PaNi – a story we wish were true(Season 2) – Chapter 1

Niti was standing lifeless near the window of her room, the early morning cold breeze brushing her face and the lose strands of her hair around her face flying in different directions. Her hair was tied in a bun except for some lose fly-aways not capable of getting tucked into the bun. She was wearing a pair of casual track pants and a tee, the most comfortable outfit for a vacation at home with family, in Delhi.

As she kept staring out of the window, lost in her thoughts, she suddenly felt some moisture on her cheeks and wondered how come had it been raining during the winters. She observed carefully at the sky and found that the sun had been shining bright high up in the sky. She then patted her cheek with her hand and found the moisture to be due to her tears. She closed her eyes tight to prevent the tears from escaping her eyes, her forehead forming wrinkles, but instead of stopping, the tears started flooding out her eyes.

As soon as she closed her eyes, a faint memory crossed her thoughts that added to the unhappiness.

**flashback**

She started walking towards the main door angrily but was stopped by a tight hold on her hand from behind. She turned around and pulled away her hand with a jerk.

Parth: Niti please try and understand! This is not the way to behave in such a situation.

Niti: I tried a lot Parth but I can’t fulfil your desires anymore. Good Bye!

Saying that, she left the house banging the door hard behind her.

**flashback**

She suddenly opened her eyes at the reminder of the noise of the banging door. Her eyes and cheek were full of tears and she quickly wiped them away.

She thought to herself, ‘No Niti, you have to be strong. You can’t break down like this. Maybe, it was not in your destiny so then, let it go.’

She walked into her washroom to freshen up before joining her family for dinner.

After the end of ‘Kaisi Yeh Yaariyan Season 1’, she had a break of 1 week before they would resume the shoot for season 2 and so she had decided to visit her family in Delhi.

She freshened up and moved towards the kitchen to help her mom with dinner preparations. Her mom looked up at her to ensure if she was okay but she avoided eye contact to not let her have even a faint hint of her condition.

During the shoot of season 1 when she had brought Parth home to meet her parents, they had been more than impressed with him. She knew how much they adored him and had therefore kept her problems with him out of the discussions with them. They used to keep asking her about him and being the brilliant actor she was, she used to easily fake about him in front of them.

As she joined her parents and her sister for dinner, her eyes were still red and bulky reflecting her heart’s condition so she tried to avoid eye contact with anyone. She helped her mother and sister in arranging the dinner table and once it was done, they proceeded having the dinner.

Niti’s Dad: So Niti, how many days do you have before you have to go back?

Niti: 5 more days Dad.

Niti’s Mom: Just 5 more days? But you’ve come just this morning. Why don’t you extend your leave? As it is, once you start shooting, you aren’t going to get any time off.

Niti: I can’t mom. The schedule has been decided and I need to be there by then.

Sister: Yeah it’s ok. Let her go. She loves her work and knows what she’s doing so why stop her?

Niti’s Dad: We’re not stopping her. We just wish she could have taken a bit more leave.

Niti: Don’t worry Dad, I will try to take breaks in between to come and see you.

Her parents understood her work and agreed to her decision and all of them had dinner silently. After dinner her mom went up to the kitchen to get the desert, ‘the Niti’s mom’s special recipe’, Brownie.

Niti’s Mom: (serving the desert to Niti) Surprise! Here, I prepared it especially for you. You are visiting after such a long time so I had to prepare your favourite recipe. I remember it is Parth’s favourite desert too right? The last time you visited with him, I had prepared this for your dad’s birthday. And he loved it so much, I remember how sweetly he kept praising and thanking me for the delicious brownie.

Niti who had been trying to get along with the normal environment by not thinking about her differences with Parth had been forced to drift back into his thoughts at her mom’s mention of him related to the Brownie. She remembered how he had loved the brownie prepared by her mom and even after they were back in Mumbai after visiting their parents, he kept talking about the special brownie recipe of her mom. He even asked her to prepare it for him someday and when she tried, it turned into a disaster.

**flashback**

Niti: (serving him the brownie) Here, I have tried but I don’t know. Come on taste and let me know how’s it?

He took the piece excitedly and stuffed it into his mouth instantly. Although the shape wasn’t really perfect he gave her the benefit of doubt assuming the taste would definitely be heavenly as it was her mom’s recipe.

As soon as his mouth started filling with the taste of the brownie, his smile started dropping. He tried hard to keep it up but failed and had to give the real response.

Parth: Niti, why don’t you ask your mom to prepare some and send it here? You can simply focus on your career. I mean you should not be wasting time on all of this right?

Niti: (asking with a sad puppy face) Is it that bad?

Parth: (making her sit on his lap and consoling her) No my love it’s not bad. It’s just different. And you yourself love your mothers’ recipe right? So then, how can someone make it as perfect as she does? It’s nice but you know your mom prepares it absolutely delicious right?

Niti: (smiling) Yeah! That’s true. But let me taste it at least. I’ve made it for the very first time.

And before Parth could stop her, she took a big piece and stuffed it into her mouth. Within seconds of it having entered her mouth, it was out on the plate. It tasted so weird she couldn’t even gulp it down for once.

After having some water to even out the awful taste, she gave Parth a tight hug because of his sweet gesture of keeping the guts to gulp down the horrible brownie prepared by her. She felt so special on having got such a special treatment by the man of her dreams.

