An online connection by Hamsini Arya (early readers TXT) 📕

Shubhangi just woke up. She looked at the clock. It was 7. She mumbled to herself 'Damn, I overslept.' Hurriedly, she went to the dressing table. Took out her big clip. Tied her shoulder length hair into a tight little bun and rushed to the living room. She opened the front door, picked up the bottle of milk and the newspaper, put the newspaper at the centre table and rushed to the kitchen. She put the milk to boil, and went to her children's room to wake them up. With two white bunk beds, two red and blue study tables with a host of drawers, two large pink and blue closets, mickey mouse art on the pink and blue walls, long satin light purple curtains on two large windows, the room was beautiful and spacious. With the ac temperature set at 24 degree celsius, her twins were dozing with their comfy velvety 'winnie the pooh' blankets covering them cozily. Siddhant sleeps on the upper bunk and Siddhi sleeps on the lower bunk. Both of them are third graders, goes to the same school, but different divisions. The school was just 2 minutes walk from her home. Once Shubhangi enters her kids' room, the first thing she does is, switches off the AC. Then she opens the curtains and opens the windows. The sun beams brighten up the room. With the heat building up and sun beams disturbing them, the kids understand that it's a weekday and they have to go to school. Rubbing their eyes, both of them wake up and sit on their beds. Shubhangi first goes to Siddhi. Gives her a tight peck on her cheek. Picks up a rubber band. Ties Siddhi's long wavy brown hair into a tight pony tail and says 'Go freshen up baccha.' Siddhi wipes her eyes with her slender fair hands, and groggily goes to the bathroom. She then give Siddhant a tight hug, then gives a noisy peck on his plump cheeks, hands him his pair of oval framed glasses and whispers 'Principal will be up soon. We need to get ready before him'. Siddhant giggles and says 'Yeah, principal, hee hee hee'. He then gets down and goes to the bathroom in the guest room.
Theirs was a four bedroom apartment with attached bathrooms in all the bedrooms. The living room was huge. The colour of the two sets of white sofa sets with soft white cushions, went well with the light lavender coloured walls and beige long satin curtains with tiny lavender floral design. Hanging on the ceiling were two exquisite chandeliers, which Shameek had got during his visits abroad. Being a doctor, working with the UN, Shameek travels a lot. Whenever he goes on trips, he ensures he gets something for his beautiful home, Shubhangi and the kids. Shubhangi was not crazy for gifts, but when Shameek got something for her, she adored it. The 50 inch flat screen TV with sound system from 'Bose', made the living room lively. There was a family scrabble wall art on one of the walls.
Siddhant and Siddhi came to the dining room, where Shubhangi had already served their breakfast. Two bowls of chocolate flavoured cereals with chilled milk, topped with chopped strawberries and banana slices. While they eat, Shubhangi hurriedly gets their tiffin boxes ready. Just then, the master bedroom door squeaks and Siddhant says'Mom, principal is here' and the trio, Shubhangi, Siddhant and Sidhhi start giggling. 'Principal' was the nick name of Shameek. Shameek was an immensely caring father and loving husband, but he believed in discipline a lot. The kids and Shubhangi sometimes got tired of his discipline, but then, nobody could be as good a father and husband as him. Hence they loved him a lot. Shameek comes to the dining table, gives a loving pat on Siddhant's shoulder, and says 'Hurry up. We need to leave in another 20 minutes. I have herculean work today'. Siddhi then gets up from the table. Shameek carries her in his arms and plants a kiss on her forehead. Siddhi was slender, with sharp features and long untidy wavy hair. It was easy to carry Siddhi. Siddhant was plump with plump cheeks, tiny little nose and short, army style hair cut. Shubhangi served Shameek his breakfast, which included two dry chapatis with vegetable curry, some fresh fruits and a cup of tea. By the time Shameek was done with his breakfast, the kids got ready and came with their backpacks. Shubhangi packed their lunch boxes, put them inside their backpacks and opened the living room door. Shameek called up the driver to get the car outside and took the kids with him. He drops them at school, and Shubhangi picks them up. After they left, Shubhangi, sat on the sofa in the living room and took her phone. This was when, she got time to check her e-mails, facebook notifications and whatsapp messages. Just when she started browsing, the door bell rang. It was her house help 'Sarita'. Sarita was a chatterbox. The moment she comes, she narrates all the gossip she has about Shubhangi's neighbours. Shubhangi never added to the gossip, but she enjoyed listening. Once Sarita is done with chores, Shubhangi serves her filling breakfast. Sometimes it would be Aaloo ka paratha with butter, sometimes it would be poori sabzi, sometimes bread omelette, with a full large cup of tea with creamed milk and sugar. She has a soft corner for Sarita. Sarita has been with her since the birth of the twins till date. Sarita rarely takes leaves and is loyal to Shubhangi. No matter what, she never talks behind Shubhangi's back.
Today Sarita left early. She had to go visit some relative. Shubhangi being very kind and lenient, allowed her to leave early. Otherwise, Sarita stays till 7:30 p.m., and helps Shubhangi with all the household chores.

