in mock fear, "Please, don't wield that knife so dangerously, I am an only child. My mom will miss me dearly!"

"Rano, I know all about you too, your Di kept talking to me so much about you, I feel that I know you from inside out. She missed you the most! You are the apple of her eye, you know that, don't you?" tears started rolling on her cheeks, her slim shoulders shaking with emotion.

Sameer got down the counter, and went to stand behind her, he turned her slowly and hugged her and let her weep all over his cashmere sweater.

After, she was spent crying, he gently disengaged from her, "One more thing Rano, Bani told me all about your adventurous cooking and how your family used to spit it out when you were not looking.
Anyways, I don't much like garlic and ginger in my kheer, do you?
So, you cut, I cook - you set the table, I clean afterwards, how about it?" He stretched his hand for a deal.

She laughed through her tears and placed her hand in his, "Deal! Let's get to work".

Sameer wanted to keep on staring at her, but decided to take things slowly – he removed his hand slowly from hers and turned to cook the omelette.

"Rano, if I promise not to run away and not to go after Bani, will you let me mingle with your family? I fell in love with Mr. Walia's extended family, looks like he can't be that bad, because so many people love him."

"I was a lonely child, my dad passed away a few years ago and I feel like spending some time with Maasi, Dadi, Rashi, Ranveer and Adi uncle." His tone was solemn.

She swallowed hard, his sincere words moving her until tears threatened again. She couldn't trust herself to speak and nodded vigorously instead.

They ate in silence and when they were done, they cleaned the dishes amicably. He told how he met Bani three years ago and how it took her so many years to get over her grief over Pia's betrayal and Mr. Walia's affair. He regaled her with the antics of the children while they were growing up. Rano was all ears and listened to him attentively.

"How about that card game, are you ready to lose to me?" She knew he was provoking her into a response, but she wanted to take him on. She wasn't going to tell him that she never loses in cards.

"If you insist", she replied coolly, "but I only play for stakes."

"But I don't have even have my wallet on me, all I have is my watch, and the clothes on my back." He was disappointed.

Rano looked thoughtful for a minute, and then she grinned cheekily, she reached into her pocket and placed a thousand rupees on table. "OK, I will play for money, you can play with your Tag Hueur Watch, your 24K neck chain, the ring on your middle finger and if you run out of all those, then we will play for your clothes." Rano suddenly realized what she said, and tried to withdraw from her bet.

"Oh, no! you are not going to back on your bet, I am ready – Let's play. What do you want to play?"

"Texas Hold'ems" Rano declared.

"But I don't know how to play that game." Sameer complained.

"Don't worry, I will teach you, I am a good teacher" Rano smirked.

Pretty soon, Rano stripped him off of his expensive watch, chain, ring, then his shirt.

Rano was suddenly shy looking at his muscled torso – she put the cards aside and said she had enough of the card game.

Sameer insisted that they play until they finish ten rounds.

Next thing that came out was his tee - Rano scrambled to her feet and ran to the door, opened the bolt and escaped outside.

She heard him laughing heartily as she exited from the outhouse.

She said loudly, "I hate you, Sameer!!!"

PART XIX

Rano sat by the pool, her feet dipped in the water, it was a bit cold, but she needed some cooling down. What was happening to her? One, she was ashamed that she did so much research on him on Google and all the business magazines. Two, she dared him to strip while playing cards. Three, she tried to cook for him. Four, she started to fall for him. She should be certified mad and see a shrink.

Suddenly she was angry with Bani as well. Sameer is Bani's fianc. Little does he know that Bani is back with Jai. How can Bani dump Sameer who was with her for three years within a week of meeting her estranged husband, Jai? Was she even aware of how much this would hurt Sameer? She added one more to her growing list. Five, she started empathizing with him and was trying to protect him from getting hurt.

She finally went into the house and told Maasi and Dadi, she wasn't comfortable leaving Sameer alone in the house. Maasi and Dadi stared at her as if she has gone crazy. Stammering, Rano tried to explain how lonely Sameer is, she couldn't look them in the eye. They both looked at each other and smiled conspiringly.

It was almost evening time, it was getting dark, the three of them went to the outhouse together and opened the door. They could see Sameer lying down on the couch, in the dark, one of his arm covering his eyes, the other supporting his head.

As they opened the door, light seeped in, Sameer slowly removed his hand that was covering his eyes and smiled sleepily at Rano.

"Char Kandil, Tum Aagayi, to kamre mein roshni aayi" (Four lanterns, referring to her eyes covered with glasses, you came and brought the light in).

"Wah!! Wah!! Puttar, Sach bola tum! Mujhe lagta hai ki tum to ek shair bhi ho" (Son, you said the truth! It seems to me you are a poet too?)

Rano glared at him for referring to her as 'Char Kandil', that's what everyone used to call her when she was growing up. This man is impossible! She turned to go, Sameer barred her way and put up his hands in mock apology, "Sorry, Sorry, bad joke!! Seriously, I love your glasses – If I hadn't done Lasik, I would have bought your eyewear. He tried to redeem himself in Rano's eyes.

Dadi and Maasi watched this interaction with much interest. They thought it Looked like Adi had to prepare giving away two brides instead of one.

Dadi and Maasi invited Sameer to come into the main house, they ate, chatted for a while and played caroms together. Sameer found Rano irresistible; he kept staring at her until Dadi and Maasi started coughing discretely. Rano blushed and excused herself saying that she needed to talk to Bani.


Bani had a long chat with Rano, she seemed so much in love with Jai, Rano almost jealous. Bani tried to gather information from Rano about the day after tomorrow secret but failed to do so. Irked, she asked Rano to put Sameer on the phone.

