The Dating Charade ✔️

Chapter-40

A lot of you were interested in the Qotd thing, so here it goes!

The Question of the Day is, what is your most favorite novel(s)/ novel(s) that has had the most impact in your life?

For me, it's The Catcher in The Rye and Pride and Prejudice. I usually don't read the same book twice, but these, I can read over and over and over...

So do let me know you answers, guys. We'll all get some book recommendations this way!

Here you go, hope you like the chapter ❤

**

If there was one thing Pinky Singh Oberoi would have to be attributed for, it was for knowing her place in the world. She knew exactly what people thought of her, and what people thought, in general. She knew she came across as being a little too loud, a little too tacky, even to her own family. She knew she wasn't as sophisticated as her jethaniji, or as intimidating as her son. She didn't have the poise one would expect of an Oberoi bahu, or the calmness one associated with her very own Shaktiji.

However, the one thing Pinky did have was a sheer determination to be herself, just as she was. Even after marrying into the kind of family she could have only dreamt of back in her village with her equally loud and tacky friends, after having been spotted by a smitten-at-first-sight Shakti Singh Oberoi, she had never attempted to change herself. One might think that she had tried to fit in, to reform to the norms, but that had never been the case. The reason Pinky was still the same old gal who would roam around in bamboo fields and pull pranks on the villagers in her teenage years, was because she was happy, just the way she was. The glamour world hadn't been able to overshadow her own personal warmth.

When Annika had came barrelling into their lives, Pinky had seen the very same spirit in her, the very same need to conform to her own roots rather to the standards of high-class families. Being the daughter of the panchayaat head back in their village had taught Pinky to be a good judge of character, and after spending a mere few days with Annika, she had realized that Annika was as genuine a girl as came these days. Even the most trivial of things she did, she did with utmost honestly, with extreme passion. Pinky had seen her very own reflection in the young girl, and if her Log-kya-kahenge driven family hadn't been so adamant about doing things the way it was 'supposed' to be done, Pinky would have wanted Annika as her daughter-in-law.

But her son had already chosen Tia for himself, her being the perfect socialite, trophy-wife material kind of girl, and him being interested only in business and deals since as long as he had gained consciousness. Pinky had whole-heartedly accepted Tia, don't get her wrong, but no matter how much she tried convincing herself that she genuinely liked her future-bahu and it wasn't just a way to find a way into her own son's heart, who had over the years drifted away from her, it didn't work. Tia had never managed to evoke the kind of motherly feeling in her in three years that Annika had in a few weeks. But of course, who would ever get this simple fact into her thick-headed son's brain?

And so, Pinky had remained a silent shipper of Shivika, as she knew Rudra called them. Every time Shivaay and Annika had a moment, be it an intense eye-lock, or one of those impromptu catch and falls, she had cheered in her head. She had hoped, that as time passed, Shivaay would realize the extent of his chemistry with Annika, and lack of the very same with Tia. She had kept on preparing for the wedding, alongside the very same girl who she wished would have been the bride, with a smile on her face, silently panicking everytime she realized the wedding was inching closer with each passing second. She tried making her self believe that this was how it was supposed to be, that Shivaay didn't believe in love and marriage would never be anything more for him than a relation of convenience, so it was better he marry Tia who would never expect more, who would never be able to give more.