Chapter 2

IshqKaRang

@IshqKaRang

Thank you everyone for your love and encouragement. Presenting to you Chapter two! As always, please let me know how you like it/hate it.

Cheers,

Neet

Chapter 2 Of fairytales and endings

Shiva deliberately walked as slowly as he could to delay getting home. She hadn’t left a single thing of hers in the room and yet everywhere he looked, she was there. How ridiculous was it that in less than 2 months, she had invaded his home, room, and every corner of his iron chain clad heart? He loved his family. More than anything or anyone in the world. But now, when he saw Dhara Bhabhi serving Gaumbi food, he would remember when Maa had told them he could eat only as much food as Raavi served him. When Rishita bhabhi would ask Dev to take her out for dinner, he would remember how the chipkali’s face had turned all red from eating the mirchi pakoda at the dhaba during their escapade and smile. When Krish would complain about feeling left out, he could literally hear the chipkali’s voice in his head chiming, “Tu tho mera eklauta aur sabse favorite devar hai.” Maa would occasionally ask Dhara bhabhi about the chipkali’s wellbeing, now that she’d stopped coming over to the house. “She is a good kid. Has her heart in the right place, despite being raised by Prafulla,” she would always comment whenever Shiva was within earshot. 

How could he explain to his mom that she was right and that was the reason Raavi deserved someone better. The one time he had accidentally said it out loud, Krish had called him a daily soap bahu. Shiva had since then kept his mouth shut and his reasons to himself. But no matter how hard he tried to convince himself, there was still a part of him that obstinately wanted her in his life. The past they shared seemed to be a double edged sword in their relationship. On the one hand, they had the familiarity of a decade between them and on the other hand.. On the other hand, they knew each other too well. He knew that she’d hoped for a Prince Charming all her life. He knew getting married to Dev was her lifelong dream. He knew she was the prettiest girl in all of Somnath. And he also knew what he was – kiraane ki dukaan, masala aur tel ka dukaan, jaahil, gawar, jungli! If there was anyone who did not deserve her, it was him.

As he strolled through the alleys of Somnath, pushing his body to exhaustion so he could hit the bed as soon as he got home, his thoughts drifted back to a story Dhara Bhabhi had told the three brothers when they were kids. Of a handsome prince who gets cursed for his pride and arrogance into a beast. Only true love could change him back to his original form. The beast holds a young maiden captive as a punishment for plucking a rose from his garden. He hopes that maybe she would be his true love, who would release him from his curse. But all she wishes is to go back home so he sets her free. But she comes back, their true love wins and the beast becomes a handsome prince again. The parallels to their life was uncanny. She had been forced into this marriage with a beast like him. He had hoped she would be his true love. But he had forgotten that he was no Prince Charming who had been cursed to be a beast. True love wouldn’t turn him into the Prince Charming she dreamed of. He was, is and always would be the Beast. Fairy tales didn’t work that way. Beasts don’t get the princesses.

But why then did this Beast still yearn for his Beauty? Why had his footsteps, without conscious thought, turn towards her alleyway?