Chapter Text
Connie plopped down on the couch, cuddled up in her blankets, and grabbed the remote from the side table. It was movie night, and once again her turn to pick a movie. She’d been thinking since her last time to pick the movie about what she wanted to watch, and now the power was in her hands.
They hadn’t touched Netflix since last movie time, the most recently watched being Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, picked by her mother of course. Her original plan wasn’t even to watch another Hindi film like they had last week, however on the recommended list of movies, she noticed Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham.
For some reason she hadn’t been able to pick it for movie night before. She never understood why or was given an exact reason. Just that her parents didn’t like it. Which always came as a surprise to Connie. The film was considered a classic. It included some of her parent’s favorite actors. If it had been an issue with it being appropriate, she was 15 now, they couldn’t say she was too young to watch it.
She discarded her original plan and choose to watch Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham. She paused the movie before it started and called out to her parents to come and join her.
“Well, what’re we watching?” Her mother walked into the room and sat down on the other end of the couch.
“It’s a surprise,” she replied with a smile. At that point her father entered the room and sat down in his usual chair. “Ready?” She asked everyone pointing the remote at the tv. Within the first three minutes, during the opening credits song, Doug had got up from his spot and left. “Baba?” She called out to him, “It’s movie night, you can’t leave now!” She said with a small smile.
Priyanka looked at her daughter and forced a smile reaching for the remote, “How about we watch something else, yeah?”
Connie withdrew the remote from her mother’s reach and shook her head, “I don’t want to… I haven’t seen this movie yet. It’s like a classic movie, besides it’s got Shahrukh Khan, your favorite.” She said smiling at her.
Priyanka sighed, “That doesn’t matter, okay? Just let’s just watch something else.”
“No,” Connie shook her head, “Not until you tell me why. Besides, you can’t stop me from watching it, I really wanna see it."
"It's just... It just hits close to home," she said shrugging. "We can watch it I guess. Just, I'm going to go talk to your father first."
Connie sighed and let her mother go. She couldn't believe that a simple movie caused so much trouble.
Priyanka knocked on the door to their bedroom and headed inside. "You wanna come and watch the movie with us?"
Doug shook his head, "No, I'm fine. I've got work I just remembered about." He didn't look up. He was seated on the bed, eyes fixed on his computer screen.
"Are you sure? Connie wants you down with her."
"Tell her I promise to make it up to her."
“Okay… Well, I want you down with us… It’s a good movie, Durja… Just don’t think about your parents when you watch it, just enjoy this time you can spend with your family.”
“It’s not that great… It’s unrealistic. How Rohan grows up to look that attractive, that doesn’t happen. Besides, I can’t not think about them…” He sighed and shook his head. “I’ve been thinking about them all day…”
Priyanka sat down on the bed, “What do you mean?”
“It’s just, it’s very close to the day that I told them we were engaged and they threw me out. I can’t help but think of them. What life would be like, if they had an open mind, they were more accepting, or if I were to have just followed whatever orders they gave to me.”
“You can’t focus on the ‘What ifs’ if you do, you’ll always be doubting everything you do. What matters is that we’re here now, and things are good. How about you come down, and stay through, Suraj Hua Madham? Then you’re free to go and you don’t have to watch the rest.”
Doug smiled at her, “Sounds good… Since it is your favorite song, I’ll stay through for that.”
“Good plan,” she said with a smile standing up.
Arriving on downstairs again, Connie moved from her position on the couch to curled up in an arm chair, holding a bag of popcorn, cuddled up in blankets. She’d gotten bored waiting for them and started the movie.
Connie didn't say anything as her parents sat down, she wasn't really sure what to say in a situation like this. She was just left in the unknown like this. Based on the brief synopsis of the movie give by Netflix, she thought she knew the reason why. Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham was about a son being disowned by his father for marrying someone he didn’t approve. A story, much like her parents. That was all she really knew on the situation. Her father didn’t like to talk about it, in response to that, her mother didn’t either. She never met her grandparents from her father’s side, nor had she gotten the chance to meet her uncle.
Connie cleared her head of wandering thoughts of what her father’s family was like and put her attention back on the movie. It was pretty much going like any regular movie night. A good 15 minutes in her father spoke up, standing by the idea that there was no way that younger Rohan could grow up to be Hrithik Roshan. It was just enjoyable commentary that usually happened on movie nights.
