Rock-A-Bye Baby [✓]

Shot 3

Omkara had woken up early morning with an extremely cranky mood. Shivaay’s daughter had kept crying for a while last night, interrupting his sleep, and by the time he’d fallen asleep again, his alarm had rung. He had spent the morning, quite grumpy, over a conference call, informing the other associates he would have another detailed meeting in the office.

For breakfast, when Omkara came downstairs, he heard the nanny coddling the little girl in the room. He could hear the woman talking to the child in a babyish tone, and in response could hear the child giggling and gurgling as if responding to the woman. Omkara rolled his eyes. The voices annoyed him, early morning, and added to his grumpiness. “Shanu abhi neeche jaayegi, yummy yummy naashtha karne, hai na?” he heard the woman speak, followed by a smacking sound, which was similar to a loud kiss. He turned around, while still standing at the bottom of the stairs, and saw Gauri walking out with Shanaya in her arms.

Gauri saw Omkara standing at the bottom of the stairs watching her and Shanaya with a scowl. She was tempted to frown back at him, but then she assumed that scowl was a permanent part of his features. His frown was so deep, it almost left a mark on his forehead. He could probably use an iron to press his forehead clean from those marred lines of annoyance there. As Gauri walked down the stairs, she nodded her head and said, “Good morning, Mr. Oberoi!” When he looked at her with a blank expression, she decided to be bold enough to tease him with a cheeky smile, saying, “Slept well?” Gauri almost heard an annoyed growl from him, before he walked right ahead to the dining table, where his breakfast was waiting for him. She suppressed a giggle as she walked behind him with Shanaya in her arms.

“Good morning, Martha!” Gauri greeted the older woman, who walked towards her with the bottle of warm milk, and a bowl of apple puree. “Good morning, my dear. I hope you slept well?” she asked. Gauri looked at Omkara with a small smile, while he looked as if he would strangle her any moment. “Oh, yes, I did. Thank you, Martha” Gauri said with a cheerful smile.

Omkara began to gobble his breakfast quickly. He didn’t even want to spend any more time in their presence. He mentally scoffed at the irony of the situation. People who didn’t belong to his house, the little baby included, were the reason he couldn’t have any peace of mind in his own home. “Daa… Daa daa daa…” he heard the familiar babble, and mentally groaned. It was Shivaay’s daughter, mistaking him for her father, again. He refused to look up at her, and with the absolute silence around him, he knew that he was being stared at.

“Daaaa” he heard the impatient tone again, sounding slightly angrier. He knew that the child was getting annoyed at the lack of attention from her ‘Dada’. He huffed when he heard the soft jingling of bells, and stealthily looked up at the source. Shanaya had tiny anklets on her little feet, and while still being held in Gauri’s arms, she kicked her feet to make some noise, while still calling out to him constantly, saying, “Daa daa…”

Gauri noticed the man looking at Shanaya’s feet and said to him, “These were handed over to me by Vaidehi Ma’am, yesterday. I put them on on her feet after her morning bath,” Gauri stated. Omkara looked back at his plate, continuing to eat in silence, as if she had spoken to the walls, and not to him. She slightly frowned, looking at Martha, who only blinked at her, as if telling her not to feel bad for a lack of response. At that instant, Omkara, while still chewing his food said, “Ms. Sharma, I don't care what she wears. I just don’t like the sound!” Gauri was annoyed; for Omkara Singh Oberoi, even someone breathing around him would probably be too noisy!

“I’ll take them off, Mr. Oberoi” Martha offered before Gauri could say anything. But to their surprise, Omkara shook his head. “She’s probably going to cry and make even more noise if you did that. As it is there’s enough of a headache. I don’t need more nuisance!” Both Martha and Gauri knew he was extremely rude, but did not wish to say anything to worsen his already foul mood. Omkara finished his food in absolute silence, while Shanaya occasionally kept calling out for her ‘Dada’, while trying to say something in her own baby language to Gauri, to which she responded with Aah’s and ‘Oooh’s.