Chapter 5

Rane Mansion, Mumbai

"Haveloc Island, Andaman or Goa. Tell me, what would you like?" 

Rohini was going through all the destination wedding places. She always wanted to arrange a destination wedding in Italy. But Suhani was more interested to be in India to do an Indian wedding.

"Mumbai, Maharashtra. That's fine.  Come on Mini." Suhani glared at her younger sister. 

"We will organize a destination wedding for you," Suhani added again while pulling her sister more into her embrace.

"Oh god. Not again. I am not a marriage material baby." Rohini seemed irritated a bit and Suhani knew the exact reason behind it. It is always better not to scratch someone's partial open wounds. She needed some time to prepare herself.

"Fine, my baby sister would go with me to my in-laws ' house. We will think of something later." Suhani pulled her close again when their parents came inside.

"So you are planning to take her with you. Look, Ragini we don't even need to send any gifts. The notorious gift is going with another gift in her hand." Sudhir spoke while laughing loudly.

"Now, I think Vinayak should have tried for another son. We would be happy sending them both to the same house." Ragini spoke while walking towards her daughters who were half seated on the bed with open laptops and so many things.

"How do you even sleep with her Suhani?" Sudhir spoke seeing Ragini on her bed making the sleeping area almost negligible by placing various things. The bed looked more like a workstation than a normal bed.

"Guess what, I don't even sleep in the bed. I sleep on her stuff only." Suhani giggled while speaking.

"And that's the reason my favorite joystick was broken last night." Rohini glared at her older sister.

"Who told you to keep your technology stack on the bed? People sleep in the bed and work on the work table. And you just simply sleep everywhere except on the bed." 

Suhani looked around and found so many things like adaptors, power banks, two laptops, two mice, a Wi-Fi router, and so on. Sometimes she wondered if her sister was a human or a robot. 

"Above all, I bet your room would be a disaster too back in the US," Suhani added again.

Rohini was about to wave off the allegations when something popped into her mind. A clear picture of her room in the US. Her sister was right. The one BHK apartment where she stayed was nothing but a big mess. People can find more gadgets than any normal household stuff. People could find more electronics in her room than in a normal store. 

"Well, I mean, you know what...." Rohini stammered a bit before moving out of the bed to dodge the coming slap from her sister.

"Yes, I know what. Tell me, dear Mini." Suhani almost raised her upper body to grab the frame of her sister.

"You are right. Papa saved me." In lightning speed, she blurted out her words and ran behind her father to hide. In the meantime, Suhani stood up from the bed and walked towards her father.

"Papa, this is not fair. You always protect her like that. Do you even actually know what her room looks like? Last time I found clothes hanging inside her room from everywhere. And one more point one day I called her when she was in college. And while talking to me she punched a boy who accidentally bumped into her." Suhani huffed after reporting every mischievous work of her tiny little sister.

"No papa. He did that internationally. By the way, that was not even close to a real punch." Rohini immediately snapped her head in both ways one after another after explaining herself to Suhani and her father.

"Oh really? That's the reason I heard the boy speaking that you had already broken her nose." Suhani shot back. When these two sisters started fighting nobody dared to speak in between because they seemed to be overprotective about each other.

"Shit, was the call still on?" Rohini tried to remember that day's incident.

"Oh, yes my dear queen. The call was still on." Suhani mocked immediately.

Finally, their mother spoke. 

"Ragini, you shouldn't have done that. Do you think it's a way to treat people?" 

Suhani found her sister's face turned pale which she didn't like.

"The boy was surely disgusting. I believe in Ragini." She turned to her mother who looked confused seeing the sudden change. Of course, Suhani would never allow anyone to touch her sister and a smile appeared on her face seeing the ongoing love. The older one immediately changed her side seeing her mother offended by Rohini, to protect her younger sister.

"Fine, then handle your sister now." Saying so, Ragini left with Sudhir after hugging both of their daughters. Rohini immediately smacked lightly on Suhani's head by saying,

"I would report this to Jiju. He would surely take my side." 

"Fine." Suhani laughed seeing Rohini behaving like a kid.

 

Sudhir and Ragini came outside of their room when Ragini turned her face to Sudhir to say something. 

"I know what you are thinking." Sudhir understood Raging's unspoken thoughts just by reading her worried expression.

"So many years and you still didn't forget to read my thoughts." Ragini smiled looking at her husband.

"Old habits. I know you are thinking of bringing back Rohini as Suhani would be married off and the mansion would be empty enough to engulf us." His heart cried. After all, the tragic part of being a father is letting his daughter go away from him. Having two daughters the pain was more for Sudhir as he had to send back both of them to two different families.

"Yes. Can't we request her to stay back with us? Was it necessary to send her to the US?"

