Pic-OSthon #2: Part 2 of TS by pretty_h on Pg 48 - Page 27

Originally posted by: hana_y

wow awesome hansa love it they way used the pic it match how ananya is shagun n raman child how ishita n ananya bond forming was very nice

then ishta is preg at last time please do an os on it or cont it as part 2

you are an amazing writer true

Originally posted by: whitelily

pretty_h - amazing os👍🏼

Originally posted by: shinseen

pretty_h @ nice story

its different and i like ishra 's emotion

thanks for PM

Hey Guys,

so sorry am late with the second part...had lots to wrap up at home...hope you like😛...do give me your feedback..thanks!!

CHOCOLATE STAINS AND FLYING KITES...OS (Part II)

Ishita Iyer woke up at 8, to the sound of a familiar voice whispered remonstrations in her ear. "Kanna...kanna wake up...its already 8," Amma's voice bit into her dreams and a trance-like sleep she had fallen in, only at 4 in the morning.

Ishita woke up with a start, gazing into Amma's eyes like she had just seen a ghost, and instantly fished out her cell phone tucked under the pillow. "Amma, 8 baj gaye! Ayyo Murugan! Maine ab tak kuch taiyyari nai ki..."

"I thought you must've woken up early and doing the puja. Muje kya maloom tha tum abi tak so rahi hogi..." A disapproving look. "NOT GOOD Ishu...FIRST Pongal after marriage. You should be extra careful about all these things. These Panjabis are still sleeping." Another disapproving look.

Ishita swiftly got up from the bed and assured her mother she will get ready in less than an hour and start the puja. "You remember na Kanna, Mani has invited us to his house today. Jaldi puja katam karo, phir hum sab milke wahan jayenge. Ayyo, Raman kidar hai?"

"Pata nai Amma...woh gaye honge morning walk pe. Mani ke ghar jaana hai naa?? Abhi thodi der mein taiyyar hoti hun."

Once Amma left and Ishita went in front of the mirror to check her grumpy reflection like she did every morning as soon as she woke up, she found a post-it stuck to the glass. She peeled it off urgently. It was from Raman.

"Couldn't tell you last night coz you were busy. Have a shooting at Hauz Khas this morning. Am leaving with Lisa. See you later."

"I WAS BUSY? MAIN BUSY THI!" Ishita sounded irate.

"Yeh sahi hai...khud galti karo, aur khud hi doosre pe ungli uthao...Ek toh chale aaye uss foreigner ko saath leke...Haan theek hai, tumhari co-star hai...but yeh kya matlab hua kisi bhi ladki ko ghar le aane ka? Ab usne zindagi mein Lohri nai dekhi to MAIN kya karun! Shaadi ke baad hamari pehli Lohri thi...aur phir bhi mere saath time bitane ka time hi kahan hai unke paas?"

Angry, indignant, teary-eyed, and muttering a thousand unpleasant feelings, Ishita set about her morning chores.

Being an actor's wife had never really bothered her as much it did many other women, because she took it solely as her husband's job, a profession he made his living out of. And knowing how her husband was in real life, reserved, and painfully polite, even with her, she nursed no such doubt regarding his equation with actresses on and off the sets. They had been married for a year, and yet, Raman was a man like no other. Their earlier conversations barely elicited a word or two from his end. Initially, it was all Ruhi ke liye', for both of them. Even his answers were curt and staccato, like he was in a hurry to end the conversation. Smiles were absolutely infrequent. In fact, many times they were at loggerheads. And she had been relegated to the huge-divan like couch to the side of the swanky double-bed her star husband himself slept in.

And then over a few months, it had progressed to a formal, yet cordial friendship of sorts. Like they were classmates ready to help each other, be it in sharing notes or teaching other concepts they didn't understand. When Raman wasn't shooting and if, Ishita and he were out shopping, and she pointed out to a rare, designer gown she couldn't take her eyes off, he would rush to check the same out taking her along, insisting her to try it. And then later, purchasing the same for her.

If she liked ice-cream and wanted to stop by at a roadside ice-cream stall, he would park the car and treat her to her favorite ice-cream. So it was a deliverance-on-need based friendship or rather, relationship where anything Ishita wanted, would be granted to her. She just had to say it out loud once. Smiles were rare, but they had started cropping up few and far in between. And this translated to their bedroom equation as well. More than five times in the past, Raman had insisted she sleep on the bed as well, with a line of pillows marking the division between them. She had refused each time. In her mind, "she was content sleeping on the couch, so long as he slept peacefully."

