Chapter 1
“There are so many beautiful things in the world. This stupid daily soap isn't one of them , Ma.”
“People your generation wouldn't understand the suffering of innocent traditionally sound women!”
“Ugh. Keep watching this trash. I'm leaving the house. It's suffocating here!”
“Fine, go! Nobody is listening to your evening tantrums!”
“Bye!”
Says Jhilmil as she leaves the house in a huff. This wasn't new. It has happened before. This time however, something was going to turn everything upside down very soon.
As Jhilmil walked out of her house towards the lane she missed the speeding and infamous truck-kun from Japan™. It charged towards her and boom!
Jhilmil woke up to a very expensive chandelier and a really gentle man's voice saying
“Taara! You're awake!”
Jhilmil, or we'd say Taara in this case, woke up 3 times jolting like any classical Indian daily soap opera.
“Wtf! It's almost as if I'm in a soap opera. Wait…”
That realisation probably left her stunned because she is thinking of a possibility that she became the very thing she hated.
“Taara!”
Emotional music started playing in the background.
“Taara! You know you're my only lamp in the darkness. My lovely daughter!”
To this, Taara had the flattest face ever. Nothing about it was making her emotional, not even that extra melodramatic background music playing. She couldn't even find the source of that sound.
Taara was still busy processing whatever was wrong with her current situation and suddenly a really cute young teenager boy rushed to hug her.
“Budhhu kahiki! How dare you leave me like that! Next time you do something like that I'll never talk to you again”
Non-chalant funky music plays in the background as if it's his own background music.
Taara wasn't particularly happy about the situation but somehow this little guy hugging her warmed her up. She was instinctively filled with tears. She wasn't able to explain why she instantly felt attached to him, but she knew he was emotionally significant for ‘Taara’.
The doctor soon rushes in. Who called? We can't tell. Just know that he was in. He checked Taara's pulse. Did some soap opera coded doctor analysis and said
“Taara seems to still be in mental shock right now. She needs rest. Let her rest for sometime and she'll be fine soon”
“Thanks doctor! Madan, escort him out.” says the gentle man, the father or so Jhilmil recollects from Taara’s memories.
“Ji Sahab ji.”, says Madan.
“Let's go, Chaand. Let her rest for a while.”, says the father
“See ya, Di!”, says Chaand, her loving brother.
As they all leave the room she makes the most “Ugh!” face she ever made. She was already pissed because she could recognise all these characters from the daily soap her mother used to watch at 8:30 pm everyday on ColdStar.
“What the fuck happened to me? I remember something really painful happened…..Oh right! That damn truck? What the actual fuck? Did I get isekaid through a Japanese truck in an Indian daily soap that my mom watches?”, she was horrified..
“Mom… She must be worried. I need to get back but how?”
“I need to remember this stupid soap opera. Maybe like every other Isekai, I need to finish the story to go back”, said the unusually calm Jhilmil (Taara).
‘I am way too calm about this somehow’ . Yeah guys, what the narrator, me, said.
‘Okay, first let's remember the story. What was this BS drama anyway? Right, it was “Lamp in the midst of a storm”.
Story of a vegetable seller's daughter Nidhi who suddenly runs into the rich affluent Avinash who was already engaged by the way and has a fight. Avinash names her Cheapskate. After their fight Avinash couldn't stop thinking about her. But, Nidhi’s father gets sick and so she looks for a job as a maid in Avinash’s bungalow after seeing their listing. Avinash couldn't stop thinking about her that day. And hence all the fiasco.’
‘Ugh! I can't remember very specific details. I need to understand which part of the story I am in now. What was my name again? OH SHIT I AM TAARA! SHE AND HER FAMILY FUCKIN DIE ONE BY ONE!’
Right, here comes the actual crashout of our protagonist. Reasonable, nonetheless. By the way, did I mention the first one to die is actually the father? Nah, looks like I didn't. Anyways, he is the Ned Stark of Raichand family. He gets framed and dies. More information on that will be given out for free soon. Does that make Taara Sansa? Absolutely.
