"How well do you know your wife, Pranav?" asked Vishnu.

The question angered as well as intrigued Pranav.

"If you knew her, you won't have asked me that question", said Vishnu.

"What do you mean?" asked Pranav.

"Didn't you know that she had saved my life?" asked Vishnu. He looked outside the window at the distant lightnings that were flashing near the horizon.

"Saved your life? How?" asked Pranav.

Vishnu took a deep breath and adjusted himself on the bed and then continued, "A few years back, during a storm a tree fell onto the house I rented from her grandfather. It collapsed the ceiling. I thought that I was about to die and no one would come to rescue me. When the last fragments of my consciousness was slipping away, I was brought back by the brave girl who weathered the storm to rescue me. If she hadn't come, I would not have been on the face of the earth".

"She never told me that", said Pranav.

"She is like that", said Vishnu.

Pranav nodded his head and said, "I will try my best to settle with Vasudev as long as he isn't unreasonable and vindictive".

Vishnu nodded his head in acknowledgement. The thunder was getting nearer and the rain soaked wind was fluttering the curtains that adored the windows. The smell of the wet rain getting stronger than ever.

"Go home Pranav, ", said Vishnu as a thunder ripped through the air close by.

"Its just thunder", said Pranav, who too was looking out of the window.

"Just go home", said Vishnu, closing his eyes with a sigh.

On the way back home Pranav was thinking about what Vishnu had said. When he came home, Kalarikkal family had settled for the night and he very gently opened the door to his bedroom and in a flash Malathi ran into his arms, shuddering at the thunder that was near.

"What happened?" asked Pranav.

"Nothing", she said, shuddering to the sound of thunder.

"You are afraid of thunderstorms?" he asked incredulously at the woman who had buried her face in his chest.

She nodded her head slightly and he hugged her tightly. As she lay sleeping next to him, Pranav decided that whatever his suspicions might be, he should keep it in the past as he had promised her when he proposed to her.

The next day there was a meeting called by Shanmukhan master and S. I Raheem. Pranav represented Kalarikkal and Vasudev represented Paarakkal. They decided to end the hostilities and to pay for the damages they each have caused. Though the elders did not like the arrangement because they would have to pay, the younger generation decided that enough was enough and brokered for a peace.

A few days afterwards, Vishnu came back to home from hospital and he and Devika decided that for the well-being of their family, especially for their children they should leave. Subramaniyam was furious, but Vishnu's father Chandrashekharan convinced him, saying that his son had suffered enough. In a month's time, they shifted to the Paarakkal spice estate in Idukki to manage it. Vasudev assumed the helm of the Parakkal operations, with the assistance of Mahadevan.

******

One and a half years later

Pranav rushed to the hospital near Prayikkal, he got the news that Malathi was about to deliver the baby. With bated breath, he waited with his family outside the labor room. After some time, he was called to the door and handed a small bundle and the nurse said, "Congratulations, its a boy".

Everyone outside cheered and Karthikeyan, Pranav's brother said in a bored voice, "Well, we didn't expect anything else!" and got jabbed in his ribs by his mother, Meena. Once Malathi was moved into a private room, Pranav finally had a chance to be next to her. Though tired, she gladly got up to take the baby in her arms as Pranav got him from the bassinet.

She looked at the baby and her heart was filled with love and happiness that was missing in her life since the day she suffered the miscarriage. Since her miscarriage was unknown to the rest of the family, throughout the time since that she was feeling like a burning ember was in her heart. That was the flame for her lost child and she had to hide that pain from everyone, including Pranav. But taking the baby in her hand felt soothing and filled her with peace.

"You did not decide on any names until now. If you take too long, I will name the baby", teased Pranav.

Malathi kept the baby close to her chest, feeling the calmness flowing into her heart. "I do have a name for him", she replied.

"Really?" What is it?" asked Pranav.

"Tushar", she replied, kissing the sleeping baby's cheek.

"That's a beautiful name, Malathi. But doesn't it mean snow? And our son is as dark as the nimbus clouds", said Pranav.

"Pranavetta, its not the looks of someone, but the feeling that they give that matters. He brings the coolness of snow into my heart", she said looking into the baby's face. "You have no idea, how much I was burning inside to see him and now I feel calm and content. He feels like a snowfall in my mind".

"If that's how you feel, then our son's name is apt", said Pranav, kissing her on her cheek. He then gently ran his fingers over the baby's cheek and said, "Welcome to the world, Tushar".

********

Six months later

On the northern edge of Kaniyankara, Malathi's aunt lived and she went to visit her. On the way back when she was cutting across the Paarakkal banana plantation, to reach her car, she came face to face with someone unexpected; it was Vishnu and Aniruddhan. Vishnu was holding his four month old daughter and his face lit up seeing Malathi, she was equally happy to see him as well.

"Is that your new baby, Vishnuetta? She is so pretty" she said as she came close to him.

Vishnu proudly showed the baby who was eyeing everything with curiosity. "Yes Malu, her name is Ganga. Is that your son?" he asked her.

"Yes", she replied and held him up to show Vishnu the baby who looked a lot like Pranav, except for his eyes, he had Malathi's.

"He is very handsome", said Vishnu. Malathi came close to them and she gently took some hair that had fallen on Ganga's eyes and pulled it behind her ears. Then she gently kissed her cheek.

"Are you happy, Malu?" asked Vishnu with a smile. He felt glad to see her as a mother, after the loss of her baby a couple of years back.

"I truly am", she said as she ruffled Tushar's hair and then she looked up into his eyes. All of a sudden they both remember a moment in time, a few years back when in the midst of a glade in the forest in Western Ghats Vishnu had asked "how do you think our future might be if they were together". It would have been something like this, two beautiful children and them. But now here they are, married to the love of their lives. As they gazed into each other's eyes silently, they realized that, they understood each other as perfectly as they always did. Wherever their lives took them, they will forever remain each other's soulmates.

"This was how it was meant to be, right?" said Vishnu.

"Yes Vishnuetta, it was always meant to be like this", said Malathi.

Aniruddhan who was looking at them from a distance, saw the family that would have been and he sighed.

"Take care, Malu", said Vishnu and Malathi smiled at him as she walked to the car parked at a distance.

As she drove away, Aniruddhan asked Vishnu, "Why still?"

"We have exchanged a part of our souls to each other. Even if we are not in each other's lives or even if we are in our own worlds, we are still connected no matter what" said Vishnu.

Aniruddhan nodded.

As she kept the baby in the car seat in the back and got into the driver's seat, she gazed at Vishnu with the baby and then to her own son. Not many have second chances in life, a second chance for love and a second chance for motherhood. She leaned back and caressed her son's cheek, "And you have no idea how thankful I am for all that" she said. She then waved to Vishnu and Aniruddhan and drove back to her home, back to her family and back into Pranav's arms. Life felt blessed and tranquil.

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