Then came the shift in the dynamics of their equation, where neither did Raman exhibit any of the initial weird, choking politeness nor the sudden, surprising consideration of the past few months. He had transformed into a being of his own, at ease, throwing his charm about, pulling her leg and cracking her up each time, even as she rolled her eyes at the absurd things he sometimes said.

Like, 6 months ago when he signed up for a movie with the most reputed production banner in the industry, he had thrust the contract and the script on her desk, before leaving for Cape Town, where the shoot was to take place. "Production house ke saath mera sign kiya hua contract hai...aur movie ki script bhi...dekh lo..."

"Iska kya karungi main?" Ishita was bewildered.

"Aachar banana...arrey dekh lo meri Maa...main nai chahta kal mujhe screen pe kisi khoobsurat ladki ko kiss karte dekho aur wahin behosh ho jao"

"Main kyun behosh hone chali! Behosh toh who actresses hongi naa...badnaseeb bechari..." she retorted, making a mock sad face.

Raman looked taken aback for barely 5 seconds, before shrugging his shoulders and going "Haan haan...tumhare liye toh angoor khatte hi hain...dekh lo...padhlo...and think how much FUN a life I have! tumhari tarah doosron ki munh mein nai jhankna padta mujhe din ke 10 ghante!"

"KUCH BHI." Not one chance did he let go of teasing her, and not once had it happened that she had NOT been teased. Successfully. As curiosity took over her, she read the whole contract and the script as well. More of an action movie, it had a couple of romantic scenes with lots of song-and-dance sequences and ZERO lip-lock scenes.

Later in the day, Toshi ji told her how right from the second film itself, Raman had made it clear he wouldn't engage in onscreen lip-locks. The industry was going crazy about his talent, and knew they could get the best out of him even without sexual titillation on the big screen. "I'll only kiss on screen if you can't absolutely do without it. Like it totally can't be managed." So they had conceded.

That, and a surprise invitation from his end, asking her to come along for the shoot, totally blew her mind away and she realised she trusted him more than anybody else in her life. Not even Subbu came this close, she recollected with a mild tinge of pain, despite being considering him her best friend and being with him for 12 years.

"Inke dimaag mein chalta kya hai..." she kept wondering, as she stared a good two hours at his face on their flight to Cape Town.

In short, he had never let a single window open for her to bring up the slightest doubt in her mind, regarding his demeanour with his pretty, rather tempting co-stars. Without any warning of the same, in recent times her heart had started melting like wax every time he cracked his one-liners, or stared at her for a second longer, or took her out for a long drive in the sudden spell of Delhi monsoons, or wiped chocolate stains off her chin while gorging on pastries and cakes while celebrating for no particular reason at low-key confectioneries.

One night, when she came back late from the clinic she found him sleeping on the couch, the bed laid elegantly, with the bed-covers and blankets laid out, inviting for a warm, cozy tuck-in; a post-it stuck to the mirror. "Aaj se yeh bed TUMHARI amaanat...main nahin chahta kal ko tumhari kamar toote toh tumhare ghar wale mujhpe gharelu atyachaar ka case karen."

Despite the quietness of the air, she burst out laughing, reading the note and tucking it in her purse, neatly folded, as a souvenir. Just when she had started warming up to the idea, that Raman might see her differently than merely as Ruhi's Mom,all her hopes were dashed barely a month and a half ago, as soon as he signed up for his new movie with Lisa as the lead actress.

Initially, she had laughed it off, choosing choose to stare at Raman's dimpled grins and the way his lips moved during interviews. She had no option but to give in to her doubts when he didn't turn up for a meet at a restaurant with her old friend, Mani, not once, but at least thrice. When he didn't even come down for a chit-chat with Mani and her, down in the parking lot, and she found him busy chatting with Lisa up in the room, even as the lights were off. "Tumhari hi tarah koi bhashan dene wala hoga tumhara friend, main nai jaane wala..." he was utterly dismissive of her social circle, and she had been more than hurt.

He was at his best behaviour with the leggy, sexy Lisa and the others on the set, choosing to ignore her and her friends at every possible occasion, she realized as murky headlines started doing the rounds in gossip columns and tabloids, screaming for attention. "RKB and Lisa spending some Selfie time" "The Introvert meets the Extrovert on the sets of The Diplomat" "Is Raman Kumar cheating on his wife?" and many other sordid titbits straight from the sets. And for the time she felt different about her husband, much different than from how she had ever felt for him.