‘So, the first one to die is Taara’s father. What was his name again? Raghuveer Raichand. After this bitchass Avinash breaks the engagement, his father Anant doesn't like the fact that his stupid son won't be heir to Raichand industries, so he devises a plan to ruin Mr. Raichand. Agh! The whole family is a group of inconsistent and selfish pricks. I remember cursing the writer a lot for this. Deserved though.’
Let's not record her whole monologue and it's time for experts like me to pitch in and narrate the rest of the intel we have from this show. The ruin of the Raichand family starts exactly after the father's death. Since Taara wasn't really interested in business and easily manipulated, she was the easiest pawn to bring the family to ruin. Her head was filled with 90% Avinash and the rest 10% loyalty to Vouis Litton. She was made the acting director of the company. Since she wanted to marry Avinash at any cost she started listening to his father who clearly found a way out to get the hold of the company without having to marry his son off to a stupid ass daughter.
At first he would give out tips to invest into some startups that are lucrative. This would earn Taara’s trust and he would also arrange some meet-ups with Avinash. This made her rely fully on this ugly ass grandpa, Anant. The next big thing he did was sow discord between Chaand and Taara by making Taara spend less and less time with him and Chaand feeling especially lonely. He sows discord between them soon Chaand turns 18 and then there comes a big fight between Chaand and Taara and next thing we know is unfortunately, the guy commits suicide. It does come out of nowhere and is the most unexpected death in this particular serial. The very episode that shot up the show's TRP to 9.99.
‘I understand that Taara likes Chaand very much. I feel that. But, why is there an ache associated with it? I cannot understand. Our relationship hasn't soured yet. When he hugged me, the tears I felt were not only the joy of seeing him but also this unknown regret. It's quite unsettling honestly.’
Her train of thoughts was then interrupted by a familiar non-chalant background music.
‘Oh? This familiar music. Ah, the cute little devil is here it seems.’
Yes, that was Chaand sneaking in to check on his sister. He distracted the housekeepers and then snuck into Taara’s room like it's his usual shtick. Taara looked at him, puzzled.
“Hi Di! Your loving , cute bro is here! Me here? No fear!”
“You need some money?”, asked Taara with a flat, unamused face as from Taara's memory this was not new.
‘I still can't shake off this strong feeling of regret around him for some reason. I am unable to control it. AAAAAAAGH!’
Tears start streaming down from Taara’s eyes. Chaand notices that and very affectionately he hugs her and says
“Di! Leave that loser! He doesn't deserve you! I don't want my sister, my world to cry about that cheating fuckface!”
The sincerity in his voice deeply moved Taara. Even if she felt like an imposter in this world, she somehow felt like she had known him forever. She couldn't help but love this weird little boy who is for now, her brother.
“You're right. It's something I should've done long ago.”
“You're serious?”said Chaand and his eyes were full of astonishment and they were also sparkling with rekindled hope for his sister.
“Yes Chaand, this suicide attempt by me made me realise one thing. Affection shouldn't be begged. Also, Raichands are not made to kneel down for small fries like the Sharmas.”
“Now that's like my Di!”
They both hugged each other affectionately. Wait, did I forget to mention something? OH RIGHT! Jhilmil is basically aware which point of the story she's actually in. It's that episode where Taara commits suicide by drinking poison because she gets slapped and publically insulted by Avinash in a huge gathering. He tells her he regrets saying yes to the marriage proposal by Raichand. Also, mentions how arrogant bitches like her do not deserve love.
The scene we are currently in is right after Taara wakes up from her failed suicide attempt. What changed is, instead of crying for Avinash and dismissing her brother, she actually agrees.
Soon enough, Chaand leaves the room and Jhilmil starts to strategize her next actions. She did understand the gravity of the situation as from this point on, the Raichands start facing the downfall.
“Not the narrator casually dropping heavy lore in the past tense.”, said Jhilmil in exasperation.
I mean I did, but that was necessary to add shock value to our viewers. Anyways, Taara decided that her first priority here is staying alive and enjoying Raichand wealth because…
“Damn! This soft bed is too good to let go. I don't want Raichands’ downfall. I need to get to my original timeline, yes. At the same time, I want to enjoy what being rich is like, hehe. Fuck Sharmas! They can eat shit!”
Yeah, that was the ‘GRAND’ plan. Pretty foolproof I must say.
