Little Snippets

Parallel Universe

Ram and Priya navigating their journey as parents as little Pihu goes to school for the first time (there is no leap and separation in this story)

Priya picked her phone which was buzzing every second. She clicked on the WhatsApp icon to look at what was going on in that one particular group chat where there were almost 60 messages now.

People were reacting with hearts and writing so cute and adorable to a certain video posted a while ago. "So strange that these ladies have no work to do on a Monday morning but gush on a stupid video" she thought annoyed. But curiosity got the best of her and she clicked on the video. The video loaded and she was shocked to see the person in the video. It was Ram. He was crying standing infront of Pihu's school gate. Pihu was in his arms and every other parent who was coming to drop off their child passed weird looks to this middle aged man who was sobbing like a baby.

It was Pihu's first day of school and Priya had to delegate this task to Ram as she had to take Meera for an early morning doctor's appointment as she had recently undergone a heart surgery. "Of course, I should have known that he wouldn't be able to handle this even though he was acting all macho in the morning." She chuckled.

She could not help but smile at how cute he was looking. And, Pihu, her 4 year old baby was trying to console her daddy. She was going to call him but meera came back after getting the tests done and she had to go to the doctor's cabin to consult on further treatment.

An hour later, she dropped her mother at Sood house and was going to go to her institute when she saw the message he had sent her sometime ago. He had texted to tell her that he was going back home after dropping off pihu at school instead of going to office. She sighed looking at the message and headed home.

There he was sitting on the bed with all the photo albums spread everywhere. Since the day Pihu was born, she had forgotten how many pictures he clicked every day. There was a time when everyday new frames were delivered at the Kapoor Mansion. They had tons of them filling the walls of their room and Pihu's room. She had to strictly scold him to stop getting more frames because at this rate he was going to put the frames on the terrace as well.

He was so engrossed in his own world that he did not even realize when she had entered the room. "Ram, ye kya haal bna rakha hai room ka" She called him and picked some albums to make room for herself to sit next to him.

"What are you doing" she asked as he still kept on looking at those photos.

"Nothing, main free tha to aise he albums dekh raha tha" He replied and she could sense the sadness in his voice.

"Waise album se yaad aaya, apne ek video dekhi, kafi popular hui aaj subah social media pe" she decided to rile him up a little bit to change his mood.

"Kaunsi video?" he raised his brow. She pulled out her phone to show him the recording that was posted in the group. His horrified expressions at watching himself crying made her burst out in laughter.

"First day of school pihu ka tha. Main pareshan thi ki khin wo na ro pade lekin ye kya hai?" She teased him and added "aur koi to subah bahut confidence se bol rha tha ki main emotional nahi hun"

"Haan toh, aree aa gya rona bichare masoom bachon ka soch kr ki kitna torture jhelna pdega unko itne saal padhai krke. Isme galat kya hai" He tried to cover up by giving some lame excuse. "Aur ye galat hai, jo tum sab auraton ne milke kiya hai"

"Maine kya kiya" Priya asked him amused. "Ye kya parents whatsapp group bana rakha hai, ye sab krne ke liye bnaya hai ki logon ke husbands ko record krke discuss kren" He was annoyed that his secret was out.