Becoming Sweethearts [✓]

Part Seven

Monday morning, even before the first ray of sunshine was out, Gauri’s eyes fluttered open. Since the last two weeks, after her Paddy Maasi had been pestering her about losing some weight, she had gone for a jog for just three days but had soon given up. However, after last evening, she had some motivation to get into better shape. And that motivation’s name was Ajinkya Agnihotri. No, he hadn’t even mentioned anything about her appearance, but Gauri had taken note of how he seemed to keep his fitness as his priority. After he had sent her a friend request last night, she had spent almost two hours scrolling through his profile. Her main intention was to check what sort of a person he was. Was he someone who was into partying? Girls? Drinks? Drugs? Or did he have any crazy exes after him? He shared very little on his profile, and most of the comments were from his guy-friends. She also noticed he liked pages on fitness and health. Well, no surprise there given how toned he was. Most of his pictures were his post-workout pictures, sweaty and smiling in a selfie.

There were two recent pictures where he was shirtless during a workout; one in the middle of pull-ups, and one in between abdomen crunches. While Gauri had taken her time to ogle at it, she didn’t like the amount of heart reacts by so many of his female friends. She had looked at herself in the mirror; her Maasi and Maa were right. She was gaining a little weight, which made her look slightly chubby. A hint of double chin and belly was starting to show, and Gauri knew she had to tackle this before someone pointed it to her on her face. After all, if she was going to date a hunk like Ajinkya, and eventually marry him, she had to make sure she look as good as he did,

So, right now, after her morning necessities, she quickly put on her running shoes and walked out of the house with her earphones on. Shalini and Arvind were still asleep since it was merely 5 A.M. Since she was running after quite a while, Gauri made sure she took adequate breaks between her run. On her way back home, she was tempted to have some piping-hot jalebis, but it was as Paddy Maasi was sitting inside her head, giving her disappointed looks. Gauri turned the other way and after a good jog for an hour, she returned home.

Shalini, who was making tea in the kitchen, was shell-shocked to see a sweaty Gauri coming back from a run. “Hi Maa,” she said breathlessly as she sauntered into the kitchen. Arvind, who was watering the indoor pots of plants simply froze while looking at Gauri as if the sun had risen from the west. As the tea boiled, Gauri picked up her old electric kettle and placed some water for boiling, and in another glass, she squeezed half a lemon. Adding some honey to it, she mixed the hot water and drank the concoction. Shalini gave her a teasing smile, saying, “Yeh fitness ka bhoot kahin Agnihotri se inspire hoke toh nahi chada tujhpe?” 

Much to Shalini’s surprise and Arvind’s shock, Gauri gave her a shy smile. “Beta, did anyone say anything to you? You know you don’t need to change yourself for anyone, right?” Arvind said, and Gauri nodded, “I know, Papa. But it’s good to keep fit, right?” Saying that, she jogged upstairs. Arvind watched his daughter go, and then looked at Shalini who had folded hands, muttering a prayer to the Gods above, thanking them for giving Gauri a sense of right decision. Arvind shook his head, not quite happy with the turn of events taking place, but continued watering the plants in silence.

For breakfast, Gauri had decided on a banana smoothie, while carrying six almonds for her mid-morning snack. Shalini was more than happy to see her daughter putting in the effort to look and feel better. As usual, Gauri had reached the office and had seen Omkara already bent over his laptop, trying to decipher something. No sooner had she kept her bag on her desk at her cubicle, than Omkara turned towards her and immediately frowned. He noticed she had applied slight makeup; her cheeks were pinker than usual, and instead of her plain gloss, she had something in pink over her lips. Her eyes were more defined than usual with some eyeliner, and her lashes looked unusually longer.