A Chance to Love

Chapter 44

Prem

I was over the moon since learning that we are going to be parents soon. I agree that Bitto and Aman have always been like our own kids, and I am sure that even after we have our kids, they will still be our priority. Nevertheless, the happiness of learning that a new life made out of our own flesh and blood is going to come into this world is simply out of the world experience. Our baby is the living embodiment of our love.

After getting blessings from the Gods, all that was left was to tell our family and get their blessings as well. My beautiful and usually calm wife was going berserk with preparation. When she had purchased all those mini utensils, I was hoping that she will use some and the others would be used for kids to play, but my dear wife decided that won't do. She is literally cooking up a feast with small and large food items. She even bought some mini cooking ware to use. Today is the day we are going to tell everyone. Fortunately, Bitto is out for the day with Suraj. Suraj has started courting my baby officially as of this week. He called me the day after we went to visit temple to ask if he can take our daughter out for a date. He told me that he hasn't still asked our girl for date, but earlier has been leaving hints and words for a few days to let her know of his feelings and intentions. He also said that he believes this is the reason why Bitto left his office in his absence even when he has told her that we have asked him to take care of her until we return. Seeing as how patient he has been to let my baby grow up and mature before making his move, I allowed him and since that day he has been snatching every single moment he can to spend with our girl. Since he could only take her out once due to their workload, he asked her out to a lunch and movie date today and they are supposed to join us together at dinner. Alas, I'll have to learn to live with this change. Soon, my baby will attend every event by his side and I'll just be able to attend to her like a host.

***

The menu today is all healthy. We have Vegetable Soup for Starters, Shahi Paneer and Dal Makhani with Veg. Pulao/Rice and Missi Roti/Bread for Main Course and Fruit Custard for Desert.

Preeti was adamant on serving mini and large portions of each meal to which I explained that then surprise will be over at starters only. To this, Preeti changed her tactic and said that she will start with the elders for the mini food servings to make them guess and move onto kids. Thus, it was decided that she will serve Maa-Papa with mini soups alongside regular sized first. If they guessed then fine, otherwise she will move onto the next generation, which will be Rana and Nandini, along with Anand. She will serve them mini version of main course, which however would not be accompanied by regular ones as that will be served on the table for everyone to help themselves. If, even then no one could guess, we would serve the kids meaning Bitto, Suraj and Aman with mini custard bowls to try them for the last time and will open up our 'We Are Pregnant' t-shirts the last to make the announcements. Now, let us just hope everything goes well.

We welcome everyone for the dinner and after some regular chat and enquiries about this sudden dinner plan, which we manage to avoid, we move to the dining room for dinner. The kids try to help, but we manage to convince them that we will manage; then starts the surprise. I took the trolley with soup for everyone and Preeti carried the special ones for Maa-Papa. When we were done serving, everyone was looking at the miniature soups present before Maa-Papa. I could see the wheels in their minds churning, but they were yet not sure, therefore we let them be and moved to the next course. When we served the siblings and friends with the miniature food, I can see that Rana and Nandini have already guessed. I guess they just didn't want to spoil the surprise so they just shared a smile with each other and us, then continued to eat silently. Since no one has said anything, we moved onto our next and final course and decided to try the game on our kids. We served them with mini custard to which Aman complained, as we didn't give them the regular versions alongside this time. While Aman was busy complaining and Suraj was staring at us confused along with others except the Singh couple, I realised that our baby girl was connecting dots. She kept staring at her bowl of custard for a while silently and then I saw it. As the realisation came to her, her eyes slowly widened and I could almost see the scream of joy rising inside her and therefore was prepared when she finally screamed.