12th December, 1980

Nervously tapping his feet, he sat on the edge of the sofa. His nervousness had gone unnoticed by others present there as they were busy in their talks. He stole glances of her like a criminal afraid of being caught by people around.

Her hands which were as cold as ice, fidgeted in nervousness. Her eyes were glued to the floor with shyness. She hadn't for once lifted her eyes to see him yet since the time she entered the living room with the tray of tea.

"Sidharth ko itni chutti nahi milti. Kaam hi aisa hai iska. Isiliye itni jaldi main ladki dekhne ka program fix karna pada. Kal shaam iska train hai Bangalore ke liye. Phir 3 mahine baad aayega. Agar sabki sehmati hai toh aaj roka kar lete hai aur 3 mahine mein shaadi ka mahurat nikaal lenge. Aapko koi aappati toh nahi?", Sidharth's father, Hariprasad inquires.

The girl's father looks at his wife who nods in agreement.

"Nahi nahi, hume koi aappati nahi. Hum jitna chaahe khiche, ladki ko ek na ek din toh apne sasuraal bhejna hi padta hai. Bahut his laad se pala hai Sana ko, ek lauti beti jo hai. Uske dono bhai bhi jaan chidhakte hai uspar.", Sana's father, Chandan shares his emotions.

"Hum samajh sakte hai, humne bhi apni badi beti 4 saal pehle byaahi hai. Mere retirement ke liye abhi aur 10 saal baaki hai, nahi toh bete ko choddke hume bhi rehna mushkil lagta hai. Yeh toh Choti beti ke karan mann laga rehta hai humara. Phir iske byaah ke baad pata nahi kitni takleef hogi.", Hariprasad empathizes.

"Arey aap dono toh apne dukhde rone lage. Chaliye roke ki rasam shuru karte hai.", Sidharth's uncle, Purushottam interrupts.

Sidharth and Sana are asked to sit together. Both their hearts were pounding loudly against their chest out of nervousness.

Sidharth's mother, Subhadra puts a red veil on Sana, puts tikka on her forehead and gives her the gift. Sana touches her feet to take blessings. Followed by few others elders from Sidharth's family, who repeat the same.

Sana's mother, Nirmala puts a tikka on Sidharth's forehead and gives him a gift and blesses him. Elders from Sana's family follow the same.

Their families celebrate by feeding sweets to each other while the two, due to whom they were celebrating, sat in silence.

"Achcha toh hum chalte hai, ab direct shaadi pe milenge sab.", Purushottam declares.

Sidharth's family step out of the house. As they got into their car, Sidharth calls his mother.

"Maa, woh.. woh mujhe uski ek tasveer chahiye thi, mere friends puchenge toh unko dikhaane ke liye.", Sidharth speaks hesitantly.

Subhadra smiles and nods. She goes to Nirmala and asks for Sana's picture. She gets a picture and gives it to Subhadra, who inturn hands it over to Sidharth. Sidharth takes the picture and without even glancing, slips it into his shirt pocket with a blush.

Sana, who hadn't seen her fiance until now sneaks through the curtain of her room window to steal a glance of her would be husband before he gets into the car. A five seater white Ambassador car, not so comfortably, accommodated 8 people in it before it slowly set it's journey back home.

Even though she was alone in her room, Sana was feeling extremely shy. She looked at all the presents she received from her future in-laws.

Sidharth goes into his room and locks the door before taking out the photo from his pocket and looking at it.

(How is the edit? Can you guess the original actress? ☺️)

He smiles looking at her picture. She looked absolutely gorgeous. He took the picture closer to his lips but before he kissed it, there was a knock on the door. He flinched out of his place as if he was doing some crime. He restlessly looked around to hide her photo.

"Sidharth... Sidharth...", Subhadra called out.

"Haan.. Haan Maa.. aaya..", He said nervously as he ran haywire to hide her picture and finally managed to hide it under the mattress. He looked back at the bed before unlatching to check if it wasn't visible to anyone by any chance.

"Beta, darwaaza kholne mein itni der laga di aur kapde bhi badle nahi abhi tak? Kya kar rahe the?", Subhadra inquires.

"Woh.. woh.. main.. haan, woh maine ghar ke kapde nikaale toh uski button tutti huyi thi, toh wahi dekh raha tha ki aap aagayi..", he fumbles.

"Hmm.. yeh pakdo, apne sasuraal se aaye bhet tu car mein hi bhool ke aa gaya tha aur laa apne kapde main button laga deti hoon.", She asks.

"Nahi.. nahi Maa, mein laga lunga, aap jao, aapko bahut kaam hoga", he says nervously.

"Arey wah, tujhe toh badi chinta ho rahi hai apni maa ki. Bas 3 mahine aur hai, phir apni biwi se kara lena saare kaam, abhi kuch din apni maa ka laad hi le lo. Laao idhar kapde.", She insists.

He didn't wanted to drag it further to rise her suspicion so he goes to his wooden cupboard and takes out a kurta and before returning breaks a button from it. He hands over the button and kurta both to his mother along with the stitching tool kit.

Subhadra occupies the mattress at the place exactly where he had hid the photo. He gulps and grimaced for the whole time until she got up. He sighed as she handed the kurta after attaching a button.

"Suno, Somesh bhi tumhare saath hi soyega iss kamre mein. Woh kal tumhare jaane ke baad apne ghar chala jayega.", Subhadra tells.

"Shaitan ka naam liya aur shaitan haazir.", Somesh declares as he enters the room.

Sidharth smiles as he changes his kurta.

"Bhaabhi ke ghar bahut achchi khatirdaari kiya. Itne swaadisht bhojan kaane ke baad badi neend aa rahi hai.", Somesh lies down on the bed.

Sidharth virtually facepalms as he finds him sleeping in the same place where he had kept the picture.

"Somesh, us taraf so jao na, main bhi let tha hoon kuch der", Sidharth suggests.

"Bhaiyya kaunse heere jade hai iss jagah mein jo aapko yahi sona hai, aap hi uss taraf so jao.", Somesh shuts his eyes and goes to sleep.

Sidharth rolls his eyes and goes to sleep.
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.
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Next day, he tries hard to take the picture from below the mattress but he couldn't as there was someone or other always around him. He packs his bag and keeps everything ready to start a journey to Bangalore.

Everyone sat in the car and before getting in Sidharth asks permission to go back to his room citing that he forgot something. He goes inside his room and lifts the mattress to find her photo. He looks at the photo and smiles with a sigh before slipping it into his shirt pocket. One-fourth of the picture was visible so he places it in his pant's back pocket and boards the car.

Everyone waves bye to him at the station as the train starts moving. He waves bye to them and goes to his seat. He puts his hand inside his pant's back pocket but he couldn't find the photo. He looks around everywhere and realises that he has lost it somewhere. He curses himself for losing it.

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To be continued.. ❤️❤️

Yet another vintage story.. from 1980s.. enjoy few songs from 80s which never gets outdated..

Noticed the date? It's the birthdate of Sid. 🥲🥲