Tale of a Nightingale - 1

Recently when I had a chance visiting my sister’s friend, a music teacher in our colony, I couldn’t resist looking at their cute daughter, Srividya. She is now in her first year Engineering came out with Basic Electronics book to handover to the guy on Hero Honda desperately waiting outside, for her Sunday morning darshan. I could soon notice that, the guy didn’t seem to be the one waiting just for her book. Well, that’s anyway rule of nature and probably everyone at one stage would have gone thru that ;). Srividya, an exceptionally talented and beautiful girl, was 10th grader a couple of years ago who had won many prizes in the singing, debate and badminton in our colony competitions. Within two years of span, I could notice a drastic change in her physical appearance, style and bodily movements. Her hairstyle now is no less than any of our film stars appearing in shampoo ad’s; her tight fitting attractive dresses wouldn’t have missed attracting any passer by, including the outside “Hero” Honda guy.

Maitri was also a young and beautiful girl just finishing her 12th grade around a few years ago. She had probably started learning Swar and Alankar right from the time she was in her mother’s womb. Sumathi, her mother, also my aunt was an accomplished Hindustani vocalist having featured in various newspapers and Doordarshan. Since we didn’t live in Bangalore those days, it was only during our summer vacation/family functions when we used to meet and play/fight and hence my interactions were always quite limited. I still remember getting hard time from my mother whenever Sumathi aunt was proud to exhibit her daughter’s 10th and 12th marks or CET ranking. My mother didn’t loose an opportunity humiliating me, in comparing her skills to mine though I was senior to her, “Look at Maitri, in spite of receiving music scholarships and the overall championship for the excellence in singing, mono-acting and literature, she still manages to obtain a better ranking.” “Let her be proud ma, why I should get the blame though?” was my argument, even though I have to admit that I was simply blown away by her power house of talent, be it in academic excellence or music knowledge or dramatics or literary skills. Whenever she accompanied her mother in singing, I could hardly make out, who was better of the two? The variation, feel and the amazing range!!!! Simply wow!!!! Well, I consoled myself, girls are girls..always reading and hard working and I never wanted to take it as a competition.

However, Maitri always felt she wanted to explore the realistic world beyond the four walls of her mother’s “Vishnu sahasra nama” and “Lakshmi Shobane” chanting or, Ekadashi fasting. Engineering college just happened to prove to become the gateway for all her imaginative dream world. Senior guy and gal pairs roaming around in the campus, groups having loads of fun around in the canteen was something she only had visualized in the movies. She started enjoying her college, not just because of the Computer science labs, but for the exposure to her much desired outer real world. Like we always had one in our class, Gurinder of her class was the first one to get every girl’s attention. Used to talk with confidence, crack jokes with no hesitation, make every one laugh during the breaks with his great sense of humor, help others with interest, a ‘care free’ and a naughty attitude enough to become an electrifying magnet to all the girls of her class. Handsome and talkative he was; Some girls wearing glasses in the front benches totally ignored his sarcasm, while majority of the class saw Shah Rukh’s Rahul kind of character in him. Our Maitri was of no exception. Silent observer she was, but watched him careful enough to imagine Shah Rukh’s DDLJ or Dil To Pagal hein character. Everyday, when she was returning home from the college, she started believing that movies aren’t fake and Rahul kind of characters truly exist. As usual, mother was punctually busy with her concerts and vocal classes, waiting for her daughter to join in and never bothered to notice the growing curiosity and sentiments of her teen daughter. 

Just because Maitri appeared to be a silent lamb, guys didn’t fail respecting her beauty. She was least aware of the fact that, at least 10 of her class mates were keeping a close track of her schedules - what dress she wore everyday, where she stays, her talents, her celebrity mom, her birthday, her timetable, her canteen menu, her weekend routine etc… Guys loved her traditional wear of Jhumki along with the occasionally worn jeans. Though Gurinder was one among them who carried her bio, he also carried the timetable of many other attractive fellow girl mates – Sunaina, Shalini and Jane. For almost a semester, the shy girl Maitri never had an opportunity to closely interact with any of the guys. Her first semester results gave her a shell shock, when Gurinder was found to be the second topper of the class, beating her as well as many lousy glass wearing gals who studied 24*7. Oh my god!!!! He must be a genius then… and not just a stupidly looking DDLJ’s Shahrukh, she thought…  

                                                                              

The undisputed star of the class, Guri was always in news for one or the other reason. One classic incident happened, when he had to ask the vehicle keys of her class’s beauty queen Sheila.. Sharmila who stood between them shouted at Sheila that Guri was asking for her keeeys…. Within moments, it was a talk of the college that Guri was asking for Sheila’s kiss… and all the envied girls sighed at the same time,, ohhhhhhoooo…. Though Sheila was subjected to an embarrassment, she blushed and enjoyed the every moment fantasizing the situation when her friends repeatedly teased her. When this reached Guri’s attention, he gave his usual smile, which all girls were just longing for. Hero was already born in him, but what about the heroin?  

