ℓσνє : ѕнαυяуα αυя αησкнι кι кαнαηι

Shaan

That day, I was feeling of being on the top of the world. As bhabhi asked Aastha to stay as a member of Sabherwals'. I couldn't explain that feeling. Although Aastha seemed to be a bit annoyed by my behavior, but I didn't care. Whenever she used to be angry on me, I would enjoy a lot. That was the thing I missed the most in all those years.

I wanted to be scolded by her. I called her again and again in those years but she never called back. She never responded to my messages, yet I knew she had read all of them on repeat mode just as I used to listen old songs.
She had switched off the read receipts of the text messages for so long, so that I would stop texting her and living in my past.
I tried to explain her thousands of time that she was not only my past but present and future too.
Although I couldn't see whether she had seen my texts or not but I could say that she had read all of them, firstly because she loved me as much as I loved her, secondly, they were related to Shaurya, Who meant whole world to both of us.

After she removed that stupid idea of "me being tired of texting her and never getting any sort of notification, I would stop doing so" out of her mind,  She became a little bit liberal to me.

I exploited that liberty as much as I could. I texted her bunch of messages each hour, because that was the only work I used to do except listening old songs and drinking. I wanted her to get angry on me and shout on me or atleast give that special look of her in which her Face used to glow like a diamond, becauseof which, I started calling Her "Noor".

Whenever she got to be angry on anyone, she firstly used to shorten her eyes, this was the sign for the opponent to stop all the rubbish that he was doing, during that stage she used to foresee the upcoming circumstances and the damage that would be about to done in a little bit of seconds. But if you ask my theory, she used to mark her territory like a lioness and used to see the native things and naive people that would be about to be swallowed under her rage. She would want to capture the last  glimpse in her eyes.. Ok then, on second stage, she used to close her eyes and take a deep breath this was the signal of "toofaan se pahle ki shaanti", during that gesture, she used to try to swallow her invisible anger. Her throat used to go up and down like she was drinking water. Then, comes the third and most critical stage, in which she used to open her eyes in full size and open her mouth and start to blurt her anger. Her ear used to become completely baby pink because of sudden flow of blood and she seemed to be a little rabbit to me. After a few moments, the opponent used to be seem in a very pathetic condition.
No matter how bad the opposition team was I used to sympathize with them and their luck,  because of which they had become her  enemy. I used to stand in a corner with a broad smile unless she used to see me and reciprocate my gesture.

I didn't know from how long I was staring at Noor, till bhai Sahab offered her "her dream job", she wanted to do that since college. She was talented and deserving candidate but before she could apply we got married and she had to quit her job for our house members,  it's members for whom rituals always mattered more than a person's individual happiness.
They were strict for woman, although I didn't likes that since I was a child. I had seen my mom suffering under those illogical regulations. I was more close to my mom than my other 2 brothers. Not even them, but my own father used to mock on this. But, I never left her side till her last breath. I never wanted Aastha to go through the same trauma and challenges, that's why I tried to delay our marriage as much as I could. But, I guess that thing couldn't last long, as she had told me it was not a solution of any problem, I was just trying to delay the consequences but that couldn't help much longer. That's what happened. We got married and she became Mrs. Sabherwal. Her smile from her face got faded much earlier than the heena prints from her hands.
I used to try desperately not to do anything that would hurt my brothers and their respective wives. Usually, Gayatri had no problem with me. She used to treat me like an older brother, main problem was Devi bhabi. I could never be able to make a deep bond with her. She was definitely not a sister type personality. She tried to make us obey all her rules without any objections. That's what we did. We never gave her any chance to complain. Especially me, because I saw a mother figure in her attitude towards me. But that was only for initial days.
After that, she had forgotten the definition of a mother. For her, mother was the only one who had right over child's life more than himself. She held every right to make orders. She did never become my mother or my friend or sister. All I got was a boss lady.
Although I respected her a lot.

For the first time she and my brother made a decision that helped Aastha uplift her mood and I was very thankful to them. I didn't know whether it was their guilt or they really tried to make some changes, but I was happy if my wife and my son and daughter were happy. That mattered to me more than anything at that moment. All were happy.
Yet, I saw something on Noor's face, maybe uncertainty. She had a second thought towards becoming member of committe. But, before she could reply anything, I approved on her behalf. She made a strange expression on her face, which was hard to read. But, I saw a warning in her eyes something like, "tum chalo akele mein, main batati hu tumhe".

Maybe, my old wife was back. I was very happy to see her like that. A sudden smile appeared on my lips, but before anyone could notice, I made that blunt face like nothing happened. After that, everyone ate in silence. But, that silence was not uneasy, infact it was calming. I could understand, this was not easy to change yourself and behavior in a matter of seconds. But whatever was happening I was happy with that, no matter how slow the growth was but at least we were trying to change ourselves. That's what matters the most.

