Sanskaar stared at the note; he had read the words a dozen times already, but was unable to make any sense of it. SM presumably meant him but he had no clue as to who Shona could be, he was sure that he had never met any girl who could have that name. He flipped over the note to see if there was anything else but it was blank so he turned it back and re-read the lines.

The words were unknown to him yet they seemed to be familiar; he held the note in his hands and stared out of the window, at the darkening skies as the sun slid below the horizon and disappeared into the night. He kept gazing, lost in his thoughts when he heard her voice from behind him,

"Those words are from the song 'P.S. I love you' sung by the Beatles. It was originally released on 5 October 1962 as the B-side of their debut single "Love Me Do" and is also included in their debut album 'Please Please Me, released in 1963'."

Sanskaar should have known that his efficient assistant would have gotten the necessary facts but it did not answer any of his questions, yet he hoped she might have something to add, so he turned around to hear her out and she continued, "Well, the bouquet was left at the main reception who had been informed of its delivery, by a young woman, which is what Priya thought from the voice, so once the security got it to her, she had it sent here. And no, the security did not pay much attention to the person who delivered the bouquet."

Whatever Sanskaar wanted to say, stayed unsaid when he saw the man who had followed her in; he almost threw the note towards the desk as he rushed forward to clasp him in a bear hug, "Ani, I did not expect to see you today, you were travelling and you said that there was no way you could make it back today."

Anirudh smiled, "Good to see you, too Sunny. And there was no way I would miss your birthday, I should have reached in the morning by ten, but then the layover was bad; Rome was okay but with heavy smog in Delhi the flight was delayed, so I missed lunch. How's Niraj?"

And grasping Sanskaar's wrist when he caught sight of the watch, he shook his head, "Should have known, there is no way I would be able to better that gift. Anyway, here is mine," he held out a plain cover that apparently held a couple of sheets.

Sanskaar ripped it open and when he read what was written, he burst into a delighted smile. Hugging Anirudh, he replied, "You gifted me with a hundred hours of your time, do you know how valuable that is?" And what is it between you and Niraj, anyway?"

Before Anirudh could answer, they heard Sanskaar's assistant crib, "Go ahead, greet him and completely ignore this old lady, who has been waiting all day for one glimpse of you."

Turning around Anirudh smiled at her and holding his hands out for a hug, he teased, "And how is my dadibua? They are treating you fine? Sanskaar is being a good boy? And hopefully you have not been scaring everyone off."

Instead of his hug being accepted, Anirudh got spanked on his wrists, "You are in office, which means you will not call me Dadibua, I am Mrs Gadodia to all of you. And Sunny baba is a sweetheart, so I am fine, but do not worry, I know I can rely on you if he ill-treats me."

Sanskaar protested, "When have we ever ill-treated you, in fact, you boss over all of us and why is there a difference in rules? You call me Sunny baba but we have to address you in the formal way?"

Mrs Parvati Gadodia drew herself up to her full height of five feet two inches and glared at Sanskaar over her glasses, "It is because I have changed quite a number of diapers for you as a baby and have seen you butt naked far too many times to think of you as anyone but Sunny Baba. And you also have to respect your elders, so it is Dadibua only at home."

She bestowed a smile at Anirudh and asked, "Do you want coffee or will you boys go out?"

Anirudh looked at her, tilted his head as he though over her offer and then said, "Your coffee is to die for but I do not want to trouble you so I will drag him out for a coffee and a chat before sending him home. Is that fine with you?"

Mrs Gadodia nodded; she reached out for the note and the bouquet, "an unusual arrangement from an unknown admirer, I will get a vase for these flowers and file this note for safekeeping."

Raising her finger, she then warned, "And you boys be good, no fooling around, I will know."

As they watched her leave, Anirudh leaned over and whispered to Sanskaar, "She is one scary woman, she just has to glance and everyone falls in line, right?"

Sanskaar nodded, he had been the recipient of those looks all his life as had his father before him and he was sure that his grandfather had received a few too. Perpetually dressed in pastel coloured fine cotton sarees and sporting a coin sized red bindi, Mrs Gadodia had a sharp tongue that hid a heart of gold; she was both agony aunt and godmother to every employee in their firm and possibly to quite a few of their clients and the artists they worked with. Surprisingly, nobody seemed to know much about her earlier life and the exact reason as to how she had stepped into their home and lives. All he knew was that his grandfather had met her when he had gone to pay his respect to his fallen comrade, Jawan Deendayal Gadodia, who had been slain in the Indo-Pak war of 1971, and had seen his eighteen year old widow, standing to a side, apparently disowned by both her parents and in-laws.