Sameer took the call inside, Bani was apologetic and said how sorry she was to break up with Sameer. She told him, he deserved better, somebody, who is totally in love with him. Haltingly, she explained their relationship was based on liking and never love, and she never felt her heartbeat wildly for him, like it does for Jai. Sameer heard her in silence.

He agreed with her, his love for Bani was more of a friend's love, he never even felt a burning desire to kiss her or touch her, unlike he did with … It hit him hard then, he was in love with Rano, Oh my god!!

Just before hanging up, he asked her a question, "Bani, how would you like me to be your brother-in-law (Dewar??) and be a family member?"

Bani was confused, "What are you talking about, Sameer?"

He laughed and said, "I found this wild filly, I think she needs a strong hand – I believe I can provide that!!"

Bani asked him if he was drinking heavily, he guffawed and hung up, saying he will explain later.


Ranveer had his chin cradled in his hands and was sprawling on the bed. He loved watching Rashi prepare for bed. First she brushed her hair, about fifty strokes, then she picked up the peach body cream and applied it to her arms, her legs and her face. Then she made cute little faces in the mirror. He loved everything about her, she seemed to be getting even more beautiful as she was nearing labor.

Her smooth, silky hair fell almost to her waist. He needed to touch it's burnished length against his cheek. As she was about to bend and put cream on her legs, he got up and went close to her. He kneeled in front of her and took the lotion from her hands, he lifted her leg on to his thigh and started applying the lotion in small circles, first on her feet, then her ankles, then her calves and then her knees. Their eyes met as he reached his hands crept higher. She couldn't breathe anymore.

"Ranveer!! Please – " Rashi murmured weakly.

"Yes, Rashi, do you want me to massage a little more?" Ranveer was enjoying his wife's blushes. He loved how shy she was.

He stood up and took her hands in his and gently lifted her from the dressing stool. Then he took the seat on the stool and sat her on his lap.

"Rashi, do you know how happy I am?" Ranveer murmured against her cheek.

"Not as much as I am!" Rashi whispered back shyly.

"So, tell me – Mrs. Bali – What are we going to name our child?"

"I like the name 'Manav' – Rashi hesitantly spoke.

"Umm, that's a lovely name, but not a very good one for our daughter!" Ranveer declared pompously.

Rashi laughed, "You seem to be sure it's a girl? So tell me, Mr. Bali, what will it be if it's a girl?"

"Raveena" he promptly replied, "I used to have a crush on Raveena Tandon in college, I had a huge pinup of her in my room."

Rashi sulked, "Most definitely not, I don't like the name"

"oh-oh, some body seems to be jealous", Ranveer declared proudly.
Rashi tried to get up from his lap and move away from him. He held her back, tightly, then he started nuzzling her shoulder – "I only want a pin-up of you Rashi, no one else, and if you don't like the name, we can call her 'Aashika', would you like that?" She squirmed on his lap excitedly, "I like it very much!!"

He groaned, "You do know what you are doing to me, right?"
She was all wide eyed and innocent.

"No, tell me, what am I doing to you, Ranveer?" this time, she was trailing her lips along his jawline.

He groaned again, this time in frustration – "You know it's not safe, you only three days for the delivery."

Rashi was eager to correct him, "Ranveer, I read there are other ways to make love during pregnancy."

"Really? What kind of books are you reading these days, Rashi", Ranveer was amused.

"Dadi gave it to me! she said that she read it when she was pregnant", Rashi confided.

Ranveer looked mortified, he quickly pushed her away from his lap, "Yew, my grandmother did that with my grandfather – I don't want to know."

This time Rashi laughed – She showed him the book Dadi gave, 'Kama sutra – 101 ways to make love'. They both looked at each other and started giggling.

"Rashi, thank you for making me break my vow of bachelorhood" He was sincere. She laughed softly, "Oh, I got some help there too, Papa gave me this book", she referred to Adi and showed him a book, 'How to tempt a man – 101 ways to tease your husband".

Ranveer's closed his eyes in utter disbelief, no wonder he broke his vows, she bewitched his household completely and twisted them around her little finger.

"Let's go to bed, before I hear of the advice Maasi or Mamaji gave you", resignedly, he put her in the bed, got in and covered them both with a blanket. They both looked at each other and started giggling again.


Bani was getting bored, how dare he? Avoiding her like a plague? Ignoring her attempts to seduce him? She tried lifting up her sari up to the kneees while walking on the beach ahead of him, showing off her slim ankles, her shapely knees, her rounded calves, she batted her eye lashes at him, touched him with all kinds of pretext. She even tried to flirt with the waiter in the sea side restaurant to make him jealous. He didn't seem to budge! She cursed him, "Damn you Jai Walia!"

Jai was found the whole charade sweet and agonizing at the same time. He was sure, she didn't have a clue as to his suffering.

He got a pitcher of iced tea, some lemon halves and some honey from the kitchen and placed them in front of her on the small rounded table. He drew the chair and sat in front of her. He poured the tea in the tall glass in front of her, and squeezed the lemon halves into the tea. She was still sulking since this morning. She didn't talk to him and giving him the silent treatment.

"Milady, sugar or honey?" he smiled into her eyes. He added couple of sugar cubes in his own. When she pointed to the honey, he looked for the spoon to get the honey from the jar. When he tried to get up and get a spoon from the kitchen, she caught his hand and dipped his fingers into the honey.

"Bani, look what you have done, now I have to go and wash!!", Jai complained. She has gone crazy, and she was driving him insane.

Bani lifted his hand with hers, spread his fingers and started licking them one at a time, her whole face an expression of sensuous delight as she tasted the honey on each of his fingers.

