When Hari Met His Saali (33 page)

What he didn’t know was that before Simi left the X-Ashram for McLeod Ganj, Xavier had taken her aside and told her a little trick. It had something to do with saying
abracadabra
and had also given her a release word. She was to use it from time to time, for brief periods, to make her man do the things she wanted him to do. But Simi was diligent with its use. Only once had she had Hari cook for her during the honeymoon, but she couldn’t resist it with the massages of course.

Hari and Simi had decided that for the first two years of their marriage, they would stay with her mother in Nagpur. Hari would handle the Hyderabad unit of his company during that time. The whole of Nagpur would be stunned that Simi landed an American catch like Hari.

Now that Simi and Xavier knew the truth about Hari, Tia had her own suspicions. Tia would Skype them obsessively, casually asking probing questions like, ‘Simi, I pray for your happiness every day. You are happy,
na
?’ or ‘Did Hari remember it was Valentine’s Day today?’

Of course, Simi and her mother knew what Tia was doing. They would laugh about it.

‘Is she checking upon us?’ Hari would often ask.

‘Of course she is. Don’t you know Tia?’ Simi would smile and explain to Hari.

What they didn’t know was that after they had left for their honeymoon, Tia had hung back at the X-Ashram for a few days. It was right after Tia’s mother had hugged her and said to her, ‘I wish your father could see us today. Like he predicted, you girls have made me proud,
beta.
’

Even Mary had hugged Tia with respect and in gratitude.

‘I now know what you had wished for at the Malibu Temple.’

After everyone was gone, Tia had stayed back.

‘I need some time for myself.’

She would bother Xavier by asking him whether Hari’s spell was truly broken or not. Of course, Xavier would not tell her either way, but by the fifth day it had gotten so bad that to this day Tia is barred from entering the X-Ashram, forever.

Tia took the next flight back
home
… to Los Angeles.

While Hari was in India, Tia would spend so much time at Mary’s house, she almost started living there. Mary and Barry would introduce her to others as their daughter.

Tia’s Bollywood Wednesday nights were now called
My Movie, My Wine Nights.

The New York project was completed on time and within budget.

Tia was made a junior partner at Stephan’s architecture firm and was now making serious money.

Even her personal life had started looking up.

In the last couple of months she had been seeing a guy called Siddharth ‘Sid’ Rallan. They had gone out on a few dates and liked each other a lot. They used to generally hang out as well. He was a great talker, and a listener as well. Tia had some reservations about him … of course. His height was an issue; he was too tall. Then there was his last name, which she didn’t like. She’d have to change her entire last name should she marry him. She was so used to the idea of going from Galhotra to Malhotra that this one was a big issue for her to overcome. It called for a major adjustment on her behalf, so she was taking it easy. Not making any hard decisions.

She had even taken him to casually meet up with Barry and Mary. Mary had given him the thumbs up, while
Badi Mamma
and
Nana
had winked at her. Tia was not sure if it was to show their approval or not, but she was happy she had the Malhotras standing by her.

But Tia seesawed a lot.

And as fate would have it she was introduced to a guy called Adirath ‘Adi’ Rallan, who was Sid’s younger brother and lived in India. They had only met briefly when she had gone to see him off with Sid at the airport. He was a
lawyer and couldn’t stop talking about a TV show currently running in India called
The Practice.

When they said goodbye their hands had brushed accidently.

At first she didn’t think too much of their brief airport encounter, or their hands touching, or the electric current that had run through her body, but she couldn’t deny that she was rendered almost speechless.

But the words that had come out of her mouth had surprised even her.

‘Oh, Bobby Donnell!’

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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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© 2014 Harsh Warrdhan

Published in India 2014 by
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ISBN 978-9-351-06412-1

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