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Hey all,
Here goes an OS based on the Mon-Tuesday episodes from this week. The premise and setting were too good to pass up on. This is just a slightly 'alternate' version of what we saw. Hope you all like it! Have a few typos in there, but too late in the day for me to re-read and correct, so please do excuse the mistakes and my laziness!
Nikki - this one is for you, I do hope I did justice to it.
***
The song for this OS is "Jaane Kaise Kab Kahaan Ikraar Ho gaya" from Shakti
Raman had seen a bright light at the end of the dark tunnel. When it came to Adi, nothing in the last few years had made him cheerful. Every mention of Adi in his life, every memory seemed to be darkened. When he dropped Bala off, he was ecstatic. His son would have some positive reinforcement, a guide to gently show him the right path. He was selfish too, he knew that Bala being there with Adi everyday may actually even get him more access to his son. He was that desperate for any information about Adi, the restraining order had made him like that.
He suddenly saw Bala coming back towards the car, and he rolled down the window. Bala then quietly told him "Dont worry about Ishu Raman. I will talk to her", It then hit him. In his eagerness to see his child reformed, he'd forgotten about Ishita. Before he could tell Bala that he'd take of it, Bala had walked off. Raman felt a tiny sense of relief. He did not know how to approach the subject with Ishita. He'd already made a few mistakes when it came to his past and present mingling. And now he was also dragging Ishita's family into the blackhole that was his past. "Any decent man would have asked Bala to stay away from Shagun and Ashok. But I ended up being selfish. I am going to break her heart again. and this time I dont even have an excuse." His thoughts wandered to the night when he asked Ishita to apologise to Adi. Even his daughter had seen the injustice of that act. He'd somehow repented his sins, and Ishita had forgiven him too. But it seemed different this time. For the first time in his life, he was weighing his feelings for her against his love for Aditya. He'd never put anyone before his children. He was used to going the extra mile for them, and anyone who came in the way was trampled. But this time, he wanted to make sure Ishita didn't suffer.
Ishita got a call from Bala when she was still at the clinic. When Bala told her about Shagun wanting to hire him as a tutor for Aditya, the first thing Ishita had said was "Thank God jiju. Now maybe the kid will get some direction in his life." When Bala further told her about his conversation with Raman, he added "Ishita, Knowing Raman, he may be worried about your reaction to this. So please think about how you are going to manage it, OK. I don't want to pre-empt any decision of yours, but I think you should make Raman understand that you are fully supporting this OK?" "No Jiju, i dont think he will care what i think. anyway, if he does, I will tell him i am ok"
When they met at night, they were both walking on egg-shells. Raman knew he had to take the first step. It was his problem, so he had to find a solution. He did not know if Bala had spoken to her yet.
"Hi Ishita, how was your day" he asked casually.
"Theek tha Raman, and yours?"
"It was very busy. BTW, I wanted to talk to you. Could we go out for coffee?" he asked
"Coffee? is waqt? Nahi, mood nahin hai" she said, before she realised why he was asking her for coffee
Raman's patience was being tested. He tried one more time
"Shall we go for a drive then? lets do something, if you don't like the idea of a drive, come up with a better one. I'll go freshen up"
She called Bala quickly to confirm if he'd told Raman about their conversation. When she found out that he hadn't, she realised how much pent up worry Raman had. "He must be struggling to find words to ask me for permission" she thought. She knew then that she had to help him find his way.
When he came back she sweetly said "Aah, now I know why you are suddenly worried about my day and my well-being. You want me to allow Bala Jiju to tutor Adi right?"
Raman was shocked, once more, because she seemed to have understood his feelings on her own. "Oh, so you already spoke to Bala then. So? What is your answer?"
If she conceded too easily, he wouldn't get the satisfaction of convincing her. SHe knew that, so came up with a spontaneous plan to make him work for it "Accha, now that you want something from me, you are being sweet. I want to see how far you will go"
"I'd go to the dark side of the moon if you want me to, i'd never say no to you" he muttered with an end of the towel in his mouth. She didn't hear him properly and asked him to repeat. "No, I said I will do anything for Adi, you know that. So tell me what do you want?"
