Hey.. so this is the continuation series of the OS with Sai and her two friends that I posted earlier. If you haven't read it, I tried posting the link below and if it works, do read it for a better understanding of this series. If the link doesn't work, do tell me. As a recap though, the general idea is that Samrat, Sai and Mansi bua move out to Samrat's workplace quarter. Virat is on a transfer and Samrat brought Sai here to help her recover from her trauma but under the guise of helping Mansi bua.
1. A Pair of Thieves
Sai Joshi felt like she could finally breath. As the cold breeze from the rolled down window caressed her face and played with her tendrils, she felt peace. She never thought that she'd ever be free from the shackles of Chavan Niwas. But here she was moving towards a new beginning, with a new family, all over again - this time, because of her dada, her Samrat dada. She was a loner growing up. Her Aaba was her world and she didn't have her first friend until she was 10. She was not used to having a brother. Samrat dada was a breath of fresh air. She never really understood why he took care of her, why he fought for her and why he was making such a big change to his life, just for her. But, she wasn't going to question her luck.
She was brought out of her thoughts by the incessant pings of her phone brought her out of her thoughts. It was her friends, asking if she has reached her new house. She also remembered the way they drew the truth and address out of her, when said she was taking a 2-day leave for personal reasons.
"Mental note : Never give "personal reasons" as a reason to your friends. They'll turn into drama queens and emotionally blackmail the reason out of you", Sai made a note to herself and smiled remembering Aniketh and Ajinkya's antics. She quickly texted them, after enquiring dada, that she was 20 minutes away from there. She giggled at the Mr Bean with thumbs up GIF that Ajinkya sent. She had such corny friends.
"Sai", she heard Samrat dada call out, "the house is in the first floor and Panditji said we can't carry in the luggage until some puja has been done. Leave your books bag in the car itself and we'll carry them later on. I'll ask the watch man to unload the luggage by the time we come down." and Sdi nodded her affirmation.
Sai saw the car drawing in into a cozy three-floored building. She felt Samrat stopping the car and quickly got off. Unlike during entry into Chavan Niwas, she was not numb this time. She allowed the feeling hope and a fresh start to run through her veins. She felt her insecurities slowly creep up in her mind and she shook her head to push them down. "It's time I stop thinking of negative results. Life gave you a second chance Sai. Utilise it." she prepped herself and started climbing the stairs to her new home.
Sai loved the house. It was not humongous and scary like Chavan Niwas. It felt warm and cozy. 3 bedrooms, a cozy kitchen, a drawing room with attached balcony. The walls were painted in pastel shades of different colours. Sai quickly went around the house, familiarising herself with the nooks and corners of it. Sai felt her breath stop, when she entered the last bedroom. It was comparatively smaller than the other two, but it looked beautiful. Three of the walls were painted white and the wall next to the door, facing the bed was painted in a soft lilac colour. The white dandelion and small butterflies on it made Sai fall in love with the room. She could see herself as 'Sai' in the room. Not Virat Chavan's deal wife, or Chavan family's jungli bahu. She was just Sai in this room.
"Sai..Sai !!", she heard Mansi bua call her. She quickly ran to her and saw Samrat dada sitting in the puja and Mansi bua sitting on the chaie next to him.
"Sai..beta, please make some milk dish for prasad. It is apparently a ritual. Samrat asked the watchman to stock the cupboard, maybe you'll find something. There are some dry fruits in my hand bag, use them as well. Sai nodded, quickly went into the kitchen, found the ingredients and decided to whip up Semiya Payasam .
She quickly made the dish and ran to give it in the puja room. to her surprise, she didn't find Samrat dada , just Bua and Pandit ji. "Bua.. Where did Samrat dada go? Who is going to offer the prasad?", she questioned.
"Arrey..Sai. He just got a call from the watchman downstairs. He went to sort that out. You can offer the Prasad, Come, sit here while Pandit ji wraps up the puja."
Sai went and sat in front of the small idol of God. Pandit ji wrapped up the puja, made Sai offer the prasad and left after giving his blessings. She started looking around for Samrat to come upstairs, so she can share the payasam with him.
"Bua...I'll go downstairs to see if dada needs any help." Sai informed Mansi and quickly ran downstairs to search for Samrat. She entered the parking lot of her building too see Samrat standing next to their car, with his back facing her and twisting someone's hand behind their back. She saw back of the person in Samrat's hand trying to free himself from Samrat and jumping around like a Monkey. She saw the hands of another person trying to free her dada's victim.
"Moron..how is going to fight against a guy who was a part of the Indian army.", she mentally laughed. As she neared them, she could hear Samrat's voice.