Strangely, Vandita had asked her once during an idle chai session a week ago, "Ishu...Raman ke bare mein itne saare rumours aate rehte hain...TV mein bhi kuch ulta-pulta dikhate hain...tujhe bura nai lagta?"

"NA AKKA! Aisa toh kuch padha-suna hai hi nai maine...bakwass hai yeh sab! Waise bhi, jab se Mani aaya hua hai, I feel like I've gone back to my college days...bahut masti karte hain hum log...who bilkul nai badla nai Akka! Not ONE bit!"

Vandita had merely nodded her head in acknowledgement and faintly smiled, while watching her sister inscrutably, as she plodded on and on about Mani.

Ishita almost believed what she had said to Vandu Akka, but when Raman brought Lisa to a family celebration last night WITHOUT ONCE ASKING HER ABOUT IT once, she totally lost it. Awkward and suddenly extremely insecure, Ishita had greeted Lisa with a sort of caginess. She instantly recollected Page 3 sections of the leading dailies in the city doing the rounds of how RKB, the Delhiite who had finally arrived in Bollywood, was letting success go to his head, as he unabashedly roamed the city hop-hopping with his tall and leggy, sensuous co-star in tow.

Ishita was not in the habit of devouring Page3 titbits and revelling in celeb lives as such, and yet, since the past week or so, every waking minute of her existence had been dominated by vivid pictures of her husband smiling too keenly at Lisa the day the film went on floors, the day they went out shopping at Janpath (was that a film sequence of just...?), some other day in a quaint caf with scripts in their hands, and a recent one where Lisa seems to be backslapping her shy, introverted husband, making him double up in laughter. Of course most of the pictures were taken during the shoot or somehow were related to the shoot, except a few and far in between where both Raman and Lisa went out on an excursion of the city to "know each other well" and to "get around the city and observe for themselves" in the director's words.

This morning, as soon as she was out of the bath, and dressed in a jiffy, in a blood-red churidar suit, statement jhumkas and braided hair, she saw Vandita come in with a terse look, hiding something behind her clutch.

I: Akka aap kab aayi?

V: Kafi der pehle...tere hi ready hone ka wait kar rahe the hum sab...waise...Raman kahan hain?

I (sour face): Shoot pe...he left very early in the morning...with Lisa (the last two words were said with a tinge of bitterness)

V: Actually, accha hua he's not here...tujhe kuch dikhana tha...

She fished out a thin tabloid of about two pages from behind the clutch and thrust it in Ishita's palm, pointing at a gossip printed on the last page, in big bold letters, "Raman Kumar invites Lisa Ambrose for Lohri celebrations touted as a family function'. What's cooking?"

"Ever since RKB signed up for The Diplomat against British Indian Lisa Ambrose, he has been seen hop-hopping the town with the film's leading lady spending quality time with her off the sets as well. Sources close to Raman Kumar have expressed surprise at the sudden fondness he seems to have developed for his pretty Anglo-Indian co-star. While Lisa has gracefully responded to the surrounding doubts as regards her equation with her charming co-star with a clipped, No comment' and a no-nonsense polite smile..."

Ishita stopped reading the paragraph mid-way and butted in impatiently : Ismein kaunsi nayi baat hai Akka? Roz roz yahi toh khabrein chhapti hain...

V: Accha? Phir tu roz aisi khabrein padhti hai? Tu toh keh rahi thi tu in sab baton pe dhyaan hi nai deti

I: N...aiii...mera matlab hai...udti hui khabrein...you know na Akka, how rumours are...and waise bhi, kisi aur se sunne ki kya zaroorat hai...mujhe sab dikhta toh hai hi naa

Vandita registered Ishita's tone getting suddenly irate and impatient, before responding with a "Matlab?"

I: ab do din pehle ka hi dekhlo aap...Raman ki film ki shooting Dilli mein ho rahi hai...saara din set pe hi rehte hain, uske bawajood ghar pe der raat Lisa ke saath gap rahe the...toh samajhne walon ko Ishara hi kafi hai naa Akka!

V: Par main tujhe kuch aur dikhane aayi thi Ishu...yeh dekh...corner mein (Vandu pointed to an array of pictures at the bottom right corner of the page...)

Ishita stopped applying kajal and snatched the paper from Vandu to look at the first picture of Ishita smiling keenly at a tall man, whose back was to the camera. "Mystery Man with RKB's wife?"

