16 | Operation Vicky

~~~~~~~~~~Vignesh~~~~~~~~~~

Next day, Hearing the knock on the door, I woke up first. I saw Neeraja still sleeping. Yesterday she felt it difficult to sleep without light. And we had a tired night yesterday busy fighting with each other.

Leaving her still asleep , I went and opened the door to find Neeraja's elder sister - Krishnajakshi.

She gave me a sheepish smile and looked behind me.

"Don't disturb her. Let her wake up on her own" I said to her. Krishna akka nodded her head with a smile. Not a normal smile but a sheepish teasing smile.

Seeing me look at her, "hmm.. ok ok we won't disturb her. She must be tired after yesterday night"

"what??"

While we were talking , Neeraja woke up. Obviously she would have woken up to my loud voice. I just can't control my high pitch voice.

When she came out of the room her sister caught hold of her hand and took her few metres away from me. With the hush hush talk and enthusiasm seen in Krishna akka's face, I know what might be the question. Neeru was feeling shy and looked at me through the corner of her eyes.

I went near them.

"Krishna akka.. did you and your husband consummate marriage on your first night? Can you tell us your interesting first night story?" I asked her  making her eyes go wide in shock.

Even Neeru was shocked and pinched me. Needless to say, Krishna akka left , rather I must say, she literally ran from the place leaving Neeraja.

"Why do you talk like that to my sister? Its all their private . Why do you want to ask that?" Neeru questioned me.

"the same applies to us as well. If any one asks you anything about what happened, just say 'whatever happened in their first night with their husband happened to us as well'"

Neeraja zigzagged her lips left right and went leaving me, while I sauntered towards my room. But I was blocked suddenly by Deva.

"Need badam Milk or Pista milk?" He queried me. Not in a friendly manner or with real concern. A sarcasm was seen on his tone.

"Why is there a sarcasm in your tone?" I asked.

"New groom would be very tired with heavy workout yesterday, so .." He trailed off.

"Dei... if you are thinking of taking revenge for what I did, I am not in for it. Don't intrude in to my personal matters"

"adhepdi thambi vida mudiyum unna. enna pechu pesina nee. Dei nan paravala da 7'0 clock ku elundruchutan en first night ku apram. Nee ennada mani 9 aga podhu inum elundrukala. Adhuvum Kadava thatinadhuku apram dhan elundheenga sir"

(How can I leave you just like that? Don't you remember what all you did  to me? Atleast I woke up at 7'0 clock in the morning the day after my first night. Whereas you woke at 9'0 clock. That too you woke up after hearing the knock on the door)

"Leave me, I need to go to my room"

"vaaipila raja.  apdiye escape agalamnu pakkara. Mudiyadhu. Sattai lan bayangrama kasangi irukey. Shirt button la oru mudi iruku, rendu maali poo collar kita iruku. Apdiye cinema la katra maariye vandhrukiye da"

(Don't try to escape from me. I could see you shirt disheveled, a small strand of hair on your shirt button, a flower on the collar. You look exactly like how they show in movies.)

"Dei.. if you roll here and there on the bed, obviously your shirt would get wrinkles. And I don't have this much long hair . Also I don't have the habit of adorning jasmine flower. It is Neeraja's. She was the one who fell on top of me"

Deva closed his mouth with surprise " paccha pulla nu nenacheney unna , thappa eda potuteno? indha moratu single, ponnunga na enaku pidikadhu solravangala dhan da nambavey koodadhu"

(So far I thought you are such an innocent fellow. But I realized one thing. We should not and never believe guys who say they don't like to marry. Because they are the ones who would get married soon and do everything on their first night"

"What are you talking ?"

"I am saying there would soon be a good news from your side with the way you are progressing"

I stood there not understanding what he was saying.  As in understanding my reaction, " your hickeys machan. on your right cheek. And I am not joking. It is there for real"

I immediately touched my right cheek and remembered Neeraja biting me harshly yesterday. I realized my previous words and why Deva is teasing me. I understood how the hair and flower were on me.

"dei.. that.." I started to justfiy.

"hmm.. hmm.. I can understand .. you don't need to say your personal adventures to me. I don't want to listen to other's wild night.  Enjoy da" he left patting me.

I face palmed myself. He would not stop teasing me with this point for life long. And I also now understood why Neeraja's elder sister gave a sheepish smile at me.

Argggh... Neeraja..

