Deepti listened to him carefully and began to understand her husband’s point of view. She pondered her friend’s words the entire afternoon. ‘Yes, I was economically dependent on my first husband for some years of our marriage. That’s why things went smoothly,’ she thought.
She wanted to do whatever it took to make this marriage work. At night, Ravi gave her a call. He spoke as if nothing had happened in the morning. She responded normally as well.
As the days passed, Deepti would deliberately make small mistakes in her tasks, due to which Ravi started to believe that Deepti might need his assistance in some of her important tasks. A sense of care started getting established between them. To take it to the next level, Deepti started to take his opinion in her important decisions. Talking to him about what had happened in her office was her routine. Ravi also started sharing with her events of his day at work and his fitness routine. Day by day the communication between them grew. They started liking each other’s company like friends. They did not realize when they started to pour their hearts out to each other.
Four months after their wedding . . .
Sitting alone in the balcony and sipping the hot chocolate, Deepti realized that a small compromise on her ego changed the situation around her dramatically. She knew this was just the beginning and that there were miles to go before winning his love and trust. Old ladies say, ‘A child can bring your partner closer.’ So she thought, ‘If I am pregnant, this will be another step towards Ravi’s heart.’
She believed that love was coming soon . . . She was sure of it.
* Kolam is an auspicious design drawn on the floor with rice flour, which also acts as food for ants and birds.
* The dance steps in a performance.
* Black coffee.
† The temple where a performance takes place.
* A garment worn around the waist.
* A percussion-like instrument played in the southern parts of India.
Contributors
Dayal Punjabi is a self-published writer and poet. His debut collection under his pen name Amaranthine Poetry, Notes from the Heart, became a bestseller on Kindle India. He currently serves as the content head at Storiyaan.com
Sucharita Date is an undergraduate student in Chennai. Her love for reading inspired her to take up writing at the age of sixteen. She has since written a number of short stories, mainly for children, as well as poetry, and has been working on a novel for the past few months. She aspires to publish a book one day. When she is not reading or writing, Sucharita likes to spend her time cycling, trekking and listening to Billy Joel.
Sai Nithin can usually be found reading a fantasy novel in the last bench of his class. He enjoys gazing at the stars and riding his bicycle with his earphones plugged in. One of his dreams is to see his name printed on the cover of a novel. He lives in Hyderabad and is pursuing his college degree. He can be contacted at [email protected]
Ruby Gupta is the bestselling author of eight books, including the murder mystery No Illusions in Xanadu published by Bloomsbury, the suspenseful A Degree in Death (long-listed for the Crossword Book Award) and the mystical Maya: A Novel. Her books on technical communication, published by Cambridge, are part of the syllabi of various universities. An awardee of the Group Study Exchange programme for the US by Rotary International, she is also the recipient of the Pratibha Samman Award. She is professor and HoD, Humanities, at the Indian Military Academy, Dehradun.
Anuj Dutt is a writer of short stories, articles and poems. He has been writing since he was twelve years old. He stays in Bengaluru with his two daughters, wife, a dachshund and a pug. He is passionate about animal welfare, amateur radio and Sherlock Holmes. He is currently ‘curating’ a detective in the pages of his notebook, which he believes could overshadow Karamchand and Sherlock Holmes one day.
Rachita Ramya is an author, a practising public health researcher, and a dentist by training. She has worked on projects on mental health and health disparities. Rachita’s debut book, Radical Politics of Indian Love, has also won an award in a writers’ group in California, the US. She lives with her sister in New York City, who is a scientist at the New York Stem Cell Foundation.
Rupali Tiwari graduated as a homoeopath in 2015, but couldn’t digest the mundane lifestyle of having a full-time job or running her own clinic. Books have been her solace since childhood. She pursued her passion to write after she completed her studies. Over the years, her stories have been a source of entertainment, inspiration and awe among her friends and family, and she often comes out of her shell to share it with the world.
Pooja Dubey is an author, psychologist, strategist, researcher and trainer with more than thirteen years of experience in writing. She left no stone unturned to develop her skill in writing and has an indefatigable capacity to produce different forms of writing, which include fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and content in the academic, technical, creative, business, marketing, philosophical and spiritual domains.
Aarthika Mathialagan is a twenty-two-year-old literature student who loves to read and watch fiction. She loves to review novels and even won the first prize in a book-review competition.
Mohammad Afroz is an engineer by profession and a storyteller by heart. When his Hogwarts letter didn’t arrive when he was eleven, Dumbledore himself introduced him to a different kind of magic— books. And one day he hopes to lend the same magic to people in need through the stories he writes.
