Author’s note: Hi everybody, this is another one of my old Swasan One Shots. This was written before the actual Karvachauth episode of Swaragini, so you will find a different take on Swasan Karvachauth here. 🙂 Hope you will like it.
Most of the dialogues are in English, few may be in Hindi. If you find any difficulty in understanding those dialogues, you can quote them in the comment section, I would be happy to explain it to you. 🙂
Happy Reading!
Genre: Romance
Rating: General audience
Not proof read.
PREMISE OF THIS STORY: This happens just after Swara comes back to Maheshwari house to take care of Ragini who had lost her memory due to the current shock during Durga Pooja. Swara wanted to re-unite her sister and Laksh.
DILWALE DULHANIYA LE JAYENGE
Swara, Sanskar and Sujatha were the only 3 people who knew about Swasan’s ‘Mission Ragya’. So as a first step towards that mission they decided to spread the rumour that Sanskar too would be fasting for Swara during this Karvachauth, there by dispelling the myth that he was not in love with Swara, which Laksh seemed to have. And Sujatha of course was the best person to spread this news discreetly yet see to that it reached the intended target- Laksh and Ragini’s ears, successfuly.
But in reality Sanskar was not fasting or at least that was what Swara and Sujatha had thought. They had decided he would just act as if he was fasting in front of Ragya, so that believe they believe the rumour and their plan succeeds… But little did they know that Sanskar was truly fasting for the long and happy life of his beloved! So when Sujatha came with the food he asked her to take it away.
Sujatha: ke hua Sanskar? yeh pasand nah aaya kya tujhe? Magar yeh tho thari favourite kheer hai nah?
Sanskar:Nahi maa aaj mood nahi hai khane ki.
Sujatha: Tho teek hai kuch aur le aati hoon.
Sanskar: Nahi maa mujhe kuch bhi khane ki mood nahi hai…
Sujatha becomes doubtful… and asks, ” Kahin tu sach mein na koi vrat rakh raha hai chore?”
Sanskar avoided her gaze. And that was answer enough for her and starts to scold him.
Sujatha: Hey Bhagawan! Tu uss Bangali chori ke liye vrat bhi rakh ne laga hai?!
Sanskar (angrily): Mom! Woh Bengali chori meri patni hai! Aur mein uskeliye ab se har saal vrat rakhunga!
Sujatha too was angry by now and says,” Magar tune tho mujhe wada kiya tha nah ki tum aur woh ek na honge! Uska kya?”
Sanskar annoyed that her mother is hell bent on seeing him unhappy gives back saying,” Mom aapne bhi tho mera doosra wada joh maine uske saath kiya, khabi bhi shaadi nah karne ki , usse accept nahi kiya nah? Aap uss din kuch kahe bina hi chali gayi thi, nah? Fir?”
Sujatha knew she was caught and decided there was no use battling with her beloved son whose only beloved seemed to be that Bengali girl. She was a wise woman and knew which battles to fight, and this seemed like a battle she had already lost… she then finally decided whatever it was, he was her son after-all and all she truly wanted his happiness and if that meant she would have to accept Swara for a daughter-in-law, then so be it.
So she just patted her son’s head and started to leave.
Sanskar: Mom aap Swara se kuch nahi kahengi iss bhare mein. Promise kijiye?
Sujatha was now highly annoyed at her son’s stupidity! If he continued like this Swara would never like him! So she thought to ignore the promise and go and tell Swara of her son’s affection for her. But he too was her son and knew her too well! So he pulled her hand onto his head and made her promise anyway! She huffed and accepted it and left the room angrily.
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Around lunch time:
Sanskar knew Swara was fasting just because she didn’t like to lie to elders of the house and wasn’t really interested in this. So when he saw her sitting in the balcony forlornly, he came near her and extended a Silk to her. But she frowned and refused. He tried reasoning with her that it was all fake and she needn’t sincerely fast for him, but she had flatly refused saying that now that she had kept the fast she would never cheat on it.
