it had been a long summer vacation for bani and as much as she loved staying with her mom and dad and her lil sis rano, she couldn't wait to get back to her univ hostel where she was staying on along with her friends pursuing her LLB degree, bani was in her second year of her degree program of 5 years, and at 20 yrs of age she had her goals set out for her, she wanted to become a very successful advocate, one of the best in India and then she intended to pay of every debt that her father had incurred due to loss of his business and her biggest dream was to get their house back which had to be sold off to pay the bank its dues and looking at the way bani was going about with her studies those goals were not far away from her reach because she was the brightest student the university ever had.
it was the last day of her vacation and although bani dint want to go and attend a wedding celebration but she was dragged along after much coaxing and blackmailing by her mom and sis, it wasn't as though bani hated wedding or anything like that it was just the people and they way they acted at weddings she couldn't stand and then again she hated plastering a fake smile on her face all the time and dressing up for her was a surplus of an requirement to attend a wedding but alas there she was all dressed up thanks to her mom and maintaining that very fake smile for the benefit of her acquaintances, hating every minute of it and dreaming of home and tv and her bed.
jai along with his maasi was attending a friend's wedding and as soon as he entered the wedding hall his eyes went and set on the most beautiful face he had ever seen, she was wearing a beautiful pink saree which showed off each of her beautiful curve, her long jet black hair curling around her oval face caressing her cheeks and those beautiful big eyes in which one could drown forever, her cute lil nose and her full pink lips and then she was laughing at something the lil girl near her said and jai fell in luv with her tinkling laughter there and then...........he was so busy looking at his angel that he dint even realize where he was heading and even though maasi called out to him to watch out he had turned deaf to everything around him and then SPLASHHHHHH.
jai fell into the water fountain and when he resurfaced from the water he had a lotus on his head..........bani along with rano was standing near the fountain and had been laughing at something that rano was saying when she heard a huge splash and then she saw a man sprawled in the water fountain with a lotus dangling from his head, and she and rano looked at each other and burst out laughing, while she was laughing she realized that the man in the fountain was continually staring at her and got uncomfortable so she stopped laughing and went near the fountain and extended her hand to help him out of the fountain.
jai was still in his haze when he found his angel coming near him and extending her hand towards him and he took her hand in his and then kept staring at her, bani tried to push him up but he just wasn't moving and kept staring at her, she thought alright is he mad??.....then jai's haze was broken when massi came shouting at him "munnaaaaaaa, where is ur mind?? i kept shouting at u and went straight and fell in the fountain and what were u looking at??" jai looked from massi to the girl who's hand he was holding and then back at maasi.
finally bani spoke after she thought okk this weirdo has'nt got any intention of getting up from this fountain, yeah maybe he is a frog after all so cant leave the water so she said "ummm mister...... do u intend to get out of the water?? i mean i don't have any problems if u want to spend ur time in the water but if that's the case can i get my hand back plz"
jai looked at their clapsed hands and then back at her again and then back at there hands and then back at her again....bani thought alright he is officially mad.........and then jai did something that really made her realize that he was mad totally mad..............clasping her hand, he came out of the water with the lotus still dangling from his head, he got down on his knees before her and asked "will u marry me??"
two days later bani still laughed when she remembered the incident, she dint know who he was what his name was but he sure was mad and then after he had asked "will u marry me?" bani had gotten her hand free from his clasp and ran for her life along with rano and then a few mins later without their mom and dad knowing about the whole incident had left the wedding, after returning to the university the next day, she had told whole of her college frnds about the incident and they had all laugh their heads off thinking what a weirdo the man must have been.
the man whom they thought of as a weirdo was none other than THE JAI WALIA, he was just 27 years old and was the biggest hotelier of India, he was a self made multi-millionaire and though bani might have thought of him as half witted, but he was the smartest businessman who's business acumen could never be questioned and along with all that he was every woman's dream, with that ruggedly handsome face and that husky voice and his style of walking, talking and dressing, not to mention his well built body at 6 feet 2 inches, his salt pepper looks were worth dying for and last and the most lethal was that sexy and mystifying smile of his ahhhhh many woman had felt faint when they had been at the receiving end of that smile.
