All the Chapters
Chapter 7
Shaan did not reach his hostel room. Under the circumstances in which he was, his trained legs led him automatically towards the rocks at the bank of the huge lake some distance away from the hostel. Whenever he needed to think over any issue of importance he went to these rocks near the lake. The recently concluded meeting with Medhavi’s father and more so, Medhavi’s sharp reaction presented an important issue.
He needed to think. He needed solitude. The serene atmosphere of the rocks and the lake facilitated in bringing home the clarity of thinking he needed. For a while he sat there all alone camouflaged by the rocks. Before he could start pondering on what happened at Medhavi’s place, he heard the giggle of a girl from another rock some distance away from where he sat.
“Why are you giggling like mad?” asked another girly voice.
The giggling girl somehow controlled her giggle and answered, “Wait a minute. Let us settle down on these rocks and I will tell you everything. I needed to share my victory with you. You are after all my best friend. Good thing, you were in your hostel room and I could drag you out here. I was impatient to spill out everything.”
Shaan’s curiosity got aroused as if it was a scene from some mystery movie. He shifted closer to the rock where the two girls were sitting. He made sure that they did not see him. He could not see them nor could he put a finger on whose giggle and whose voice he heard.
Then he heard the giggling girl say something in whispers, “Anji, boys are real fools. And if the boy is weird one claiming that he is religion less, he acts still a bigger fool.”
The last remark made Shaan to bring his ear closer to the rock behind which the girls were whispering now. He wanted to hear more.
Obviously Anji could not have made out what the other girl was hinting at as she enquired, “Come out straight Medhavi, don’t talk so mysteriously and stupidly.”
Shaan got a jolt. He thought, “Oh! Then these two girls are Medhavi and Anjali (Anji for her short name). So Medhavi is trying to leak out secretly something about me to Anji- her best friend who lives in the girls’ hostel nearby.”
“This boy thinks that just being a topper in the university makes him eligible to propose me,” Medhavi quipped.
“But I thought you two were already in love with each other. What’s wrong if he proposed?”
“Anji, the love thing was a put-on from my side from the very beginning. The fool thought I was in love with him. I wanted him for a short while for myself, but for an entirely different reason. I wanted to learn the tricks of trade from him so that I could achieve my ambition of topping the university.”
“And you missed it and you are annoyed with him and want to take the revenge on him? Is that true? You are a first rate mercenary.”
“The reason cannot be exactly the way you put it. The main reason is I never thought of loving him or marrying him because I knew about his social background. He has no social background- he is a religion less creature.”
“What do you mean?”
“Anji, Shaan does not belong to any religion. A couple- wife a Christian and husband- a Muslim adopted him from an orphanage.”
Anjali interrupted Medhavi, “The he must be either a Christian or a Muslim.”
“No. His legal parents were undecided about it. Though they themselves had got into an inter-religion marriage, for some reason they could not muster enough courage to decide the religion of their adopted son. So he grew up without being given a religion.”
“But he can now embrace anyone of his legal parent’s religions. He is quite an adult and has freedom to do so.”
“And Shaan has decided. He does not believe in being a part of any organized religion. He is weird. As per him he wants to remain liberated, does not want to be constrained by the narrowness of the existing religions, their lack of generosity and their enforced rituals.”
“Oh! It’s definitely a problem then for you. I cannot visualize even myself getting married to a religion less person. But why did you encourage him? And you talked about your victory. What victory?”
“Oh. I was mad. I wanted to take my revenge. This year again he did not let me top the list. This was our final year and my last chance to be the university topper. Topping the final exam has been my biggest ambition all these years. As usual Shaan put a spoke in my ambition. I cannot pardon him.”
“So, where comes your victory? It is he who really won. He topped again.”
“No. I wanted to hit him harder than he did to me. I pretended that I was in love with him. Finally I encouraged him to talk to my parents and he did today. I knew that my parents would never agree for this marriage. They are devout Hindus and cannot think of marrying their daughter to a boy who belongs to any other religion. And Shaan is a far cry from it- he does not belong to any religion whatsoever.”
“My, you are a heartless person. So finally your parents refused. And you must have refused too by saying that you cannot displease your parents? Is that true?”
“Not exactly that way. My parents have been more civil with him than the way you put it. They have requested Shaan to give them some time to think and I reiterated the same to Shaan.”
“Will Shaan meet your parents again? He must have been mighty upset with you for not supporting him in his meeting with your parents. You towed your parents’ line.”
“Yes. Yet he will meet my parents. I am sure he will. He has deeply fallen in love with me. But I will pose helpless when he visits them next. My parents will declare their decision and I will go along with them somewhat indirectly. I will want to see his face getting disappointed in his ambition of marrying me. That will equalize.”
“But tell me had you topped the university would it have made any difference. Then there wasn’t any case of a revenge.”
“Revenge? No. But even then it would have been the same way. I can never think of marrying a person who does not belong to any religion. And of course I will always prefer a Hindu boy that too preferably from my own community.”
Shaan listened to this entire conversation between Medhavi and Anjali quite intently. Initially he felt hurt but soon controlled his emotions. By the time he heard their conversation up to this point, he became quite at ease with himself.
He enquired to himself, “How could I ever fall in love with this kind of crooked girl? I now feel as if I didn’t know her at all. The real Medhavi was a stranger to me.”
But he also felt downcast and dejected.
However, he was glad too that before he made a fool of himself in yet another meeting with Medhavi and her parents he came to know all of Medhavi’s intentions. So his job was done. He saved another meeting with Medhavi and her parents.
Medhavi would soon go out of his system.
(Get your copy of the novel "Good People" as an eBook from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B009BHH37G only for $ 0.99. You may also like to get its Printed Book from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Good-People-Dream-Boundary-World/dp/1479333085/ref=sr_1_8_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1380916602&sr=1-8&keywords=shyam+bhatawdekar%27s+books)
Novels and Stories
Novel "Good People" http://good-people-novel.blogspot.com/
Funny (and Not So Funny) Short Stories http://management-anecdotes.blogspot.com/
Stories Children Will Love http://stories-children.blogspot.com/
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