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It all started on a Thursday evening...! The first time Anirudh saw Sanvi, it was a moment straight out of a song—literally. From that first glance to spreadsheets and late-night coffees to a memorable office trip, everything culminated in a wedding.
Ten years later, on a Saturday morning, in a comfortable flat just off the main city, Sanvi awoke with a start, "It is six already!"
To her left, Anirudh grunted and pulled the mattress over his head. Sanvi ripped it out of his hands, "Oh, no, you will help me get Pallavi and Sambha ready for school!"
"It's weekend!" Anirudh groaned, his eyes still shut.
"It's Saturday!" Sanvi corrected him. "Holiday for us? Yes. Holiday for Pallavi and Sambha? Certainly not!"
"Well, you get them ready daily, don't you?" Anirudh opened his eyes slowly.
"That is why you will get them ready, Ani! No excuses! NOW!" Sanvi said sternly.
"Pallavi! Sambha! Come on, now, sweetums!" Anirudh cooed five minutes later in the kids' room. Sambha and Pallavi slept on a double bed. Sambha, the more adventurous one, occupied the top. Pallavi preferred to keep her dolls against the wall, so the lower bed suited her.
Sanvi rolled her eyes as she stood by the doorway, "Your mother is spoiling them, I say. With these nicknames!"
"Better than the bunch of chocolates and candy your father gets them each time, come on, Sanvi!" Anirudh reasoned.
"As if he listens to me!" Sanvi said exasperatedly.
"Nor does my mother!" Anirudh retorted.
"Yeah! She keeps asking me why I don't feed them ghee. As if they don't already feast on chocolates and cakes!"
"Ghee is not sugar!" Anirudh turned to her.
"Mum! Dad! Five more minutes!" The two children said incoherently and out of sync.
"Oh, absolutely NOT!" Sanvi snapped. "Out of bed, now!"
Two minutes later, Sambha stood by the sink, his toothbrush in one hand, and his eyes distant.
"Ani, make him brush his teeth properly!" Sanvi said. "Come now, Pallavi!"
"I am taking Scarlett the doll and Louis the rabbit with me to school!" Pallavi said dramatically, packing the fluffy white doll into her bag.
"Scarlett and Louis are NOT on the attendance register, Pallavi!" Sanvi sighed and repeated herself.
"Dad, I finished," Sambha called.
"No, you haven't!" Anirudh snapped. "The toothpaste is in the sink!"
"HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU NOT TO WASTE TOOTHPASTE?" Sanvi yelled.
Anirudh quickly put some toothpaste on to Sambha's toothbrush and got him to brush his teeth, "Next time, I am not leaving until you finish brushing properly!" He declared.
Even as Anirudh took out the uniform and handed it to Pallavi, she looked at him, "Daddy, my geometry box fell from my window last night!"
"WHAT??! And you are telling me now??" Anirudh hollered.
"Enough is enough, young lady! You will go to school today without your geometry box! Let's see how the day goes by!" Sanvi declared.
"Mum, please!" Pallavi cried. "Or I will...!"
"You will not take Sambha's geometry box, Pallavi!" Sanvi declared.
"Mum, today we have to wear the white uniform or the P.T. sir will punish us!" Sambha called out from the bathroom.
"Go and iron his white uniform!" Sanvi hurriedly told Anirudh. "And what about you, Pallavi? White or blue?"
"Blue!" Pallavi giggled, poking her rabbit.
"I need to cook breakfast too!" Sanvi said, rushing to the kitchen.
Five minutes later, Pallavi came out in her sky-blue uniform, clutching her rabbit. She took a spoonful of cornflakes and put it on the rabbit's face, "Eat, Louis."
"AARGH! DON'T SPILL IT!" Sanvi yelled.
But the inevitable happened. Pallavi's hand slipped, knocking off her bowl of cornflakes straight onto Sambh's chest, turning his pristine white uniform into a disaster zone.
A moment of silence.
And then—
“AYYOOOOOOO DEVA!” Sanvi screeched, running into the room like an Olympic sprinter.
“PALLAVI!!” Anirudh roared. “DO YOU THINK WE HAVE A WASHING MACHINE IN OUR POCKET?!”
“I—I didn’t mean to!” Pallavi wailed, holding Louis protectively.
Anirudh examined Sambha’s uniform like a forensic detective. “This isn’t a stain. This is a murder scene! White uniform? GONE. PTA meeting? CANCELLED. My peace of mind? DEAD.”
He panicked. “Sanvi, we have exactly four minutes before the school van comes!”
Sanvi glared at him. “Oh, NOW you remember the school van?! Where was this urgency when I was shouting at you to wake up?”
Anirudh gulped. “I was— I mean— I—”
“SHH!” Sanvi raised her hand. “YOU! Sambha! Change into your blue uniform NOW!”
“But Mum, today is WHITE UNIFORM day! P.T. sir will—”
“Tell your P.T. sir to wash the uniform then!” Sanvi snapped. “Unless he is coming home to clean this mess, he will adjust!”
"Why does Pallavi get to wear blue while I should wear white?" Sambha groaned.
"Because Saturday is white-uniform day for you, and Wednesday is white-uniform day for your sister!" Anirudh snapped.
Pallavi, sensing an opportunity, whispered, “So… does this mean I can take Louis to school?”
"Samba's blue uniform is in the second drawer by the mirror, Ani. Go and get it." Sanvi said, before rounding up on Pallavi. "As for you, Pallavi, Louis and Scarlett are no longer permitted around food!"
"But they're hungry!" Pallavi wailed.
"And you are GROUNDED!" Sanvi yelled so loudly that her husband and son could hear her from the children's room.
At precisely 7:50 in the morning, following a hurried breakfast of cornflakes with milk, a sniffling Pallavi sat furthest from everyone, complaining about "injustice" to her dolls; and Samba sat in his sky-blue uniform, answering his friends about why he wasn't dressed in white.
Anirudh sighed. “So… breakfast?”
Sanvi glared. “You think I have the patience to make breakfast after this?”
As they stepped out of their house, they saw Ajay cheerfully waving at them.
"Wanna join me for breakfast, guys?"
Ajay had developed a slight hunch over the last decade, but everything else about him remained the same. Like Anirudh and Sanvi, he, too, worked at OliveHeron, but on the Europe shift now.
"Coming, Ajay!" Anirudh called out. Sanvi let out a sigh, grateful to eat outside for a change.
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Footnotes:
Chapter Nine.
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Written By Tharun Kumar S
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