Chapter 9: Temple Blessings

During breakfast dadi maa said that she wants to go to the temple and take everyone with her. Who is possibly going to deny dadi maa?

At the Rao's house:

"Baba," Meera calls her father, he glances up from the newspaper. "Aaj sab ghar hai toh hum saab mandir ho aaye?"

(Dad, everyone is home today so can we go to the temple?)

"Of course mera bacha, bulao saab ko."

(my child, call everyone.)

At the Mandir:

"Meera bhua look at this! It's soooooooooooo cool. Mujhe chahiye, please bhua."

(Meera aunt. . . . . . I want it, please aunt.)

5-year-old Jai grabs his aunt's dupatta and gives her the best pouty face he could make. Meera glances ahead of her as her family make their way up the stairs to the temple.

"Which one meri jaan?"

(my love.)

"This one!" He points at the white car with flashing blue and red lights, Meera picks it up and hands it to Jai before paying for it. The shopkeeper smiles as he watches the dainty girl trying to contain her nephew's excitement.

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"They must have fallen behind, Jai can be a handful and is always running behind his Meera bhua," Anushka tells Suman. They had bumped into the Singhanias when they reached the top of the stairs.

"Until then we can go inside," Suraj suggests gesturing towards the white-stoned temple.

"Nahi Suraj, hum Meera ke intazaar kr lein ge," Neel said. As they were waiting, Neel had gotten Rohan to apologise for what he has done and Reema introduced her daughter-in-law with great pride, who was wearing a hand stitched, designer silk saree and was covered in jewels. Neel felt more embarrassed at the fact that his wife, who should be apologising for their son's actions is showing off everything that was made for Meera.

(No Suraj, we will wait for Meera.)

Sensing the tension Neel was feeling, Suraj and Rohini blessed the young couple, "khush raho bacho, bhagwan aapko lambi umar de."

(Stay happy children, may God bless you with a long life.)

Just then they hear Jai's voice, "vroom, vroom, vrooooooom! Look bhua, my car is the fastest in the world!" Followed by a melodious giggle, "tell your car to move a little bit faster, dadi and dadu are waiting for us."

This caught Shourya's attention, he was wearing a white kurta, standing next to Rohini, as she was blessing him with all the happiness in the world. His eyes trained on the stairs, as he started to get peeks of brown hair and a light pink kurti and white dupatta. As she got closer, he could see her bright smile as she watched her nephew. She hadn't seen them yet as she hadn't looked up, but truthfully, Shourya wasn't sure if he was ready to have her beautiful eyes on him yet.

"Meera beta, come here bacha." Meera looks up at her mother's voice and she stops, her eyes wander across everyone present, stopping for quick second on Rohan and his wife, before moving on. Once her eyes meet her future husband's, her cheeks and neck flush as she quickly looks down. She bends down to grab Jai's hand as she gently guides him to where everyone is.

"What took you so long?" Suraj asks his daughter as she stops next to him.

"Jai wanted the car, and when I got it, he needed to test if it works on the stairs, that's why."

Meera turns to Raj, "Namaste uncle," she says as she bends down to touch his feet. She repeats that with all her elders, when she reaches Neel, he pulls her into a hug and repeats apologies.

"Uncle please, stop saying sorry. You have nothing to be sorry about," she smiles up at him which lightens the heavy feeling in his chest.

"Shall we go inside. Meera beta, mere saath ana, mein soch rahi thi tume aapne panditji se milva doon," Suman grabs Meera's hand as she walks towards the temple, soon chased by Jai who had this new cool story to tell her. And with that the families merged together into one as they walked over to the temple.

(Meera child, come with me. I was thinking about introducing you to our priest.)

As they were walking, they decided on a few things for next Monday. Shourya had expressed that he didn't want his and Meera's engagement to take place on Monday, he suggested changing the occasion to Rohan and Priya's reception as the wedding took place anonymously and abruptly, and the word had spread within their relatives anyway so why not celebrate the union.

Virat seemed to agree with the idea, the elders didn't see anything wrong either. The truth was Shourya felt like he would be taking Rohan's place on Monday, and it wasn't like that. He wasn't taking anyone's place and he didn't want Meera to think that either, he didn't want anything on their engagement to remind her of once being promised to Rohan. He wanted to give her a fresh start.

"Reema ji, aapne jo kapde aur gehne Rohan ki Dulhan ke liye le hai who ab Meera ke kisi kaam ke nahi, usne ek bar bhi nahi pehne, mein Virat ke hathon aapko bhizwa dongi." Rohini says and Reema nods.

(Reema, the clothes and jewellery you have bought for Rohan's bride are no longer of any use to Meera, I'll get Virat to come and give them back to you.)

Listening to this, Suman realised that she hadn't prepared anything for her bahu. Shourya was always so adamant about not getting married that she spent most of her time just trying to convince him.

Suman gazes lovingly at Meera as they sit just outside the temple. The pandit ji had taken one look at Meera and said that she will be shubh for them and bring happiness and prosperity into their household. Suman makes a mental note to take Meera jewellery shopping.

"Muskaan bhua, yeh kon hai? Aur yeh aunty to meri Meera bhua ko chod hi nahi rahi!" Jai asks, not so quietly as he gives his best glare to all the strangers. Although he met all of them as a baby, it's only now that he's starting to pay close attention and develop some understanding of the presence of people.

(Muskaan aunt, who are they? And this aunty not letting go of my Meera aunt!)

"Shh, Jai aisa nahi bolte. Aur abh tumhe aadat dalni padegi, kyonki yeh wale bhaiya tumhari bhua ko le jaaynege," Muskaan teases as she points at Shourya, knowing she's going to get a reaction.

(Shh, Jai. Don't say that. And you need to get used to it now, because this brother is going to take your Meera away.)

This makes Jai's eyes widen and huge tears start to form, he runs to his favourite Meera bhua when she opens her arms for him. He pulls on his aunt and tries to move her away from everyone, especially the guy who's apparently going to take her away.

Everyone laughs and Suraj warns Muskaan not to make his grandson upset. They all watch as Meera settles the young boy on her lap, facing towards her, whispers something in his ear that seems to have stopped his crying and reaches for the car that was long forgotten.

Shourya can't take his eyes off of her, even when everyone else has turned away to carry on their own conversations. The way she rubs Jai's back to soothe his hiccups, the way she drops sweet little kisses on his head as he cuddles into her, the way she whispers sweet nothings into his ears to earn some giggles, and the way she is so focused on him she doesn't even know she's being admired.