In the second year of her engineering, she found herself to be much more matured than she was in her first year in every aspect. She soon became the permanent customer of Lakme’s beauty products and a regular visitor of her neighboring beauty parlor. Her dress cabinet got expanded and dress collection saw a tremendous makeover while her lips appeared more attractive than ever before. Her fan followers in the class increased from 10 to 20-25 in number and probably 50-100 in the entire college and now she was able to observe that her footsteps were being closely followed by hundreds of eyes in the campus. Her neighbor, Uday who never saw how the sun looked at 7 am was quite prompt to make sure he never missed either sunrays or her college timings. Putting on the loud ace of base music OR MLTR’s “paint my love”, and doing weight lifting exercises was when she waited for the morning bus. Her presence made even her bus stop attractive and there were several volunteers longing to give her a ride if she missed the bus anytime. Though she never trusted or talked to any of them, she secretly felt proud of her appearance and the due recognition received. Her friends now started visiting her house for various valid reasons - note books, treats, combined study, tours, rehearsals etc…Her mother was initially annoyed, but later convinced herself of her confidence in daughter. Her friends now expanded to Bihar, Rajasthan and Delhi from the initial Kannada speaking folks. Though she possessed all that natural feminine assets, was still taught by her newly formed friends circle how to keep guys on their tows and get things done by them when needed, and slowly the numbers even increased after her company coaching. You easily extract things from the company you are in; the hangout places you visit, the food you eat etc. Many a times, your friends and neighbor hood are the ones that mould your nature, behavior and style. 

A smooth blend of traditional Indian girl package with a contemporary outlook probably attracted most of our gentlemen. Her “Yara sili sili” rendition from the movie Lekin created a mild stroke in every guy’s heart. This was the time when Guri didn’t want to miss the opportunity of asking her if she was interested in taking part in the college annual competition, him being the class representative. Their interaction thru the cultural meet gradually grew which extended to her occasional e-mail communication on Sundays. It was very causal e-mails that stared though, by forwarding jokes etc later got dragged into the personal details and interests. Though both of them acted as if they hardly knew each other to the outside world, they altogether had an intimate communication thru Sunday e-mails. She started feeling the unexplainable pleasure whenever she thought about him. Why do I feel so secured and confident when I think about him was the question she repeatedly asked herself? Why do I desperately wait for his e-mails? She had a long and desperate wait for the 4th semester to begin when he had left for Ludhiana. Everyday they exchanged mails and started scheduled chatting. She wasn’t vividly sure whether she wanted to continue or end the relationship without going to the next level. But the pleasure she received from his company couldn’t be matched to anything that she had experienced till then. While for Gurinder, it wouldn’t be a tough ride. He was concerned if it was right to get interested in the girl whose family has gracefully adapted the Madhwa principles and all that Madi and mailige they followed. He knew, his father who wore turban, probably never had his hair cut, while she came from the family where her grand father, being a priest in Sode Mutt had just a small pony tail (juttu) chanting shlokas. So what? he thought and never turned back.

Maitri and Guri started interacting more often when they clandestinely enjoyed each other’s company, either in person or thru mails. Once their meetings extended outside the lab hours, Maitri started getting shivers. When she first lied to her mother that they had extra class when she reached an hour late, it was an adventure as if she climbed the peak of Mt. Everest. She initially managed to avoid his face to face interaction, but didn’t want to avoid later once she was comfortable. “When it gives me pleasure, why should I avoid? What might happen next? Is that going to happen which I don’t want to happen? Is he interested in me or he is like that with everyone?” She started getting chills the moment she imagined that she was the one of the victims of love, but at the same time, she was proud of herself that she didn’t waste her precious time simply preparing for the exams and finally ending up knotting somebody in a typical orthodox Uppitu- Kesaribath fashion that her cousins followed before migrating to US.  