jai walia was sitting in his study brooding about the very incident bani and her frnds were laughing about, jai had been castigating himself ever since the incident, he had colourfully called himself many things that were unprintable, for behaving the way he had because of his own foolishness he had lost his dream girl, one moment she was there and the next she had vanished into thin air although jai had tried to find her in the wedding hall after he had come out of his haze, after receiving a whack on his head from maasi but he had been too late, she was gone and now he had no one to blame but himself.....he had thought to himself "gr8888 jai walia gr88888 that was soooo suave.....what were u thinking u jackass??......dont even know the name of the girl and u go asking her "will u marry me??" yeah right she'll marry u alright.....she must have thought u belong to the funny farm that's wat she must have thought of u.....nw where will u go to find her.......dint even had the mind to ask her, her name noooo sir u wont ask her name but u'll ask "will u marry me" u idiot, u you @#$#%$&^&* !@#!@$#%^%* ...........and on and on he berated himself.
maasi had been the smartest one in the whole matter and had clearly seen that her munna's wicket was out (nw where did i get that word from hmmm hani lol ) and so she had made some discreet inquires and had come to know all about bani dixit and her family and she had also called up nishikant dixit and had set up a meeting between them and so she went to her munna who was sitting in the study brooding, she said "come munna get ready we have to go" jai wasn't in any mood to go anywhere so he said "no maasi i don't want to go anywhere, umm i have some important phone calls to attend" maasi said "but munna this is a veryyy important meeting too, we have to get there" jai was like "ohhooo maasi where the hell do we have to go" and pat came maasi's reply "to ur would-be-in-law's home" jai was like "WHAT??" massi chuckled and said "well since u have already proposed the girl don't u think it would be better if u go and ask her parents for her hand in marriage too" jai said "wha....hw...i mean when....i mean....."
maasi laughed and said "i am ur maasi munna, u cant hide anything from me not that u intended to anyway with the way u proposed in front of me..." jai went red wid embarrassment and maasi laughed some more and said "so i made a few inquires about bani" jai asked "bani??" maasi replied "that's my daughter-in-law's name" and jai fell in luv with the name itself....maasi continued "so well i have fixed a meeting with her parents and that's where i was asking u to come...." and then she added naughtily "but since u have some important calls to attend i'll call them and cancel the meeting we can surely meet some other time" jai was like "noooooooo no maasi i'll come with u afterall one must keep one' s appointments" maasi was like "yeah yeah wadever"
and so jai and maasi reached bani's house, set up in upper middle class location, nishikant and kiran dixit welcomed them and asked them to take a seat in their drawing room and then kiran called out "Rano beta, bring some water for our guests" and in come rano carrying glasses of water, she did a Namaste to maasi and handed a glass of water to her and then she came to jai and was about to hand him a glass too when she saw his face and stared at him for two minutes and burst out laughing, jai turned red with embarrassment after all he knew y she was laughing and maasi was laughing along with rano too, with a very confused nishikant and kiran staring at the three of them and then at each other in confusion.
after a while maasi cleared her throat and addressed to nishikant and said "u must be wondering y we are here.....this is my son Jai Walia...he owns..." nishikant interrupted and said "who doesn't knows him....he doesn't needs an introduction" so maasi continued "well.......umm the thing is jai saw bani at a wedding three days ago and.............." much to jai's embarrassment she narrates the whole incident of the water fountain and jai's proposal to them.
nishikant and kiran looked at each other after hearing all of it and then nishikant cleared his throat " our daughter would be very lucky to go into such a big house and with such a big man as her husband but......umm but the thing is that bani is just 20 yrs old and is still studying, she aspires to become the biggest lawyer of India and though it may sound like i am a gloating father but the truth is my bani is smart enough to achieve that goal and this has become her life's goal and in these circumstance how can i go about bringing the subject of her marriage in the middle of her studies, its not my place to say no to ur proposal but i don't think bani will agree to it at least not yet but i will talk to her about it"
jai who had been silently listening all this while finally spoke up "uncle if u don't mind can i say something" nishikant was like yeah sure so jai spoke "ummm uncle i agree that bani is still too young to get married and of course she must complete her studies before marriage and i would be willing to wait till that time.....but i'd be really great full to u if u'll let me meet bani once before she gives her decision" nishikant said "jai beta i cant promise u anything but i'll try and persuade bani to meet u once" she'll be coming home at the weekend so we'll talk to her then.....with that jai and maasi left.
