Arjun's POV :

"Okay, guys, this is it" Janvi said as we stood in front of a three storied stylish looking building, right opposite to Chennai Silks.

A couple decked up in their wedding look, a group of excited looking teenage girls, all in lehengas clearly straight from a school farewell party, a smiling toddler surrounded by toys, a family of six all dressed in traditional attires were all staring down at us from the hoarding which read - MALABAR PHOTOSTUDIO : Wedding Photography, Portraits, Portfolios and Fashion Photography.

"Janvi, who are we going to meet?", I asked expectantly. This was the place where my aunt had worked for a long time but we'd never been here before.

But Janvi just said, "Wait here you guys. I'll be right back", and went straight in as me and Ananya obediently stood outside.

As we were waiting, a guy wearing an Iron Man t-shirt, taller than me but not much more good looking than me and just about the same age as Janvi came upto us.

"Hi. I am Shaheer. Can I help you?", he asked with flamboyance.

"Oh hi", Ananya said a little uncertainly "Umm..no actually."

"Are you sure? I saw you coming with Janvi".

"Yeah I'm her nephew", I replied.

He smiled widely, "Oh Dr Rajesh's children!"

"You know our dad?" I asked, surprised. Okay our parents were quite well known around Adyar but they were not city-famous or anything. Is that even a word?

"Oh of course I do", Shaheer said "You're Arjun? And you must be Ananya?"

"Yeah", I said "How do you know our names?"

"Of course I know your names. Janvi talks about you guys all the time".

"She does?", Ananya asked fondly. Shaheer nodded.

"Do you work here?", I asked curiously.

"Yeah. I used to be a freelancer but now I work here".

Neither I nor Ananya knew anything about the world of photography, inspite of having an aunt who was a professional at it. So we didn't really know what to talk next though we were both big talkers.

Shaheer saved the trouble for us by saying casually, "By the way, I'm dating your aunt".

"What?" I and Ananya cried in unison.

"Yeah, it's me she was bringing you to meet, today", he grinned.

I immediately started a dissection in my head. Good looking? Yes. Appealing? Yes. Personality? Yes. Intelligent? Looks like it. Highly paid? Must be. (Malabar Studio was an A list studio in Chennai). Fit for Janvi? Absolutely!

"She's a very cool lady, your aunt", Shaheer was saying to Ananya, as I continued my mental analysis. Appreciative of people? Yes.

"Janvi's incredible", I heard Ananya replying.

"Totally. She's one of the strongest women in this business. Makes a great deal of money, she does, more than a lot of male photographers".

Articulate? Yes.

Just as I was about to adulate my potential uncle's eloquence, Ananya's feminism flag shot up at his previous remark, "Well, but why should that always be a huge deal?", she asked fiercely, "I mean, the fact that she earns more than some men in the business? When a guy gets paid more than all the ladies in the job, do we say, wow, he earns more than all his female colleagues?".

Shaheer looked shocked at Ananya's outburst. I couldn't blame him. The guy was just trying to be nice about his girlfriend.

I mean, of course I've never been chauvinistic in my life. I totally admire women (in a nice way, of course) and I'm all for girl power, but my sister can be so sick sometimes!

Okay, I agree Ananya had a good point. But she didn't have to shout it on a guy's face whom we didn't know until three minutes ago.

But fortunately Janvi arrived to save the scene, "Shaheer I was looking for you and you've already met my nephew and niece".

"Janvi! I can't believe you didn't tell us till now. We were supposed to be best friends", Ananya pouted.

"I was waiting for the right time An", Janvi said as though this was the most obvious thing in the world.

"So you two are in grade twelve?", Shaheer asked. We nodded.

"That's nice".

I was so relieved that he didn't ask us the horrible "What are you going to do after school?" question.

The chit chat went on for awhile before Janvi and Shaheer's work schedule started. All through our chat, I kept rambling happily but couldn't help noticing that Ananya didn't look very chirpy.

"Can you both go home by yourself?", Janvi asked us anxiously.

"Yes, we'll take the bus", I replied.

Janvi and Shaheer came out of the studio to see us off. Just as we were leaving, Shaheer handed Ananya a huge lunchbox, "Something for my would-be niece and nephews".

I instantly brightened up further. "It's chicken biryani right? I know that smell anywhere" I said happily as my sister took the box from Shaheer.

"Umm..thank you..", Ananya mumbled. She was probably wondering how to address Shaheer. It didn't seem fair to call him 'uncle' when we called Janvi by her name.

"You can just call him Shaheer" Janvi said reading her mind.

"Thank you Shaheer", Ananya said much more cheerfully than she'd spoken for the last half an hour.