They didn’t have too many things in common, like most of the “Ej dujhe ke liye” love stories. Her all time favorites and music maestros, Kishori Amonkar and Veena ShasraBuddhe had no place in his dictionary. She was at her best in Kuvempu’s poetry or her favorite Poorna chandra Tejaswi’s short stories, while the only word Guri knew in Kannada was “Gothilla”. Meeting for a juice in the canteen initially itself was quite a big deal for her considering her traditional family background. Though she herself went thru a major transformation, she knew her family still lived in their own era. Her father was still stubborn to use computer when it was introduced in Syndicate Banks. She couldn’t give the same special classes as the reason every time. Music practice for the show was one excuse she used a couple of times. During these transformational days, I would have met her just a few times as I missed many of the family functions due to my semester exams or college festival or attendance shortage. However I or my other relatives didn’t fail to notice this extreme makeover in her. I never imagined she could have had such a lovely silky hair and skin, looking at these changes. When we had musical get-together on the eve of my cousin’s wedding, I remember singing Raag Malkauns with full of emotions. When I had just finished with a decent performance, her rendition of Raag Marwa started that surpassed all other performances, totally eclipsing mine. Oh my God!!! Absolute no change in her majestic rendition whatsoever was happening internally! 

They were in their 6th semester when things really happened, when Guri finally expressed his love for her. He also said, he would want her to be his life partner and make sure he always take the best care of her for rest of her life, in music or literature or dramatics and sincerely allowed her to think and get back. She knew for sure, this was going to happen one day and she had to put on her thinking meter, what to reply to this, Is he the Rahul of my life? Will my dad utter the same dialogue what the stubborn Amaresh Puri had at the end of DDLJ? “Duniya mein Is ladke se alava koi tujhe itna pyar nahi kar saktha, beti, bhaag jaaa..” .. My folks can’t be that cruel to me.  After all, it’s my life.. Is that my problem if I fall in love? My parents can’t fall in love on my behalf? It’s my life… Still it wasn’t that an easy decision for her to make. Closing her eyes, sitting in her room, started thinking what was happening to her. Her mom’s morning batch students were heard emotionally singing “Piya nahi aaye” of Raag Patdeep. Her dad was seen sincerely changing his thread on that rainy Upakarma day chanting some shlokas when she was still thinking what should be her response to his proposal. She wanted to forget everything for a moment without deciding anything and switched on the TV. Madhuri was dancing to the tune “Hasta hein yeah dil… rulata hein …..Dil to pagal hein.. dil diwana hein” on Sony TV’s Jhalak. Oh god……Which one is real?

Guri on the other hand knew, he had a long queue of girls waiting for his very smile and a naughty look. Yet he felt, his position in getting Maitri’s love was a little insecure considering his out of state, out of caste, non vegetarian status and the music free background; also there were hardly any common factor between their families. He was not too casual in the next day’s class after proposing her. Quite serious he was, throwing his eyes at her every second trying to grab her expression. Curious he was, he didn’t want to approach again for the result, but wanted to get her attention. Maitri was quite firm that she wanted to lead her life with him as she could completely trust through out her life. The poor guy may have least musical background, but she knew he would support her in any case considering his liability. She purposely avoided him a few times just to see his desperate face. During lunch break, after the class, when she got separated from her friends, didn’t even have to look out for him as she guessed the right place where he might be waiting for her. He hadn’t guessed that he will have to be tensed one day waiting for her response after proposing a dream nightingale from an orthodox family, when he has no other interests in any of the art forms or sports other than cricket and event management. He was much relieved when he noticed Maitri coming towards him. He thought she wouldn’t have come thus far if her response was ‘No’ OR what if she wanted to explain the practicality of this kind of relationship which doesn’t have a smooth pavement. However, Maitri was in no position to accept any of the practical hurdles. After giving her consent, they didn’t step backwards anytime. Fourth or the final year of their college life was the gayest moments of their lives when both of them were riding on the fourth gear of his motorbike, flying on cloud 9. She started decorating back seat of his bike most of the times speeding at 80-100 Kmph on Mysore road very frequently, covering her face with duppatta deeply smeared with her fragrance, hugging him tight, to beat the traffic time so she could reach home before it gets dark. Hug got harder on every hump and pothole of Mysore road giving fullest pleasure to the couple on the bike. Though they hid most things from their friends and college mates exclusively on Maitri’s request, common friends from their circle were smart enough to trace love stories in the air.