bani came home the nxt weekend and the bomb was dropped on her when nishikant asked "beta, have u ever heard about the big hotelier jai walia?" bani said "of course papa, who hasn't heard of him" and she went about praising jai walia and all his achievements and about hw young he still is and she completed by saying "u know papa he is my role model...i want to become as successful as he is" nishikant thought okk so there wont be any need to praise him in front of her seeing that she is so full of praises herself so then he asked "beta have u ever met him in person?" bani replied "no papa but i hope to one day maybe i'll get to fight a case for him....u never know right??" and winked.
nishikant laughed and said "but beta u'v already met him" bani was like get outta here u r trying to put one on me right?? but nishikant said "no beta u really have met him......do u remember that guy who fell in the fountain at the wedding ??" bani asked "hw do u know bout that fountain guy?? ohh yeah rano and her big mouth....anyways what has jai walia got to do with that weirdo.....u cant tell me that jai walia is somehow related to that dumbo??" nishikant smiled and said "that weirdo is the jai walia"
bani was shocked if that's wat is could be called she had met her role model and he was such a weirdo now how was that possible?? he was such a smart business man but he was mad surely her father was mistakes about the guy and got him mixed up so she asked "papa are u sure?? hw can weirdo be jai walia ?? i mean jai walia has got to be smart while that person was well was madddd"
nishikant said "no ban i am sure he was jai walia and he is not mad, he and his maasi came to meet me and.........." and he tell her about the proposal. bani stared at her father for 2 minutes and then started laughing like mad in between her laughter she said "hahahahahaa papa that was a gud joke......for a few seconds i thought u were serious....hehehehehee........ u really thought i'll fall for this prank of urs jai walia is that weirdo and he has proposed marriage for me hahahaahahahaah"
nishikant smiled at bani and thought yeah putting it this way it really seems to bizarre to be true but truth is stranger than fiction so he said to her "no beta i am serious" looking at nishikant's face bani knew straight away that he indeed wasn't joking after all
so she said "u mean.....he really came and proposed?? and.....OMG!!!! papa u dint say yes to the proposal did u???" she looked at him suspiciously because she had been aware that before also many marriage proposals had come for bani but her parents had always refused without even consulting her after all she was still studying and if today they were talkin to her about a proposal that means............
nishikant put her doubts to rest and said "no beta we haven't agreed to anything but we haven't said no either, look when earlier the proposals came we always knew u'll get a better groom someday but it's not every day that jai walia comes and asks for a hand of a girl and u'll be really lucky if u married him aside from the fact that he is the richest man in the country, he is really in love with u and will always keep u happy but it's not my or ur mom's decision, we want u to really think hard on this and give ur answer either way it will be fine for us bcoz we'll be happy only if u r happy but beta before u decide anything jai wants to meet u just once....will u meet him??"
bani stammered "papa i don't know....i.....y??" nishikant smiled at his confused daughter and patted her head and said "u don't have to say anything yet....y don't u go and meet jai today, he'll be coming to pick u up for dinner tonight and then after u have talked....think about it long and hard and then give ur answer, alright??" bani was too dazed to say anything so she just nodded.
she went and sat in her room and thought ohh god this has got to be some sort of a nightmare, jai walia wants to marry me....y?? and y does mom and dad want me to go and meet him, does that means they want me to say yes?? after all they never asked me to meet anyother guy who proposed so y now?? yesss they defiantly want me to say yes....ok so he is rich so wat??? i have to complete my studies too and then if i get married wat about my career no ways can i get married now.....uggg y dint papa just say no to that weirdo, now he has put me in the spot....i'll have to go and say no to him uggg ugg uggggggggggggggg
So she was ready to go out for dinner with him at the night although bani's mom had tried her best to make her wear a saree but bani wouldn't hear anything of it and said "well mom if that jai walia intends to marry me he must know the real me right, so am not gonna wear any saree, i'll go out in my jeans and tee, i am not getting dressed for some snob okkkkkkkkkkkkkkk and before u get any bright ideas lemme tell u don't get ur hopes high on getting that weirdo as ur son-in-law because i am not marrying him periodddd okkkkkkkkkkk and i am going out with him just to tell him this alrighttttttttttttttttttt???" kiran just smiled at her daughter and let her be, she thought i wont warn u my dear daughter but before the night ends u'll be sure to fall for his charms, like we all have and then we'll see if u agree to marry that "weirdo" or not............to be cont.
Anupamaa
