BEST FRIENDS

Chapter 69

RECAP:
“You should tell Dida that the guy didn’t forgive you today and dumped you then she will be so busy in mending your broken heart that she won’t demand to meet the guy” Ragini suggests and Swara looks at her as if she has gone mad.
“I am not an actress lado so how would I act as if my heart is broken and that too today of all day when after a whole month my heart feels good and mended” Ragini presses her lips in thin line and looks at night sky pleading to give them an idea.
“You won’t have to act just don’t speak too much, don’t laugh and give only small smiles… left will be assured” Swara looks at Ragini as if asking to find some other way because not speaking too much is really not her style. “That’s the only way and do it just for few days… after that we will make up the story that you were confused between infatuation and love and now you have realized that it was just a childish crush”
“I just hope that it would work out without any mess…… these days our every plans pull us in bigger mess” Swara and Ragini wishes together.

***********

“Hey… you both are here. Come let’s have evening snacks with whole family!” Sumi says, smiling at both young Gadodias.
“It feels so good to have your normal life back, doesn’t it?” Ragini looks at Swara with a genuine smile who nods at her with the same smile.
“So how was your day, you two? I had a hectic one…”
Swara remembers that how in the start of day she had no hope of this day going so well but after making it up with Sanskar, her day was exactly opposite of what she has expected and starts answering with the widest grin to everyone but a sudden attack of 3 inch heel on her right foot brings tears in her eyes. Controlling the yelp of pain her mouth was urging to give she gives Ragini a harsh glare who just gives Swara a sad smile making her remember that she can’t look happy. Realization dawns on Swara but she keep glaring at Ragini telling her that Ragini could have helped her in many other way instead of smashing her foot with her sharp heel.
“It was good… just good” Swara answers with fresh tears in her eyes which were genuine, making her pretension believable to Dida, who looks at her with sympathy. There were another pair of eyes who were looking at Swara sadly, clearly telling Swara and Ragini that their Dida has clearly spilled out their secret to someone else.
*****

“You told her, not me?!” Well at least Swaragini can say that they know their Dadi quite well because they have expected that whenever their dadi will get them alone, the first question she’d aske will be ‘You told her, not me? How could you do that to me… to your dadi?’
“How could you do that???” And here she goes…..

“You are so stupid!!!! The matter is not that they did not tell you, it is that the boy has dumped our shona” Dida says trying to save Swaragini from their Dadi’s wrath and also in the while trying to make Swaragini forgive her for spilling out their secret to their Dadi.
Swara and Ragini glares at Dida making her squirm and giving them a apologetic smile.
“Yeah…Shona, who is the guy who dared to ditch you?!” Dadi raises her head looking like a woman on mission and looks at Dida as if to ask whether she was on the same page or not, with they way Dida’s jaw clenched, they could tell that they both were on same page.
Woah!!! Beware Sanskar, protective grandmothers are on!
“Does Ansh and Lucky know about your stupid boyfriend?”

Swara squirms and looks at Ragini for help, who shakes her head implying that she should no.
“No… They don’t!” Swara says with extra force, and even though both old women look at her suspiciously but they did not question it.
“I think we should tell them. Both of them would beat up your boyfriend’s sorry aşş” Dida says thoughtfully, adding the humming sound in the end, re-confirming her own idea in her own head.
‘Yeah…. we will call Sanskar to beat himself!’ Ragaini thought, snorting mentally and looking at Swara with raised eyebrow.
“Dadi. Dida, he does not need beating… He is not a bad guy, actually he is a good guy… very good… the best, and frankly speaking the fault was mine. So no one needs to beat him to patch us up” Swara says truly just omitting the part of her already patched relationship and she also can’t let anyone in her family think bad about her boyfriend i.e., Sanskar. Not at-least today when she has realized that she has been the luckiest girl alive in relationship matter, that she has gotten most understanding boyfriend. Even though no one knows that her boyfriend is Sanskar, it just feels wrong to blame him even if it’s not real.

