Part 2
His hypnotic black eyes holding her chocolate brown ones as captive. She felt as if he was looking right through her soul. A shiver ran down her spine in fear as well as in excitement as she remembered her Dadu’s words in the morning. “Today is the dual grahan day. Mangal aur amangal dono ka prateek hota hai aisa din. Both good and evil powers are at their peak on this day. It is believe that normal people should not go out on this day specially during the grahan as many creatures, ghosts, spirits, angel, demons and demigods walk this earth for many reasons. They possess supreme powers. They can hold you captive or even worse may take you away with them.”
As Mini again took in the appearance of the handsome stranger she couldn’t stop herself from wondering was he the one of “those people” her Dadu mentioned as no normal man can be blessed with such heavenly appearance. Mini was still lost in his eyes when a voice brought them back to earth from her dreamland. “Neil! What are you doing?” An elderly man asked from that stranger man. He immediately left Mini and she almost fall as he suddenly withdrew his support. “Guruji, this girl was drowning, I was just helping her.” Neil replied looking down at the ground as he didn’t meet his eyes with guruji as a mark of respect.
Mini looked at that stranger again as she heard him talking.....deep and calm yet strong voice, soothing but commanding at the same time. "Neil....his name is Neil" she repeated mentally. She looked at guruji, he was an old man, with long white beard and moustache. His hair were coming down to his shoulders. He was wearing dhoti and holding a kamandal in one hand while a rudraksh mala in the other. It looked like he had bathed in the lake. When Neil gave answer to his question he just nodded his head and looked for a fleeting second at Mini. “Hmmm….lagta hai tumhara snan bhi ho hi gaya hai.” Guruji commented as he looked at Neil from top to bottom. His clothes were dripping wet. Neil just looked down embarrassed. “Chalo, sandhya aarti ka samay ho raha hai.” Guruji instructed and moved ahead. Neil also followed him like an obedient disciple.
Mini kept looking in their direction. She realized that envorinment around her was no longer pleasant and serene as it was a few moments ago. “Mini, tu yaha hai…main kab se dhund raha hoon tujhe..chal ghar jaldi…surya grahan shuru ho chukka hai.” Mini heard her Dadu’s voice. She realized the surroundings were getting darker marking the beginning of surya grahan. “Dadu, aap kyu aaye yaha…Montu be mujhe bata diya tha main bas ghar wapas aane hi wali thi.” Mini replied holding Dadu’s hands. “Mini, why your clothes are wet?” Dadu asked. “Dadu…leave it…” Mini tried to brush off the topic. “Why? What happened? You have to tell me.” Dadu asked again. “Actually I slipped and fell in the lake.”Mini answered. “What! But you don’t know swimming…are you alright?” Dadu asked in worried tone. “Dadu…relax I am fine…I knew you would panic that’s why I was not telling you.” Mini assured him. “But Mini how did you managed to get out?”Dadu asked. “Someone helped me.” Mini answered again getting lost in his thoughts.
“Who helped you?” Dadu couldn’t stop his interrogation. “I don’t know Dadu…I never saw him before in our village…may be he is some tourist.” Mini answered. “Mini, I told you about the importance of today right and asked you to stay inside home but first you didn’t listen to me and now you are meeting some stranger…its not good…I told you what kind of people come down on earth today right?” Dadu asked getting worried for Mini. “Dadu, he helped me that’s means he was a good man…and I told you he may be a tourist that’s why I don’t him and most importantly he didn’t look like demon or evil spirit to me.” Mini replied as she rolled her eyes at Dadu.
“You don’t know….looks can be deceiving. May be he was a dark soul searching for his prey and he has marked you now.” Dadu expressed his doubts. “Oh dadu…you and your folklores and beliefs…aapki ye panch tantra ki kathayein na aap padhna chhod hi do…kuch bhi matlab nikalte ho.” Mini admonished him lightly. She noticed that they have reached their haveli. Mini knocked and Biji opened the door. “Finally both of you came. I was worried for you.” Biji said as she hugged Mini. “Offo, aap dono bhi na meri itni chinta karte hain…main koi chhoti bachhi thode hi hoon.” Mini assured them and after changing started helping Biji in the kitchen. “Tum ab badi ho gayi ho isliye to tumhare liye chinta badh gayi hai.” Biji replied and then shared a knowing glance with Dadu. He gestured her to keep quiet and she immediately understood that they cant share everything with Mini. She is too young and naïve to handle the complex truth of her life.
All three of them were having dinner when Dadu gave some money to Biji. She counted it and asked, “This is less. It wont even cover the monthly expenses and we also have to deposit Mini’s college fees this month. She is scholarship student only tuition fees is exempted but still we have to deposit fees for other expenses.” Biji expressed her worries. “I know but this year due to the bad weather not many tourists have come so income from shop is almost half and also there is no tenant in haveli for almost three months now.” Dadu expressed his inability. Mini suddenly felt bad that she couldn’t do anything to help them.If they hadn’t chosen her over their own son then they would be passing their old age comfortably with their son in Patiala and just because of her they were struggling to meet day to day expenses. “Was she really a curse on their family?” she thought and couldn’t stop her tears.
“Its ok Dadu. I’ll talk to the principal of college ….may be he could give me some time to deposit the fees.” Mini suggested somehow controlling her tears. Dadu was about to reply when they heard a knock on their door. “Who could be there at this time.” Dadu said out loud and took the lantern with him as he went to open the door. “Ye light ko bhi abhi jana tha…aajkal bahut power cut hoti hai.” Dadu complained and asked from inside only, “Whos there?” No reply came, only a knock on the door was heard again. “I asked whos there? Introduce yourself.”Dadu shouted again but still no reply came and knock on the door became persistent. All three of them were scared now.
