(Recap – In the last episode, I mentioned about the situation under which I came into contact with a girl, who had visited the village of the parental aunt to attend a marriage. Further, how I lost my heart to her and how my cousin sister became a confidential mediator in that drive, since the girl too was her friend. My this short term friendship grew into a serious ” love bond” with the girl. )
Sometimes it occurred , cousin sister had to be remained engage in other house hold affairs, not able to spare the time to fetch the water. This sort of situation provided me a “soothing opportunity” to visit the brook alone to fetch the water. In a way, this situation provided me the opportunity to pass some quality time in seclusion with my most liked girl. The Timru brook in this way became the meeting point of two adolescent hearts.
In hill side, often big villages are not common. In most of the cases, men and women prefer morning shift to fetch drinking water from the water source. Women who had to rinse family dirty clothing, they generally used to visit the site in the mid noon, since it provided some spare time to get them dried under the sun rays. At evening time, paltry few people and that too occasionally were supposed to visit the brook.
This was a favorable situation for both of us. I meant for “love birds” of young age to see one another and this helped to grow our tie vigorously. In those precious moments of our unbounded throbs of hearts, I had shared to her about my passion for journalism and future dream to launch a magazine in my parental foot hill city. She ever listened my all these plannings with her eyes wide open and her face beamed with brightness, as if, she saw this all realizing in her fantasy.
Somewhere, deep down in our heart, both we were ascertained, since we belonged to the same community and in respect to the caste and religion, hence we feared no big obstacle in our prospective marriage. It was like two plus two equal to four condition to both of us. And it ever soothed us, as if, our love story was just to reach to a happy ending in every condition. One day, when I found the same kind of opportunity of cousin sister not being with me , there at the site of the brook she implored me to accompany her way back towards her village.
In the mid of the way, at some elevated point she made me stop and pointed down to some village which rested in the lap of another ledge of the montane. There she tried to make me understand the location of her house. The house rested at the vicinity of some cluster of Banj trees ( Banj oak tree). She said in chirpy voice, ” the house adjacent to those Banj oak trees is my home.” Upon her this cheerful cooing, I still remember as day light, I dreamt a dream with my eyes opened, ” in a very near future, I am there under those Banj oak trees as a bridegroom accompanied with marriage procession loaded with guests and after rituals of marriage ceremony taking her back to my home back at foot hill city.” This dream was so sweet followed by so many futuristic fantasies.
Now I am sure, every youth, when happens to fall in love with some one, begins to dream such kind of dreams in a spree. But there goes a maxim, ” man proposes , god disposes.” Hardly, this maxim goes in familiarity with the futuristic plan of any one. I mean, a man is bound to enjoy, what ever the god has in store for him and not an atom more than that. The same occurred with me too. Her twelfth class final board education examination and my M. Sc. first year course were finished simultaneously.
With a deep yearning I began to prepare to get qualified my final year and side by side by a plan to establish back my self in my home city too began to grow intensely. My tender intention behind all this was to take my mother into confidence back at the home town and share my wish to marry her in earliest possible future. But it seemed destiny had some another plan for me. In this hustle, somewhere, the cousin sister’s basic advice about the tradition of marriage of girls in hill side too got slipped from my mind. She had alarmingly suggested that in the hill side, just after completion of twelfth standard of education, parents of such nubile girl hardly waits for one year and get her nuptial tie fix to some first available suitable boy.
It seemed, she knew everything about the hardship of luck that was taking shape. But she didn’t dare to intimate me about that all. Even, she didn’t tell a bit about that to my cousin sister, who was a confidential to both of us. She did all that, by thinking of my prospective exams, I think so. As I came to know later on, when my practical examination segment of final year were taking place in advance, her parents were giving final shape to her prospective marriage with a boy, who worked in Indian army. I knew, as much as, she could have resisted not to enter into the nuptial tie, she might have done meekly.
The reason, she didn’t intimate me about that all was, she knew, after practical examination, I was to appear in another segment of “Theoretical examination.” This segment was to be followed just after few days of the segment of “practical examination.” She knew, any tidings related to her marriage might disturb me to the extinction, that simply meant to her was, my total spoiling of examination. Neither she mustered the courage to disturb my examination preparation nor she could dare to relate that all to me.
Despite of all this, Not putting a simple bit of information into my knowledge, she kept on visiting at evening time to see me at the site of Timru brook. There, I ever noticed expressions of melancholy rested on her face, but I was so engrossed deeply about my final year’s exams’ preparation, I paid no heed to that. In fact, not an atom, I could imagine about the prospectus of her marriage with some one else.
At the day, when my last theoretical exam paper got finished and she met me alone on “Timru brook.” There, in seclusion, abruptly she wept disconsolately by snuggling with me. Her mournful cry was soaked in pangs and were so heart rending, it shook my existence. In between sobs, she revealed the entire series of incidence related to her prospective marriage and reason for not intimating me before. Not only this, she too disclosed, she tried to resist meekly but since I had no job in hand, she dared not to disclose her affairs with me.
That was an old time and parents in orthodox system had the only power of “yes” to fix a marriage of protegee in our Indian society. The concept of “Love marriage” was like a taboo at that time and could be considered only when religion, caste barrier were in consonance to both the families of boy and girl and at the ultimate, the proposal be initiated at parental level. Some how, she managed to control herself at the last of our meeting, and imploringly asked for a promise on my part…..( End of the Part-5. Cont’d ) Penned by — Vinay Pharasi —–
