Falling in love after Marriage

Chapter 12

Janaki's POV

I had been tossing and turning for the past 30 minutes. I sighed and got up from the bed. Vidhu is fast asleep. I took my shawl, my mobile & headphones and decided to go to the terrace. I got out of the room silently and ascended to the terrace.

I got a little heart attack and froze on the last stair as I noticed a silhouette of someone sitting near the opposite corner of the terrace. I couldn't see anything clearly as today is a new moon day. I turned on my mobile torch and relief washed over me.

Prabhu mama!

I emptied my lungs with a big sigh of relief. He had his earphones plugged and leaned his head back on the wall with eyes closed. He blocked the sudden light with his hands and blinked his eyes.

"Mama, I really got a mini heart attack as I thought you were a ghost."

I went and sat next to him. He chuckled at me mentioning him as a ghost.

"What ma? Not feeling sleepy?"

"Hmmm. My mind is over excited with lots of thoughts mama and it's not allowing me to sleep."

"Same here Janu ma. Can't sleep."

I smiled at him and enjoyed the mild breeze of the night. We both sat in the silence. A comfortable, warm and peaceful silence. After a few minutes, he played soft music songs of Raja sir in his mobile and reduced the volume audible for two of us.

The combination of Raja sir music and peaceful night will lead you to a different world.

Pure blissssss...!!!

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I smiled as I felt someone stroking my hair. I opened my eyes slowly. It's neither completely dark nor fully bright. The time might be between 4 AM to 5 AM. I found my shawl totally wrapped around my body. I turned and saw Prabhu mama's face.

Ah! I was sleeping on his lap.

Oh my poor mama!

He would have been sitting in the same position the whole night to let me sleep without any disturbances. He looked very cute with his eyes closed, leaning his head on the wall but he was not sleeping as he gently stroking my hair. He is such a sweetheart.

My mind went back to yesterday's event. I don't think Nandhini had changed. I don't know whether she will fit for mama or not. I am worried about Prabhu mama. I am worried about my family. I don't know what destiny has held for us. I sighed.

He opened his eyes and smiled at me. I got up and turned around so that I could see his face while yawning, I smiled at him. He didn't speak anything. I rubbed my eyes and stood up and stretched my muscles a little. I gave a hand to him to get up. He took my hand and stood up. We picked our mobiles and headphones and headed to our rooms respectively.

I woke up Vidhu and we both got ready. My parents already arrived here. Prabhu mama and Akash setting the cake in the living room. Vidhu kept the gifts below the table.

All set.

Now we have to get my athai and mama down.

Actually, we locked their room from outside. Yes! It might sound crazy but we have no other options. My sweet darling athai got up early to cook something special as today is their silver anniversary. Fortunately, Prabhu mama noticed their room door opening and asked her to stay inside till we come and get them. By now mama would also be got ready. But our hard work for the 'WOW-complete-surprise' had ruined.

Vidhu went to get them here. They looked so happy about seeing our arrangement. We all wished them in a chorus. I kissed my athai and hugged mama. My athai face lit up on glee while looking at the anniversary cake. She kissed Prabhu mama's forehead for ordering her favourite flavoured cake.

The feeling on their eyes, while they feed cake to each other, is pure adoration!

Oh my God! I just want my future husband to look at me with such adoration all the time.

Stop dreaming Janu!

It's gift time now.

Here comes the first gift. It a one-week tour package for my athai and mama to Andaman Island. Prabhu mama booked flight tickets and room online and also hired a tour guide via the hotel. We have planned a long time for this.

They accepted it but said it's an unnecessary expense but we know they are very happy and proud within their hearts. This will be their first-time flight travel. And it's one of the dreams for every middle-class family to travel at least once in the flight.

My parents presented gold couple bands with silk saree, shirt and dhothi for them with betel leaves (Betel leaves used while giving presents to relatives. It's a little custom followed).

Akash presented them gold with silver coloured titan couple watches. They look classy.

Vidhu gave them a painting of my athai and mama. My athai hugged her tightly and thanked her so much. Because it had a special memory of athai and mama.

It's a replica of a picture they took on their honeymoon which is lost somehow a few years back. In that original picture, my mama will be giving a rose to athai with his signature smile to which athai looking at him with love and a little shy. She was very sad on the day when she came to know it is nowhere to be found.

Now the smile on her face and a very rare shy smile on mama's face brought Vidhu a huge satisfaction. Thanks to her painting classes! It looked almost the same as that picture.

'Photos are not just one of the simple things around you, it holds some beautiful memories. It's a doorway that takes you to the past and gives you the pleasure to re-live that moment again.'

Hey it's my turn folks! I made them a video. I could hear you telling me that making a video is a very ancient idea. But I poured my brain to make it memorable.

I collected my athai and mama's pictures from their age 1 to their current age.

Simple Source: old albums and pictures from relatives.

Fortunately, I managed to torture my aunts, uncles and grandpa to send the scanned copy of the photos to me. I edited their photos and kept their same age photos, age-wise with some natures' background and the photo-collage of some memorable moments with the background music of 'Unakaga porandhene enadhazhaga' song (Dear handsome, I am born for you!) as it's my mama's favourite song.

I played the video on my laptop and kept it at the centre of the table so that everyone could see. My athai and mama keep on smiling with every photo clips.

The best part comes at the climax. Originally, I started to shoot the video for fun but it turned out very precious. I didn't show it to anyone till now. It's a 7 min footage. It's the real part of the surprise for them... Well, surprise for everyone.