But he continued to persist because he couldn’t bear to see her hungry but instead she got angry on his continued persistence and told him off saying that,” Sanskar kitani baar kahu mujhe cheat nahi karna? Samajh mein nahi aata kya? Tum jao aur Mom ke room mein jaa ke kha ke aao! Mein tumhari taraf nakli fast nahi rak rahi hun, samjhe?” He just smiled and left the room.
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Evening fast breaking time:
Everyone were lined up on the terrace to look at the moon and break the fast. All the ladies were begging the moon to come soon so that they could eat and drink something. And then the moon finally took pity on the pretty ladies decked up in beautiful red saris and fine jewelery and made a stunning appearance!
But no matter how beautiful the moon looked Sanskar had eyes only on his wife who was decked up in a pretty red sari draped in Marwari style. She was wearing all the typical Marwari jwelery including the special maang tika that evening and was looking like a beautiful nymph who had come alive from some mystic river directly from the heaven above! He stood there mesmerized and did not even know that all the ladies who had broken their fast by now were teasing Swara because of him!
So when he came back to senses he saw a furiously blushing Swara trying to wave a hand in front of him to get his attention and at the same time trying to avoid it! He smiled at her antics and said sorry and then they proceeded with the pooja successfully.
But Sujatha was worried on how her son was deciding to break his fast… She knew that if he had decided to keep his fast he would do it fully including breaking it with the first sip of water and first morsel of food only from Swara’s hand! And Swara wouldn’t do that since she had no idea he was keeping the fast…
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MM Dinner time:
It was the tradition of the Maheshwari mansion that on karvachauth day the men of the household led by Durga Prasad would serve food for their beloved ladies first and only after that they would eat their meals. So this time all the ladies including Swara were seated on the table when the menfolk including Sanskar and Laksh were serving food.
Swara had felt uncomfortable with Laksh’s continuous accusing glances he was directing at her and Sanskar, especially Sanskar and that had spoiled her mood. She couldn’t eat properly and she had excused herself from the table saying that she was feeling full already and left.
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Swasan Room:
Swara had changed out of her clothes and was arranging her cupboard when Sanskar had come back. They smiled at each other thinking their plan was successful after all.
But Sanskar still had one big dilemma… he was yet to break his fast and have something… And by now he was really hungry… He didn’t know what he could do so that he could get to drink at least a drop of water from her hand. He went to the bathroom changed his clothes and was silently sitting on the couch, when an idea struck him!
He started to cough vigorously! Swara who was shocked with the sudden forceful cough and got up immediately and went to give him water but instead of taking the glass from her hand he kept his hand on hers and pulled the glass to his lips, still continuing with his fake act of vigorous coughing!
He had thought he had successfully fooled her into helping him break his fast but he had underestimated his wife gravely there! Swara had felt slight shivers when he had touched her hand and was stunned all the while he drank the water from her hands, but then when he dropped her hands, her mind started to wonder as to why he did that… She knew Sanskar would never take such liberties of touching her hand unnecessarily even if he was coughing… So she became suspicious and questioned him,” Sanskar tumne dinner teek se khaya tha nah?”
Sanskar suddenly wary of her line of questioning hums an ‘yes’ and avoids her gaze instead of lying outright to her.
Swara senses it and keeps her hand on his face and pulls it up to face her. He looked up and she could see the lies in it… She was angry!
Swara: Why Sanskar! why did you keep the fast? It was supposed to be just an act for Laksh and Ragini’s sake! You needn’t have starved yourself the whole day for real! And Oh my God! I even taunted you in the afternoon saying you to go and have your fill!
Sanskar: Swara I did it because I was afraid Lucky would find out about it somehow if I lied!
But both of them knew that was a complete lie! Lucky would have never found out even if he tried his best. They both knew he had kept the fast only and only for her… for her happiness and her longevity and everything pious and sincere that the fast depicted.