**flashback**

As that memory crossed her head, she again had tears forming in her eyes which was noticed by her sister.

Niti’s sister: Hey what happened why are you crying?

She immediately came back to reality and wiped away her tears.

Niti’s mom: What happened Niti?

Niti: Nothing mom. It’s just…nothing..

Niti’s sister: (teasing) Aww you’re missing Parth so much? I bet this brownie reminded you of him. It’s okay. No need to hide it. We can understand.

She simply gave a faint smile trying to hide her tears and avoiding further discussion on that topic. Her parents looked at each other and passed blushed smiles seeing their daughter so in love with such a wonderful person.

Parth had been staying with his parents for quite some days now. His shoot had been wrapped up much before the final wrap up and since then he had moved to Pune for a break. He wanted to take up different projects and for that he had quit the show but before that he wanted to take a break from everything, especially after the mess created with Niti.

He had been in Pune for a week now and his mom had been asking him about Niti all the while. She really adored her and would always keep asking about her. She even asked Parth to get her to talk to Niti on the phone someday when he would be talking because she herself did not wish to call. She believed she shouldn’t be disturbing her in case she is busy with her shoot or family.

Parth kept avoiding her plea of getting her to talk to Niti since he himself had no contacts with her anymore. He hadn’t had a conversation with her since they had a fight at his place and she walked out. It was the day when he wrapped up with his shoot and was to leave for Pune the next day.

He did wonder at times about her and her whereabouts but was too angry to pick up his phone and dial her number to talk.

One fine day, his mom decided to herself call her up since Parth had been avoiding for a very long time.

Niti was sitting in her room in the afternoon, again thinking about Parth and how her beautiful relationship had been ruined because of one fight, when her phone rang. She got a strange feeling that it might be Parth and therefore rushed towards her study table to pick it up but her expectations got flushed down on seeing the caller ID. It was Parth’s mom who had been calling and she was confused whether she should pick it up or not.

She thought to herself, “Would he have told aunty about us? What if she is calling to convince me to get back with him? But I can’t! Not after what he said to me that night.”

She kept on thinking whether to pick up or not when the phone stopped ringing. But she immediately called her back since she did not wish to be rude to her as she was a darling and she knew how much she loved her.

Parth’s mom answered at the second ring.

Parth’s mom: Hello!

Niti: Hello Aunty. How are you?

Parth’s mom: I’m fine dear. How are you? I hope I didn’t disturb you.

Niti: No not at all aunty. Actually I was in the other room so didn’t pick up your call at first. I’m sorry about that.

Parth’s mom: Oh don’t be silly dear. It’s alright.

Niti: (relieved to know Parth hadn’t shared anything with her since she sounded so calm and relaxed) How’s uncle?

Parth’s mom: He’s fine. He is off to Dubai these days for some work. Oh so silly of me. Of course you would know about it from Parth.

Niti: (nervously) Yeah!

Parth’s mom: You know I was so disheartened when Parth told me he is quitting the show. I loved to watch the two of you together on screen and everything was going so well. I wonder what suddenly made him quit? Why don’t you talk to him and convince him not to quit?

Niti: I did talk to him aunty but it’s for his career. He has several other offers and he would take up something really good I’m sure. As it is, life is never stagnant right? It keeps moving and so do we.

Parth’ mom: Yeah I know he’ll do something but you know I’m just afraid he might end up losing all he has today with this decision.

Niti: Don’t worry aunty everything will be sorted. And you’ll see it soon.

After talking for some more time she disconnected the call and burst out crying. She could no longer hold back the tears reminding him of Parth all the while she had been talking to his mom. Both their parents had so much faith in their relation but little did they know that the relation they trusted so much no longer existed.

Just when she had been crying, her mother entered her room and got worried seeing her in that state. She seated herself on the bed facing her.

Niti’s mom: Niti, what happened dear? Why are you crying like this? Is everything alright?

Niti: (wiping her tears) Yeah mom everything is alright.

Niti’s mom: So then why are you crying like this? What’s wrong? Please tell me.

Niti: Nothing mom it’s just that…I…I miss Parth. And when I think he wouldn’t be there at shoot now, it really disheartens me.

Niti’s mom: Oh dear I can understand but you should support his decision. I mean if he has thought of something, he might be having something in mind. You can only guide him but if he decides to go on a different path than what you guide, you should still support him in it.

Niti: Yes mom I do understand and I am supporting him.

Niti’s mom: Then that’s good. By the way are you sure there’s nothing else that’s bothering you? You know, since the day you’ve come, I feel like there’s something that has been bothering you really bad. You can tell me dear.

Niti: No mom there’s nothing. Seriously.

Niti’s mom: Well I’m glad. But dear if there is something ever in life that is bothering you, related to any person, you should not keep it in your heart. Rather you should talk to that person, whoever that is and whatever it is that is disturbing you. If you talk it out, things can always get resolved. So just remember to talk it out. Come now I’ll be waiting for you at lunch. Freshen up and join me outside.

Saying that, her mom left and Niti thought to herself, “I did try to talk it out mom. I really did.”

Precap: Parth says ‘I love you’ to Niti..Actual reason for the PaNi fight…flashbacks…

****

The schedule for this story would be every Monday and Friday.

Thank you!

Lots of love ❤️

Medhavi

#behappy

#spreadsmiles