I JUST KNEW ! Part 12

“Okay Shreya, I guess that explains everything you can stop now”  Said Sumedh in a very peculiar manner.

“I dint understand, what do you want to say? ” I enquired.

“Well I have seen you first time eating chilly chicken with kheer (dessert made up of milk and rice), you see the tomato sauce is almost 1.5 inch beside it …. Ammm in your plate” and he laughed. “You know you are completely out of your mind, now tell me whom you met recently in the party.”

I gave him a weird expression looking at the sky and shaking my head. He kept laughing.

Sakshi added “Didi is everything alright you look a bit lost?”

Everyone was enjoying the lavish dinner, while I was constantly waiting for something to happen without having the slightest clue of it. That feeling of being bamboozled was weird I just wanted something good to happen which could lift my mood, I was all of a sudden feeling low when we started having dinner. May be it was a mood swing.

Sakshi shook me again “Didi are you all right?” I said “Yes I am fine; I am just not feeling hungry.”  I had no clue what had got into me, after I saw Sanskar.  I was feeling partially lost, a bit upset and guilty. Sakshi was trying hard to lift my mood “Didi I think we should try some different starters or  Chaaat there is a pani puri counter lets go there..”

And I nodded, we went to the pani puri counter and I had a few pani puri. Sakshi asked me again “Didi what is it? I heard that the marriage proposal with Sanskar was called off. Is that bothering you?” For a moment I felt as if she is reading my mind. I took some time and then  spoke “Yes may be that is the reason, and I am the reason that the proposal was called off.”

“I do not understand, it was all from his family right?

and when did they ask for your opinion?

 I have heard your dad saying that he was waiting for their response before he would ask you for your opinion. ” Said Sakshi as we were moving back to the table where all our family members were seated for dinner.

“I will explain while we go back home ” I felt someone listening me standing just behind, I turned to find Sumedh standing there “How come are you here I demanded. ” Sumedh pointed his plate it had 3 sets of dahi wadas ( North indian snack)  and said “I got another two plates for you two, try they are good.”  I picked one and started munching on hoping he hasn’t heard anything we spoke earlier. However I was wrong “So we three are going in the same car back, I want to know what’s wrong with my favorite cousin, and I don’t want to see her upset. Especially when she is looking so gorgeous”  Sumedh said having his Dahiwada.

I said “Okay! but it should be among three of us, please…as mom and dad know nothing about it.”

He said “You can trust me with that Shreya, You already have too many secrets of mine you can blackmail me if needed, Just let me know if I need to punch that Sanskar’s face,

 did he hurt you? "

I said “NO, He dint do anything. I just want to talk to him once.”

Both of them gave me a shocking look, “Really, but why … or what ?” Said Sumedh.

I curved my lips and raised my shoulder “I don’t know exactly, But I just want to talk to him.”

“Okay then let me think a bit, I feel I can plan out something.” he said confidently.

We completed dinner soon and it was time for us to leave to home. Sumedh said to his dad “Papa I just need to talk to a friend I just met can you people wait ?”

His dad asked “how long will it take.”

He replied “Just another 30 mins .”

Uncle Shivendra looked at Sakshi who was eating an ice cream and said “Okay then I will take your mom and uncle aunty along with me. You get these two girls home safely. ”

“Sure” said Sumedh.  As our parents left Sumedh asked us to sit at the same table for sometime and left, He appeared with Sanskar with in another 15 mins and as he approached us he said “Lets go girls, Sanskar said he would help us to take out our car from parking.”

I was all cold and numb as we started walking towards the parking lot, there were too many Cars and vehicles parked. Sumedh and Sakshi were walking just beside me while, we were following Sanskaar who was walking in front of us at a distance.

“What’s the number of vehicle ” Sanskar asked looking at us, “Its AP09  aa there is it ” sumedh said pointing his finger towards a random direction, Sanskar started looking at the same direction soon Sumedh murmured in my ears. “Now go and talk to him, we are going to move ahead”

and he took Sakshi arm and walked  in front of me  crossing Sanskaar. This time Sanskar followed them and I started walking just behind Sanskar.

My heart was pounding.. it was beating too fast for an instant I thought to hold his hand to stop him. But I never did have so many guts. I just kept looking at his face while he was consistently looking forward.

I wanted the saga to continue for a really long period. However soon we reached our vehicle and Sanskar called up a guard to drive it out of the parking lot there were few other vehicles hindering the route, somehow the guard managed it to pull out.

I got another 2 mins with Sanskar as we walked out of the parking area, I gathered all my energy and somehow managed to say “Sanskar”.  He turned towards me and I was frozen again.

