Tale 90

Gyan's parents divorced when he was in his preteens...
His mother remarried and then raised him along with her second husband....
However well his step father treated him, Gyan was still left with a void and missed his biological father terribly...
He graduated, secured a job and married his college girlfriend...
They however unfortunately got a divorce after their little baby passed away...
They already had a few tensions between them and with the baby's demise things got bitter with the blame game and finger pointing....
They couldn't cope up with the tragedy neither could they support each other at the most challenging times of their lives...
Shattered and broken Gyan restarted his life...
Changed his job and focussed on work...
He also got himself registered on a matrimonial website seeking prospective life partners for the second time...
He started exchanging mails with this girl
Sagarika who was an occupational therapist from Nasik...
They seemed to gel along well however kept things low key and on hold until they actually met outside the online virtheelsietting...
She was supposed to visit Mumbai for an interview at a hospital in a few months after her internship at a local ortho - clinic in her city...
Both Sagarika and Gyan eagerly awaited her visit to Mumbai in near future...
In the mean while one of Gyan's office colleague Gayatri had a crush on him....
She confessed her liking to him after office hours one day...
Pleasantly surprised, Gyan thought to himself that this was a decent proposal...
Gayatri was a good looking girl who was diligent at work and seemed to be a nice human...
However she told him that her parents were extremely conservative and wouldn't agree to her marrying out of their caste... However she was ready to go against them since she loved him very much...
Gyan and Gayatri visited her parents to tell them about their decision however they reacted harshly to the alliance...
Gyan's mother and step father however welcomed Gayatri's proposal and started the wedding preparations...
Within a few months things moved fast and the wedding day and venue was de decided...
Gayatri however did not turn up on the fixed date saying that she was unwell...
After understanding her situation Gyan's parents postponed the date to another month ahead, booked a hall this time and made arrangements for the wedding yet another time...
Just two days before their wedding Gyan felt like trying to convince Gayatri's parents for one last time...
He visited their house and requested them to be present for one of the most important day in their daughter's life....
He was shocked to see that Gayatri couldn't firmly support him and failed to speak up in front of her parents...
She surrendered to the parental pressure and backed out at the last moment...
Numbed by the incident Gyan returned home and narrated everything to his parents...
Just then to his utter surprise he received a call from Sagarika saying that she was in Mumbai, staying at her relative's place for a week since the interview was scheduled that weekend...
She wanted to meet up...
Gyan called her to meet him at his parents place the very same day and narrated everything to her....
Sagarika and Gyan spent the next day together talking and discussing things and life in general...
And they finally concluded that the wedding would still take place the next day...
Just with Sagarika as a bride...
She had fallen head over heels in love with him already while they chatted online and now even more so after meeting him...
As unreal as it may seem Gyan married Sagarika on the decided date with full support of his parents...
Sagarika showed courage to follow her heart and told him that she would handle her parents back at Nasik well by explaining the situation to them after the interview...
Luckily she also got the job at the hospital after her interview and then took Gyan to Nasik to introduce him to her parents...
After initial shock her parents too accepted their daughters choice and welcomed Gyan as their son in-law...
Gyan left his job at the office to avoid awkward interaction with Gayatri...
He started as an entrepreneur and set up a new company with a loan and some financial help of his parents...
The loan is repayed parents investment dutifully returned and his company is doing exceedingly well within a couple of years...
Sagarika is also well settled as a visiting O.T. associated with reputed hospitals in Mumbai. 
They are glad to have found each other...
It's Sagarika's very first and Gyan's not at all first but definitely long lasting love which they and we hope lasts forever...
Ups or downs, twists and turns... 
Some stories end up on a high and a happy note...
‪#‎notsotinytales‬
- Prajakta Sathe

