Follow the heart
Foreword: Some of you already caught on that the trilogy thread is likely to continue. It therefore only feels right enough to commence the second short story that further unpicks and plays with the character of Dutta that is so tempting to experiment with, that it motivates writers on Laagi to create yet another setting, tweak his otherwise fairly defined character, and see him in yet another role other than the original gangster of LTL 1.. hence forth in this instance I see him in rural back ground ,not where I currently live in, but from where my roots hail from. As a writer, I tend to include my personal subjective experiences and blend them into stories and fanfictions, characters that carry my plots, where ever possible. In this fan fiction, I have incorporated elements of a well known folk lore of two lovers. I suspect you too might be familiar with it, however, I have attempted to tweak the story line so can it fall into place with the original story of Laagi thujse lagan by Jayesh Patil..the key similarity are the male and female protagonists ,namely Dutta and Patil and Nakusha.
Prologue: In one of the villages surrounding Ratnagiri, there lived a head man called Shri Ram Patil..who was neither rich but far from being a pauper too. The reason being that he belonged to the clan of Patil's who were farmers by trade and possessed fields and landholdings ,that carried their reputation of being on a notch higher than the subsequent clans of artisans , ironmongers, potters.. they were only lesser than the caretakers of faith and the territorial defenders.
Shri Ram Patil, was revered as the village headman , and that respect cascaded down to his children too. He was a proud father of four sons, Shinde, Kadam, Davde and the youngest Dutta, who it seemed was an aftermath of a precocious act. Hence there remained a huge gap between the three older sons and the young twenty plus Dutta. For that reason Dutta was still looked upon as the young one of the family , and undoubtedly the apple of his ancient frail fathers eye. Shri Ram Pati 's wife died after all three of their old sons's were married. Dutta consequently had a family that consisted of his father, his brothers and their wives. Therefore he could not have be deemed as one short off familial attention. However although his father inundated him with affection, he was never the peer buddy that Dutta craved for. None of Dutta's brothers too qualified for the role of being his friends , as they were a lot older than him ,plus each of them possessed a wife that sponged off most of both his brothers love and attention from Dutta to themselves.
So Dutta sought a peer, who was like more of a brother than a friend to Dutta.Baji Rao was the son of a landlord too , hence both friends were from similar back grounds. Bajirao's father was dead and he was the sole son of his mother Shakuntla Devi. Young Dutta was a frequent visitor at Baji Rao's hawali, where he was always welcomed.
Now in rural areas, fields are demarcated by their respective owners. The land itself empowered each village and with power came rivalries too. Many a marriages were struck between villages to gain access to power, and to consolidate land deals. But alongside, old enmities too were rife between the cluster of different villages. Where such an element existed, boundaries between villages were never crossed more like if they were, swords were drawn and bodies were scattered. Hence where ever conflict and contention occurred between villages , each side kept to their own territory. Nakusha was the niece of Nana Sahib the head man of the Shri Ram Patil's rival village.. Hamlet53 8.2.15
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
