TWO

Calls of Conscious

Dreams; the magical windows in reality, the elixir of troubled soul and the caress of a distant lover. However, the taste of those dreams coming true, wasn’t as sweet as Gauri thought it would be. She felt like the earth was slipping beneath her feet as she took every step forward, the fancy hues replaced with murkier tones and her dream itself gradually transforming into a nightmare, while she was nothing but a helpless spectator. She wished she knew what was wrong, what was missing, what had gone so utterly wrong...but her mind came up with nothing.
It started the day the Oberois came for their rokha, exactly three weeks after she had consented for the marriage proposal. She had been so excited to finally see him in person after so many years, that her fluttering fingers could hardly slip an earring on.
It was difficult to decide on an outfit, when her Ma wanted her to wear one of those heavy saaris and her Bua was rooting for an old yet well preserved lehenga of their grandmother. It was a task in itself, arguing with the two ladies as to why she wouldn’t look like herself in either of those outfits. Exhausted and at the very end of her wits, Gauri had shut them both out of her room and latched her door shut, before picking out a cream colour Kurti with a lavender dupatta; a pair of crystal tear drop earrings and her simple gold chain, a tiny purple bindi and she left it at that.
She had almost left when her eyes fell on something glittery at the very bottom of her jewellery box. She picked it out, it was a silver chain with a cream colour butterfly charm dangling from it, pearls woven in to the chain to add some detail to its simplicity. A soft smile caressed her lips, as the butterfly brought back some of the most cherished of her childhood memories and then a faint crimson heated her cheeks as the memories were interwoven with thoughts of her once best friend and intended. She slipped the bracelet on, thoughts still dwelling upon him and fingers lazily tracing the butterfly when her ears picked up the voices exchanging pleasantries outside. 
They had come.
In a giggling cloud, few of her girlfriends slipped in as soon as Gauri opened the door, shutting it once more after them. They flocked around her, twirled her by the arms and giggled in her ears as they observed the job she had done on herself.
“Wah Gauri, tu toh ek dam heroine dhikthi hai yaar!” One of them said, making herself comfortable on her bed.
“Gauri tu kitni lucky hai...” Another mock fainted next to the first, clasping a hand over her heart dramatically. “Tera dulha bada handsome hai Yaar, hay main mar jawa...ek najar mein dil ghayal kar de!”
“You saw him?” She breathed, before her voice was lost in a wave of Awws.
“Hayye!” Radha gripped her shoulders from the back and placed her chin on Gauri’s shoulder. “Someone’s dying to see someone...” she winked at the other two girls as they giggled.
“Toda intejaar kar le sahibaa, phir poori jindagi usse hi toh dekni hai...”
Gauri waved her hand at them dismissively and went to her window to open it. The girls stumbled after her, fighting over to stick their heads out from the remaining space. Her eyes roamed the lawn, where three identical black Audis were parked, then stopped at a figure of a young man who was leaning against one of them, busy in a phone call.
Gauri’s eyes narrowed a little, as she took in the blue eyed man.
“As we had from our trustworthy sources, that is your would be jeth ji...” One of the girls muttered in her ear.  
“Shivay...” She added to herself.
“Then that is your khanneiya, matlab devar Rudra...” at the mention and the glimpse of the playful young man who was now, muttering something in Shivay’s ear which made Shivay punch him in the gut, all the girls giggled. “He has already flirted with each one of us, and even has scored Radha’s number!”
“Ew!” Said Gauri, as her restless gaze refused to stick to her young brother in law.
A stray breeze blew in, brushing her hair against her throat and she raised an unconscious hand to tuck it behind her ear. Another Audi had just pulled in and breath hitched in her throat as he stepped out. The girls elbowed her, but had fallen utterly silent as they noticed she was not interested in conversation. In fact, Gauri did not know what they were saying anymore. He looked...at the lack of a better word...beautiful!
Every inch just like she had seen him on the public released photographs of the Oberois, or the magazine covers but far more refined and regal in person. The only thing that nudged her was his hair. They weren’t free and framing his face in a mane like in the articles about his artwork, instead they were jelled back, gathered into a half pony that made his elfin ears stick out and highlighted his sharp jawline. Simply nodding at his brothers as he joined them, and side hugging the younger one, he looked somehow distant and cold. Not exactly what she had expected his first glimpse after so many years would be like.
