CHAPTER-6

One week just passed quickly and Misti invited everyone including Namrata Di also and Misti was very happy that Namrata Di happily informed her that she would come to her birthday and Namrata Di also informed her that she already joined another dance troupe and started to working there. 

Misti felt genuinely happy for Namrata di after all she was not only her dance teacher/choreographer, Misti always considered her as her elder sister. Misti had no elder sister in her relatives, she had one elder cousin brother Soham who was 10 years older than she, and Misti loved him a lot, he was the perfect lovely caring brother a sister could ever get, he was the only son of Misti's eldest uncle, the big brother of Misti's father.

 Misti's every relative from her father side were also invited to her birthday party, Misti already had a lot of relatives from her father side, Misti's father had three siblings, one elder brother, and three years younger twin brother, and one little sister, they all are invited along with their family members and Misti's grandfather was also invited, sadly Misti's grandmother died just two years ago and except the relatives, only Archana, Tulika, Ronita, Arnab, Malhotra uncle and Namrata Di were invited in the party. Misti really felt excited, all her favorite people would come to her birthday and she was really going to enjoy their company.

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

(MISTI'S POV)

"Happy birthday Di... Many many happy returns of the day.." Sristi wished me in the morning.

I slowly opened my eyes and saw Sristi was standing beside my bed and I looked at the watch on my side table and saw it was only 7.00 A.M.

 Ma and Baba also came into my room and Ma held a tray in her hand and the trey there was a freshly baked chocolate cake, Ma put it on the side table and Baba put a knife and candles just beside it. I looked at Mom and asked, "You made it?"

"No, Doll, This time Sristi made it," Ma replied to me.

"God knows how it will be!!!!" I said it loudly with a fake worried tone.

 As I guess Sristi instantly protested, "Hey Di, It is awesome. I know I just started to learn baking only six months ago but now I am an expert."

"Doll, you know already cutie pie's cooking skill is awesome just like your mother," Baba said to me.

"Yeah, Baba I know it. I was just trying to annoy my little sister. It is my birthday. I can do it today," I said to my father.

"Now stop it and cut the cake," Ma said to me.

Sristi quickly lit the candles, I took the knife, closed my eyes. made a wish and blew out the candles and cut the cake.

"Happy birthday to you," they all said in unison.

Sristi took a piece of cake and shoved it into my mouth. I took some cream and applied it to Sristi's cheek.

"Stop it both of you," Ma said to us.

"Yeah, we also need a cake," Dad said to us playfully.

I took two pieces of cake and gave one piece each to my parents and cut a large piece of cake and started to eat it.

 Sristi pouted and said, "Di, I also need one piece."

"Get it yourself, my little sister. Do not disturb your sister on her birthday, " I said to her.

Sristi cut a piece and started to eat, I finished my piece and again tried to cut one piece for myself.

"Enough Doll, no more cake in the morning. Get ready. You still have to go to school," Ma said to me.

"Ma today is my birthday," I said to my mother.

"Party is at the night. So both of you get ready and come for breakfast," Ma said and left the room.

"You will get your birthday present at night Doll," Baba said to me.

"Thank you, Baba," I said to him.

Baba smiled and left the room after that. Sristi and I both looked at each other, sighed and got ready one by one, and went for breakfast and soon we left for school. Archana, Sristi, and I talked about my party at night in our whole ride towards school. 

Today I just wished that my school hours just finished quickly and I had just come back home and enjoyed my birthday party with my favorite people after all my birthday came once a year!!

IN THE EVENING -

I tried to dress up quickly, I wore a beautiful white Dhakai saree gifted by Ma for my birthday, a sleeveless silver color shimmer blouse with deep v cut in the back, exposing my smooth fair skin of the back then I put on one pair of pure silver earrings and some pure silver bangles on my left hand and a pure silver chain komorbandh( It's a type of Indian jewelry like a waistband mainly made of metal sometimes crafted with stone) and a floral silver nose pin, that's all!!! 

I did not like to wear a lot of jewelry, so, it was more than enough for me. Now, this time was for makeup and I loved to make up, okay not all make up products but the lipstick was my favorite, so, I just searched for the most perfect lipstick for the party, I opened my makeup pouch in which all my lipstick was stored, it was about 30 I knew some people can think it was too many but for me, a girl could never have too many lipsticks right!!!

 But most of them were drug store brands I only had two high ends branded lipstick which I gifted myself when I started earnings from my dance shows, one was Ruby Woo by Mac and another one Mac Mehr but I loved all my lipsticks but now I got confused to choose one lipstick for my birthday party, then my room door opened and my whole girl gang entered, Sristi, Archana, Tulika and Ronita, they all were dressed up and looked beautiful.

