Woohoo… the atmosphere of the restaurant is so soothing, Anika’s parents smiled bright and ordered their favourite dish. On the other hand Anika and Ishana decided to try some fusion. Sahil was as usual not allowed to decide his dish. Anika and Ishana argued over the dish Sahil should eat.
“No… the sea food for Sahil” Ishana said.
“Arre why… simple rice and some curry for him, that’s it” Anika argued.
“No…” Ishana denied.
“Then I am going…” Anika threatened.
“How about fusion of sea fish and simple rice?” came a familiar yet not so familiar voice’s reply.
Anika and Ishana looked up to see the person who advised good keeping both of their demands in mind.
“Rudra… you here?” Ishana smiled bright while Anika felt embarrassed as last day’s incident came to her mind again. She remembered her threat of police and smiled.
“I am… I am sorry for that day Ru…” Anika said widening her eyes and smilingly awkwardly.
“Anika di… how do you know the name my bhaiya uses to pacify me whenever I am angry?” Rudra asked.
“I… umm… I just guessed… ohh your bhaiya too calls the same… good… nice name… great…” she took pause in between and completed the sentence looking up and down while Ishana was coughing and Rudra was listening to Anika’s reply carefully. Ohh yeah… the small boy Sahil was grinning.
“Drink water when you are getting khasi, coughing continuously is not good… drink water” Anika extended the glass and pressed her eyes and made anger expression to shut Ishana up but… next set of shocks are still left.
“Rudra… you didn’t answer my question… why suddenly you are here?” Ishana asked.
“Wo… Shivay bhaiya… he suddenly made the plan of family dinner tonight and informed us that we are coming to this restaurant, so yeah… that’s why I am in fact my entire family is here” Rudra answered smilingly.
Anika’s family looked past Rudra and spotted a giant family of eight members sitting on a table.
“Your family is really big beta… total nine members right including you?” Anika’s mother asked.
“Yes aunty” Rudra answered and smiled and then continued “we have many relatives who stay at different places but this is my family, our very own family”
Rudra went back to his family bidding bye to Anika’s family.
“Maa amra ektu washroom theke aschi, washroom is calling me and didi very urgently… you all start having food we will be back soon” Ishana said and hurriedly grabbed Anika’s hand and went to the restroom.
“Di… di di…” Ishana coudn’t hold back her excitement for more and started jumping.
“Arre stop… why are you jumping” Anika asked and held Ishana tightly by her shoulders.
“See di… at first Shivay bhaiya dropped you at our place, that means he wanted to know where you stay… dropping you was just an excuse to know where we stay, second he came to the same restaurant and he made this dinner plan for his family suddenly that means you might have told him that we are coming here today, thus he wanted to meet you again… so he made the plan. Lastly… if all my calculations are true… then…” Ishana’s eyes widened in excitement and she was about to jump when Anika tightened her grip on Ishana’s shoulder.
“Then what?” she asked.
“Then… he is interested, he has fallen for you… at least a bit… di… listen na… give this relation a chance na… at least meet him once now… please… please please” Ishana requested folding her hands and half jumping.
“Ishu… forget about giving chance… but I will have to meet him once today, to talk to him” Anika glanced at Ishana’s face.
Ishana made fake crying face and said “itni khushi… kahan rakhu mai itni khushi… I am more than happy, more more-er, more-est happy I am” again Ishana started jumping.
Anika held her hand and this time she grabbed her towards their table. The food was served by then.
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The dinner was seriously amazing, the great Rudra… the most choosy one has commented this few moments back so the dinner would have to be amazing.
“Anika… Ishana… don’t you think that we should go and meet Rudra’s family once… I mean the boy came and talked to us… so… as courtesy… shouldn’t we…” woah… tough work made easy, Anika’s mother gave the nicest ever proposal.
“Okay Maa” Ishana answered as soon she could plastering a short smile while her lips wanted to cross the boundaries of her face and state how happy she was.
Until then she and he… I mean Ishana and Om was having aankho hi aankho me baatein, her eyes and his eyes were really expressive to each other and now it’s the time they talk in person. To be highlighteb Mr. Someone Singh Oberoi badly wanted to talk to Anika. Reason no one knew, not even him.
Mukherjee family went close to Oberoi family. Daadi welcomed them and offered them seats. youngsters… ShivOmRuPrinku got up and Anika’s parents and Sahil got seated.
“Puttar while we elders are chatting you youngsters go na… have your own chat… Sahil will be here with us” daadi said. Poor Sahil, he is really very small as compared to the youngsters gang so he had no say and opted to sit beside his mother silently.
The youngsters gang happily went away. Anika-Ishana-Priyanka-Shivay-Omkara-Rudra, a great big fat gang of entirely crazy bunch.
“Well I have a straight forward question for Mr. Shivay Singh Oberoi” Anika said and everyone stopped.
“Yeah… ask” Shivay, how to describe the reaction he gave… it was excitement mixed with ego mixed with emotion mixed with happiness.
“Why this sudden plan of dinner for your family?” as soon Anika completed her question rest four decided to give the not so coupled couple a bit privacy.
“Di… me and Om… can we go at that side to chat… like you know… we met after so many days… so please” Ishana requested while Om made requesting faces.
“Okay” Anika said strictly and turned back at Shivay, Om and Ishana slipped away from the spot.
