Chapter 4

ananya.2

@ananya.2

Part 3

Raavi sat with all the photos spread on the bed. She had called up Anita di and asked her to send all the pictures she could find of Raavi, and of Shiva if they had any. What she didn’t expect were hundreds of photos which brought back so many memories. She selected one of her childhood. One of Shiva’s childhood which she had taken from Dhara di. There were exactly twenty two pictures of them together in one frame, and not even one was nice. One she liked, but it had Dev right in the middle. She picked one picture of hers with the whole of Pandya family, which they’d taken during last Navratri. 

“Tum kya kar rahi ho?” Rishita asked as she came into Raavi’s room. 

“Photos select kar rahi hu room mein lagane ke liye.” Raavi said. 

“Main dekh sakti hu?” Rishita asked. 

Raavi nodded, so Rishita sat beside her and began to look at all the photos. She picked the one up of Shiva’s, Dev, Raavi and Krish. Then she began to look at their pictures from their childhood asking Raavi about the memories attached with each of them. Raavi began to narrate their childhood tales and Rishita listened raptly. 

“Kya main yeh wala rakh sakti hu?” She picked one of Dev’s photo. 

Raavi realised it was the same photo she had stuck to her diary while she was pining away for Dev. “Of course.”

Rishita thanked her and went to her room. Raavi suddenly remembered her diary. She had written pages after pages of love declaration for Dev. If she were to move forward with this marriage, she needed to get rid of that diary. Also, she had heard that burning stuff up was carthatic. She grabbed her diary and a matchbox and went to the terrace. There was a can of kerosene in the storeroom of the terrace.   

Raavi doused her diary with kerosene and lit it up. It went up in flames. She kneeled and looked at it burning. The pages wrinkled turning into ash, and within moments, her diary was destroyed. It was like she had never written anything in it. With this, she was trying to burn the memory of Dev from her mind. 

“Raavi! Dimag kharab ho gaya hai? Kya kar rahi hai?” 

Raavi only realised she had been crying when Shiva’s voice dragged her back into reality. She got up and wiped her tears. Shiva looked over to see what she’d been burning. Just by seeing the little blue cover, he immediately knew it had been her diary. He’d seen her scribbling in this diary for quite some time now. 

“Diary kyu jalaya?” He asked. 

“Tujhe kaise pata meri diary thi?” Raavi asked. 

“Bachpan se tujhe ek hi diary leke ghumte dekha hai. Main sochta rehta tha, ek diary bhi itne saalo mein khatam nahi kar payi tu? Phir yaad aaya tu gadheri hai. Tere paas likhne ke liye itna kuch hoga nahi.”

Raavi glared at him. “Likhti thi na Dev ki baat!” She blurt out, then she saw the change in Shiva’s expression, but he was back to normal in a second. “Ab unn purane baato ka kya matlab. Isiliye jala diya.”

“Haa toh fek deti. Jalane ki kya zaroorat thi? Paper recycle bhi kiya jata hai. Aivayyi jalake fire hazard bana rahi thi tu.” 

“Mujhe recycle ka nahi pata par woh raddi wale bhaiyya iska Rs. 10 bhi nahi dete.” 

“Iss diary ka toh main ek rupya bhi na du.” Shiva said.

Raavi laughed. Only Shiva could make her laugh in these situations. “Tu na Shiva, ek number ka bhootnath hai. Mere liye please ek aur diary le aayega?”

“Haa thik hai!”

“Achhi wali. Jisne likhke maza aaye.” 

Shiva rolled his eyes and went down. Raavi followed him and went to the storeroom. She got back to the pictures when Dhara came into the room. She sat beside Raavi. 

“Shaadi ke photos mil gaye hai.” She handed the envelope to Raavi. 

“Meri toh ek bhi achhi photo nahi hogi Dhara di. Mujhe nahi dekhna.” Raavi said. 

“Kuch kuch achhe hai.” Dhara said. She took out the photographs and showed Raavi photos of her haldi ceremony, sangeet ceremony and some which were clicked before the wedding. 

“Dhara di yeh photos mujhe nahi chahiye. Inn photos mein meri smile kisi aur ke liye hai aur inn ka koi matlab nahi hai ab.” Raavi said. “Mujhe sirf Shiva ke saath apni photos chahiye.”

“Toh yeh wala chalega?” Dhara handed her a photo of Shiva tying a mangalsutra around her neck. 

Raavi took the photos and examined it closely. She had been crying, but somehow it wasn’t a bad photo. Shiva looked dashing in his sherwani. She didn’t notice it then. How could she? First her attention was on Dev and then her came her sorrow. As she kept staring at the photo, Raavi realised how much she loved this photo. It didn’t even matter that she was crying. There was a kind of serenity around it. 