This incident happened last year. We went to one of our relatives' wedding reception. My mama unknowingly drank the spiked juice kept for someone else. I didn't want to reveal this to anyone as it might bring conflicts in the family. I took him to our house in auto and informed my parents that I am not feeling well and mama took me to house. I actually started recording him singing a song but it ended up in a lovely confession.

The footage starts with my mama sitting and singing 'Kadhalin deepam ondru' song (A light of love) for a few seconds.

After that he had spoken to me as follow:

"Janu ma! Do you know something? I never believed in love at first sight. I used to ask my friends, how could they fell for a girl just by looking at her. For me, love is something, which requires lots of understanding and time to develop. I never got convinced until that magic happened to me. Then only I realized that love can happen at first sight after seeing your athai. (smiles dreamingly thinking about past).

I met her at Murugar temple. She came there in a yellow colour saree ma. Looked like sunshine. My sunshine! (Chuckle) She took my breath with her one look Janu ma. Her smile, her eyes, her each and every gesture affected my heart, brain, soul and everything ma. I followed her and found her house that day. I couldn't sleep that night ma. Next day I went to her house with my parents. (Paused and squeezed my hand and patted it twice)

God's willing. We got married. Unlike this generation youngsters, we never said I love you to each other. It's simply not required between us. I knew how much love she carries in her heart for me and she knew how much I love her. After marrying her, I realized that love is very much unconditional. The way she looks at me with such a love in her eyes... The way she cares me... I never asked her anything but she will do what exactly I need. She gave me a great family and a peaceful life. What else a man needs in his life! I am the luckiest man in the world Janu ma! I am the luckiest man in this whole universe!"

The footage ends there. He slowly slipped into sleep after that originally. So I decided to cut it there. My athai is shedding happy tears leaning on my mama's shoulder and he is simply caressing her hair with a smile. My parents were looking at them in awe. I gave them a present which I made it from the print out of the age-wise photo clips along with the collages and turned it into a photo album. I also sent a copy of the video to athai's mobile.

Then me, Vidhu and amma went to make breakfast and left athai to rest. After breakfast and some chit-chat, we started to temple. My mom excused herself telling she has that three-days problem. We knew she is staying back to welcome our guests and to arrange lunch at the terrace. Athai and mama both were very happy as we arranged Abhishekam. I asked my appa about the lunch arrangement and he assured me that everything had been taken care of.

My athai and mama paused after stepping down from the car as the house had lots of additions in 3 hours time. The terrace is now covered with a marquee (tent-like structure) and our friends and relatives were spotted here and there. We smiled sheepishly as they glanced at us simultaneously with a surprised expression.

We had invited our close relatives and friends to join us today. Mama's friends popped up first and congratulated them for their silver anniversary. My attention was caught by a handsome man sipping his coffee and smiling at us. Yooo! Our thatha! Father of my father and aunt.

My mama and athai got wished by our relatives one by one and in return, they were told that they are glad to see them and thanked them for their presence. We, youngsters, moved to our thatha. He is a very cool guy and only elder person remained in our family. We had some jolly time with Mr.Handsome then mingled with other relatives.

The terrace is arranged with tables and chairs for lunch in L shape and the food was kept on the opposite side. The food was prepared by our hotel. The menu is obviously traditional Tamil meal served in a plantain leaf. (You can find the detailed vegetarian Tamil meal menu at end of this chapter :P)

Mama's friends bought flower garlands and asked them to exchange it before we start the Lunch. It was very fun as my athai suddenly felt very shy in front of the audience while she has to put garland on mama's shoulder and mama's friends started to tease and cheer them in which all of us eagerly joined.

The lunch had been full of teasings and waves of laughter. Friends and relatives are really a great blessing from God. We just have to understand, respect and love them unconditionally without any expectation from them.

Some people stayed till lunch and some people went after coffee in the evening. Thatha agreed to stay here for the night. He lives in a village near Tiruttani and doing agriculture there. He refused to stay with us because he had more sentiments towards the place. We respected his decision so we visit him once in a month while coming from Chennai along with our parents. Sometimes he will come to visit here and stay a few days with us.

We were all worn out and we have to start tomorrow early morning to reach our classes and offices respectively on time. So we decided to stay home and spend the rest of the day. with our lovely family.

Author note:

Dear friends, As I mentioned above, I have given you the detailed menu of vegetarian lunch served in most of the special occasions in Tamil Nadu.

Vegetarian Tamil meal consists of the menu :-

>Steamed rice,

>Variety rice (e.g. tomato rice, lemon rice, etc.),

>Dal (Cooked lentil),

>Sambar (lentil stew),

>Kara kuzhambu (spicy stew with a coconut base or dal base),

>Rasam (tamarind stew with other herbs and spices),

>Thayir (curd) and Mor (Buttermilk with tempering)

>Poriyal (dry fry of vegetables),

>Varuval (oil fry of the vegetables),

>Kootu (vegetable mixture with green dal or coconut),

>Keerai masiyal (ground greens),

>Aviyal (a mixture of cooked vegetables, finally added with buttermilk or curd in the preparation),

>Pachadi (salad of cucumber or onion or both in curd),

>Appalam (fried papads),

>Thovaiyal (wet ground paste of coconut with tamarind and red chilli or other combinations),

>Oorukai (pickles),

>Payasam (sweet liquid of many varieties with milk base or coconut milk base or dal liquid base).

> Banana, Betal leaves with nuts (to help in digestion)

Yummy-delicious-wide variety right!