Whenever Kajol’s character had appeared on screen, Connie couldn’t take her eyes off of her. She was so cute and bubbly. It made complete sense that Shah Rukh Khan’s character, Rahul, fell in love with her.
The beginning of the movie was fine for Doug, he was going to keep his promise and stay for about an hour in. It wasn't a bad movie at all. Each time Amitabh Bachchan’s character came on screen and asked his son to uphold the family name always, it made him uncomfortable. In general the father made him uncomfortable, he saw a lot of his own dad in him. Priyanka had gotten comfortable, taking up most of the couch, her legs laying across his lap.
Doug absent mindedly rubbed his wife’s feet as the film went on. It wasn't too long before the song Suraj Hua Maddham started. He never understood why she liked the song so much. It was just eight minutes of the same thing pretty much. He remembered back to when they watched it for the first time in theaters. She had gotten the song stuck in her head for days, making it stuck in his too.
The agreement had been that he just had to stay through the song. He looked over at Priyanka who was very engrossed in the movie at this point. “I love her, I really really love her,” came from the tv. He watched her for moment longer then tore his eyes away going back to the movie. He chose to stay. It wasn't going to kill him to decide to finish the movie, he'd been here for an hour already.
Another thirty minutes had passed, and his wife had fallen asleep. Even if he wanted to get up he couldn't with her on top of him. By this point in the movie the younger brother had realized everything that happened and was on a quest to try and get Rahul to reconcile with his father. In typical Bollywood fashion everyone had to do things in the most difficult way possible where Rohan decided to hide the fact that he was Rahul's younger brother who he hadn't seen in years. Another hour or so and the movie finished the way most Bollywood movies did, with a happy ending and everything working out just fine.
He didn't remember most of the end from before, he mostly just didn't like to think about the movie.
"Well, I thought it was pretty good," Connie spoke up pausing the credits. "I don't really see the big de-" she stopped talking as she laid eyes on her father. She felt hollow in that moment. He had taken off his glasses and wiped at his eyes. He was crying. She wasn't sure what to do. Connie had never seen her father cry before. She glanced to her mother who surprisingly was still asleep. "I-I'm sorry," was all she managed to get out.
Doug moved the legs of his sleeping wife off of him and stood up. "Excuse me," was all he could get out. He didn't make eye contact with her then headed to the kitchen.
The teenager shut the tv off and sighed. She waited a minute more and stood up and followed her father into the kitchen. He stood at the counter with a glass of water. "Are you okay?"
He nodded, "I'm fine."
"I'm sorry. I didn't know that you-"
"Kahaani there's nothing to apologize for."
"What happened with your parents?"
"Don't ask questions you already know the answer to."
Connie shut her eyes and huffed, "I'm not." She looked at him again. "You don't ever talk about it, no one does. I feel like I don't know anything, because I'm never told anything. I know that you met mom, and fell in love, and that your parents didn't like her because of her class and because she was Tamil, but you got married anyway and they didn't want to have anything to do with you. That's it."
Doug sighed, "That's really all there is to know."
"That's like reading the inside flap of a book," Connie crossed her arms. "Baba, you've said before that a relationship was like an adventure book. You told me that when I was older that you'd tell me your story, and I'm older and I want to know."
He couldn't help but smile, "Fine," he headed over and sat down at the kitchen table, Connie following right behind him. "I had forgotten about that in honesty. I'm surprised that's something you remember."
"It just, stuck with me," she shrugged. Since she could remember, Connie always was enthralled by magic and adventure, and despite it being a metaphor, the physical image of her father actually fighting a real dragon stuck with her.
"My parents aren't the best people. You know the expression, 'That's like asking me to pick a favorite child'? They were the people who could pick a child to be the favorite. And they did. My older brother was always liked more."
Connie nodded slightly, she had completely forgotten the fact her dad had a brother. There wasn't any contact with him and he was never talked about.
"No matter what I did, Dev always came out on top in their eyes. My parents in general just seemed disappointed with me as a whole."
"I'm sure that's not true, they're your parents they have to love you."
