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She doesn't want to leave her siblings and grandma to go set up a happy home for herself. She loves them too much to do that.
She doesn't want to leave her siblings and grandma to go set up a happy home for herself. She loves them too much to do that.
She is spending so much energy trying to avoid Indraneel. Will she give it another chance?
Responsibility
Punky was rarely sad or dejected but after having that visceral conversation with Sulu she was heart broken. She hadn’t willfully charted the path of being single. It had happened that way, and now she was stuck
She was embarrassed a bit that she had been so candid with Sulu, but Sulu was her soul mate
Alpana was relatively new, but she was an incredible friend, she visited frequently and ensured she brought something for Ajji each time.
Ajji was hell bent on finding her a groom, every one on the street knew, Punky was “ready to be married”
In fact it was her brother’s favorite joke, whenever a neighbor stopped by
“Punky Tai, Rishta” he would chuckle
“Punky Tai is going to be here old and and toothless” Punky would growl
“Do you not want to get married?” Praju was concerned
“Mujhe karna hai re, par Shahrukh busy hai”
“Ewww… he is OLD”
“Mere lie nai haa?”
Tuesday came by and she took a cab after work as it began to rain. As she arrived at the building, she remembered she hadn’t responded to his text
“That’s OK” she wrote
“Thanks” he responded immediately
Her heart lurched uncomfortably
He cant be waiting for her text?
“Haa Punky wo apna kaam chhodke balcony mein khara rahega”
Turns out HE WAS STANDING in the balcony, but not facing down on the front side but the other, on the phone… laughing, happy, humming in Marathi even
Shankar Rao opened the door for her with a big smile, “Today everybody is home” he smiled
“Thanks Uncle”
“Your school… they don’t worry about ladies safety? They send you to apartments?” he enquired
She smiled sadly
“Isko going the extra mile for the student bolte hai wo log Uncle” she smiled
“You must be safe” he shook his head fearfully
“I will… I hope the Coaching office checks everything before they send us” she whispered
“I have two sons, one is married, one is not, but he travels and not home much”
“Hmm” she nodded
“He has a friend, he goes to his flat”
She turned bright red
“Oh?”
“Young people don’t like their family” he frowned
“Not all of them” she muttered to herself
Kunal was sulking but was ready to do the work she spent a good 35 minutes explaining concepts
Indraneel stpped out to fill up his water bottle, on his way back he heard her arguing with Kunal and didn’t pay a second look
“Chachu I don’t want to do this class” “I will not do my homework”
Yesterday’s homework was pending so was Friday’s
“Well your Mom’s the boss” Indraneel sneered before walking away
Suhasini was in the shower, back and forth ensued with Punky until then
“I thought we were doing good today”
“I did too” Suhasini agreed with a sad face
“I don’t know what triggers him”
“He fought with his Chachu”
“Oh?”
“My BIL doesn’t want to help with homework, I told my FIL if I am doing housework either my husband or BIL has to help
“Good point” Punky nodded
“My BIL promosed to help yesterday then was working late
Pankaja was irritated, she suspected he was on a Tinder date.
Now she will have to do a make up class on Thursday so his homework can be turned in
Coaching center was going to charge more for one more day and Punky would be ordered to do it. Only Thursday was her off day these days.
She had had it!!
She texted Indraneel
“She expects you to help with homework, your failure to sit down with him is causing me to come back on my off day”
“I am not jhis Dad, did u accidentally send this to me?” he was sarcastic
“NO. I meant to send this to you Indraneel”
“Well in that case I am not his parent, his teacher or his math coach, so I am not obligated to sit down with him”
“Shameful” she said as she entered the elevator
.
Who is he chatting so happily with? She is already suspecting he is getting another date and it bothers her.
Is he really so unwilling to help out? If he is too busy to do it, the family has to understand. But is he willing if he can?
“I am not jhis Dad, did u accidentally send this to me?” he was sarcastic
“NO. I meant to send this to you Indraneel”
“Well in that case I am not his parent, his teacher or his math coach, so I am not obligated to sit down with him”
“Shameful” she said as she entered the elevator
.
From a Devil to a Saint
“Do you seriously think, he is failing Math because of me?”
“No I don’t I didn’t say that. I am saying. He is behind on his homework, he needs helps, an hour long class a week doesn’t seem to be doing it for him”
“Then the parents need to invest more in coaching”
“You are home, his Mum works late. Cant you help out?”
“Did she seriously ask you to champion for her?”
“Nope… Thursday is my only free day and I have to come in again”
“And?”
“I don’t get any day off now”
“Don’t you get paid?”
Silence
“then you need to take it up with your school” he texted
“Thanks for the advice”
“I already spend a ton of time with the kids, I am moving out soon, she needs to find another scapegoat”
“I cannot believe you would say that about your family”
“Well you started the conversation by accusing me so you heard it”
“I am sorry I said anything”
“Thanks…”
“I can now understand why the kid…”
“There we go!! Again”
“A LITTLE HW help is not going to kill you” she was begging him
“Ive been in this house and with the kids for almost 13 years, their entire life, barring summers at their other grandparents”
She got in her auto and it sped through the alleyways
She wanted to get out of this situation. She was only hurting Kunal by arguing like this with his pr—k of an Uncle
She had not met a more selfish uncaring man
“God!! I was about to go all the way with this rotten creature” she did a face palm
“I cannot believe my Tinder date is a complete jerk”
“What did u do?” Sulu asked
“Nothing… the kid is behind on HW I have to go in Thursday because the Chachu cannot borther to spend 30 minutes at the end of his workday”
“I have many on my hubby’s family like that, I am not shocked”
“I mean C’mon… dude… he is in 7th grade.. how hard is his Math, his mother feeds you a 1000 meals a year”
“Heard it before seen it before” Sulu was cynical
“I am dragged down deep into this family’s politics”
“I can see that”
“I am unable to extricate myself, Ive used up the advance to book air tickets I have no savings, I cannot quit and find another teacher job next month. This is not a corporate job”
“The whole coaching system the school offers is like corp fraud”
“I know… I fell for it Sulu… I don’t care for this family, I don’t want to know their politics. I don’t want to be telling some guy what he should do in the evening”
“Don’t… from now don’t”
“I am angry with Mrs Phule yaar, I hope she comes back soon”
“Next time teach a kid for a month or two before making big purchases on ur coaching advance Punky”
Late into the night….
