Chapter 16
A Face with a Smile - Part 2
(Handa Haveli...)
"Chaiyyiji," Sashi
asked giving voice to her doubts, "how come you agreed for Veerji to stay at
Handa's? Isn't it considered odd for a boy to stay at his in-laws, that too
before marriage? Veerji and Geet are only engaged and they would living under
one roof?"
They were on their
way back to Chandigarh after concluding the purpose of their visit. After their
trip to Gurudwara Sahib and a heated argument with Maan.
"I had to take this
chance Sashi..."
"Sasha kaho na
Chaiyyiji," she whined.
"Chup kar kudiye,"
Savitri scowled at her, "as I was saying, I had to take this chance. Maan is
adamant to delay the marriage. No doubt his decision was very noble. It
comepletly suits a boy of his background to be so considerate. But education,
independence, etc are too indefinite goals. There is no end to such wishes. And
secondly why does Geet need to even be that qualified. I will keep my bitto
like a princess," she added fondly, at which Sashi made a face, "but all that
is only possible if Maan brings her to our home as my bahu. However that boy is
so detached from all this. Finally he has agreed to marry. I don't trust him to
not jeopardize my efforts. Its best that he gets married soon."
"What has all this
to do with Veerji staying with Handas?"
A sly smile crossed
her face as Savitri revealed her motives, "Fauji sahi, hai taan jawaan munda.
[He maybe an officer, but he is a young man nonetheless.] Every chance that he
spends with the girl to whom he is to get married to would definitely have some
effect on him. And Geet is so lovely, I am sure she will leave some effect on
him. This marriage will happen as soon as possible."
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(Handa Haveli...)
"Maan, this is your
room. Make yourself comfortable. Sure you will not have dinner?" Rano inquired
referring to an earlier converstation between Maan and Mohinder, when Maan had
come back from Gurudwara Sahib. "We can have dinner early so you leave on time,"
Rano said as she showed Maan his room.
"Mummyji..."
"The girls simply
call me Ma, puttar."
"Ma," Maan took the
name with reverence, "I will not be able to have dinner. I have to leave by
seven..."
"But your train is
at ten..."
"Ji, but I have to
collect my military concession form the counter at the station and that will
take time. So I must leave early."
"Chalo theek hai,"
Rano gave in, "kamm de maamle vich main nahi rokaangi. But you will atleast
have tea with us? You must be tired being out all day. Will you?"
"Ji Ma," Maan smiled
back at Rano.
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Geet and Meera stood
anxiously hiding outside the door listening to the conversation between Maan
and Rano.
"Di," Geet
whispered, "is it necessary?"
"Kakkuuu," Meera
whined.
"Why can't we just
go inside and ask him?"
"Acha ji! You seem
very keen to go in and ask him? Do you want to talk to him?" Meera nudged Geet.
"What will I talk to
him?" Geet asked matter-of-factly.
"How do I know?"
"Well, then even how
do I know?"
"What is it that you
both do not know?"
A sudden whisper
from a third voice had them almost jumping out of their skins.
"Hayye Sammy Di,
tussi taan dara ditta," [Oh Sammy Di, you scared us.]
"You would get
scared even if the wind blows from the opposite direction, you cowardly cat,"
Sameera teased Meera causing Geet to giggle. "What are you girls doing here?"
"Kakku wants to ask
Maanji something," Meera blurted out.
Sameera looked at
Geet with wide eyed disbelief, "She does?"
Meera grabbed Geet's
hand which was hanging loosely by her side and gave it a squeeze. She gave a
pleading side-glance to her younger sister without making it conspicuous to
Sameera.
This was supposed to
be a covert mission. A quick grab and run operation.
For Meera's pink
pillow.
Which was left in
this guest room.
All Meera wanted was
uninterrupted afternoon siesta to have her beautiful dreams of new dresses, the
rides at the mela that was to be held
next week, the delicious food she will eat, the fun they will all have. But Ma
and Sammy Di were involved in making a feast for Maan. And she was very sure
that she would be dragged in the kitchen too. So she snuck into the guestroom,
her pink pillow securely by her side, to catch her beauty sleep avoiding any
sort of mundane disturbance.
Sammy Di is right! Main gwaachi gaan hi haan.
[I am definitely a lost cow.] How could I forget my pillow here. Now how
will I sleep without it? Babaji please help! Sammy Di kacha chaba jayegi. Only
Kakku can save me now.
"Bol Kakku?"
Mar gayi Kakku! Kithe phassa ta Meera Di ne.
Hun kee karaan? [What
should I do now?]
Sameera was loosing
her patience now watching her two sisters who had suddenly turned in statues,
"Kakku? You wanted to talk to him?"
"Haanji...nahi...nahi
Di...ouch..." she winced as Meera
piched her wrist, "...matlab...jee..."
"Kakku!"
"I mean Di, I don't
want to talk to him. I want to talk to the room..."
"The room?" two
voices asked backed in surprise.
Geet took a deep
breath before she began again, "I wanted to go inside the room. Di, I left my
notes in this room and I wanted to revise my chapters again before sleeping."
"Kakku since when
did you start being so careless? Why did you leave them here in the first
place?"
"Haan Di," Meera
turned with the tide, "even I was asking her the same thing. Why did you leave
them there?" Geet could only look on with her mouth hanging open.
"Oh please madam,"
Sameera snubbed Meera, "it must have been your company that has ruined the poor
girl. You have made her a gwaachi gaan
like you." She turned towards Geet, "Khurana uncle has made a trunk call. I
came to call Maanji. You go in and inform him about it and then grab your
notes. Alright? I want you both back in two minutes flat."
"Ji Di."
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She peeped inside
the room cautiously. A tentative step forward and she found Maan sitting on the
settee with a book in his hands.