Desire rippled in waves as he took in her lips coated with honey, her tongue delicately licking his fingers, his body was reacting as if it had it's own mind.

He got up and leaned over the table, gently disengaging his hand from her grip, then his lips closed over her honeyed ones, long minutes rolled by with neither of them trying to break apart.

"If I had known that you were going to have your wicked way with me, I would have taken you to the Walia mansion yesterday!" He confided weakly.

Looks like you have designs on my virtue," Jai joked but she knew it was only a front. He really was scared of her!!


Jai ran to the shower and stood under the icy cold shower with full clothes on. Teeth chattering he came out and stripped out of his clothes, and reached for his toweling robe. Instead he found a washing cloth on the toweling rod and nothing else.

He shook the water out from his eyes and hair like a drowned rat and screamed loudly,

"Baniiiiiiiii..!!"

No response from Bani. He quickly held the washing cloth as protection and sneaked into the bedroom.

He couldn't find Bani in the bedroom. He sighed a relief and opened the closet to get to his clothes. His jaw dropped in shock, all his clothes were gone, his closet completely bare.

"Baniiiiiii…!!"

No response again.

Jai pulled the bed sheet from the bed, and wrapped it around, with the washcloth, dried his hair vigorously.

From the window, he could see Bani sitting with Krissy playing house, pretending to drink the tea from an imaginary cup. He saw JK playing with the dogs, throwing sticks and asking them to fetch.
He stood there for a long time, a contented smile on his face. Suddenly Bani looked up and caught him looking at them. Time stood still as they stared at each other, lost to the world.

Bani came back to reality, when Krissy pressed a stone into her hand and insisting that she ate the chocolate chip cookie. Bani asked the maid to come and sit with the kids. Nervously, she went upstairs.

Jai was sitting on the bed, a sheet wrapped around his waist, dejected, his head in his hands. Bani entered slowly, she came in and sat next to him, she pulled his hands down and lifted his chin up. She quietly said, "I am sorry!! I shouldn't have done that, I will leave you alone if that's you want, I promise!!" She started crying, her sobs wracking her frame, he thought his heart was ripping apart.

He caught her in his arms and hugged her tightly, pushing her face into his chest, "Don't, I am just an idiot, I don't know what I was thinking!! You have every right to get angry with me, I think by far, this is a stupidest idea I ever came up with." He paused, lifted her face gently and kissed her eye lids, dragging his mouth over her tears, her mouth, tasting the salty tears.

Long minutes ticked past, he gently placed her on the bed, lying next to her. He took her face in his hands, and whispered huskily,
"I love you so much, I am so lost without you – I think my heartbeat will stop if I ever lose you again – Bani Singhania Dixit Walia, will you do me the honor of accepting me as your husband, lover and father of your children? I meant to do this in the most romantic setting, roses, strawberries with wine, fireworks and candles – but at this moment, all I want is you, I don't need a setting to be with you, as long as you are at my side, holding my hand, smiling into my face, crying and letting me comfort you when you are sad." His eyes smiling as he looked into hers.

She touched his lips in wonderment, so this is what he was planning? And she ruined it for him?

"But we are already married, you said, you didn't sign the divorce papers?" Bani was confused.

"Bani, I want to marry you, I want Adi to give you away in kanyadan, this time – I want to know it's you under the ghungat, I want to fill the sindhoor in your maang, walk the saat phere with you around the fire, I want to have my suhag raat, I want to lift your ghangat and take out your jewelery one at a time, listen to your heartbeats as I make love to you all night!" He murmured huskily, his eyes darkening with passion.

Bani was lost for words!! She was blushing profusely.

"Bani, I am still waiting for your answer!" he was patient with her.

"Yes!! The answer is yes!!" She launched herself at him and started kissing him all over his face.
Laughingly, he caught her and flipped on to his back, taking her with him. His hands held her head and brought her to the level of his eyes.

"So, will you put me out of my misery, and make me the happiest man alive, Mrs. Walia?" Jai whispered, while nuzzling her neck.

"Only if you don't let me sleep on the floor like you did on our first night!" she held on to his hair, not wanting him to stop what he was doing.

"Never on your life, you are stuck with me for seven lives". Jai declared happily.


PART 21A

Rano looked up questioningly as Sameer came out from the room after his conversation with Bani. Anger, concern and other emotions that she didn't know clouded her eyes which she tried to conceal desperately.

Sameer walked up to her, his demeanor non-chalant.

"I hear wedding bells are in order." Rano searched his face to see if he was being bitter or sarcastic. She could not discern any emotion whatsoever.

She kicked herself for wanting to know what lay behind his stony faade.

"Did you know that my mom is coming tomorrow from America, she wanted to spend the next couple of months overseeing my wedding arrangements?"

Rano shook her head negatively.

"Mother has been desperately trying to marry me off for the last four years. She has been ecstatic that I chose to marry finally." His tone was flat.
Then he turned slowly to Rano and said tauntingly, "Your sister chose to marry Mr. Walia last time when she thought his honor needed to be saved. Would you save me from a similar predicament, Ms. Dixit?"

Rano was shocked beyond belief; she stared into his eyes, nonplussed. She couldn't tell if he was jesting or if he was serious.

She tried to laugh it off, but then stopped short – he wasn't laughing.

"Then would you fall in love with me?" He paused briefly, then he reached for her hands, "There is one difference, however…" He hesitated for a moment. It was as if he was trying to muster courage for whatever he was going to say.

Then he quoted from Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice", her favorite book.

"You have bewitched me body and soul, I lllove, l llove, love you, and I wish to be a part of you from this day on."

Rano's eyeglasses slipped a little on to her nose. Her mouth was agape.

