Fitoor | ✓

13 | Tera

A/N - QUESTION- how many of you are doing camp nanowrimo this july?

13 | Tera

Tara had expected a lot of things to happen today, but what she saw as she was made to sit in the centre of the hall was not one of them. She saw a man and a woman walk into the Rajput house clueless of things happening around them, their eyes scanned the crowd of well-worn men and women- a total contrast to their humble attire. Behind them two children followed, the little one held in the arms of the older one.

"Arti!" she gasped immediately, this was no doubt Indira's doing. "Arti!" She called again, panicking.

"What is it?" Arti turned to her from the guests who were dying to get a glimpse of the bride to be.

Tara nodded in the direction of the new arrivals. When Arti saw them she was equally taken aback, "What is your brother doing here? I thought you hadn't told him about all this." She whispered kneeling next to the sofa Tara sat on.

"I have no idea; I can't believe this. I haven't met them in years and today when I finally get to see them it's like this..." Tara couldn't breathe for a second. She was thankful for sitting because she felt her legs go weak and had she been standing she would definitely have fallen down. Arti said she would take care of this in hushed tones and walked away hastily while the guests continued to crowd around Tara for a look and for once she was glad about it. It was better if she was cast out of the sight of her brother and his wife.

When Tara had gotten married, she was in frequent touch with what was her little family. She would call them once a week and sometimes they'd give her courtesy calls. While Tara was comfortably married to a financially strong husband, her brother was struggling to make ends meet. They had both lost their parents when Tara was quite young, even then they weren't exactly well off. They had enough to feed the four members of the house every night but not more. From the scarce memories she had of her she remembered her father going to work every morning and coming back late carrying lethargy on his shoulders.

Eventually, struggling in their own world, the one Tara had left behind, her brother and his family had lost ties with her. The phone calls decreased until there were none and to remember memories, there was time none.

When Kartavya passed away, condolences were sent through people, something about not having enough money to travel to meet the newly widowed sister. Tara didn't have the time to feel bad then, she was grieving her husband. And when she did, she couldn't help empathise along with all the hurt she felt. Because at the end of the day, Tara didn't make any efforts to be in their lives either. Maybe she had drowned in her own fairy-tale too much to remember the ones she had left behind.

But all of this did not mean she had stopped loving them. Her brother was the only person with whom she shared blood and she wouldn't for anything in this world stop caring for him, which was also the reason she never ever mentioned to him about Indira. For them, Indira was pictured as a loving a mother-in-law and not the one hell bent on destroying her life. She didn't want them to worry about her.

Tara felt her heart physically aching as she thought about how his brother and his wife were going to take the news. They would be so disappointed that she didn't tell them she was getting married, again.

Exhaustion crept over her. Her back was hurting and the women surrounding her were getting louder and louder. Suddenly, Pankhuri ran and sat next to her. She laughed at something some woman said and pretended to find some women gibberish funny. She nudged Tara with her shoulders and kept smiling but silently whispered.