Pia Jaiswal, an 17 year old girl, lives with her widowed mother Madhu, 9 year old brother Rishi and her paternal grandfather Samrat jaiswal inDehradun. The family isn't very wealthy, but they have enough to meet their needs and little desires, which are simple and uncomplicated. Her mother is a kindergarten teacher, her brother goes to school and her grandfather is priest at a small temple, which has been owned and presided over by Pia's family for generations.
Pia is a very sweet, affectionate, friendly and soft hearted college-going girl. She has many other good qualities, and a couple of 'not so good' qualities too, as we all do. You will know all of them as the story proceeds. Pia is very beautiful, though she doesn't think so herself, and doesn't attach any importance to it. She has countless friends of all age groups in town and in her college. In their defense, I must say it is very difficult not to befriend and like her, as some people are about to discover.
So Pia is living a very happy, peaceful and simple life with her family and friends.
But this calm is all set to come to an end, and all that is ordinary will turn extraordinary.
Some one is coming to Dehradun...
Some one with a past full of secrets and dark shadows...
Some one is arriving...to set in motion a story that was written in the stars long ago...
...and Pia's life is about to change forever.
Today
November 22 - There was a pooja in Pia's house today which was very well attended. The last of the guests left just a couple of hours ago and the house is peaceful once again. Pia, her brother, mother and grandfather have together cleared up all the items of worship, and everyone is very tired after a long and hectic day. Just as they were about to enjoy their hard earned rest, the electricity went. But it is winter, and Dehradun has a very cool and pleasant climate all around the year, so heat is not an issue. Right now her grandfather and brother are trying to amuse themselves in the absence of TV, her mother is preparing tea, and Pia is standing at the window in the drawing room, admiring the beautiful night.
First chapter
The darkness was only lit by the light of the full moon, and Pia smiled looking out of the window. It was a beautiful night and there was a very sweet, untraceable fragrance in the air. The electricity had given out as usual, and apart from a few affluent households that could afford generators, the little town was lit only by candles and lamps?
She loved this town and this house. Pia's grandfather's house wasn't in the heart of the town and here the little houses nearby were submerged in darkness with only a lamp shining here and there like little stars. all had retired to their homes for the night and the streets were empty.
Still dressed in the dark red ghagra choli she had worn for the pooja, she turned away from the window and saw the very round outline of her grandfather walking around the house with a bell in one hand and an incense stick in the other and muttering something under his breath. She was quite sure she knew what he was doing, brandishing the incense stick like a sword and making intricate patterns in the air, and she smiled. Her adorable grandfather was decidedly ghost hunting with all the seriousness of a veteran. But she knew he would love to be asked the complexities of the 'procedure'.
"What are you doing grandpa?" she asked as she walked towards him, trying very hard not to smile.
Grandpa stopped in his tracks and answered very pompously and with a very grave look, "I am ensuring the protection of this house tonight."
"But why grandpa, what's so special about tonight?" she asked, amused and still trying not to smile at the thought of the superstitious tale she was about to hear now.
'You had to ask, didn't you,' her little brother Rishi, who had been playing with his own shadow on the wall, asked gloomily 'Now he'll tell us how all the demons from the underworld are coming up through the drains tonight to destroy the earth.'
Pia silenced her little brother with a look.
"Be quite boy," her grandpa said, very offended. "I have been a temple priest for 45 years now. We have been priests for generations?I know all there is to know about the other world?You are just 9 years old?what do you know about spirits, and ghosts and demons."
"I know they don't exist,"Rishi retorted.
"Hmph!! All this modern knowledge has spoilt your head. What I say is true?this is no ordinary night," her grandfather declared, "This is a very special night, a night that only comes once in many decades, a night when demi gods come down to earth and play their mischief on ordinary mortals. Many things will happen this night, destinies will be met, and so many lives will change forever? Yes?there is some strange magic in the air tonight?" his voice faltered into silence and he seemed to have lost himself in his dire predictions.
Pia and Rishi, who had years of experience with their grandfather's rock solid belief in sometimes cute, sometimes bizarre, but always funny superstitions, heard this speech in silence. Then Rishi burst out laughing and the smile Pia had been fighting for so long finally won.
"You scorn my knowledge, do you????children these days?no respect for their elders. Just you two wait and watch?tomorrow we will hear of all the strange things that happened tonight," her grandpa said indignantly and went off to sulk in a corner.