She didn’t know what she was feeling at that moment but she knew somehow deep inside something was changing… Sanskar was like the little drops of rain water that seeped into the rock… slowly and persistently waiting till the crack gives away and water bursts out of it… She wanted to resist but looked like nature was mocking at her by saying if a great boulder couldn’t resist those loving little rain drops, she was after all a petite human, how long would she last?
She was so lost in these thoughts that when she finally came to senses it was after few minutes and to her chagrin she noticed that her hand was still cupping his face and he was staring at that intently! She removed it in a hurry and left the room saying she will be back in few minutes.
Sanskar knew an escape when he saw one! His wife was embarrassed and had run away from him! He didn’t know what to think of it but decided he better not think of anything on those lines today as he was already running low on Glucose. He decided to drink some more water and sleep early as he knew he wouldn’t get any food as the kitchen must be all packed and set aside for the night and anyways if he went down now to search for food it would look suspicious. He had after all excused himself from dinner saying he had eaten too many sweets that day and his stomach was already over full! So deciding to fill his stomach with water he was about to raise a glass to his mouth when somebody caught his hand!
It was Swara who was standing with a plateful of food! He looked at her questioningly and she smiled saying that she had gone to reheat the food and bring it for him as she knew he must be really hungry. He smiled gratefully at her.
He sat on the couch to eat but was hesitatingly staring at the food lost in some thoughts. And suddenly he saw a piece of roti dipped in his favourite side dish extended near his mouth! He saw Swara kneeling next to the table trying to feed him! He looked at her questioningly and she smiled as if saying she knew that he was thinking that he should eat the first morsel from her hand today. He didn’t know how to react at her kind gesture and simply opened his mouth and accepted the food. But before she could get up and leave he pulled her to sit on the couch next to him! She sat and looked at him questioningly this time. He just smiled and took a piece of roti and extended it to her mouth conveying through his eyes that he knew she too hadn’t eaten properly that night due to all the tension between them and Laksh. She too smiled gratefully and accepted the bite.
Slowly they had finished the entire meal feeding each other as if by an unsaid pact, no one dared to tell the other they needn’t feed them. But now that the food was over and they both were staring at the empty plate forlornly…
It was Swara who broke the silence by saying,” I’m still hungry!”
That brought a hopeful smile on his face and he pulled her hand and led them down the stairs stealthily towards the kitchen! He then proceeded to open the fridge and ransack it for the food and started to reheat few more rotis in the microwave. She too happily joined him in the midnight food hunt! She then had taken a bowl of his favourite kheer too which she now knew he hadn’t tasted. They both then settled themselves on the kitchen platform and started to eat happily, this time feeding themselves even though they wanted to feed the other but they didn’t want to make it all awkward.
But towards the end she extended a spoon of kheer to him and he looked at her and smiled. He closed his eyes and savoured the sweet with a blissful expression on his face which in turn brought a huge smile on her face as she had made that kheer that day!
And as soon as he opened his eyes he said,” Thank you.”. She smiled thinking he was thanking her for feeding it to him, but he said,” This is the best kheer I had ever had! And I know this was not made by mom or badi maa or parineeta bhabi.” He said indicating that he knew she had prepared it. But she wasn’t willing to give into the praise so easily and questioned how he knew that Ragini didn’t make it? He smiled and said nothing. But she could read his answer in his eyes which said, “I could feel the love.”
She felt embarrassed and averted her eyes… He smiled looking at her and in the dim glow of the kitchen light, her blush seemed to be even more crimson… even more ethereal… His heart was swelling with hope but he didn’t want to jinx it because after all he was willing to wait an eternity for her… And this was just the beginning…
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The winds were changing and winter was giving way to spring… Ice was gradually melting and rivers beginning to flow… And somewhere deep in someone’s heart, the small seed of love which was sown long ago was coming to life…
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Hopeful for a happily ever after…
AN: Your thoughts? 🙂
My other Swasan OS : http://www.tellyupdates.com/teri-tasveer-ko-seene-se-laga-rakha-hai-swasan-os-authors-note/