Unreachable Destiny- The Curse Of Your Love

Chapter-43: Who is Maya?

"Oh well, Why does my Nikki-Ji look dull?" Abhinav sat himself down at the table for breakfast. He pinches Ranav's cheeks and Ranav furrows his brows and pulls back.

"Uh- Uhh. I am not a kid anymore, Papa."

"But you're always a kid to us," Askahra says, as she walks around the table to sit down and ruffles his hair playfully.

"MOM. Not my hair." Ranav immediately tries to set his hair as Abhimanyu smiles at the trio. Ranav, like his father, does not like his hair to be touched.

"Docman, did you bring your laptop charger?" Abhimanyu nods with a mouthful of bread omelette.  "I forgot to bring mine, so I didn't do anything the last few days. Let me borrow it after breakfast."

"Sure." Abhimanyu mumbles, still chewing. Then he gets a call and takes it. 

"Hello?" Manjari's voice comes out, startling the people around as Abhimanyu turns the phone around to show the video call, where Manjari is waving at them. "Where is my Ranav? Show him." Just like any other normal day, Manjari woke up and decided to make it all about Ranav. 

"Halloooo, Dadi." Ranav takes the phone from Abhi and waves back to Manjari.

"How are you, Beta? I couldn't reach you the last few days." As if she ever called him before. She usually doesn't call him at all, because he always puts his phone on silent as he works in his studio, so eventually, she gave up calling, but now, that he's in Kasauli, of course, she would call because of all her insecurities must've clammed her mind by now.

"Oh, the signal is really bad here and you know that I usually don't have my phone on me."

"Ah right." Ranav talked with her for a while. She eventually touched on the topic of the day that is Abhinav's recovery. Even though it was less than thirty seconds in their 10-minute call, she asked Abhinav how he was and how he was feeling. Meanwhile, Akshara excuses herself into the kitchen to put everything back since everyone's almost done with their breakfasts. Ranav finally passed the mobile back to Abhimanyu. He can finally eat. He chows down on the food promptly as Abhimanyu is still on the phone with Manjari. Manjari Dadi seems to love talking on the phone, Ranav thinks. 

"Ranu, there are some Kachoris from yesterday. I mashed them so you can eat them with the bread. Tell me if you need cheese slices along with it." Akshara says from the kitchen and Ranav smiles, happy that the kachori is left.

"What! She's feeding him leftovers? Why?" Manjari's voice pierces through the conversation around. Akhilesh goes silent as Surekha glares at the back of the phone. Arohi awkwardly sits there, gesturing for Abhimanyu to take the call outside. He immediately gets up and leaves the hall, standing near the window and also switching to an audio call. He puts the phone to his ear.

"Ma! You were on speaker."

"So? What do I have to fear? Can't I worry about what my grandson is eating? Why does he need to eat leftovers."

"Ma, it's not a big deal. It's not even unhealthy. Maybe she just doesn't want to waste food."

"She could feed it to dogs if she doesn't want to waste food."

"Mom, It's her son too. She knows what she's doing."

"But-" Abhimanyu turns around as the phone is taken from his hand. 

"Hi, Manajri Ma. I hope you're doing well. It's just that Ranav likes to eat left-over Kachoris with cheese and bread. So, I always keep aside some extra Kachoris for the next morning. You might not know it since you seem to barely observe his likes and dislikes."

"Akshara, that is not what I meant. Is this how you talk to elders?"

"I haven't disrespected you yet, Manjari Ma. I am saying that I know my son better, just like you did. You believed you knew Abhimanyu better than anyone else, so you should understand that I know Ranav the best and you may not know much about his likes and dislikes."

"I do know him. He likes momos and-"

"It's Ruhi who likes momos. Ranav likes pastries the most." Manjari goes silent and Akshara takes a deep breath before she speaks again." I am not insulting you, Ma. I am asking you to think twice before saying something that could damage any relationship further." Akshara then handed over the phone to Abhimanyu. If it had been the older Abhi, he would've fought with Akshar in support of his mother, but over the years he learned not to always support his mother blindly, especially when it's about Ranav. Akshara is no longer the girl who will take it all silently and if he doesn't let her fight for herself, she won't think twice to hand it right back to him. So instead of adding any more oil to the fire, he says some sweet words to calm his mother and ends the call.

Akshara angrily stomps into the kitchen. It has been so many years and everything changed for better or worse, but Manjari Ma still seems to live in her own beliefs and it's not wrong at all until that something involves Akshara's son. Akshara won't listen to a word against her happy little family that is finally complete after so many obstacles. Throughout the years, Manjari was always ready to taunt and point fingers at Akshara's parenting and she has been taking it for a while because Ranav was young and he's going to stay in Udaipur. So she didn't want to create any trouble during his stay there but after he became an individual, Akshara made sure to never let Manjari stomp on her feelings again. Lost in her thoughts, she doesn't notice anyone's presence in the kitchen until she hears her voice.

"That was badass," Abhira says, sitting on the counter on the other side of the kitchen.

"Oh! When did you wake up?" Abhira usually sleeps in until late, and since yesterday she barely showed herself in the house. It must've been really awkward for her to be around people who she's not acquainted with.

"I woke up very early."

"Wow, What a surprise." Akshara busies herself as Abhira plays with her fingers, seeming to be hesitating. 

"Akshu Ma." She says cautiously.

"Hmmm." Akshara doesn't notice Abhira's hesitation as she digs into the fridge.

"Who is Maya?" Akshara looks up over the fridge door.

"Who is Maya?" Akshara asks right back.

"Nothing," Abhira says with a smile but it doesn't seem she's happy.  She felt like she heard the name somewhere but couldn't remember where. She walks out of the kitchen silently as Akshara wonders to herself: Who is Maya?