After we hate, Anokhi brought ice-cream for all of us. All of us got our favorite flavors. I became surprised on seeing Tez bhai sahab and Devi bhabhi eating ice-cream. It was quite unusual or I would say rare, no, the correct phrase was that happened for the first time. I had never seen them eating junk foods. They always followed a strict diet.

I saw that not only me, but Kanchan, Gayatri and Noor were also quite surprised. On the other hand, Shaurya was elbowing Anokhi and she was just smiling, seeing downwards and putting her hair lock behind her ear by her fingers. Devi bhabhi and Tej bhai sahab seemed to understand our facial expression,  but asked casually " kya hua bhayi?  Sabhi hum dono ki taraf aisey kyo dekh rahe ho? "

Then, I asked them "bhai sahab hum bas ye soch rahe the ki aapko ice-cream kaisi lagi, aap generally khaate nahi h na ye sab bahar ka khana, aur aapne koi compliment bhi nahi diya." Then Bhaiya and Bhabhi both stared at each other as if trying to figure out what to say. They both seemed to understand what the other was trying to say just by staring into their eyes. These things inspired us as a couple. Then, after licking her lips after the last bite of her ice-cream cup, she said by clearing her mouth with tissue napkins, "ab ismein khna kya h Shaan? Humaara favorite flavor h to achhi to lagni hi thi na." I stared at her for a couple of seconds, I couldn't believe that she could have a favorite flavor in ice-cream, then saw the face of bhai-Sahab. He said to me, "kya hua Shaan? Humaara pasandida ice-cream flavor nahi ho sakta kya? Ismein aisry sochne waali kya baat h?" I sounded astonished even to myself and said, "Nahi bhai-sahab ho sakta h, jaroor ho sakta h. Bas vo hume nahi pata tha na." I faced myself towards Shaurya and said to him, "kya baat h Shaurya, tumhe kaosey pata chala inka favorite flavor?"

He smiled and looked towards Anokhi and then again looked towards me and said, "actually Dad, maine hi sabka flavor choose kiya tha par badi maa aur bade papa ka actual tatse mujhe bhi nahi pata tha. Vo to bas Anokhi ko pata tha pata nahi kaisey." We all looked surprised, then a sense of understanding came in between us. We forgot for whom we were talking, she was Anokhi, who isn't just a brilliant student but also an ideal daughter too. She just smiled in response to that, and Noor gently moved her hand over Anokhi's head, giving her blessings. All seemed to be peaceful and satisfied.

Then, Bebo-kitty went to their room tolding us not to disturb them as they were trying to study, which seemed so unrealistic, but no-one seemed interested to argue with them. Me and kanchan were going to kitchen, suddenly Tej bhai-Sahab grabbed by elbow and asked, "bhayi shaan ab tu kaha chala?". Kanchan had not noticed me before, she too asked, "haa taya ji, aapko koi kaam h kitchen mein to aap mujhe bataiye na! " I replied seeing Shaurya, "jab mera beta gol-gol phulke bana sakta h aap sabke liye, to kya main thoda sa rasoyi ka kaam niptaane mein apni doosri bahu ki madad bhi nahi kar sakta? " Everybody seemed to be laughing. Then Devi bhabhi stopped me saying, " bas Shaan aaj ke liye itna hi change kaafi h, ek beta khaana bana chuka h. Doosre ko bhi aaj hi baawarchi(chief) banne ki koi jaroorat nahi h. Tum kal dekhna abhi hume humaara kaam sambhaalne do. " Kanchan also seemed to be agreed with her, so I made a looser face.

Then, Tez bhai sahab told me, "haa Shaan, vaisey bhi Aastha ko nayi committee members se vote dilwakar accept bhi karwana h aur kuchh formalities bhi h, tu chal mere saath." And we both went to our meeting Hall with Shaurya to discuss over this and other college matters.

•~> 𝕀 𝕙𝕠𝕡𝕖 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕨𝕚𝕝𝕝 𝕝𝕚𝕜𝕖 𝕚𝕥. ℙ𝕝𝕤𝕤 𝕤𝕙𝕒𝕣𝕖 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕥𝕠𝕠, 𝕓𝕖𝕔𝕒𝕦𝕤𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕒𝕥'𝕤 𝕒𝕝𝕝 𝕒 𝕨𝕣𝕚𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝕟𝕖𝕖𝕕𝕤, 𝕤𝕠𝕞𝕖 𝕨𝕠𝕣𝕕𝕤 𝕠𝕗 𝕒𝕡𝕡𝕣𝕖𝕔𝕚𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝕠𝕣 𝕒𝕟 𝕙𝕠𝕟𝕖𝕤𝕥 𝕔𝕣𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕔𝕚𝕤𝕞 𝕥𝕠 𝕞𝕒𝕜𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕨𝕣𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕖 𝕡𝕠𝕨𝕖𝕣𝕗𝕦𝕝.