Yours, With Love

A long phone call

"What happened Radha. Is something the matter? You sound so low today. Please mujhe batao if everything's okay?"

(Mujhe batao - tell me)

Rajeev had called Radhika after his dinner. It was a Friday night, and they had their engagement ceremony the next day.

"Raj, kucch nahi bas,"

(kucch nahi bas - there's nothing)

Radhika hesitated to speak. Yes, she had no doubt in her mind in believing that her Rajeev would never get bored of her sob story, because that had already been established by him - how important she was for him, and how everything related to her mattered to him. But there was a limit for everything right?

"Radha", Rajeev's voice sounded as a slight warning, and she could very clearly understand his underlying concern for her.

"Accha (alright), listen."

"I had an argument with maa and papa some time prior. Maa and I had finished serving papa and bhai their dinner and we took a seat alongside them."

As Rajeev heard her words, he only shook his head. While everyone should have served themselves, since all of the family members in Radha's home were grown up adults who could serve themselves whatever they need, he also knew of some notions which were enforced in that household. Yes, food can be served out of love too, each day, but denoting it as someone's duty, just because of stereotypes didn't really make sense to him. However, there was nothing he could do about this. And as it is, it was a matter of a few days before Radha would be a part of his family, and then, he knew he would make everything right for her - be it even the smallest of the matters as such.

"And then just as I was about to put the first morsel in my mouth, as filmy as this sounds Raj, maa interrupted me with one of her 'what to do after marriage lectures'."

Rajeev shook his head yet again. That's what he could do for now.

"What was it about?"

"She complained about the amount of books on my study table. Actually, you know right that Meeta aunty has advised me to research about what interests me the most for pursuing research, and so I had taken out nearly all of the books from my M. Sc days."

Two days back when Radhika was speaking with Gaurav and Meeta on the phone after she had missed the two of them, Meeta casually asked Radhika if she wanted to pursue her PhD. She was initially skeptical, but remembering her Raj's words about how Gaurav uncle had supported his wife during her PhD, she eventually told Meeta that she indeed was interested in PhD, but couldn't do so as of yet since her parents weren't supportive about this.

Meeta and Gaurav had then shared a look, and not wanting their wonderful daughter-in-law to be even more disheartened by speaking about the qualms her parents had with her PhD, Meeta simply stated that she would assist Radhika in searching for the right mentor and college. Radhika was immensely gladdened to say the least and profusely thanked the both of them, to which she received a scolding where Gaurav clearly stated that his daughter should not thank him and her mom for supporting her, and how they were proud of her.

Radhika had gotten really emotional hearing those words. Parental support and guidance and the fact that you have made them proud - that feeling is something else, and this was practically the first time, she felt this warmth when it came to her scholastic achievements.

"Haa, so did you come up with a topic Radha? I mean, this is such an absurd question, there must have been a colossal number of topics which you must have liked while studying, and boiling down to a single topic is undoubtedly difficult."