Bade Acche Lagte Hain | MaNan

The 'Man' & 'Woman' of the House.

13th November, 1995.

A frown settles on Manik's forehead as he watches his wife sitting on the bed, completely engrossed in something she finds more important than him. She was scribbling down something fastly on a notepad without glancing at his way properly even for once.

"What are you doing?" He finally breaks the silence while his fingers work on unbuttoning his shirt before shrugging it on.

"Just five minutes." She says, with her eyes still glued over the notepad. Hmphh!

He makes a bad face and silently wear his clothes, deliberately throwing his towel in her direction once he wore his pants.

Removing the wet towel from her head she darts an irritated look at her husband who seems to concentrate on his hair now, after spoiling her's.

A small smile comes on her lips, well aware of the reason behind his act.

A total attention seeker he is! But it's only her attention he craves for.

Keeping the notepad aside, she climbs down the bed and kisses his stubbled cheek before running out to hang the towel under the sun. His mouth opens and closes like a fish before grinning like a fool at her unexpected gesture.

On entering inside she finds him going through what she just wrote. Hearing the sound of the anklets nearing him, he stares up, confused. "It's the budget." She answers, making his frown lines deeper.

"I can see that, but why?" He asks walking closer to her.

"We need to have a budget for groceries and other expenses. I was thinking about it from past week and yesterday conversation just reminded me to talk to you about it soon." She explains taking the notepad from his hand and hear him sigh.

"Nandini, you don't have to do all of this, you know. I'll manage everything, just give me some time." He says, assuming that this is all because he shared his financial issues with her. It's his job to work it out, no?

"I know you can and you will. But I want to help you in which ever way I can."

"You are already helping me." He cuts her off softly and sighs as she looks away with her arms locked in her front. "Fine! I'll hear you out." He surrenders and she grins in response. He was understanding her, a bit by bit.

She pulls him on the bed and sits next to her. "See, running a household doesn't only requires good earning. We need to keep a check on our expenses too and also try to save a little amount, every week or every month. Even you do the saving part right?" He nods, somewhere agreeing to what she just put forward.

"So this is the budget for everything that I'd come across till now. I wanted to discuss this with you first and then everyone, so that we can use our money wisely and all this makes a lot of difference." She continues and shows him all the calculations that she'd done along with the necessary changes and she was absolutely right, it did make a difference worth noticing. He was amazed and impressed.

"We can work this way. You are smart." He praises her with a soft smile and she tucks her hair passing him a cute smile.

"So we can discuss this with bhaiya and father as well?" He frowns at her question and replied, "Why do you want to ask them?"

"Because they are also a part of this house and there should be equal participation from their side as well." She states casually but he was sceptical about it.

"I don't think so Manas is going to take it well. He doesn't like to be controlled for his expenditure. Anyways, he uses his salary for his own things."