Disclaimer

This is a work of fan fiction using characters from the popular show cook with comali 2. The description of incidents in this story is fictional and entirely unrelated to the persons after whom the characters are named. The story is only an imaginary plot with my take on ashaangi. This is not to hurt anyone or affect their personal space. This is purely a fictional plot that is not recommended to connect with real-life incidents.

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https://youtu.be/7x3xeIwoh9U

(This is such a magical BGM, it lets you feel both pain and pleasure at the same time.)

14

Sivaangi walked down the aisle towards the stage accompanied by her cousins and friends. The hall was filled with their near and dear ones. Everyone from her CWC team made sure were present there on her special day. 

She was styled by her all-time favorite designer Anusha, who meticulously handpicked every bit of her attire. She was draped with a blossom pink silk saree with crisp and clean pleats that flattered her figure. She wore a darker pink blouse that had intricate zardozi work and antique gold ornaments decked the fine piece of Kanchipuram weaves. Her hair was center-parted, twisted, and taken back to join with her wavy locks that streamed down till her waist. Puffed right behind the front twist at the top of her head, and a spray of jasmine which was twined in her hair from ear to ear at the back completed her hairdo. She looked as flamboyant as an Indian version of the Greek goddess of beauty when her look was put together with her twinkling round red bindi and mangtika that adorned her forehead.

Peppy bridal entry song was playing in the background when she entered the hall. Ashwin stood there as if embedded to the floor, falling for the women all over again, nearing him. Every step she took made his heart skip a beat. She looked magnificent and he couldn't notice anything else other than her radiant face. He noticed her beaming with happiness.

One of her cousins passed a comment to which others giggled not leaving a chase to tease her which made her slightly blush and look up to meet her to-be fiancée, who immediately retaliated with a warm smile.

Ashwin's world stopped revolving and his heart shattered into million pieces when she walk past him making her way towards Arjun on the stage. An intolerable twinge of pain squidged his heart.

He felt scorned when she passed over her glace at Arjun, conveniently ignoring Ashwin who was standing next to Rakshan amidst the crowd. He turned towards Rakshan with eyes holding unbearable pain and shook his head in dismay. Tears were threatening to make its way down from his eyes. He tried to gulp down his sorrow and put on a smiling face as he knew almost everyone in the hall and apparently all eyes were prying on him expecting some sort of disapproval from his end.

He took a seat next to Rakshan and stared at the stage with a distant eye. His mind could not think of anything at that moment. The awful truth was beginning to dawn on him. His girl was going to be betrothed with another man!

Rakshan nudged him to get his attention. "Dei enna da yosikura? Edha plan vechirukiya?"

(What are you thinking? Have you got a plan?)

"Therila Raksha, onnum panna thonala, elam kaiya vittu pona madhiri iruku" He replied in a long-suffering voice.

(I don't know Raksha. It feels numb, everything just feels out of hands)

"En da, idhuka da inga vandha? En thangachi engagement ah naney niruthuradhu enaku kashtama irundhalum, Arjun ah un edathula paka ennala mudiyadhu da. Ava dhan edho arivu keta thanama panitu iruka na, niyum en da ipdi ukandhutu iruka. Edachum pannu machan."

(Have you come here for this? Though I feel horrible breaking my own sister's engagement, I just cannot picture anyone else in your place next to her. She has lost it, but what happened to you? Why are you sitting here like this? You gotta do something!)

The music turned soft as Sivaangi climbed the stage through the steps at the side of the podium and Arjun tried to get up to greet her when the pandit gestured him to be seated and not to move at the middle of the pooja. He threw a helpless glance at her which made the bridesmaids giggle and Sivaangi blushed harder.

"Anga paru, ava enna paka kuda ila. Ava manasula na irukeyna kuda terila. Endha dhyriyathula niruthuveyn. Enaku ava kanna pakavey bayama iruku. Inga elarum engala dhan pathutu irukura madhiri iruku. I feel like my hands are tied." He turned his head towards the stage and her eyes met his from a distance.

(Look at her, she is not even looking at me. I don't know what she is thinking. In what belief can I stop all this now? I can't even look into her eyes. I don't hold the strength. It feels like everyone's eyes are on us. I feel like my hands are tied.)

