Hi! readers,
I am off to a quick vacation for 5 days, be back on Thursday nite, next update will be Fri morning
Hope you al have a wonderful Christmas vacation yourselves
Happy Holidays to you and yours

Aditee

Part 200

"It gives her a sense of belonging" Dadi's words echoed in his ear, as he stood in his work area inside the construction management pod.... the air conditioning was barely effective.
"She doesnt need a baby to feel married" he had argued....
" Its the natural succession of  marriage"
"That was inYOUR time, Mom, not even in ours" Madz responded smugly...
"Then I should have just waited" Akki mocked...
Sunil laughed... "There goes your Mom again" "Madhavi, Ma is right.... she wants to have a baby, whats wrong with that"
"Thats just typical middle class craving, they get a sense of accomplishment from that" dismissive..
"She is quite accomlished otherwise" Shaan cut in bitingly...
Dadi concealed her joy at her grandson's open defence of his wife...
"She is betaaaa... but you know the baby thing is actually a"
Sunil: Madhavi, thats our preconceived notion. She wants a child, because she doesnt trust him"
Shaan turned red with guilt... "Thats insane"
"Ofcourse... she has this strange feeling of discomfort within this house, like she just wandered into here, like she might be booted out anytime"
Shaan bristled "Thats not true" he lied...
His Dad was bang on... he knew...
"You drown in work... Akki and I are gone, Boo is busy with her boutique.. Mom with her charities... Dadi hai bus"
"I dont think I want to sit around being lectured about WHY I should start a family" Shaan stood up in a huff...
"Do you even understand her?" Sunil asked frustrated...
"I think so" Shaan said checking his messages...
"If you did she might be in on it with you, on the baby thing and be willing to wait indefinitely, something about you makes her feel insecure"

"About us!" Madz interrupted... its a different world Sunil" she said smugly, full of arrogance...
"We dont make it easy on her, your playboy son gives her no guarantees"
"I am not a playboy...pffffttttttttt" Shaan started to walk away...
"Tell that to the dozen girls whose hearts you broke" Madz giggled coyly...

Part 199

This story can go two ways….

A: She continues to stress over the baby issue, things continue to happen with no progress in that area.

B: She gets pregnant and disappears from his life. HOW he deals with it is this scenario.

She answered her phone preoccupied… “Ya?”

“Hey” he said…

“I sent you the link”

He laughed…

She bristled at the slightest provocation… he had asked her for a link to  a pictures archive she maintained of pictures he had shot mostly nature… she did not have one of her own.. it just seemed too frivolous… he on the other hand had terabytes of pictures of her in various poses, mostly unaware… some even when she was asleep.… some of her arms or legs… or just her eyes.. or her earrings by the bathroom sink, or her scarf draped around a bobblehead soccer player he had..

Or around his telescopes… her bangles on his techno gadget case… her bindis on the bathroom mirror..

“How do you know I called about that?”

“Phir?” she asked softly… he had asked her last nite.. after he had made love… he was sure she would not remember it…stacking her drawings on her desk… her arms sweaty and sore…Sanjay  wanted three things completed by the end of the day… she was hoping to sneak off to go see a Foundation Doc at Leelavati. He visited once a month… she hadn’t met Kaka’s Doc in over two months… she hadn’t gone with her parents after Holi either…

“Khanak”

“Hmm”

“Did u chat with Sanjay about time off?”

“Nahi..”…

“We talked about the baby thing two nites ago” he argued bluntly…

“Mujhe”

“I know you don’t want to talk about it, but WE DID, Mrs Gujral… snap out of your grief now… youll be fine”

She had asked him one nite… or early morning, she didn’t know when, when ever he woke her… half way through making out when he reached for the bed side drawer… “Please” she begged..

He stopped… sat up, firmly… wore his tee, and leaned back… to say she had  shoved him into a cold shower would be an understatement…

She wore her cami… as he stared piercingly…

“I don’t think I want to wait” she bit out huskily… turning red… at her own blunt admission…

Her hair was tousled… her skin pink and bruised…he watched the silk encase the body… with unconcealed despair…

“I”

“Not tonite Khanak” he ran his hand through his hair…

He was hungry… he saw a feast… putting it very crudely… asking him to worry about a future happening was suffering….