“I loved how he made me feel though”
There was no response from Sulu for a while
“Tu shaadi nahi kar, just go have fun babe… I mean you are like a clock, just going and going… kabhi karegi maja?”
“I know”
“Just hook up with an another guy”
“I might”
“Do it… I will come sleep over that night, at your place”
“YOU are my ruse” Punky sent a laugh emoji
“Sahi hai na… then go have ur date, I will tell Ajji u are with me,”
“K”
“Do it love… u see the dude every week and it irritates you”
“YES”
“Just do it with someone else”
“I am going to”
Punky scrolled for the next hour and picked a Hrishi….
Will she realise, casual hook up not for her????
Or will Indraneel somehow be there?
Waiting for next now.
“Nothing… the kid is behind on HW I have to go in Thursday because the Chachu cannot borther to spend 30 minutes at the end of his workday”
“I have many on my hubby’s family like that, I am not shocked”
“I mean C’mon… dude… he is in 7th grade.. how hard is his Math, his mother feeds you a 1000...
Pankaja, it’s not easy to deal with kids after long day. Specifically for indraneel who for now is big jerk.
Look test
Well he was much older in person I THINK…. She knew she wasn’t supposed to observe that very harshly, but could not help though.if he was 30, then too bad, he looked 40
She could see his grey roots. He looked a bit agitated as well, as if he was afraid or something.
She was wiser this time, she didn’t reveal her profession, she didn’t tell him she was on her second ever hook up date.
He ordered wine for both, they talked about movies, he rarely watched sports he said
She wanted to meet him outside, at the Pune soccer game, but he didn’t want to go, even after she offered they could catch the second half
“I rarely watch” he growled
“Busy job?”
“Yeah I have my own business” he said smugly
Leaning back and checking her out in her strappy multicolored beachy floral cotton swing dress and flat sandals
She leaned forward and gently grabbed her denim jacket from the back of the chair and wrapped it over her shoulders
“I am not really hungry, we can go walk a mall
“Umm… NOW?” he panicked
“Yeah?”
“Isnt it late?”
“Its only 8 Malls close at 10”
“Well yeah… but we cant come back here, they will give our dinner reservation away”
“I am not really hungry”
“We could go hang at my place” he said nervously
“Your house?” she said cautiously, her heart raced madly
She didn’t fancy being naked with this man in bed
She wondered, how women “felt” for guys… on Tinder dates.
Did all guys arouse women? Was there a type?
This one was clearly not her type.
He looked around quite a bit
“This is so far away from town, its going to take me hours to get back home”
“where do you live?”
“In Viman Nagar’s vicinity”
“Near KHARADI?” he was shocked , he was attentive and engaging
he made sure he didn’t check his phone much at all, put it face down on the table
They were in a restaurant in Bhavdan
“I think we should eat and go to my place” he laughed cheerfully
“I am fine to eat appys… bhook nahi hai”
“Marathi?” he his eyes opened wide with curiosity
“Yeah? Cant u tell from my eyes?” she smiled pointing to her almost dark green eyes.
“Yes it is very beautiful” he nodded apologetically, which was a bit odd to her
They spent the next hour talking about Marathi culture and folk songs
They ordered appys and more beverages,
Finally they stepped out to to wander around some bars. She was afraid where this was going to lead, he was an interesting well read man, he cared about farming and rural development, he appeared to be educated
But she didn’t know s—was the natural progression
They hit a bar around 11 PM…
It was noisy and crowded, the music was loud and upbeat, she had wanted to go to places like these with her BF in her 20s, she was happy to be at one tonight.
People jostled all around them when the DJ announced the next song a remix beat of Ya Re Ya Re Nachuya from Asha Jindabad, the clapping thunderous and dancing energetic
They tried to slide on to the dance floor, Hrishi’s bumped into a chair that someone pulled out and dropped his phone, he began arguing with the guy, she bend down and picked up his phone, she saw a image of him with a woman and a 10? Year old girl the background was a colorful waterfall, she had seen it some place in Pune but couldn’t place it immediately
Her heart sank….
He quickly grabbed the phone from her, stopped arguing and held her hand and pulled her closer on to the dance floor
Punky was too distraught to even move a muscle
“Bathroom?” she whispered in his ear, and found her way and went in… her face was washed out, and eyes like saucers
She texted Sulu nervously from a stall
“I told you he looked older right?”
“Yeah when you sat down to eat?”
“He is married and has a 10? 14? Year old daughter!!!!”
Punky stuck her phone in her purse and felt sick to her stomach.
Outisde, the guy that knocked Hrishi’s phone accidentally was laughing with his friend Indraneel Deshmukh, who had no clue Pankaja Vyas was hiding in a stall ashamed…
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