"Be Ishita for 24 hours" pat came her reply. That 'dare' was silly and she knew it. She should have given him something more difficult. SOmething that would make him appreciate her more. But Ishita wasn't thinking.
"OK, whats so difficult in that. I just have to plaster on a smile and give people lectures. I'll even be a dentist for a day if you want. How hard can it be to pull people's teeth out!" He said that, but deep down, he thought that she had sub-consciously given him an opportunity to peek into her life, her soul. How could he say no to that. He'd have accepted her dare even if it wasn't for Adi.
A few hours into his 24-hour test, Raman looked at himself in the mirror. I was 2:30 AM, and he was showered and ready with his Tamil-look for the satyanarayan pooja.
He smiled at himself. He remembered the time when he and his family had stumbled drunk into the temple for some pre-wedding function. He remembered every time he closed his ears off with his hands when he heard the annoying nadaswaram. He remembered the look of indifference on his face, and disdain on hers. He smiled again, he had been such a fool. He had been the luckiest fool on earth.
He turned around to look at her. She was asleep on the couch, her long hair covering half her face, and the blanket covering less than half her body. He looked at the watch again and calculated. They had to be at her bua's place by 4:00. Ruhi wasn't around, so Ishita only needed time to take a shower and get ready. She was one of those rare women who didnt fuss about their looks, and still looked angelic. So he decided he'd let her sleep for about an hour more. They could get to the pooja a few minutes late, no one would mind. She deserved to sleep, she worked too hard.
He tip-toed, went to the couch and tucked the hair behind her ears. He took her hand placed it gently on her belly. He even pulled the blanket over her quietly and went out into the living room. He couldn't bear to be in that room any more. Not when he was feeling like that. He had to take stock of what he was feeling before he crossed any lines. He had voluntarily and consciously touched her today, for the first time. It wasn't to convince Ruhi that they were close, wasn't to put Shagun in her place. He'd never thought he'd ever be attracted to another woman after what Shagun had done to him. Attraction was such a small word for what he felt about Ishita. May be admiration was a better choice.
She waited for him to leave the room. Their door creaked so she knew he'd closed it and left. He opened her eyes and put her hand on her chest. She wasn't dreaming about the pounding in her heart. She was experiencing a phenomenon that could only be described medically as arrhythmia. She took a sip of water from the table nearby and sat up straight on the couch. She knew she couldn't go back to sleep. She knew she'd spend every moment analysing what he had done, and how she had felt about it. She touched the hair he'd tucked, she looked at the hand he'd placed on her stomach. and she even brought the edge of the blanket near her face and smelled it. She felt dizzy and silly at the same time.
She marched out into the living room and confronted him. "Oh, Mr Ravan Kumar Bhalla. Yeh idea tha aapka? You were planning to get ready and go to Amma and tell them that you are ready and I am still sleeping? Why did you not wake me up? you know you are supposed to be Ishita now right? Ishita wouldnt have done something like this" she couldn't possibly ask the question she had on her mind, so she'd attacked him with the simpler one.
"Arre meri maa, sorry, I thought you could sleep some more time. waise bhi I know you need your beauty sleep. if you don't complete it, then i am the sorry soul who has to look at your tired face the whole day na? and I wasn't going to tell amma anything. I thought I'd come here and turn the TV on to pass time. The Ishita I know would have done the same thing by the way!" he sounded genuine. He was indeed relieved that she hadn't caught on to the things he'd done before he left their room.
The puja had completed successfully. Sitting in front of the fire and smoke, they both remembered their marriage ceremony. Every few minutes when the pandit said something in Tamil, and Ishita translated it for him, they smiled. They knew how far they'd come. She wanted him to understand everything the pandit was saying, and he wanted to too. She wanted it to be over soon, so he wouldnt suffer any more from the smoke, and he wanted the feeling to last for ever. He was basking in her attention when she looked worried for him. Mihika then came over with Vibhu and told them about the pending tradition before they could get out of there.
Ishita bit her tongue. She'd forgotten that she'd told Mihika about the dare she had posed to Raman. And she'd sold it as if she was going to torture him. Mihika, like any supportive sister had decided to help her out too. The tradition was outrageous, but the elders seemed to be enjoying their discomfort too.
