What on earth was that, Shiv ? he berated himself. "You actually pulled a piece of streamer off her hair ! The Sarpanch of Jaitsar. It was clearly a foolhardy thing to do. If there was an award for "foolhardy", he'd win it hands down.
He ran his fingers thru his hair, standing in the middle of a dusty road in a tiny village of Rajasthan, calling himself fifty kinds of fool. He watched her hurrying off, putting as much distance between them as possible no doubt, he thought wryly.
He slowly climbed into the jeep. He sat with his hands on the wheel, not really knowing what was happening with him.
He finally admitted it to himself. Something happened to him when he came face to face with Anandi, the Sarpanch of Jaitsar. For the first time in his official career he was he was looking at a person beyond her official capacity.
With Anandi, the personal and official seemed the merge in his mind's eye, making it difficult for him to concentrate on the job on hand. The last time he behaved like this was when he had a big crush on his English teacher in class 10 ! And that could be excused and dismissed off as an adolescent phase.
What excuse did he have now ? Every time she met him in his office, it took all his self-control to focus on what she was saying, his mind clearly played traitor and was hell bent on focusing on her khol-lined eyes that sparkled, her bangles that jingled with every wave of her slender hand, her perfectly arched eyebrows that reflected her every mood, and her lips ... Man ! he didn't even want to think on those lines !
He was clearly a wreck, it was a miracle that she didn't take umbrage at the way he stared at her even in the middle of a serious discussion of acquiring land for the construction of the canal.
Clearly she was unaffected by his so-called greek-god looks ! He never gave any importance to the compliments he got for his looks, he considered it just a stroke of luck that he was born to good-looking parents and thus inherited their striking looks. Now he doubted the verity of all those compliments, clearly when it came to someone worth impressing, his looks failed him !
He thought about Jagya, her ex-husband. What man would abandon such a gem of a wife ? He must be stupid beyond cure, he concluded.
He sighed and started the jeep, he had a long way to go before the petite Sarpanch showed any interest in him. But he had reached his decision, he was going to win her over.
Some things in life are worth fighting for and she definitely too precious to let go of.
The other side ...
Anandi hurried along the road, her heavy ghagra swishing around her feet, she willed herself not to turn and look at the District Collector of Jaitsar. What would he be thinking of her ? She was almost rude in brushing off his innocent query about the piece of glittering streamer in her hair. But then, what could she do ? She couldn't tell him about the surprise party Dadisa had planned for his birthday. Though she was as good as the next person in uttering a white lie when required, his action took her completely by surprise and she just mumbled a rushed excuse and fled from there.
Soon she reached the shaded path where Shiv had taken her after her tumultuous face-off with the jurnos regarding the issue of child-marriage. She sat down on the same culvert by the road and tried to calm herself and still her racing heart. Never in her limited interactions with the human male species, had she come across someone like Shiv.
He was incredibly good-looking; she often caught herself staring at him open-mouthed. He easily overshadowed every male the moment he entered a room. And not just because of his good looks, but the sheer magnetism of his personality.
She had never met anyone who so easily slipped into various roles ' a serious, sincere Collector, a jovial big-brother for the girls in her school, a respectful lad in front of her Dadisa, a no-nonsense up-holder of the law when faced with criminal or anti-social elements, an indulgent friend to Ashima, well, it was difficult for Anandi to find anything lacking in him.
After her bitter parting with Jagya, her self-image had taken a severe beating. Whenever she looked in the mirror, she saw herself through Jagya's eyes, a village bumpkin with no education, breeding or class. It took every ounce of her resilience to crawl her way back to a semblance of normalcy.
Even now as a successful Sarpanch, she rarely had people come up to her and tell her anything good about herself. For her appreciation had always been conditional.
But Shiv had done that, with total sincerity he had saluted her as a person. It was a simple, genuine and earnest compliment, which took her by surprise. It was all she could do to stop herself from bawling her eyes out in front of him. But she controlled herself and thanked him gravely.
With his little acts of caring and respect, he was slowly but steadily chipping away at the stone wall she had built around her heart. Without even realizing it, her heart was singing again, eager to embrace life afresh.
The final breakthrough came when she began dreaming of him on a white steed reaching out to her with the promise of a life of joyous togetherness...
Geet - Hui Sabse Parayee
Cricket
Jhanak
