Road to the Ocean

Chapter 24: Night in Musicana

Niti woke up beaming with happiness. After all, it was Parth who couldn't stop commending her last night for everything, even how she was executing the role Nandini and was reminding her of how proud he was of her for being the person who she truly was. She was barely soaking in this sweet gesture of Parth, thinking she was indeed lucky to have such a supportive co-star she probably never had in her life, that her mood abruptly soured at mere cognition of the word "co-star"  There was a fundamental antipathy associated to the word 'co-star' itself, because Niti acquitted differently when fans associated Parth as her co-star as if the word had shrewd connection to her past, something which probably had caused atrocious affliction to her life. Shaking off her head to banish those rancid thoughts lurking around, threatening to soil her joyful mood, she swapped her focus instead on how she was very desirous to perform as a singer at the shoot for Musicana. Although, she loved to sing but she also cognized herself as a non-professional singer, with a not so impactful voice she thought she can deliver from her vocal cords.

"And when Parth sings, it's even better because everyone runs away as if he should be rather singing in the bathroom. I still consider myself slightly better than him". She chuckled with a deeper pitch, muttering to herself. It was only Niti who felt she had all the rights to throw a jest about Parth. "But who am I fooling? Truth is he is amazing."  She thought to herself, blushing at the daydream of him serenading her favourite song to her. She never disdained his efforts as she knew he might just become a singer too along with being such a talented actor which he already was. While she was getting ready, she received a call from Richa, giving her best wishes for her birthday, letting her know that they would be celebrating it on the sets today and carried on accentuate on the pivotal role of the extensive Musiciana shoot, one being the relationship between Manik and Nandini would intricate into the main plot of the story itself. As usual Richa's vision and expectations were both very gigantically high, she would need a lot of molding to do on the characters to be able to form the kind of covenant to mark them forever as an irreversible on-screen couple. She wanted MaNan to become an unparallel, inimitable brand and teased Niti on how much PaNi's name was selling on its own and how contrary to their counterparts in the TV industry, they didn't even need any kind of promotion. Usually Niti would refute her teasing but she was more frenetic for her birthday celebration than for Musicana shoot.

As quickly as possible, she decided to clothe herself in a very casual garb and even took a new outfit with her to later change for her birthday as she was provisioning to celebrate with all the cast and the crew, including Charlie and the gang without holding any virulence of the criticism she faced at the restaurant two weeks ago. Niti was always taught to be generous to forgive those who had hurt her, except for one person who hadn't just hurt her, but also persecuted her for her innocence and for the love she showered on him, her ex-boyfriend. To her, he was rather a despicable creature who never deserved the emotions she dawdled over him and enervated her soul in grief for years.

Niti checked in at the sets and found her vanity embellished with lilies and roses. Fans were granted approbation to shower their love on her and surprise her with plenteous gifts and cards. She couldn't contain the tears of joy plummeting from her eyes. Immediately, she posted a video thanking her fans for their assiduous plans to surprise her. Moreover, she also thanked her fans for contributing in bringing so much of affection through their gifts. She was overwhelmed by how fortunate she had been to have earned so much love and respect from her fans. Nobody knew her few years ago, and now her identity was taken as promotions for many advertisements too. With excitement tingling down till her toes, she set on opening some of her gifts, they were so thoughtful that her heart swell with happiness. She loved every one of them but her favourite was an exquisite crystals encrusted bracelet that came in a black velvet box with a pink little bow. She could hardly believe her luck. Afterall less than a week ago she was gushing about a similar looking bracelet and today it was around her wrist.  She tried to see if the fan has put her or his name but it was just typed 'Happy Birthday sweet Niti, from your Well-wisher'. Chuckling to herself she hollered "Well thank you so much well-wisher, from the bottom of my heart."