This is something i wrote just for fun as I was too bored. There is no leap and separation in this story. Would love to hear your views:)
PriRa OS:Maths and Career Prospects
“Pihu, I am really sorry beta” Ram said apologetically as he held his ears looking at his daughter who was
sitting across the dining table while Priya sat in the middle chair turning her head back and forth looking at the 5 year old angry child and the 44 year old child who was trying to pacify the 5 year old.
“Apki mistake ki wajah se mujhe sirf one star mila. Mere sare friends ko 2 stars aur smiley mila” Pihu cried again as tears rolled down her chubby cheeks.
Ram sighed. He was listening to the same line for the last 10 minutes and he did not know how to apologize to her anymore.
He had returned home after an extremely busy day in office with back to back meetings lined up for a new project. But when he set his foot inside the home, he found his daughter sulking and he knew it was going to be a long day before he would even reach his bedroom. And so he was summoned to the dining table for an urgent family meeting and he could understand that the culprit in question was him.
“See” Pihu forwarded her maths notebook to him. He looked at the homework sheet which he had helped her complete last night. The teacher had checked the work and out of 15 questions, one was wrong where Pihu had written 12 as answer for 6+7.
“Pihu, it’s a silly mistake, ye to maine apko kal btaya tha na. It should be 13” Ram said and Pihu narrowed her eyes.
“Apne kal 12 bola tha papa. Aap galat padhate ho” Pihu cried again and Priya could not control herself and laughed looking at Ram who could not digest what his daughter had just said to him.
“Main galat nahi padhata beta, maine sahi likhwaya tha. Apne galti se 12 likh diya hoga” Ram said exasperated.
“Mumma, papa jhooth bol rahe hain”Pihu said and ran into Priya’s arms who grabbed her making her sit in her lap and wiped her tear stricken face.
“Papa ne bola imagine kro unke pass 6 cupcakes hain aur Pihu ke pass 7 to total 12 hote hain.” Pihu explained the whole scene to Priya.
Ram tried to remember what had exactly happened. He was simultaneously talking to Adi on the phone and they were talking about a 12 crore expense which was over and above the projected cost for their new project. Ram did a facepalm when he realized that was how 13 turned to 12 since he was constantly talking about that figure and by mistake told Pihu the same. And now his daughter was crying over a star made by her teacher in the notebook.
“Yaadashat bilkul maa par gayi hai. Kisi se galti hui nahi ki dono chad jati hain” Ram muttered under his breath and then turned towards Pihu.
“Papa se galti ho gyi, aage se main dhyan rakhunga” Ram pleaded
“No, main nahi padhungi aapse. Aap galat padhate ho” Pihu repeated again and Priya chuckled thinking how tables had turned today. When Priya was pregnant, ram had told her smugly that he was going to help their child with Maths and Science. “Tum na ye apne halke subjects padhana jaise English, social sciences. Ye maths aur science tumhare bas ka nahi hai” she recalled his exact words at that time and so they had followed the norm set by Mr Ram Kapoor. He helped Pihu complete her maths work while Priya took up other “halke” subjects which did not require using brain.
“Beta, papa apko real stars le denge. Ye notebook pe bne hue star ka kya kroge” Ram remarked which only made his daughter more angry.
“Priya….” He pleaded to his wife to help him get out of the situation.
“Its okay Pihu, papa ne bola na unse galti ho gayi. Unhone jaan bhuj kar nahi kiya”Priya tried explaining it to Pihu who just cuddled her mother.
“Wo kya hai, papa na old ho gaye hain. To unki memory weak ho gayi hai isliye unhone galti se 12 bol diya instead of 13” Priya said and Ram looked at her angrily. How could she leave a chance to mock him.
Pihu mellowed down at the explanation and looked at her dad worriedly.
“Wrna papa to ek time pr maths ke expert the. Unko to 745 divided by 13.5 bhi aata tha” Priya could not control her laughter.
“Priya yr stop it now” Ram glared at her for making fun of him.
Pihu looked at her mother inquisitively. “745 divided by…. ye kya hota hai” Pihu wanted to know what her mother was saying as she could not understand the big number.
“wo jiske ki wajah se aap exist krte ho” Ram said under his breath but Priya heard it and immediately turned towards him.
