Prologue

~ek ajnabee haseena se.....yun mulakat ho gayi 🌷

Present Day

╰┈➤ Author's POV

It was a calm morning in the Deshmukh household. The scent of mogra trailed all over the house as she walked towards the small puja house in one corner of the living room. She placed the floral offerings in front of the small Ganpati idol and lit up the lamp in front of it. She prayed before she started her day.

"Aai, is the tiffin ready? If I miss the 8:24 local, I will be super late to school. Hurry up!" Her soft, feminine voice echoed in the house.

She turned around to find her mom standing right behind her with a tiffin in one hand and a cup of tea in the other, a soft smile on her face.

"Everything is ready. Stop panicking beta."

"I can't help it Aai," she gave a helpless smile to her mom.

"You will manage everything very well. Now have your tea and get ready. Your Baba will drop you off at the station today."

"Okay."

She usually preferred savouring her beloved tea in peace while sitting on the swing in the balcony, watching butterflies hovering over the beautiful flowers and plants in her little 'balcony-garden' but today, she was running late. She gulped the tea down in one go and ran inside the bedroom to get ready.

Dressed in a decent pink salwar kameez and hair braided properly gave off a prim and proper teacher's vibes.

She applied black kohl under her brown doe eyes. The contrast made her eyes look ethereal. She adorned her ears with silver jhumkas that she bought recently. She sprayed her favourite jasmine scent behind her ears and looked at her reflection in the mirror.

Something was missing....um yes! She remembered.

She applied a small bindi on her forehead and smiled in satisfaction. Perfect!

Her mind went back to something....or rather someone. The person she had pretended to dislike from the bottom of her heart. But right now, at this moment, she remembered his exact words.

"Aap jab bindi lagati hai tab aisa lagta hai ki duniya ki sabse khoobsurat ladki samne aa gayi ho."

(Translation: When you put a bindi on, it seems like the world's prettiest girl has appeared in front of me.)

She was lost in her own thoughts when her father cleared his throat.

"Uh- haa Baba?" she stuttered, hoping her father hadn't seen her smiling like a fool. As much as she loved her father, she was also a bit scared of him as he was a strict army officer. Very disciplined.

"Are you ready? I will drop you off at the station."

"Yes Baba, I'm ready."

"Come downstairs, I'll wait by the scooter," her dad said in a soft yet firm tone.

She nodded and grabbed her jhola-bag. She glanced at the keychain hanging on its chain. Her broken jhumka. And her mind went back to his thoughts again.

"Don't cry over your broken jhumka. Instead, think about how you can still keep it close to you," he had said and then turned that broken jhumka into a keychain and attached it to her jhola-bag.

She wondered what he had done to the other jhumka that he took from her.

Did he throw that away?

Her chain of thoughts broke due to the loud honking sound of her father's scooter.

"Stop thinking about that fool," she scolded herself and after saying 'bye' to her mom, she stepped out of the house....only to get stunned.

──── ୨୧ ────

"Maa, I'm fine. Trust me," he spoke to his mom but his sentence ended with a loud sneeze.

"I will manage Maa. I have an important meeting today with the bank manager and I can't miss it so I have to go to work," he grabbed his wallet, tiffin and a spare handkerchief as he had a terrible cold.

"Okay I'll call you at night Maa. And don't worry, I will call from the PCO and save my money." He chuckled as he knew what his mom was going to say next.

"Aur beta, wo sab thik hai but ab toh job bhi hai fir shaadi ka kya socha hai?"

(Translation: And child, everything else is fine but now that you have a job, what have you thought about marriage?)

He groaned.

"Maa roj subha aapko yehi topic milta hai discuss karne ko? Abhi shaadi nahi karni. Okay I'm running late, I will talk later. Bye."

(Translation: Mom, every morning, you come up with the same topic. I don't want to get married.)

He disconnected the call and put the small cell phone that he had bought recently before moving to Mumbai in his pocket.

He grabbed his bag and house keys to leave for work. He smiled as the small jhumka dazzled from the keychain.

"Oh lord, I hope I meet her again today," he said to himself with a dreamy sigh.

He stepped out of the house and locked it.

He heard a soft familiar dangling of anklets and turned around to find its source only to be amazed.

His dark orbs locked with her brown ones and the world seemed to have stopped for the two of them.

"Did god just conspire to bring me face to face with him/her again?" Both had the same question in their mind. While one was elated, the other one was unable to comprehend what they were feeling about this.

"You?"

"You!"

And they stood there, one cursing god's conspiracy while the other thanked him for this pleasant surprise.

~⋆˚࿔ Riii𝜗𝜚˚⋆