As told by Tulasi

CHAPTER 10 - Mine, finally

The last few days of college passed without a blip. With only three weeks left for college to reopen, Vinay is in hurry to find a nice house to rent.

He isn't comfortable to stay in his in-laws house and wants to move out soon.

Serves him right. May be now, he will understand how tough it is, for a woman to leave everything behind and start a new life with strangers in a different house.

A week ago, my mother and I went to my in-laws house to get the household items my parents gave for my marriage. Of course my mother-in-law was there shouting all the time that I was a home wrecker who did black magic on her son and took him away from her.

We stayed silent because I didn't want to stoop down to her level, now that I have my husband. If only we could afford to buy new kitchen items, I wouldn't have had to go there.

Vinay said nothing when I told him that I went to his house. I know he feels guilty about leaving me all those weeks and about not being able to change his parents.

Few things can't be done how much ever efforts we put in. The same way, few people cannot be changed even with the huge amount of love we give them and his parents are definitely one of a kind.

I am glad we won't stay with them because I don't want my kid to be anything like them. I know I am being selfish as my baby needs its grandparents but it's good to have none than have someone like them; my parents will just do.

Getting dressed, I sat in the living with a cup of tea waiting for Vinay to return from house hunting.

"How is it?" I asked when I saw him enter.

"Good. Independent house, two bed rooms and fifteen minutes from my college" he said with a sigh, sitting beside me.

"Oh. What about the rent then?"

"Rs 6000 per month. Six months advance"

"Oh, not bad. Well, I - er-was thinking-- shall we go out?"

"What now? Why?" he questioned with a frown.

"I feel like having KFC's Chicken" I confessed "And maybe have some fresh air. Summers in Vizag are too bad. So freaking hot"

He chuckled "I don't know why you are complaining. You grew up in this city. Anyhow, I need 5 minutes to freshen up and then we can go. Is it OK?"

"Perfect" I grinned.

He returned ten minutes later, looking fresh and neat wearing a black shirt and light blue jeans.

"Come back by 7" My mom said as I got onto his Honda Shine bike.

"Are you kidding me? Its five now. The nearest KFC is in CMR Central Mall and it takes more than an hour to reach there. How do you expect us to return in 2 hours?"

"Be careful and drive slowly" she yelled and waved as we rode away from my house.

Exactly one hour fifteen minutes later, we arrived at the CMR Central which was crowded with lots of families and youngsters as usual.

The KFC food court is probably the most filled shop in the whole mall with tens of people waiting in the counters and between tables to find seats. After another half-an-hour, we finally found a place to sit and I eagerly took a bite from my chicken wings.

Now this is what I call heaven.

"You can take a piece too. No need to stare at me like that" I said hotly to Vinay who was staring at me in amusement.

"You never fancied Chicken so much. What's this sudden change?"

"May be your daughter likes it so much. I wonder what we are going to do if she asks for non-veg everyday" I replied, remembering the time Karthik made biryani when I said I wanted to eat Chicken.