“Mujhe”

“We decided we’ll wait until Ulwe is done”

‘Aur TEEN SAAL?” she asked shattered…

“He reached for her shoulder, she flinched… sliding her legs off the bed… he dragged her back by the waist…

“You see Bhayya and Bhabhi” he accused…

“Bhayya loves the baby..” she argued… as he smothered her… his hand going under her cami… it was orange and sparkly…

Earlier…“Fanta” he had said…”Crush” she had responded crushing him on the bed…, as he laughed at her spontaneous wit…

She was no match for him… he let her tackle him… stripping off her clothes in the process………..vulnerable and yet posied and graceful… every move she made aroused him…

He wouldn’t help her with his tee or his shorts…

He took…. All he wanted….

Making her heady… and breathless…

Then he had reached for the condom…

His hand slid all the way to her chest……… “I love Amogh”

“I want one of my own”

“It might look like me” he opened his mouth on her chest…..

“I am willing to take that risk” she hissed, shoving his jaw…

He chuckled on her ribs……. Bruising…

“Not this year… or next Mrs Gujral” he told her, removing her cami yet again……….she twisted, kicking the drawer shut with her left heel…

He had opened it and found what he needed… just as he continued his ambush..

“We cant do it at midnite… or at 3 or at 4… or at 7 in the morning… or 11.. or at 5”

He listed every hour in a day… she was dizzy with pleasure…….. so she missed most of it…

“we both need this”he mocked huskily raising himself momentarily off her body as she lifted hers agonized……….. rubbing herself against him…

“I knowwww” he mocked… satisfied… stifling her…

PLEASE PICK A OR B :)

Part 198

May 8^th..

She stepped out of her meeting frazzled… she was double booked… almost triple.. she tried to get out of meeting two and three as she walked back to her cube… she hesitated asking Sanjay for time off on her Birthday, she had over heard him smirk in the hallway to someone the other day… “Its just ANOTHER day!! Whats the big deal… overseas nobody even cares for it, it’s the Indian mentality to go to the temple etc”

She had mentioned it to Shaan at nite… “Quit” he had said…

“Nahi” she told him…

He was on her… speaking into her neck… that abrupt response, ticked him off he went on his back and shut his eyes, covering it with his left arm… “You know he is a jerk” “Yet to you choose to work in that situation?”

“Would YOU quit, if Nachiket was a jerk?” she shot back…

Before she could get off the bed, he trapped her “Whhatt?”

“Would you?” she asked… her breath knocked out of her…

“So we are back to picking on husband again?”

“Oh! Not at all… only when husband offers giving up as the only solution to the wife’s woes”

“Ulwe Project has 17 architects… do you want to work for any of them?’ he offered…

She cringed… his tone sounded like it was nepotism…it was…

His hand probed under her orange cami…

“Khanak lets stop fighting” he nibbled on her collar bone…

“I don’t need a job my husband finds for me”

“The husband is…----------“ he bit into her year… pressing himself on her…

Her arousal agreed as well…

“How much power can one person have over the very essence of me” she sobbed mentally……. “Whats this all about..

The moist trail he was leaving as her cami came off..”I see the rings are back” he chuckled…

“Who” she began and stopped…….. groaning at his onslaught…..

“Khanak” he pleaded in her ear…. His hair tousled as he rubbed it on her skull…

“Nahi” she flirted…

“IF EVER, I get pregnant tonite… I should just vanish” a secret plot germinated in her mind…she smiled... in the delicious pleasyres he invoked... stroked by her own wicked thought

“I am not helping you” he ordered huskily as her hand reached the draw string on his ttrack pants….

