Words Count - 2250
Attached song - Shaamein
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[Neha Mehra]

"Don't!" He warned me, again. He gave a pointed look at my index finger, ready to poke his arm. I simply pouted, curling my fingers again, setting them on my lap.

My eyes frantically gazed out of the window, a ubiquitous silence shared in the confines of the car. A recognition crashed upon me as I gazed at the familiar highway and side bridge.

"We are going to my house?" I croaked in disbelieve. I could view a plain unfiltered smile, touching his lips as he nodded. It was my turn to flaunt a toothy grin at him.

I was amazed at this man, before me.

'What've I ever done for him for all the favours he does for me?', She questioned herself.

Over a span of these four months, I knew that he is a man, any wife would crave for. A caring husband, every girl would dream of.

'Though I got lucky, marrying him, but we are not just for each other.' She thought, staring at his focused eyes. He is a gem, but I know, I'm made for someone else.

"What's rotating in that little head of yours?" My mind broke off its thoughts as he snapped his fingers before my eyes. I shook my head, sliding off his question.

"What's the matter?" He inquired softly, his left palm cupping my cheek.

"Nothing." I emphasized, holding his palm in my hand.

'I've got him as my best friend for life.' I smiled at that very thought.

"Then, let's go. We've reached." He smiled back.

He held the car door open for me to get down. With the gushing excitement in me, I jumped down the car like a kid, only to fall in his arms.

That was the moment, when my Dad spotted us. God, now, I won't hear the end of it. It was too embarrassing, but, my husband's blushing cheeks made Dad comment more.

"Oh my, see, how lovely they look together!" He squealed, making Raaz smile quite awkwardly at him but, I immediately backed, hearing him.

"Yes, they are so much in love." Mom clapped, gleefully. My dramatic parents!

"Yeah, so much of love." I remarked, sarcastically. Spluttering those words, I jumped on my Mumma-Bear.

"Happy Birthday Mumma." I shouted in my apex voice.

"Thank you so much, my baby. And, don't you take good care of your hubby? Why is he becoming lean and skinny?" Mom asked, while brushing my hair and patting my cheeks lovingly.

"For god's sake, Mumma. He can cook and eat on his own." I twitched my lips, disinterested. Mom sighed at my sentence, while, Dad came forward.

"Hey, young man. How's the feeling of meeting your in-laws for the first time?" Dad smiled at him, wriggling his brows at him. Raaz looked cute, being all nervous and scared.

"Er..I'm happy to meet you both." He stammered, looking at Dad. I saw Mumma elbowing Dad for scaring her son-in-law.

We all shared a laugh at Dad's sour face. In his words, how dare she offend before his only son-in-law! They welcomed us inside, warmly and after a lots of chit-chat, here and there. Mom sliced a small cake, I baked for her and fed it to us, one by one.

Pumped up with energy, Dad pulled me to dance with him on a punjabi track. We were so busy dancing, that we cared less about the two humans laughing at us. We kept vibing to songs and soon, the other two joined, bored of only watching us dance. So, that's why, I don't sleep at night. Inherited traits, you see.

[Surfraaz Mehta]

The immediate change in the song called for a change of partners. The father-daughter duo were finally back to earth. Dad asked Mom's hand for a cosy dance. Shyly, Mom held onto his hand and they swayed throughout the lyrics of the song. Their love was so visible. The way, they looked into each other's eyes was the definite expression of the epitome of love, he held for her in his heart.

I was about to sit, when Neha grabbed my arm and pulled me to sway with her on a sweet romantic melody, against her parents, a powerpacked couple.

The closeness was as always creating giddiness inside me, having her in my arms proximately.

I could feel those walls of my heart that was once her residence and were blocked presently, making some efforts to reopen. Her heartbeats and her tantalising touch on my body were acting as the key to the lock of my heart.

Every time, she twirled around me to bent backward on my arms and her saree locking me with her was too beautiful. I was living those best moments of my life with her, that I'd always fantasized in my dreams.

All of us were famished, so, we made ourself seated on the dining chairs, whereas Mom volunteered to serve the special dishes and Neha extended her helping hand.

Much to my relief, there was lemon rice, chilly mushroom, Aloo gobi, daal fry with spinach, along with some dry snacks like potato smileys, stuffed monaco biscuit sev puri, pastries, french fries , gulaab jamuns and Rasagullas.

I knew this combination was specially made for my crazy food-experiment lover. I smiled, shaking my head at her drooling face.

I kept gaping at her, amazed at how she was gobbling lemon rice with aloo gobi on one hand, while potato smileys from the other one. A chuckle from my adjacent member brought me out of my reverie.

"I thought, you would've been habituated to her eating style. She has the craziest fooding style." Dad's mirth merged with that of Mom's.

"I knew, but tonight, it has reached its zenith." I replied in a daze, which welcomed a round of roaring laughter from them.

Every now and then, their 'awe' and 'how cute' gave rise to my poker face, I wondered only if they knew about the reality of our relationship.

To dodge their comments on our relationship, I checked my e-mails. I was a little distracted, when I heard them laughing, heartily.

"Am I missing something?" I questioned, seeing Neha's sudden piqued interest in her surrounding, apart from her food plate. Even, the blushing face of Mom was the testimony of something brewing among the three.

"Nah, My dad just gave me a glimpse of their love story. It's mind boggling." Neha clapped, eagerly. She looked cute and as innocent as a child.

