yun hi tu mere saath rehna

Chapter Thirty Six

Armaan was whistling a soft tune as he descended down the staircase, ready to start a new day. Things were picking up at the NGO as he got a better hang of things and he was loving it. Right now, he was in the middle of wrapping up some paperwork related to the Akshara Unchh Vidyalaya and he was extremely happy with the pace things were going. If all went well, he would have all necessary permissions by the end of the week. He couldn't wait to see the look on everyone's faces when he delivered that little tidbit of news. 

Abir & Mishti had been eagerly awaiting. The school was very close to their hearts, understandably so. It was just as important to him & Abhira. Ever since that day at the gallery viewing when Mishti had announced the details of the project, Armaan had been waiting for the day the school opened. Abhira had been even more excited. A school for underprivileged kids named after her was the perfect legacy for the woman Akshara Maa had been. She had always been a voice for the marginalized, doing her best to make the world a better place for them. From what he had understood after all the time he'd spent with Badi Maa, Par Nani was the same. 

“Good morning, Bhaiya!! Aaj toh aap bohot zyada handsome lag rahe ho!” Kiara commented, making Armaan smile. He was dressed in a grey polo and had paired it with black jeans and a black blazer. He did look good if he said so himself. 

He ruffled Kiara's hair. “Tu bhi bohot pyaari lag rahi hai.”

“Woh toh main hamesha hi lagti hoon!” Kiara chirped, making Armaan chuckle. 

“Armaan! Kahaan tha kal, beta?” Vidya asked, making Armaan's smile drop immediately. “Mujhe kitni chinta ho gayi thi. Itni late kahaan ho gayi tujhe? Aur phir aaya toh bas apne Papa se hi baatein karne mein busy tha! Maa ke liye time nahi hai kya tere paas?”

Armaan couldn't help the flinch that passed through his body at her words. He'd spent last night talking about his mother till his mouth had felt like cotton, till his tongue had stopped working, till his ears had started hurting from the constant buzz of conversation, and yet, had barely scratched the surface when it came to the woman that Shivani Poddar had once been. His father had a seemingly endless barrage of stories of his mother, and had been only too happy to share them. 

For the first time since he'd stepped foot in this house, Armaan felt like he belonged. He belonged in his father's stories about his mother's excitement at his impending arrival, in the blanket his mother had knitted him - the one that Armaan had always been partial to even as an adult, but hadn't even known before last night that his mother had painstakingly knit it herself for her child - in his father's hug that held him together as he cried remembering her, in the love his parents had for him, but which he'd never been allowed to feel because life had been too cruel to him. 

Last night had been the unmaking of Armaan Poddar, Kaveri Poddar's Golden Boy. He was becoming someone new, someone different. Armaan himself didn't know who or what yet, but what he did know was that the sight of his stepmother in front of him, looking far more concerned for him than he thought she actually felt in her heart, made him want to scream. This woman who was calling herself his mother was washing her hands off him a few days ago. She had no right to call herself that when Armaan already had a mother. A mother who had loved him immensely till her dying breath, who had been his whole world once upon a time. A woman who had never placed any conditions on her affection and had doted on Armaan in every possible. And, a woman, who he'd met only recently, who still did love him like that. In the face of the unconditional, unequivocal love of Shivani Poddar and Mishti Aggarwal Rajvansh, Vidya Poddar's definition of a mother felt hollow. 

Madhav, attuned to Armaan's change in demeanour, and understanding why he was behaving the way he did, stepped in. “Armaan! Kabse wait kar raha hoon main tera! Chal jaldi. Aaj Mishti Sa ne khaas naashte pe bulaya hai humein.”