Yours, With Love

Circumstances

"Radhi, pass the aachar beta."

(aachar - pickles in India)

Radhika was having dinner with her parents. It had been quite some time, more than two weeks since she had had the brunch with everyone barring her parents, and things had mellowed down quite a lot back home.

It was truly surprising and refreshing for her to say the least.

Some two days prior, there was yet another team building session in her department, and despite of knowing the answer, she still decided to ask for permission.

This was while they were having dinner, and after she had asked the question, the other three hands who were in the process of ingesting the morsel stopped midway. Much to her surprise, a pleasant one at that, her papa had granted her the permission with the sole conditions of not being much late and being responsive to their calls or messages whenever needed.

This was so much of a surprise for everyone in the household that day, that Kartik could barely conceal his emotions, and Radhika had the widest grin on her face.

Anupam saw that sweet smile etched onto her face, and as much as he felt good about being the reason behind his daughter's happiness, it also filled him with dismay that only after Kartik's outburst the other day had he recognized the way he was acting with his daughter wasn't even close to ideal. But he still had to come to terms with a lot of things.

The faint thought of what would people say if they saw her coming late brushed his mind, then it turned into a nagging thought persistently perturbing him with all of what had been his way of thinking over these years, but he settled it with the sole memory of Radhika's happily grinning face on having received the permission.

And when Radhika had returned home safely and in time the next day, and there was not even a whisper about this amongst their neighbours, Anupam had felt so much at ease. Vijaya too. They wondered if this was how it would have been all these years.

"Ji maa.", Radhika did as she was told, and passed on the pickle to her maa.

(ji - yes)

"So we were thinking, your papa and I, how about we go for a lunch tomorrow.", Vijaya suggested. She had seen Radhika's bond with Gaurav and Meeta over all these days. Even when they would not visit her quite often, her cheerful demeanour whenever she would speak with them over the phone would send a pang of envy into Vijaya's heart. How much of a distance even existed between her and her daughter?

Here, Radhika's eyes widened with surprise yet again. It had been so long since they had went out for dinner exclusively, and if her parents were so enthusiastic about extending that warmth towards her yet again, she would do so with much more gusto. As it is, it had been years, and while such mundane things felt foreign for now, she knew that eventually and bits by bits, she would be able to take them out of their orthodox thought process some day.

"Sure maa, papa. I would very much like that.", she nodded with a sweet smile grazing her lips.

Things were right on track, and if this continued, it wouldn't be long before they would happily bless her and Rajeev. She felt so sure of that.

"Radhi, about Rajeev - he's good man. We do not doubt that. Not at all beta. I also understand that you two want to marry each other, but you do know how it is. We are unable to digest this entire notion of him being infertile. I also understand that this was no fault of his, but we are unable to come to terms with the consequences. If you marry him, his issue wont stay limited to him, it will also be your issue then. And as much as you feel things will be alright later since as you say you have multiple options for having kids, but tell me, will you be able to make peace with the fact that you cannot bear a child naturally."