"AKKA! YEH TOH MAIN HUN!!!"

"Exactly. Yeh tu hai. And who's this guy?"

"I have NO idea...seriously..."

"Ishu tu dhyaan se nai dekh rahi...look at what you're wearing...yeh kal wala Patiala suit hai naa? And look at all the people behind...yahan bilkul peeche tujhe Simmi ka bhi face dikhega...yeh kal ki pictures hain Ishu...Lohri wali... and this is Mani..."

Ishita stared at it, registering every word Akka said, indignant and extremely furious, grasping at something inexplicable.

"HOW DARE THESE MEDIA PEOPLE?! Yeh kya mazaaak hai! Kisi ke bhi bare mein kuch bhi chhaap denge...sab Raman ki galti hai...family function mein apni movie ki lead actress ko lane ki kya zaroorat thi! Unke chalte ab mere bare mein bhi..."

"NOT FAIR ISHU! Raman is an actor and he's always in the limelight...who chahe jitni bhi koshish kar len, media would always be behind him...Lisa ko invite karne ka isse lya lena-dena? Look at these pictures of you and Mani! Yeh toh kal wali hain, uske side mein dekh, you guys are at a florists's stall on the roadside, aur yeh dekh...tum dono kisi restaurant mein ho...and this last one...yeh toh pakka Dilli Haat wale pictures hain...jahan tum log shopping kar rahe the..."

"Akka! You sound like you're blaming ME!" Ishita was deeply hurt at the way her elder sister charged her.

"I'm not Ishu," Vandu assured her, albeit, wearily. "Tell me one thing - yeh jo jo bhi pictures chhapi hain, you were there at all these places?" Like, do you remember yourself being with Mani at all these spots? Doing the exact same thing that is shown in the pictures?"

After one full minute of thinking and calculating in her head, Ishita feebly agreed to the same.

"Yes Akka...but You know ki Mani aur mere beech aisa kuch nai hai!" she protested.

"I know that Ishu...but it's not necessary everybody should know that right? Agar Raman out-of-station gaye hote shoot pe, toh bhi shayad koi itna dhyaan nai deta...but uske sheher mein rehte huey bhi, agar uski wife kisi aur aadmi ke saath city mein hi har doosre din outings pe jaayegi, toh har koi yehi samjhega naa..."

Ishita kept mum. Said nothing. "Leave it...yeh waise tumhare daily newspaper ke saath aaya tha...TV stand pe rakha tha...I just came to give it to you...ki tu yeh kahin chhupa ke rakh de..Toshi Aunty aur doosron ko shayad accha nai lage.."

"And don't you think they would've already read these things? Jab se Raman ne movie sign ki hai, Lisa aur unke bare mein aksar kuch na kuch print hota hi rehta hai..."

"I thought the same...par maine baton baton mein Bhalla Uncle se pata kar liya tha, pehle hi...ki unke newspaper ke saath tabloids aate hi nai hain...strange naa...they order the same daily that we do, and they all live under the same roof but have no idea what their son is up to! Pata nai aaj mere haath kaise lag gayi..."

Vandita gave her a meaningful look and a thin-lipped smile, and asked her to finish the rituals of the first day of Makar Sankranti before heading out to Mani's place.

*********************

Part III (Final Part) due shortly...

Originally posted by: shalz_123

@ aka or gravity 23...yeh kyaa thaaa...u brought back mani Hahah a...y do I have a feeling tht ishita is ignoring him jaan bhujke...I cant believe u of all ppl thought of mani...I can't stop giggling. Oooh rkb us a hero...naice...

Waiting fr ur next part..

Originally posted by: rnarayan

both OS are lovely

Originally posted by: fugitives123

@gravity - off to read urs now

And back! It's really good!! Such a fresh story...and awesome visuals...
Loved the line
"If looks could kill then mani would he dead over a hundred times by now". Actually make that a million coz we'd join him too..lol
can't wait for the next update! 😊

Originally posted by: Wings-of-Fire

@gravity23 very interesting plot. You could make an SS out of it. Waiting for the update.

Originally posted by: charlie1950

Gravity23 where is the update

Originally posted by: shinseen

gravity23@story is written very WELL.

ye OS thread hi ab SS mein badle gayia tu intezar kerna parye ga jo BUHAT mushkil hy.

magar story interesting hy tu its OK

lekin zara jaldi update dena

story ia so lovely and lively