~~~~~~~~~~Neeraja~~~~~~~~~

Days passed beautifully for me in the new house with Vicky and his parents. He is not like what I expected , an arrogant, stubborn guy, a rowdy. I had so many negative thoughts about him earlier. But he is actually not any of those.

He is very playful. But very sharp and clever in terms of knowledge. He is a very caring and loving brother. Vignesh and Vikram bicker each other often. Seeing it I mistook them to always fight like this.

But Vignesh  is always in support of Vikram. He behaves strict yet friendly whenever  and wherever necessary.

About my in laws, they are more caring and loving. Especially my mother in law, Visalakshi. Oh God.. I just pray that I also get to be more savage and bold like her. She is the best person in our entire house to put Vicky in place.

All the teasing's, high pitch voice and threatening of Vicky, nothing works out in front of her. Still Vicky being Vicky would manage to surpass her and tease me.

My in laws are always in support of me as they don't have a girl child, which is an added advantage for me. They too are now members of "operation Vicky".  We even have a whatsapp group specific for that.

Once when we went to have lunch at Anjana akka's house, Vicky made fun of me. Krishnan athimber(bro in law) gave me a good, yet powerful suggestion to take revenge on him.

That day, we somehow triggered Anjana akka and made her narrate 2 serials at least to Vicky. Along with it  we made him look after the kid Pranav and we all went out to enjoy our time.

Vignesh's  brother Vikram is my best friend I could say. He always give me clues about Vicky's weak points and help me to tease him back. Without him, I don't know how I would have managed or got the courage to make fun of Vicky.

Through him I came to know that Vicky has OCD (Obsessed with Cleaning disorder). Me being a totally un organized person, always have my things scattered here and there, which irks him. And it is so fun to watch him get irritated for silly things.

To the present, we all are seated in the dining table watching some shows.

"enough ma.. " said Vicky , stopping Aunt from serving extra idli. Aunt served the rest and went inside the kitchen.

I looked in to his plate, which still had some idli powder.  Taking a morsel of idli from my plate, I coated mine with the idli powder that was remaining in his plate and then again on to the sambhar in my plate.

That 's it. Vicky was irked at my action. "Neerajaaaa" he shouted.

"what? I thought not to waste it" I replied eating it.

"Pcch.. don't do that Neeru.. I don't like it."

"What will you do haan? " I said finger licking the sumptuous sambhar  in my hand. Vicky does not like that sound as well. There are more like this which irritates him. Like slurping sound when you drink a juice at the bottom of the glass, the munching sound while you eat and many more.

I irritated him more by licking my fingers making more sound. With a smirk, I stood up to go wash my plate. When I was about to hold my plate, Vicky caught hold of my hand to twitch it at my back.

"Aaaaah... aaaah... ammmmaaaaa.. ayo... aaah.. aah.." I shouted in high pitch before he could do anything. He immediately took his hands off me , seeing me shout.

"Aunty, see what he has done" I accused him with fake tears to Aunt who came rushing from the kitchen heeding to my shout.

"What did you do?" Aunt  asked.

"maa, he twitched my hands at the back.. its paining" I faked crying. Hearing it  Aunt  bet him with the spatula for making me cry.

"maa.. I did not do anything yet ma.. she is simply crying" Vicky tried to reason.

"Don't you have any sense Vicky? Will you behave this harsh with  a girl? What if you had broken her hands? How and what will I answer for her parents? You are grown up and even married, but don't have any sense of how to behave" mom shouted at him.

"paa.. you saw right.. I did not do her anything. She is acting. Tell mom" Vignesh pulled in his Father.

"I have been watching you. You always do that to her. This time you did it more harshly. See how much she is crying in pain " Uncle joined in our plan willingly against Vicky.