Tale 89

There was this pretty girl Rimi born and brought up in Shimla raised by working parents both Teachers in a school...
They were a family of scholars and academicians where studying was a priority...
After completing engineering at her hometown she went to Delhi for her MBA...
There she stayed with her Maasi's family for two years again in a safe and sound home set up....
She was good in studies and got picked up in an on campus interview for a job in Pune...
She was merely 24 and a fresh graduate from college with no real experience of staying away from loved ones and hence was apprehensive about taking it up...
However her parents insisted on her going in for this job as they wanted her to experience work culture and make her independent and confident....
She had been a timid introvert young girl who rarely took challenges...
However she gave in to the parental pressure and went to Pune...
There she stayed with 3 more working girls in a rented apartment....
IT industry, corporate culture and new city was overwhelming... 
Rimi continued her journey from work to apartment and apartment to work for a few days...
But slowly she started getting bored over the weekends...
Her fellow housemates suggested she'd join them for outings and fun on Saturdays and Sundays...
Movies, malls, dinners, pubs, treks, coffee shops, rock concerts, parties she got used to the perks of enjoying her life....
Happy and single this went on for a few days...
On one side she was approached by many young men to date or to hang out with....
And there were more than one labels to the men that asked her out...casual friends , best friends, mid night call friends, protective friends, crushes but acquaintances, friends who could be prospective boyfriends, husband material etc....
She and her housemates gossiped over boys and had their share of fun and teasing....
Almost all the three of her housemates had boyfriends by then....
But what surprised her that inspire of having boyfriends they still looked at other guys and chatted with strangers and flirted with office colleagues....
These Girls were her bestest friends and truely wonderful humans...
But she wondered if this is how things worked in the dating scenario...
She saw almost everyone around going steady and yet being available for interaction beyond the lines of friendship...
Committed couples had flings, some others had one night stands, remaining few went on dates when their partners were unavailable...
Coming from a small town, she was in for a cultural shock...
She was afraid of committing to anyone....
She had experienced one acquaintance turn into an obsessive stalker and had handled him with the help of her close confidants from work and home...
She had received a few serious proposals directly for marriage...
Rimi liked a few boys and secretly wished to have a boyfriend but was afraid of the baggage that came with the relationship...
While she saw most around in an open relationship she cringed at the thought of sharing herself with someone who she did not have any guarantee of commitment...
For her getting attention from men was very common...
She was used to it since her teens...
But not having someone to call her own was her problem...
She felt lonely... She craved company...
She needed someone to be with her emotionally and physically....
During the Diwali break she went back to Shimla to visit her parents...
They were happy to see a much confidant and outspoken Rimi...
The job and pune had done wonders to her personality...
They asked her if she was ready for marriage to which she replied that she was confused but did not mind looking at some proposals to test the waters as to what the arrange marriage scene is all about...
A coffee shop date was set up with a boy...
Ritesh was a C.A. and worked in his dad's firm in the same town...
He seemed to be a decent guy to talk to in the first meet...
For the second meet he came with his elder sister Nilanjana to Rimi's house...
Nilanjana was a short slim dusky complexioned female with beautiful Kohl lined eyes a pixie cut and a silver nose pin 
She wore khaki cigarette pants with a handloom kaftan to go with a raw silk stole...
Her rimless glasses neatly underlined the bright red bindi on her forehead...
Ritesh seemed a bit intimidated in the company of his Niladidi...
