I miss her
I miss her
"He hasn't told me so but I think he likes me too. I mean he does things for me which he doesn't for anyone else, even if they are the smallest gestures. When I fell sick at the beginning of this semester, he had sent fruits to my room with a classmate. Every day he seeks me out post the lectures to chat about whatever has been taught during the day. We talk politics, finance, culture, sports…everything," Mriga exclaimed.
"It all sounds great. But why do I get the feeling that you are agitated about something?" asked Bela.
Mriga paused and then spoke softly, "I am... I am scared of rejection. What if he discovers that I am not as good as him in many things, which I am not? I am far from being the prettiest girl, my grades are stable but average, I can be clumsy at time when I am lost in my thoughts. I don't know how to behave in a lady like manner. So, I am wondering whether I should hold back and see where this goes before investing too much of myself into it?"
Putting her arm around her daughter's shoulders, Bela said, "what is important is to enjoy the moment and take things as they come. There is no point overthinking the issue. You like him, you enjoy his company – isn't that enough for now?"
Mriga looked at her mother in wonder. She had the uncanny ability of making sense out of the most chaotic scenario. Both Raghu and Mriga were overreactive and prone to theatrics. It was Bela who kept them grounded and seeped in reality.
"Thanks, maa, I knew you would help me out," she hugged her mother.
"You are always welcome. But aren't you forgetting to tell me something?" she asked.
Mriga gave her a quizzical look, "I promise I have told you everything…"
"No, you left out the most important bit. What is his name?" asked Bela with a tinkling laugh.
"Oh!! His name is Yashvardhan. He is taller than me, has wavy hair…." she rattled on.
"No no, I don't need the physical description. Just the name is enough for now. I think we should start heading home before your father organizes a search party for you and me," she said.
Southern Zilla
"It has been two weeks since you came back from the Gurukul. But seems like you left something precious behind," Yashvardhan's father addressed him from behind.
Yash turned his gaze from the lake to look at his father.
"I was just admiring the view. It is very peaceful here," he replied, standing up to greet his father.
Harshvardhan reached out to pat his son's shoulder, "I didn't know that the lake's view could make you emit sighs of longing. I had hoped that a maiden would have finally managed to snare my son's attention, alas, it is not the case!"
Yash looked at his father with a guarded expression before taking the leap of faith, "how can my father ever be wrong in his assessment. That is… I mean, it's not that I am missing anyone. But the swan which just flew to the lake reminded me of a person."
"Aha…you mean she is as graceful as the swan," he father enquired with a twinkle in his eye.
Yash tried to curb the smile which tugged at the corner of his lips, "no, in fact quite the opposite."
With that cryptic remark, he got up, "I have some assignments left to finish. I will see you for dinner this evening."
"This boy is way too serious for his own good," his father muttered, looking at his retreating back.
First signs of young adulthood were visible in Yash's deepening voice and growing muscles. Harshvardhan just realized that his son had already reached his eye level. He had inherited the good looks from his mother alongwith her fair coloring. He was the perfect son which anyone would wish for, except that he was too obedient. Sometimes, Harshvardhan wished that his son would rebel, just to grow a backbone.
Yash breathed a sigh of relief having narrowly escaped his father. He didn't want his father to guess the depth of his emotions at this stage. Knowing him, he would not leave Yash till he squeezed each and every detail out of him. Harshvardhan was the fifth-generation money lender but unlike his predecessors, he didn't believe in doling out loans at interest rates to people who couldn't afford to pay later. It wasn't that he didn't want to make money in this Capitalist economy. It was just that he thought that flourishing business meant having continuous money flowing in the form of interest rather than acquiring that person's land.
He was patient enough to collect a 'golden egg from the hen' every day. In his experience, he had realized that not only did it get him better and longer returns, it also brought him a lot of goodwill, attracting potential customers from within and outside the zilla. One didn't have to squeeze the borrower to get the maximum returns and his business model had shown that. As a policy, he tended to maintain a healthy work-life balance, unlike his wife who was consumed by turning Southern zilla into some sort of a trophy province.
"Your mother shall be joining us this evening. So, make sure that you are not late to reach the dining table," his father told his retreating back.
Ujjwala was the Royal Committee member representing the Southern Zilla. She was beautiful, ambitious and a strict administrator. Though there was no overt competition amongst the four zillas but each one wanted to usurp the other. Ujjwala, in fact had the maximum reasons to do so.
More than two decades ago, she had been one of the two final contestants for the queen's throne. In the end, Samyukta had been chosen and Ujjwala had never recovered from that humiliation.
Daughter of a wealthy merchant, she had been an unsurpassable beauty in her younger days. Her father's family had been extremely close to the then reigning queen, who had encouraged Ujjwala to train for the Queen's contest right from childhood. There was nothing that she couldn't do, be it excelling at studies or politics or sports. Despite that, the orphaned girl from nowhere had managed to beat her.