"Akka, do you always blast music each time you dress up?" Curious Gayathri asked Yashodha, pointing at the latter's wrap around skirt.

Yashodha took a quick glance at her lehenga, smoothen the skirt and tighten it with the Velcro and hook that held it in place. "Not when I'm alone. I get frustrated at times and it's mostly when I dress a little extra. I would scream then, it's just to avoid anyone from hearing my scream" she said standing before the mirror.

She turned left and right checking out her look. The simple red lehenga her mother had got for her as she wanted had added up to her beauty that has already been beautified with a stroke of kajal on her eyes and a light shade of pink on her lips. A smile adorn the pretty face marking the satisfaction of her look.

"You are still staring at me Gayu. What's up?" Yashodha tapped Gayathri's cheeks lightly.

"I was wondering, when all of us are wearing the usual kind of lehenga skirt. Why is that only you wear this kind?" Gayathri lifted one end of Yashodha's wrap-around skirt with a frown.

Yashodha tapped her hand to let go of the skirt as she smoothen it again.

"Well there is a reason. The split in the skirt makes it easier for me to run quicker if for some reason I feel like running when I'm questioned unnecessarily" she grinned like an idiot at Gayathri who wasn't really convinced.

"You and running away from people? No way! There is surely some other reason" she mumbled and walked away to get ready for the mehandi function.

Yashodha inhaled a sharp breath, who was she trying to fool? she thought as she drummed her right-hand fingers on her thighs. 'Somethings are rather kept secret, Gayu' 

"Akka, I wanted to ask you something" Gayathri asked soon after she was done dressing up.

"What is it?"

"Remember, you used to talk about a guy two years ago. Is he Jagdish?" 

Yashodha eyes darted left and right searching for an answer. She certainly wasn't expecting Gayathri to ask that question and definitely not expecting her to remember something she spoke about long ago. 

"Tell me, akka" Gayathri stood before her sister with her hands on her hips demanding an answer. 

"hmm... yes. That was him"

"I knew it! Finally, you meet him again. By the way, what are you doing here? You should be with Jagdish. You won't have enough time to spend later, akka. Why are you even here in this room? Getting going, I'll be fine. Oh God. You guys are behaving more like a guest than couple in love–"

"Wait. Wait. Wait. In love? No, I'm not" 

"Oh, yes you are. If you say this to someone who never fell in love before, they might believe but not me. I have been in love, seen love, felt love. And it's clear to me. I'm super sure you are in love, akka." Gayathri spun Yashodha around dancing in merry.

"Gayu! No I'm not" she protested.

"Yes, you are. I noticed quite a lot in the last few hours. You blush when he says something nice about you. You are spending time with him more than your other guy friends since you met him. You are not moody and angry anymore. You back to being you. Isn't that enough to tell me the significant changes he brought in you in such a short span of time?"

"Gayu, you getting it all in the wrong way"

"The right way"

"Absolutely not"

"Stop denying. You said the same thing two years ago and when he is back in your life you are intending to pretend as if nothing is going on in you. So, you will never let the past be a past. Are you going to clung to it?" 

"I'm not clinging to it, Gayu. Arun is gone from my life. Hell he is not worth my time but Jagdish. . . It's nothing but infatuation maybe"

"Are you expecting me to believe this?" 

Yashodha couldn't utter a word to put forth her argument. In an instant, Yashodha felt they had switched roles.

"Akka, as much as you care for me. I too care for you. I'll call myself a fool if I don't pay at least a little attention on what you share with me over these years. I still remember about those letters" Gayathri mellowed her tone down as she said the last few words. 

Yashodha sighed in defeat, Gayathri remembered every single thing she had said to her that Yashodha could hardly find a way to drop the topic. She had shared more details of her life to Gayathri than she had done to anyone, that the mention of the letters caught her off guard. 

She sighed again, "I'm scared, Gayu. That's all. And I haven't come to a proper perspective regarding my feelings for him yet, Gayathri. It's best if we end this talk here," Yashodha stumbled. 

"A woman who can hold a gun. Fight a man larger than your size, is scared to accept what your heart feels for him? Don't let your fear control you, akka. 

Isn't it, you who have always encouraged us to express feelings for a person or a place or for an animal? That time doesn't wait for us. . ., say what you have to say. That probably the day. . . you meet someone could be the. . . last day" Gayathri's voice cracked as she remembered the last day she spent with Kathir. 

"Anyway, it's up to you to decide. Whatever decision you take, I'll be there for you" she assured Yashodha who sat silently contemplating her words. 

Yes, it was she who taught her younger cousins to always be expressive, be open-minded and always spread good things. She too held tight to the same teaching but somewhere in the corner of her heart, fear peeks. 

Apart from the fear a lifetime promise which she thinks she can get over it, another fear had more prominently showed up from the other side, fear of losing loved ones. 

Yashodha vigorously shook her head and left the room leaving behind the conversation she and her sister had. 

------------

The night was for the ladies to sit and stay in a place while the men get to move around freely. This night is for the men who are married said a married man whom Jagdish bumped into earlier. Why not? Celebrations were on, drinks were served. It would be a waste if no one enjoys it, said another man from the bride's side.

The pre-wedding ceremonies were brilliantly managed by the wedding planner as everything the bride and groom wanted was prepared by them. Very efficient, he thought as he loitered around the huge place. 

As he ambled around, Jagdish got a message from a young boy that someone wanted to meet him. Curious of who could it be, he went to the place the boy had told him.

A gazebo was located a little further from the where the event was taking place. It was also decorated with lights and white and gold fabrics. The decor gave a dreamy look.

From a far inside the gazebo, Jagdish noticed the person whom he supposed, wanted to meet him was there already. She was short, has grey hair tied in a bun, clad in a pastel blue saree, she stood facing the six feet high grass wall.

