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| September (First) 2010 |
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| DELHI PRESS MAGAZINES : WOMAN'S ERA |
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WOMAN'S ERA /
FICTION (20/21) / THE RENDEZVOUS
The Rendezvous
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| Raghus plan to meet up with his sweetheart after her marriage goes through curious twists and turns — to an amazing end. |
| By Anil Jaokar |
I saw my friend Hari cycling furiously towards our house. It must have been something urgent, otherwise he was not the one to venture out on such a blistering hot afternoon. He parked his cycle in the shade of the house and came up, taking two steps at a time. “Did you hear about it?” he asked me breathlessly.
“About what?”
“Why, your girlfriend Suman is getting married.”
“What? Are you sure?”
“Yes, I am sure.”
“How did you come to know about it?”
“This morning her uncle told my uncle about it.”
“Hari, you should have come immediately to give me such important news.”
“Look, I have to milk the buffaloes, I have to take the milk to the Cooperative Society. I can come here only when I am free. I hope you will give me at least a cold drink for all the trouble I have taken for you.”
I gave him a cup of tea without milk.
In the evening, I waited for Suman at our usual meeting place. But she did not come. I visited all the other likely haunts and finally spotted her going towards a temple. But she was not alone. Her mother was with her. I waited patiently. Soon my chance came. While her mother was busy talking to the priest, Suman came out surreptitiously. “I cannot talk to you just now,” she whispered. “Come around 8 o’clock to my friend Indira’s place. I shall talk to you there.” She was gone in a flash.
She confirmed the news when we met again at her friend’s place. “Look, Raghu, I cannot displease my parents. They are dead against my marrying someone like you.”
“But, Suman, I cannot live without you. I shall see to it that this marriage does not take place. I shall meet your would-be in-laws. I shall tell them about our affair.”
She took my hand and pressed it gently. “Raghu, I too cannot live without you. But please consider the reality. You are not studying seriously, nor are you doing anything worthwhile. How are we going to survive if we get married? No one would support us.” Then, after a moment’s hesitation, she added, “It is true that I am going away but even after my marriage our affair will go on uninterrupted. This is my promise to you. However, I’ve is one request. You should not cause me any trouble before, during or after the marriage.”
“I promise I shall not cause you any trouble. But tell me, Suman, do you really mean what you said just now?”
“Yes, my love. I will send a message to you. As soon as you receive it come and pick me up from my in-laws’ place on some pretext. We will go to the city and have a ball there. Then, after a couple of days, you can drop me back at my in-laws’ place. Perhaps, this will go on forever. What more do you want?”
I realised that I was getting a much better deal.
“Oh, Suman, you are a genius! I knew I could depend on you,” I tried to kiss her hand but she moved it away and disappeared.
In due course, Suman got married and went away to a place called Puntamba, about 60 miles from our village. For about 2 months, there was no word from her. Then one fine morning her friend Indira called me.
”This morning I received a phone call from Suman,” she said casually.
I pricked my ears. “Does she remember me? Did she send any message?”
“She said that her husband was going away for a day or two. She wanted to know whether you remembered her plan and if so whether you could come and pick her up tomorrow?”
I could hardly contain myself with joy. Immediately, I went to my friend and told him the good news.
“Hari, you are the one who will help me in this caper.”
“What is it you want me to do?” he asked in a guarded tone.
“Nothing much, dear boy. I will take out my father’s jeep. You will be my chauffeur. We will go to Puntamba and collect Suman from her sasural. We will spend a few days in the town. We will stay at some swanky hotel and we will have time of our lives. Then we will drop her back and come home. Nobody would be wiser. As simple as that!”
“Who will bear the expenses?”
“I shall take care of it. You don’t have to worry about that. The whole thing would be a lark, I assure you.”
Grudgingly, Hari consented to my “open-and- shut” plan.
The next day Suman’s in-laws were surprised to see 2 smart, well-dressed youths getting down from the jeep in front of their house. Bapu, Suman’s father-in-law, came forward to greet us. We touched his feet, although it was a bit difficult to bend down in our tight-fitting jeans. He took us inside and enquired minutely about us and about Suman’s mother. In the meantime 2 more people joined us. Bapu introduced them to us.
“This is Dajiba, my elder brother, and this is Damu, our cousin.”
Dutifully we touched their feet. They asked Bapu about us. So, Bapu introduced us.
“This is Raghu and this is Hari. They are Suman’s cousins. Suman’s mother is not keeping well. She is running high fever and is bedridden. So, Hari and Raghu have come to take Suman back to her mother’s place.”
“How come we did not see you during the marriage?” Dajiba asked us.
“I was appearing for my final exams. I am doing engineering. And Hari had gone abroad. He has an export-import business, so he goes out frequently. That is how we both missed our cousin’s marriage.”
“Ah, that explains a lot. By the way are you married?” Dajiba asked.
“No, sir.”
“You mean both of you are unmarried?” Dajiba asked once again with raised eyebrows.
“Yes, both of us are unmarried.”
Dajiba pondered over this fact for some time and then took Bapu inside the house for some consultation. In the meantime, Mai, Suman’s mother-in-law, brought tea and snacks for us. We touched her feet. Damu was eyeing the eatables hungrily. So, we invited him to join us. He polished the plates in the twinkling of an eye.
