Gift or Gamble? A Tale of Guilty Hearts - #ATOZCHALLENGE – G (2026)

 

Right Before the Big Leap of Faith...

“My dad says, love or arranged marriage, anyways a couple gets embroiled in quarrels and conflicts. So, it boils down to the same thing.”

“So, Nishu, are you saying you want to call off our wedding?”

“No, silly. You always misread my words, Prash.”

“So, what did you mean?”

Nisha looked flustered, piqued by her own recollection and mindless articulation of the same. Prashant looked on, an urgency building up inside him to get clarification from her. Was he prepared to hear anything in the negative?

“Ummm Okay! So, it means you and I won’t always be in la-la land. There will be difficult times and tough decisions to make."

“Yes, sure. But then I’ll take care of it. You won’t regret choosing me as your forever person.”

He said he would take care of it. Alone. A slight disappointment flitted past Nisha’s face. But then a look into those innocent, puppy-dog eyes and all was forgotten. This was her destiny.

Two Months Ago

Nisha Savla had lost her heart to Prashant the night she saw him hit a six right over the pavilion. She was seated inside with a few of her friends--a perk of being Vikram Savla’s daughter. He owned the cricket club in which Prashant was one of the star players. Nisha wasn’t really into cricket, but that one evening, looking at Prashant in excellent form and full of confidence made something shift inside her with awe and admiration.

“Hey Nish! Let’s go and congratulate the star.” Her friends beckoned. Still very red-faced from the recent stir in emotions, she was in two minds. “Let’s bounce and grab a frappe instead. What say?” she suggested. The friends looked dismayed, but obliged in reciprocity for being able to attend the event with VIP passes.

As they were stepping out of the stadium, another girl called out to Nisha. She turned instantly to react while still exiting, almost running into a sturdy chest that blocked her exit like a fortified wall. 

There he was, all of six feet tall, dusky and well built. “Sorry, mam. I missed seeing you after all the fatigue from the match.”

Nisha froze right there and gaped. She couldn’t believe she was this close to him. Her reaction mellowed Prashant as well. He could sense her admiration of his well-kept physicality. She too was cute, immaculately dressed and had an innocence that had him sold from the get-go.

“Come on girls. It’s time to close the stadium.” Mr. Savla shouted from afar. The girls dispersed with Nisha trailing behind them, sneaking a glance at Prashant with a bit of longing. Prashant too couldn’t get his eyes off her. His glance followed her till she was out of his sight.

By evening they couldn’t resist the pull of getting connected on social media. Soon conversations began to flow, and deep affection blossomed in their tender hearts.

Meeting the Father

“So what caste are you, Prashant beta?” inquired Mr. Savla with a curious expression.

“Why sir?”

“Just. Which temple does your family visit?”

“S-sir we don’t go to any temple. But yesterday was Good Friday so we went to St. Paul’s church.”

“Huh! Why does your family go to church?”

“B-because we are Roman Catholics sir.”

“What!” Hollered Mr. Savla. “What is your full name?”

“B-Baretto. Prashant Robin Baretto.”

Mr. Savla walked away into his living space asking Nisha to follow him there. An urgent conversation had to happen...now! The mother gave Prashant a long hard look, as if he had done something he shouldn’t have. She side-eyed him and then looked towards the main door giving him enough of a hint to leave. He took the lift to the reception and exited the building. Then, he looked up at the second floor four BHK home where Nisha lived, in the vain hope of getting an update on her situation. He prayed she was okay.

Next, Life-Altering Steps

After the big reveal from Prashant, their lives seemed to follow the same trajectory. Both parents had fixed marriages for their children within their communities. They assumed that their hand-picked matches would work out, but this liberal union, currently swaying on a strand of puppy love, would surely takes things downhill.

With no support from their respective families. Nisha and Prashant decided to register themselves for a court marriage. They would head back home and play along with their families and then on the pre-decided date, they would seal their relationship with a civil marriage.

United

Mr. Savla’s prospective son-in-law was about to sip his green tea when Nisha walked in sporting a thick strand of vermillion on her middle parting. A mangalsutra was dangling from her neck. A lot was said without a word. The power of unsaid words made the prospective groom drop his cup of green tea on the floor. It broke into countless pieces, just like his aspirations.

