Well thanks for all the likes guys...👍🏼 here comes the next part. I've extended part 2 look out for it at the bottom.
Part 2
Gopi got off the bus, and found no-one to get her...she looked around worriedly, she had not thought to ask for any directions from maji assuming that Naani would come to get her or she would send someone to get her...it was already going towards evening as the bus journey had taken all day. Alighting also from the same bus she saw a girl around her age, leaving and smiled at her, the girl went to buy some water and was drinking observing what Gopi was upto. She approached Gopi, what's the matter, have you lost your husband or he has told you to wait for him, Gopi said no, I'm not with my husband (don't blame the girl, the way Gopi puts sindoor liberally on her maang, and the huge get up announcing she is married to a wealthy husband...that's why the question...😆), his gone to work today, I have come alone but Naani, my husband's grand mother has not come to take me. Gopi with a worried look on her face.
The girl asks what is Naani's name, her name is Riverti Patel, I know she lives in the village here, well the girl said I am heading that way, so follow me, unless you want to stay here until it gets dark...Gopi looked around her at the quiet village road, carried her bag and followed.
Naani was drinking chaas, thinking that's refreshing and thinking I wonder what happened happened to Ganga (she means Gopi), she's supposed to be here by now, girls nowadays, she's probably chatting with her friends and missed the bus...I will phone Koki, she phones the MM and asks, so you didn't send your bahu, you are sticking to her like glue, let her have a holiday once in a while, Kokila frowns, (the patient way she talks to her mum) Ma I send Gopi to you today has she not arrived yet, No she hasn't turned up here, Koki asks her did you send someone to fetch her, Naani said No I forgot these days I forget things very easy. Well what time was she to arrive, she looked at the wall clock it was already 40 minutes before, okay Koki...the same time she heard someone knocking on her door to her house, Naaniji, it's Gopi, her new friend Pretty followed her in the house to meet Naani, Naani came out and said my beautiful gem (1 in a million chokri...or is it 1 lakh, remember her first conversation with Gopi), how have you come, Naani I found a friend to escort me here, Naani looks sternly at Gopi, so this is the reason you are late, you were chatting with your friend and didn't remember me, Gopi looks guiltily at Naani, no Naani that's not the case, I found Pretty by coincidence also coming to the village to visit her parents, you see she lives in the city and she has come to see her parents for a while. mmm, come and refresh yourself, Pretty smiled and told Gopi, I will see you later Gopi, it's getting late and I need to go home otherwise my parents will be wondering where I have gotten off to. Bye. Gopi answers Bye. Pretty goes, she actually lives just 2 house away in the same village area.
Gopi freshens up and Naani starts asking her what is the news at home, Gopi tells her that Kinjal and Dhawal have a banyan shop now, that maji has forgiven her for loosing the saas bahu competition, Naani tells her to elaborate about the competition what happened and how it all went, so the evening passed with that, and Gopi was preparing the evening roti and subji, they ate and no other events happened they went to sleep.
Meanwhile back in Rajkot, Aham had a busy day, he made sure to work really hard as he knew Gopi wouldn't be at home to help study later, so he could concentrate on his work and not worry about what is happening at the house...but nevertheless his mind was not on work, he kept remembering how Gopi looked this morning not wanting to leave and his own reluctance to let her go, but he knew it was better this way his mum was right, it's best for Gopi to manage her on study and be a bit more self reliant, she relies on him too much to prode her to study, this way he just needs to make a phone call once a day to find if she has done the work and his stern voice should send her running to do the work even if it means staying all night to study, he thought smugly.
At 5pm, he left the office for the house, but he was very restless, he arrived home and he did all the changing having tea and still he was not settled, he went to speak to his mum, Mom can I have Naani's number, Kokila, why Aham, Aham told her the reason to remind Gopi of her study, Kokila said no Aham, remember Gopi just arrived in the evening she is tired she needs her rest, you will tell her tomorrow about studying, have you understood what I said, he agreed ji. He walked back into his room, he had been looking forward to the phone call with Gopi, once he thought about it this afternoon, now he won't speak to her, on top of that he had not thought of getting the number for tomorrow, so tomorrow like a kid he will have to go ask for the number again, he pursed his lips in anger...I wish he had thought to get the number.
He stayed up at night thinking about Gopi, the time she was scared outside in the rain, and he had stopped her crying, when she had gotten lost in Switzerland, he reasoned it's not Switzerland she has gone to Naani's village, she speaks the language and has started to read now, she won't be totally without means to find her way around like then. He woke up from the bed and went downstairs he found Kokila went to take a bottle of water from the kitchen, Mom did you speak to Gopi to say she had arrived (without delay to greet the mum he asked the question). No I didn't speak to Gopi but whilst I was speaking to Naani I heard that Gopi had arrived there. Aham told Mom, can I have the number please, I just want to check. Kokila looked at the restlessness on Aham and smiled, come with me she said, they went to her room and she gave him the number, he went back to his and without looking at the clock which was after 10pm, he rang Naani's phone.
Ring ring loudly at Naani's house...Naani woke up shouting, what is all this racket in the house, in the middle of the night (exaggeration as she does...😉), the phone carried on ringing, she went to put on the light and find a teeth to slot them back in, by the time she got to the phone it stopped ringing, Naani angry, Gopi vahu this is your responsibility at a peeping Gopi, i'm too old to come out of bed in the middle of the night and answer it you pick it up if it rings.