Raman didnt exactly mind it, except that he wished the moment to be a private one, not a spectacle for their family to watch. He was thankful neither Mihir nor anyone else from the Bhalla family had turned up. They would have surely made loud comments then, and teased him for the rest of his life.
"Aa jaao Ishita. Doesn't look like there is any escape from this now" he whispered into her ears.
"Are you sure?" she asked. She desperately wanted to tell him about Mihika's plan, but she didn't know how he would react, and she didn't want to create a scene in front of her relatives.Instead of answering, he just held her arms and pulled her gently towards him.
When she sat on his lap, he made a wincing face and said, "Tumko pata hai na, meri back weak hai. ab tumhaare bojh se taangein bhi toot rahi hai. Tum hi balm lagaaogi samjhi?"
She smiled and said, "main moti nahin hoon, aapki umar ho gayi hai"
"tum akele milo, phir bataata hoon" he said, with a look that scared and tingled them both equally.
When they were finally out, he was still rubbing his eyes and stifling a cough. She couldn't bear it any longer and blurted the whole truth out. "Sorry Raman. I thought maybe you would hesitate in talking to me about Adi, so I took this route. But I had already told Bala Jiju that I was OK."
"You do act a bit silly sometimes, you know that right Ishita? I poured my heart out to you in the hospital about Adi, there is nothing I would hesitate to talk to you about. The only hesitation I had was because you may feel I was taking you for granted. So I didn't know how to approach the subject with you."
"Oh" she said, relieved. She was going over to the passenger seat, when he caught her wrist and stopped her.
"By the way. I knew about the plan, the drama. I knew that you'd already spoken to Bala and told him it was OK. I knew you'd never say no. But I wanted to take this route too. I wanted to do this to see that smile on your face. I wanted to do something for you Ishita. I have never given back, and you never stop giving. So I didn't want to lose this opportunity. And I'd do this every time, always, if that means you'll be happy with me."
She turned her hand around to now hold his and looked into his eyes without flinching. "Whatever gave you the impression that I am not happy Raman? Now who's being silly?"
"Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering." - Nicole Krauss, The History of Love
*** So, how was it?
Here goes an OS based on the Mon-Tuesday episodes from this week. The premise and setting were too good to pass up on. This is just a slightly 'alternate' version of what we saw. Hope you all like it! Have a few typos in there, but too late in the day for me to re-read and correct, so please do excuse the mistakes and my laziness!
Nikki - this one is for you, I do hope I did justice to it.
***
The song for this OS is "Jaane Kaise Kab Kahaan Ikraar Ho gaya" from Shakti
Raman had seen a bright light at the end of the dark tunnel. When it came to Adi, nothing in the last few years had made him cheerful. Every mention of Adi in his life, every memory seemed to be darkened. When he dropped Bala off, he was ecstatic. His son would have some positive reinforcement, a guide to gently show him the right path. He was selfish too, he knew that Bala being there with Adi everyday may actually even get him more access to his son. He was that desperate for any information about Adi, the restraining order had made him like that.
He suddenly saw Bala coming back towards the car, and he rolled down the window. Bala then quietly told him "Dont worry about Ishu Raman. I will talk to her", It then hit him. In his eagerness to see his child reformed, he'd forgotten about Ishita. Before he could tell Bala that he'd take of it, Bala had walked off. Raman felt a tiny sense of relief. He did not know how to approach the subject with Ishita. He'd already made a few mistakes when it came to his past and present mingling. And now he was also dragging Ishita's family into the blackhole that was his past. "Any decent man would have asked Bala to stay away from Shagun and Ashok. But I ended up being selfish. I am going to break her heart again. and this time I dont even have an excuse." His thoughts wandered to the night when he asked Ishita to apologise to Adi. Even his daughter had seen the injustice of that act. He'd somehow repented his sins, and Ishita had forgiven him too. But it seemed different this time. For the first time in his life, he was weighing his feelings for her against his love for Aditya. He'd never put anyone before his children. He was used to going the extra mile for them, and anyone who came in the way was trampled. But this time, he wanted to make sure Ishita didn't suffer.