"Is it?" I asked, smilingly. She nodded. A sudden urge to explore their love story caught me as I felt their evident love for each other, closely.

My parents had an arranged marriage. They met each other on the wedding dias itself, so, it was intriguing for me to hear out how their love bloomed.

"Don't remind me, Neha. How much of hardwork, I did to gain your stubborn mother?" Dad exasperatedly shook his head as if recollecting all those fun days.

"I fell in love with your mother, the moment, I saw her dancing on the annual fest day of our college. Her eyes and that expressive face attracted me towards her." His face shone as he narrated, glancing at Mom as he encapsulated his palm in hers.

"So, you both were college-mates?" I asked, enthusiastically. We were college-mates too!

"Yes. But, that didn't make her to agree to accept me. I wrote piles of letters for her daily and spent all my allowances to buy flowers for her. Finally, she accepted my love proposal. After our boards, we took different fields. She went for medical, while, I surpassed NDA. We had to stay apart for six years. It was tough." He paused. We saw them sharing a loving glance.

"It was tough but, we were tougher than those petty hurdles. We kept loving each other, even though our distance was too long." Mom said,caressing his hand and he was immersed in staring at her.

I turned to see Neha adoring them through eyes and then, I asked, "How did you convey your parents about your love?"

They looked at each other and began laughing.

"We both don't belong to the same caste. As I hail from a brahmin family, my family was too conservative on these issues like inter-caste marriage. So, he used his editing skills to change his surname from 'Mehra' to 'Mishra' in all his official documents. That was a well planned move. At the length, he is an intelligence specialist in navy." This time it was mom, who confessed quite proudly.

"How did he manage to do it, without being caught?" I asked, puzzled.

"They were caught after their wedding, but, at last, their families did make everything up and settled it for their children's happiness." Neha replied, grinning.

I thought, I had only saw too much turns in my story of life, but the ones sitting infront of me, beat me to defeat. Damn, love is risky!

It was already late. They bid us a good night and proceeded to their room. Whilst, Neha asked me to follow her.All the way to her room, Mom and Dad's story kept reverberating around the walls of my mind and later, I drifted back to the day on which friendship bloomed between me and my angry bird.

My sequences of thoughts came to an halt as she suddenly halted on her steps.

"Anything wrong?" I asked, seeing her uncomfortable.

"Menstrual Cramps." She whispered, clutching her stomach.

"Do you have chocolates?" I hushed, wrapping my arms around her.

"It finished." She flipped in her to clutch my arm, tightly.

It is nothing new these days for her, I have been accustomed to her night long melodrama.

"How do you eat so much in a day? I brought you hundred chocosticks and it's over in a day. Literally, in just one night." I asked her, trying not to lose control.

"It was just hundred choco sticks. They finished." She told me with a cute pout.

"What about that tub of vanilla ice cream?" I asked her with scrutinized eyes. Her eyes told me, they were finished too. I imagined banging my head.

"Uh- I broke all the choco sticks and added them into the vanilla ice cream. Then, swiping and sliding them, I ate it." She was elucidating me all the procedures as if she had done a noble prize winning experiment.

I saw her clutching her lower abdomen and hissing something, inaudible.

"Just come over and clear my confusion. Have you by any chance lost a screw of your brain?" I tried to lighten her mood. She seemed thoughtful.

"Yes, mumma always says the same. Even Riya says so. But, wait?" She paused, looking at me, baffled. Her neck abruptly turned towards my direction as I nodded my head, sympathetically at her, trying hard to contain my erupting chortles by pressing my lips in a thin line.

"Wait-what? You think me as an abnormal person." She squeaked, ready to fight me like a tigress, forgetting her pain.

In a swift motion, she crushed me with her weight as she hit on my chest and tried to cage me in the nearest wall.

"How dare you? How can you call me mad?" Pulling herself off me, she caught my ear. To get out of her hold, I held her by her waist but, her foot slipped again. Desperate to prevent the fall, she gripped my neck, chocking me and soon, balanced herself.

"You are such a cat, Neha. " I screamed, resting my head on her shoulder. I was badly coughing due to her grip on my neck, earlier.

At that instant, we heard a clearing of throat. We quickly parted from each other as we saw Dad, standing before us.

"What were you both doing here?" He asked, eyeing me sternly.

"I just slipped, dad. He held me in time." She answered for me, curtly.

"Yes, the mark on his neck says that very well." He murmured with mischief. It was embarrassing to another level.

"No, dad. I was just helping her." I quickly added as redness crept up my cheeks.

Leaving me with Dad, Neha sneakily excused herself from us. I awkwardly stood there with Dad as he walked up to me.

"Never knew my daughter would be so wild." He exclaimed, checking the scratch on my neck.

"Alright. No funny business in the open. You've got a room for you both, right?" He again ordered me, sternly and I nodded.

"Good. Don't forget to use protection. Though I would love to have a grandchild, I don't want my daughter to get any sort of STDs." I ducked my head down, nodding at his words.

"Alright, Go inside. She must be waiting." He said, patting on my shoulder.

I was about to get inside the room, when I heard him say, "Be gentle with my princess."

"She is always my first priority, Dad. I'll take care of her." I assured him as his vulnerable eyes hopefully stared at me.

"I'm proud of you, my son." He uttered, before going away.

•••

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