Of Sleeping Man and Marriages

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A shout out to newbubble and her story 'Foreign Boy Took My Heart'

Edited by @SnehaBhole 

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I was good with people shouting at me, screaming at me.

Even sometimes insulting me.

23 years with Ajji made me immune to all of it.

But these words from Vikram's mouth really hurt me.

But why?

Why did his words affect me so much?

Why was I a mess because of them?

I sat on the floor of his balcony and cried thinking about what I did wrong to be treated like this.

Why was I always punished for other people's mistake?

*********

I woke up to someone knocking on the door.

I had slept on the floor. So much for making Vikram sleep on the couch.

I opened the door.

It was Vikram's mom.

She smiled and said,"Good morning dear, Did you sleep well?"

I nodded returning her smile.

"Good, your cousin is here. Deepti, I think"

We went out of his room together.

As we descended down the stairs I could see a sleeping form on the couch. The couch wasn't big enough to occupy the whole body so I could see two legs sticking out on the other side of the couch.

"He looks peaceful, dosen't he?" His mom asked me as she caught me staring at me.

"Yes, he does" I said blushing a little. He looked so serene.

"It's a while since I saw him sleeping like this. Usually he sleeps for 5 hours straight at night and mostly sleeps between flights and board meetings,"she said looking at her son.

I pitied him. Sleep is the thing I treasured the most. I don't know how he can function without it.

Deepti cleared her throat. I went towards her and gave her a small smile which she returned by wiggling her eyebrows. I rolled my eyes.

"Girls, stay for breakfast. I will whip up something quickly." His mom said.

"No, Aunty. Thank you but we have to go home quickly. Before somebody finds out that we are here" It was Deepti who spoke up.

"Okay dears, don't forget to come here and meet me whenever you get a chance" She said again smiling. I wonder how can anyone smile so much!

"Sure Aunty, bye"

"Bye"

She waved at us and we waved back.

"She seems nice" Deepti said as we walked towards our house.

"She is. Totally opposite of her son" I said remembering what he said to me last night.

"Not again, Lila, I saw him now. That man looks sexy even when he is asleep." Deepti said.

"Don't you go all Vikram fangirl on me!" I warned even though internally I admitted that she had a point.

As we entered our house, Seema kaki, Deepti's mom stopped us.

"Where were you? I was looking for you two everywhere!" She stated almost too dramatically which made me roll my eyes.

"We went for a morning walk, just came now" Deepti lied smoothly.

"Yes, Lila you need exercise. You are turning into a pumpkin day by day." Seema kaki said.

Way to make me feel good about myself.

"Anyway both you girls get cleaned up, Ajji wants to talk to everybody in our dining room" Kaki added.

Deepti and I looked at each other and then went to our respective rooms.

********

After bathing and putting on a salwar kameez, I went towards the balcony.

There was no sign of anybody in his room.

He might still be asleep.

I made my way downstairs towards our dining room. As I said before, in our house there were 32 people. But my house was more like a colony. Apart from 7 people from my immediate family, our other relatives had their own rooms, kitchen and dining room.

Somedays like during festivals we have our food together otherwise in our separate quarter.

My immediate family in the house consisted of me, Ajji, Harish Kaka, Seema Kaki, Deepti, Deepti's elder sister Diya who was happily married and living in Paris and Deepti's older brother Shivam who was a black sheep in the family by working at a restaurant and was in and out of this house all the time.

I entered the dining room and all the conversation stopped.

Everybody looked at me as I sat at the corner most chair on the table and away from Ajji.

I was surprised to see Shivam at the table.

He winked at me and gave me a huge smile which I returned.

Ajji cleared her throat and everybody's attention was onto her.

She said,"As I was saying, I went to Delhi for an important matter that is Lila's marriage"

What?

I felt my mouth going dry.

There was a murmur in the room most probably Seema Kaki asking Harish Kaka about it.

I looked at Deepti, she looked as shocked as I was.

"Apparently that Joshi boy being here has created lots of problems, like his father before him, he wants our family name to go down" She said sipping her chai.

"Apparently I can't get rid of him unless I get rid of this girl. Her father...."

She started stating what was in the contract.

She was marrying me off so that after one year I could name her the owner of my part of the business.

"The person I have selected for her to marry is far beyond her status. A person from a very wealthy family. But there are only minor things about him that we can ignore" Old bat said.

"What minor things?" Deepti asked nervously.

"He is a bit older, 49, a divorcee and father of two children." Old bat sneered as she looked at me.  


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