Shaheer turned to Janvi, "You could have brought the smaller one - Arav as well. I would've liked to see him too".

"Next time, Shaheer", Janvi said dismissively, "Where are they gonna go? You can see them anytime".

The duo saw us off and on the way back home, I gushed to Ananya about Shaheer.

"Shaheer is really, there is no other word for it - cool", I said decidedly.

"Um", said Ananya.

"What 'um'? Can't you be a little more expressive? We just got introduced to probably the only uncle who'll genuinely care about us", I said.

It was true. We had lots of aunts and uncles who only cared about me and Ananya on our examination result days.

"But Shaheer is not going to be that kind of uncle", I declared to Ananya "But then, Janvi is not that kind of aunt either. It's no unknown fact that we have the coolest aunt in the world. I mean, we just met the guy and I can already picture them on their wedding day! Janvi in Kanchipuram silk. Wow!"

"Janvi won't be in Kanchipuram silk", Ananya said "She'll be in a lehenga like Anushka Sharma in Channa Mereya. Because Shaheer is a Muslim right? Arjun, how are mom and dad going to agree to this?" she finally burst out with the question.

That broke my bubble.

"Shit, I never thought about that", I whispered in dismay.

"Smart of you".

But I couldn't think about it even after that. I had no time.

I spent the rest of the morning, preparing for my next audition.

That day when Janvi came home for lunch, I and Ananya gushed endlessly about Shaheer making her blush all over the face. We didn't have the heart to kill the pristinely beautiful smile on her face by bringing up unpleasant stuff so we just stuck to merry thoughts. Arav was upset that he hadn't been able to come with us but insisted that Janvi take him next time. All in all, lunch that day was a very pleasant affair.

Our merry making was further aroused when dad came for lunch with what was bad news according to him but good news to us.

"I and Vidya will be staying in the hospital tonight. It scares me to say this", dad said, "But Janvi you're in charge tonight".

I, Arjun and Arav tried not to show how excited we were. We silently continued with the lunch.

"Radhika! Come here for a minute", dad called our househelp.

Radhika came out almost instantly, "Yes sir?"

"Why is the pickle like this? So much oil!", dad complained

"I'm sorry sir, but it's probably low quality oil. It's not my fault if the grocery store doesn't have a good stock", Radhika said.

Dad pursed his lips and glared at her, Radhika was an incorrigible case who never admitted to any mistake, "What else is there?", dad asked.

"Only this sir", Radhika said unapologetically.

"Only this? Very nice" said dad getting up abruptly, "My lunch is done then. I'm leaving for the hospital now".

Radhika didn't say anything. She was too used to our family's temper tantrums to get offended or upset. She quietly took dad's plate away as dad went to wash his hands. In less than two minutes, he was out of the house.

"That's it!", I cried dramatically raising his hands in the air, his eyes shining with excitement, "Freedom for one whole day!"

Arav stood up in his chair raised his spoon in the air and cried, "Beginning of a revolution! Liberation! Free from domestication!"

Ananya and Janvi burst into laughter. We were not used to mom and dad staying away from home. That last time it had happened we were not such rebellious people either. So this was going to be fun.

"That's enough!" Janvi said, "Let's not take it overboard. I'm in charge so don't create trouble for me", she said dismissively.

All the same we did take it overboard. That night, the four of us ordered pizza, removed the telephone connection, turned on my music system and had a blast, until at 1 am we switched off the music and settled down in front of the TV and watched Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs on Movies Now. We all dozed off on the sofa after the movie ended.

The next morning, we cleared up the evidence of our medley and when mom and dad came back, they couldn't find anything wrong in the household.

It was Rekha mam's birthday. It was a holiday so my darling sister insisted that we make a video message for her and I obliged.

"Shall I start? Come into the frame. Be ready", Ananya said impatiently holding the phone infront of us, as both of us sat in the dining room with Arav who was doing some Social Science activity.

"I'm ready", I said running a hand through my hair. Ananya clicked the recording button.

"Hi ma'am!", I said pompously "Happy birthday! We just saw your DP. You look so sexy in that blue saree. Oops. That came out wrong. Once more Ananya?" I asked.

She gave me a solid slap on the face before restarting the video.

"Hi ma'am! Happy birthday!" I started again enthusiastically, Ananya hurriedly pulled out her banana clip and adjusted her hair before entering the frame, "Happy birthday to the sweetest teacher in the world!" she said.

"And umm..mam..I know you were disappointed in me", I said with as much sentimental essence as I could, "I am really sorry. But I promise you, I'll do the next maths test well. You're just the best teacher in the world! We're really lucky to have you and we love you!".

Ananya blew a kiss to the camera, ended the video and sent it to Rekha mam.

