TARA (ON HOLD)

Chapter 20

THANK YOU FOR THE PATIENCE. NEXT CHAPTER IS ALREADY ALMOST COMPETED. AS SOON AS THIS ONE HITS 20 COMMENTS YOU WILL HAVE THE NEXT ONE.

IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK FOR?

HAPPY READING.

Crumbling up another piece of paper, Nandini threw it on the floor. It joined the pile of several other balls lying there. Scribbled on them were the rough drafts of the costumes that Nandini was supposed to be designing for Madhyam Singhania's upcoming film.

But the exhaution caused from running around the whole house behind Tara didn't help at all. All she wanted to do was curl up on the bed and have a good sleep for hours. But she knew she couldn't afford to do that. The only time when she could complete her work was when Tara was asleep, which was right now.

But she went to sleep only after making Nandini run behind just for eating up some food. Few more weeks into the new house, Tara had finally gotten completely comfortable. And with her newly accquired walking pace, she loved to use it all around the house.

She also had hurt herself a few times by the sharp corners of tables and stairs. So Manik spent an entire day baby proofing the house. And Nandini sometimes cursed Manik for buying such a huge house, whenever Tara ran away from her clasp and hid in a spot that took several minutes for her to find. "What were you even thinking Manik? We were two people, why would we need a freaking castle to live in?" Nandini used to accuse Manik. He refrained himself from reminding her that she was the one who chose the house and had loved the pool and the courtyard. But he knew better than to wake up the tigress in his wife and just kept quiet.

Now before Nandini could begin to restart the new sketch, the baby monitor made a noise indicating Tara was up in her crib. Throwing her stuff she rushed to the nursery. Her baby still used to have some nightmares and it was impossible to calm her down without Manik. And now that Manik wasn't home she hoped she wasn't upset due to that.

It was almost impossible for Manik to keep working from home, since all of his files were stacked up at the office. Also, he would have to personally pay attention to the working of the machinery. So it was mostly Nandini who had to stay at home with Tara. She had brought all her designing stuff at home and worked whenever she could steal some time. Although Manik tried to manage a few days off whenever she needed to be at the factory, lately it had been a lot more stressful than she imagined it to be.

Reaching her crib that was big enough to fit an adult, she found Tara standing on the bedding holding the rims with glazed watery eyes.

"Awww my baby baby what's wrong sweetie? Did you have a nightmare?" Tara nuzzled her nose in Nandini's neck as she held her close and whimpered lightly.

Nandini realised that it wasn't a nightmare after all, just a wet nappy. So she placed her on the changing table and started discarding the old diaper. It was an ordeal to make Tara stay in a place for more than a few seconds. She was a very active baby and loved to move around.

Finally winding up the task she brought Tara downstairs and left her on the playing mat with some of her toys. The house was an absolute mess. Since Alka had asked for her weekly off today, it was all down to Nandini to keep it clean. But she had come to terms with the fact that a clean house and a baby can never coexist. So she decided to let the mess be, and start preparing for dinner since Manik would be home soon and Tara might get hungry too.

"Tara, baby are you hungry?" Nandini crouched down near her trying to make her speak words instead of her constant silly gibbersish.

"No." Oh right! That was Tara's new favourite word. Answer to every single question was NO. Do you want food? Nandini and Manik would ask and she rambled No. Yet, two minutes later she would come crying for food.