AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Hi, my dear readers,

Please show lots of love. Do comment about what you liked or even if you didn't. Suggestions are also welcome.

This is my first book and I'm excited to hear from you all. Hope you enjoy yourself

Happy reading ♥️✨

It was still dark when his eyes opened. He sat straight up and remembered God. Siddharth had a habit of waking up before the sun. He didn’t even need an alarm anymore.

He started on his daily chores. He freshened up and went to the garden to meditate. After an hour, he went to the gym which he had at home.

By the time he was done with his workout, his family members had started waking up. He went and took the blessings of his grandparents followed by his parents and chacha-chachi [uncle-aunt ] and wished his cousin Aditya. They were sitting in the garden waiting for their morning tea.

After wishing everyone he was about to go upstairs to get ready for work when he heard someone calling for him from the garden. He went outside to hear clearly and his aunt told him to wake Sneha [ cousin ]  up.

He went to Sneha’s room and knocked on it hard and yelled, “Sneha wake up, time for College.” Then he went to his room to shower and get ready to go to work.

He got ready and came downstairs for breakfast.

Before he could take a seat, Sneha came rushing down the stairs complaining,”Bhai aapko lagta hai main ek knock se uth jaaungi? mumma aapne inhe kyun bola mujhe uthane ke liye, dekho ab main late ho gyi” [ Brother, do you think one knock on the door is enough to wake me up? Mom why did you ask him to wake me up, see now I am late ]

“Don’t you think you should start waking up yourself at this age?” Siddharth asked her.

Sneha replied,”You are just jealous that I have people to wake me up.”

Siddharth just shook his head in defeat.

The family had their breakfast, the house filled with laughter, complaints, yelling, teasing and chatter. Siddharth left for work.

He was at work when one of his employees knocked on his office’s door. “Yes,come in,” he said. The employee came in with a box of sweets in his hands. He offered the sweets box to Siddharth saying, “Sir, my son just had a baby girl.”

Siddharth graciously accepted the box replying,”Congratulations Ramesh Uncle, two celebrations in the same month. Your daughter got engaged two weeks ago,right? Really happy for you, papa and uncle would be very happy too when I tell them.”

“Yes sir, I feel like I have succeeded as a parent. I feel a huge burden off my chest as both my children are settled now. It’s a parent's dream to see their children succeed in life and build their own family.”, Ramesh replied.

Siddharth smiled, “Why not take an off and enjoy the celebrations with your family?”

Ramesh said, “ No,no sir, I have already taken too many days off during my daughter’s engagement and I’ll be skipping work again next month for her wedding”

Siddharth refused him, “It’s okay Ramesh Uncle, you have been working for us since before I was born, you are like family to us, take a week off. It’s a paid off from the company as a bonus. Spend this happy time with your family."

Ramesh was overwhelmed and couldn’t muster anything other than, “Thank you sir.”. Siddharth just smiled in reply.

Siddharth got back to work and then went for meetings. When he returned to his office after the meetings, he found Aditya in his office. Aditya was a year younger than Siddharth but they were the best of friends and so Aditya used to call Siddharth by his name itself.

He just arched his eyebrows in a query. “Siddharth mujhe tujhse kuch baat krni thi.”, Aditya said nervously. “Hn bol”, Siddharth asked warmly to calm him. [ I wanted to talk to you about something ] [Yes, go ahead ]

“What are your thoughts about marriage?”Aditya asked him seriously.

”It’s a great thing.” Siddharth said deflecting the implicit meaning behind Aditya’s question.

Aditya took a deep breath to control his irritation, “It’s high time Siddharth. You can’t let one blunder hold yourself back in life. If you didn’t want to get married because you wanted to spend your life alone and were happy in your solitude then I wouldn’t have said anything. But you have always wanted to get married and have kids. And now you are letting fear take control of your life. I wouldn’t let you do that Siddharth. You have become a bloody machine Siddharth. We don’t remember the last time you took a day off just for yourself or spent time with everyone. You even work on weekends.”

Siddharth just turned his head sideways, rudely pretending to be unbothered by Aditya’s talk.

But Aditya continued his lecture, “Think about maa and papa. Do you think they don’t feel sad seeing you like this? They want to see you happy and live life too.”

That caught Siddharth’s attention. He had never looked beyond his pain. He hadn’t realised that his pain and change was affecting his parents, his family too. He remembered Ramesh Uncle’s happiness on the birth of his granddaughter and his daughter’s engagement. He remembered his words.

‘Yes sir, I feel like I have succeeded as a parent. I feel a huge burden off my chest as both my children are settled now. It’s a parents dream to see their children succeed in life and build their own family’

He felt his heart pinch. He didn’t want his parents to hurt. He wanted them to be happy. But he reflected that a parent’s happiness is always connected to their child.

He was confused now. He didn’t wanna hurt his family. But he was too afraid to trust someone with his heart and life again. He knew good, honest, trustworthy women existed but what if history repeated itself. He was too frightened to risk his heart again. But he couldn’t hurt his family anymore either.

“ I know you are afraid, Siddharth but I also know that you are my brave brother. You are courageous enough to face your fears”, Aditya said as if reading his mind.

He looked at Aditya and nodded his head and somehow that much was enough for Aditya. He patted Siddharth on the shoulder and went out of his office.

Siddharth took a deep breath and started thinking more about his life. Aditya was right, he had been working and behaving like a machine since....., since that incident. Maybe, it was time he moved on in life...

Aditya returned back home around 6 and his badi maa [ aunt ] rushed towards him asking about Siddharth’s reaction. The family had been pestering Siddharth to get married for a while now but he remained adamant. Siddharth’s mother had finally asked Aditya to talk to Siddharth and make him change his mind.

“ Maa I think he’ll say yes now”, Aditya said comforting his badi maa. All the kids used to call all the parents as papa and maa only, as they had been raised together by all of them together.

“Haaye mera ladla beta, mujhe pata tha tu usse manaa lega.” badi maa said, ruffling his hair lovingly. [ aww, my beloved son, I knew you’ll convince him ]

The whole family was excited for Siddharth’s arrival. He came just before dinner time and went to freshen up and change. As he sat at the dining table, he hadn’t even taken the first bite, when his grandmother asked him, “So Siddharth, what do you think about marriage?”

Siddharth went still, he hadn’t expected this question so soon again. He looked up, saw his family looking at him with so much hope, he remembered Aditya’s words and decided to be brave. He took a deep breath and said, “I am ready daadi.” [ grandma ].

The moment the words left his mouth, the whole house erupted in cheers. He was himself taken aback by the happiness of his family. He hadn’t realised how much his family had been waiting for him to move forward in life. He felt grateful for a family which cared so much for him.

His mother approached him with teary eyes and hugged him, “I am so happy beta.” [ son ] She kissed his forehead and smiled at him.

“This news deserves an ice cream treat”, Sneha said loudly while moving towards the kitchen leading to the family erupting in laughter.

“You just need an excuse for gluttoning.” Aditya said, teasing her.

Siddharth looked at everyone’s happy faces and realised he had made the right decision. He was just going to trust his Shiv [ God ] and hopefully everything will go well this time.

He went to his room after dinner. He was trying to work, but his mind kept skipping to the thoughts of his future. He had decided to let life flow, the pause was over. Honestly, he was still nervous, actually frightened, but he had decided that he was going to let life flow for once and see what happens. With all sorts of happy, excited, anxious and nervous thoughts he decided to go to sleep. 

To be continued..