Part 11:
After the foot incident as everyone referred to it now, nothing exciting really happened in their lives. Everyone was busy in preparing for their village trip once again. They had done some background research. Looked up places near the village where they might find the required material and tools. The boys were over prepared and they even made reports of the former village trip and what improvements could be done. The girls insisted that this was unecessary, but the boys did it anyway.
Soon the the day had arrived when they were supposed to visit their designated village for three weeks, it was located on the outskirts of Rajasthan, so there was a lot of bumpy travel. After a lot of soreness and relief that they could get off that wretched bus, the gang along with Vardhan sir made their way to the sarpanch to discuss their accommadation and project. The sarpanch was this very large, beefy looking guy. He had his traditional attire on and a very scary looking expression. Vardhan sir took the lead and started talking to him, surprisingly he sounded quite pleasant and happy with their arrival. The gang slowly felt less stiff and cracked the tiniest of smiles. It was all good until he noticed Manasvi, Sanyu and Kaustuki. His expression changed to the scary crow wala in the beginning. "Choriyan bhi hain? Aapke saath?" He asked. Vardhan sir politely replied that they were a part of this project and quite bright students. The sarpanch looked like he wasn't interested I'm whatever Vardhan sir had to say. He was examining the girls top to bottom, since it was soo hot they had all opted for light cotton materials. Manasvi was wearing a kurta and jeans, Sanyu had her usual kurta and patiala pants, Kaustuki was in jeans and a cotton shirt. They were all wearing sleeveless like they normally would in college. The only weakness in their attire today was probably their hair which was in various forms of a messy bun.
They quickly did a namaste, but the sarpanch looked at them with slight disapproval. He was complaining to Vardhan as to why he had to bring such respect less girl who don't even know how to wear clothes or cover their heads infront of the elderly. Randhir who was initially quite particular about girls clothes and behaviour was shocked like hell. What the hell was this man going on about? Looking around everyone had the same expressions. Nonetheless with Vardhan sir's stern glare and strong stance, the sarpanch finally relented and showed them their accommadation. They were all invited to dine with the village heads for dinner, this time the girls didn't wear jeans or a messy bun, even Kaustuki borrowed a kurta from Manasvi and a dupatta from Sanyu. They all covered their heads with the dupatta and proceeded to dinner. On the way they saw the boys, who were dressed exactly like how they would in college and it struck a chord of jealousy within them. They ignored it and moved to the area, where they were supposed to eat.
The sarpanch seemed a little less disapproving this time, seeing the dupattas on their heads. The girls had all made a mental note to shut their mouths and hopefully not talk unless spoken to, they weren't going to cause trouble on the first day itself. Unfortunately their plan had gone down the drain, when the other village heads had a lot of questions for the girls, they were surprised at the fact that the parents let them come alone to the village with other boys. The girls had politely answered all the questions. Then they started asking questions about where the girls were from, they teased Kaustuki at her hindi and to her shock Jiggy had laughed with them. They teased Manasvi as she had told them that she used to live in Bangalore before FITE but was originally from chennai, they had made fun of her saying that she should be darker if she belonged from the south and what not. The girls with decreasing self constraint were calmly taking everything in. Finally dinner was finished, and they went back to their little shared houses.
The girls were fuming when they came back, they couldn't believe the men in this village were such misogynists. Sanyu thought that Randhir was the biggest MCP she had ever met! But compared to these people he was like an angel. Wait did she just call Randhir an angel? Oh god! Sanyu she told herself, stop thinking about him. With that she continued the discussion with the girls. On the other side Jiggy was being bashed by the other guys for laughing at Kaustuki. On a different note, they couldn't believe that the men in this village were so backward in their thinking. The poor girls were struggling with their clothes and dupattas, it was boiling weather and they can't even wear the clothes of their choice. But the girls had to be commended for how hard they work past all these kinds of people to achieve their dreams. Compared to the girls in situations like these, the life of the boys was as smooth as a knife going down a pat of butter. Randhir made a mental note to never tease her or comment on her being a girl, that poor thing had it hard enough from everyone else already.
The sour mood carried on the next morning. The team was to meet up with the sarpanch to discuss the current situations in the village and things that he would like to be improved. The meeting was fairly smooth, depending in your definition of it. For the boys it meant, everything they said to be repsonded with a booming laugh or complete approval. For the girls it meant disapproval at everything they said, constant snide remarks about their clothing and culture and frequent leech looks from the sarpanch's son. The girls were barely holding it in together, this was the first official day of their three week visit, they still had 20 days to go. They needed to keep their tongue in check if they wanted to do well in this assignment.
The girls with great difficulty had gotten the questionnaires that they had prepared answered and set out to work on possible solutions/machines that they could build for the village. The boys were invited by the sons of the village heads to some boys event, the girls were more than happy to be rid of them. With a fuming heads and semi bitten nails they set off to work. Since fate and luck decided to be completely against them, they realised that their little pot of drinking water had finished. The closet house was a little walk away and it was getting quite dark. Manasvi and Sanyu took the lantern and the pot and set off to get some water. Kaustuki said she will take a little nap until they come back. It was really dark and the absence of streetlights just made extremely difficult for them to find their way. With a lot of difficulty, Sanyu and Manasvi finally coordinated a pattern and slowly made to the house. They knocked on the door and asked for some water, the sweet aunty asked them to come in and even offered them some tea. The girls politely refused and told her that they have a friend waiting at their house for them. She invited all of them over for breakfast the next morning. They had agreed for that.
They started to slowly make their way back, when they had heard sounds of laughter heading in their direction. It was the boys coming back from whatever their event was. They started to fasten their pace as they didn't want to be in the sight of those leechy boys again. Alas, luck and timing were never on their side to begin with. They nearly almost ran into their group despite their detour, like expected they boys were once again asking them stupid questions. The girls tried to excuse themselves, but to no avail. They had finally escaped telling them that it was too late and that they had to wake up early, the boys had let them go with a promise that they will meet them in the morning.
This had to be the ultimate ending to the crappiest day ever. Not the teasing, the girls totally expected the teasing. What they didn't expect was to see Randhir, Parth, Jiggy, YOyo and Sahil with the leechy boys laughing over something. They were there the whole time and not a single one came forward to help. Manasvi and Sanyu weren't even sure if they realised that the girls were uncomfortable talking to those leeches. They really couldn't tell, looking at the amount of laughter coming from that side, they didn't think so.
That's it for now guys!!
Until next time
PS: I thought I should give a little sneak peak at the next update! Just a tiny one...
There is a near slap and a kiss..!! Hehe!
Hope you liked it !
Vinu
Udne Ki Aasha
Cricket
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