RiKara OS Gallery: A Beauty Undefined

Heart-wrenching Pain

Hi Guys!!! Hope you guys had a good weekend reliving IB memories! I came up with this OS as a constructive way of describing the sadness that I have been feeling in the past week because we are saying good bye to some of the best characters I have seen on ITV. So, I'm sorry if it is extra sad, but please enjoy. 

For reader of 'When we Fell Again', I'm sorry for not updating, but I was stuck between finals and projects. I will update soon....but I just had to get this OS out of my system first ;)

Also, don't forget to keep vote vote voting and please please do comment. Even though I can't reply, I do read most of them and I love the reactions ya'll have!!

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OS: Heart-wrenching pain

Gauri

She was smiling again today, but this time it took twice as much effort. Twice as much force to pull her lips apart and show the world that nothing was wrong...absolutely nothing. Twice as much effort to not drop down to feel her heart in her knees where the broken pieces lay. Twice as much effort to not scream in pain for help to come, because it wouldn't come. Nobody was out there to listen.

And she was alone.

She felt cold.

"Gauri, puja ki thali lao. Shivaay aur Annika waapis aa gaye."

She shook with a tremor as her bony hands caught the kitchen counter to steady herself before she grabbed the thali and made her way to the living room. And the sight that met her sent another whimper down her body as the thali trembled in her hands. Shivaay Bhaiya and Annika bhabhi were in the center with flush identical smiles on their faces as Rudra and Bhavya stood to another side with their hands linked. They were looking at each other in mutual respect and understanding as the rest of the elders and Daadi began praising them.

Gauri's lips trembled with their smile, but she pushed them wide again. Because they've been through a lot, she thought. She had no right to complain about her feelings. She had no right to participate in their happiness because she hadn't done anything to defeat those demons that threatened their family. She hadn't been allowed to do anything.

"This calls for a party and a celebration."

Omkara ji, she thought as she heard his words and his jubiliance. So different from mine, the voice in her head said and again she shook her thoughts away. He was busy fighting Veer ji. He couldn't pay attention, she consoled herself, forcing the erupting pain from her knees and chest back down to a simmer.

"No, O. This calls for a family picture first."

Family picture. And the bahu in her stirred up for a moment. She was family, right? He had said that she was family once. He had assured her that she belonged. And the thought of belonging warmed her up so instantly that the effort to smile hadn't been as bad. She would fit in eventually. So what if they had forgotten her in their quest to defeat the enemies? So what if they had ruthlessly snubbed her every time she had tried to ask what was going on? So, what if she had been at the receiving end of Choti Maji's taunts about how she could never belong to the Oberois because no one loved her. No one loved her, including her husband.

But, he had said she was family. Right? He would notice that she wasn't there and he would call her. Right?

She heard the cruel click of the camera and the unified chorus of 'Dil Boley Oberoi' from the entire family. The picture was taken.