And then Raha stole my heart — II
Raha moved like a ballerina, sang cheerfully and frequently people would stop by and gush how she was pretty and talented! When she performed a solo song on the wedding night… she eclipsed the gorgeous bride completely!
I spent the entire day and night of Ailin’s wedding hanging around Raha. As the night wore on slowly the guests started moving out and it was time for Raha to leave. She came up to the first floor where I was standing and… we came face to face. I was as nervous as she wasn’t! I was thinking of something intelligent to say — which would have been a first for me! Noticing she had been chewing paan and her mouth was red, I started with a tease, “Hello, grandma! How’s the paan?”
She laughed and said, “Yeah, I am very old now” As she was moving away she waved to me, “Bye Bye”.
I watched her say goodbye to everyone and then she quickly ran out to join her family. At that moment it didn’t occur to me that I won’t be seeing her again or that I would be leaving Junagadh in a couple of days.
The days flew by quickly and we were again on our way back to our daily lives. Soon I got caught up in high school life and generally busy growing up. Although every year we went to Junagadh for holidays, I never got to see her again. Raha soon became a distant but sweet memory. Some sights and sounds are imprinted in our minds for life. So is Raha and her infectious smile, cheerful laughter and beautiful face.
When I was in my final year in school my cousin Ahana’s marriage was announced for that summer. But for some inexplicable reason the excitement wasn’t quite quite the same as Ailin’s! May be because we had all grown up. I had become a book worm, busy preparing for graduation in engineering the next year. Marie Curie was already in 2nd year college studying science, of course. Few days before the marriage we arrived in Junagadh. My mind was suddenly filled with memories of Ailin’s wedding and Raha. I wanted to find out when and if Raha would come but couldn’t quite muster the courage to ask my aunts or cousins.
The wedding feast was arranged in the lawn under a huge shamiana in the evening. I was keeping to myself most of the time and at last I saw her! She was no longer the vivacious, irrepressible girl that she was during Ailin’s marriage. She had grown up to be a very thoughtful teenager, beautiful and stunning in the traditional dress! I noticed that she almost never left her mother’s side. For a moment I closed my eyes and tried to process all this as normally as possible but found it difficult. My brain’s circuitry slowly started to trip! The music and the general cacophony of the marriage feast faded into the background. I suddenly I became oblivious to everything except her!
Suddenly, Marrie Curie appeared, handed me a plateful of food and immediately disappeared. I quickly finished eating and as I went to wash my hands I saw Raha approach the wash basin. She was alone and seeing me… she stopped, so did I.
We both just stood there looking at each other. Neither of us smiled or said anything. Not even a greeting! We just looked at each other for what seemed like a very long time.
Then I saw someone approach, I moved to the wash-basin quickly washed my hands and got back to the crowd. I looked back in time to see her walk back to her mom who was already saying farewell to the bride’s family. As they left, Raha turned and looked at me one last time.
That night I could not get any sleep, I kept thinking about what had happened that evening. My mind kept playing back the encounter with Raha. I was a bit troubled by that vacant look in raha’s eyes and her demeanor seemed quite strange. I decided to chat up my aunt the next day. As soon as I got up I found my aunt alone in portico enjoying her morning tea, sitting next her I tactfully started inquiring about Raha.
I started by saying how much she seemed to have changed since Ailin’s marriage. That was enough to start off my aunt. She soon started to fill me in on everything that was going on in Raha’s family and the picture that emerged wasn’t very nice! Raha’s family was hurting. Her father’s become an alcoholic. He was born into a wealthy family but he was burning the wealth at both ends and wasn’t showing any sign of change in spite of considerable effort by his extended family. He had started to neglect the family completely. Raha was the same age as me, was getting ready to go to college. She had an younger sister and a brother much younger to her.
All these developments were quite depressing to me. I could’t quite make out what to do. What did I do? Read on in the next Episode below.