Her diversified friends circle further widened the gap between the sentiments of her friends, from her family and culture. She gradually started developing more complexities around her due to the growing discontentment between her orthodox family and her surrounding life style. Love is blind, but teaches many things, makes you strong, gives you comfort, pleasure, sweet pain and selectively ignores many things for that materialistic gain.  In just a few days, she had developed the art of series lying. One lie would often lead to another and you become master soon. As she didn’t have a choice, had to lie her mother on a multiple occasions, especially when she returned late night after attending her friend’s birthday party. There was no alternative other than giving the newly invented reasons. Though it was definitely not her decision, she had to follow her surroundings where they went. As she enjoyed the overall fun and the warmth she felt with her class mates from Delhi and other North Indian cities, she couldn’t completely resist going out with them. Her fun loving attitude attracted more and more guys in queue who didn’t have a clue about her relationship and she was still shy enough to meet any guy other than Guri alone and invented every reason to avoid anyone who thought of making their first move and meeting her in private. As she kept most of her communication asynchronous, guys had hard time to convey their message. Frequency of her outing with the friends or him increased, she had to lie at home, and most of the time she wasn’t even aware what she was doing. Whenever she realized, became even more a complex girl who could only sob inside, but unable to control what was happening outside. Without her knowledge, she started wearing various masks and personalities. She knew she wasn’t the same simple girl, who once had pledged to follow the footsteps of musical greats Smt Kishori Amonkar and Smt. Arati Anklekar. She also knew her musical endeavors and dreams may not take off smoothly if she takes this path. Knowing her interests, he once presented her a cassette, “Ritu Chakra”, a rare collection of Ms. Sahasrabuddhe’s rendition on seasons. “I didn’t love him for his food or religion or his taste. I truly loved his charm, care and support and I know he would be one whom I can trust for life”, she consoled herself every moment she landed up in dilemma after seeing her mother holding a Tanpura and rendering emotional ragas like Gurjari Todi and Bairagi or chanting Vishnu Sahasra nama in front of God. However, it was a tough challenge for Guri to make sure that, she is not in dilemma anytime. 

When she first went out with him to the Barbeque restaurant, she was little uncomfortable. Their usual menu in the college canteen was chats, noodles and juice which were within acceptable limits. But this time, holding her hand he gently said, the mouth watering dish of their family was Bada kebab (beef), a Punjabi delicacy made of her sacred cow, but he is ready to quit for her. Sumathi, a strict vegetarian sincerely believed even eating onions and garlic was against their practice. So he knew if her folks were to accept him, he shouldn’t be eating meat. He swore he can do anything for her; he had already made every attempt speaking broken Kannada and was ready to sacrifice goat or cow or lamb or anyone or anything for her and didn’t want to loose the gem of his life at any cost. Maitri also knew that it wouldn’t be a cakewalk transition from her lifestyle into his pagadi family as she may not get a welcome nod from his members except his only younger sister, Dimpy. Guri’s father an ex-Military service man had joined NCC as Lt. Colonel and had served at various states before settling in a small town near Ludhiana. He was furious when Guri disclosed of his intense relationship with a traditional Brahmin girl from Karnataka. Predicting her challenges ahead, Maitri slowly added Bhangra, Daler Mehndi’s “SajNa wa” songs to her musical library and also improved her Punjabi vocabulary and cooking skills to please and gain her love and his family. Since any of these morphological changes hardly had an impact on her studies, Sumathi or her husband were clueless till Maitri approached her the day after the announcement of her campus interview results. Both were recruited by the leading software companies and it was the time when her family was celebrating the success of her engineering career.

“Ma… I wanted to tell you something..” … “Ok,, you don’t want to practice today as well is it?, it’s ok kane.. go out and enjoy”.. “No ma,, not about music practice,,  “hmm… then….??” Sumathi became little serious and turned at her. “About my marriage. .. with Guri”..A Bomb blast!!!! “What???Who?”

“… Guri ma, My classmate… ..You know him..”

 “What???? What are they? Are you serious???.......Nammavara?” …

“I don’t know ma…”            

“What do you mean, I don’t know???”  “He is from Punjab, ma…Gurinder… Gurinder Singh” …..

 “Oh my good Lord!!!! How could you do this to me”… Her mother collapsed in a second…..

(To be continued....)