Part 197

April came and went…. Uneventful, she plugged away, buried in work…. Juggling Dadi’s health, Kaka’s and her Bai’s growing worry over HER own unhappiness…

She didn’t say a word to Bai about wanting a baby… but Sia next door was on her way to having her second…Sia’s Mom had wondered to certain neighbors, if the “widow married a RICH PUNJABI because he was impotent”

Bai never shared this with her, but Khanak realized something was troubling her deeply…. Bai even talked with Gujral Dadi occasionally subtly “Enquiring” if Shaan had “any plans soon”

In lower middle class families babies were the natural succession to marriage, only if you had medical problems would NOT be pregnant the second month after marriage… even Bai discounted some time for both being working professionals, the time had come…………………..

She prayed that time would linger…………..

Khanak was pleasant and light hearted when she spoke with Bai, with Aada she was more somber…

Gujral Dadi told her directly about her lunch date with her grandson… she didn’t tell her her husband’s shameless gloating… she was too embarrassed to… but she told her “I ve told Shaan mujhe Khanak 2012 ke end tak pregnant chahiye”

Khanak was expressionless…

“He said aapki baat kaise taaloonga?”

Khanak knew it was a lie the moment Dadi said it… though Dadi didn’t look away… but something in Dadi’s eyes told her the woman’s love for her exceeded anything else…

Her Bua had apparently told her Dadi on one visit that “If Sooraj was alive Khanak would have had THREE”

Nevermind the fact that for a lower middle class family both Aada and Bua had only ONE…

Bua had made a grand pretense of mourning Sooraj’s loss by crying… Dadi had comforted her in an exaggerated way….

Bai HAD to tell her this… in a certain way Khanak was Bai’s best friend… she wasn’t as close to her Akola or Ranchi sisters…

“Please don’t tell your var, that Bua feels this way” Bai extracted a promise…

“Don’t worry Bai, the man acts as if Sooraj didn’t exist , my past didn’t either”

“Will he let you visit for your Birthday?” Bai asked with angst…

“No” Khanak said bluntly..

She looked inside, wondered countless times, WHY or WHAT caused her to let him have such a hold on her senses… why she craved for the sight of him… deep down he knew the baby issue was making her unhappy… but he wasn’t ready to work out a solution… “a baby in 2013? 2014?” he didn’t want to approach the subject…

He was at the site many nites all nite… he woke her when he joined her in bed, at 3 or 4 AM….

“I am sleepy”

“I don’t have to go in until 9 this morning”

“You smell like construction dirt”

“I have my period”…….

Nothing deterred him………..

Deep down she waited for that contact…longed for the passion…the ache was never ending… the hunger only increased with every passing day………..

When they fought, he was a lil demanding and rough… when they flirted he was hungry and arduous…..........

Part 196

A month passed since that evening debacle, Dadi squeamishly watched crack develop in the relationship. She tried talking with Shaan over lunch one day, reminded him that he went chasing after her to Delhi to bring her back, asked hm what was SO wrong with her wanting a child.

He was not the type to be swayed by Dadi, or for that matter any body else

He coolly told her “I don’t think we are ready yet”

“SHE IS” Dadi hissed…

“Oh! Really? Remember you said during the separation, “Get your act together Shaan and Khanak, a baby should not be brought into such juvenile antics”

“Shaan” Dadi interrupted..

“No Dadi… its not a bone of contention thing”

“It seems like it to her” Dadi argued…

“She wants her own architecture firm, at some point, “green housing” etc” Shaan TRIED hard not to be derisive…

“People that want their own businesses don’t have a family?” Dadi argued… “Your Dad”

“Dad’s different”Shaan was dismissive…

“Beta” Dadi ‘s shoulders slumped… “A baby brings closeness, it binds… it bonds”

“You can smack me publicly if you like, but we are close enough already… intimate every nite… most nites twice, and during weekends… if she is home then we”

You are incorrigible and hopeless Shantanu Gujral” Dadi said unflinching..