His impactful eyes communicated everything that his heart wanted to tell her and for a minute she stopped functioning and her soul empathized with him, out of her control. He felt like a part of her wanted to come running to him and break the engagement right there. His pining heart wished that was true but it only ached more to see her smiling wide, which she managed to bring on her face breaking her eye contact while performing the rituals.

He saw Arjun whisper something into her ear as she bend down close to him decreasing the gap between them and giving him undivided attention. Her lip curved into a smile once he was done whispering. Ashwin fisted his palm and his anger reflected in his blazing eyes. He could just not see them that close to each other. How he wished to break Arjun's face for stealing his angel from him! He was not solely responsible for that, was he?

She Scrunched her eyes and fluttered her lashes as her kumkum fell into her eyes from her forehead. Arjun was quick enough to notice and turned her face holding her chin to carefully blow warm air into her eyes to remove it. Photographers were happy seeing a very comfortable couple who made their work easy as the chemistry was oozing and was captured perfectly in the camera.

Ashwin was fuming inwardly seeing the things happening on the stage. Every second that passed made him think about more ways to murder Arjun then and there. A woman got in garlands made of rose petals and both of them were instructed to take one by the pandid. Their engagement rings were revealed to the gathering, the diamond couple ring blinged under the lights. They exchanged the garland and took the rings in their hand to exchange it.

The music changed from one melody song to another and when the hall was streamed with an enchanting song...... 'Nenjai poo pol koidhavaley.....Ennai edho seidhavalye......'  that caught the attention of only 2 souls in the hall. 

Amidst the sound of the traditional live orchestra and the chattering of the crowd, only Ashwin and Sivaangi's heads raised by the song that grabbed their attention and their eyes met shell-shocked. 

"The song still affects her!" Ashwin's heart screeched to him, half happy and half clueless. He trailed back to their first meet at the set of CWC when the same song was played while he was awestruck by her nonstop talking and lights glowed around him when he leaned on the table behind him. Their cupid was neither happy then nor now as this grown-up fool has just realized the magic of that moment!

"Too late! But not too late that nothing can be done." A soft voice whispered from within him looking at her yearning eyes.

He saw her eyes almost tear up and he stood up wanting to stop the nonsense and scream at the top of his lungs to the world that she is his girl, exactly when everyone else stood up to shower the couple with flower petals and akshatha as the rings were about to be exchanged.

It infuriated him even more and he tried to walk forward but he just could not move. He felt like something pulled him back and dragged him down. He was not able to take an inch forward. The harder he tried the more he failed. He closed his eyes and screamed out his frustration but it looked like no one heard him. The next blink of his eyes, he saw Arjun tying the sacred thread around her neck when she shed happy tears sitting on her father's lap during kanyadhan. He rubbed his eye's terrorized and the consequent moment he saw Arjun and Sivaangi sharing a personal space as he fondling her baby bump and held her close to him. His blood boiled in anger and felt like his head would burst. Ashwin clenched his hair in frustration and emitted a loud squall again, that no one could hear as if he was invisible. Not even Rakshan reacted to him. He turned his head to the stage and saw the couple on the dais giggling after Arjun whispered sweet nothings into her ears before exchanging the rings. 

He gathered all this energy to yell once last time a big 'NOOO!' to stop the ceremony, when he found himself waking up tussling in his bed, sweating terribly with a racing heart and almost unable to catch a breath.

He realized it was a dreadful dream to which he woke up shouting 'NO!' He was tremoring in fear and uncertainty.

"That cannot happen! That should not happen! No! Never!" he repeated his words in a trembling voice and gulped down a bottle of water wanting to forget every bit of the distressing dream.

It felt like an out of the body experience and he was scared to death, that his dream might come true. What terrorized him more was, it was not just the scene of engagement but the other glimpse of events that came before his eyes after that. He heard nothing other than the clock ticking in his room which reminded him that he might just be left with little time.

His window flung open to the squally weather when a soft music from the same neighboring flat muffled in the wind. It made him take a sudden deep breath and the wind that broke through, slithered over the trickles of his sweat making him feel cold.