He slowly removed her glasses from her nose and put them on the window sill –

Still holding her captive with her with his eyes, he said, "Well, then – would you take pity on this guy and put me out of my misery?"

Still no response came from Rano, she looked shell shocked.

He bent his head, his shoulders blocking the light from the window as his mouth covered hers gently. Long minutes ticked by, the silence being broken only by their heavy breathing.

Rano finally broke off the kiss, she had tears in her eyes – "Please, you can't do this to me – I am not going to be a substitute to my sister – I have too much pride in myself, and I can't bear being a second fiddle to Di in your life."

She wrenched herself free from his arms, and ran out from the room, past a shocked Jai who was coming into the house with Bani and the kids.

Jai was confused at first until he spotted a lost looking Sameer standing by the window.

He ordered Adi to take out the children and Bani to go after Rano before striding purposefully close to Sameer. He glared at Sameer as the younger man stared back sardonically. Then his clenched fist contacted Sameer's chin powerfully. Sameer reeled from the punch and only saved himself from falling with the support of the wall behind him.

"What did you do to her? Why is Rano crying? If you harmed her anyway, I swear to you, that I will skin you alive", Jai spat out through his clenched teeth.

Sameer touched his bleeding lip gingerly, then threw back his head laughing.

"I guess, that's what they call tit for tat", he brushed aside Jai's hands on his collar.

"Take it easy, man!! I just asked her to marry me", Jai pulled back his hand to punch Sameer again but stopped just in time.

Bani and Rano came running into the room again when they heard the ensuing fight, albeit a one-sided fight.

"What? Say that again!!", Jai barked menacingly.

"What I am trying to say, Mr.Walia, is that I am in love with your sister-in-law, I was always a sceptic of love at first sight, but looks like that's exactly what happened to me, what I felt for Bani is so brotherly compared to what I feel for Rano, with Rano, I feel like provoking her, protecting her, fighting with her, making up with her. For the first time, I feel like my life will have no meaning, if I don't have her in my life. Yes, I know, that this is all happening too fast, and Rano doubts my intentions…", He heard two gasps from the entrance of the door and looked up. Bani and Rano were standing with their mouths open.

Jai left Sameer's collar and helped him stand upright. His face broke into a grin, his glance meeting Bani's before returning back to Sameer.

He murmured quietly so only Sameer can hear, "Rano is like my little sister, if you harm one hair on her body, you will have to answer me – I will kick you're a** all the way to America, do you hear me?". Then he added, "I hope you know what you are in with the Dixit sister's – they really travel on the brooms at night, wicked, wicked witches that enamor unsuspecting men, bewitching them, entrapping them until we are completely lost without them. Good luck buddy!!" He patted him on the shoulders and turned around. He put his arm around Bani's and gently pushed her outside and closed the door behind, leaving Rano and Sameer alone.

His parting shot to Sameer was, "Promise me that you will have a spare bedroom in your house, whenever Bani kicks me out when we have a fight, I will do the same for you!!"

Rano was squinting to look at Sameer without her glasses. Sameer took a few steps to close the distance between them.

He put a finger under Rano's chin and lifted it up so he could look into her large, clear eyes.

"So Ms. Dixit, what will the answer be?" He asked her, his voice full of love with a hint of nervousness.

"On one condition, Mr. Bhavsar," Rano's eyes glinted with mischief, "If you buy the building right next to the Walia mansion and move in with your mom, we will close this deal."

Relief flooded his face; he pulled her into his arms roughly. "It's a deal!!" She threw her arms around his neck and reached up to kiss the beautiful mouth that's curled up in a smile. That's how they were spotted half an hour later by Masi and Dadi who came looking for them.




PART 21B

There were hundreds of things before the big day tomorrow. Adi was making phone calls to the event managers, florists, inviting the guests, warding off the paparazzi who were hounding him about interviews with the rich and famous bridegrooms. This was going to be the beautiful if not the biggest wedding in Mumbai. Both Jai and Sameer wanted the wedding to be small but intimate – Just close relatives and friends.

Adi hung up the phone from SunIndia – They wanted to know the details of the wedding. He was unusually annoyed today with the damn paparazzis. On top of it, it was raining outside.

He made a list of all the things that he had to do.

He had to make sure that the tent was installed, the closed circuit TVs were set up for the wedding to be telecasted, so all the guests could see the wedding, the palanquins to carry the brides and the horses for the bridegrooms have to be ordered. The cars have to be decked up with flowers, tin cans and married signs. The honeymoon suites have to be arranged in the Walia Residency Hotel. He had to call the best pundits to perform the wedding.

He sorely missed the help of Rano and Rashi who were like his two arms. Being the brides, Rano and Bani were busy with beauticians, henna, shopping and other things that brides have to do. Raashi was looking too tired to even stand for more than five minutes.

Maasi and Dadi were busy with making the arrangements for the Sangeeth with Anu's help.

So that left him and Ranveer doing all the work. No wonder he was feeling the pressure and on a short fuse.

He heard the door bell ringing for an Nth time, "Where did all the stupid servants go?" He wondered walking to the door.

He flung open the door to give a piece of his mind to whoever was on the other side of the door. They could take their damn finger off the doorbell. He saw a lady looking like a drenched rat at the door, her hair hung in a riotous curls.
"This is where the wedding is happening, right? I almost thought that I was at the wrong address!! You must be the butler, you took your sweet time opening the door, haven't you", the lady barged in, handing the umbrella and her raincoat to Adi.

Adi was staring at the woman who flew past him, what the bloody hell? How dare she treat him like he was a domestic servant?

She didn't give him a chance to open his mouth, she gave him an impatient look, "You must be a little slow, Don't you ask your guests to come in, sit down, ask them if they need some tea or coffee and inform your master about their caller?"

