Happy Family - Conditions Apply!!!

1. CRAVINGS

Bengaluru or popularly known as Bangalore is very famous for its unpredictable weather which always lightens the mood of the residents. But the traffic jams are a pain in the ass. While some are in a hurry to reach their offices or homes, some roam around aimlessly, with no pressure of reaching anywhere. This mixture makes the city unique with its enormous population. But wait, street fights? During a terrific traffic jam? With a tub of ice cream and a cheesecake for your pregnant wife?

Uffffff!

Raghuvir wasn't prepared for this. His sixth sense had advised him to take up the lalbagh route but he ended up moving straight to purchase the flowers in the townhall route. This one way route was always busy and now street fights for not even an accident! Cursing his mind for the wrong choice, he pushed his bike forward in order to move in spaces between the cars and buses. Why does a person have to travel in a car if he is alone? To scroll phone? Because that's what many people did. It was a rough day for him already. Nonetheless, he moved as soon as the signal turned green. He had covered almost three hundred meters in the signal by moving in the spaces in between. Owing to the traffic, he didn't want to get stuck behind a bus.

Reaching NR colony from Townhall isn't a big task right? No it was! Especially in the peak hours. But it didn't tire him. After all, he was going to visit his wife after two whole days. A rose, her favourite flower; a tub of blackcurrant icecream and a blueberry cheesecake was all she was craving for. And here he was with them to visit her. It was her first pregnancy and she was staying at her mother's home now after Raghuvir's parents completed the Baby Shower ritual. It was hell of an event the last Thursday and he had shifted Shravani on Friday to her parents' home which was hardly seven kilometres far. Saturday and Sunday had vanished in completing his work as a compensation to holidays on Thursday and Friday and now after two whole days, he was going to meet her. It was first time since the last two years that they were far from each other. That was the reason his wife had called him at three in the morning crying about how much she missed him. And here he was to surprise her today.

Anjana, Shravani's mother opened the door for Raghuvir as the bell rang. Looking at the gifts in his hands, she smiled widely. It was embarassing for him to visit them this way, he had hardly visited ten times and stayed for one night in two years. He wasn't much comfortable around them. This made him wonder how Shravani had effortlessly made herself comfortable in his house with his parents, although she was equally embarrassed during the marriage rituals. He had to ask her the secret, for sure. He stepped inside in the living room where there was nobody and saw his mother in law walking inside the kitchen informing her husband, Keshav about his arrival, who was busy in the puja room performing his sandhyavandana. He bent and looked in the living room to find Raghuvir and smiled wide along with chanting mantras. He made a sign to wait for five minutes until he completed his evening Puja. It was a practice he had made after his retirement. His spirituality had spiked since then.

Raghuvir slowly placed the cheesecake and icecream tub on the table in the living room. He was shy to call his mother in law and ask her to place it in the fridge. Although he was comfortable to talk about random things with his father in law, he was always shy around his mother in law. He decided to head upstairs with the rose hiding behind his back that's when he saw her on the stairs.

"Amma, is Raghu here? You just said Pa —" Shravani walked down and finally saw him and smiled from ear to ear and the same smile reflected on his face too. Unable to control her excitement, she got down two stairs with urgency.

"Shravni, slowly. What are you doing" Raghuvir rushed upstairs and held her and the baby bump safely.
Shravni ignored his advices and hugged him instantly, although hindered by the baby bump, she felt the safest in his arms. Two days of not seeing him in real but video calls, supported by her hormones, which made her express her emotions extremely; she cried, infact sobbed.