He cleared his throat to let the lady know his presence. However, she did not turn around immediately rather took her time.

A loop side grin emerged from the corner of his mouth. He recognised the lady. It was Yashodha's grandmother, Janaki. For some odd reasons, he wanted to impress the lady.

"Patti! You call me?" He asked excitedly as if he knew her for long.

"Hmm... So, you are the boy going around flattering my family members is it? Everyone I meet is talking about you. Who are you?" Janaki asked authoritatively though it sounded more of a question why he had not come to meet her yet. 

"Oh, Patti. I didn't do anything. I just helped them here and there that's all. And where have you been that I didn't get to meet you?" Jagdish asked as if sensing her displeasure of not meeting her first. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

"I wanted to meet you since I heard about you but it seemed like you were hiding from me?"

"I don't have to hide from anyone" she said adding more lines on her forehead.

"What's up, Patti? A beautiful lady like you shouldn't frown that make me kind of sad" he pouted and winked in an attempt to break her stern facade. 

Janaki playfully slapped his arm for jesting her.  

"Alright young boy. Now tell who are you?" she broke into laughter when he faked his pain. 

"Oh yes. Introduction. Hello beautiful lady, my name is Jagdish and I'm a shipmate and base-mate for quite a number of personnel here"

"Oh really? So, you must be Madhavi's friend then" 

"A friend, yes but I'm more of a friend to your granddaughter than Madhavi" he said grinning. 

Her eyebrow arched in an angle with her mouth doing the 'o' as if trying to make calculations. "Yashodha invited you?"

"More or else, yes. Anyways, Patti. Let's get in there , don't you want to get your hands stained with mehandi?" he ushered her inside.

Somehow Jagdish managed to flatter Janaki with his sweet and charming personality that got her thinking if it was possible to get them hitched. Though knowing Yashodha isn't really showing interest in this matter Janaki would definitely want to give a try one more time, perhaps this might work. 

-------

The songs blast from all corners of the place they occupied. Dancing to the beat and off beat the kids, the youngsters, the uncles and aunties and even grannies were on the dance floor. Yashodha sat a far with the mehandi artist working on the hands of her younger cousin sister who were occasionally swaying to the music.

"Akka! Did you noticed Swathy akka? She is going around boosting about her choice of place was the best. It irritates me every time she opens her mouth to proudly say,'See this is so much fun if you compared to Yashodha's choice of place'" Gayathri mocked as she kept her eyes fixed to her cousin sister, Swathy

To start with, Swathy and Yashodha are the cousins who doesn't go along. Often get compared in every aspect that made them a born rivals who battles in silence mostly. They always carry a personality of a princess and a fighter impression in the family respectively.

Yashodha only nodded to what Gayathri said and focused on elsewhere because that sight was much more interesting than watching Swathy sway her hand and speak animatedly. 

"How did he get her to dance?" she muttered, watching her grandmother and Jagdish dancing to the peppy number.

Janaki never danced. Never ever in Yashodha's thirty-two years had she ever seen Janaki danced. She gawked at them in aw. Though Janaki and she share some bitter moments watching her eighty-five year old grandma dancing with the man whom could charm anyone , fascinated her. 

After some time, Yashodha found herself among the dancing members on the dance floor. Jagdish had left Janaki to enjoy herself and hurriedly pulled her to join them when he noticed she was watching them. She just couldn't say no to him, somehow.

Joining celebration like this wasn't bad at all, he thought to himself once again as he and his friends grooved to the songs the DJ played. Everything seems perfect, it got him to reevaluate his decision for not attending any of the functions before. "Was the decision too exaggerating?" he asked himself. 

Trip to Jodhpur had really got him to reconsider a lot of decisions he had taken in his life, he thought as he stood staring Yashodha who was having a quick talk with a small boy. 

She radiates so much of warmth that it feels familiar to some extend. He felt it not just there in Jodhpur neither was it when he meet her for the first time in Mumbai but it felt as if they had a long way back even before they met. However, he had brushed off the idea. 

His eyes followed Yashodha who then disappeared out from the crowd with the small boy. 

----

"So, who is this special person who wants to meet me, Raul?" She asked the small boy who happens to be Swathy's son.

"I don't know his name, Yasho" Raul answered pulling her towards the poolside.

"Okay. So, I'm supposed to follow you to meet someone you don't know?"

"Ahha"

Yashodha stopped walking. Didn't Swathy teach her kids not to talk to strangers?

"Okay, little guy. Listen, next time when someone asks your favour remember to ask their name and why do they need your favour. Or better do not entertain them. Especially if they are strangers to you, okay. If they are giving you things to hold or pass it to another person, don't do it. Okay?" she explained, going down to his level.

"okay!" he chirped. "But I have seen him Yasho! He comes home often" Raul said.

"Oh, not a stranger then"

As they neared the swimming pool, she noticed there's no one in the surrounding except for a guy with his back turned to her. She slowed down her pace, reluctant to meet whoever he was. However, Raul pulled her closer.

The man seemed to be in a proper attire for the event. He could guest of anyone here, Yashodha doubted if he really wanted to meet her or someone else.

"You sure he wants to meet me?"

"Yes, Yasho" Raul nodded and held her wrist in both his little hands.

The closer she got to the man, the more hesitant she was. Yashodha was slowly recognising the man as he turned to face her. She knew him.

Of course, she would. How can she forget the man who she never wanted in the first place.

"Arun?" She uttered his name as if his name tasted bitter. The bitterness was thick enough for him to realise, he was not welcomed there.

......

So, this is my Christmas and New Year update for ya'll!!!

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.

Happy New Year!!! Wish you all the best for 2020!!!

With loads of Love,
Deva