Kolhapur Chronicles

5. olaf

The new morning saw the same old chaos with everyone resuming their respective roles again, except for Raghav. He was not up yet and even after Dada left for the store and Ketki left to drop Sona, he didn't come out. Aaji told Pallavi to go and check on him and as she half heartedly got up to do so, he appeared in the hallroom.

"What happened Raghav, didn't sleep well last night?" Aaji worriedly asked, looking at his face. He had a frown and his muscles were tense with stiff shoulders, and she knew he might be in pain.

"No Aaji, I slept well, it's just that my back is aching."

Pallavi mentally facepalmed herself and wondered how this man would survive on the poor side of the world. Not poor, what rubbish, upper middle class is what they are. She quickly understood that sleeping on the floor for two days hurt his back and she didn't even know what to answer when questioned as to why she made him sleep down.

Yes, put the entire blame on him. Done.

"Oh don't worry, I have an age-old nuskha that will work," Aaji said with a look of content on her face and turned towards Pallavi. "Piu, dip some towels in hot water and just massage his back with that. The heat will help relax his muscles."

Awkwardness.

That's what spread in the room. After a moment of pause, which involved deep thinking from Pallavi and utter confusion from Raghav, Pallavi broke the ice.

"ठीक आहे आजी." She said and walked out straight to the bedroom. Raghav was confused, he expected her to give reasons to deny but well, the girl is hell bent on breaking all his expectations. Glancing towards aaji, he saw her gesture with her eyes to follow Pallavi, and he obeyed.

She wasn't there inside. Did she disappear into the air? Raghav thought he was definitely going insane, and before he could turn to leave she came out of the bathroom and started folding the clothes which were thrown on the bed. How dumb of him, how can he forget there is a bathroom too? He waited for her to speak, something which he had never done before for anybody, and she did not. After arranging the clothes in the cupboard she faced him and raised her eyebrows in question.

"The towel and hot water is ready inside. Go and help yourself."

Raghav within a split second answered, "How am I supposed to massage my own back? It's not physically possible."

"Aww, poor baby can't help himself?" She spoke blankly with a mischievous grin on her face and he wondered if she had actually lost it. "Listen I am not going to do what aaji said so you go and do it yourself."

"Fine," he replied. "You won't do it for me, and I can't do it myself. So let it be. Aaji will eventually know I didn't get it done because the pain didn't reduce and I hope you know what you have to say to her."

Gathering all the confidence he had, he sat on the bed and started scrolling the news feed on his phone.

"Ugghhh, Raghav, you are impossible and the worst. Go to the bathroom and remove your shirt."

Raghav smirked. This felt like a win, although small, but it was worth it. Her brows wrinkled and her eyes widened when she got angry, and her nose definitely became different. Different in what sense he didn't know, but different.

Unbuttoning his shirt, he sat on the stool. His back was aching like anything, he doesn't even remember the last time he slept on a small bed, let alone the floor. He didn't plan to tell anyone about the pain but Aaji can now read him like a book.

His focus shifted from his pain to the approaching footsteps of Pallavi. She had her hair up in a messy bun and she wore a light green sleeveless kurta with white palazzos. She looked like she could be anywhere else but here, anger was oozing through her face. Did she look pretty? What was he thinking?