I am a great fan of Shobhana (actress & dancer), she has a dance troupe "The Banyan Tree"…they recently did Maya Ravaan, I saw bits and parts on YouTube…a brilliant piece of work… so bani will be a dancer of her class and style!!!
Shweta, I love reading your comments!!!!
PART-8
Bani swayed to the soulful music playing the background…it was semi-classical, a rare fusion of slow beats with diversifying range…
Rano had goosebumps as she saw bani performing the most crucial part of the concept… Sita giving the agni-pariksha…it was completely bani's concept, a ballet on "Sita's Agnipariksha" and then how she wanders in the jungle after Lord Rama sacrifices her fulfilling the duty as a King… rano kept looking at her even after bani stopped, taking a break, looking a bit lost… …
"Rano…" bani had to nudge her…
"Why do men have their way always bani…??? Why did sita have to give the Agnipariksha??? Even when Ram knew Sita was innocent then why did he send her away…??"Rano questioned, sounding like a feminist, a part of her was…
"Ram knew she was pure but the world had to know so Sita had to give Agnipariksha…he wanted to show that his sita was holy…for a king his people come first and he followed his dharma…" bani said explaining her…
"This is wrong…" rano yelled…bani smiled…
"What if Jai Walia comes back and wants you…will you accept him…?" rano's sudden unexpected question shook her…
"Why would he want me…he hates me even more now??" bani said looking away…wiping off the sweat from her forehead…
"What if he does???" rano pestered…
"I don't know…" bani said…she really didn't know what she would do then… …
"Will you accept him???" rano said looking at her carefully…bani's expressions changed…
"I don't know…rano…I don't know…I never thought about it…" bani said honestly…
"I never had any desire to become his wife…I married him only because of maa and baba…only if he had talked to me…I would have gladly given him whatever he wanted…but he never listened to me…I don't know Rano…I have come a long way…even though I am married…I never felt like that…it is only bitter things which come to my mind…"
"Have you told maa about us meeting Jai??" rano asked…
"Not yet…I think I should…" bani said taking center stage…practicing the rest of her performance…
******
"What did you think about Bani…??" ranveer asked munching a sandwich…
"Nothing…" jai answered, sipping his black coffee…
"Till now you couldn't stop thinking about her and now nothing…Men are so damn hypocrites jai…and bloody liars too…" ranveer dismissed…smirking…jai glared at him…
"She lied to me…" jai accused her…
"She told you the truth also…"
"After all that" jai fumed…
"You were after her not the other way round bro…"
"I even kissed her!!! Jeez…" jai shook his head…
"Wow!!! Jai Walia kissed his wife…" ranveer said laughing…looking at a poker-faced jai sulking…
"Shut up!! God!! How will I face her now…" jai couldn't even imagine the situation…he, his parents whom he ignored and his wife whom he never wanted…the perfect family…Why was he doing this??? He questioned himself again and again… …
******
"Maa rehne dijiye na…" bani said as Krishna made her sit, pouring some oil in her palm…
"Kaise rookhe hogayen hain bal tere…" Krishna said, massaging her hair…
"Maa…" bani uttered…
"Kya baat hain…" Krishna asked knowing very well that she wanted to say something…
"Aapko kaise pata ki mujhe kuch kehna hain…"
"Ab maa kehti ho…maa ko beti ke baareme pata nahin hoga kya…"
"Maa hum…hum kissise mile…"
"Kissse…"
"J…Jai se…" she felt Krishna's fingers stop for a while…bani turned around, sitting near her feet…keeping her head in her lap she narrated the whole incident…
Bani looked surprised hearing Krishna's tinkling laughter…
"Aap…aap has kyun rahin hain…" bani asked feeling embarrassed…
"Toh mera beta akhir tere pyaar main gir hi gaya…"
"Who humse payaar nahin karte hain…" bani said firmly…
"Toh kya hua pasand toh zaroor karta hain na…" Krishna added…bani blushed a bit…
"Maa who humse naftrat karte hain…aur sach jaane ke baad toh aur bhi…"
"Pagli...aisa kuch nahin hoga…"
"Aapko lagta hain ki who aayenge aap se aur baba se milne…"
"Pata nahin…par mujhe lagta hain shayaad aayega…par humse milne nahin tujhse milne…"
"Maa please…hume wadaa diya hain unko ki koi unke force nahin karega…aur yeh shaadi bemayne hain…" bani said with a bent head…Krishna looked at the frail girl sitting near her…she kept her hand on her head…
"Beta ek bandhan ko todna asaan nahin hain…main jaanti hoon kahin na kahin tumhe bohot chot pohunchi hain…par…faisla tumhara hoga iss bar…hum apni galti dobara nahin dohraana chahte…" bani looked up with tears in her eyes…
******
"Maa jaldi chaliye…" bani shouted as she hurried towards the entrance, carrying the pooja thali in her hand, they were going to the temple…
"Maa…" she called out again, scuttling…arranging the plate properly, trying to recollect if she had forgotten to take anything…
She gasped as she hit something, making the plate tumble, the kumkum and haldi spilled over… bani looked up to be left gaping, words dried in her throat…Jai Walia…it was him…bani looked down to see his off-white coat smeared red and yellow… she looked up with apologetic eyes…she was surprised to see his eyes unrevealing…still…cast on her steadily…they neither had the harshness of the past nor the softness of the present…both of which she had encountered in propinquity…they were simply staring back at her… with emoting precisely nothing… …
"JAIII!" Krishna's shriek made them jump…causing them to stumble back to reality…
"Maa…" he let out a low whisper…walking past her, ignoring her apology… towards his mother…
******
A steaming tension mounted as the four people sat quietly at the dinner table…
"Jai, have more beta…bani cooks really well…" Krishna gushed serving his son with more food…jai kept mum while bani preferred to keep her eyes downcast; playing with her food… she realized that calling jai back wasn't exactly the best thing she did…uday had been eager to talk to jai but jai kept a safe distance only choosing to interact with his mother who fussed over him…and now she was singing her praises in front of him…What could be worse…??? bani's phone rang…
"Yes Nikhil…" bani said…jai didn't fail to listen to her…
"No Nikhil I won't be able to perform at such short notice…no…please…"
"I am busy anyways…"
"Ya, sorry…apologize to them on my behalf…I am genuinely busy…."
