Hum Tum

The Pooja

"Maa sa, aap theek toh ho?"

"Huh?"

 
"What?"

 
"Dadisa ko kya hua?"

 
Kaveri left without paying attention to the murmurs of shock following her decision to elect Abhira and Armaan as the pooja's pair.

 
She didn't have time for their silly questions. Nor could she stand to look at Abhira for longer than necessary. That girl was a nuisance, and nothing could convince Kaveri otherwise. Kaveri was willing to bet that Abhira's nonsense sent Rohit packing.

'Then why is that girl sitting in the pooja?' Her brain asked.

 
'For Rohit,' her heart replied.

 
Rohit was Kaveri's weakness. His life meant too much to her. She couldn't trust Rohit's fate in couples so fraught, like Vidya and Madhav, who looked at each other with disdain or Kajal and Sanjay, who didn't look at each other at all.

 
This pooja required a pure, pious connection, praying for her grandson. A connection that was real, like Armaan and Abhira's.

 
Kaveri's Armaan was a wafadaar siphai, doing her bidding, no questions asked.

 
Abhira's Armaan had a voice that screeched Kaveri's ears every time it went up against her. Kaveri despised Abhira's effect on Armaan but couldn't deny the impact represented a strong bond.

 
Kaveri saw the softness with which Armaan cared for Abhira. He'd try to hide it to avoid her scrutinizing gaze, but it was there. When Abhira tugged his sleeve, he'd turn to her with all his attention, hanging on to Abhira's every word.

 
Abhira, too, trusted Armaan implicitly and instinctively, leaning closer to him whenever the road got too steep.

 
For two people who'd only met three months ago, there was so much history between them and so little distance. It was hard to see where Armaan ended and Abhira began.

 
If Kaveri had to bet Rohit's future on this pooja, she'd bend the rules a thousand times to include Abhira and Armaan. She'd bear Abhira if she had to. 

She had to.