“Thanks Dhara di, yeh perfect hai!” Raavi said. 

“Aur meri advice hai yeh wala bhi laga de deewar par. Kitne cute lag rahe ho tum dono.” Dhara handed her a photo from the bed. It was from a sports day function at their school. Shiva had won the first prize in something, and Raavi was the one holding his trophy and posing. Shiva just looked annoyed. 

“Yeh wala bhi cute hai.” She laughed. She chose another one of them clicked recently and handed it to Dhara di. “Yeh 6 photos ko aap frame kara dogi Dhara di?”

“Haa main Gaumbi se kehke kara deti hu.” Dhara said and left with the photos. 

Raavi arranged all the photographs and kept them back in place. Then she went and unpacked her suitcases. She peeked inside the cupboard and found it utterly disorganised. Shiva had literally just stuffed his clothes in there. This was going to take the entire day, she thought and got to work. She took out all the clothes from inside the cupboard and folded them neatly. Then she arranged them properly in the cupboard. Turns out, Shiva’s stuff didn’t even need half of the space in the cupboard. She folded her own clothes and arranged them in the cupboard. Then she kept all the bath items in the bath and all her cosmetics on the dressing table. It was almost evening by the time she finished. 

Then she looked at the various gifts she’d bought for Dev. Some of them were to given to him during their wedding night, and the rest on their honeymoon. Raavi took out a big plastic bag, and put all the gift boxes in them. Then she went out and put them in the trash. It felt good to do so. 

She returned to her room, and it already looked much cleaner and organised. Cleaning up the bed, she got on and relaxed. She looked around the room, and it felt much more home than it did before. Even if Rishita took the bigger room, she was happy with this storeroom. Maybe she could add some fairy lights!

“Yeh le teri diary!” Shiva came into the room. He was stunned to see that she had unpacked her luggage. 

Raavi took the diary from him and inspected it. It was pink which she liked. She decided she liked it. Then Shiva handed her the necklace which he’d gotten fixed. Raavi jumped up seeing the necklace. She snatched it from him and inspected it. It was as if she’d never broken it. She almost jumped on him hugging him tightly. 

“Thank you, thank you, thank you Shiva!” Raavi screamed. “Humari shaadi ke baad Dhara di ki mujhe di hui pehli gift hai yeh. Tune thik karwa diya!”

Shiva was surprised to feel her arms around his shoulders. He wondered if he should hug her back. But before he could react, Raavi pulled away from him blushing. She went and sat down on the bed. Shiva went to the cupboard to pull out his night clothes. He was surprised to see his clothes organised, but it looked nice so decided to let it go. 

“Shiva sun!” Raavi said. “Mujhe room mein fairy lights lagana hai. Achha lagega na?” 

“Teri marzi.”

Raavi was annoyed with him saying teri marzi for everything. She pulled him down on the bed with her, making him sit beside her. “Shiva tera bhi room hai. Bolna thik se.”

“Tujhe jo karna hai tu kar. Mujhe kyu irritate kar rahi hai?” 

“Achha chal tu bata tujhe kya chahiye?” Raavi asked. “Hum kal shopping chalte hai! Fairy light kharidenge, aur bed sheets aur curtains.”

“Mujhe kuch nahi chahiye!” Shiva said. 

“Shiva please batana!” Raavi whined. “Kuch toh hoga jo tujhe chahiye hoga apne room mein. Pehle toh tu aangan mein sota tha par ab khud ka kamra hai tera. Toh koi aisi ichha?”

Shiva looked at her annoyed. “Koi ichha nahi hai meri. Ab dimaag khana bandh kar. Tujhe jo chahiye main leke aaunga. Khush?”

Raavi’s excitement disappeared and she averted her gaze. “Mere liye bhi kuch lane ki zaroorat nahi. Mujhe kuch nahi chahiye.”

She got up to leave but Shiva held her hand. This chipkali was going to be the death of him. “Achha ruk. Mujhe ek cheez chahiye.”

Raavi sat back down looking at him with excitement. “Bata kya chahiye.”

Shiva blushed. “Woh… woh bachpan mein mujhe ek… ek jhula chahiye tha apne kamre mein.” He stammered so hard. “Maine papa se maanga tha aur unhone kaha tha ki woh mujhe mere next birthday pe denge ek. Par phir woh…”

Raavi understood. His dad died before he could gift him. She held his arms and made him look at her. “Toh kal ek jhula le aayenge.”

Shiva smiled a little, still blushing and Raavi couldn’t believe how cute Shiva was. Who knew he had such an innocent wish like that? He shared it with her. It just felt so special.