My 'Oh-So-Freakish' Life!

CHAPTER 32

POV ADITYA:

I bit back my laughter as Mehta yapped away on the other end of the phone. His freaked out babbling explained quite a lot about where was my tornado of a daughter roaming around since afternoon and why on earth did she return home stinking like tomatoes. 

"Mehta, why don't you switch off your phone and take the rest of the day off?" I laughed, "Past few weeks have been pretty stressful for all of us. I think I can handle the things for a day without you."

Shikha, sitting on the couch before me raised an eyebrow at my amused expressions. She was visibly impatient for me to put the phone down and let her in on this apparently beguiling story.

"What is so funny that had a potential to bring quite a laughter on your otherwise uptight and grim face, Mr. Mehra?" She leaned forward as I hit the red button on my phone.

I shook my head dismissively as a smile did not leave my face, "There's a rumour that Shanaya Mathur was attacked in the parking lot of her building this afternoon."

"Attacked?!" Her eyes widened, "How? "

"Tomatoes, good woman. Obviously tomatoes." 

The crease left her forehead as her lips curved into a genuine grin, figuring out the only person who could be behind that.

"You father-daughter have one hell of a short temper. From where does she come up with such outrageous ideas?" She shook her head.

"If only I knew." I rolled my eyes.

Ideal parenting would have been going upto my daughter and having a talk about her "revengeful" activities. But the truth was-- I was proud of her. That was something exactly like what I would have done in the similar situation. I could imagine Manyata giving her classic-- 'You are crazy' look. 

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TWENTY-FOUR YEARS BACK:

I pushed the door-bell impateintly dying to see that smiling face I had been missing the whole day back in office. The door was pulled open and there she was, greeting me with one of her sunny smiles.

"Welcome home dear husband" She kissed my cheeks lightly.

"The best part of going to that crappy job of mine is coming back home to my beloved wife." I kissed her back. 

It had been almost a month to our marriage. I had left everything back in India along with my dream to make films. Making babies with Manyata and having a wonderful family with her  seemed like the perfect thing to do. My father had stopped talking to me while mother called up occassionaly, begging me to come back home, thus adding yet another rock to my gigantic mountain of guilt. 

"Is biryani fine for dinner today?" Manyata inturrupted my trail of thoughts making her way back to the kitchen.

"I thought you would be done with the cooking by now." I put the bag on the floor and slouched on the sofa.

"Of-course I'm done and you've no option but to put that biryani down your throat while appreciating every morsel of it." She peeped out of the kitchen and winked, "I was just being polite."

I switched on the television smiling to myself, " Where is Gayatri?" referring to my sister-in-law.

"Roaming around somewhere with her friends." I could imagine Manyata rolling her eyes inside. 

That was my family. Manyata, her little sister Gayatri and I. Everything seemed almost perfect in my  world except the fact that I had to toil myself everyday in that tiny cubicle doing that intensely mind-numbing job on that stupid computer.