After Sarita left, Shubhangi went to her bedroom, and started sorting all the stuff in her closet. Just when she took out all the stuff, she saw a file. It was the file she had preserved since childhood. She is 32 now, and the file had letters from her pen friends all around the world, which she had made when she was in school. Getting nostalgic, she flipped through the letters. The first letter was a pink coloured letter from a girl named Maria. She was from England and she and Shubhangi used to write letters to each other very often. Shubhangi touched the letter and wondered 'where would she be?'. She had tried searching her earlier in facebook, but no luck. She flipped through the letters again. There were letters from Martha, she was from Kentucky, there were letters from Pratiksha, she was from Delhi, and many more. For now, she was in touch with none of them because she did not have their pictures and there were so many similar names and surnames. Then she came to the last letter. It was a short letter. The content was 'Thank you so much for the 'friendship band'. It was a lovely gesture. God bless you. Love.. Rohan. The letter was from Rohan. 'Bestie' as she called him. She remembered chatting with Rohan couple of times when she was in college, via the local chat website of her city. Apparently, he was staying there because his dad was in the air force and was transferred there. She had never met Rohan, but he had shared a pic of his. She liked talking to him and he had shared all about his family, his girlfriend and his hobbies. Shubhangi does not remember what exactly happened, but she did send a friendship band to him. After which, she always addressed him as 'bestie'. The term 'bestie' seemed a little weird for an online acquaintance, but she did not think about it much. After her graduation, she lost touch with him as well. She did try to find him on social media, but she could not. Today, she felt like trying to find again. She typed 'Rohan Malhotra', and a host of Rohan Malhotras came. No luck. 'No point trying. I don't think I will ever get in touch with any of my pen friends', she thought. Just then, she remembered, Rohan had mentioned the name of his elder sister. She tried finding her name. Bingo, she found it. And in her list of friends, she found his name. Thrilled, immediately, she sent him a friend request. Just then the door bell rang. The door bell had the tune of Beethoven's 'Fur Elise'. It was her neighbour cum friend cum relative Sanchita. Sanchita was Shubhangi's school friend, college friend, and co incidentally got married to Shameek's first cousin. She and Sanchita have been best of friends through out. The moment Sanchita came, Shubhangi said excitedly'I was about to call you. Guess what?' Sanchita asked perplexed 'What?'. I found Rohan Malhotra. Sanchita stood puzzled for a moment and widening her eyes said, 'You mean, your Rohan Malhotra? Shubhangi screamed 'Yes, my Rohan Malhotra. Sanchita said on a little irritated note, 'Yes, only a duffer like you can like that guy. How can you like someone without meeting???Shubhangi turned her eyes down and said ' you know how it happened right? How can you blame me for that?' Sanchita said,' Now, no point crying over spilled milk. You liked that guy. Just because he said he had a girl friend, you did not know how to address him, you ended up making him 'just a friend'and to avoid your guilt, you even sent him a friendship band.'. I repeatedly told you not to do that. But no, as it is, you are of the victorian era. No point making you understand. And, to make it worse, I was the one who helped you in sending that. Sanchita was fuming with rage. After her anger cooled, she looked at Shubhangi, who was already feeling worse. Sanchita then smiled and said, 'Leave it. Now tell me, did he accept your request, does he still remember you?' Shubhangi said looking away, 'I have no clue. Till now, he has not accepted my request.' Sanchita held Shubhangi's shoulders with her hand and said, 'Shubhangi, whatever it is, just take care of yourself. You suffered a lot when you started liking him. You knew it was one way. You knew this was something which seemed so unreal. Yet you continued to have feelings for him. It took you years to take him away from your mind.' Shubhangi did not say anything. She went ahead to check if Rohan had accepted her request. No, not yet. While Shubhangi went ahead to make tea, Sanchita, yelled from the living room 'I hope this fellow doesn't accept your request'.

After Sanchita left, Shubhangi prepared the evening meal. Later in the evening, after her kids came, her husband came, they had dinner, and after dinner, at around 11:00 p.m., she got a notification, that Rohan accepted her request. She was thrilled. She asked herself, why was she thrilled? Neither had she met him, nor do they talk much. Her heart told her, it's her attraction towards him since day 1 that always pulled her heart towards him. She did not send him any message. Next morning, she saw a post from him on his wall. She did not read it, because she did not have time, but she clicked on the 'like' button. Just then a message came from him'Hey, long time. How have you been?' She replied, ' Yeah, all good. How about you?' He immediately sent three pics of his family. He had two adorable daughters and a beautiful wife. Sanchita sent a smiley and replied 'Lovely!' . He was still the same. 6 feet tall, sharp features, dusky