Archana said to me, "Hey you are not ready yet!! It's your birthday girl."

"I can't choose the right lipstick shade for today. Please help," I said to them. They all laughed at the same time.

"You and your crazy love for lipstick," Ronita said to me.

"Stop it. All of you. I can drink, eat, sleep lipstick!!!!!" I said to them with a faked angry pout.

"This is your gift from all of us," Tulika handed me a packet, I saw it and my face instantly lit up, It was a packet of 'Sephora', I quickly opened it and first saw a Huda Beauty liquid lipstick in shade "Icon", I screamed in happiness "yeaaaa..... Thank you, everyone,", it was a perfect nude shade for my skin tone. 

"Look at other things as well," Archana said to me. 

I looked in the bag again and there was a Mac eyeliner I looked at it carefully and exclaimed in joy "Wow!! A blue eyeliner..." then I paused for a moment and said "Thanks, girls... I love you all."

They were all new I loved blue, blue was my favorite color I loved anything in blue color.

"We all love you too," they said in unison.

"Now get ready Di. Everyone is waiting for you. You are always late!!!"Sristi said to me.

Ronita added, "Yeah, I am sure she will be also late on her marriage day and her bridegroom just lose his patience."

 AS soon as Ronita finished her word everyone started to laugh out loud.

I did not pay any attention to them and quickly put some BB cream on my face, I was never a foundation person and quickly applied some concealer underneath my eyes, put new lipstick which was given by my girls' gang, and put the eyeliner too, then quickly applied a black-kajal and smudged it a bit and I was done with my makeup.

"Please, someone help me with my hair," I said to them. 

Archana quickly made a traditional bun which went well with my traditional saree look and made a few curls in the hair and left it loose on both sides of my face and I gave her a quick hug.

We all now left our room and walked upstairs towards the rooftop. As soon as we reached the rooftop, a big smile appeared on my face it was decorated beautifully with flowers and with colorful lights. There was a table in the middle beautifully decorated with roses and there was a huge round shape black forest cake in the middle of it and candles were there and a knife was laid just beside the cake. 

Some other tables and chairs were also on the rooftop for guests to sit and enjoy themselves and on aside table there were placed many kinds of mouthwatering snacks, Samosa, Chicken pakora, fish finger, paneer pakora, french fries, etc.

 I looked at my family my grandfather, my father's elder brother and his wife Piya and my only cousin-brother Soham, my father's younger twin brother and sister Sanjay and Sweety and aunt Sweety's husband and daughter, my lovely cousin-sister Monica who was two years older than Sristi and three years younger than me were present as I expected uncle Sanjay's wife and his daughter Athena who was just five months older than me did not come to my birthday party.

 I did not know why uncle Sanjay's wife Reha and his daughter did not like my Ma or me and Sristi, even when we went to her birthday party, aunt Reha completely ignored the three of us and Athena said some mean words towards me but Sristi gave her a death glare and she became silent, though she did not like Sristi a bit but she was afraid of her, no one wanted to mess with my karate girl!!. But I truly wanted that they both would come, we are family after all. 

"Where is Ma?" I asked them.

 Aunt Sweety said to me "Your mother is in the kitchen, I and Piya bhabhi also helped her with cooking (Bhabhi means wife of your elder brother and one friend also used the term to mention another friends wife) but your mother just send us to the rooftop and assured us she will finish the rest of the cooking."

 Aunt Piya said "Sweety it's Boudi, not Bhabhi.. " she paused for a moment and again said playfully "You just forget the Bengali language."

Aunt Sweety just rolled her eyes and said " Yeah I am living outside of West Bengal for the past fifteen years. It was bound to happen. It is obvious you just can't blame me." and she said again "Moreover love is important not what I address to tell you and I love both my sister in law and that is important than anything."

"Drama queen," my father and both my uncle said in unison, and aunt Sweety gave a glare towards her brothers, and the rest of us just laughed.

My grandfather used to say that all girls in our family were dramatic and extrovert in one or another way it includes aunt Sweety as she was the only girl in our previous generation and in our generation Sristi, Monica, and Athena all are extroverts and also drama queens but in a different way but according to my grandfather's opinion I was never fit in this category as I was always prefer less drama in my life. 

"Happy Birthday Doll," my grandfather wished me and the same time he handed me a envelope , I knew it there was cash , he always gave all his grand children cash as a gift since when each of us reached five year individually, though all our parents were annoyed by his action because usually Indian parents or elders did no give cash to the young children but he informed his every children that if from younger age we tried to managed the money properly then we would understand the value of money, so he started from a small amount of money when we were young and increased the amount with our age and it did help me and my sister and other cousins as well to learned the money management or how to use it properly and my parents , uncles and aunts are grateful to my grandfather for the idea and I knew that my grand father was always a great source of wisdom , he faced lot of hard ship in his childhood , he was only child as because my great grand father died when my grandfather was only three and my great grand mother raised him with utmost difficulty but my grand father achieved his goal in his life and he became a very successful lawyer but now he retired due to his age.