Swara pulls herself out of Sanskar’s thought realizing that if she will start praising him, she won’t stop and looks at everyone else in the room. Everyone is having different kind of look, Dida is looking at her with ‘aweee’ as if she has just realized that her granddaughter has finally become an adult, her Dadi is looking at her sympathetically as if to say ‘my poor baby, I am here with you’ and her mischievous sister is looking at her amusingly as if to say that ‘I am not letting you forget it’. Swara blushes, very well knowing that her grandmothers have seen the love in her eyes for her boyfriend even though she has not directly said it.
” Then we have more reason to talk to him, don’t we? I mean if he is such a nice guy then you should not let him go and maybe meeting us will show him, how serious you are about him!” Dida says hoping that her shona will finally tell him, who the guy is or better, let them visit the guy who has managed to break under all of Swara’s walls and has such a strong hold on Swara’s heart.
“No!” This time it was Ragini, who was staying in background, letting her twin sister handle the situation but now this is getting out of their hands. Ragini huffs mentally, thinking that no matter how much Swara pretends to be the lying one among young generation of Gadodia, Swara is the stuttering one whenever they have to lie seriously. It has been like this since they were child, Swara and Laksh would manage to put all three in danger then will make some easy lie to save themselves but the moment their families’ interrogation will take serious turn they would turn in either stuttering or gulping mess and Ragini will have to step in to make their lie believable.
“Dadi, Dida, I am sure you want to make your granddaughter happy by making everything alright in her life but I think this is something she needs to handle on her own. And frankly speaking that guy is not soooo good. Infact he is the bad guy of our college and Swara thought she would be able to change him but she has now realized that she can’t! So let her help with moving on, not with patching up with the same guy” Ragini looks at Swara with the look ‘Agree to whatever I said or else’. Swara glares at Ragini but nods sadly at her Grandmothers’ questioning look as if to say ‘as much as I would like to believe otherwise this is the truth’.
“Does he drink?”
“Does he take drugs?”
“Does he abuse girls”
Ragini groans audibly. “Dadi, he is bad boy not BAD BOY and now would you please let both of rest. I think it’s been enough hectic for shona already, right??” Everyone looks at Swara and this time she nods vigorously, too eager to be away from her grandmothers’ questions.
Both of them leave with a sigh but as Ragini was closing door, their Dadi comes and whispers in Ragini’s ear.
“Promise me lado, at least you will tell me first about your boyfriend. I don’t want to lose to your Dida again” Ragini Shakes her head smiling at her family’s antics and replies with a ‘I promise’.
After closing door, she frowns at the amount of lie both sisters have said to their grandmothers and feels immensely guilty but then she looks at her twin sister’s pale face and grins thinking at least she has done it better not like Swara.
“You look like you will pass out” Ragini states grinning at which Swara scowls.
“My boyfriend is the bad boy of college? My boyfriend?! Your best friend? Our Sanskar is the BAD BOY?!” Swara asks in a incredulous tone making Ragini roll her eyes at her sister.
“Oh, come on! I had to say something… anything to dismiss dadi and dida. At least I did not do as bad as you did!” Ragini again grins widely not missing a chance to tease her twin sister. “And what was that? He is good… very good… the best actually” Ragini imitates Swara with the same lost look in her eyes as Swara had while she was talking about Sanskar.
“Oh, come on! I did good!” Swara groans, throwing a pillow at her sister and Ragini nods in a mocking way. “By the way how did you come up with the last line”
“Oh, that!” Ragini smiles thinking the line she has copied from some Spanish novel “Nothing… some Spanish novel”.
“Perfect time to use it!” Both the sister grins, feeling glad that they have somehow managed to get their grandmothers off from their back but feeling equally guilty that they have lied this much. But they just can’t tell their family that their boyfriend is Sanskar and Lucky because the second both of their family will know, they will start preparing for their wedding and none of them is ready for that. Yeah they would like to marry Maheshwari brothers someday in future but before that they have to achieve their goal in singing and then get trained in business so they will be able to manage their father’s business.
Yeah! They love singing but they are marwari from blood and a marwari blood can never think anything but business as their main profession.
Both sisters fall in arms of sleep with the hope of having beautiful future but also with the hope of being together always because no matter what their future holds for them, it will be beautiful if both the twins are together like this…………… Unaware of the mess they have created by their lies!!!!!!!!