Pyaar//gxciimuke

Chapter 2: Old house,Old memories

As we walked inside the house, we were greeted by our excited grandmother. She warmly welcomed in,which was a relieve.

"Come in! Come in! Oh how nice is it to see you all again! Look how you have grown!" My grandmother greeted us and pinched my cheek. I blushed and brushed her hand off. My parents soon went on to talk to her. Once they were done my grandmother asked us to sit down while she brought some chai(indian tea).

I awkwardly sat down and started looking around the house. I saw how dusty the photoframes on the walls were. Did my grandmother ever clean? I thought she was a neat freak?... Everything looked different from the last time I was here. It look dull and dusty and old. But maybe that's because the last time I was here was 9years ago, and my grandmother is too old and tired to keep everything clean.

I blew on my chai as I accidently lightly burned my lips in the hot tea. My brother was being pampered by my grandmother with sweets and toys. I smiled as his eyes sparkled everytime my grandmother held up a ladoo(indian sweet).

"So, Arohi, you're a Psychologist haan?" My grannny asked.
"Haan,just got my diploma and graduated," I replied putting down the still hot chai on the table.

"Atleast you're studying properly. Remember Shahid? You're mother's friend's son?" My granny asked.

How can I forget him?! He is living every single wannabe-bollywood-singer's life. He started singing at this restaurent in India,Bangalore for a part time job when he was in his Uni. He got discovered by a music director there and now is a famous singer. I haven't heard from him ever since. His family and him were very close to our family. We would go on family outings together and me and Shahid would try to communicate with each other. Not much happened between us.

"Ofcourse!" I exclaimed.
"He is doing very bad! Especially after his father's death. He stopped writing song or singing them. He is just living off his already earned money," my granny said.

My jaw fell as my grandmother said that. Oh poor Shahid! He still haven't gotten over his father.

Shahid's father was very sick from a heart disease. Only he didn't show it outside. He always tried to be happy and active but only the doctors knew how sick he was. They tried to convince him to stay in the hospital but he disagreed. We only knew this after his death which was 1 year ago. It was a total shock to Shahid and his family. Especially his mother. She would sit in the same place for days, not moving or eating. It was horrible. Although Shahid's mother seem to recover fast from the death. I guess Shahid is still having some problems coping with it.

"We should visit him. Its been a long time," my mother pitched in. I quickly nodded my head signalling that it was a great idea.

Soon I heard noise outside the house. Then, all my cousins started running into the house into the arms of my grandmother. Their families soon started coming too. When they saw us they came over to greet us.

"Hi! Hi! How nice to see you all again!"

"Oh look how much you have grown!"

"How old are you?"

"What have you studied?"

"How's life?"

"When are you getting married?"

All these questions were being thrown at me and I tried my best to dodge them. Mostly with a smile and a shrug. C'mon! I just had the most tiring plane flight ever. I'm starving and all I had was a cup of chai. And I'm dead sleepy.

Once I figured out that their "Q&A" was over, I quietly climbed up the stairs to find my room. I didn't want to get their attention again. As I reached the end of the staircase I turned to see everyone drowned in their own conversations. I turned back and walked across the hallway. This is a huge house I thought to myself. I reached the end of the hallway and there it was. The room I always stayed in whenever I visited this house when I was young. I walked in and the room smelled of dust and cardboard. Yet the furniture and walls looked brand new. My grandmother probably cleaned it, knowing this is where I'll be staying. I sat at the bed and it creeked loudly which made me jump. As I sat back down, I imagined the bed breaking and me falling off. I smiled from the thought and finally lied down. I closed my eyes and tried to sleep but it wasn't working. Maybe I was homesick. Or maybe it was the dusty smell coming off from the pillows. Something was ruining my sleep.

Soon giving up, I stood up and walked towards the mirror. I almost gagged as I saw my reflection. God, did I really look like this the whole time?! My eyeliner was smudged at the sides and my lipstick colour was barely visible. I sighed and messed around with my hair for abit. As I was, I heard loud voices coming from downstairs. Immediately, I got curious to see who had come.

I walked back to the stairs and tried to see who was there. But all I could see was Aunties and Uncles,even my parents,rushing over to that person and practically hugging-no-squeezing him or her to death. As I got closer to the commosion, I saw that it was none other than Shahid.