“RAM! Stop it” she said as she realized where this conversation was going and that too when Pihu was present there.
“kya, I mean ye to sach hai ki tum uss raat isi line se impress hui thi” Ram said in a whisper and Priya turned red with embarrassment. She picked the notebook and hit him on the shoulder.
“Ouch” Ram cried. “Pihu yahin par hai” Priya glared at him.
Pihu snatched the notebook from her mother’s hand. She realized both mom and dad were discussing some nonsense and in the end only her maths notebook was getting hurt, first by the red mark from the teacher and now by using it as weapon against daddy.
Priya looked at her daughter and sighed. “Pihu, chodo ab ye sab, moral of the story is papa aage se dhyan se padhaenge. Chlo lets have dinner” she ended the discussion.
“Haan, aur kal main apko apke favourite cupcakes lekar dunga wo bhi 2” Ram added to make his daughter happy.
“Yay! Aur papa aaj 1 ki jagah 2 stories read krenge” Pihu declared and ram hi-fied her.
After dinner as Priya got Pihu ready for bed, Ram went to Pihu’s room to grab two story books to read to her as promised. Pihu had been sleeping with them for the past couple of weeks after she had a nightmare and she was too scared to sleep alone after that.
He grabbed her favourite soft toy and opened the newly delivered carton of books to take out 2 new books. He had ordered around 100 new books. Last night, they had read the last book she had so Priya had packed all those books in another box so that they could be delivered to the orphanage.
When Ram opened the box and picked up the book he realized it was the box with all the old books.
“Shit” he realized that he had messed up again. He had by mistake asked Tarun to deliver the wrong box. Pihu would throw a fit again. He sighed and texted Priya to come to Pihu’s room.
“Kya hua” Priya asked as she entered the room.
“Wo…” Ram stammered as he was scared to tell her about he had goofed up.
“Galti se galat carton chala gaya” he mumbled in a low voice.
“Zor se boliye kya galat chla gya” she could not understand properly.
“Tarun ne new books ka box orphanage bhej diya” he put all the blame on Tarun although Tarun had specifically asked him 3 times if the box was the right one. He had not bothered to look and shushed Tarun to just complete the work.
“Tarun ne? ya apne??” Priya asked as she knew he was just bluffing and blaming the poor guy for his mistake.
“Seriously, bichare masoom insan pr ilzam dal rahe ho” and she started her lecture and Ram prayed internally that it would end before his ears started bleeding.
“Aapko ek kaam bola tha, wo bhi dhang se nahi kiya” Priya said
“Aree kya dhang se, tumne left bola tha to maine left wala bol diya usko” he explained
“maine apko video call pe ye wala bola tha” she pointed at the box and continued “I specifically told you my left and your right and you just shrugged saying haan mujhe sab pata hai” Priya taunted
“Acha theek hai, ho gayi galti…. Tarun se” he said and she glared at him.
“Now handle your daughter on your own. Main koi help nahi krne wali” Priya said and turned around to leave the room.
“Priya please yaar” he ran behind her.
When they entered their bedroom, Pihu was anxiously waiting to read the new stories.
“Story book?” Pihu asked as she looked at Ram who was standing empty handed.
“Umm, aaj na main apko ek new story sunaunga. Ekdum special story” Ram said as he lied down next to Pihu and turned the lights off once all 3 of them settled in bed.
“Ek baar…” Ram started but he was clueless on how to continue. Pihu looked at him expecting him to start the story and even Priya turned towards them waiting for him to continue.
“ek baar..” he said again and Priya smiled.
“Priya tum so jao yr! Tum mujhe distract kr rahi ho” Ram was frustrated. He didn’t have any story and Priya was enjoying at his expense. “Pihu main tabhi story sunaunga jab mumma so jaengi” Ram told Pihu
“acha theek hai” Priya closed her eyes and turned around but she knew she was not going to sleep without listening to his made up story.
“Haan to main kahan tha, ek baar…” Ram started. “Aage?” pihu asked as she was frustrated that he was stuck on ek baar. Ram thought for a minute and smirked.
