Khushi
It was the first snowfall of the season and Simla was flooded by tourists. Bani picked up her shawl and made her way down to have a look of the first snow. She had spent all her life in this place. Indeed it seems every road, every corner knew her. She had seen more than thirty very beautiful snowfalls in this city, some she remembers with nostalgia, some she did not want to remember and some she could not. She opened the small wooden gate of her house and took the narrow road that leads towards the main city. Something strike out of blue and she changed her path towards the very big villa that covered hectares of area in the neighbourhood.
Due to a landslide life came to a standstill. There were families waiting to see their loved ones. There was chaos all over. People were desperately trying all means to reach their near and dear ones. But as there was no connectivity via the road, similarly the phone lines were also not working. Bani was also tensed as today Khushi was coming from Delhi. She had gone there with her friends for the open day of Delhi University. She wanted to join there, and even Bani thought that she has no right to bind the girl to this small town. She should be as free as a bird to reach the sky of her dreams and who knows to come back home as night falls. The anxiety that she felt within was coming in turbulent waves. She could feel something was going to happen. She prayed to God for Khushi's safety.
Bani had earned a name for herself, it was nothing that she ever wanted. She wanted a simple life with a loving husband and children, her own children. But destiny has something else in store for her. She was born to raise other people's children, not raise exactly but to entertain precisely. She had started writing children's book only to keep herself occupied but what started as something to pass time ended into a full-fledged carrier that not only earned her money but a name also.
**********
Jai was coming back to Simla after a very long time, may be after ten years or more, he could not and care not remember. His grandfather was not keeping well and the old man wanted to see him before his death. Jai could not recall what went wrong between his parents and his grandfather. It has been years that the old man has stopped contacting them. Neither did he ever visited them in last ten years nor does his parents ever made an effort to come to the old man. Jai himself was so busy in expanding his business and sorting out his personal life that he completely forgot about his bauji, the man with whom he thought he had bonded more than his own parents. But the thing was that, if the old man was angry with something with his son and daughter in law, why did he sever ties with Jai. But Jai was not here to analyse anybody's mistake, he knew that it was his mistake that he could never take out some time for the old man.
But as destiny would have it, before he could reach Simla, he got stuck in a landslide. He was an influential man, and though there was scarcity of rooms but he got a private suit in the hotel. There were families, people old and young, males and females waiting for the authorities to make a way so that they could reach their destination. It was late evening and Jai had come down for his dinner when he heard commotion in the hotel lobby. He found two young girls fighting with the receptionist for a room. The receptionist was trying very hard to convince them that there was no room available.
"If I would have been a minister or a film star, you would have been lying on the floor to give a room, but no, just because I am a common person all the rooms of your hotel are booked." Jai found it quite amusing that a chit of a girl hardly in her teens was giving a good lecture not only to the receptionist but to the manager.
Jai found that there were many people who could not get accommodation for the night and there was no proper arrangement from the government either. He walk past and found that though there were lot of people who could not found accommodation but either they had their own car or were in groups big enough to take shelter in some cheap lodges. It was only a few people like an old couple, a young female with an infant and these two teenagers who could neither go back to the bus they were travelling, nor to the lodge and were not even getting accommodation in a decent enough hotel.
Somehow Jai made some arrangements for the girls and the old couple to stay in his suite, he could not find the young lady with the child. He felt a bit guilty for taking that long to decide but he would have not been that guilty if the girl named Khushi would not have taunted him like hundred times within half an hour when he had dinner with the couple and the girls. Jai had hardly changed into his night suite when he heard a knock on his bedroom door. He was surprised to see the two girls standing in front of him. They asked him to come along with them to look around for the young lady with the child. He was listening to the banter between the two girls, while Sonia was getting angry on Khushi for making her face the harsh weather, the girl called Khushi was looking worried.
"Stop it Sonia, it could have been you in place of that lady."
"Oh! Your conscious is pricked to see a lonely lady with a child, mother Teresa she is mature enough to find a warm place for herself and her child, I don't think you need to worry so much about her and bother not only me but this gentleman also."
"Please few more minutes, please sir." urged Khushi with her eyes glistening with tears. Jai nodded his head in affirmation and felt like he was in his scouting camp.
"I know she is mature enough but if something happens to her or her child, I will never be able to forgive myself. Ma has always taught me to help the needy and I don't want to fail her."
"But Khushi, Bani aunty will be more than angry if she would come to know that you are out in snow at this time of the night to help somebody. I mean she would appreciate your helping someone but u know how protective she is about you and Rano mausi. I tell u, you are not going to get as much appreciation as scolding, be prepared to face the music."
"No, she would not get a reason to scold me, as you know we have this gentleman with.........
Look there is Shashi aunty, hey....." she ran towards the lady in concern.
When Jai came back to his room with all the three damsels in distress it was already midnight. They had found the lady in miserable condition, there was not enough warmth in the shabby hotel lobby where she was sitting with few people. She had thanked more with her eyes than her words for helping her son and her out in such a bad weather. Jai found it quite amusing that everybody was thanking him where as it was this girl who made him take this decision to take both the teenagers and the old couple in his suite and then it was her again who took him in search of the lady with the child. Jai found himself smiling at the thought of her nonstop banter. His niece Anu was of the same age but he could never think that she would even think of doing anything like that, indeed she could not think beyond fashion and parties. He could not stop envying her parents for having such a wonderful daughter and a tinge of sadness filled him.
When he got up next day, the roads were already clear. He found that all the people who stayed in his suite have left without even bidding goodbye to him. He felt a little bad not because he wanted them to thank him but because he thought for some unknown reason he wanted to know that they slept well and were safe. Anyways, he was not here to make friends, he packed his bag, order for breakfast. There was a note along with the breakfast tray saying,
Thank You,
My Knight in shining armour.
Take care,
Khushi.
Jai could not help himself from smiling.
***********
She sat on the wooden bench remembering the last time when she felt so lonely. She was never alone, always surrounded by people, rather children but somewhere she was all alone.
Suddenly a voice broke her reverie. "Arre madam, have you lost your way?"
"What are you doing out in snow?"
Bani recognised the man, the moment she looked at him. How could she not remember the man who was responsible for everything that happened in her life. He was the first man whom she had fallen in love, or as her heart told her. He married somebody else because he was in love with her. He was the one whose grandfather had selected her for him when his wife died. He was the one who refused to marry her because he and his parents thought she was not up to his standard. She found it strange to see him in person after about 17 years. He has aged gracefully, but still he was handsome enough to catch the attention of all the young girls around.
"I had come to see Mr. Walia, I am his neighbour" she told him. To say that he was amused was an altogether different thing. He was intrigued with this strange lady who was sitting in the snow oblivious to her environment and telling him that she wanted to see him. People don't leave him alone even when he was miles apart from his house, his company. He had come to see his grandfather who was not keeping well for the last few years. He was already eighty nine. Then it clicked to him that she had come to see his grandfather and not him.
"We have always shared the first snowfall but today I am not sure....." she got up to go while saying that.
"Why not?" curiosity getting better of him.
"Today he has better things to do than watching the snow." were the departing words. He was left looking at her departing figure. Jai cursed himself, what was happening to him, in a short time of two days he had found himself attracted to the opposite sex, he consoled himself that the reasons in both cases were different.
Cricket