Mini gather up her courage went to the door. She took a deep breath and tried to open the door while Dadu stopped her. “Ab darne se bhi kya ho jayega dadu…dekhna to padega kaun hai.” She replied and opened the door only to find an old man standing there. Dadu lifted up the lantern to see his face and Mini immediately recognize him as he was the same man who had interrupted her rendezvous with that handsome stranger. “Neil…” she remembered his name then remembered that he has addressed this old man as guruji. “Who are you? What do you want?” Dadu asked from guruji but he remained silent. He looked back and from there came running that handsome stranger Neil. He came and stood beside his guruji.
Neil looked at Mini for few seconds recognizing her immediately then turned his attention towards dadu. “Hello, My name is Neil Oberoi and this is my guruji Dr. Satya prakash ji. We are from Delhi and doing research on ancient temples. We came to this village because of our research as this village has many ancient temples. We asked from some villagers for a decent place to stay and they suggested your haveli. Can we get a place here for rent?” Neil replied.Mini felt herself sighing as she heard that deep sexy voice again. She felt she could hear it all life long. Dadu studied Neil and guruji. For some reason he didn’t find them ok. There was something off about them. “Sorry, we cant allow you here.” Dadu said no to them.
“Excuse me, please give us few seconds.” Mini said and pulled her Dadu inside. “What are you saying dadu. We need money and God must have sent them to help us. Why you are denying them?” Mini asked in confusion. “I don’t know Mini, they seem little weird to me. They are not regular tourists. I cant allow total strangers and weird people into my house.” Dadu explained. “Oh dadu, what is weird about them? And they are not stranger. Remember I told you that someone helped me at the lake. Its him. They are not bad people.” Mini tried to persuade him.“What….to ye ladka tumhare peechhe yaha taka aa gaya? Phir to main kabhi inhe yaha allow nahi karunga.” Dadu said stubbornly.
“Offo dadu, wo mere peechhe nahi aaya hai…stop being unnecessarily suspicious about them.” Mini said getting frustrated. “She is saying right. We need money and even I don’t find anything wrong with them. We will ask for their Ids and also report local police station like we do always before accepting any tenant in our haveli.” Biji suggested and finally Dadu had to agree.
Dadu went back to the door and invited them in as he saw the climate of outside was not good; strong winds were blowing with light drizzling which suddenly kept stopping in frequent intervals almost like climate was confused and tensed about what to do. As soon as dadu invited the guests inside the strong winds changed their nature started blowing in normal pleasant way. Then electricity also came back.
Now Mini could see the guests clearly. Biji asked them to sit as she brought water for them. “So, how long do you wish to stay here?” dadu asked from guruji. “Few weeks….some months…depends upon the completion of our work.” Neil replied on guruji’s behalf. “Why he is not saying anything?” Dadu inquired. “He keeps maun vrat after sandhya aarti. Its his daily practice. Very seldom he breaks it.” Neil explained. “We have tourist coming here all year round some of them are foreigners and offer good rent for short period so we cant allow you to stay here for long time as we would lose foreigner tenants and chance to make good money.” Dadu said in business like tone. Although it was not true. He had agreed to let them live here but still not convinced about that they were nice people so he wanted to cut down their stay at the haveli.
“Oh, there will be no problem about money. How much you charge as rent?” Neil asked.Mini pointed towards the other half of the haveli on her right side and said, “We rent out that portion of haveli. There are 3 rooms. We charge 1000/- rs. per room for a day, including breakfast and dinner.”
“Ok, we don’t want any disturbance in our research so we will take all three rooms. Here is the advance rent for one month.” Neil said and took out a bundle of notes from his bag. Mini, dadu, biji kept looking at the bundle with wide eyesas they were first time seeing such a huge amount at once in life. Before Mini could do the maths and conclude that it amounted to rs. 90 thousand exactly; Neil took out another bundle of rs. 10 thousand now making total amount to rs 1lakh and offered it to Dadu. “I guess you keep this much in round figure. We will adjust it accordingly if our tour got over early or extended.” Neil replied.
After taking their IDs and completing formalities with the local police Biji showed them their rooms. Neil took the luggage in his hands. Mini noticed for a longtrip they didn’t have many bags with them. “Mini, they must be hungary. Go and give them dinner. I don’t know why but thank god I made extra today.” Biji said and quickly platted dinner for two. “Mini wont go anywhere. I’ll give them dinner.” Dadu offered. “Dadu, how can you climb stairs? It’ll hurt your knees. Let me go.” Mini said and took the dinner plates to new guests.
“Guruji, are your sure we will get all answers here in this village?” Neil asked as he made himself comfortable on the sofa chair. Guruji just nodded in yes in assurance. Suddenly the climate again started playing as the notorious winds increased their speed. Guruji looked out the window and then at Neil. He shook his head dejectedly and gestured him to go into his room and take some rest.
Mini gave dinner to guruji first and then entered Neil’s room. She couldn’t knock as she was holding tray with her both hands. So she pushed the door open with her foot and went inside only to find Neil in his payjamas. He had just came out of the bathroom after his shower. Mini’s hands started shaking in nervousness. She immediately looked down but couldn’t control the urge to check him out from the corner of her eyes. He looked even more hot without his shirt on. Mini placed the dinner tray on the side table and turned around to leave the room. She couldn’t stop herself from throwing another glance his way. At that moment their eyes met and locked for few seconds. She again felt a strange pull towards him. He was looking at her like he wanted to talk to her...know about her but couldnt give words to his thoughts. Mini turned to go but for some strange reasons the clouds thundered and a gust of wind came and closed the door of the room locking two of them inside.
to be continued....
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