Ishita got a call from Bala when she was still at the clinic. When Bala told her about Shagun wanting to hire him as a tutor for Aditya, the first thing Ishita had said was "Thank God jiju. Now maybe the kid will get some direction in his life." When Bala further told her about his conversation with Raman, he added "Ishita, Knowing Raman, he may be worried about your reaction to this. So please think about how you are going to manage it, OK. I don't want to pre-empt any decision of yours, but I think you should make Raman understand that you are fully supporting this OK?" "No Jiju, i dont think he will care what i think. anyway, if he does, I will tell him i am ok"
When they met at night, they were both walking on egg-shells. Raman knew he had to take the first step. It was his problem, so he had to find a solution. He did not know if Bala had spoken to her yet.
"Hi Ishita, how was your day" he asked casually.
"Theek tha Raman, and yours?"
"It was very busy. BTW, I wanted to talk to you. Could we go out for coffee?" he asked
"Coffee? is waqt? Nahi, mood nahin hai" she said, before she realised why he was asking her for coffee
Raman's patience was being tested. He tried one more time
"Shall we go for a drive then? lets do something, if you don't like the idea of a drive, come up with a better one. I'll go freshen up"
She called Bala quickly to confirm if he'd told Raman about their conversation. When she found out that he hadn't, she realised how much pent up worry Raman had. "He must be struggling to find words to ask me for permission" she thought. She knew then that she had to help him find his way.
When he came back she sweetly said "Aah, now I know why you are suddenly worried about my day and my well-being. You want me to allow Bala Jiju to tutor Adi right?"
Raman was shocked, once more, because she seemed to have understood his feelings on her own. "Oh, so you already spoke to Bala then. So? What is your answer?"
If she conceded too easily, he wouldn't get the satisfaction of convincing her. SHe knew that, so came up with a spontaneous plan to make him work for it "Accha, now that you want something from me, you are being sweet. I want to see how far you will go"
"I'd go to the dark side of the moon if you want me to, i'd never say no to you" he muttered with an end of the towel in his mouth. She didn't hear him properly and asked him to repeat. "No, I said I will do anything for Adi, you know that. So tell me what do you want?"
"Be Ishita for 24 hours" pat came her reply. That 'dare' was silly and she knew it. She should have given him something more difficult. SOmething that would make him appreciate her more. But Ishita wasn't thinking.
"OK, whats so difficult in that. I just have to plaster on a smile and give people lectures. I'll even be a dentist for a day if you want. How hard can it be to pull people's teeth out!" He said that, but deep down, he thought that she had sub-consciously given him an opportunity to peek into her life, her soul. How could he say no to that. He'd have accepted her dare even if it wasn't for Adi.
A few hours into his 24-hour test, Raman looked at himself in the mirror. I was 2:30 AM, and he was showered and ready with his Tamil-look for the satyanarayan pooja.
He smiled at himself. He remembered the time when he and his family had stumbled drunk into the temple for some pre-wedding function. He remembered every time he closed his ears off with his hands when he heard the annoying nadaswaram. He remembered the look of indifference on his face, and disdain on hers. He smiled again, he had been such a fool. He had been the luckiest fool on earth.
He turned around to look at her. She was asleep on the couch, her long hair covering half her face, and the blanket covering less than half her body. He looked at the watch again and calculated. They had to be at her bua's place by 4:00. Ruhi wasn't around, so Ishita only needed time to take a shower and get ready. She was one of those rare women who didnt fuss about their looks, and still looked angelic. So he decided he'd let her sleep for about an hour more. They could get to the pooja a few minutes late, no one would mind. She deserved to sleep, she worked too hard.
He tip-toed, went to the couch and tucked the hair behind her ears. He took her hand placed it gently on her belly. He even pulled the blanket over her quietly and went out into the living room. He couldn't bear to be in that room any more. Not when he was feeling like that. He had to take stock of what he was feeling before he crossed any lines. He had voluntarily and consciously touched her today, for the first time. It wasn't to convince Ruhi that they were close, wasn't to put Shagun in her place. He'd never thought he'd ever be attracted to another woman after what Shagun had done to him. Attraction was such a small word for what he felt about Ishita. May be admiration was a better choice.
