Better Together

21 | new home

It had been two days since they were back in their city. The exhaustion from all the wedding functions was slowly fading. Ruhaani had stayed at her uncle's place for the two nights after finishing the homecoming rituals at the Sehgal house. She had finally moved her stuff into the Sehgal household on the Saturday.

She had assistance from DJ, Badi Bua and Mukti. Their excitement hadn't worn off yet. While Badi Bua had helped her with arranging her stuff into the wardrobe—a walk-in wardrobe that she still had to get used to—DJ had helped with other tasks like sending the wedding dresses to dry clean, arranging her footwear in the the shoe rack, arranging Pari's clothes. Mukti had been very helpful to keep Pari away from them. Pari wanted to arrange her own clothes, which only meant her clothes being scattered or dumped and more work for them.

It had been quite an eventful morning. Thankfully, Aadarsh was off to take care of his work, even on the Saturday, which she by now knew was unusual. Yet Ruhaani wasn't surprised. He was either avoiding her or perhaps he actually was catching up with work. Badi Bua was disappointed with that. However Ruhaani was glad. It was easier with him not around somehow.

Her uncle and aunt had wanted to accompany her to help, but she had flatly refused. It finally felt nice to be able to assert her choice on them. They had been moderately kind to her all along but now their words and actions had suddenly become soaked in sugar solution. She wasn't a fool to not understand what they had in mind.

Slowly everyone was getting back to their regular life. The kids had attended school on the previous day. Ashvi was also back to attending college regularly. From Monday life would go back to normal for everyone except her. She had time until Wednesday to get back to work. Ashvi had a half day at college and had joined them for lunch. 

Presently, it was a perfect winter evening to stay indoors. The family members had all gathered for the evening tea and snacks. Ashvi had decided to display the images and videos from the functions on the television screen in the TV room area—that was an extension of the living hall with a wooden partition in between to make it a bit more private—and everyone had made themselves comfortable on the couches.

Ruhaani smiled as she watched the video of the dance performances of the Sehgal siblings. She had no clue Aadarsh was that good a dancer until he had walked onto the stage in middle of Abhi and Rohan's performance on the song Kukkad, the peppy number from the movie Student Of The Year. It was a surprise element in their performance that successfully had had all jaws dropping. Ruhaani had to admit, his performance with his brothers was much better than the minute long slow ballroom dance that they both had performed on the stage.

Her gaze shifted from the wide screen television to Mukti, as the girl shifted closer to her under her long shawl. The evening was particularly cold, so Ruhaani had decided to wrap herself in a shawl. Pari had chosen to slip inside the warmth of the cloth and sit on her lap and snuggle while she watched the television still not completely out from her afternoon nap. Mukti had been watching them intently, almost wistfully.

Ruhaani had called Mukti to snuggle with them. Her heart went out to the little girl as she wore a happy smile and slipped inside the shawl sitting close to her almost hugging her. Ruhaani had wrapped her right arm around her. It was so unfair that the girl never knew what it was like to have a mother. She had never known the feeling of simply hugging a mother without reason. The feel of a mother's garment, the peculiar smell of that one person, the warmth of that one person who brought you into the world.

Ruhaani's gaze went around the room to Nirvan. The boy sat on a ottoman watching the television intently. His attention was dedicated to the video playing. It was almost as though he was memorizing every bit if it, seeing every bit of it closely. Nirvan almost never expressed emotions of attachment. He would never initiate a hug, quite a bit like her. He wouldn't hold a hand unless it was extremely necessary. Mukti would quickly seize any opportunity to be showered with affection but Nirvan, he steered clear from it.