In five minutes we received a reply :

You both must think I'm a piece of bread that needs to be buttered so heavily! But I love you too. Now go and learn for your maths test :)

I sighed seeing the message "I really better pass the next test", he said "Otherwise she'll hang me out to dry". Arav giggled behind us. My idiotic siblings were always so happy with my bad grades.

Just then the doorbell rang. Arav sitting near the window peeped out and looked back at us, disgruntled, "It's Kamath uncle" he whimpered.

The three of us stared at each other. Kamath uncle was our not so friendly neighbour. Our major memory associated with him was when for every Diwali, Pongal or sometimes even Dusshera, our mom would send across sweets through me, Ananya and Arav to his house by interrupting our ardent selfie session.

We'd stomp our way through to his house, in our elaborate traditional attires and go and knock his door with plates in our hands feeling like The Three Musketeers, following which me and Arjun would push Arav to the front and make him hand over the sweets and hobble our way back. Mom insisted on continuing the procedure even after all these years.

However Kamath uncle never came to our house unless it was to get a free appointment at our hospital or to complain about the government or to check if the power was still there in our house when it went off in his.

Ananya stood up and cranes her neck to get a view of the living room, "Oh God he's coming in", she said anxiously.

"Let him come", I said.

"It surely means nothing good".

I couldn't get work up. "Keep quiet and sit down Ananya", I said.

But sure enough when the door opened, the first thing I heard was, "Doctor madam, your children are very naughty. There was loud beat music coming from your house long past midnight. Me and the Mrs couldn't sleep at all!"

"What? My kids? But my sister-in-law was here looking after them. Surely there could have been no trouble?"

"No trouble, you say madam. Only me and my wife know what a ruckus was going on here. We knew you and Dr Rajesh were not at home. So we guessed it was just the kids having fun. My wife wanted to call you up right there. I told her not to trouble you. But I had to tell you at least now."

"Oh okay", mom's disgruntled voice came from the living room, "I'll talk to them".

Even before the three of us could mentally prepare ourselves, mom burst into the room and exploded, "How could you people behave like this? I've been put to shame!"

Me, Ananya and Arav, stared around at each other stupidly, unable to come up with something quick witted to say.

"What's the use asking you anyway? Where's my sister in law?", mom asked.

"In the shower", Ananya mumbled.

"Very good. Let her come out. I'm going to kill her", mom said angrily.

"Is anybody talking about me right now?", Janvi said coming out of her room, dressed fully but her hair still wet from the shower.

"Here she is! Janvi, you had one job! Just the one", mom snapped.

"Oh no. I have much more than one job", Janvi said hotly "At present I have multiple photoshoots scheduled, all with senior models. I'm also covering a wedding shoot. Plus I'm giving yoga classes and learning spanish. So don't treat me like I'm sitting here doing nothing. Go and give your lecture to an unemployed person."

Mom glared at Janvi. There usually never occured any animosity between them. But when it did, it was like an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.

"Well, what use is learning a foreign language and doing ridiculous poses in the name of yoga?" mom snapped.

Janvi's glare turned feircer than mom's, "Why are you getting so worked up just because our loser of a neighbour came and gave you a dumb complaint?", she argued "Yeah, I know. I heard it. That Kamath is such a douche bag."

"Janvi you don't.."

"No, let me finish, all I did was let your kids have pizza and watch some TV. That's it!"

"Just TV? That man was complaining about some music! Is he lying then?"

"What do you expect me to do? I can't possibly babysit these three so called 'kids'. They're as big as buffaloes".

We took no offense to that. No matter what Janvi did or said, she was always our strongest alibi.

As mom and Janvi argued in the background,I moved over to Ananya, "Listen I need you to help me tonight".

Ananya turned and looked at me with exasperation written all over her face. She knew exactly what was coming, "Don't tell me".

"I'm going for an audition tonight. Please!" I said.

"Now what city audition are you going for?"

"Don't make fun of me", I grumbled, "I just need you to tell mom and dad that I'm at a friend's house".

Maybe because no matter how much we squabbled she was still my sister or because she could see the imminent desperation in my eyes or because she was too tired to argue with me, Ananya agreed to have my back that night. Once again.

"Okay, I'll do what you ask", she said "So go. But just make sure Kamath uncle doesn't see you going. He just needs a chance to complain about us. And then mom and dad will grill us again".

"Haha!" I said cheerlessly "I wonder how it would be to be grilled by parents".

A/N : Sorry for the late update guys. I was really on a loose end yesterday. I really really hope you liked this chapter though. (It turned to be longer than I expected. Though I hope it's not too bad) Please do vote and comment dears! ❤️ Lots of love from this side. See you again, soon.