"The situation was different for Ragini. And we always made the best decision for our children. And it was purely Rohini's choice to opt for US universities." Sudhir tried to console his wife who was feeling low at that time.

"She is getting aggressive, Sudhir. After hearing Suhani's words I am afraid now. Would her inner self be ever tamed?" Concern and worry both were prominently visible in her voice.

"She is not getting aggressive, dear. I heard from Suhani a lot. She is growing up and learning to control herself and her temperament a lot. Barely has she lost her temper now. And for the taming part, she just needs love and protective surroundings." Making his wife comfortable with the situation he pulled her close to him in a tight hug.

"What are you doing Sudhir? Is it even an age to do such childish acts?" Ragini tried to push him away while he was busy hugging her.

"Why not? Age is just a number, honey."

"Sudhir, our daughter is going to get married. If they would see us in this way, it would be embarrassing." Ragini was already ashamed with the sudden warmth.

"Why so? From where they have come? Sky? Don't tell me that. Even if they found us hugging each other, it wouldn't be a big deal. They already knew how they were born." Sudhir was laughing while looking at his wife's red face.

"Sudhir, you would never change. Now let me go. We have a lot to do." Saying so she pushed her husband and walked downstairs while Sudhir kept on looking at her disappearing figure. Letting out a huge breath he mumbled,

"Rohini, I hope someone holds your hand so strongly that you never feel like raising your hand for your protection." 

He walked towards his study thinking about a lot of things.

Suhani was in the washroom when her phone started ringing. Looking at the caller, Id Rohini shouted at her sister.

"Your love is called babe. Let me irritate him a bit." Without wasting much time she picked up the call with a long trail of "Hello........." She didn't even let her sister say something from the washroom.

"Yes, my little devil. Tell me, how are you." Rajveer replied after identifying Rohini's voice. Her unique voice could be easily tracked down, especially whenever she shouted. 

It was Rajveer who called over Suhani's contact number to discuss something and also to have a good chat session. But the moment he heard her sister's voice, he understood he would be under her mercy only.

"I am fine. But I think I would be super fine now. After all, I would be irritating you to the core." Rohini giggled like a child.

"Expected. Tell me what I can do for my Majesty." Rajveer didn't dare to ignore her as he knew she was a ticking time bomb. 

"Well, how about fighting a case for me when I am going to hack the US government server or their website. Just for fun."

"Don't you want to see me alive and happily married with your sister?" Rajveer held a mock pleading voice.

"Ummm.....fine. How about I break all the bones of a person here in India? Would you fight the case?' Rohini kept on speaking when Rajveer replied.

"Well, that's fine. I would help, but who is the unlucky one? You can tell me and I can take care of it too."

"Oh, boy or man? I need to find it. I am just taking note of all such crimes, after doing which you can easily bring me out clean." Rohini laughed in such a way that Rajveer felt like banging his head on the nearby wall. If he would ever get a chance he would better put Rohini in Law College to let her study to fight her case. This girl is crazy. 

"My God, devil, you are such a....." Before he could finish, Suhani came out and Rohini immediately turned her face to complain like a child to her sister. 

"He is calling me hot-headed. Di, he is bad." 

Suhani understood immediately that it was again a prank. Rohini and Rajveer both fought like Tom and Jerry now and then. If anyone put them in a room and waited for five minutes, the house would be burnt down. 

"Yeah. I understand. Why don't you call him a grumpy man?" Suhani spoke loudly to make him hear her voice. 

"You tell him personally. You can continue other types of chats too. I am leaving now." Completing her sentence and winking at Suhani, Rohini just placed the phone in Suhani's hand and ran through the door to avoid a further beating.

"Mini, I would see you later for this." Shouting at her sister's notorious act she picked up the cell phone and placed it near her ears.

"Don't mind her words," Suhani told Rajveer and immediately received his reply with a big laugh.

"She is still a kid,"  Rajveer replied.

"Yeah, completely and you fuel her a lot. God knows when she will grow up." Suhani said so and asked Rajveer about the reason for his call.

They talked over the phone for an hour almost with all such words covering some important topics of her studies. Above all, not to forget Rajveer made her blush throughout the call for the hundredth time. She was wondering, sensing the building excitement in Rajveer. 

"You know what, I can't just wait for another three months. Let's get married now." Rajveer laughed while saying so.

"Be patient man, I am not running away," Suhani assured him with her sweet tone.

"What if someone tries to snatch you?" Rajveer mocked a fear in his voice.

"I will flee from the clutch anyhow. And I know you would never leave me unprotected." Suhani closed her eyes to imagine him around her. He was the calmness that she could sense around her in her distress. He was the strength she felt inside her in her uncertainty.

"Of course love. None can touch a single strand of your hair as long as I am here." Rajveer spoke in his dominant voice.