Epilogue 2 : " Glimpse into the Future "

10 th August 2021

Sanskar Maheshwari turned around in bed and tried to locate his wife in sleep , and when his hands couldn't find her , he woke up in confusion . He waited for few minutes thinking she went to check up on their son .

And so he kept waiting for 15 minutes and when she didn't come back ,he began to search for her starting with his son's room and as each minute passed his panic increased until he found her in kitchen of all places .

        
When his wife saw him she must have seen the panic in his face . Because she didn't ask anything just came and let herself in his embrace .Only when Sanskar was comforted with the presence of his wife , Did she  finally speak up ..

" I am sorry Sanskar, I was just seeing to the preparations .The first wedding in Maheshwari house after we got married.  I wanted it to be perfect because they deserve one , " She spoke up , still leaning on to him .

" I know Shona , it not your fault that I got panicked and relax the wedding will work out just fine . And it their fault that  they gave us less than an month notice , " Sanskar replied back,  trying to reassure his wife .

" And they have to choose today of all day , it our special day  and can we still be able to go there as planned sanskar , " Shona asked her Sanskar .

" Let go now , Let them get married with out us , " He teased her but then reassured her that they will have plenty of time to go on their trip as planned after wedding.

         
Since sanskar also was awake by then he helped Swara with her tasks but when he noted how exhausted his wife looked ,he decided it was time for his wife to sleep .

" Shona let go to sleep , " He spoke up ,  only for her to reply sanskar can sleep if he felt tired ,  Since Sanskar knew how stubborn his wife can be  he just lifted her up and marched her back to their bed amidst her protests but the moment she hit the bed she gave up the fight and gave him one long lecture on his actions and declared she is gonna sleep only because she doesn't want to waste time arguing with him  , within ten minutes she was cuddled next to him and fast asleep  only then sanskar was able to sleep again .

     
When Sanskar woke up he was dealt with the task of making Arjun ready by his wife who dashed off to take care of the preparation , he loved spending time with his son  but what he didn't like was the fact he was saddled with waking up laksh as well . So it was father and son  duo who both took in the job of making sure Laksh attends the wedding in one piece .

At the age of four Arjun Sanskar Maheshwari exhibited great level of energy and it was no match for an hungover Laksh . Laksh was defeated as the chorus of wake up uncle echoed in his room .

Sanskar never used to advise laksh he always held back but the recent years haven't been kind to him . So when he started pointing it out Laksh rebelled and the brothers while maintaining an calm facade in front of others were just one moment away from an fight that might test their relationship . So Sanskar was glad for Arjun being present as an buffer between the brothers .

" I didn't drink too much,  " laksh replied back , as he saw Sanskar grim face ,  Sanskar didn't deem it fit to give an answer to that lie while laksh brooded for an hour , it was with some effort he finally got ready .

And when the trio Maheshwari got down the house was already to be filled with guests .  Sanskar left laksh in charge of arjun and went to help his wife . 

       
Meanwhile Laksh remained brooding as no one seems to understand him ,not even his brother .He had to admit a part of him was jealous of his brother happiness. Not on his brother ,he knew sanskar deserved all happiness but jealous that he was deprived of the emotion called happiness  .

            
When he was  young  laksh always imagined he will be married and settled with an happy wife and two lovely kids by now but he couldn't make  the commitment . He dated kavya in the hopes of having an marriage where there will be no love but content and possibly kids  but it didn't work out .Last night she broke up with him , Even she wanted more affections from him which he couldn't give her.

Just then he saw her, The one person who can still shake him up the one person who he was still forced to be cordial with even after she said she loves him .  Ragini was different from others once her love for him would have made him avoid her, she was the only one with whom he can be himself because she hates him now.

She was the first to propose to him . Back then he didn't know her , he didn't know how delicate she was all he heard was the like word and so he lashed out. Called her stupid for liking someone she never even talked with before and by the time he stopped his lashing he  made sure her heart was broken but not only that she hated him.

            
And it worked so well with him because he wasn't going to see her again , how he was wrong about that first she become Swara friend and so he was forced to meet her up at times. And she avoided him like an plague during that time. Then she got married , he was forced to go to her wedding too because Swara needed an escort as his brother was out on an business trip  .

             
Ragini  got better when she was married as she was happy with her new life , she even managed to not glare at him And laksh was happy for her then it all came crashing down with that accident . Laksh heart broke for her when she cried clinging on to Swara . Maybe that when he found her to be someone who knew the pain of loss .