He laughed out loud… “It’s the TRUTH, check with her”

“S—“ Dadi stopped “Its not EVERYTHING”

“It is… to me…….” He quickly corrected himself “To US”

“I never encourage her flighty behavior, I must do it now I feel” Dadi threatened…

Shaan’s expression tightenened.. “Dadi please”

“You have no idea what she is going through”

“Oh really?’ “Tell me”

“Ritu might get pregnant one of these days… Nivedita might have a child out of wedlock, as you know… Trishna is 8 weeks pregnant”

“That’s too many babies” he said bluntly, as he emptied his beer and ate the last crumb of his pastrami sandwich…smiling devilishly..

Dadi stared dumbfounded...

Part 195

She sat down, on Dai’s bed leaning… on the headboard..Dadi, as if on cue walked in with a worried look… she smiled a half smile…

Dadi:Are you OK beta?

Khanak: hmmm… I don’t think I am pregnant! (indignant)

Dadi:Who said anything about a baby? (sad)

Khanak wept…”mujhe laga aap is liye khari thi, bathroom kea age”

D:That’s sad… I care for you puttar…

K:I know… I am sorry..

D:How do you know you are not pregnant?
(smiling)

K:Because my cycle is 29 days and I am on the 22^nd…

Dadi breathed hard… sighing… “It will happen” “I am sure”

“Not with Shaan” Khanak was angry…

D:Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh… gandi baat nahi puttar…

K: I am just stating facts…

D:What happened to the quiet resilient… restrained girl that used to be?

K:Its all Shaan’s fault!!!

D:He is insufferable…

Pradyun walked in… “Are you sick?”

HL walked in with lemon juice… and a couple of other kind…

Khanak: Apparently (smiling)

Dadi:You sit by her beta… I am going to check on dinner…

Shaan walked in “Whats wrong? Dadi are you OK?”

D:Apni woti ko pooch zara…

Khanak didn’t look at him…

Shaan:What did you feed her in the slum you took her to..

Prad:Dadiji, he is nasty (heavy brit accent)

D:Are you guys teenagers? (disgusted)

S:Whats wrong?

He sat by her, reached for her hand…

K:I think I may be pregnant! (provoking the devil)

S:On your 22^nd day?

Dadi pointed something to Pradyun, he was off looking thru her chest of drawers…

Husband and wife shot each other their most  powerful fireballs with their eyes…

Part 194

HL wheeled a cart laden with food… Khanak’s belly churned.. the Marathi spread looked delicious…. HL served for her first… she took her plate… and began eating quietly…

“I have to show a video you might like” Pradyun browsed on his phone…

She laughed and shook her head, knowing his love for “odd” things…

“You two look like you’ve known each other for years” Madz mocked…

“He is very laid back Mom” she defended the guy…

“On his back all the time, you mean?” Shaan asked…

She ignored it… he peered into her plate… a strange sensation swept through her, she grabbed some water to kill it… and it came back….

They were laughing and chatting… she set her plate down and walked/sprinted to the rest room… and began retching

Part 193

Khanak vaguely recalled seeing the two names on the Ajmera home page. There were 20 “Board level” investors, or so she thought….

She sipped her wine, it was GOOD…. Smooth, silky, it hugged her insides…

Prad: You love Cabernets don’t you..

Khanak nodded smiling.

Prad:I know this RAD place near Panchagni? He said

Khanak giggled and corrected him “PANCHGANI”

“Oh! Ya… they make the best Dessi wines, he said, stressing on the word “Des”

“Really?” “Maine kabhi nahi suna” she said…

“Khanak, yours I assume?” he husband passed on authentic farazbi patties and gharge…

It was sizzling… she touched only to have her fingers singe…

Pradyun cut some up on a plate.. Bombli bata bhajji, and Karwari prawns lay on the side… the scent of saunf was over powering, “Kya hai?” she asked…

Prawns and fish Khanak” her husband said firmly… biting into one, trying to feed her the rest, she shoved his wrist…

“I am going to try what you are eating” Pradyun said…

“We don’t want you dying of exhaustion” Madz mocked…

“I” (haven’t died yet” Khanak began to say but shut up as usual)

Madz giggled like a silly teenager “Who kya hai na, he , we don’t eat veggie stuff at all”

Khanak sat down freeing her left hand…

Shaan: Mr Gogia, he called…

The guy was talking with Dad…

Basil walked in, his face broke into the warmest smile upon seeing her “Mrs Gujral” he teased…

“I have a name” she said…

Shaan and Vipul talked….