"Okay then…see you…good night…" bani ended the call…
"You will stay na jai…" Krishna asked hesitantly…jai turned his attention towards his mother; indeed she had grown old…grey strands dominating her once dark black hair…but her beauty and grace didn't leave her…his father was unrecognizable, loosing so much weight, he looked really sick, eating only limited food…
Jai mutely nodded his head…
"Tony, baba ki dawai le aao…" bani called out for Tony who diligently followed her orders…
Jai silently observed the interaction between his parents and bani…to him it felt like she was their daughter and he a guest…somewhere he felt he was misfit here…he felt like a stranger in his own house which hadn't change even a bit…
Finishing the dinner quickly, jai left for his room, tired…ranveer had checked himself in a hotel not wanting to come home since he didn't want to disturb their privacy which he thought was a nonsense talk but he agreed not wanting to unnecessary bog his best friend with his problems…he discarded his shirt feeling hot…searching for the remote of the air-conditioner…he felt nostalgic entering his old room….as if it was only yesterday that he was being scolded by his mother for making his room dirty and not cleaning it…
A brief knock disturbed him…bani looked elsewhere seeing his exposed torso…jai hastily wore his t-shirt…
"Er…um…sorry to disturb you…actually I wanted to thank you for coming…I am really grateful…" bani said adjusting her glasses…
"It's my house if you have forgotten…" jai said with certain coldness…
"I am glad you still remember…" bani said leaving quietly… ruffling his sore thoughts… yes, it was only because he himself had alienated from his family that he felt like an outsider today, but he had his reasons…
Somewhere he hated to admit but a part of him was jealous of bani…envious of how despite being an orphan she got the all the love and affection…and he despite having everything had nothing to call his own…
******
The tinkling sounds of bells disturbed his incomplete sleep…he threw away the covers…getting up… the music was clear now… he glanced at the watch it was 5: 30 in the morning…who was listening to music at this hour…he followed the direction from where the words floated…he climbed the steps, as far as his memory was concerned they lead to the terrace…
He stopped, mesmerized by the sight in front of him…Bani was dancing…under the pink sky…among the fog laden air…the dawn was beautiful…so was she…he stood transfixed…in the similar way he had been rendered speechless when he first saw her dance…his gaze remained fixed on her face…her expressions changing within seconds…he paid attention to the song…it was a devotional song on Lord Krishna… Radha singing out for her love, feeling jealous since he was dancing with the gopis… accusing him of cheating her…Bani was too lost in her own world… she turned around…her hands gestured as if she was calling someone to embrace her, symbolizing the immense love Radha had for Krishna…when abruptly she stopped finding jai watching her with amazement…she stood still…composing herself she quickly switched off the music player on her laptop…
"Aap…" she finally managed to utter…
"Er…I heard some music so I…" jai managed to speak…
"Oh!!I am sorry…actually every day I practice in the morning…I am sorry I disturbed your sleep… tomorrow I will practice in my room…you won't be disturbed…" bani rambled picking up her laptop, going past him…he wanted to say it was okay…that she could do whatever she wanted but somehow those words never formed… …
******
"Bani ne bataya mujhe…" Krishna said as she sat with her son after finishing her minor works…uday had retired for his afternoon nap, and bani had went for her rehearsal…
"Kya bataya…" jai asked sounding curious…
"I mean…you met her in America…"
"Aur kya bataya…" jai asked thinking what else she told her…
"Zyadaa nahin that she asked you to come here…" Krishna deliberately didn't say the rest, not wanting to embarrass her son…it was after many years that she finally saw him, she didn't want to drive him away again…
"Oh!!" jai said feeling relieved that she didn't say the rest of the things…
"I am so happy you have come back…" Krishna beamed with delight, he could how radiance reflecting on her mother's happiness…
"Can you forgive me maa???" he asked after a long pause…taking a deep breath…
"I was never angry with you jai…" Krishna said smiling at him…
"I…" he looked down, not able to meet her eyes…
"I know jai…after uday left…you were very alone…I know you heard all those things people said behind our backs…I can understand beta…but let's bygones be bygones…can't you forget that and look ahead…I can't see you suffer like this…" Krishna said patting his back…
"It's difficult maa…it's difficult to face it…I died thousand times when someone said anything about you or dad…they were so bad…I…" jai covered his face with his palms…
"I am proud of you jai that you faced all that…I really am…but please beta…leave the past…let it go…or else you will never be able to live again…happily…" jai buried his face in her comforting lap…
"I missed you maa…" he whispered in a muffled voice… …
******
God bless
dhani
Cricket
Anupamaa