Mr. Savla asked Nisha to leave the same way she had entered. Mrs. Baretto had no business in the Savla household. The surge of tears from Nisha’s eyes could not melt his range. Not today. Pride had way too much hold on his emotions. The mother concurred too. Nisha left and then trudged her feet towards the Baretto home tugging at Prashant’s arm for both physical and emotional support.

The Blazing Baretto Bastion—Meeting the Mother

A harsh Mrs. Edna Baretto, the only family Prashant had thus far, looked scornfully at Nisha. “Where did you get this green-dotted post box from?” Nisha realized the obvious reference to her slightly stodgy frame and her food mandates. She is already insecure enough to dig holes in me. This isn’t going to go well at all. While she concluded this, she tried hard to keep a straight face so as not to be trapped by Edna's continous gaze.

Prashant said nothing. They went into Prash’s room that looked like a battlefield. Edna would not pander to her defiant son’s foibles anymore. From now on, it was Nisha who had to deal with the blues as a deterrence for this unconsented union.

5-Years and A New Country

A year of life in the Baretto household had been difficult for both Prash and Nish. Their couple name #PraSha, lost its initial spark. Either of them referred to it as a disambiguation of the word ‘pressure’. Yes, reality bites were visible all over their relationship. Mrs. Baretto would hold up the smallest things to Nisha and blow-up small conflicts with all kinds of accusations. At times Prashant would be too caught in a moral dilemma to support Nisha. In those moments, she second-guessed her decision and sorely missed her parents.

Edna’s financial insecurities also put additional pressure on Prashant to give her a huge corpus each month. Familial emotions were lost in transactional dispositions.

This led Prashant and Nisha to move to Dubai to start a new life there. Edna’s absence felt like a breath of fresh air. Nisha felt she had been given a new lease of good hope to rebuild what was lost in their relationship.

The new place was good while they were exploring, but once life got into a rhythm, both their lives became more silo-ed. They interacted briefly for breakfast and dinner and mostly had ties with the outside world.

An accidental union one evening led Nisha to feel nauseous for the entire next week. Two red lines later, her happiness knew no bounds. A new entrant would arrive soon to rid her off the void created between her and Prashant. Prashant felt the same way. He felt the emptiness as well. However, for good measure, either didn’t express the mutual relief.

Nishant arrived in June as a healthy 5 pound-infant born in a country with good food and clean air. Most of Nisha’s days and bleary-eyed nights were around the little bundle of joy. Edna decided to abstain from it all with a diatribe of not getting into bonds that would betray. Nisha was just glad to have gotten her space during motherhood perils, even though it was extremely tough for her and Prashant to manage alone. A negative person with their own agenda would have been a lot worse to have around.

#Prasha mostly had conversations that revolved around a mischievous toddler that didn’t eat without cajoling, refused to get out of the bath, broke new toys that were purchased in a higher currently and threw tantrums that made both go insane.

“Raising kids is tough.” Nisha lamented as if she were talking to a random person. The Prashant she knew and was fond of was still in the cricket stadium standing at the crease, about to hit it out of the park.

“True that, but what can one do?” Prashant responded to a flustered mother, not the impeccable Nisha Savla who had fallen for him at first sight. She too was still in the pavilion cheering his hits.

(Mis)'Matched'

What had changed in all these years? In moments of solitude they asked themselves this question.

One evening the three of them watched a cricket match in which their favorite team won.

"Mohit Verma has killed it yet again!" The excitement in Nisha's voice was tangible.

"His wife is always in the pavilion to cheer him. Cricko-fanatics say it's a good omen but I'd say it's the best morale booster." Prashant replied leaning forward with his palms joined in eager anticipation of Mohit's next hit.

"I want to be your cheerleader till death do us part." Nisha interjected warmly, a smile forming on her tired face.

The words stirred something beautiful inside Prashant. Still leaning forward and palms joined, he slowly turned his neck to face Nisha. Suddenly she became the same girl he was enamoured by in the stadium that fateful night. A smile weaned across his face too. 

"With you by my side, we'll hit it out of the park each time."

They exchanged growing smiles that were powered by their longing for each other. A confused Nishant looked on but sensed the positive vibes. The three hugged each other for a long time. 

Their love had stood the test of time...and won.