She was a renowned novel writer who had chosen to stay single....
Nilanjana had clear understanding about how their family was and explained the nitty gritties to Rimi...
In this meet the only one person who talked was Nilanjana and all others listened....
She did have an aura to her personality...
Her voice was basal with a kind of melody to it...
Ritesh's existence seemed to fade off with the glory that Nilanjana exuded...
Rimi was a delicate girl with long brown hair almond eyes and slender figure....
She made a good match with Tall dark and handsome Ritesh....
A third meet was planned at Ritesh's place...
It was Laxmi pujan day and the celebrations in full swing....
Rimi's presence at their residence in that day was almost taken as a Yes from her side to this alliance....
Nilanjana was at her study writing something...
Rimi came upstairs to call her for the aarti...
Nilanjana told her to wait and finished her page and they started going down just when Rimi slipped from the steps and fell down....
Nilanjana caught hold of her and pulled her up...
As she pulled her up they brushed past each others bodies...
They looked into each others eyes....
Rimi tried pull out of the gaze to rush down however couldn't since her leg had sprained....
Nilanjana gave her support and took her back to the room for applying pain relieving spray....
As she lay Rimi down the chair Rimi caught hold of Nilanjana and rested her lips over hers.... 
Nilanjana kind of knew what happened and they exchanged a passionate smooch over the next few moments...
It was Rimi's first ever sexual experience with anyone till then....
Nilanjana was sure about her orientation towards girls and told her that she did like women and only women....
However Rimi wasn't sure and it was confusing for her....
Nilanjana asked her of she had any interaction with men before to which Rimi replied yes but never anything sexual...
Both of them rushed down for the aarti which had already started by then....
While returning back Ritesh dropped Rimi back home...
He held her hand and looked at her with a smile....
Rimi retrieved it gently saying that she was sorry and she did not think that they were compatible....
Ritesh was almost heartbroken and shocked in disbelief....
After this episode Rimi told her parents that she did not feel Ritesh was the right boy for her....
They too did not enforce anything on her....
She returned back to Pune and started her routine....
She couldn't get Nilanjana out of her mind....
One afternoon she received a call from an unknown number....
Not knowing whom it might be she picked it up....
It was Nilanjana....
She was in Pune she called Rini to meet her at the Airport....
Nilanjana spoke to her confessing that she was head over heels in love with Rimi and couldn't think of anything else 
She had packed her bags and had come to Pune for good....
She had come out about her being a lesbian in front of her parents and opted out of the house....
Nilanjana being one of the best selling authors did not have to worry about finances....
She proposed to Rimi at the Airport and told her to come settle down with her in Pune....
Nilanjana had already got in touch with a real estate broker and booked a one bedroom condo for herself in Pune....
Rimi for the first time ever in life said a confident Yes and moved in with her beloved Nila....
Both of them wrote back to their families about the decision....
Their families never reverted back....
All of Nila's novels since then have been super hit blockbusters in the fiction category....
Rimi and Nila are one happy couple completing and complimenting each other in all ways possible and compatible....
Rimi still works in her old office, and is friends with her old housemates and colleagues while Nila has joined their gang as Rimi's first and probably the most beautiful love ever....
Nilanjana and Rimi are happy together...
Some love stories pleasantly surprise us....
The fact stays true that Love happens. 
And it is Universal....
It can happen between any one...
It can never be labelled . 
It is one of the most and fewest Natural and pure feelings in life...
Not many tales can move on from being fear based to love based....
Those who do... Create magic....
‪#‎notsotinytales‬
- Prajakta Sathe

