MOONLIGHT | Driti

DANDELION IS THE NEW ROSE

CHAPTER 3

8:37 pm

Rhea's POV

"Found it!"

Meera aunty yelled at the top of her voice, holding a 4x6 photograph in her hand.

Evening onwards Meera aunty, mom, Aashna and I had gathered in the hall of Aashna's house to see some of the old albums and videos of our family.

Moments tend to slid away in the course of time but cameras give you the power to capture such precious moments and treasure them for lifetime. And albums of these moments force you to forget your on going present and travel to the past, to relive those moments.

DVDs, CDs and albums with thin layer of dust accumulated on them laid on the wooden coffee table.

Meera aunty had managed to fish out a very old photo of Aashna and me from Aashna's first birthday album as we were going down the memory lane.

"Found it"

"Aunty please pass it to me. I want to see how Aashna and I looked together in childhood" I requested.

"Here" she handed the photograph and I started studying it.

It was me and Aashna; sitting in a small babies bath tub half filled with lukewarm water. Aashna had held on to a baby pink piece of toy and I stood staring at the toy while Aashna smiled with her two tiny baby teeth for the photo. It was clicked when mom and dad had brought me here for Ganesh festival. I had five months to turn two years old and Aashna's baby teeth had started to grow up. It was quite surprising to me as I remembered vividly when this photograph was clicked.

"Oh, look at you two, having fun in the bath tub," mom complimented us as I smiled towards Aashna.

"They have gotten together really well since then" Meera aunty added.

I continued flipping through my parent's wedding album when I found a photo of how my mother looked earlier.

Thin as a stick, in a maroon saree, she stood besides my father to pose for their couple photographs.

"Mom, you looked uber thin during your marriage. Now you have drastically changed."

She gave out a grin and said, "Everyone transforms after marriage and I gained more weight when I was pregnant, carrying you."

Meera aunty nodded in affirmation to agree with her sibling.

"Now don't blame it on the pregnancy Maa."

"You will realize this only when you become a mother yourself" she slightly patted my back.

Her statement made everyone chuckle except me.

A girl like me would get really awkward and annoyed at the thoughts of pregnancy at age 14 rather than blushing like some others. The only priorities I had set for myself right now was to become a National level champion and a successful badminton player. And thoughts like marriage and pregnancy were things I never actually thought of.

Aashna tried covering her mouth with her right hand to stop her uncontrollable laughter. But seeing her contagious laughter, unable to stop, it ended up putting a little smile on my face.