Phase 2 Begins 🙃❤️🙂

Siddhesh's POV:

I looked outside the window...
It was the december month yet tonight there was a roaring thunder...

'Sir...looks like there's going to be snowfall tonight...you may not want to keep the window open tonight' saying Ryan went to shut the window...

'Let it be Ryan...I like the weather' I said breathing in some cool breeze...I covered myself with the pashmina scarf... Although I had worn the thermals, furry jackets...this pashmina scarf always had a homely warmth...
My eyes fell on the shabby knitting done on that scarf. It instantly brought a smile on my lips ...
My fingers touched the letters woven on the scarf...

SiRa

I smiled recalling that memory...
I closed my eyes while I heard her voice...
'What do you mean by this is stupid Amma...this is beautiful...
SiRa ..
Si for Siddhu...
Ra for Ragini...
After all I am Siddhu's Ragini...right Siddhu???'

her baby giggles still echoed in my ears. My thoughts were broken when I heard Natalie's voice...

'Siddhesh I need to talk to you'

I turned around to see Natalie standing there. She looked disturbed however she had maintain her poise. I could say if she was mad at me...and right now she definitely was!!!

'Ryan leave the room' Natalie instructed Ryan and he nodded without a question.

Natalie came and sat in front of me. I smiled but I didn't get a smile back from her.

'She is not doing good Sid. She slept after crying for two hours continuously. And I can't see that child cry like that. You...you both are hurting each other and I don't know for what...so Sid you are telling me the truth ...Everything!!! now!!! Right now!!!' she looked furious.

I smiled saying...
'Why Nat...few things are useless...we are not meant for each other'

'And you alone can't decide that Sid...It's also her equal right to decide it. I was told you broke heart.. didn't call her for 6 months and everyday broke her continuously till she would believe that you are a cheat!!!' and I smiled leaning to the headboard of my bed.

'And....and the rest of the information...I don't believe it...but I still want to ask you... what is yours and Ragini's story? What happened 4 years ago? I want to know everything Sid and if you won't give me the details I'm leaving your house right now' she threatened me with her blue eyes filled with tears.

'Nat...you are my only mother figure... you also know you won't leave me in this condition' I chuckled and she still looked sad and angry.

She stood there folding her hands against her chest.

And I knew this means ultimatum...

'Get two cups of coffee Nat...you would need it...it's a long story' I smiled...

With a cup of Irish Latte for her and a bowl of clear soup for me, we sat at the small table near the window...

I kept looking outside and smiled...

Flashback begins...

I and Ragini knew each other since I was 14 and she was 8. The first time I met her was at my maternal cousin Amitash's Brahmopadesham (cross thread ceremony done to young Gawd Saraswat Brahmin community boys at a young age) . It was the first time we went to India. I had only heard about India from dad and mom but I never got a chance to visit... this was my first time...

I still remember  seeing her for the first time. I still can't stop laughing recalling that epic scene. She was a chubby girl who was extremely fair. Because she was so fair people would keep pulling her cheeks and pinching her nose because they would go pink. She would get extremely angry if anyone does that though but being the cutest kid in the family was also a punishment. People would want to gobble her up for being that cute. Everyone pulling her cheeks would make her look like a ripened cherry.

Her two oily piggy tails with red ribbon and a pink frock. Her princess white shoes, her matching butterfly clips made her look like a doll. However...When I first met her she was crying loudly like the world was going to come to an end...In a function which had approximately 600 people she kept rolling on the floor hitting her hands and legs and crying like a loud siren that she wanted to eat another ice cream and her mother had denied her as it was the rainy season, she already had a running nose but Ragini being Ragini was the 'born tantrum queen'.

Her mother dragged her like a mattress and picked her up but my stubborn little girl was such a drama queen that she curled herself up to the leg of a chair and was hell-bent for the ice cream and guess what she got one. Post which she stopped crying. She looked amusingly annoying to me then. My mother introduced me to her and she looked least interested in me then until and unless she looked interested in my glasses.

'I will be your friend if you give me your spectacles' she said and I told her these are only for blurred vision to which she said...

'Even Hrithik Roshan wore it in Kaho na Pyaar he... will you give me or not?' and her tone was already bossy. I gave her my glasses and she wore it happily. She ran to her elder sister Shalini who was almost my age who was carrying a digital camera. She clicked her picture with those glasses. Shalini smiled and came to me. We soon became friends. But her little sister looked like an interesting exhibition to me. She was goofy, funny and a total entertainment.

I was a introvert child so most of my maternal or paternal cousin's didn't really gel well with me. However Shalini and Ragini were different. They were also my father's sister's daughters and we're ideally my first cousins. They both weren't bullies. Rest of my paternal maternal cousin's either tingled me for my accent. As I was born and brought up in London I obviously had the accent but I was demeaned for it and hence I avoided making friends with my other cousins. But I was happy I had earned two friends.

Next we happened to meet each other was 4 years later. I was 18 and Ragini was 12. In a car accident in London I had lost my parents. Overnight I became an orphan. Although I had many paternal cousin's and relatives each one was interested in what was the worth of our property? How much had my parents left behind for me? Was there any debts? Will they be benefited if they adopted me...

I still remember these discussions when my parents deadbodies were been kept in the living room and I was crying like bitterly although there were many relatives who kept gossiping around no one really came forward for taking up my responsibilities...I felt a warm hand on my shoulder. It was an old man along with him I saw Sumanth Mamu my father's sister's husband. And my father's sister Sushma aunty. She hugged me giving me motherly warmth and I cried like a baby in her arms.

The old man introduced himself saying... he is my friends and cousin Shalini-Ragini's grandfather and from today onwards his grandfather too. They took me along with them to India. I felt safe with them. Sumanth Mamu made sure that no one exploited my parents money or property although I was 18, Sumanth Mamu and Ajjo made sure I complete education. I did my graduation in India, In Mangalore staying at Nayak Nivas. That's how that home became my home too. Those people became mine too. They were my only family.

I was a broken child when I went to India. Shalini was a few months elder to me and her father had already fixed her proposal with a man called Mukund. Sumanth uncle was too orthodox when it came to women's rights and education. He made sure to give them education but not too much to make them independent. It kind of irritated me because I came from a family where my mother helped my father in business too and my parents shared household chores. Here there were clear lines for men and women. Mukund Bhavaji was not allowed to pick a glass at home although he wanted to, but Sumanth Mamu said...

'Its a woman's job!!!' which irritated me always. But otherwise he was a honest man. He loved his daughters and was a responsible husband and a great son too. His daughters were his life. Shalini was a sweet girl and became a good friend of mine. I could spend my sorrows and worries with her.

She was the one who made me comfortable at Nayak Nivas. But the one who opened me from my shell was her younger sister. The amusing masterpiece.

It was the month of July... Mangalore poured rains like crazy. I had been admitted to do my BBM at a nearby graduation college. One day when I was coming back from college I saw a lot of sweets being prepared at home. I wondered what was happening...

'Thunderstorm is coming back' I heard a comment from Ajjo who was reading the evening newspaper. I wondered what that meant.

'Ragini is coming back home Siddhu...Beware of her now, she has turned ten times more naughty and hundred times more annoying...she is a unique sample piece. She is adamant, crazy, naughty prankster.

She was naughty thats why she had been put in the boarding school for over 3 years now. But everything is useless.  Now that she has turned 12 and dad is tired of listening to her complaints from the boarding school every other day he is getting her back home... beware of her ..she is a total crackpot' Shalini had warned me of the upcoming storm in my life.

Little did I know she would become the forever season❄️ of my life 🙂🙃