Tale 88

Smruti was named so because her father felt that she was the last best memory her mother left him with after dying due complications during delivery....
Smruti was their first child and hence her young father was left with a newborn with no experience of parenting...
In our society where mother plays the most important part bringing up kids, Smruti's father felt lost...
He chose to keep contact with his in-laws to the bare minimum since he felt that now with his wife having passed away they had almost no role to play in the life of him and his daughter....
He along with his mother (Smruti's grandmom) raised her with lots of love and care...
The grandmother passed away when Smruti was in college...
She fell in love with a boy a few years senior to her and also an ex - student from her college who happened to participate at the alumni meet in their premises...
Sangram reciprocated her life since he liked her gentle nature and matured attitude towards life....
Sangram came from a very different background, he had literally risen from struggles that he faced being from a remote village while growing up....
He studied on the basis of the scholarships he received and faired brilliantly in academics and secured a job at the on campus interview in his last year of college....
He stayed alone in the city in a rented apartment along with 3 fellow housemates who shared the living expenses....
This boy Sangram was from a scheduled tribe caste while Smruti was a brahmin....
Her father was an extremely conservative man with a closed mindset...
When he came to know of Smruti's love affair with Sangram he reacted extremely aggressively.... 
Smruti tried to explain her views and their love... Nothing helped....
At last as planned they got married the day after Smruti appeared for her last paper of graduation exam.
It was a secret marriage with the support of their friends and Sangram's office colleagues....
Smruti's father disowned her and told her never ever to see him again...
They rented a flat at Virar and started a life...
Smruti and Sangram both had to make adjustments and compromises in their day to day life due to the socio economic and cultural difference that they were used to....
However their love was greater than their customs and beliefs and they knew how to merge mend and culminate their conditioning so as to make a comfort zone which would be accommodating and soothing to both...
They went to the extent of changing their names to Smruti Sangram and Sangram Smruti in order to be together as individuals taking humanity as a universal religion in every sense...
Smruti enrolled for a pre school teaching course while Sangram worked and earned just enough for the both of them...
One evening as Sangram was returning home, he was crossing the road and got accidentally knocked down by a truck driver who probably dozed off on wheel...
It was a terrible incident...
Sangram lost both his feet and had a few ribs broken...
Smruti was shocked to the core...
It was going to be difficult to sustain recuperate and bring life back to normal....
Thankfully insurance cover helped them with the medical expenses....
However their savings went off in paying the rent and bills...
Sangram insisted that Smruti completed her course in pre-school training so as to get independent to support them until he could find ground....
It was a difficult task for Smruti to stay focussed on her studies as well as manage the house and juggle with Sangram who was still dependent on her physically for his day to day chores....
They chose to stick on...
As fellow humans...
They never regretted what date threw at them....
Smruti has now joined a franchise branch of a famous preschool chain in Virar and also takes private tutions at home...
Sangram is now relatively independent in locomotion with his wheel chair...
He got a considerably lower paying job which requires him to work from home....
Nevertheless he finds that working gives him peace and dignity...
Smruti and Sangram are proud of each other...
‪#‎notsotinytales‬ 
- Prajakta Sathe

Tale 87

Long long ago...almost more than half a century back...
There was a young girl named Saraswati who was married to a widower named Vishwanath...
He was a subdued gentleman who was dominated by his wife...
Saraswati was an independent woman who was headmistress of a girls school back then...
Vishwanath also gave in to Saraswati's nature since he was super conscious to make this second marriage work...
They had 3 sons and a daughter....
Saraswati resigned from the school to look after the kids by then....
Their marriage was full of stressful dominance which lead to tension between them...
Saraswati and Vishwanath hardly spoke with each other in spite of parenting together 4 kids under a single roof...
The kids slowly settled down and moved out of the house by getting married...
Elder son shifted to Tarapur by after joining BARC
Second son did not study much and managed somehow by doing odd jobs with his wife and settled in a rented house around the outskirts of the city....
The younger Son had a good job at ONGC, married his office colleague and stayed at his in-law's place to look after her ailing father
The youngest daughter eloped with the love of her life to get married and settle for good....
It so happened that due to some goof up back then, his birth date in office records was noted as 1912 instead of 1921...
Due to this he had to retire 9 years early than his actual retirement age....
Saraswati made his life hell by constantly pestering him about this stupidity that he failed to rectify and nagged him incessantly regarding the same...
Bugged with this Vishwanath left home and moved to stay with his eldest son at Tarapur....
Saraswati had a major fear of staying alone...
Hence she moved on to her second son, stayed there for a couple of years, but couldn't gel well in their meagre earnings and hand to mouth situation...
By then Vishwanath had passed away and the eldest son held Saraswati responsible for the untimely death of his father and chose to break all contacts with her....
She couldn't move to her youngest son since he was still staying at his in-law's home....
Saraswati then went to live with her elder brother who stayed in a chawl at Kurla...
He was a unmarried and living on pension with no one to call his own...
Some years went past...both of them started falling ill
Unable to support each other in sickness they decided to make a few arrangements...
The brother shifted himself to an old age home at lonavala 
He asked Saraswati to join him there, however she refused....
She contacted her youngest daughter with whom she had severed relations long back for marrying with someone out of caste.... 
She asked this daughter to take her home....
The daughter was very affluent, well settled but now a widow with a divorcee daughter....
Now there are three women in this house....
90 year old Saraswati who refuses to let go of her dominating nature and nagging habit....
Her daughter is trying to struggle with the acceptance of her own daughter's failed marriage and keeping up with the every fluctuating mood swings of her ailing mother....
Saraswati's grand daughter is exploring her newly acquired single status by dating and trying to find her ground in the professional field...
It's a house of three women trying to find something missing in their own lives trying to accommodate each other's existence with acceptance and interpersonal struggles....
Surprisingly all three of them have no where to go but stay put with what destiny has written for then in the current situation....
Three generations with challenging situations...
All three of them have their own little stories that have made up this tale find roots after being uprooted by fate as individuals...
‪#‎notsotinytales‬
- Prajakta Sathe