Ma entered the rooftop with Namrata Di and Namrata Di also wished me happy birthday and handed her gift to me and all my other relatives of me also handed me a different present which they bought for me. I took all of the presents one by one and said "Thank you " to all of them individually. 

Then I placed all gifts on a nearby table.

"Now, cut the cake please!!!" brother Soham said in excitement.

"Let all of my guests come first!!" I said to him. He instantly looked at all of us and then he realized something and said "Oh. I am so sorry I do not realize Malhotra uncle is not here."

 I just gave him a small smile.

Malhotra uncle just entered the rooftop with a smile and said, " Happy birthday Angel. Many many happy returns of the day." and handed me two gifts at the same time, this may be an unusual thing for someone else but for me, it was normal since I received two gifts from Malhotra uncle from my first birthday though practically I did not have any memory of my first birthday but I heard it from my parents but from the earliest birthday that I could re-memorized to till today he gave me two gifts on my birthday and surprisingly he gave me two gifts for my birthday only not my sister's birthday, Sristi received only one gift from Malhotra uncle in her birthday though birthday gifts in not our main priority but sometimes Sristi told me that Malhotra uncle loved me more than her and when I argued she gave me these specific reasons as an example, though she did not dare to say it before my parents, especially in front of Ma. 

I took it and smiled at him and said " Thank you," to him. 

"Now cut the cake.. please," again my cousin Soham said and waited for a reply.

"Please, wait for a few minutes," though I said it politely but anyone can feel the little annoyance in my voice of course I was annoyed because Arnab was not here yet and I was not going to cut the cake without his presence.

Everyone was just talking to each other and I was checking my phone for the time it's already 6.50 P.M and Arnab was still not coming to the party now I started to feel tense because I was not sure he would come to my party or not and if it happened then this would be my worst birthday. 

Archana said to me, "Hey!! why are you nervous?" I looked at her in confusion I did not say anything to her, she understood it but how? before I asked her about this, she pointed her fingers towards my lips.

 Now, I understood I just bit my lips to hide my emotion whenever I felt nervous or tense I had just done it since my childhood and who was very close to me knew it very well, thank god everyone was busy otherwise they also understood it and I was not fully ready to disclose my feelings towards Arnab in front of my family members not only because my family members were still conservative and in my family, only my Ma and Baba from the previous generation did love marriage and others preferred arranged marriage and for my parents, it was not also a path of rose petals and they faced a lot of problems though finally they made it and love won in the end. 

But I knew it very well I was going to face some problem though I knew my Ma, Baba would support me because Arnab was a good guy but there was also had another reason I did not say anything to him means any particular thing to show my love and Arnab also did not share his feelings towards me, I did not know how he felt about me and I was a little bit scared what would happen if he rejected me at the end. 

"What Misti? say something," Archana said to me again.

 I looked at her and explained everything, she squeezed my hands and said, "Everything will be fine don't worry." She paused for a moment and again said, " He will come and my opinion is that just confess to him about your feelings. I am sure he feels the same towards you." 

I gave her a small smile because I was not sure if he would come I was able to propose to him or not, I was too much worried about his reaction and if he was going to reject me after my proposal I was afraid that I was also going to lose my friend and indeed Arnab was a very good friend of mine and he supported me a lot in my bad times.

 I looked at my guests thankfully they were not asking me any question and I was a bit surprised that my cousin Soham also kept quiet for the last ten minutes, my eyes searched for him and I found him in one corner with some cold drinks in his hand, of course, hard drinks were not allowed in my home and my eyes widened he talked too much with Namrata Di, Soham Da always was a shy person he was not very talkative in fact I am the most talkative person in my generation okay I admitted not most because Sristi and I both could compete for each other only in this habit and in other aspects we too were far different from each other but the way Soham Da talked to Namrata Di and the way he looked at her it was not very common behavior for him, he did not feet much comfortable to talk with unknown girls. 

At that moment I felt a finger taped in my left shoulder and I moved my attention towards it and saw Sristi give a bewildered look, we exchanged a look with each other and both grinned, Archana cleared her throat by my left side.

 I just forgot she was standing here, I and Sristi both looked at her and before she could ask us anything Sristi pointed her finger towards the corner where Namrata Di and my cousin Soham were standing, Archana gave us a confused look and asked " What?"

