Holding On & Letting Go |COMPLETE| MaNan Fiction

Chapter 10 : Frozen Forever - Nandini's World - Part 1

A/N : Hello readers, I see a lot of you reading and voting for this story, but no one likes to comment. Your comments are the only way I get to know what you're thinking, and that helps me as a writer :) If you're liking my story, do show some love and leave me a comment :)

Happy Reading!

A.

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NANDINI MURTHY

It felt like my whole world culminated around the Malhotra Mansion - I was more involved in this house than I ever was in my own house. My house was always my mom's that way - she was the nourisher there - she took care of daadi when she had the gout pain, she gave papa his morning medicines, she made breakfast for me and Aliya before going to school - essentially she was the manager of all our homely affairs. We aided her, but never did we decide for her.

Here in this mansion it was different. Once I confirmed that I was to stay with daadi here, she handed me all her responsibilities. I became, what ma was, to our house. I was reluctant - I didn't want to get involved here, after all, I was an outsider wasn't I? But what felt awkward for me wasn't awkward for any of the Malhotra's. No sooner did daadi tell Manik and Mukti about her wish of me taking over the charge of the household, they came and wished me good luck! No one felt insecure!

I began handling the day-to-day affairs of the Malhotra household along with my work. Soon days turned to months and it was almost four months that I had moved in. I had forgotten about the Nandini who also existed amidst all this - what did she want? What did she need? What did she like? Who was she? But it wasn't really a sacrifice for me. None of the Malhotra's expected me to forget myself - I did it because of my love for each one of them. I didn't need to remember myself.

I was happy coming from work, freshening up and spending some quality time with daadi, we discussed my day, her day, if she took her medicines - if daadi wanted to go somewhere, how her puja was going etc. Then I would give her, her evening medicine and go to Mukti's. We would chat up over a cup of lemon tea. Mukti was the radiant mother of a five month old Krish - she always had stories of Krish's antics for the day. I would listen to her and we would laugh together, sometimes if Krish was awake, he would join us and entertain us further with his cute gestures. Mukti would talk about Abhimanyu, and feel low sometimes since she missed him - I would comfort her in those days and cheer her up. After being around Mukti, I missed my Aliya much less - sometimes Aliya would complain that I hardly called her! But where did I have the time? Unlike my house, time flew in the Malhotra house and I stayed there absorbed.

Manik was extensively touring for his new album launch around this time - he would seldom stay at home. But whenever he was, once he returned from work, I would take his cinnamon coffee for him - he loved it. Normally Robin served him, but he never mastered the art of cinnamon coffee from daadi like I did. His coffee always either had more cinnamon or less of it - that never went well with Manik. Plus I knew Robin had studied till his eleventh standard. I was encouraging him to complete twelfth. All day the poor boy worked - only in the evening he got time for studies, I never like to disturb him then - so I would take coffee for Manik - he would sip his coffee and we usually got into these light banters. Manik and his strange notions and quirky answers could never stop teasing my mind. Sometimes he would make me listen to his music scratches - I had to always like it, because if I didn't he would annoy me to all end telling me off for my bad taste in music! It amused me - but I would mostly agree that his music was good.

During my stay with the Malhotra's, I picked up small things about them - daadi liked to keep her wardrobe colour coded, and even at this age, she had a fetish for sandals. Mukti's nose flared when she lied! Mukti loved Abhimanyu, but loved fighting with him more, it made her feel closer to Abhimanyu. And Manik? He was the weirdest of the lot - to begin with, he had coffee with cinnamon! He wore mismatched socks (to all his fans! Here is a buzzfeed - Manik always mixes two pairs of socks to wear! Always!), he sang rock songs but he loved listening to ghazals (there is a secret folder called "Keep Away" in his iPod playlist!), he had a non-satiating love for sweet! Oh, and he was scared of ghosts!