Pia's mother came into the room from the kitchen, holding a plate of sweets and four steaming cups of tea. She had been on her feet throughout the day for the pooja and her gentle face looked totally worn out. As usual, with just one look she immediately understood what had happened. "Come on now, you two," she murmured, "You know how happy it makes him when we believe in him. And his stories are always so harmless, can't you just go along with them?" she looked pleadingly at her children. But Pia, who was already feeling guilty for having smiled, had picked up a sweet from the plate in her mom's hand and was by now walking towards her grandfather, who was sitting like a little child with his arms crossed on his favourite chair.
She knelt down in front of him. "Did my darling grandpa feel hurt," Pia asked, pulling his plump and wrinkled cheeks. 'Here, this will make you feel better,' she smiled cheekily, holding up a laddoo enticingly in front of his face.
He grabbed at it and his frown decreased a little. Pia saw that more effort was needed to repair the damage?
"Grandpa, so what must I do to protect myself from the evil forces tonight?I'm sure a great priest like you must have a solution," she said, with as much sincerity as she could manage.
The slight smile became a full blown one and grandpa beamed as he proudly said, "Of course I do, here take this thread and tie it around your wrist. And you'll be protected."
He pulled out a red thread from the stack that he always had ready with him, all of which were supposedly full of sacred power to repel demons, and tied it around her wrist with great ceremony.
"There, now if any evil tries coming near you, it will be blown to bits." he proclaimed proudly. Immediately, another wrist was presented to him by Rishi, who had smartly waited for his sister to find the best way make peace with his grandfather before following suit.Pia laughed affectionately and got up to her feet, as her delighted grandfather pulled out another 'sacred' thread for her brother.
She heard her mother call out to her and found her standing at the door, looking worried. "I think I haven't taken the lamp out of the temple and placed it in the tree's alcove," her mom said, referring to her daily practice. "Could you go and do it? Take Rishi with you, I don't want you going out in the dark alone."
"Come on ma," she laughed, "the temple is just a few feet from our door. I don't need any security to come with me."
"Are you sure?" her mother asked anxiously.
"Of course I am," she said reassuringly.
"All right then. But I'll be waiting here till you come back," her mother said.
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Pia opened the doors of the temple, stepped in and closed the doors to keep out any strong gust of wind. Her anklets and bangles were abnormally loud in the absolute stillness of the night. She walked to the little lit lamp kept at the foot of the locked door of the inner sanctum, picked it up carefully, sheltering the flame with one hand to protect it from the gentle wind blowing around the place.
She walked back to the door, opened it with her free hand and stepped out into the velvety darkness outside with the holy lamp?and immediately stopped, startled?.
A Handsome boy was standing a few feet away from the last step, with his palms joined as if in prayer, staring at her. And he looked as shocked as she felt.
They simply stood looking at each other for a few moments, and for that period of time there only seemed to be a young boy and girl and a little lamp that was the only source of light. Then the boy lowered his hands to his sides and seemed to have moved forward a bit and Nandini felt inexplicably that he wanted to say something?when a sudden breeze came, and brought some awareness..
They simultaneously realized that they both were staring at a stranger, and in that same instant, her eyes fell on a small traveling bag near his feet. He followed her eyes to the bag, and he gave a slight start like he had only just remembered something. He picked it up, not looking at her, keeping his eyes fixed on the last step. He lifted the bag on to his shoulder, and then his eyes returned to her face, which was glowing in the light of the little lamp. He took a step backwards, and another, still keeping his eyes on her, then abruptly turned and started to walk away. Just for an instant, she felt that she must ask to him to stop?but thankfully the impulse passed?and sanity returned. He was only a stranger passing by in the dark.
Pia got down the steps and started to walk slowly towards the tree, still absentmindedly guarding the flame of the lamp, determined not to look in the direction in which the boy had walked away. She placed the lamp carefully in the natural alcove in the tree, locked the outer doors of the temple securely, and started to walk towards the house. But just before she stepped over the threshold, she gave into the urge and looked around, and in that same instant, at a great distance away, the boy turned too. She could only see the white of his face in the dark but she knew it reflected the same shock of seeing their action mirrored by the other. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, a bus screeched to a halt in front of him, hiding him from her view, and when it moved on, he was gone too.
Feeling a strange need for some protection, with her eyes still on the spot where the boy had disappeared, she touched her wrist to feel grandpa's thread?only to discover that it was no longer there?
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Itti Si Khushi Sab TV
Bade Achhe Lagte Hain
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
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