But then, as if instinctively, he pulled off the shades covering his eyes and turned around to gaze directly at her. Although she was sure, he couldn’t have seen her from the window, for a moment she felt that brown gaze caress her face and a warm fluttering filled her stomach. Gauri shut the window with a snap and leaned against it, one hand unconsciously still gripping one of its bars and trying to calm her ragged breathing.
This man was no more her childhood buddy, he had grown up and done so in an dangerously enticing way.
**
Shivay had caught him staring at the pool late, last night. When he laid a hand on his shoulder, his brother’s eyes had been understanding.
“I feel suffocating Shivay,” he spoke up uninvited. “Like something inside me is chocking my soul bit by bit,” he sighed and slammed a hand over his forehead. “Will I end up being just like Mr. Oberoi?”
“She agreed to marry you Om, nobody forced her.” Shivay being Shivay, pointed out the blunt fact.
“Why would someone agree to marry a man with a child Shivay?”
“Why do you think?”
Shivay tried to sound less harsh, but his dislike towards the general lower class spoke through his words. Omkara did not share his brother’s opinions on that front, but he didn’t pursue the argument thereafter. He had been wrong about someone before. He could be mistaken again.
It was the thought with which he looked at Gauri Kumari Sharma as she sat at the opposite end of the sofa, once the other’s opted themselves out to give the couple some time to talk in private. She was fiddling with the bracelet in her hand, too focused to lift her gaze and look at him. His eyes moved across her face, her thick lashed eyes, rosy cheeks and lingered for a moment on her lips before he spoke.
“You said no, before, why did you change your mind?”
His voice seemed to have startled her, she jumped a little before meeting his gaze, and immediately looked away as if his stare had burned her.
“I didn’t know it was you,” she said slowly, still addressing her butterfly charm.
A low chuckled escaped him, at the irony of being mistaken once more.
“So, you wouldn’t reject Omkara Singh Oberoi?” He rephrased his question in a bitter tone. Why was Shivay always right when it comes to Naam Khoon Kaandaan? Why would people overlook a man’s errors at the face of his linage?
“How could I?” she replied hastily and then, blushed. “I mean...woh...”
“I know what you mean,” he said briskly and stood up, pinching the bridge of his nose. After all she was a find of his Choty mom, who herself was a woman eyeing the gold and dresses before the person wearing them, how can her choice be any different from her.
He dug his hands in his pockets and turned away from her.
“So I’ve been in love before,” he continued, not really looking at her. “And I’ve been heartbroken, I’m not sure if I can love again.”
Had he turned around, he’d have seen how the colour fled her face, how the light dimmed in her eyes before they were replaced by a sheen of tears. Gauri clasped a hand over her lips, restraining a gasp before she swallowed the pain.
Love? He has loved someone before? A girl, had broken his heart?
She gulped another sip from the cup laying before her, trying to wipe her eyes discreetly. He wasn’t looking at her to make it difficult.
“But I can promise you something,” he continued, unaware of the turmoil she was going through. “I’ll do everything else that you expect me to, I’ll be faithful, honest and true and in return I just want the same from you.”
Gauri stood up on shaking legs, setting down the teacup.
“You don’t remember me?” She asked in a shivering tone. Omkara turned around abruptly and was a little taken aback by the teary look in her large honey coloured eyes. Choti mom had surely told her everything right? Her eyes stared deep into his, too sharp that he almost felt she was gazing down into his bare soul. He took one defensive step backwards.
“Do we know each other?”
A sob escaped her lips, before she covered them with her fingertips and turned around, rushing out before he could stop them. He followed her, only to catch a fleeting glimpse of her long dark hair bouncing after her as she made her way out.
Gauri climbed up to her room and collapsed at the foot of her bed, knees drawn towards her body and arms wrapped around them, she broke down, finally as the reality sank its claws into her psyche.
This man was a stranger. He had never read her letters. He had never known her presence in his world. In fact, he did not even remember her. He was simply a heartbroken heir looking for a proper wife. Was that exactly the life she had dreamed for herself?