Pradyun:They all love you..

Khanak:Some people are just so special…

Prad: I hear you are Amogh’s favorite, aunt..

Khanak I am “key” (she grinned)

Dadi:Hes bigger now… soon he will start talking… (sad)

Khanak: I know…

Dadi: You don’t take hints, you ignore direct pleas…

Madz:Mommmm! I mean Shaan is still young…

Dadi:Isko mana kar raha hai, young to khair…

Madz:He DOESN’T want any…

Dadi: Yeh? (doesn’t her opnion count?)

Madz: I mean… no offence beta, I love you, (air kissing) but you guys should have talked about it (before the wedding)

Khanak thought Like HE gave me time to do that?

Madz shrugged like “You want babies, he doesn’t… then think about, how long you will fight”

A little prospect of Khanak being unhappy, Shaan being disillusioned by her pestering and them eventually growing apart, sllllllowly germinated in her heart….

She smiled a half smile…

Dadi: Mila is se 4 mahiney mein shaadi ho chuki…

Madz rolled her eyes…

Dadi: Iski shaadi ki baat Madhav ya Keshav se karni thi, who itna dar gaya, fatafat admit kiya he cant live without you and then phir band bajaa baraat (proud)

Madz: We didn’t dance much at his wedding Ma…

Pradyun ends his call

Prad:I danced with HER! Mannnnnnnnnnn!

Khanak smiled…

Shaan listened “Damn!” he said looking at his phone… his back was facing the women & Prad…

Madz:I am fine with one grandkid Mom! (smug)

Part 192

She stopped as she heard footsteps… turning around from the rail…

“Oh I didn’t think it was THAT bad, do you?(do you really have to jump?”) look… he chuckled nodding towards the railing… tucking his hands firmly into his pockets, as if even if she plunged 9 floors down, he would turn around and walk away… he noticed her red puffy eyes… the sulk… the glare… it all aroused him…

~~

Her face seemed puffy and pink… he peered…

“Main” she began and stopped…

He waited… he could make her tongue tied when ever he appeared out of the blue… it drew a chuckle from him…

“Its Ritu” she said softly…

“Shes asking you to jump?” he asked trying to control his amusement…

She began to smile but wouldn’t… “No!” she said only shaking her head… no words…

“Oh! So the jumping was your idea?” he asked leaning on the door jamb… he had changed again, blue jeans and white tee… sude shoes…

Shes on hold” she lied…

“Your phone’s not glowing” he pointed….

She pressed the home key…. The icons appeared…. Not on a call obviously…

“Lets eat” he said…

“Nahi” she said… turning away…

He waited… checking his messages…

“Are you bringing her for dinner or not?’ Dadi asked nosily in Punjabi… loudly…

“She was hoping to jump off the balcony” he supplied softly…

“Ahhh!” Dadi looked startled “Kee hoya puttar” she shrieked

Khanak trembled nervously as Dadi grabbed her and pulled her to the inside…

“What is going ON?” she demanded…

“He eased himself off the door jamb…

“Why are you dressed in…” Dadi demanded “Good you threatened to jump beta” “Anything to not make him go to the site”

Khanak looked at him livid… “Oh!”

“I didn’t tell her… yet” “Thanks Dadi” Shaan was ticked…

“She slept in my room last nite…”

“I will sleep in my bed tonite” Khanak said smugly…

“Is everything OK?” Dadi asked…

“Jee” Khanak nodded…

He walked by her side…. Like he would never leave… like he wanted to… she slowed her pace…. He did too… she paused… he did too…

Dadi was by the bed now…

“Dadi I am not hungry…” she said…

“That’s fine, phir kuch piyo… Dad wants to know about the pub visit” Dadi paused…

Her husband was on the phone… texting…

“Throw that damn phone” Dadi cursed in Punjabi…

“Changa Dadi” he said in chaste Punjabi…. She looked at him… when he did… the Punjabi accent was not out of place… the Gujrati woman was…. Miles away…

Nachiket Rahat and Dad were drinking…

Bhabhi was missing… Madhavi made her way to the seating area… saw her… and paused… Shaan and Khanak stepped down in unision.. like a symphony…. His arm rubbing hers… she scooted towards the railing… he scooted too…

Their skin touched….