Then she found out Swara was her sister and laksh was stuck with her presence for an life time family events .  But what bothered him more was how she turned her life around inspite of her loss . She started working in swara academy . Sanskar her brother in law helped her open an musical class to go with swara dancing class .

Ragini had proved him wrong. She didn't break when her husband died , she remained strong .All he has to see was the last few years of her life to realize how strong she was and maybe maybe he began to realize her love for him would have stood its test of time too if he gave her the chance but he didn't and she still hates him , So there is that .

Ragini was unhappy to have inadvertently hurt her daughter. Anjali was too young to realize the loss of her father . She was one year old when he died ,While ragini loved him ,she sometimes hated him for leaving them alone  because what else can she do when Anjali needs an father figure in her life .

          
She was thankful for Sanskar because he was there when Anjali first learnt to ride bike , he was there when she first learnt to swim and so on , While Anjali adored her uncle Sanskar . She still needs an father figure and ragini doesn't have one .

      
Tomorrow there was an school meet with parents. And Anjali doesn't like that she will have just one of then with her, just last night  before sleeping she asked if ragini can bring back her father just for tomorrow. Then he can go to the far away place .

And ragini cried herself to sleep to that night , So she was really not in an great mood but it an wedding in Swara house though she doesn't know both the bride and groom before last month , she needs to be here for her sister . And that when Anjali jumped up in joy as she raced into an stranger arm . Not an stranger swara brother in law  and the man she loved long time ago .

      
Anjali not only loves her brother in law Sanskar , she also loves his brother aka laksh Maheshwari the man who broke her heart long time ago . Ragini only wants to see the bad side of him , so she refuses to admit  laksh and Anjali closeness .

           
Whenever Anjali slept over in Maheshwari place the next whole week she will only talk about Laksh , he was good with kids . She had admit that as she saw how he scooped her up in his arms and listened to her chatter and laughed with her. 

    
Even Ragini was aware Laksh laughter was limited and when he smiles he seems like the guy she loved once .But she had to snap out of it because the present laksh was not the person she loved .

With much reluctance she approached him and he gave her nod of acknowledgment that is usually the most of their conversation but today she need to help Swara ,so she spoke up.

" Can you keep Anjali company .I need to go and see if Swara needs me , " ragini asked, and she knew he will say yes So she was walking away when her daughter voice halted in her steps.

" Can you come to school tomorrow with mommy ,  " Anjali asked,  and ragini should have expected it. But before she can stop Anjali the little  girl went on talking.

" Arjun has sanskar uncle ,my friends all got their dad , I don't have anyone and mom said my dad won't come from the far away place since you don't have an kids why don't you come with me. I will be a really good kid , " she promised that just right there broke ragini heart .

She couldn't look laksh in the eye and let him see how much she was hurt by her daughter sadness.  But she had to look him when he said yes to Anjali .  Ragini couldn't speak up because Anjali was already jumping up and down in excitement and raced out with arjun to play in his room .

Laksh Maheshwari was still shocked to be heart broken by Anjali words that he only half listened to ragini lecture about how heart broken Anjali will be tomorrow when he failed to show up as she expected ,  she used some big words like selfish ,self centric and so on .

      
Finally when he couldn't take more he lashed out ,  Actually he had no plan to go tomorrow  he hoped ragini might convince her later and yes she was right he was selfish because he couldn't see Anjali tears and said yes while ragini had to be the one who said no and broke her daughter heart .

" I will be there , " he promised , only because he think he can handle one parents meet can't he for anjali  he argued with himself as he talked himself into believing it .

" What about the next time she asks  will you stop your drinking and partying to heed to her wishes and come where ever she wants , what about our society what will they say about me , do you ever think before doing anything .I have an responsibility towards anjali and I an trying my best to be her mother and I don't need you ruining everything , "Ragini spoke up , She knew she was harsh on Laksh  but he never thinks before speaking up. And now it was up to her to convince anjali that laksh won't come.

While this two kept arguing Swara and sanskar were worried they always knew these two shared some animosity but the fight was escalating and when sanskar tried to step in it was Swara who held him back .

" Leave it Sanskar, it their life and they need to figure it out And laksh needs to hear about his actions from someone other than us  who knows it might help him , " Swara said , and she was right because Laksh did show up in Anjali school next day while ragini was clearly angry  with herself that the happiness of Anjali made her accept Laksh help.

    
What a started as an brief truce for the sake of Anjali did turn up to be the good of both of us . Since ragini always kept saying she hates him even though she stopped hating him the moment he showed up at school for Anjali , it helped laksh to be with her without fear and soon he fell in love with ragini .

          
And he mended up his ways and though it took him longer time to make ragini take him seriously she did fall in love with him again and they got married a 14 months later from the day ragini stopped hating him , but that wedding was for another time .