Adi was furious – so she want's to be treated like a guest, does she – the gall of a reporter barging in like this, pretending to be a guest, trying to get the scoop on the wedding. He smiled at her tightly.

"I am sorry, m'aam – I was busy with some other arrangements inside and didn't hear you ringing the bell. Can I get you some tea or coffee, or some soft drink perhaps?" He hoped that he was servile enough.

She looked at him approvingly, "That's more like it, can you get me some water, please! By the way, where is every one? How come it doesn't look like a wedding venue? Is Mrs. Walia in the house?" She started asking a barrage of questions.

"M'aam, I will get you the water first, every one is inside making arrangements, Bani madam and Rano madam are upstairs applying henna, they will be back in a few minutes. Who should I say is calling?" Adi played along. He checked her out while he talked. She was petite, about Bani's height, may be she was in her mid thirties, wearing a ridiculously fashionable outfit that shouldn't be worn by women of her age. She was pretty, ok may be beautiful, if you are into oval shaped faces with large eyes, upturned noses and pouting mouths.

"Can you tell them Kalpana madam from Singhania Media is here to see them? Oh! No Ice in the water for me, OK?" She plopped herself into an armchair, wetting the expensive upholstery with her wet clothes.

Adi grimaced, that was his favorite chair. "Damn it!! The bloody reporter."

He marched into the kitchen to get her a glass of water, he will be the good Samaritan, give her some water, a towel to dry herself, wait till the rain to subside before chucking her out.

He spotted a tray in the kitchen, placed the water glass, filled a mug with coffee from the flask, looked for the sugar, found a small container that looked like sugar and carried it outside.

He placed it in front of her, she took the glass and drank the water thirstily.

"M'aam, how much sugar do you need in your coffee?" Adi wasn't sure why he was continuing to play this dumb game, but he couldn't stop.

"Three spoons, please" Kalpana answered toweling her hair vigorously.

Adi raised his eyebrow quizzically, he knew only one other person who took that much sugar in her coffee, his mother.

He stirred the coffee absently with the spoon before handing it out to her. It was time to inform her about his identity and send her out packing. He was getting tired of this game anyway.

She took a sip and spat the coffee out choking…

"What the bloody hell, Kitne himmat hai tumhe is taraf harkat karne ka? (How dare you do this kind of act?) You mixed salt in the coffee for me, I will make sure that you are fired, you hear me?" She was spitting mad.

Bani and Rano came down the stairs just that minute,

"Adi uncle, what's happening here?" Rano was the first to reach them. She stared at the lady standing indignantly, she looked so familiar, like her mom, like the picture of a ten year old who was standing next to her mother in the old photographs that she found in a trunk.

Bani reached them, she recognized the lady in front of her instantly, this was Kalpana Singhania, her mother's younger sister who had no contact with them for the last 28 years. Why was she here now?

Kalpana stared at the two sisters, her eyes filled with tears, they slowly started tricking down her cheeks. She approached them slowly, she lifted her hands to caress their cheeks gently.

It was a very emotional reunion, tears flowing freely as they caught up on the past. Kalpana told them about that she came to know about Bani and Rano recently after she read an article about them, she said that her father was so embittered when Kiran eloped with his clerk's son, he forbade everyone from keeping in touch with Kiran's family.

Just then Kalpana looked at Adi staring at her suspiciously, she remembered the salt in her coffee incident, she indignantly looked at Bani and Rano and asked, "What sort of domestic help do you guys hire? This guy is completely hopeless as a butler. He had the audacity to mix salt in my coffee. He should be fired immediately."

Rano and Bani looked at each other and then Adi and started giggling. "Adi uncle and butler?"

Kalpana was confused, why are her nieces giggling?

Adi grinned suddenly, hmm, he was missing pulling the leg of Jigyasa since she left to Malaysia, I think this will be fun for him.

PART 21C

Adi stretched his hand to introduce himself to Kalpana, just when she was about to place her hand in his, he retracted his hand, and smoothed his hair.

"I am sorry madam, but domestic help are not allowed to shake hands with house guests." Adi declared gleefully.

Kalpana had the grace to look ashamed. Stammering, she apologized to him.

Dadi and Maasi came along with Anu bantering jovially about who is going to sing and dance in the sangeeth.

Adi suddenly remembered the most important thing, sh**t, he completely forgot about the stag party. Two bridegrooms, he had to make the arrangements for the dancers to come, the drinks, where the heck is Ranveer when he is needed?

He excused himself hurriedly and left the ladies.


The whole gang was there, Nachiketh, Tarun, Ranveer, Adi, Jai, Sameer, Mohan, Taoji and a surprise guest, Pushkar. Pushkar came with his son Amit at the invitation of Adi. Pushkar informed them about his divorce with Pia and her move to USA, he had the full custody of his son, last he heard, Pia was working as an Airhostess and trying to find a rich husband.

Drinks were flowing freely, People were drinking, guffawing loudly and pulling the legs of the bridegrooms about the suhag night. Adi hired some go-go dancers to perform – they started performing, titillating dances that would land the men into trouble if they were found out.

Adi made sure that they were holed up in the left wing of the house far away from the womenfolk who were in the Sangeet party. Little did he know that Kalpana madam hired some guys dressed up in cops clothes who barged in and promptly arrested Bani and Rano in handcuffs. Then they started doing a slow striptease around the shocked brides.

Jai and Sameer couldn't concentrate on the go-go dancers, all they could think was the big day tomorrow, dreaming about the minute they would make their perspective brides their wives.

On a cue, they both stood up and sneaked out from the party. I think it was time to crash the sangeet and stare at their beautiful brides.