Tale 86

Shweta and her younger brother were adorable kids from a super rich family...
Their father was a mining consultant and mother, (daughter of an industrialist) a house wife....
Shweta flew to the US for completing her masters in sports and nutrition while her brother got into a university in Germany for his M.S.
Shweta was an extremely pretty girl with dove eyes radiant skin and glowing complexion....
Her most striking feature was her height and long hair which complemented her hour glass figure....
She could pass off as a model, rather be one....
However she didn't feel the need to earn while studying given her affluent family back in India to support her...
As soon as she finished her Masters her parents called her back...
They wanted to find her an appropriate match and get her married...
Job, earning, financial independence were never considered a necessity with the riches that the family basked in....
It was a close knit family of four....
Shweta requested her mom and dad to let her explore Acting as a hobby...
She successfully played lead roles in a few serials....
However she was not much of a fighter to get ahead in the entertainment industry since she knew she never had to have the struggle of earning at the end of the day...
She acted for her own satisfaction and that kind of struck a famous playback singer whom she met at a social event....
They got acquainted.... 
He was a big name in the music industry, handsome, talented, in demand, popular but married....
They fell for each other....
For him, this was an extra marital affair, while for her it was an open eyed commitment with no future....
They were fully aware yet not in control...
It so happened that her mother went to the south of India to attend a wedding of a close friend if hers, suffered a severe heart attack and passed away on the spot....
Shaken with this incidence Shweta's father suffered a heart attack exactly two months after her mother's death and passed away....
Within a span of 2 months Shweta's world came crashing down from everything to nothing....
Her brother visited India to perform the last rites, however went back to Germany to complete his coursework and settle for good...
He had almost nothing to fall back upon back here in India since he thought that Shweta would eventually marry and settle down anyway....
Shweta was now unfortunately left with a huge fortune that her parents left behind and the unproclaimable relationship that she had with the playback singer... 
She was done with acting... 
She dabbled in the field of her expertise...
Being as a consultant nutritionist for several hospitals. 
Even that did not bring her peace...
She had her boyfriend on one hand to lend her emotional / physical support on one hand, but no asurity of a secure future together...
She could have got some of the most handsome and capable men at her feet given her status and beauty 
However to her everything seemed shallow....
She searched for deeper meaning of life..
Went to the mountains.....
There she started a school for the tribal people...
Set it up as a working model and went on to doing the same in and around the less trodden areas in himachal...
She found solace in philanthropy and worked selflessly for society....
She still maintains her relationship with the playback singer as his girlfriend....
She knows she loves him and only him...
Just that she understands that there are different kinds of love to the universal emotion that LOVE per say is....
Selfless giving love is what she means to spread around with those less fortunate....
She is happy for others...
She is happy in doing what she does for them...
She is happy she can...
Is she really happy for herself???
Well we really don't know....
She celebrates the uncertainty in life with a smile....
‪#‎notsotinytales‬
- Prajakta Sathe