   
Right now the wedding is about two different people , Swara only breathed a sigh of relief when the marriage got over as she looked up to the newly wedded couple speaking with her husband .

Sanskar has decided to give them their beach house for short honey moon trip before they head back to Sydney , Even now Swara can't believe the fate . Sanskar saved two life 's and those two people fell in love.   Granted Swara introduced kavita to Nikhil when kavita moved to Sydney .

      
But she didn't expect that they will find happiness with each other , they dated secretly for so long . She knew kavita had an boyfriend she just didn't know the boyfriend was her best friend .

Swara got the call an month ago about their marriage they wanted to get married in India and another short ceremony a month later in Sydney for their friends and colleagues in Australia .  Since kavita had no family swara insisted the marriage take place in Maheshwari house and all the late night preparation was worth to see the happy couple .

And Swara was happy to see her two friends married . Kavita had told her once that life works in a mysterious ways , when she met Nikhil she didn't expect she would fall in love with him because they were polar opposites but  love doesn't distinguish between people , what matter is that the heart need to feel connected with each other . 

 
Swara also learned that Kavita felt she was living on borrowed time  and so she lived cautiously until she met Nikhil , and seeing Nikhil who had such a positive outlook on life made her learn to live with out holding back due to her fears

And after Kavita and Nikhil left for their honeymoon .Swara and Sanskar started on their trip, Swara asked ragini to take care of arjun since they have parents meet tomorrow they will have to cut short their camping trip before sun rise .

Last year Swara expected a romantic date and she thought the long drive in car was going to lead to an romantic spot instead she found herself infront of an old hut ,She was confused and then it dawned on her where sanskar took her .

" I wanted to thank him in person Shona , I had no idea if he lived here last year but I know he lived her today . And I wanted him to know because of him I have you on my life,  " Sanskar told her before entering the cottage .

Swara was anxious to face him . She didn't know how he would react to their presence .  When Sanskar knocked the door and came to face with man who helped him save her .

" You both seem happy enough so what are you doing here , " Was the first sentence he spoke .

" We are happy because you helped us and we came to thank you, " Swara spoke up,  and it took him an awhile to listen in as sanskar explained everything . But he listened carefully .

He introduced himself to them as Rajesh Thakur ,and  they spent the day with him . While Sanskar helped in the hard tasks that needs to repaired or mended in the house .

Swara cooked for the three of them with what sanskar had brought for their camping trip .By the time they took their leave the sun was almost set and they also had an invitation to visit later .

Since swara left almost everything Sanskar took for the camping trip for Rajesh uncle . Sanskar decided to head back home as no food remained but swara was quite content to spend the night in camping with only chocolates as snacks .

So Sanskar took her to the spot he found for their camping ,it was isolated but the view was so beautiful.  It was like they were part of nature and while Swara lay beside sanskar as they both stared at the blue skies she made him promise to take her there every year and then she leaned into him and kissed him as they made new happy memories the clock struck twelve and the past was left in the past .

Swara and Sanskar had visited Rajesh uncle often and swara would cook for him , Sanskar would help him with repairs or he might buy and install new appliances and sanskar also brought him an doctor for check up  while Rajesh uncle refused to let them help him move near the city ,Swara knew he looked forwards to their visit .

On one such day three years later he asked them to stay the night and when Sanskar woke him up the next day  ,he didn't wake up . It almost seemed like he knew his time was up and he didn't want to be alone that night .

                   
Life wasn't filled with only happiness for them ,  there were death and Heart break along the way in swara and sanskar life . But they had each other and their two kids , Swara gave birth to a baby girl whom they named Lavanya after Thakur uncle daughter , it was for his daughter he invented the device .                        

       
Lavanya Sanskar Maheshwari was Sanskar little princess as she ruled his heart she also ruled the Maheshwari house being the youngest in the Maheshwari clan , She had her brother Arjun ,her cousins Anjali and Sanjeev in the palm of her hands and all it take was one smile with her dimple cheeks .

 
Lavanya parents had an life filled with happiness . They never let their personal life became an hurdle in their career . Swara still had her dream job and Sanskar was one of the top ten businessman in the city .

But even then sanskar and swara had plenty of time to celebrate each special days in their life .  Because for Sanskar swara comes first and for Swara sanskar comes first they both never lost the track of what matters the most .Because after losing her once in his life . Sanskar knew how lucky he is to have another chance at happiness .

P.S : The end and its over ,Let me know your thoughts and feedback . Hit the votes if you liked it .

Juanita Reid