Four Dates and Tons of Insecurities

Chapter 50

Chapter 50
🌷Adithi POV

3 years Later

Seeing Meera and Rahul on the stage shaking hands with everyone that enters makes my heart swell with happiness. It took them literally 3 years and 5 months to get married. Getting married in November is no joke. It's so cold here that I could freeze in an instance. For me, the only reason they told was they wanted to settle down properly in their respective fields before they take such a huge step.

As I was getting up to call Karthik someone tugs my saree, I look around to find our son Veer and beside him, our daughter Ara (short for Aradhi) stand with huge puppy eyes as if about to ask me something. "What happened Veer?" I ask him crouching down to reach the two-year-olds.

"Dad is not letting us eat ice cream," Ara whines and stomps on her feet, while Veer just rolls his eyes. "She is doing that for so much time and it is angry." He says looking back at his 3 minutes younger sister with a glare, only to end up with a stuck-out tongue from the other side.

"Where did you guys vanish off?" Karthik comes running. "Don't talk to me," Ara says and comes to stand beside me. "It's cold, you shouldn't be eating ice cream." Karthik scolds her. "See your brother, he isn't complaining," Karthik says and I shush him, that's when he realized that he compared them both.

As I and Karthik grew up as siblings we understand how it feels when both are compared. So as parents we are trying to minimize it as much as possible, though they don't understand now, in future we don't want them to think that we will only love them if they are in a certain way.

"Ara, it's cold here, if you eat ice cream now, you will have a fever, your body will become very hot and you will become tired very easily, then you can't go out and play with your friends. Do you want that?" I ask her taking hold of her shoulder, she thinks for a while as if weighing her options. She nods her head negatively, I give her a smile and a high five.

"Let's go meet Rahul uncle and Meera Aunty," Karthik says as he takes hold of Ara's hand while I take Veer's, we all together walk to the stage. Both the kids leave our hands, Ara runs towards Rahul and Veer runs towards Meera.

"Hello, cutie pies!" Meera snickers as she pokes on Ara's nose.

"The next step is this only." Karthik laughs, while both of their faces become serious.

"You are like the 50th person to say that." Rahul deadpans.

"Kids are hard, dealing with them every day is hectic." Meera mumbles.

"But I thought you like kids?" I ask her, not making sense of what she saying.

"But that doesn't make it any easier to deal with them." She says as Veer plays with her huge earrings.

"There is a huge line, let's take a photo first," Karthik says and we take positions.

1,2,3 click.

" Will be hosting a lunch for us five tomorrow," Rahul tells us before we completely get off the stage.

After moving around we find a few seats and sit down, kids being kids start playing with other children while I keep an eye on them, a conversation happening behind piques my interest.

"Isn't the bride a bit fat? What's her name?" A woman says to the one sitting beside her.

"Her name is Meera, even if she is that fat look at the way she is dressed." The other woman replies as if she knows what she is speaking. As if she saw what body image struggles Meera had to go through to be where she is now. It's not easy to exercise almost daily and be mind full of what you eat, still, she tries to pull it off, and yet people are like this.