"How dare you, you fools? How dare you try and steal luggage in such a protected are. Look at yourself, you are dressed in such classy clothes and this is the work you do ?? Let me hand you over to the police", she heard dada threaten the idiots. "Oh so, they're thieves. I'm not going let them go. How dare they ?", she thought to herself.
"No..No sir, we're not thieves. Trust us. Please let him go", she heard the third guy beg Samrat. "Why does this person's voice sound so familiar, where did I hear it?", she questioned herself and ran to where they were standing, only to receive the shock of her life. Sai couldn't speak a word out of shock.
It was Aniket and Ajinkya. Aniket was jumping around like a monkey trying to free himself and Ajinkya was trying to stop Samrat. The look on their faces was by far the most dramatic one. Samrat dada seemed deaf to all their please. Sai looked at all three of them and waited for them to notice her, trying to control her laughter. She finally burst out into peals of laughter and this made all the three look at her in surprise.
"Sai !! Go call the police station and I'm not going to let these guys go scot free today. How dare they steal from us!!", she heard dada order and started laughing even harder at her friends' mortified faces to that statement.
"Sai ..SAI !! Stop laughing. Ask this mad man to let Aniket go. You know we're not thieves", she heard Ajinkya beg and that didn't help her laughter.
"MAD MAN ? HOW DARE YOU, INSOLENT FOOL ? CALL ME SIR !" she heard Samrat dada yell. Sai's stomach was beginning to hurt from the all the laughter now.
"SAI...SAI, STOP LAUGHING. It's hurting. Ask him to leave me". Aniket whined and she decided to take pity on him.
"Dada..let him go. They're my friends, not thi-thieves", she managed to gasp out, her sentence breaking with her giggles. She saw realisation dawn up on her dada' s face and he quickly let go of Aniket. Aniket ran and stood behind Ajinkya, who was scared himself. She looked at Samrat turning red out of embarrassment and the hiding that embarrassment with fury on his face.
"Huh..Chavan men, literal peas of the same pod and birds of a feather", she mentally face palmed herself at Chavan men's habit of creating a mess and then covering their embarrassment with anger.
"FRIENDS? Why didn't these idiots tell me ? I almost broke his hand!! Why were they silent?", he yelled at her friends, trying to cover up his misunderstanding. Sai couldn't stop herself from sighing.
She looked at her who were shocked at being called idiots. Aniket was holding onto Ajinkya with one hand and looking at his other hand, whispering "almost". Sai started giggling like a mad girl.
"Sai...", she heard Ajinkya call out her, "Would you mind introducing us to him?". "He would kill us otherwise", she heard Aniket whisper and from the looks of it, so did dada. He looked sharply at Aniket, who quickly hid behind Ajinkya once again.
"Dada....these two are my friends from college. That's Ajinkya. Your victim who's standing behind Ajinkya, is Aniket. They're here to help us set up" she quickly introduced them. She saw a flash in Samrat's eyes when she mentioned Ajinkya. "Oh God..I forgot about telling our patch up to dada", she smacked herself, mentally.
"He- Hello s- sir, nice meeting you.", she saw Ajinkya forward his hand, as if he was petting a tiger. She saw her dada look straight in Ajinkya's eyes for a minute, scaring him further and finally breaking out into loud laughter. Confusion was etched on to her friends' faces.
"Such idiotic friends you have Sai. They could've called you or at least introduce themselves. But no. They marched to our car after asking the watchman about it and started picking up the bags it seems. Poor. watchman was mortified", she heard Samrat explaining his misunderstanding.
"You know what, call them upstairs", he told her and began to speak to her friends," You two, come upstairs and have some prasad first, we'll carry the luggage later. Aniket, Aai probably has a painkiller spray somewhere. Use it. Otherwise, it'll hurt real bad. I have so much to talk to you. Come on, now, move", he ordered them and started towards their house.
Sai saw both her friends exchange looks with each other, stare at her face and quickly run behind dada tripping and tumbling like puppies, as if dada was their trainer. She shook her head at their antics and started walking behind them.
"This is not going to be so bad after all", Sai thought to herself, as she began walking, fondly looking at the receding backs of her brother and her friends.
TBC
A/N
Hola !! Here's the tale of the trio. I am not just trying to picture Sai as a teenager and college going young adult, but also Ajinkya and Aniket. Please don't expect adults and angst. It's basically college goers, being college goers. There will be some serious moments, but in a very young adults fashion. The main adults are Samrat and Mansi bua. Some guests from Chavan Niwas here and there. Maybe a certain pig headed ACP. And the Deshpandes.
Thank you @Devikadish for putting this idea in my brain and @Nja91( I'm sorry for tagging you without your permission) for the medical college information.
I hope you enjoy reading it ❤️ and excuse any mistakes.
PS: I don't know any housewarming ceremonies, I wrote a very basic one, and Semiya Payasam because I love it and I don't know how Kheer is made
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