wooing Meera Rai

Ra(y) of sunshine

"VIHAAN, slow down baby. You might fall and break your head!"

Vihaan never listened to anyone, his father had given him all the freedom and luxury of the world. His father told him to never pay attention to anything ever said by a woman and to do whatever he wanted. 

But Vihaan would never defy his mother.

His sweet, beautiful, pretty mother with doe like eyes and dusky skin. She had a smile that could calm his anxiously hyper heart and a touch that could heal all his wounds. 

"MAA! I can't slow down." Vihaan raced around the lawn with his new bicycle, zooming past the staff who waited in line to secure the little prince. "Look how shiny my bike is!" 

"Vihaan, stop speeding. You will hurt yourself!" 

Vihaan pedaled as fast as he could, trying to show how he well he could speed up on his big boy cycle without the support wheels. He was the fastest five year old and he was going to flaunt how speedily he could ride it.

He turned on his cycle and waved at his mother who was on her toes, hoping that her son would listen to her and slow down. That was when Vihaan lost his balance and fell on the water fountain and hit his head on the stone marble. He hardly remembered what happened after that but he heard his mother fanatically calling out his name and when she held him, Vihaan shut his eyes.

He was safe, his mother was here.

Vihaan woke up hours later in his room. He had two doctors and few nurses surrounding and monitoring him when he woke up with a headache severe and vision blurry. He touched his aching forehead and found a wire gauze wrapped around his little injury and the doctors tending to his care. 

Amidst the sea of the hospital and house staff, Vihaan raised his arms towards his mother who looked at him with teary eyes when she saw him. 

But Vihaan noticed how her left cheek seemed reddish, and how his father's big fingers left a mark on her arm. He also noticed the little bruise on his mother's lips and eyes that were slowly losing the light he once found in them.

Soon Vihaan was left alone with his mother when he was alright and ready to rest. He held his mother's arm, ever so gently and ever so carefully to not add his tiny fingerprints to her fragile arm.

"I am sorry!" Vihaan cried, when his mother brought his dinner and refused to eat anything else. "I am so sorry, mom!"

He was sorry, but not because he got hurt, or didn't listen to his mother. He was sorry because he caused his mother all of those red and black and blue bruises. 

Little Vihaan had once seen how his father treated his mother behind shut doors and ever since that moment. And little Vihaan hated all of it. 

Vihaan's mother wrapped her arms around the boy and wiped his big fat tears with her fingers. 

"Oh no, baby. I should be sorry! I didn't take enough care of you, my love."

Vihaan wiped his runny nose on his sleeves, "but you told me to be careful, I should have been careful, and now you have bad marks." 

Vihaan's mother kissed his tiny hand that ran through her bruised face. "Oh, this is nothing, you know Maa is so clumsy at times. I am just glad you are okay, you know right you are your mother's jaan?"

Vihaan nodded, wiping his tears with the back of his hand as he lay on his mother's lap. 

"You are why I am here, baby. You are the entire reason your Mom is alive. You are my only hope."

"Hope?" Vihaan frowned, he was too little to understand how grave his mother's words were. "What does that mean?" 

"Hope? How do I..." His mother wrapped her arms around her baby and brought him closer to her warmth. "Picture a stormy night, it's dark, and it's raining like cats and dogs."

Vihaan chuckled cutely, imagining cats and dogs raining from the sky.

"It's thundering, and it's lightning." 

Vihaan gulped, a bit scared of the loud noises.

"And it's cold and wet. You are in the middle of a long, empty road, and there is no one around you. The sun is hiding behind black clouds, the wind is cold and the rain won't stop pouring on you."

"Is that what hope means?"

Vihaan's mother chuckled, kissing her baby. "No, that is not what hope is."

"So what is hope?"

"Hope is when you see one tiny ray of sun escape through the big clouds. Hope is when the tree you stand under keeps you dry for a moment. Hope is when you see a rainbow amidst a pouring rain. Hope is when someone walks over to you with an umbrella, despite the darkness and the loud sounds, just to keep you safe."

Vihaan nodded, he couldn't understand what hope meant, but it sounded like a good thing to him. He hated rains and storms and would love someone walking over to him with an umbrella.

"Is Vihaan your hope?" He asked, as his mother fed him the dal-bati-churma she made for him. "Is Vihaan the one who brings you bella's to keep you dry?"

Vihaan's mother smiled.

"No. Vihaan cannot carry umbrellas, he is too tiny to walk across a storm." She wiped his mouth with her thumb, soaking every moment with her innocent son. "But Vihaan is that one tiny ray of sunshine who is trying it's best to reach me, despite the big clouds. Vihaan is my sunshine. My little ray of sunshine."

"What's a ra of sunshine? I am your ra?"

"Yes, little baby. You are my ray of sunshine. My Ra."

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