Rock-A-Bye Baby [✓]

Epilogue

*** Two and a half years later ***

There was a serene calmness in the waves of the bluish-green waters of the Aegean Sea. Omkara Singh Oberoi had had the opportunity of hopping onto the Greek island – Mykonos for one of his visits with a certain Mr. Theofanis Spanos, a Greek client with whom he’d struck an important deal at work. Mr. Spanos, being the excellent host that he was, had offered the Oberoi family a stay on his private property at the beach house for the next three days.

Omkara leaned back against the backrest of the beach chair under the huge beach umbrella, he squinted his eyes against the Grecian sun. His smile reached his eyes when he saw his two favorite girls out there at a distance on the shore, making sandcastles. His little girl, his Shanaya Singh Oberoi, was wearing a very cutesy little yellow bikini with red polka dots. He could hear her excited scream wafting in the salty breeze as the waves barely touched the sandcastle that she was making with the help of her Mamma.

Her darling Mamma- Gauri Omkara Singh Oberoi. A smile came upon his lips as Omkara’s gaze shifted from his daughter to his wife of two months. She looked perfect, along with certain words he couldn’t compliment her in front of their daughter, in a bikini matching with Shanaya’s, that she was wearing. He had requested her to ditch the sarong wrap she had worn around the waist, but she had seemed too shy to be that bold out at the beach. At present, she was helping Shanaya to shape up the castle they were building while keeping a keen eye on the little one who kept picking up colorful seashells and putting them in her tiny basket.

Omkara’s smile brightened when he saw Gauri waving her hand at him, asking him to join them. He thought for a second and then walked lazily to the shore towards them. As soon as he knelt down on the sand next to his wife, his little girl came running next to him with her basketful of shells. She came up to him and hugged him after placing a sloppy kiss on his cheek. In response, Omkara pulled her into his arms and squishing her like a teddy bear, he pretended to munch on her cheeks, making her laugh out loud. Gauri watched the sight in utter adoration with a smile that had never faded on her lips ever since the day these two people made her a part of their little world.

“Mamma, Dada, look, shells!” she squealed, pointing to her basket. Gauri’s heart fluttered; she could never get tired of being called ‘Mamma’ by her Shanu. She vividly remembered the first time she was called 'Mamma' and had wept with happiness for an hour, making Shanu cry too on witnessing her sobs, and puzzling Omkara who’d walked in later to see both his girls crying. Omkara smiled as he heard his daughter pick out shells from her basket, and give each one of it in his hand to hold, as she kept saying the colors of the shells out loud, “Blue”, “Purple”, “White”, “Yellow” and so on. “Hold, Dada,” she instructed him to hold the seashells she’d picked up with both his hands. “Mine!” she declared when Omkara asked her if he could keep them for himself. When he pretended to make a sad face, she looked at her Mamma, who nodded her head, and then she told him, “Okay. Only one!” she held her index up at him, telling him he could keep one shell.

“Mamma, water!” she pointed out to the waves, wanting to go there to play. “Okay, but not too far, Shanu!” Gauri said with a stern warning and she nodded. As she walked to the wet sand, Shanaya kept looking back at Gauri, as if asking her if it was safe to take the next step. The moment Shanaya’s foot touched the wave, she squealed in excitement and looked back at Gauri telling her to stand just there and not go further. Shanaya obediently sat there on the wet sand, each time squealing at the wave came towards her, touched her, and went back.

As Shanaya sat facing the waves, both, Omkara and Gauri kept a sharp eye on her. Gauri blushed when she felt Omkara’s arm sliding across her midriff and coming around to rest on her waist. “Did I mention you look sexy in this?” he whispered, gazing down at her polka-dotted bikini bra and the red sarong that she had worn. “About a million times since morning, dear husband!” she said chuckling, and then continuing, “And I would never get tired of hearing it another million times!”