2 | Vineet's POV |

2.

Vineet's POV

I and Nivishthi reached home, and our mother, Anjana Khurrana was busy doing the daily chores.

"Mumma! How're you?" I asked climbing up on my mother's shoulder from the back.

"Oh, Vinu, how're you, son?" She asked and put her hand on my cheeks and, I love the way she does it.

"I missed you," I said.

"I missed you too." She said turning back and kissing me on my forehead.

"You know, she didn't go to the office just because you're coming," Nivishthi said popping up in between.

"You know, she loves me more than you." I teased her.

"Say something new." She mocked, "You're saying this for the past 30 years, tell Mumma about the girl you met on the train, the one who carried your handbag and you carried her suitcase." Nivi took revenge and moved toward the bathroom.

"Vineet!" Mumma exclaimed, "Who was she? You like her?" And, more questions were fired on me. Indian moms you know, want to know every single thing. Even the things which aren't actually happening in your life.

"Mumma c'mon, how can I decide that I like Shaheera in only 8 hours 50 minutes," I said turning towards her and following her into the kitchen.

"Huh, then it's ok." She said moving towards the kitchen, "Or else today's generation decides who is good or bad in only a single meeting." She said taking out the pan, "What did you say? What's her name?"

"Shaheera Farooq Mallik," I replied taking out a water bottle from the refrigerator.

"You know her father's name too, not bad Vinu," Nivishthi spoke rubbing her face with a towel.

"She's Muslim?" Mumma asked.

"Yes, so what?" I said asked filling half a glass with the cold water and adding some normal water.

"Nothing." Mumma mocked. "Beware of her."

"Mumma!" I yelled sloppily. "Why do you say like this?"

"For your good, my son," she said tempering the pulses, the kitchen was captured with the smoke of the temper and Mumma started coughing. 'I don't know why she never used an exhaust fan while cooking!'

"Mumma! Come here and sit," I said and pointed towards the sofa.

"Glad to know that Vineet Khurana still cares for me." She taunted, sitting on the sofa "Thank god, that witch didn't do black magic on my son."

"Mumma!!" I yelled sloppily

"Oh, so you will argue with me for that Shora?" she asked.

"Mumma it's Shaheera," I said switching on the exhaust fan.

"You don't remember the names of my relatives who have been with you for 35 years, but you remember how to pronounce her name properly," mom taunted again, "ok, listen, tomorrow a girl, named Tilli, your uncle's new tenant, she'll come here."

"Here, you mean in our house?" I asked.

"No Rey, she'll go to Rishi Bhaiya's house," Mumma said, "so, just see once, if she needs something, ask Nivi to accompany you too, she's your uncle's best friend's daughter."

"Oh! okay," I said.

"She came today?" Nivishthi asked, "how will she manage for the dinner?" she added. My sister has always been concerned about people's diets.

"Oh, yeah!" Mum exclaimed, "Vinu, you go to Rishi Bhaiya's house and give her dinner, okay?" she said to me and, I nodded in agreement, I anyway knew who Tilli was and wanted to meet her eagerly.

I was anyway furious when I came back from Rishi Uncle's house, so, I straightaway went into the kitchen to put the container in the sink, "Vinu, did she eat?" Mumma asked in a concerned tone as she shut the fridge.

"Yeah, she did," I replied with a straight face, "I'm on the roof," I said and moved out of the home towards the porch, with every step I climbed, I was enraged, rather, envious, I don't know what was the reason but, I felt my blood pressure rising up, I took out a cigarette and placed it between my lips and lit it up and, started smoking. After a while, I was normal and, noticed someone putting a torch on my face, "who the heck is that?" I yelled.

"Shaheera's sister-in-law," Nivi spoke from behind.

"What?!" I asked exclaiming.

"You like her, don't you?" she asked and, I was quiet, "c'mon tell me, you like her," she asked again.

"I've just met her, Nivi," I said, "how can I decide?" I added.

"Oh, yeah," she said, "by the way, Abhishek told me that Faheem would too live there," she said, "did you meet him? Was he there?"

"You know about Faheem?"

"Obviously, I do," she said, "he considers Shaheera as a mother-figure, and, Abhishek as a father."

"What about you?" I asked passing her a cigarette.

"He calls me 'Maa'" she said taking the cigarette from me, "light it, no," she said pointing at the lighter.

"How did I not know about Faheem?" I wondered.

"'Cause, I didn't tell you," she said.

"Why so?" I asked raising an eyebrow.

"'Cause, I got to know it seven days back when you were in Kashmir," she explained, "Abhishek called me to tell me about his transfer and, then only he said told me about Shaheera and Faheem."

"Okay," I said and exhaled some smoky cold air out of my mouth.

"When is she going to take over the Atulya Murder Case?" Nivi asked me.

"I don't remember exactly, but, not soon," I said scratching my head, we had some discussion on the case and, eventually we started singing some old Hindi songs, Nivishthi was really good at singing and I was an average one. 

"Vinu," Nivi stopped in the middle while singing 'Dil Hai Ke Maanta Nahin', "I actually came here to tell you that Mumma was calling you, she wanted to talk to you," she said.

"You should've told that to me earlier," I said and crushed the cigarette on the parapet wall and threw it in the dustbin, and rushed down, yes, we kept a dustbin on the roof.

"Be careful," Nivishthi said and I unheard of it because, when my mother calls me I just leave everything and go to her, it's very tough for me to stay away from her. People, especially girls, call me 'Mumma's Boy,' and, I'm actually proud of it. Cuz, anyway what's wrong in loving and abiding by your mom's words, I mean... it should be normalized. This is not something boys should be mocked about, I know, it's not praise-worthy either as we're not doing anything great. We're just listening to our respective mothers.

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