Hustle For Love |COMPLETE| MaNan Fiction

49. The One Where I Found Perspective

A/N: Hello Readers, I'm back with yet another update, but before that hope you all have great plans for Valentines! I almost didn't have any cause the hubby is stuck elsewhere and the kids (well how can they ever provide their mum with a moment of peace?!) BUT then I decided I can't let all these matters dictate my life & I decided to pull off a li'l Mrs. N in my own life :P
I left the kids gang with their grandparents & I'm taking a flight back to good old Mumbai for the week! I'm meeting friends over drinks & chats every evening this week & hopefully will be sober enough to commemorate Chapter 50 & Valentines week special for Hustle for Love next week (key word being, hopefully!!)

Anyway, back to the story. This chapter isn't light but it's warm & peaceful & most importantly positive! I loved penning this down & I truly hope you will enjoy reading it as much :)

No more chit chat, happy reading!

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Crystalbrook Bailey, The Esplanade, Cairns, Aus. circa 2019

(The Grand Reception Hall)

Nandini Murthy

If extravagance  ever had a name, it was Nyonica Mal..oops..now Khurana. Yes, this woman had it all. All that can vouch for luxe & couture & everything larger than life! Mrs. N's reception decor looked nothing less than a magnum opus set from Hollywood, the one that was so larger than life that it could intimidate you. Your existence could feel at threat suddenly realizing how miniscule you are or your life is when compared to the grandeur this woman swore by. I entered the property hand in hand with Manik & Appa, both men by my side, maybe that's why I could handle the overwhelm, knowing these two men would be there to catch me if I faltered?

Anyway, coming back to the venue, it was an outdoor setup of the most massive landscaped piece of earth I have ever laid my eyes on. I don't know, were they allowed to have pastures inside a hotel in the heart of a crowded city and holy next to the beach!? Now you know what I mean by abundance here? The lawn could house at least a thousand folks standing at half a metres distance & it was decorated sporadically in places, leaving large areas untouched & lush green. Right in the center was a tiny white gazebo in Japanese finish, standing quaintly on an elevated plain; it housed just one frail white garden bench whipped with the tiniest white fairy lights one could ever lay their eyes on - from where I stood, it looked like a tiny bench under a fairy white and dark wooden paneled gazebo that was home to the most intricately scattered design work of fireflies in the world!

"Fireflies..." I mumbled, as we stood there at the mark of twilight & it lit up like a dream!

"You like them?" I heard Manik whisper from next to me.

"Love them, my Amma always said fireflies bring hope!" I barely whispered. Mrs. N was nothing like my Amma, but this strange source of connection between these women amazed me.

"Amma & Mrs. N both like fireflies?" I wondered out loud, in daze. I suddenly felt Manik stiffen next to me.

"Nandu, as much as you can find your Appa in dad, I suggest you don't start looking for your Amma in Nyonica; telling you from experience, you will be very disappointed." came Manik's grave voice.

"Manik.." I began & from my own tone, I knew I was about to defend Mrs. N, but why the hell was she worth defending? Manik was obviously right about her! But I said it anyway - maybe because in many many years I never found anything to compare anyone with my Amma? No, not because my Amma was extraordinary, you know. In fact quite the opposite, my Amma was an ordinary woman with ordinary beliefs, she was as regular as any other mom out there, and hence she blended so easily with them that after she was gone, I found nothing about her that I could hold onto as unique and look for it in others. Irony lay in the fact that I lost the essence of my Amma in sheer ordinariness & Manik lost his in his mother's extraordinariness but the world had a strange way of bringing two different poles to a common point; a place where the ordinary & extraordinary met & merged in such a way, that it gave me an illusion of oneness, of hope, of fireflies..