Kan vizhithu paartha podhu
Kalaintha vannamae
Un kai reghai ondru mattum
Ninaivu chinnamae

(My dreary eyes saw the vanishing act of your myriad colors, And all that I have, as memento, is the little warmth and sanity that I managed to salvage.)

Ashwin's eyes immediately turned moist. He turned to his bed side and pulled out the draw to find the their hand prints, that he had saved all these years from the show. She left it with him along with his frame in his car and never took her's back. He took the frame close to his chest and held it tight.

Kadhari kadhari enadhu ullam
Udainthu ponadhae
Indru sithari pona sillil ellaam
Unadhu bimbamae

(My heart shattered owing to bereavement and pain - and the innumerous shards reflect nothing but your absence.)

Those lines made him weep his heart out as it just spoke his mind. The tension the dream created was too much to tolerate. That would be the worst thing that can happen in his life.

Kanneeril thee valarthu kaathirukiren
Un kaaladi thadathil naan poothirukiren

(Having blossomed at your faded footsteps, I am waiting for you...
with fear and a fervent flame in my tears.)

Minnalae nee vandhadhenadi
En kannilae oru kaayam ennadi
En vaanilae nee marainthu pona maayam ennadi

(Oh Mirage! What's the reason for your past presence?
Why did you inflict that pain in my eyes? - and
How did you disappear from my soul?)

What bewilder him was the timely crooning of songs from somewhere nearby place, when ever something happened in his life. This time he was quite curious to check who was playing the music. How can it be a sheer coincidence when every time the song played, it synced perfectly with his life situation? He moved near the window to find no clue of the epicenter of the music that now faded away 🔮✨

Is that what magic feels like? A gentle stroke over a wounded heart....

He called up Rakshan immediately and he answered in a groggy grumpy voice "Machan...."

(Bro....?)

"Raksha ava naliki Dhamu appa function ku varuva la?"

(Rakshan, will she make it to Dhamu appa's function tomorrow?)

"Moonu nal la munnuru vati ketuta. Ethini vati da kepa. Varuva da....ava varati na tara tara nu izhuthutu vareyn.....Time pathiya unaku lam manasatchiye illiya da"

(You have asked me the same thing 300 time in last 3 days. How many times will you keep asking me this dude? She will be there.....Even if she doesn't ill drag her to it......Do you know what time is it now? Im one poor soul stuck between you both)

Ashwin turned his head to check the time and hit his head to have disturbed him at 4:30 in the morning.

"Unga rendu perayum sethu vekuradhukula en pondati enna divorce panitu poiduva pola da. Phone a vechitu thungu ennayum thunga vidu. Na pulla kutti karan da, veena enna kola karan akidadha." He hung up the call huffing.

( I might just get divorced before I bring you both together! Put down the phone and sleep and let me sleep! Dont make me kill you!)

His dream was so real that it made him struggle. He feared that his dream might come true if he let go of all the opportunities of communicating with her. The fact that Rakshan mentioned Arjun was close to her made him unabashedly stalk both their insta handles to find pictures of them together in each other's Id. Every such picture gave him mini heart attacks and cursed himself for being so stupid all this while just believing in destiny ("Kadavul setting") without any effort from his end. 

'Destiny doesn't just happen, you need to put little effort and kick start things' his inner voice screamed at him.

It was the same inner voice that stopped him from approaching Sivaangi when Maha left him howling that might just be too inappropriate. 

How crazy can a mind get? It justifies and contradicts the same sentence at a different point in life.

He managed to fall asleep, once his mind calmed down and recovered from that horrifying nightmare. That morning, when he woke up and checked his phone, WhatsApp notifications popped with multiple messages from the group that read "CWC Family" on top, which gets active only when there is an announcement to be made or a hot matter to be discussed.

He looked to his side to find her framed hand print next to him on his bed. His fingers traced the heartline of her handprint and that brought an unexplainable happiness and soft smile on his face. 

He turned towards his phone to read the messages from the top, thinking it might just be people wishing Chef Dhamu on his birthday and his heart somehow was unsettled and hinted something strangely negative contrasting to his content smile, even before he opened the chat.

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