Before I could say anything Sristi spoke first and explained to her about our cousin's shy nature and Archana said again "So what?" and I really wanted to smack her head but I could not do so because I did not want to draw the attention of everyone towards us.

"I think Soham Da is interested in Namrata Di," Sristi replied.

Archana asked, "How do you know that ?" 

 Sristi said, "The way he looks at her it is clearly visible."

Archana now gave her a bewildered look and said " Since when you are also feeling this stupid lovey-dovey thing."

Sristi snapped at Archana and said, " Eweew... I do not believe in this stupid thing ."

"Hey do not speak like that," I protested and as usual they both did not pay any attention to my words.

"Now follow me," Sristi said to us.

" But why? Do not disturb them," I said to them and as usual they gave me the follow us or stay here look.

I sighed and followed them and we soon reached the corner and at first, Sristi said " Hi, Soham da how are you?" and then she made a dramatic face and said again " You forget about your little sister and it's not fair" and then Archana said " Namrata di I missed you so much" and then she quickly hugged her.

 Soham da and Namrata di both paused for a moment and I just saw the face of the Soham da it was clearly visible he was feeling annoyed I just understood his situation, Archana and Sristi both could go too far to pull someone's leg. 

 Soham Da said to Sristi with a forced smile on his face " I am very good. How are you?" 

Namrata Di looked at me and Archana and said "I missed both of you" and smiled shyly. Then there was an awkward moment of silence, Sristi looked at Soham da constantly, Soham da wanted to look at Namrata di but he could not do so in our presence so he either looked down at the floor or looked above at the sky and Namrata Di did not decide what to do or said to us but from her expression, I assumed that she also enjoyed the moment with my cousin and we came here and just ruined there moment. 

"Is there any problem?" Sristi asked innocently.

 I just wanted to drag her by her hand and wanted to go to the other side of the rooftop at this moment, I knew it ... she asked it because she wanted to embarrass them more.

"No problem," Namrata Di and Soham Da said in unison.

" Ohhhh..,." Archana and Sristi said in unison and that too in a mocking tone.

 After that comment, Namrata di's cheeks turned bit red in embarrassment. 

Now I wondered my elder cousin was too first and I was not able to do anything like that. I looked at all of them and saw Archana and Sristi smirked at Namrata di and Soham da and they both looked more embarrassed and did not find any solution to what to do next.

I cleared my throat and said " Archana, Sristi I need your help ."

"What help?" they said in unison by their tone they did not want to go anywhere and did not want to miss any chance to tease Namrata Di and Soham Da.

Now I really felt irritated about Archana and Sristi's action and I went near both of them and gave them a pinch to their back and thanks to my long nails they whined and looked at me and I gave all of them an innocent smile and before they complained I said to them "I saw a cockroach here."

 As soon as I finished my sentence "Ahhhh.." Sristi and Archana both screamed and ran away from that area. They both were afraid of cockroaches." Thank God" I j murmured after that I looked at Namrata Di and my elder Cousin and gave them a broad smile which they returned and I left them for their personal moment at the corner. 

I soon walked towards Archana and Sristi both were still looked afraid and Ronita and Tulika also looked nervous and they all searched the nearby floor for the cockroach and they all went to the front of the rooftop door from where someone could go towards the downstair. 

They all were afraid of cockroaches and I felt surprised why all of them were so afraid of cockroaches specially Archana and Sristi both were trained in martial arts they both did a lot of daredevil things but they were afraid of a tiny cockroach means seriously!!! 

I joined them and they said in unison "You find it or not?"

"Relax. There is no cockroach," I said to them. Now all of them glared at me.

"Why you lied to us," Archana said to me.

"Shut up both of you," I said and pointed my fingers towards Archana and Sristi. 

"what they did now?" Ronita asked me. 

I just gave her a brief description of the incident. Ronita gave them a disapproving look and Tulika giggled and joined them both for more gossiping after all she was the best friend of my little devil sister and I forgot to mention an only friend, my little sister could not make friends easily, she had trust issue and Tulika was alike her so she was her only friend and best friend both.

"Doll. it's already 7.15. Please now come and cut the cake. Maybe Arnab will be late and he will join us for dinner. Our guests are waiting for a long time," Ma said to me.

"Wait for five minutes Ma. Please," I said to her.

"Okay, Only five minutes but not more than that," Ma said to me and again joined my family in the center.

I felt sad now I really wanted that Arnab would be present at the moment when I would cut the cake but I did not feel that he would be able to make it. I looked at the door and was about to turn my head then a huge smile appeared on my face he came through the door and he was wearing blue jeans and a white shirt and styled his hair with hair gel and I just wondered how a man looked so good and cute in his early twenties. I just looked at him in awe.