Chronicles of Life

#chap3 #chroniclesoflife #Sagas_by_Irvika #sweetlovestory

The lift finally stopped at the 5th floor. And all of a sudden, Shruti was a bundle of nerves again. Her dad rang the doorbell. In a minute, a guy with the cutest lil kid came and opened the door. They were all wondering whether this was THE guy, but then thought must be his brother. They were a family of 3 bros and his parents.

Vermas entered the house and were asked to sit on the sofa. Shruti without thinking, sat along with her father. Eventually, she realised she had done something wrong.
Mr Shah, clearly an authoritative person in the family, politely said, “Since there isn't enough place for all to sit, the ladies can sit over there.” He pointed towards the other side of the hall, where a couple of chairs and 2 big double seater swings were placed. It seemed to be a really big house by Mumbai standards.

Mr. Shah got up and introduced himself and his wife Mrs. Alpa to everyone. He also introduced his 2 sons, eldest one Shankar and the youngest one who had opened the door, Minish. He clarified that Atharva was the middle one. Shruti’s parents also likewise introduced all.

Meanwhile, a young lady clad in salwar kameez came to serve water to the guests and was introduced as Preksha, Shankar’s wife and the lil cute doll as their 2 year old daughter Isha. Once done with the preliminaries, all were a bit silent, not knowing where to start. As such, both the families were not acquainted to each other and except for the couple of conversations between the 2 family heads, they were strangers.

Meanwhile, Shruti was busy absorbing the surroundings and the house.
The hall had cream coloured walls with wooden furniture. She observed a couple of frames hanging on the walls, all of different Hindu deities. Shahs were definitely quite religious.

Then on one wall, she noticed a family pic, with Shankar and his wife seated in the middle, surrounded by other members; seemed to be their wedding reception pic. She tried to look carefully at the pic, trying to ascertain the face of the only member she was yet to see, but couldn’t as she was sitting at quite a distance. She snapped out of her dreamland when Mrs. Alpa asked about Nainaa.

Shruti’s mom said, “Nainaa and Abhinav couldn’t accompany us as her mother in law is not keeping well.”
Mrs. Alpa sympathised and then asked Shruti, “What is your qualification?”
She replied, “I have done Bachelors in Business Administration (BBA) and then a 2 year course in Fashion Designing from NIFD.”

At that time, Dilipji instructed Shankar to get Atharva. Shruti became a bit alert. He came out and before she could have a look at him, went straight to the sofa and sat in a corner. She strained her neck, without being obvious about it, to get a glimpse of him but he was sitting at the far end. She could only observe that he was clad in a black half sleeve shirt paired with a blue denim but couldn’t see his face.

Again there was a round of introductions on the other side and Shruti was desperately trying to eavesdrop whatever she could, shamelessly. The sweet lil cutie pie saved them from the awkward pauses as she was playing with her toys right in the middle of where the ladies were seated. She was really cute and so adorable that Shruti felt like picking her up and playing with her. But then of course she couldn’t take such liberties. As such, Shruti was extremely fond of small kids and could play with them really well.

Finally, after another 5 minutes Dilipji mentioned, “We should let the girl and boy meet in a room and talk with each other I feel… if it's okay with you Anilbhai.”
Shruti's dad assured, “Yes of course! Please let them have a talk.”

Dilipji asked Atharva to go in his room and asked Preksha to take Shruti there. Now Shruti was in a situation  she had not faced before.

Preksha led her to a room at the other end of the house and said with a smile, “Please feel comfortable. You both have a talk with each other,” and closed the door but left it a lil ajar.

Shruti entered the room and there he was. She was able to see him properly for the first time and was dumbstruck. Her palms were sweaty and she fumbled. He was tall and definitely handsome, very fair. Shruti was just gaping at him and suddenly became conscious.

To be continued..