Tears still pouring from her eyes, she raised her wrist to gaze at her butterfly. Only to find her bracelet gone. She must have dropped it in her haste to escape that room.
Downstairs, Omkara picked up the silver charm bracelet and examined it. He felt strange as he watched the butterfly with fragile cream colour wings. Something pricked at his heart, a haunting sense of sadness and he closed his eyes trying to rid his mind of Gauri Kumari Sharma's tear stained face.
**
Pinky Singh Oberoi was in an extra generous mood as she emptied a chest full of yellowing papers into Svetlana Kapoor’s gleaming glass topped desk. The latter woman looked up at her, one pencilled eyebrow raised and a pointed nail painted in shocking pink tapping her chin.
“There you go,” said Pinky, as she collapsed into the chair opposite. “Will these be enough to spin a good angle?”
Svetlana reached out and picked one of the papers, casting a doubtful look at Pinky she began to read. As her eyes skimmed through the handwritten lines, a calculative smile tugged at her lips. Setting the paper down with a dramatic sigh, she folded her arms.
“So when is our Miss. Cinderella coming to the ball?” Her soft tone was drawling with plotting as Pinky returned that smile.
“Soon, very soon.”
“Be rest assured Mrs. Oberoi,” she smiled as she stood up and pulled the blinds on her glass wall. “We shall have a fitting welcome ready just for her.” Svetlana stared at her cat in lipstick like reflection in the glass and smiled coldly. “Gauri Kumari Sharma, tumhari kismat badalne wali hai....”
**
“Our Gauri is going to Mumbai?” Bua Exclaimed, hands on her hips. “Why on earth? Jiji shaadi se pehele ladkiya aise sasural jaathi hai kya?”
“Pinky was saying they need to groom her,” Ma, looked a little bothered herself. “Aur waise bhi, Kalyaani ji ne kudh poocha hai, hum mana kaise karte? We have to accept it Geeta, we’ve no idea of their way of living and Gauri would look like an alien if she is to go there straight after marriage.”
“But...but...” Bua protested.
“And the decision has to be Gauri’s in the end. Kya bolti hai Gauri? Tu jaayengi Mumbai?”
She hadn’t really spoken much since her rokha. Gauri stared aimlessly at the fields visible outside the window, breeze playing with her hair, before the question voiced in her mother’s enquiring tone broke her back to reality.
“Kya Ma?”
“Tu Jaayengi unki wo kya kehete hai, grooming lessons ke liye? Aur wo loog sagai bhi wahi karne ki soch rahe hai, tera kya khyal hai?”
“Jaisa aap teek samjhe...” She muttered, resuming her aimless gazing. Her mother went and sat beside her, lending a hand on her shoulder. Gauri moved and placed her head on her mother’s shoulder. Her mother, tapped her cheek, looking at her questioningly.
“Kya hua bitiya?”
“Patha nahi Ma, kuch bhi sahi nahi lagta...”
“Everyone feels nervous at the prospect of leaving their home,” Bua said understandingly. “Par betiyon ko toh jaana hota hai na...”
“Will I ever be able to match up to them?” She asked in a whisper, not really wording her question which was,will he ever love me?
“Gauri, yeh pyaar hai na, badi ajeeb cheej hoti hai.” Ma replied with a smile. “Jitna hum usse door bhaagte hai, utni wo hume paas keech leeti hai. Aur pyaar ahir mein unhe milti hai, jo apne pyaar ke liye lade...”
“Aag ka dhariya hai, aur dhoob ke jaana hai!” Bua added dramatically as she sat on Gauri’s other side.
Gauri looked at both beloved women in her life and smiled in spite of her tears. She had no idea how they always had the perfect answer for her. So, that was it. She wouldn’t simply get her love just because she loved him for so long and so deeply. She’d have to fight and win it. Of cause she would do it. She would do everything that they expect her to do and she would become the perfect match ever to have existed for her prince.
Her journey has just begun and she would write her fate from there onwards.
She spread her arms and hugged both her Ma and Bua, the two women complained mockingly, before hugging her as tightly in return. She sighed, finally feeling consoled, warm and loved. After all what else would heal a broken heart, but love?
And Gauri was sure, her love was enough for both of them, for now.
**