Shrishti Reborn

Chapter 04. Shrishti meets her Relatives

Half an hour later, Shrishti entered the dining room only to stop short in surprise. Her relatives were visiting! Oh yes! This happened last time too. She had hugged them and welcomed them so happily then! She doubted she would be able to muster the same level of excitement this time, now that she knew their true colors.

'Pari beta!', her Chachi, Kala Rai, noticed Shrishti and got up from her seat to hug her. Shrishti hugged her back but was unable to muster her usual enthusiasm even though Kala Chachi was her favourite relative since childhood. Kala Chachi was married to Sudesh Chachu, her Pappa's younger brother.

'Look how grown up she is!', her Chachu stood up to hug her too, 'I cannot believe this is our little Pari.' Pari was Shrishti's nickname in the family due to her sweet, friendly and naïve disposition.

Pari hugged him much more happily. After her death, she had visited all her family members to say her goodbyes and had come to know that only Chachu seemed to be genuinely fond of her. Rest of the family were all faking it. That had broken her heart.

'Hey Sis!', Ronnie jumped up from his seat and came to hug her too. He was Chachu and Chachi's son and was only two months younger than Shrishti. They studied in the same class and hence, they were quite close to each other compared to Shrishti and her other cousin.

Growing up, Shrishti's Pappa did his best to take care of her but a child needed a mother figure too. There were times where she struggled and her father could not just help. Her father's mother tried to help but that lady came from another era where hands on parenting was pretty rare. So when Shrishti was around five years old, her Chachu suggested that Shrishti was sent over to their house to spend time with his wife and son. Her Chachu was good natured guy and only wanted the best for the children of his family. He adored Shrishti and he was the one who nicknamed her Pari after spending time with her.

Shrishti grew up around her Chachi and saw her as her mother figure. Sadly, she chose a wrong mother figure because all Chachi talked about was finding the right guy and getting married and having kids. She filled Shrishti's brain with this stuff enough that when Sharad saved her from bullies her young mind automatically assumed him to be her life partner and refused to give up. It did not help that Chachi encouraged her in her chase for Sharad. Some of Shrishti's ideas to chase Sharad may have come from TV Shows and movies but many of her ideas also came from Chachi.

Chachi was not a bad person. She just was too superficial and money oriented. Also, she would always put her son first and by having Shrishti obsessed with Sharad and wanting to do nothing with anything unrelated to him, she had no time to focus on her Pappa's company which left her father with no heir. Her Chachi wanted Shrishti to become house wife so that her son was chosen as the business heir. All this Shrishti came to know after she died. She had seen the mother son duo talk about this when she went to visit them.

If Chachu was a good guy and Chachi was selfish then Ronnie was another self centered person. The moment she showed interest in Sharad in school who turned out to be Ronnie's friend, Ronnie distanced himself from her. When she asked him about it, he made up a story about wanting to help her by being close to Sharad and getting information about him and if Sharad knew that Ronnie was her cousin, he would not allow Ronnie to get close to him. The explanation was plausible and Shrishti agreed to this. Hence, no one in Junior College or even Senior College knew that Shrishti and Ronnie were cousins. He joined the gang of friends around Sharad and mocked her daily for her antics in the college. And she let it all go and did not take it to her heart.

Later on, when Shrishti asked for help regarding some information about Sharad, Ronnie happily helped her out, so Shrishti blindly believed him and gave him lots of money as his father was strict with pocket money with him. It was only after she died that she came to know that he gave her mostly half baked information, some truth mixed with some lies, and sometimes he made up things just to take advantage of her. Once he had said Sharad liked certain kind of desserts and Shrishti bought them for him, not knowing that it was Ronnie's girlfriend's favorite and not a single piece went to Sharad. Like that, there were many incidents that Shrishti had no idea of till her death.