Rahat smiled and stood up…. Transferred his drink to his left hand… freeing his right… “Mrs Gujral” he said grinning… he looked tense otherwise….

Dad’s expression change from stress to joy… “My lil girl…. And the brat”

Rahat hugged… he was not as tall as Shaan.. nor … he was lean… and handsome… he had some gray hair now…

“How are you? You look lovely! Cant let him take credit for that” Punched Shaan

Shaan’s hands went to his pockets…

“I am good” “I” she began and stopped….

Dad hugged “ Baith beta”

“Prad kahan hai?’ she asked softly…

“Aata hoga, he had some Qs for the CPA, so they are meeting in the study”

“Oh!”

Rahat:Khanak… have you visited the site recently? Its breathtaking… the progress I mean…

Khanak shook her head… wordlessly

“WHEN do you get her to talk?” Rahat asked…

“That’s for me to know” said Shaan…

Khanak turned a glorious red….

They sat down… Nachiket returned from the dining area, his request for Marathi dinner was being taken care of… the men drank and chatted… her husband sat by her…

Madz flitted “posh and carelessly” between the dining and lounge… the seven sets of couches apparently not enough…

“Is Mahi coming over?”

“Nope!” said Shaan…

“Its bitter” said his wife making a face… returning a half bitten dark choc wedge…

“I thought you liked dark chocolate ” Nachiket laughed at her expression…

“Not when she is PMSing” Shaan offered… what her body experiences is ALL my business look

“Hmppfff” Khanak denied…

Nachiket’s phone rang cutting off his uproarious laughter… a couple other guys had entered the giant lounge now…

Her husband ate her half finished candy…

“Come on in” Shaan greeted…

“I am tired…” she muttered…

“He held her hand… linking his fingers firmly… that familiar tingle…. Shot up her spine… tiny hairs on her back of her neck greeting that male touch with a “attention” stance….

She stood, Madz walked by, seated herself…. “You love Marathi food don’t you? Dadi is having that made” she smiled…

Khanak smiled…

Shaan: Mr  Vipul Gogia, my wife Khanak Gujral…

Vipul was in his 50s… charming and bloated… he grinned…

Did a Namaste… “Hello beta… first time” he said…

Khanak nodded confused…

“She is a Gujarati” Madhavi supplied…

The man started talking about how it doesn’t matter any more, how his son in law was Assamese…

The other man was some Batra…

Madz explained “They are Casa investors” she said proudly…

Rahat was grinning happily… shook hands…

Dad: Tu thak gayi puttar? Aage se Pradyun ke saath kahin nahi (he shook his index finger like a warning, but he smiled)

Khanak:Hes fun! (softly)

Dad:Fun ke liye tera miya saath khara hai… (laughed at his own joke)

Shaan was not paying attention until then…

Khanak’s mind worked overtime wondering what CASA INVESTORS were doing in her father in law’s living room…

HL wheeled in a bunch of appetizers, the other help was taking liqor orders…

“Bhabhiji aap?’ he asked

“Lemonade?’ she asked…

“Starwberry waala?” he asked…

“She shook her head…

“They have that cabernet you like… Rahat brought a case…” Shaan said…

She shook her head…

“You want to get her drunk” Nachiket argued…

“Not passed out though!! a subtle difference” Shaan corrected his boss firmly gazing down at his wife's cleavage revealed by the flimsy pink gauzy blouse……… (Not passed out so that she can be awake to make love later)

“In that case I will have to pass out” Khanak’s eyes met his as the thought formed in her mind..nodding to help about the wine..

They fought if they were awake… and not making love…