His grandfather had watched for all of them for a few minutes and had made the split second decision, it was this ability which had earned him accolades in his military career. Marching up to her he had asked, "Would you like to come with this brother of yours?" No one knew what her thoughts were at that instant nor could anyone find out her emotional frame of mind, she had stared at his grandfather, dressed in his full military regalia and finally nodded her head. From that day she became a member of the Maheshwari family.

Parvati helped his grandmother in all her household tasks and also became a nanny to six year old Ram Prasad. When his grandfather noted that she was interested in studying further, he encouraged her and she grabbed every opportunity to learn. It had led to quite a few humorous incidents especially as Parvati managed to outsmart Ram in almost all the academic results.

The most interesting incident was when Ram announced his decision to start an advertising agency. Sanskaar knew that it had been his grandmother's suggestion though, again, the reasons for the same were not clear. All they knew was that she had felt that with Ram being married and starting his own business, Parvati did not have much work at home and it was a waste of her educational qualifications; hence she came up with the idea of having her join Ram as his assistant. Ram, with his reticence had not shown any reaction though Sujata seemed slightly relieved. 

Sanskaar however suspected that it was his grandfather's way of taking revenge, for he had been highly disappointed with Ram's decision not to join the army notwithstanding the fact that Ram, with his myopic vision exceeding the prescribed limit by the NDA, would have been disqualified from joining up.

Parvati had gone on to surprise everyone when she made herself indispensable at the firm and when Sanskaar had been born, with Uttara following him three years later, she had resumed her nanny duties, managing both home and office with consummate ease. Seven years ago, she presumably retired though her retirement lasted only a week, before she came back citing boredom. That one week had plunged the firm into chaos and she took half a day to set everything in place.

Since then no one mentioned that she had retired as she continued to work and when Sanskaar took over he inherited her services too. Five years of working in the firm, he was convinced that she was one who actually held everyone together.

___________________

Sanskaar would have forgotten about that note, if he had not received another one the next day; this one had a couple of lines that were in complete contrast to the previous one, 'Trust the wait, embrace the uncertainty, enjoy the beauty of becoming; when nothing is certain, everything is possible.' 

The bouquet was different too; made up of two stalks of Amaryllis white flowers, each having three blossoms each with a few stalks of rajnigandha, wrapped in a canna leaf and the bouquet filled his room with a rich sultry perfume.The wordings intrigued him; somehow making him feel that he was being teased, which was unusual but then he seemed to like the subtle mystery behind the unknown sender who refused to give any hint as to who she could be. 

However, he had a smile on his face throughout the day.

_____________________________

Sanskaar slowly got used to the notes and would wait for them to be delivered, they were fun and appeared to reflect the mood of the sender; some days they were bright sunshine, other days the mood was sombre and on a few occasions they gravitated towards philosophy and profoundness. On a few occasions, they were simple one line greetings, 'Good morning, Sunshine' or 'think happy, be happy.'

He looked forward to Mondays, for that day there would be two notes for him to read and savour, he resisted the temptation to visit the office on Sunday to pick up the note. It had been difficult in the initial days but the pleasure of reading two notes more than made up for the wait.

With each note he received, he felt he gleaned a little about her; she seemed to favour poetry though there were those cute quotes which abounded on the social media sites and lines from old classical songs. He tried to see if there was a pattern but soon understood that writings were random and reflective of her moods. He loved them all and would try to fathom how the writer would be and what must have on her mind as she wrote those notes.

As the days went by, it became difficult to keep the notes a secret; Anirudh had been there when he had received the first note so Niraj was told and both would be updated with the subsequent notes. Further, since his Dadibua knew about them, soon even his family members came to know about his secret admirer and he had to face quite a bit of teasing and ribbing. The worst had to be Uttara, who had become a fan of the Beatles after she heard the song the first note was from and it was a torture to hear her sing the songs; her favourite turned out to be the single from the side A of the Beatles debut album. That was the only time Sanskaar was peeved with Shona.

However, he had no answer as to why he had made no conscious effort to find out who Shona could be. He would have been honest but then he could not identify the exact reason so he would simply shrug it off. In the initial days, still fresh from the disaster his last date had been, his reluctance stemmed partly was his experience with dates, none of which had gone well and he was not sure if he would be able to understand how to please a woman. Then there was an irrational fear that maybe she would not be what he made her out to be from the notes and he was hesitant to face that disappointment. 

