chapter 12
"Gauri, beta what are you doing here?" Maya asked her daughter as she stepped out onto the terrace and into the chilly night.
"Nothing ma, just breathing in the air here. It is so different from the air in Mumbai."
Maya chuckled and said, "Yes it is free from pollution. Anyways I brought you some of my special chai, here drink it, it'll warm you up."
Gauri smiled at her mother and giving her a hug she said, "I missed you so much Ma."
"Good now you won't leave me for so long ever again, right?" Maya looked over at her daughter and the smile on her face disappeared.
Gauri had always been a silent child, haunted by a brutal past that her sub conscious refused to let her remember. Maya had also always discouraged Gauri from remembering her past. She had encouraged her daughter to live a new and happy life with the Singhania and Kapoor children and for a while that had worked. Gauri had learned how to laugh again. The past had finally stopped shadowing her future. Gauri made friends and discovered music.
But then around her eighteenth birthday, Maya noticed that the old, haunted Gauri had returned. She smiled but the smile didn't reach her eyes. She sang but the passion, the joy had been missing from her voice. Maya begged her daughter to share the pain with her but Gauri just smilingly appeased her mother saying that nothing was wrong but Maya could tell she was lying.
And then four years ago, the day after her eighteenth birthday, Gauri tearfully told Maya that she had decided to go away to Mumbai to continue her music education. She told her mother that this is what she had always dreamed of and that she desperately needed it. The music college was even going to give her full scholarship. Maya reluctantly let her daughter go, making her promise to come home during vacations and to write and call often. But none of that happened. Gauri called home occasionally but over the past four years she had not come home even once. It was as if something at home had chased her daughter away.
A few weeks ago, however, when Maya called to inform Gauri about Shiv and Mehar's upcoming nuptials, and emotionally Gauri told her mother, what she had been waiting to hear for four years, she was coming home. Maya was ecstatic; her small family was going to be complete again. But the Gauri that came back was not the Gauri Maya had expected.
Maya could see that whatever sorrow had chased her daughter away four years ago, still haunted her. Maya realized that the root of her daughter's misery was at home but what she couldn't figure out was what the problem was. Maya knew that asking Gauri directly was futile but she tried anyway. "Gauri beta what is going on? I have noticed that ever since you have come back you have been quiet and there is a sadness in your eyes. Bacha please tell me what is wrong, your pain is breaking my heart just like it did four years ago. Please Gauri what's wrong?"
Gauri just smiled at her mother and looking away and into the distant night she replied, "Nothing is wrong ma, its just that your daughter has finally grown into a woman and becoming a woman is not easy," looking at her mother she continued, "is it?"
"Gauri don't talk in riddles. Just tell me beta, why so sad?"
"Not sad Ma, just pensive and sleepy." Gauri turned to her mother and putting her head in her lap she asked, "Ma will you sing me that lullaby you sang for us when we were little? I want to fall asleep in your arms, listening to your voice."
Maya knew that Gauri would never burden Maya with her grief and she did the only thing she could to help ease her child's pain. Running her hands soothingly through her daughter's hair Maya sang:
Neendiyan rani saapne dedo
Munni ke naino ko
Ghoonparani mashi pishi
Moder baari esho
Sapno ke duniya mein hain
Rang bhari duniya ek
Hothon pe muskan hain
Ankhon mein hain ashaayen
Neend ke pal pyar liye khole hain bahon ko
Hearing the music, a sleepy Shreya also come over to her mother and sister and quietly she curled up next to her sister as her mother continued:
Ghoomparani mashi pishi
Moder baari esho
Neendiyan rani sapne dedo
Munni ke naino ko
In another room another little girl smiled in her sleep as the sweet voice whispered in the darkness of her room. As the words rang clear in her ears, she sighed and snuggled closer to her pillow and sank deeper into a blissful sleep. Adjacent to her two grown men lay softly snoring in their beds. As the music slowly made its way to their dreams, both the boys smiled contently and quieted their snoring so that the music didn't get drowned out by it.
Sapno mein munni ki
Khilona jo koi laye
Subah ko munni meri
Sirhane jo use paye
Neendiya rani ho na hain sach munni ke sapno ko
A young man lay awake next to his sleeping wife. She had draped herself around him and she lay trustingly in his arms. In the distance he heard the familiar voice singing the familiar lullaby and his eyes teared up. Slowly the young man untangled himself from his wife's arms and went to stand by the window, closer to the soothing voice. He reached into his bedside drawer and pulled out a picture that had forever left its imprint in his heart. Holding the picture close, the young man again turned to the music, desperately trying to find some solace in it.
Gauri hid her tears in her mother's laps and swallowed her sobs. She clutched her sister closer to her heart and begged sleep to come find her. She wanted to go back to dreamland again, a place that she hadn't visited in so long.
Maya heard her daughter's quiet sobs and her heart broke further. She continued patting her daughter gently to sleep so that whatever sorrow was haunting her would at least leave her alone for a few hours.
Ghoomparani mashi pishi
Moder baari esho
Ghoomparani Mashi pishi
Moder baari esho
Moder bari esho
Moder bari esho
Neendiyan rani sapne dedo
Munni ki nainon ko
Ghoomparani mashi pishi
Moder baari esho
(Film: Bose – the forgotten hero)
In the distance, a lone figure stood by her window lost in her thoughts when suddenly a pair of strong arms came wrapped her in their warmth. A man's lovely voice broke into her thoughts and asked, "What are you thinking about Radhika?" Radhika snuggled deeper into her husband's arms and said, "I am thinking Kavi did we do the right thing?"
Kavi pulled away from his wife and turning her around to look into her eyes he asked, "Right thing about what?"
"About our daughter? Do you think we were selfish?"
Kavi looked away and wistfully he replied, "I don't know Radhika. The same thoughts and the guilt nags at me all the time. But what else could we have done? I am grateful for their sacrifice and I promise you that once…" he broke of, tears gathering in his eyes, "I promise that their sacrifice will not go to waste. God is always watching Radha and he will find a way to reward them for their deeds." With those words Kavi once again pulled his wife into his arms and both of them prayed silently for their loved ones' happiness.
