Little Things: Shots Series

Rewriting the Wrongs - Last Part

Back to the present, Teju winced at the memory of the night and Karan finally began to see what Teju and his mother must have seen, heard and felt.

"Beta, I don't want to put you on the spot but you do understand why am I bringing this up hmm?", questioned Suneeta.

Unsure of how to respond, Teju shook her head sideways with a pout.

Smiling, Suneeta explained, "Teju when Sunny's father or I refer to you as our fourth daughter or the 'heart of the family', we are not just saying it for the sake of it. We mean it. My Sunny might be wrong about a lot of things but one thing he was 100% right about - his mother would fall in love with you and she has. I am sure you know by now that I am not a very easy person to please but Teju, you are exactly the kind of girl I was looking for, for my Sunny. You are perfect for him, the missing piece of his puzzle. But I also want to make sure that my Sunny is perfect you because you deserve nothing less. And I know there is more to the story behind what happened tonight, so tell me honestly, why didn't you say something or tell Sunny to stop the 'jokes' at your expense?"

Overwhelmed by her emotions, Teju hugged Suneeta and broke down with her head in her lap. A few feet away, watching his eternally first child cry, Karan also had tears clouding his vision.

Switching from the little baby sobbing with hiccups; Teju sat up, wiped her tears and composed herself. Gathering her breathe and emotions, she then said, "Aunty I hate that feeling, you know when you feel alone in a room full of people? There were times I felt so misunderstood in that house. Don't get me wrong, Sunny was always there with me, for me but I never wanted him to feel torn between me and his friends. Just because I was only interested in talking to him, doesn't mean he could not make other friends right? And you know better than anybody, everyoneee loves Karan. After all he is such a sweetu, who can resist his pure heart? But I wasn't able to maintain those relationships, even if it was just for his sake and after hearing the taunts time and again, I almost started believing them.

I am very confident in my skin, Aunty. I might get angry easily but I also cool down just as quickly. But I won't let my childishness or mood swings spoil anything for my Sunny. My world is very simple, it's Sunny, my family and his family. So others can say whatever they want about me and to me; till my world is happy and proud of me, I really don't care about them. Them saying something disrespectful to me won't diminish the respect I have for myself.

That's why even tonight, I did not bother saying anything because I know how badly Sunny wanted this dinner to go well and mere hurt ka kya hai? By tomorrow, I'll forget all about it, because frankly I have neither the time nor energy to still play that sly game. If I had said something, my words could have been twisted and I did not want to create a scene or give them an opportunity to come between Karan and me".

Karan felt like someone had stabbed, punched and kicked him at the same time. His bachha had so much bottled up in her heart but she never let him know. <<Why should she have? He should have understood her turmoil in the first place. How could he be that oblivious to her hurt, her insecurities, her worries? >> Karan thought to himself. Even though Teju had shared a lot with his mother, Karan could now hear everything that was left unsaid in her silences, in her tears.

"Teju, I will not defend or side with my son just because his is my son. I know you don't need someone to fight your battles, but I wish he had stood up for you.

Then again, I understand why Sunny might not have even realized what they did, tonight and in that house. When you have been emotionally hurt to the extent that Sunny was two years ago, even you would shield yourself from seeing the bad in people.

My son is a good judge of character, after all he did truly manifest and crack this nut that he is so proud of.", Suneeta said and knocked on Teju's skull on the word 'nut'.