They slipped past Adi, Tarun and the gang, moved stealthily to the right wing.

They opened the door and stepped in, they saw Dadi and Maasi stuffing money into the underpants of the fake cops, dadi was twirling her dupatta around the neck of one of the dancers and dancing around him.

Bani and Rano were sitting on the couch with their hands cuffed and looked like they were enjoying the enfolding scene in front of them.

Jai and Sameer were steaming, jealousy searing them instantly. They both stepped into the room and strode to their women and blocked their view of the dance. Bani and Rano looked up to see who was blocking their view. Their eyes traveling the length until they met the fuming eyes of their fiancs.

Jai and Sameer reached to grasp their respective brides' hands. They lifted them bodily and carried them outside into their rooms.


Jai looked at Bani long minutes after depositing her on the bed roughly.

"The only man you will be looking at, Madam, is this man, in front of you, if I ever see you looking at any other man, I won't be responsible for my actions," Bani looked at him through her lashes, she was thinking of responding but decided against it, the mood he was in, she didn't trust him. But an irrepressible smile hovered over her face. She couldn't resist taunting him a little.

"How much do you charge for dressing up in a cop uniform? I like the fireman's uniform as well…"

Jai stared at her in astonishment as her words sank in. He was glad that he was marrying her tomorrow. Is this the same woman who he thought was goody two shoes and who looked so innocent and nave?

Then he flung his head back and laughed heartily, "Any time, sweetheart – you only have to ask."


Sameer stared at Rano, making her squirm uncomfortably. She dared to look up into his face, immediately her eyes dropped again.

"So you like to be hand cuffed?" Sameer asked blandly, "it's been my dream to have by wife hand cuffed to the bed, I don't mind it if you don't", he sat next to her looking at her suggestively.

Rano's cheeks flamed in a becoming color and she tried to scramble out of the bed. He gently pushed her back on to the pillow and rubbed his finger along her jaw line.

Then he issued the threat smilingly, "I will lock you up with me inside and throw the key away for a month, if I ever see you eyeing a semi-naked man."

What a Neanderthal man, she thought, but inside she was kicked to see his jealous reaction.


The rain stopped some time during the night, the day dawned clear and bright. The walia mansion was looking like the wedding venue after all, cars were parked outside, a music band was waiting outside to bring the baraat.

Tarun, Pushkar, Ranveer, Adi were dressed in cream, gold and maroon color brocaded kurtas and churidars. They had gold pagdis (headdresses) wrapped around their heads, and a long, maroon stoles adorned their necks. They looked handsome, men in their prime.

Bani and Rano stayed in Adi's house that night just a block away from the Walia mansion.

Jai and Sameer stayed in Mohan's house that night.

Jai and Sameer were dressed in white brocaded, long Nehru kurtas with churidars. The expensive cloth hugged their bodies to perfection, long red stoles wrapped around their necks. They had the headdresses in red, gold pagdis, decorated with pearls and brooches.

Their shoes were the kind that Maharajahs wore, jhoothis that curled in the front.

JK was dressed identical to the grooms, squirming uncomfortably in his clothes. He looked like a prince.

Jai sat straight on the horse, holding JK in the front tightly. His stomach was in knots, he felt nervous bridegroom marrying for the first time.

Sameer was sharing the same emotions on the other horse, except he was also nervous about the skittish horse. He would exchange this horse to a Harley Davidson Pillion any time. He was eager to get off the horse and go into the mandap as quickly as possible. He couldn't wait to make Rano his.

The procession seemed long, interspersed by the band and the gang of four (Adi, Pushkar, Ranveer, Tarun) dancing in gleeful abandon in front of it.

Finally the baraat reached the wedding house and the bridegrooms descended from the horses and holding their long swords (traditional wedding swords), they walked to their respective mandaps and waiting for their brides to arrive.


Two Palanquins were decorated with flowers and draped with purdahs to conceal the bride inside.

Bani was dressed in a red sari, completely laden with golden zari(silk thread), a thin, transparent, gold veil covered her face, her face barely concealed. That was one request Jai made in half jest, he said that he wanted to see the bride he was getting married to. Her blouse was tied in the back with doris (all the way). Krissy was dressed in a pretty red and gold ghagra, her midriff was bare, a small blouse covering her small body. She looked adorable. She sat in the palanquin with Bani.

Rano was wearing a red and gold legenga with a choli that was tied with doris as well. She had the same veil as that of Bani's. She sat in the other palanquin.

Tarun and Pushkar carried Bani and Krissy, while Adi and Ranveer carried Rano.

As they were helped from their palanquins, Jai and Sameer could not stop staring at their respective brides. Krissy ran to where JK was sitting (in the mandap right behind his dad and joined him on the floor. They both sat together holding the rice and the flowers.

Bani slowly stepped into the mandap on accompanied by Adi, her eyes caught Jai's as they both lost themselves in each other. (A public Jiya Dhadak moment)

Rano emerged from the palanquin and waited for Adi to come back for her. Sameer was impatient with the tardiness. He stood up to go and get Rano, only to be stopped short by his mom Dr. Saroja Devi, the famous Gynecologist and iron fisted ruler of the Bhavsar household. Finally Adi brought Rano to the mandap as well. As Rano came into the mandap, Sameer reached out and tugged her inside, holding her hand tightly.


When Adi was stepping into perform Kanyadan, the pundits stopped him saying that only couples should do the Kanyadan. Adi was disappointed and turned to leave, then his eyes spotted Kalpana on the side of the Mandap. He dragged her in, took the sindoor from pundit and placed it in her maang, whispering to her ears, just think of this as a marriage of convenience. Kalpana Singhania, CEO of singhania media works, a sworn spinster thus became Kalpana Bali.
Adi came to be known as the lightening fast worker from that day forward.