For the present the notes were like ephemeral dew drops, ones that could fade when touched and hence he was content to bask in the warmth those notes swamped him in. Sanskaar made plans as to what he would do or say when he did find out about her but was not too eager to put in the effort to find her out.

________________________________

Almost ten months afterwards, Sanskaar received a wedding invitation from his client, Kedarnath Singh, who had a sizeable account with their firm. Sanskaar knew that he would have to attend that same, at least out of politeness and the need to maintain cordial business relationships. He had a vague idea of meeting Kedarnath's daughter a couple of times when she had accompanied her father while shooting out the campaigns; she was a fresh faced young girl, who had been completely fascinated with the entire process but too shy to speak a word either with him or Anirudh who had led the photo shoot. 

He was a little surprised to know of the wedding, for he had felt that she looked too young to get married. However what confused him and left him puzzled was the note attached to the invitation, 'I am sorry for my foolishness. I would be grateful if you could attend my wedding for it would mean that I have been forgiven ~Sonal Singh'

He tried to make out what the note could actually mean and unable to make any sense, decided not to bother about it. Instead he called Anirudh, whom he was sure would also be on the invitee list.

"Hey, did you know that Kedarnath's daughter is getting married? Are you on the list? It would be great if you plan to attend, I would have to do so and it would be nice to have a familiar face"

Sanskaar could make out the muffled yawn even on the phone and immediately regretted calling him, he should have remembered that Anirudh was out on a photo shoot though he felt better when he heard the reply, "I did get the invitation but I thought she was a kid. How old would she be, fifteen?"

"I thought she was young too, so too, but I guessed she would be around eighteen or nineteen and you sound quite grumpy, did she confess to having a crush on you and you had to break her heart because you are not available?"

Sanskaar could not resist taking a dig at Anirudh; who was tall and dark with light brown hair and a 'do-not-mess-with-me' expression on his face, which rendered him irresistible. He was an amazing photographer who worked with a lot of beautiful models and there was never a lack of female admirers and the occasional male suitors though there were also times when things got uncomfortable with the clingy women who refused to believe that their advances were not welcome or appreciated. Sanskaar suspected that his friend had a secret lover, which is why Anirudh preferred the nasty rumours of him being gay or impotent to being in a relationship. However, being in the model circuit did give him a ring side view to the other rumours and views as well.

Anirudh laughed, "No Sunny, nothing of that happened, I think I scared her, but I have heard about her, sweet and kind, despite being the only daughter of very rich parents, her monthly pocket money is reputed to be around a lakh but then she seems quite nice. She was silent during the entire photo shoot she attended, none of those 'star' tantrums."

Sanskaar nodded, he did not remember much, so he let it slide and repeated his question and was relieved when Anirudh promised to work around his schedule so that he would be able to attend.

___________________________________

Sonal's wedding reception was loud and noisy with a large gathering of guests. The queue to greet and congratulate the couple was long and as he waited along with Anirudh, he gazed at the floral decorations around him and sighted a flower arrangement which somehow reminded him of the ones he got daily. On a whim, he took out his mobile and tried clicking a few photographs of the arrangement. Seeing his interest, Anirudh broke the line, walked a little closer and clicked a few photographs and joining Sanskaar, whispered, "I am a professional photographer so I can get away photographing anything, anywhere. I will send them to you. You think they are also from her?"

Sanskaar nodded and stayed quiet, the cold December night matching the chill in his heart. He was a little disturbed as he thought about the note he had received that morning; it had him worried for the tone was not like the others but seemed to indicate a farewell. The bouquet was different too, a bunch of seven zinnias in rainbow colours and a few scarlet poinsettia leaves, simply tied together with a string. He felt strange and wondered what Shona had meant when she sent that note, a note that read;

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And that is about Sanskaar and his reaction to those notes. What do you, my reader, think? Is it a farewell or would there be more notes, for the year is not yet over. For that you would have to wait to read about Swara in 'A Handful of Earth'.

In the meanwhile, could you let me know how you liked this chapter, simply press the star and better still drop a word or two, maybe a sentence or a paragraph? I love your feedback, good or bad.

love,

Nyna

PS - Still have to get back to comments on the previous chapter but with the paucity of time wanted to focus on updating this and Amaranthine. Now that it is done, I will get back to all your lovely comments.

See you with the update on December 3, 2018.