Aham looks at the phone, it rang for a long time and no-one answered, he waited for a while tried to sleep and at 10.30pm tried again, Gopi answered after a few minutes, as she didn't want Naani to be angry again. Hello, Aham smiled (just the person he wanted to speak to), Hello Gopi, you have arrived safely, Gopi answered with a blush and a smile (even though he wasn't even there), ji I did, Aham asked is Naani well, ji she is very well, I'm sure she is happier now that you are keeping her company, ji, did you layout the timetables like the way I told you, ji, you know the order to do them in right (all this they had gone through already), ji. Okay I will phone again tomorrow, to make sure you understood what you studied. Aham pursed his lips and he thought if she has a question I won't be of much help if I can't see the material she is reading, yet again he wished she was doing her study in front of him. He answered never mind good night, good night Ahemji.
Aham hung up but feeling even more dissatisfied because though he was happy she was safe, he still felt helpless should she come to any difficulties with her studies.
He went to lay down on the bed to sleep, thinking of Gopi's smiling content face, and Gopi similarly went off to sleeping thinking of her Ahemji's content smile in the car whenever he drove her anyway.
The following morning dawned Gopi woke up and Naani told her that no running water in the house, she needed to go to the communal tap to take water for both their baths and for cooking that day. Gopi took the water buckets and went to stand on the communal water supply, she didn't mind it reminded her of her days at Rajpal Nagar, Pretty also came there, she told Gopi you have woken up early, me not so much an early riser, my mother woke me up with her chappal aimed at my backside...Gopi's face like this 😲, don't worry it didn't hurt, she misses me really when I am in town, now that I'm here she wants me awake all the time to be around her and listening to her. Gopi agrees with her head nodding from side to side and smiling. They take the water, and Pretty tells Gopi to come to her house later on. Gopi agrees. Meanwhile, both took their water and went back to their respective homes.
Gopi got ready and cleaned the house for Naani, as she had no maid the work was exhausting, she finished the cleaning and got started preparing the lunch, by the time after lunch she remembered she promised to go see Pretty, so she told Naani, as usual Naani didn't want her to abandon her, so she promised to be back in no more then 10 minutes, as she promised her new friend she would visit, but not to worry Naani, she would come soon back to the house.
Meanwhile, Aham rang the house to check that Gopi had started studying, he found her not there, so he told Naani he would ring later. When he hung up, his thinking, where has she gone at this time of day, it's 3pm, she would go to the market in the morning, what other reason does she have of going out in the afternoons? He had asked Naani where she went but Naani said she had gone to take water in the morning but doesn't remember where she went in the afternoon. Aham is thinking, Gopi will be working hard at Naani's carrying water early in the morning, he wondered why, didn't Naani have a servant to help in the house? He would ask his mother this evening when he got home.
It's 5pm, Gopi came back long time ago, but she is tired it had been a full day, and she was trying to study, but Naani kept coming there to talk to her, so she put her books away and went to sit with Naani to chat with her and keep her company, soon it was time to make dinner, she made it and they ate. Aham arrived home, and found his mum waiting for him in the lounge/hall, he sat down on the sofa, and he asked her if she had spoken to Naani today, Kokila said yes she had, she spoke to her at lunch time, she was so happy as Gopi made her one of her favourite dishes. That's what I want to talk to you about mum, is Gopi doing all the household chores, fetching water and cleaning the house? Kokila said yes, so what, I did it when I was Gopi's age, we all do that at the village, what's wrong with it? It builds character. Aham's face took on a stubborn tilt, no mum, you miss understand, it's a problem for Gopi to do these things as she shouldn't exert herself too much as she is studying also. Oh so I never studied so I don't know the work required to do academics and house chores? No mum, I'm sorry. Kokila held onto Aham's hand and said don't worry Aham, everything will be fine, besides we agreed you would go there in the weekends to help Gopi study, so don't worry, my Gopi vau is resilient she can do both, mere Gopi Vau adarsh bahu hain. Ji mom.
Aham went upstairs and first thing rang Gopi, ring ring, Naani answers, Arey Aham, you are ringing every few minutes, you missing bahu (just teasing) she didn't know how close she was to the truth. Nahi Ji, matlab, Naani is Gopi there, han she's here, she's washing the bartan we have just finished eating...Aham looks at the time, it was only 7pm they had already finished eating.
Gopi came on the phone, hello, jai shree krishna, jai shree krishna, Gopi you must be tired (Aham is thinking why did he ask her that, she will know the amount of concern he has in her now) matlab, that means you didn't study yet or you won't study this evening, nahi Ahemji, I will finish the study today, I will study after I finish the dishes, Okay don't sleep too late, and make sure to do house chores in the morning only tomorrow and concentrate on your studies in the afternoon, Ji, okay Jai Shree Krishna, Jai Shree Krishna. They both hung up, Gopi tiredly finished the dishes and took her books to settle down to read and do her exercises. Aham is also working on the one seater sofa in Goham's room, he looks sideways at the empty chair on his left, where Gopi occupies at night to study whilst he is working and he has a pang of longing to see her and be with her, he decides to ring her again and be damned to his phone bill, it was a national/local call after all, he rang her, she picked up the phone, he didn't waste time, Gopi, we will study together as normal, as you are studying or reading talk into the phone at the same time, Gopi Ji <shaking her head from side to side in agreement>, okay start, Gopi is reading her exercise, as she makes mistakes Aham is correcting her, when she is writing and needs to be silent, Aham works on his laptop, he is timing her as he normally does, tells her to stop when time is up and tells her to recite what she has written she does so...and so on, until it's late at night...Aham looks at his watch it's 11pm, he realises he didn't eat dinner, he was so engrossed in his time with Gopi, and he doesn't care that he missed it, he tells her to keep the phone as they need to sleep now, they say goodnight and both find their beds to sleep, both slept very deeply that night, having had a normal night for them working and studying, this normalcy allowed them to rest well that night.
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That's the end of part 2 do comment and press the like button too...😉
Edited by Nafisa_blossoms - 12 years ago
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