Vicky looked at Vichu sorting help. Needless to say he spoke against him. Aunt scolded Vicky more than we expected. Vicky did not say anything and silently went to wash his hands.

We three sat there smiling silently. Hearing a loud thud of the door closing , we looked to see Vicky locking himself inside our room.

"maa.. we just played around ma.. Anna did not do anything" said Vikram.

"Yes maa. he did not do anything. I just tried to pull a prank on him, as he always teases me. Sorry, I did not know you would shout this much at him" I said with sadness as I did not expect to turn this way.

"I know  he did not do anything to you Neeraja. I also knew that you are faking your cry. I just played around. You must have seen his reaction. He completely believed what I spoke"

"What?? You know already?? Then why did you shout at him Maa. looks like he is angry now"  I spoke with sadness.

"Chill. I know about him. He will not be angry for a longer time" she pacified me. Still I felt guilty for my behavior earlier.

Time passed. I went and knocked on the door. He did not open it. I tried making a phone call to him which he did not attend as well.

Today actually he promised me to teach riding bike. We were waiting for the evening to come for the sun to subside. Now that he has locked himself, I resorted to Aunt for help.

Finally Aunty pacified him and he came back. His mom is his weakness and also his strength. Vicky then came back to normal mode. After asking for his forgiveness, we took the bike key of Aunt and came outside of our house.

Vicky taught me the basics right from inserting the key,  taking the stand and everything.

"Ok now,  move this bike to the front gate manually. I will teach the other things post that" Vicky said.

I caught hold of the handles on either side and tried to move it while walking along with it. But damn it was so heavy for me to move it. My efforts for the past 1 minute to move the bike was futile.

Seeing me struggle, Vicky helped in pushing it further from the back and I somehow managed to go few steps.

Holding the back side of the bike in left hand, Vicky attended a call. Suddenly , he took his hands off the bike and it was only me who was moving the bike. I was not able to handle the weight of it and almost fell along with the bike.

"ayo.. vicky.. vicky.. " I shouted.

Seeing me shout, he came rushing and caught the bike making it stand straight and helped me as well.

He held me by my waist securely with his left hand and kept the bike steady with his right hand. I was so close to his chest. His manly scent intoxicated my nostrils. I am seeing him so close to me.

It all prevailed just for second. He let go of me and parked the bike with stand.

"What happened? Why did you suddenly fall?" he asked me.

I came out of my trance about him and replied.

"Vicky... this bike is too heavy to carry. I can't handle it."

"Weight ah.. madam this is just jupiter ma.. Even my mom drives it. Come try it"

"an haan. Vicky this is too much for me to handle" I pleaded.

"Nowadays girls are riding Royal enfield as well. They  have got that much strength to ride them. And here you are not able to withstand this weight. You don't have strength at all Neeru.. that's why I call you as balli"

After much persuasion from him , I tried and failed. I seriously was not able to handle it.

Vicky decided to teach me with scooty pep. Hence he parked the bike and locked it.

"balli" he teased me.

Oh God.. now he has got another one point to tease me back. I rolled my eyes at him and went past him.

Suddenly I felt like floating in the air. He carried me in his arms in bridal style from the parking lot in the front of our house to the main door. My mouth and eyes went wide in shock.

"Vicky.. enna pandra? keela eraku" ( what are you doing?let me down) I said  with surprise.

"enna di .. wait eh illa nee" (you weigh very less)he said and bounced me up once. A gasp escaped my mouth at his sudden gesture. I snaked my hands around his neck fearing I might fall.

I know he will not drop me down just like that. But this bounce made me come closer to his cheek. If it had been little bit forcer, my lips would have definitely met his cheek.

One corner of my heart, I wished it to happen. My heart thudded at our close proximity. It surely brought butterflies in my tummy. It brought shyness, and some  new feel good feelings. But is he feeling the same way as me? He had not made any physical moves yet. Not even an romantic  touch or gesture.

It was always me, who would go to dream land whenever he is near by me. There had been situations where he would be standing too close to me which would stir something inside me.  Whereas he would act cool. I think he still behaves with me like a friend. Like a bestie.

When would he think of me as his wife?