The drawing room was adjacent to Usha’s reading room. There was a linking door between the two. If the door was closed, the voices from the drawing room were sufficiently subdued and Usha could study in peace. But if the door was even slightly open, the voices of the people talking in the drawing room could be clearly heard. It was slightly open one Sunday morning. Usha’s father sat in the drawing room lost in the thoughts of his daughter’s marriage that was entering her twenty second year. He was not poor, but was not rich either. He found it very difficult to arrange a respectable dowry for her marriage.
Usha heard some one enter the drawing room. It was her uncle, the elder brother of her father. “Hullo Ramu, why are you sitting with a long face this morning?” He asked.“Oh it is nothing. I was just thinking that I would have to arrange Usha’s marriage soon. I wondered how much money I would have to have handy for this inevitable event.”“Oh! So that is what is bothering you. But then you are right, arranging money before hand is essential. Ten to fifteen lakhs is the least these days. So, that is that. But cheer up, something will come up. After all girls everywhere get married. Usha too will get married.” Usha heard this. She had been brought up in a conservative family. She didn’t believe in love marriages. Arranged marriages were ideal, she thought. Only about a quarter century back there were arranged marriages and most of them were successful. But now there were love marriages and quite a few ended in divorce. She would like to share her dear father’s concern. But the question was how and there was no solution in sight. She was not very beautiful but was attractive in a way young girls usually are. She worked in an office of a firm that sell software and employed a large number of young persons. Anuvrat was a handsome young man. While in college, he had had a few encounters with girls but these encounters never went beyond talking sweet-nothings in corners of deserted class rooms or a little flirting behind the cars in the crowded car park of the college. He never took these things seriously. Somehow none of the girls he met held his attention for long. They lacked something, some magic that smites you at the first sight. And his search for a girl that could make his nights sleepless continued. By a quirk of fate Anuvrat joined the same company where Usha worked. Their cabins faced each others. Of course there had been the usual introduction but the young man didn’t notice anything unusual in the girl in his neighborhood. It was sometime later when the employees mostly young men and women were having lunch in the big hall that he found Usha sitting opposite him. What is more she was looking at him. As he made an eye contact, she lowered her gaze. But after some time it happened again. He remembered similar situations he had faced in college and didn’t attach much importance to it. A few days later he noticed Usha sitting oddly in her chair in her cabin. She had her head on the table and seemed to be sobbing. Her whole body trembled and shook occasionally. He watched in a detached manner for sometime. But the sobbing continued. Once she looked up and their eyes met. But she quickly lowered her face, took out a handkerchief and wiped her tears. She started working as if trying to show that nothing had happened. Time passed. Anuvrat was curious about Usha’s behavior. He wanted to know more about her. One day he was sitting in the lawn to the back of the main building of the company. He noticed Usha sitting alone under a shady tree. She was scratching the earth with her toe. This gesture betrayed anxiety. Perhaps some problem was weighing heavily on her mind. He thought of going to her and just out of curiosity wanted to have some idea what was bothering her. He politely excused himself and sat a little away from her on the bench. He broke the ice. “How are you, Miss Usha?”“She didn’t look up. She said,” Thanks Mr. Anuvrat. I am all right.”“Excuse me. I don’t have any intention to interfere in your private affairs. But still being a colleague, I wonder if I could be of some help.”Usha looked up. He seemed serious. She said,” It is something in which nobody but my fate can help and you are not my fate. My destiny is being written. A distant aunt has persuaded my father to accept a marriage proposal for me. A young man whom I haven’t met or seen is being proposed as a match. My father has almost given his consent to the proposal. But I have heard from some relative that the boy is a good for nothing fellow. He hasn’t studied beyond XII. But the aunt is giving out that he is a trained engineer and has his own business. This sounds all hocus-pocus to me. But I dare not talk to my father. I have been brought up in a conservative family. If I marry this boy, I am doomed for life. Now what can I do except lament at my fate?” Anuvrat was silent for sometime. Then he said,” But why don’t you select some boy of your choice and propose to him. After all you are attractive looking and are earning. You belong to a good family and a good boy wouldn’t have any objection to marrying you.”“Is this all that simple, Anuvrat?” Mr. before his name was missing.“Well, I think I am not exaggerating, Usha. You would make a good wife to your husband.” Anuvrat didn’t know why he said this. But then he remembered Usha’s looking at him in the dining hall, from her cabin and on many numerous occasions. He felt there was something that was drawing him to Usha. Usha and Anuvrat became friends in a surprisingly short time. They sat next to each other in the dining hall. Whenever they could steal some moments from work, they would sit in the lawn, talking intimately. One day when the lawn was deserted, Usha laid her head on his lap. She was sobbing. Automatically Anuvrat found himself consoling her, soothing her, moving his hand softly on her head, patting her head etc. etc. There was no flirting here, he felt. He also realized that he had found the girls he had been looking for, a simple Indian girl from a conservative family. He decided to propose to her. Usha told him to wait for her answer the next day. They met in the lawn. Usha was sad. The aunt had arrived and the boy was with her. She didn’t like the look of him. Her aunt had wanted that she should take leave from the office for a day so that the engagement ceremony could be solemnized. But she had made an excuse and managed to come to the office as she was expected to see Anuvrat that day. Anuvrat was speechless. This was an irony of fate. Things were taking place as they did in old films of Dilip Kumar in the black and white era. A tragedy was in the making. Usha could do something unforeseen, could even commit suicide, he was sure. For the first time he held her by the hand and said,” Come along Usha. Let us get married. I was about to propose to you but things have happened too fast for that to happen. I know of a temple and the priest there is friendly with me. He will solemnize our marriage and we shall go to some other city and find some other jobs somehow.” Usha looked at him uncomprehendingly. But Anuvrat…how is this possible? The risk involved. I mean what will my father and aunt say and do?’Anuvrat was silent He didn’t know the answer himself. They sat silent for sometime. Then Usha said,”Anuvrat, do you think we could marry and then return to my father and ask him to forgive us and bless our marriage?”Anuvrat shrugged his shoulders awkwardly as he couldn’t find the right gesture in the situation for the first time in his life. They got married as planned by Anuvrat. They spent a few days moving to different places of interest. Then Usha suggested that they had better return home and meet her father. Her father was fortunately alone in the drawing room. A window opened on the street. Usha told Anuvrat to wait outside and went in. Her father saw her. She ran into his open arms. He held her tight to his heart and patted her as if she were a small kid. Anuvrat had moved to the window and watched everything from a hidden spot. He heard every word too. Usha said,” Dady, now you won’t have to part with those ten to fifteen lakhs. That our plan would succeed so perfectly, was doubtful, but it has. Anuvrat is so simple and gullible. But father in spite of all what has happened, I love him.”
“You naughty girl. You saved your dady from paying a huge dowry and found yourself a husband who would always be under your thumb. Dady’s naughty girl.”
Filed under: General | Tagged: husband, Naughty Girl