"Umm...excuse me..."
His senses came
alive as his eyes darted towards the sound of her voice. "Geet?"
"Ji. Can I come in?"
"Ofcourse..."
Geet smiled and
slowly inched in from behind the doors curiously looking at his luggage and
stuff. In true militray fashion, the luggage was all securely packed and kept
aligned with a wall to be simply picked when leaving. Distracted by her
curiousity, diverted by her nervousness and simply because of her nature, she
missed her step, waggled on her feet, twirled around and fell flat on the bed
landing on her back.
Maan was keenly
watching her as she had slowly emerged from behind the door. If her voice was
the first thing that brought his senses to an heightened awareness of her, next
it was her eyes and the sparkle of curiousity they held, then the smile that
graced her lips as she came forward and then...
"You have slow
reflexes."
Whatever moment he
was lost in, it was broken by her clumsiness, a state Maan was not accquainted
with in his dealings and did not appreciate much in others.
What! Geet who was in the process of her raising her embarressed self from
the bed jerked her head towards Maan.
"You should have
stretched your foot apart opposite to the side you were falling to keep your
balance."
Sarru!
"Thank you so
much for this pearl of wisdom. I shall be deeply obliged forever," hissed
out a highly irked Geet.
It was only when he
heard her reply that he realized that he had instinctively spoken to her in
English and even she had, to his surprise, replied back with proper fluency in
the same language. And the fact did impress him.
"One should be
open to learn new things. Why waste your energy on sarcasm when you can utilize
it to improve oneself."
She squared her
shoulders and jut her chin out, "You have a trunk call waiting for you."
Saying so, she
grabbed the pink pillow from the bed and stomped her way out of the room.
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"Jee Darjee, I will
take care. Sat Sri Akal."
Saying so Maan kept
the reciever of the phone down.
"Maanji."
Hee turned around at
the soft sing-song kind of a voice that came in from behind him to find Meera
standing there with Lucky holding her hand.
"Ji?" he asked
"Papaji has asked
you to come to Shantiniketan for tea," she informed him.
"Shantiniketan?"
"It is the room at
the end of the gallery," she said pointing towards the gallery. "Lucky can take
you there if you want'"
"Aao pahji, I will
take you along with me," Lucky tugged at Maan's hand.
Maan smiled at the
little fellow. "How about I race you till there?"
"Acha? I will come
first," saying so Lucky ran towards the room as Maan followed with long
strides.
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They had just
finished having tea and Rano had left with the empty cups to the kitchen, when
Sameera came to inform Mohinder that someone from the factory had come to meet
Mohinder.
Maan looked around the room they called
Shantiniketan. Since the room is detached from the rest of the house and it is
always very quite there they had named it so. It was like a
study-cum-recreation room. Apart from books, there were art supplies and many
paintings made by Mohinder and Sameera, a sitar that he was informed was played
by Meera, threads and needles for knitting and embroidery used by Rano and
Anwesha and matteress spread on the floor with cushions in the name of
furniture.
"Papaji..."
Maan looked at the
door as Geet barged in bumping into the door.
She halted in her
tracks as looked at Maan and then at the door. And without realizing she had
planted her feet slightly apart.
"Bauji has gone to
attend some guest."
"Oh," her face fell.
She had come to get some help from her father in her map-making excercises. She
wanted to complete them today itself so that she doesn't have to look at them
again. And then till her exams start in October she would not look at them again.
He looked at the
books in her hands, her sad face and couldn't stop himself to ask, "Do you any
help?" He was used to helping his younger siblings in the studies. It came
naturally to him to offer help in such situations.
Geet thought for a
moment before replying. "We have map-making exercises in Geography and I needed
help in that."
"Map-making? Is it
an Honors course?"
"Yes," she replied
sitting down across from him and keeping her books in between them. "Even
though I have a very neat hand and draw pretty well I never manage to get good
scores in my map exercises."
"Hmm. Maps are not
objects of art. The job of a map is to describe spatial relationships of
specific features that the map aims to represent. They are tools of
assimilating strategic intelligence..."
"What?"
"They are used to
gather important information..."
"Acha..."
Maan went on to
explain the dynamics involved in map-making only to realize that Geet had a
glazed look in her eyes. He frowned at her lack of concentration. "Did you
understand anything that I said?"
"Ji."
"So what did you
understand?"
"Woh...umm..."
"You lack concentration."
Sarru!
"You speak pahsto."
"Let it be," Maan
interrupted her impatiently. Wherever theory became dificult to understand,
practical examples always helped understand a subject better. He picked up her
exercise book and her pencils and set out to explain how a map is charted, how to
fix the co-ordinates, how to fix the scale, how to label simply yet efficiently
without the extensive use of stencils, etc.
As she was watching
Maan move is hand across paper everything that was not making sense earlier was
now within her comprehension.
She glanced at Maan
who was diligently involved in his tasks. He
takes his work so seriously. With complete responsibility. Just like Papaji. Once again she found herself smiling without consciously realizing.
Maan glanced at Geet
who again seemed to be lost in her own thoughts.
"You have a short attention span."
Hau!
"You need to
concentrate if you aim to clear your doubts."
No one spoke for a
moment.
Finally Geet broke
the silence.
"This is how you see
me? Some clumsy stupid girl?" she frowned.
"No."
She sighed and
picked her books to leave from there.
"I see you as a face
with a smile."
She halted in her
tracks.
"No other thought
holds any significance."
And that smile
adorned her face again as she walked out, not daring to look back at him again.
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I don't know if this would work. But I needed to show that Maan and Geet conversed in proper in English with each other. The importance of this will show later. So the conversation which are underlined are strictly in English. Hope it is not very confusing.
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Edited by jazzerette - 12 years ago
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