Presently, Dajiba and Bapu re-entered the room. Bapu cleared his throat and addressed us. “See, Raghu, I wish to propose a plan.”
“Sir, your wish is a command to us,” I said magnanimously.
So, Bapu continued, “There is a place called Manikpur, about 50 miles from here. A famous Shiva temple is situated there. Mai wants to visit this temple very much. All of us can go in your jeep, have darshan and come back in the evening. You will stay here for the night and then tomorrow, you take Suman with you to her mother’s place. What do you say?”
I looked at Hari. Seeing his hesitation,
Dajiba interjected, “Hari, you will be surprised to hear this, but we have a definite purpose in taking you to Manikpur. Bapu, will you please tell him our plan?”
“See, one of our relatives stays at Manikpur,” Bapu started explaining, “He has been the chairman of a sugar mill for the last 8 years. So, you can imagine the kind of wealth he must have amassed by this time. He has a daughter, Godavari by name. She is a well-mannered and good-looking girl. She has come of age, and chairman Balasaheb is in search of a suitable match for her. So far, he has received several proposals from eligible
bachelors. But, for one reason or the other, he has rejected all of them. Why? Because he wants his son-in-law to be a suave, handsome, experienced businessman.”
Here Dajiba took over. “I confess when I saw Hari something clicked in my head. Immediately I took Bapu inside and told him that the kind of son-in-law Balasaheb wants is sitting right in front of us. Bapu immediately agreed with me. Is it not Bapu? So, we go to Manikpur ostensibly for Lord Shiva’s darshan but actually to meet our wealthy relative.
“Hopefully one thing would lead to another and we will come back after fixing an auspicious date for the engagement ceremony. Of course, we will consult Hari’s parents and with their consent only we will do everything.”
Hari, the milkman, was on cloud nine. He readily agreed to take them to Manikpur.
Immediately after lunch the four of them piled into the jeep.
“Where is Suman? Isn’t she coming with us?” I asked.
“Her periods started this morning. So, she cannot come with us,” Mai said tersely. This was indeed an unfortunate and unforeseen development. I did not show my disappointment. Perhaps, that was the reason why we did not see hide nor hair of her even once, although we were in her house for quite some time. Two lovers so near and yet so far, I thought.
A few miles from Manikpur we came across a roadside dhaba. That joint belonged to Mai’s brother. To proceed further without meeting him was unthinkable. So, all of us went inside. We were introduced to the dhaba owner. We performed the mandatory ritual of touching his feet. Then, in an aside, Dajiba divulged our real purpose of visiting Manikpur. On hearing it, the dhaba owner smote his forehead.
“Balasaheb, his daughter and a few others have gone to Shikarpur to attend a marriage ceremony,” he informed us.
“How do you know?” Bapu asked him.
“They came to my dhaba for tea. Someone from his party told me that Balasaheb intends to ‘see’ a boy at Shikarpur.”
This revelation caused much discussion.
Finally the dhaba owner suggested that we go to Manikpur, visit the temple and then proceed to another village — Rahuri — about 80 miles down the road.
“Why Rahuri?” Hari asked in an agitated tone.
“There is a famous Hanuman temple which all of you should visit. But the real pay-off is that Dajiba has a few relatives there. They would be glad to put you up for the night.”
At Rahuri, Dajiba and others slept in his relative’s house and we two were left at the mercy of the mosquitoes in the jeep. The next day Dajiba drew me aside.
“Raghu, your stars are on the ascendance,” he whispered in my ear.
“Why do you say so?” I asked him suspiciously.
“Last night my relative told me that my co-brother is looking around for a smart, intelligent boy as a match for his only daughter. She herself is an engineering graduate and wishes to marry an engineer. My co-brother has plans to send his daughter and son-in-law abroad for higher education. He will bear all the expenses. He is a municipal councillor, so money is not a problem for him. I hope you have a valid passport, otherwise you will have to arrange it on war-footing.”
“Where is this Narayangao?” asked Hari.
“Oh, hardly 4 hours’ journey from here. We will make the round trip in a day. Who knows we may meet Balasaheb and Godavari on the way!” Dajiba dangled a carrot in front of Hari.
Dajiba’s wish was our command. So, we all headed for Narayangao. On the way, at a fork in the road, all of a sudden Damu cried out, “Stop the jeep immediately.” Hari applied the emergency brakes. We looked at Damu. He excitedly pointed at the milestone and said, “Look, Sultanpur is only 40 miles from here!”
Personally, I failed to see the significance of this announcement.
Mai, however, was ecstatic. “Oh, you meant the hot water springs? Damu, I am really thankful to you.” Then turning towards Bapu she said, “For quite some time I was thinking of visiting this place. Today, my dream will be fulfilled. I will take a dip in the hot water of the geyser. It has medicinal properties and it will do a lot of good to my weeping eczema, you know.”
Needless to say we took a detour of about 90 miles and visited the hot water springs. Consequently, we reached our destination late in the night. With some difficulty we tracked down the municipal councillor’s house. However, we were in for some disappointment. The entrance was locked. We were told that the owner and his family had gone to the city for some work. What to do now? We were in a dilemma. Dajiba wheedled with the watchman. Reluctantly he allowed us to sleep
in the verandah of the bungalow. For us it was yet another starry night in the company of mosquitoes. We kept tossing and turning for quite some time.
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