“Prinku… you were mentioning about some ice cream… come let’s find out your favourite flavour here” Rudra justified another excuse and slipped off towards the ice cream counter grabbing Prinku’s hand.
An awkward silence prevailed for sometime and at last as usual Anika broke the silence and repeated her question.
“Why this sudden plan of dinner for your family Shivay? And why in this restaurant?” she waited for him to open his mouth.
“Umm… Anika… wo…” he stammered as expected.
“Well this is the third time we are meeting, first time it was Ishana and Om who tricked us and made us meet, second time it was by chance but this time… this time it’s not coincidence… so tell me… why you wanted to meet me again?” her voice would definitely fail any strict head mistress of school.
“Okay… so let me explain” he at last said a sentence without any stop.
“Yeah… go ahead” she sat up on the near by chair.
“To be true Anika… you are really different from all other girls whom I met for this marriage purpose… something in you have really attracted me, like… the way you talk freely but then get conscious when it’s needed… the way you act mature yet cute and childish at times… those are really cute… I don’t know why but I just randomly made the plan of this dinner… I knew that you would be coming along with your family but somewhere I never wanted to face you again… yes it’s not a coincidence but I don’t know why I came here… that’s it… I just don’t know” he explained and she listened everything carefully.
“You know you are way too much frank” she commented at the end.
“It’s just the truth” he replied back.
“Okay fine… leave this… tell me how many girls you have met for this marriage purpose” Anika asked the question surprising him.
“Hmm… why do you want to know?” he asked back.
“Just curiosity” she made faces and smiled.
“Umm… seven to eight… actually eight… yeah eight” he confirmed after counting the names using his fingers while she looked on.
“And you have rejected all of them?” next question.
She is seriously a question bank as her brother Sahil named her, now Mr. Shivay Singh Oberoi is also understanding that he is sitting in front of a jeeta jaagta question bank.
“Yeah… I got attracted to none, so I rejected them all” he somewhat proudly and arrogantly said.
“You are seriously an arrogant fellow dude” came a voice that shocked Shivay and Anika looked on in confusion.
A girl in cottony blue gown walked close to Shivay squinting her eyes.
“You… you here?” the Arrogant Singh Oberoi stumbled and got down from his chair.
“Yeah… it’s the destiny that brought me here today… what do you think of yourself huh?” that unknown girl asked poking Shivay’s muscles… yeah he has some as Rudra is his gym trainer from the past month.
“Arre… stop na, why are you ruining my image in front of the girl… please Mallika” Shivay requested-ly whispered in Mallika’s ear.
“Now I would definitely say about our relation to your present girlfriend” Mallika went close to Anika. Before anyone could have cleared Mallika’s doubt that Anika isn’t Shivay’s girlfriend, she started to narrate something which spiced up the situation.
“You know what… during our college days, this stupid arrogant fellow was my boy friend” Anika’s mouth opened wide and Shivay closed his mouth as he can’t close Mallika’s. Mallika happily continued “but our relation became boring with each passing day… one day he was so busy in his studies that he forgot to pick my call the entire day and fortunately that day was my birthday… I got angry, I came to his room at night and threw away his phone in anger and went back to my room” Mallika stopped, but the rage can be clearly seen on her face. So many years have passed but she seemed really angry still now over that matter.
“Okay… now stop” Shivay did another try… but…
“Why stop, your girlfriend should know that you were boasting few minutes back… so what happened next was… he came to me the next day… he is so arrogant that he never says sorry to anyone except his family members, so he simply tried to pacify my anger without even apologising, this angered me more and I broke up with him… stupid arrogant boy” Mallika remarked and took deep breath after completing.
“That means… you had rejected him?” Anika asked to be sure.
“Yeah…” Mallika looked at Shivay’s face and answered.
“Why are you here… go na… go to your Siddharth” Shivay pushed Mallika.
“Wait… Siddharth is coming, let me at first ask your girlfriend’s name” Mallika pushed Shivay’s hand and smilingly look at Anika.
“Hi… I am Mallika Thakur… and you?” she extended her hand for a good friendly hand shake.
Anika gladly took her hand in hers and answered “I am Anika… Anika Mukherjee and I am not his girlfriend, not even his friend” at last the doubt got cleared.
“Ohh… I am so sorry… I thought that… you should have told me na duffer” she smacked Shivay’s head and by that time Siddharth arrived.
“You didn’t allow me to speak you stupid, now go your Siddharth is waiting for you” Shivay said.
“Bye yaar… let’s catch up soon… I seriously so miss our friendship, so yeah let’s fix a day and let’s meet” Mallika hugged Shivay and said. Shivay hugged back and said yes to her proposal. She invited Anika too and went away.
“She is mad” Shivay commented as soon Mallika disappeared from their eyesight.
“But she told me your secret… hehehuhuhaha…” Anika exactly made this sound and got down her chair.
“We should go now, it’s getting late… we would have to return back too” she said.
A strange connection has grew between them. None of them wanted to go but… their family came first and it’s time for them to return back their home.
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So dearies did you like the Mallika twist? Let me know about your favourite part from the chapter. One more question I have, do you all want to see Om-Ishana’s story parellely or just Shivay-Anika for now?
Thank You so much to everyone who read, voted and commented. Hope you have enjoyed this part as well. If so then please do hit the star button and leave your comment or criticism down.
-NILANJANA