Praneetha Gutta is a software engineer by profession and a writer by passion. If she is not in front of her laptop doing her office work, she is either sitting with a book or in front of the television. Her other works include You Are Mine: So Are Your Dreams Too and a short story named ‘It’s Time to Regret’. Currently, she is active on Wattpad and StoryMirror, where you can read her stories and poems. She also loves watching cricket, especially when M.S. Dhoni is at the crease. You can reach her at [email protected] and on Instagram @book_lover789
Supreet Kaur is a corporate consultant during day and a writer at night. Charming yet emotionally complex, she channelizes her emotions through writing. She gets her writing skills from her dad, who is an avid poet. Supreet wrote her first poem under his guidance when she was six years old. She runs an Instagram writing page and blog with the name ‘_writerscorner’.
Suranya Sengupta is an opinionated feminist, an Instagram poet and an ardent blogger on ‘A Journey to Discover Life’. She has a passion for history and stories, which she wants to share with the world from her corner in Kolkata. Words are her preferred weapon of choice to make a difference.
Sarbani Ray is a blog and webzine writer, who writes both in English and in her native language, Bengali. Her first published work is a Bengali fiction, Kono Ek. An engineer by profession, she has worked in the public sector with a leading power generator of India for more than twenty-five years. She also holds an MBA degree from Warwick Business School, the UK, and specializes in global energy management. An avid reader of all kinds of books, writing has been her passion for a long time. Sarbani loves music, travel, creating new ideas and exploring new horizons.
Sashwati Ghosh is an architect and planner based in Kolkata and Milan, and a strong believer in sustainable living. She loves all creative and passionate pursuits, including reading, writing, cooking, travel and dance. She is a compulsive dreamer and her companions of choice are good books, strong coffee and the rains!
Mariam Rashid is an aspiring poet and a writer from Aligarh. She is currently busy collecting verses and stories, and the colours she sees on the streets of Aligarh. She desires to pour beautiful stories and verses of love and peace into the vessel of this world.
Krusha Sahjwani Malkani is a Mumbai girl with a dream to #WriteTheWorldPink. She heads business in the APAC region for a leading employee-communication platform, Sociabble, and is the co-founder of an initiative called The Pink Thread, which celebrates and empowers women in corporate India. You can read her thoughts and catch updates on her bo
oks on her Instagram page @write_the_world_pink
Hamsini R. loves filter coffee, enjoys singing and spends far too much time watching Korean dramas, when not absorbed in the latest page-turner. A corporate stooge by day and scribbler by night, Hamsini specializes in awkward social interactions and is petrified of small talk. Hamsini lives in Bengaluru with her husband and dreams of living in the countryside with two cats, a dog and a goat.
Kaustubhi Singh relishes reading as a means to understanding the world. As she reads more, she realizes that the ability to change the world lies in the power of words. That was what made her venture into writing.
Nandita Warrier is a corporate consultant, a leadership coach and a wellness enthusiast. A ‘butterfly in the making’, she is finding her wings as an author and wants to entertain and inspire the world through her writing.
Garima Bohra is a homoeopathic physician with a passion for writing. Many of her short stories have been published in a leading English magazine. She also has a published novel to her credit. She lives in Jodhpur with her family.
Writuraj Ghosh is a true Bengali, which explains his love for food, art and football. He is a bit of an introvert, but once he is friends, it is difficult to make him stop talking. In his leisure time, which is very rare, he likes to read or watch movies.
Maria K. Jimmy was born and brought up in Kochi, Kerala. She is a medical student, an avid reader, a major overthinker and a bossy elder sister to her three siblings. She is a full-time daydreamer who romanticizes the bittersweet ache of existence.
Aprajita Shishoo has worked with brands such as Hindustan Times and India Today. She moved to Mumbai to pursue a career as a writer and a film-maker. She currently works as a producer for a media house in Mumbai. She loves to read biographies, thrillers, political non-fiction, light romance and classics. She spends her weekends either chilling with Netflix or with friends.
Kiran Wingkar is an instructional designer from Bengaluru. Creating engaging content for viewers is part of her job. She gets excited about sharing her life experiences with the world.
THE BEGINNING
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Ebury Press is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.
This collection published 2020
Copyright © Ravinder Singh 2020
The moral right of the author has been asserted
Jacket images © Devangana Dash
This digital edition published in 2020.
e-ISBN: 978-9-353-05955-2
This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
You Are All I Need Page 19