Adi and Kalpana gave away Bani and Rano.

Then the pundits tied the corner of the bridegrooms stole to the bride's dupatta. The pundits started chatting in unison the mantras, the holy hymns were translated into English and changed the meaning slightly to suit the times as the couples did the saat pheres.

The walk around the fire consisted of seven steps, the bridegroom saying to the bride: "Take thou one step for the acquirement of force; take thou two steps for strength; take thou three steps for the increase of wealth; take thou four steps for well being; take thou fifth step for offspring; take thou sixth step for the seasons; take thou seventh step as a friend; be faithfully devoted to me; may they attain to a good old age."

As Jai filled the maang of Bani with Sindoor, JK and Krissy threw the rice and flowers on their parents, giggling and clapping.

Sameer did the same with Rano and quickly planted a kiss on her forehead receiving a whacking from his mother on the side of his head as a reward for his impatience.

The couples came forward to receive the blessing from Adi and Kalpana, Dadi and Maasi, Sameer's mother Dr. Saroja Devi. Tarun, Pushkar, Ranveer, Mohan thumped Jai and Sameer on their backs for a well done job and hugged them heartily.


In all the excitement, no body noticed Raashi holding her stomach tightly, her water broke five minutes ago. Missing his wife on his side, Ranveer searched for her and spotted her in one corner clutching her stomach uncomfortably. He ran quickly to her concern etched all over him.

Then he was running all over, like a chicken who had his head cut off, Dr. Saroja Devi summed up the situation, asked every one to step aside, took Raashi to the back of the stage, laid on her fresh clothes and after fifteen minutes, delivered a beautiful baby boy. Ranveer saw all the blood and fainted promptly, Dr. Devi brought the little boy wrapped in a blanket outside to the proud grandfather Adi, who slumped at the sight of blood just the same way as his son did. Kalpana gave him a scornful look and supported him in standing upright.

Jai and Sameer looked equally squeamish but ventured to hold the cute baby in their arms. Bani and Rano cried copiously at seeing the miracle who was born on the Christmas day. The good doctor took the baby back to the mother as Ranveer was stirring from his unconscious state. He took the baby in his arms and stared in awe at the bundle in his hands and placed him on his mother's chest. He slowly bent down to kiss Rashi on her forehead and thanked her for the most beautiful gift he could ever have on Christmas day.


Suhag raat

The bedroom was decorated beautifully, the white curtains were moving slightly with the wind, the bed was covered in white cotton sheets, sprinkled with rose petals. The entire room was lit up with candles of various sizes and shapes. The bedside table had a tray with "Dom Perignon" champage, a basket filled with strawberries and a box of chocolate truffles.

Bani was sitting on the bed, still in her bride's apparel. Jai walked into the room and stopped short, his breathing became constricted when he saw her.

He slowly lifted her ghungat and desire burning in his eyes, Bani's eyes dropped shyly, he looked so handsome, she wanted to throw herself into his arms and hide her face in his chest. He removed her jewelery one at a time, each ornament he removed, he replaced it with a burning kiss. By the time, he was finished, she thought that she would go up in flames. She was trembling violently as he turned her slowly and started untying the doris on her blouse with his teeth. Each dori he removed, he stamped the spot with a kiss until he finally reached the small of her back.

"Please!!" Bani pleaded with him to stop.

"Bani, I have something for you!!" Bani didn't want anything right now except his mouth on her lips. He reluctantly pushed her away and gave her two boxes wrapped beautifully. The first had a beautiful platinum bracelet, JB written in diamonds in the middle. The second box had a jar, she pulled it from the box curiously – she swallowed hard when she saw the jar of honey. This time, she thought she will die of embarrassment and just hid her face in his chest. Bani the tigress turned to a nervous little kitten.

Jai discovered that at least, in bed, he was the boss.



Sameer walked into the room, the first thing he spotted was a tall glass of milk on the bedside, he made a face, Rano was sitting on the bed with her chin on her knees – he thought that he saw a mischievous smile playing on her lips. She slowly took out the bottle of ovaltine from behind and placed it next to the milk. Then she put a box containing his Tag Heuer watch, his gold chain, his cufflinks and his ring on the bedside.

"Oh! My god, no way! You are not going to ask me to drink milk, are you" he made a sad, pleading face begging her to have mercy on him.

Then he came close to her and sat on the bed, he held his nose and picked up the glass and downed the entire glass in one long gulp.

Rano felt like a heel, she was just trying to teasing him, she knew his aversion to milk.

"Sameer!" She started apologizing, he stopped her with a finger on her lips, "Darling, anything for you, if you give me poison, I will drink it willingly! You mean everything to me." She started crying, "I am sorry about the fish sauce in your pad thai, you could have died that day."

He slowly wiped the tears off of her face. "I will forgive you if you tell me you love me. I didn't hear you say that in the last two days." He complained.

She obediently told him that she loved him. He took some thing from his pocket and placed it on the bed. The first box had the same bracelet as the one Jai gave to Bani, except this one had the letters SR in diamonds. The second box had a deck of cards.

Then he placed a bet of several thousand rupees on the bed. When she looked at him questioningly, he whispered to her, in her ears –
"Its your turn baby, you have to take out all your jewelry one at a time, and after that each piece of your clothing each time you lose. If I lose, I will pay you in cash." However, this time he had a plan and the determination to win, a set of high cards in his sleeve, under the pillow and in other strategic locations assured him of his win.

The blush started in her cheeks and stretched all the way to her ears.

A grin spread in his face, finally he got the better of the invincible Rano, this marriage is going to be a whole lot of fun and adventure.