Ram continued “Ek baar ek princess thi jo bahut khadoos aur akdu thi. Uski family uske liye prince dhund rahi thi lekin wo sab ko reject kr deti thi. Kyunki wo khadoos thi na”
Priya who was listening attentively knew he was referring to her but she kept quiet to see what he was going to say next.
“To ek din, princess ki family ne decide kiya ki aise to world ke saare prince reject ho jaenge to unhone princess ko bol diya ki unhone uski shadi ek prince ke saath fix krdi hai aur agr wo apni family ko love krti hai to wo use shadi krle.”
“Fir” pihu interrupted as she got excited.
“Fir kya, khadoos princess ne prince se shadi krli lekin wo saara din prince ko daant ti rehti thi. To ek din prince ne socha ki agar wo princess se friendship krlega to wo usse nahi daantegi. To usne princess ko apni car mein lift offer krdi. Lekin khadoos princess ne prince ko fir se daant diya ki wo nahi jayegi aur kaha ki wo sirf auto mein he jaati hai” Ram smirked as Pihu made a disgusted face.
“Princess to sachme khadoos hai” Pihu remarked. Priya turned towards them and looked at Ram. “Aur kuch nahi mila” she glared at him.
“Shhh disturb mat kro, story chal rahi hai” he rebuked Priya and then shifted his attention to pihu.
“Haan to, prince ko bahut bura laga. Fir wo dono aur zyada ladne lage to finally prince ne princess ko manane ke liye ek auto kharid liya”
“wow” pihu smiled and even Priya could not help but smile. She was enjoying the story even though she did not want to admit it.
“Auto dekh kr princess itni khush hui aur usne prince ko hug kr liya. Fir wo dono mein friendship ho gayi aur dhere Dheere love ho gya and then they lived happily ever after.”
Pihu clapped as she loved the story. This was different than the stories she usually read.
“ek secret btaun” ram said and whispered in her ear “Princess ne kabhi kisi ko btaya nahi pr usse bhi auto chalana aata tha”
Pihu giggled and repeated loudly “princess ko auto chalana aata hai!” and Priya opened her eyes.
“Ek aur secret, apki mumma ko bhi auto chalana aata hai” ram said boldly and pihu was shocked and then she started laughing.
Priya pulled the pillow beneath her and lunged it at him and he grabbed it while trying to control his laughter. He threw the pillow back at her and swinged another one on Pihu and they had a pillow fight for the next 5 minutes.
“Acha bohot ho gya” Priya grabbed the pillows from both Ram and Pihu’s hand to stop the fight.
“Pihu, its already late, chlo jaldi se so jao kl school bhi jaana hai” she told her in a stern voice.
“Nahi, mujhe auto mein jana hai. Tarun bhaiya ke pass auto hai. Please mumma mujhe auto mein ride dedo” pihu demanded
Tarun bhaiya’s auto was the one that Ram had bought years back when he and Priya fought regarding Vedika. The auto was never used by anyone so one day Tarun and Punnu were so bored from their routine, they decided to use the auto to get the vegetables from the nearby market. From then on, they used it sometimes to get stuff from the market.
“Kitna ache lagenge hum sab auto mein, Priya tum drive krna, main aur pihu piche baith jayenge” Ram laughed like crazy as he imagined the scenario.
“please mumma, auto mein ride de do” pihu pleaded as she had never travelled in an auto.
“Pihu zid nahi! Dono chup chap so jao. Ab awaz nahi aani chahiye. Iske baare mein subah baat krenge. Priya declared and both of them nodded obediently as they did not want to see priya’s angry version.
The next day, pihu pleaded to Ram numerous times to get her an auto ride and Ram finally agreed on the condition that she would not tell Priya about it.
When Pihu came back from school, ram got Tarun to drive the auto and Ram and Pihu sat in the back. Tarun gave her two rounds near the house and then brought them back.
“Papa main bhi bade hoke auto chalaungi” Pihu told Ram as she hopped out of the auto.
“Theek hai main apko auto ki company khol dunga. Aur apka first customer hum mumma ko bnayenge” Ram chuckled.
“Sab pagal hain” Tarun muttered as he listened to the conversation and went back to his servant quarter to pack his clothes and leave for his village in that very same auto he had parked in the garage.
