Chapter 6

Part 7 – asli mulakat
She was in the car with a complete stranger! No, Nisha told herself, it's Archita's brother! They had been driving for the last 10 minutes in silence. He hadn't said one word to her as they climbed into the car. She gazed out of the window thinking how to apologize to him for the other day when she had yelled at him. Eklavya on the other hand was sitting there thinking that she didn't want to be here at all and was still probably mad at him. He thought of saying sorry to her to maybe cool her anger down.
     "Sorry-" Nisha and Eklavya said at the same time, abruptly. She looked at him, amazed. "Lekin, aap net oh kuch bhi nahin kiya! It was all my fault! Pehle se main bohut angry thi aur I took my anger out on you" she said to him. "Well, that's ok. It happens. I don't think we've introduced ourselves properly. Eklvaya," he said and extended out his hand. She took his warm hand in hers and smiled. "Isha" They chatted happily throughout the rest of the car ride about their likes, dislikes and everything they could think of. When they got to Shantineketan, they both secretly felt the car ride had been too short.
     "Main upar jaa ke tumare liye kapde laatha hoon." Eklavya said and walked off. Isha gazed at the house. It was huuuge! Their one-room apartment wasn't even an ant compared to this thing. Suddenly, a lady in a pretty sari came and looked at her intently. "Kisko mil na hai, beta?" Damini asked her. "Woh-"She began. "Woh maa, yeh Archita, Lakshya aur KT ki dost hai. Unke kapde geele ho gaya the toh maine socha woh yahaan aake change kare" Eklavya looked at his mom. She smiled and nodded. "Drop by here any time,-"she stopped. "Isha" Eklavya helped her out. Both Damini and Isha looked at him in surprise. Damini smiled a little mischievously. "I'll be in the kitchen if you need anything." She smiled at her son and walked off.
     Eklavya cleared his throat, "Chale?" Isha nodded. They passed a temple and Isha suddenly stopped. She saw a baa in there struggling to bend down to pick up something. Isha took her sandals off and went in to help her out. Baa look a little surprised by the uninvited help from a stranger. "Baa yeh Isha hai" Eklavya did the ritual of introducing Isha again. "Tum bohut hi ache waqt pe ayi ho beta. Yeh lo aaj ka prasad." Baa got out a gold container consisting of ghee, sugar and dahi. Isha put her right hand on top of her left hand forming a cup and drank the offering. Eklavya was surprised to see that she knew how to eat prasad. Judging by her clothes, she didn't look like she knew anything about pooja-path.
They finally got upstairs to Archita's room and Eklavya picked out a blue skirt with a white kurta for her. It was not her style of clothes but she agreed anyway. She extended her hand out to take the clothes but saw her hands were sticky from the ghee, sugar and dahi. Eklavya pointed the wash room door to her. She went in and turned the tap on but saw no soap around. She went in the bath tub to look for soap but instead saw a black little thing. "Ahhhhhhh" she screamed. Eklavya ran into the bathroom. He poked himself into the bathtub at the same time as Isha turned a knob around to get the black thing down the drain thinking it was for the tap but instead it was for the shower. Eklavya's entire kurta was soaked and Isha's already wet clothes were now drenched. Looking at what she had done, Isha squeaked in a small voice, "Cockraoch tha!"

In case anyone wants to see the kurta and skirt :

            
   

Sorry if people were expecting the Manthan/Nisha part...
                  -Pooja