Thanks, I will post the post=leap some time today. Got to go to work, I would rather be here :-)

deleted this because it's a duplicate post..🤢

Please let me know if you don't like the story, I will stop.

PART II

That was four years ago in December, it's December again, Christmas season, the shops were festive and Christmas stars decorated in the homes, the church bells were ringing constantly. Goa, this time of the year always bustled with activity. The shops along side Beach road were open, the Christmas decorations hanging from their windows. Jai walked past them and crossed to the beach. He was overseeing the construction of his new hotel, the Walia Embassy Suites. It's Sunday and everyone was off. He decided to walk towards the light-house. He took off his Italian shoes, rolled up his chinos – He spotted his driver hovering behind him, he handed over his shoes, put his hands in his trouser pockets and walked on.

The sun was mild and the beach was full. He almost tripped and fell when a toddler ran in front of him. He reached to stabilize her and liquid brown eyes stared, her oval shaped face framed by hair falling straight to her shoulders. Jai's heart stopped beating for a minute, for a minute he was disoriented. She reminded him of Bani. He decided it was the eyes, they were so trusting; the white surrounding the pupil was stark against the brown, the gaze straight and unwavering.

An older woman came running towards them, held the child's hand and started to drag the child away. For an inexplicable reason, the child held on to Jai's legs and refused to leave.

She looked at him imploringly and said in a clear voice, "Can you build a castle for me?" Jai was hesitant and looked at the older woman –

She nodded her head vigorously, "Only if you want to, Mister, I need to go and round up the other rascal, just stay here and don't let her go near the ocean."

Jai was lost, he didn't know what to do. The child looked at him sweetly and tugged him until he was kneeling down on the sand with her. She started patting the sand and signed to Jai to join her. Both of them built a small castle in silence, she kept looking at him through her long eye lashes – Jai felt uncomfortable under the child's scrutiny.

To cover it up, he asked her, "What's your name?"

She looked at him with her liquid chocolate eyes and replied, "My name is Krissy". I am three years and six months old. My birthday is on June 6th."

"I know your name already", She continued.

Jai said disbelievingly, "Oh Yeah?" he wanted to pursue the conversation.

But all of a sudden, there was a whirlwind – some thing or some one came rushing and fell down on the castle, dismantling the work Jai and Krissy did. The chubby and sturdy menace stared at them belligerently – it was as if he expected Jai to confront him.

Jai eyed him coolly and said, "Did you enjoy that, boy?" If he expected the boy to back out, he was wrong.

The lad looked back as coolly and said, "Yes."

He turned to his sister and said in a strict voice, "I am going to tell mummy that you talked to a stranger."

Krissy leaned over and whispered something to him in his ear. The boy looked warily at her and turned to look at Jai. He nodded at her but continued to stare at Jai mutinously.

Jai was intrigued by the two children staring at him, he saw their grand mother approaching them. He spoke in a gentle manner, "And what is your name, young man?"

"Khadoos", Krissy replied gleefully, "that's what my mummy calls him sometimes". "I call him JK. Because it's easier."

Jai was thunderstruck, his thoughts taking him back to the time Bani called him that. He shook his head as if to ward off those thoughts and laughed uncertainly.

The Khadoos folded his arms and was appraising Jai in a methodical manner. He first looked at his Chinos, then at the linen shirt folded at the wrists, the expensive watch, the gold chain that Massi gave him and finally stopped at his face. The boy stared in to Jai's eyes as his own expressive and clear ones missed nothing. Jai noted his eyes were grey.

Then JK slowly and clearly said, "My name is Jai Kishan, You can call me 'Kishan' if you like".

Jai slowly extended his chubby hand to Kishan, and shook the young child's hand, "Nice to meet you, Kishan".

Jai didn't want to let go the child's hand. Krissy came and wrapped her small arms around his neck.

"Thank you for building the castle with me", she said shyly. "You are welcome." Jai reluctantly took his hand back from Kishan and unwrapped Krissy's hands from his neck. He surmised they were twins but not identical.

"Your mom and dad are probably missing you, your grand mother looks tired."

They both looked at each other and said in unison, "That's not our grand mother, that's Mrs. D'Silva, she is our baby sitter".

Jai lost his desire to walk to the lighthouse. He just wanted to stay here and talk to the monsters, who shouldn't be talking to strangers.

just read both parts...
hun that was like WOW... 👏
cant wait for updates...alas...im going out of town...
but i shall catch up when i get back...
oh how cute...jai and the two lil kids...
gee...i wounder whos kids they may be... 😉 ...
love the name krissy...remings me of threes company...the dumb blond...lol...
great job... 👏
JAZ

Wow hun that was so amazing, sounded so really, i could image everything happen in front of my eyes👏
I wish Ekta had your ideas
Loved how Jai meant Krissy, and they builted a castle, and awwwww jr. has a nickname called Khadoos so cute and he is like his dad
I hope that clicked to Jais mind
please write soon

Thanks for the replies Ziddi and jnawaz.

Part III is the meeting between JW and Bani. JW will be back as a roaring lion and Bani as a Ziddi ladki from Mt.Abu not willing serve herself on a platter for the roaring lion.

Will post later tonight.

Let me know if you like the story line so far.

I just finished reading the last two parts. Loved it will Jai find out those two kids are his.

I just read, 😊!!! That r so sweet!!! Please, cont.!!!

Oh I just read the parts. Great story line. Can't wait to read the next part. Can't wait for JB to meet as you wrote in preview I have a feeling that it going to be one rough meeting. Love the kids can't wait to find out Jai's reaction after knowing that they are his kids.
plz cont. soon 👏 👏 👏