This has been in my draft since last year, thought of pushing it. Just a short  story, 5 chapters maybe. Will update when  I have time.

Om smiled automatically after noticing his cheerful brother who looked like he was on a cloud nine this day . Why wouldn't he be ?    A numerous world wars happened between the two families until today,  so many explanations , so many theories they had dealt with to make it possible.  Om knew his family very well , the Oberois have their own customs and belief's to hold onto. A few months back if anyone had told him he'd be standing with his family rooting for an interreligious relationship , he'd have only laughed at them. Not that he disapproves the thought of this connection  , it's the family,  the very friendly , outspoken yet narrow minded elders at his home whom he distrusts . It's not their fault though , the era they were in promoted them with certain limitations which they wanted to cope up with .

Maybe if he himself had been born a 40 ,50 years back , even he would have had the same comments on this topic . It's always the time , Om sighed thanking God for putting him into this somewhat tolerable period.

Evolution in this timeline is easy because , evolution is mandatory .

Harmless  , so just accept it for good .

She seems sweet ,softspoken , simple and many other qualities can follow the list too . Om realized why his brother was so stubborn . He had always been scared his brother would never accept things and move on after his failed  previous relationship  . That phase was the worst of their days .

But after all that , having to see him smiling and laughing all well once again made him feel contented. A big fight is what happened on the very first day when he opened up about being in relationship with a Christian woman , Om still remembers the series of quarrels . Well , he was not there , but he can always imagine what huge chaos could've happened at the other house. Of course,  they had this barrier of religion too . But one thing was for sure , Literally everyone were against it , correction, literally every elder person at home were against it .

Era , period .

It took him a several months to convince them , Om even told his brother once that this task might be unfeasible.  That was how people would react when they try to bring this up . They wouldn't talk for days , and suddenly they would talk too much , and  engage  themselves in big process of convincing the little .

Elders being happy happy and easy going with anything is only possible on TV . Reality is different because they behave as stubborn as the younger ones . Om knew this  because be saw with his own eyes , how both the families reacted putting forth their beliefs and thoughts before anything and everything.

He was brought back from his deep philosophical universe on hearing his brother's call . Om wriggled a bit when he zoned back into this hall here and looked at his brother .

Rudra - lost in Mars?

Om just shrugged his shoulders.

Om - nothing.

R- just wanted to show you this , I've been clicking since they came and look what I found ! He never left her hand for even once , you seen him like this before...like this expressive?

Om- yes , I guess I've seen him like this before. At school when he was with Meera .

R- ohh...but it's the first time for me . I ...I can't believe that he is actually so deep and serious for a girl . I always used to think he was just another businessman who had a boring life without girls without love but ...voila I was wrong .

Om - I think he was rather idle than boring. Waiting for Ms.Annie Veronika aka Annie to happen .

R- you missed something, Annie Veronika aka Annie aka

Pinky - Annika .

Om and Rudra giggled when Pinky called out the name simultaneously, with that squeaky tone of her's.

Annika- Shivaay

Came out her soft whisper while she was trying to escape out of his grip. He seemed to have got no plans of releasing her though .

Shivaay - stay .

She shook her head in disbelief and continued trying when he insisted looking into her eyes .

A- she's calling me , have to go . Want her to resent me now itself ?

She looked down at her hand which lied on his lap , let free off his hold the next moment. Shivaay winked at her once and grinned when she looked up at his face .

  This very day itself was a very big dream for both , not marriage , not even engagement. Just a get together to actually sit and talk , to confirm certain things and plan for the upcoming days . Sounds normal but only they knew how big this alone is .Both knew the struggle, so much happened in these months . So when finally their parents had accepted them ,all they could ever think was to satisfy anything they demand .

Rituals of both the kind , following both the traditions for wedding,  whatever needed , they were ready to fulfill it after all, togetherness matter .

A- aunty.

P- yeah , come here. Just a small prayer , light these and adorn the flowers to those frames .

A- ok aunty .

She then joined both her palms to intertwine the fingers and crush them to something small , her thumbs were out though  . She just wanted to pray first before starting anything new . This was entirely a different gesture for pinky who noticed annika's hands for a second and then moved her eyes towards Jenny , annika's mother . 

There was hardly any exchange of words which happened, still Jenny and Pinky did feel the tension . Because bringing two extreme cultures together wasn't very usual and convincing for them because according to them they liked to keep boundaries and stand by it . They couldn't accept all this immediately but process can do .

Jenny - careful Annie

Annika tip toed up to reach the top most frame while he was fixing the flowers , it was a picture of the Late Prithvi Singh Oberoi and Kalyani Singh Oberoi , Shivaay's grandparents .

She was almost done when her legs trembled suddenly and she slipped to fall down on the ground .  Even some of the pictures fell down along with her .

J- annie , annie are you ok?

P- oh my god , annika !

Annika remained thrilled as she felt something on her palms which lied on the floor's face . She breathed slowly on fearing the worst .

A- you all didn't feel it ?

P- what ?

J - what is it annie ? Get up first , are you ok ?

Jenny tried to help her up when everything started to collapse and they all felt it .

There was this vibration she started to feel,  like , like the floor was moving.

P- Oh My Mata , earthquake !

Pinky shouted as she caught hold of the pillar aside. Annika crawled along to get a grip of something but she was too scared as she even felt the disturbance on her whole body which remained pasted to the ground.

S- Mom ! Annie !

Shivaay somehow reached upstairs and almost squated like a duck when he felt it again .

A- why did you!

She screamed and ran catching hold of her mother at the other side . All the four made it downstairs together, and suddenly the tension grew more for the ground crumbled once again , pinky lost her grip this time and shivaay was let all alone by himself. He stretched his legs and arms to gather support and walked slowly on feeling the beneath shake .

P- shivaay !

She screamed on seeing him left behind away from the others. Annika was helping her mother whose foot got stuck beneath the sofa couch which just fell . The lights went off , the chandelier was just ahead of trailing down and smashing him from top but Pinky had grabbed him to herself just at the right second.

Finally they made it out together and ran afar , far away from the building. 

Om - shivaay !

Herald - Annie

She ran to her father at once with her mom , shivaay and pinky joined the other Oberois who stood on the road , palpilated and equally scared . They caught hold of each other and stood in distance from the building  , the force slowed down .

A- John,  John you're ok right?

She patted her brother's face who looked too scared and shook .

Jh- hmm ?

A- john !

Jh - ye yes I'm ok .

Annika kept rubbing her palms on his back slowly while .

It seemed like it was over after a few minutes , the ground felt normal now .

S- is everyone ok? Dad ,Rudy ? Badimummy  ?

His terrified reaction settled back to calm only when everyone acknowledged them with fine response,  he then turned towards her to make sure she was ok . He peeped to look as she was standing quite away from him . Shivaay decided to march upto her when she didn't look at him and stood facing the other side .

He just made a step ahead and suddenly this big branch came down from the sky out of nowhere and fell on his way . Everyone panicked on seeing it and annika turned immediately after hearing the noise . A big long branch form a big tree it was . Pinky ran and caught hold of his hand to pull him back while annika watched him  worriedly.

P - shivaay , are you ok ? Are you hurt somewhere , it didn't fall on you right? What's the hurry now haan ? Can't you stay in one place for a minute , what if !

Pinky kept adding while she looked all over him for any bruises . Shivaay's sight was affixed on the branch , he didn't speak a word for sometime and then he slowly moved his sight from the ground till her who stood on the other side .

Both of their reactions were same , neither she deviated nor him.

They stood there and stared at each other like it was the end of the world.