 Mean while Sakshi and Sumedh got into the Car and I was wondering what went wrong, I was supposed to say something, I had enough time and I couldn’t find guts to speak out. Then I thought but what did I want to say to him. May be I want to be friends with him. Or I want to explain him that I never wanted him to say no to the proposal. May be it all went wrong, can we meet once and restart again afresh.

They were waiting for me. Sanskaar moved to the driver seat where Sumedh was seated and shook hands with him saying “I hope you all enjoyed the dinner.”

Sumedh said “Shreya please get into the car”  and all three looked at me. I got into the car, Sanskar checked and closed the door of car again which wasn’t properly, and moved to a distance waving his hand I kept staring him doing nothing.

Sumedh drove us all the way back, none of them questioned me. I was calm throughout till I reached home. We went to Sakshi’s room and after changing, I got into the bed. Sakshi was trying to ask something “Didi are you..”  I interrupted her and said “Good night Sakshi. I am very tired let’s talk tomorrow.” And I covered my face with a blanket, so that she couldn’t figure out that I wasn’t sleeping.

 However I fell asleep pretty early and when I was awake it was already 7:00 AM. I checked Sakshi and Sumedh were still asleep I rushed to my mom’s room with my pair of clothes and got ready as every morning mom and aunt used to leave for temple I joined them and left.

Aunt Snehal said “This is so nice shreya of you. You are very religious, why don’t you teach something to your sister. Sakshi never listens, whenever I ask her to come along for temple visit, she never wakes up early in first case.”

My mom wasn’t able to digest all of that. She added “ It’s nothing like that may be this girl was in a mood of going to temple today she too never wakes up early on a holiday be it for temple or any other reason”

I said “Mom is right Aunty ji ” and smiled thinking I am here so that I could just escape the questions from Sumedh and Sakshi. Sakshi may not ask me much but Sumedh, he planned a lot yesterday for me. He is definitely going to demand me why I didn’t use the opportunity well.

We visited four temples, The Ganesh temple and then the Durga Mata temple, a small Shiva temple which were near to each other then we had to walk for around 1.5 KM to reach Radhe-Krishna Mandir  which was Big and Very beautiful there was a huge crowd certainly because it was a Sunday. We offered our prayers and spent some time at every temple performing the rituals. It was such a peace of mind Visiting these places I felt as if I became calmer from inside and was at solace however that was all going in my head as we started back to home I felt too hungry we reached home at 10:30 and I thought we haven’t cooked anything yet what am I going to eat we had lot of Prasad with us but we had to share it with everyone back home so I cannot start munching on it.

 As we reached home we found Dad and Uncle Shivendra arranging plates with fruits and Masala Dosa (they got it parceled from nearby tiffin center) for breakfast and that was second time I understood what is peace of mind.

My mobile kept beeping while I was having my breakfast, I picked it up as soon as I completed my breakfast. All those messages were from Sumedh.

7:45

Where are you ?

8:16

Oh the mice has run away with his mom

10:00

Someone was about to tell what happened last night. She can forget, I remember every question I had in my mind.

10 40

I hope you are going to talk after the breakfast

10:41

Eat EAT … …

I looked at sumedh, He gave me a wink and pointed his thumb towards Sakshi’s room. Oh I cannot escape now I thought.

We moved to Sakshi’s room and gathered lazily on the bed Sakshi said “Now its only 3 of us can we hear the whole story ?” Sumedh added “from the beginning”

I narrated them how I met Sumit and my love story which lasted for 3 years and how the day I met Sanskar for the first time was messy and full of confusion.

“So now Sumit is married, he tricked you all the while, huhh??” came from Sumedh.

“I don’t know, May be or may be not you are listening the story from my end. I would definitely be biased to my part right?” I said.

“But didi, This means Sanskar was misguided he dint knew that you already went through the breakup” concluded Sakshi.

“Hmm, but what if he genuinely dint like me and called off that proposal. That can happen right and now I don’t find that it would help even if he knew. He would think I am just playing around. And moreover he might be seeing someone else. There is possibility for anything” I replied.

“And you dint even utter a word last night after Sanskar appeared. Did you ?” Sumedh said.

I nodded

“So what was wrong, why dint you talk, and whatwas it you wanted to tell him that you broke up with summit and you are single it was a confusion you couldn’t clear that day.” Sumedh said

“May be I wanted to say all of that. But I couldn’t. I was numb yesterday” I said feeling disheartened again.

“Shreya what do you want now, what exactly is going on in your head?” Sumedh asked me.

 “I don’t know how to put this but I feel, I am falling for Sanskar.” I felt as if I realized it only when Sumedh was questioning me, and it just came out of my mouth.