Always- His and Hers

New Year's Eve

New Year's eve was a cold  risky night.  A bonfire was lit and blowers were plugged, the Birla House was shining bright. The Christmas decorations and the engagement pieces were still up,  some pieces were coming apart, but Birlas had had a gala time in the last week, they weren't much bothered about it.  The eve was one of the rare occasions when the whole family was sitting on the couch, all wearing comfortable sweaters and pyjamas, some had donned scarfs and caps to keep themselves warm.  There was laughter and gossips, some resolutions were spoken of and some plans were made. 

Abhimanyu, the eldest son of the family,  had a huge smile of his face.  It has been years since he had witnessed his family come together as one.  Maybe it was his marriage that had brought all members of the family together, that's what all had said. Isn't that what Akshara Goenka had said too, 'the solution to everything according to her great-grandmother was  -Marriage.' 

                Two things of concern here, how are such old people still alive? Second, does the society believe marriage is still the solution for everything.  Abhimanyu recalled her face and his smile vanished to annoyance. His gherelu  doctor sometimes made no sense to him.  Sometimes, she left him with so many questions, with no answers, it really made him angry. Why couldn't she just be normal? Oh wait, because they were playing a game of being normal so how could anywhere in her subconscious mind she be actually normal like how a human reacts when the person they love is about to marry your own sister!

Just two days ago, he got engaged to Aarohi Goenka, Akshara's younger sister.  And now he sat, as everyone smiled  to end the year of Covid, engaged to Aarohi,  with pain in his heart. Although he was somewhat satisfied that he got to share this pain with Akshara because he knew,  she loved him too.  Smiled as he recalled the family picture, he looked so much better with Akshara, they had nearly worn similar shades, complementing one another.  But this warm feeling broke as felt the heaviness on his finger and  his heart ached, his mom shook his arm and spoke, "In this new year,  Abhi will be married to Aarohi and my biggest wish will come true!"  She kissed  his forehead, "You have given me the best gift a Mom could ever get!"   

Abhimanyu  smiled, and then frowned, didn't his mom say the same when he successfully had topped in the state of Rajasthan, or when he had gotten his doctor's degree. He shook his head in disbelief,  but he was determined to make his mom happy, even if it meant marrying Aarohi, he shall do all for his mother. His left eye began twitching, he rubbed his eye lid and pondered, what more could be happening next.

But little did he know the pain he was about to go through and the plans and the wishes that were never going to see the light of the day.  

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