She waited for him to leave the room. Their door creaked so she knew he'd closed it and left. He opened her eyes and put her hand on her chest. She wasn't dreaming about the pounding in her heart. She was experiencing a phenomenon that could only be described medically as arrhythmia. She took a sip of water from the table nearby and sat up straight on the couch. She knew she couldn't go back to sleep. She knew she'd spend every moment analysing what he had done, and how she had felt about it. She touched the hair he'd tucked, she looked at the hand he'd placed on her stomach. and she even brought the edge of the blanket near her face and smelled it. She felt dizzy and silly at the same time.
She marched out into the living room and confronted him. "Oh, Mr Ravan Kumar Bhalla. Yeh idea tha aapka? You were planning to get ready and go to Amma and tell them that you are ready and I am still sleeping? Why did you not wake me up? you know you are supposed to be Ishita now right? Ishita wouldnt have done something like this" she couldn't possibly ask the question she had on her mind, so she'd attacked him with the simpler one.
"Arre meri maa, sorry, I thought you could sleep some more time. waise bhi I know you need your beauty sleep. if you don't complete it, then i am the sorry soul who has to look at your tired face the whole day na? and I wasn't going to tell amma anything. I thought I'd come here and turn the TV on to pass time. The Ishita I know would have done the same thing by the way!" he sounded genuine. He was indeed relieved that she hadn't caught on to the things he'd done before he left their room.
The puja had completed successfully. Sitting in front of the fire and smoke, they both remembered their marriage ceremony. Every few minutes when the pandit said something in Tamil, and Ishita translated it for him, they smiled. They knew how far they'd come. She wanted him to understand everything the pandit was saying, and he wanted to too. She wanted it to be over soon, so he wouldnt suffer any more from the smoke, and he wanted the feeling to last for ever. He was basking in her attention when she looked worried for him. Mihika then came over with Vibhu and told them about the pending tradition before they could get out of there.
Ishita bit her tongue. She'd forgotten that she'd told Mihika about the dare she had posed to Raman. And she'd sold it as if she was going to torture him. Mihika, like any supportive sister had decided to help her out too. The tradition was outrageous, but the elders seemed to be enjoying their discomfort too.
Raman didnt exactly mind it, except that he wished the moment to be a private one, not a spectacle for their family to watch. He was thankful neither Mihir nor anyone else from the Bhalla family had turned up. They would have surely made loud comments then, and teased him for the rest of his life.
"Aa jaao Ishita. Doesn't look like there is any escape from this now" he whispered into her ears.
"Are you sure?" she asked. She desperately wanted to tell him about Mihika's plan, but she didn't know how he would react, and she didn't want to create a scene in front of her relatives.Instead of answering, he just held her arms and pulled her gently towards him.
When she sat on his lap, he made a wincing face and said, "Tumko pata hai na, meri back weak hai. ab tumhaare bojh se taangein bhi toot rahi hai. Tum hi balm lagaaogi samjhi?"
She smiled and said, "main moti nahin hoon, aapki umar ho gayi hai"
"tum akele milo, phir bataata hoon" he said, with a look that scared and tingled them both equally.
When they were finally out, he was still rubbing his eyes and stifling a cough. She couldn't bear it any longer and blurted the whole truth out. "Sorry Raman. I thought maybe you would hesitate in talking to me about Adi, so I took this route. But I had already told Bala Jiju that I was OK."
"You do act a bit silly sometimes, you know that right Ishita? I poured my heart out to you in the hospital about Adi, there is nothing I would hesitate to talk to you about. The only hesitation I had was because you may feel I was taking you for granted. So I didn't know how to approach the subject with you."
"Oh" she said, relieved. She was going over to the passenger seat, when he caught her wrist and stopped her.
"By the way. I knew about the plan, the drama. I knew that you'd already spoken to Bala and told him it was OK. I knew you'd never say no. But I wanted to take this route too. I wanted to do this to see that smile on your face. I wanted to do something for you Ishita. I have never given back, and you never stop giving. So I didn't want to lose this opportunity. And I'd do this every time, always, if that means you'll be happy with me."
She turned her hand around to now hold his and looked into his eyes without flinching. "Whatever gave you the impression that I am not happy Raman? Now who's being silly?"
"Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl, and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering." - Nicole Krauss, The History of Love
*** So, how was it?
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