"Well, you're right, the had to love me. Even though they acted at times like the wish they didn't. Things could've been worse, they had good moments. Especially when I was younger. The trouble just came when I was older, and the choices I made. I didn't want to be a doctor, or engineer, or business man, that was strike one it seemed." He held up another finger. "Strike two? I legally changed my name. Then I met your mom, and I didn't think, I just loved. Strike three. And I was out."
"So, it wasn't just mom. There was a series of events that happened before that. Because how it was always described before made it seem like it was just because of her and where she was from." There was a pause. "Did they really based everything they knew about her based on her background?" She pried, curious to see if he would go more in depth on that as well.
"Well," he laughed slightly, "I suppose that had things gone better the time she met them, they might've gotten used to the idea."
Connies eyes widened, "What did she do?"
Doug laughed softly, "Nothing bad. She just, stood up for me, that's all." He could hear snoring coming from the other room. "I was being lectured pretty much, and she intervened. They didn't like being interrupted too much." He stopped there. He could've told Connie exactly what happened and what was said, but he felt like he didn't have the right. While she tried never to show it, the words thrown at her hurt.
"Oh," she said softly. "What then?"
"What then? That's kinda it. They told me I wasn't allowed to see her again, but I wasn't going to listen, we got engaged, I told my parents, and I haven't seen them since."
"You haven't?"
"Why would I? They don't want to see me."
Connie frowned, "That might not be true. I mean, the movie we just watched? Jaya Bachchan's character was so happy to see her son after all those years! She didn't stop thinking about him."
"It's a movie, Kahaani. It's supposed to have a happy ending."
"You're supposed to have a happy ending too."
"I have a happy ending. With you and mom."
Connie wrinkled her nose slightly. "There's no need to get so sappy you know," she said with a smile. "Even if things are already good why don't you try contacting them? It doesn't hurt to try."
"I'd rather not. Besides, I'd have no idea of contacting them. I just don't even want to get involved in all of that again."
"Don't you miss them?"
Doug thought for a moment until shaking his head. "No. I don't. I miss the idea of having parents though. The fact that you have one set of grandparents, holidays with out them, things like that."
"I see." Connie was silent for a while. "Do you regret the choices you made?"
"No." He didn't think hard about it. "Not for a moment."
Connie smiled, "Thank you, baba."
Doug raised an eyebrow, "For?"
"Everything? For opening up to me tonight, for being strong and for never giving up."
He smiled at his daughter, "Well, you're welcome then, Lady Connie," he said with a slight bow.
"That's knight Connie," she reminded him smiling.
"Ah! Of course, forgive me."
"You're forgiven," she grinned. Connie wondered if her dad would ever forgive his parents or if they would forgive him.
Doug yawned, "Well knight Connie, I think it's about bedtime don't you think?"
The teenager knew this wasn't even a suggestion but a command. "Yessir!" She said standing up. Connie headed out of the kitchen into the living room, "Um, are you just going to leave her there for the night?" Connie asked in regards to her mother.
"Nah, I'll get her up to bed." Connie nodded and gave her father a hug, and a kiss on the cheek goodnight. Doug headed over to the couch. He bent down and picked up the doctor, he didn't think it was going to be that hard but it turned out to be a much more strenuous task than it had been before. He wasn't going to give up though.
One foot on the bottom stair and he heard her whisper, "Put me down."
Her eyes were still closed. "No, I can do this," he tried to reassure.
"Doug," her eyes slowly opened. "I don't want you to get hurt."
"I won't-"
"Down," she said mid yawn. Reluctantly he did so. "It was a valiant effort."
"I didn't mean for you to wake up."
"I'm glad I did. I have to change and brush my teeth and the whole night time routine."
"Yeah I know."
Priyanka smiled at him. Five minutes later and the two were settled in bed, lights off. "Sorry I fell asleep. Did you stay for the whole thing?"
"Yeah," Doug admitted staring up at the ceiling.
"Well?"
"It was just like I remembered it. Unrealistic."
She gave a small laugh. "Thank you, for staying." Priyanka snuggled in close to him. "It meant a lot to Connie. Did she like the movie?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"Did she cry?"
"Nah."
"Did you?" There was silence. Priyanka's eyes opened again. "It's know, it's ok."
"We talked about it."
Priyanka looked up at her husband, "And how did that go?"
"It was, good. It needed to be done. To get it all out." She smiled at him then leaned in and gave him a kiss. She knew he didn't like talking about it, but it was a good thing that it happened.