Recherché | ✓

Parent

The nurses walked around, the doctors rushed past but he couldn't focus on anything else but the only thing that he could register was that his wife was there behind the doors alone.

Shakti rubbed his hands together in anticipation, he felt a hand on his shoulder and he looked up. Tej was staring ahead at the hospital area. But the warmth from his hand was there.

They both were still dressed in their meeting clothes, they had rushed straight to the hospital when Jhanvi informed that Pinky had gone into labour and she is driving them to the hospital.

The guilt of not being there for Pinky at that time was eating him away. He could hear Pinky's painful screams from behind the doors. They had pushed him out when the complications started to arise.

She had gone to labour eight hours ago. They have spent the hours in anticipation and fear as the doctor waited for the dilation. And as the time passed, the pain grew. He wanted to comfort her but he didn't know how to. So he just stood by her side, offering the words of comfort and assurances. To let her know that she wasn't alone in this. They both were in this together.

He was going to be a father in a few moments, he can't fall now.

Jhanvi was pacing outside the door. Her lips quivering with nervousness, casting worried looks over the door. She and Pinky may not have been at the best of terms but she was still her sister-in-law. She understood her side of the story as well. She turned around to look at her husband who was standing silently being the anchor for his brother and at times like this she could see the family coming together once again.

They offered Maa, to stay at the mansion. And Jhanvi knew she would have decorated the whole mansion by now to welcome the newborn in the house.

They all have been waiting restlessly outside the labour room, empty stomach. She knew she wouldn't be able to stomach a grain until she comes to know both her sister-in-law and her niece or nephew are okay. She was going to be an aunt.

A bundle of joy in their lives.

A ray of sunshine in the dark clouds that have clutched the mansion in its grasp.

Tej was looking at his brother and then at his wife. They all were tensed. And so was he. Who would have believed? Tej Singh Oberoi being worried for the sister-in-law, whom he never failed to make her stand as an outcast, an outsider to the family just for not being the same background as them.

But here he was. It wasn't her fault that it took time for her to get used to the customs she had to follow as an Oberoi bahu. He shouldn't have held it against her. Because it wasn't intentional. He knew better but he never assured her instead he didn't relent a single chance where he could taunt her for her mistakes.

He wanted to chuckle at the irony, at how being surrounded by the hospital walls made one realise all the mistakes one had done in their lives, just from the fear of something inevitable.

"It all will turn out fine." He found himself speaking. Shakti looked up but didn't say anything. His eyes were strayed on the grey doors that parted him away from his wife.

Tej didn't know what else he could say or should. His relationship with his brother wasn't as ideal either but they knew when to stick around. And this was one of the times they put all their past behind and let them act on their instincts and the support systems when they needed one.

And the screams from the room stopped, instead there was a shrill cry. And they felt their eyes tearing up from the emotions they have never witnessed before.