‘Oye!....
Chich
chich…
Wohoo!.....
Main
Yahaan ....
Meri taraf yahaan dekho!
Chich cheech chich!
Maan hissed at Geet
from behind a set of curtains in the dinner hall where Geet was busy seating
Dadi ma on the dinner table with other guests of the evening. If he could
whistle he probably would have done that too to catch her attention!
She heard the hissing
and looked to see who was making such noises and noticed Maan pointing at her
and signalling her to come closer.
'Mujhe ignore kar rahi
ho!! (You are trying to ignore me!)
Mujhe ! Main Maan
hoon.. meri taraf har ladki nazar juhka thi hai!' (Me! I am Maan!
nobody ignores me, every girl turns her head at me!) Maan
whispered to himself under his breath.
Maan noticed her
resolute face of ignoring him and this hit his adolescent ego which usually
sits at the tip of his pointed nose! So Maan walked straight at Geet
and grabbed her by the hand.
She almost screamed in
surprise and a yelp escaped from her lips; of course others around
noticed.
Dadima was the first
and sternly directed her eyes at his hand holding Geet's and said
‘What’s going on here Maan?!’
Maan suddenly let go off her hand and
edged closer to quietly say, ‘Dadima main isse jab se bula raha tha aur yeh sun
hi rahi nahi hai!’ (I have been calling
her out all this time but she chose to ignore me!)’.
Geet’s eyes went big with embarrassment
at his straight talk and although she is still very young to decipher the
suspicion in Dadima’s eyes but due to her mother’s strict code of conduct for
girls in their family she knew that getting such attention from boys is not
good for her.
Dadima squirmed her eyes and asked Maan
‘But why did you want to speak to her?! You have only just met her!’
Maan said ‘I didn’t want to talk to her!
Woh toh Jassi auntie is calling for her! I saw her going up the stairs as I was
making my way here and she asked me to tell Geet that bring bhabhi with her in
her room she needs some help with something’
Dadima and Geet looked just as confused
but for different reasons.
Geet thought and spoke aloud ‘Amma ne bolaya hai?!
Lekin mujhe hi kyun??...haan yeh Roop ki bachi kahin chupi hogi (but why me! She could have asked Roop too
but this Roop must be hiding somewhere) eating to her stomach full’.
Without waiting for any affirmation Geet strided past Maan to get Meet and go
upstairs to find her mother’.
Maan who saw his Dadima suspiciously
looking at him, didn’t give her a chance to ask any further and just added
‘I’ll go bring Haider, he is sitting out there still’ and ran out behind Geet.
By the time he met Haider and told him
of his little made up story Geet and Meer were making their way up the stairs.
He asked Haider to hurry after them. Haider instead took Maan along with him on
the pretense of his friend needing a washroom just in case anybody was to ask.
Just as they chased after the girls on
the stairs, Jassi ji was seen directing the servers with food to different
tables along with Daijaan. She then led daijaan to a seat next to Dadi ma so to
give her company at dinner.
On seeing Jassi ji here, dadi ma’s
suspicion turned into a full fledged doubt on her grandson’s intentions. She
thought of getting up to find out further but was pulled back down with Daijaan
asking her to eat some more with her.
Meer and Geet entered the bedroom and
called out for Jassi ji, Geet then said to Meer ‘Ma to yahan nahi hai! Hmm Meer
you wait here, maybe Ma went to check up on things downstairs so I will go and
ask her why she wanted us here, okay!’
Meer nodded and saw Geet head out of the
room. Meer was relieved to get away from all the prying eyes downstairs. She
was wondering how she will manage in the wedding which is just in two days! The
thought of her Nikah led her thoughts to the impending wedding night with an
almost stranger like husband! Knowing him as an occasionaly summer holiday
friend and being his innocence play-mate was way different than becoming his
wife so soon!
Meer clutched the ends of her dupatta
and walked half hazardly to pour a glass of water to calm herself down. As she
was drinking the glass of water, her eyes widened seeing her brand new an hour
old fiancé and to be husband in two days dash into her room and close the door behind
him!
She literally spit the water out of her
mouth and squeezed her mouth to stutter a question:
‘AAPP!! Yahan kkkkya kar
rahe hai!?!!’ (Youuu!! Whaaat are you
doing?)
She walked anxiously towards him and
further enquired ‘aur darwwaazzzza kyun band KIYA?! Kuch hua hai kya! Koi
dekhega toh bohot pareshaaani hojayegi Haid…. Umm ji!’ (And
why did you close the door, has something happened? If someone sees us like
this then it would be a lot of trouble Haid…umm Ji)’.
Haider who literally was catching his
breath looked at Meer whose cheeks were turning pink despite her looking like
she has seen a ghost! He grabbed the glass of water from her hand and drank the
rest of it, he then walked straight ahead and sat on the bed saying mujhe baat
karni thi… bohot urgent hai! Mere dost ne yahi ek idea diya mujhe tumse milne
ka! (I wanted to talk to you..its urgent!
And my friend could only think of this idea of getting to meet you!)’
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As Geet hurriedly walked in the balcony
of the corridor overlooking the floor below towards the stairs hoping to find
her mother she was struck with a voice from behind her and she stopped in her
tracks and turned around only to see and hear this:
Ruk ja o
dil deewane
Poochhoon toh main zara!!!!!
Poochhoon toh main zara!!!!!
Tannnaa
tannnaaa …..
Ladki hai ya hai jaadu
Khushboo hai ya nashaaaaaaa
Ladki hai ya hai jaadu
Khushboo hai ya nashaaaaaaa
Tanna
tannnaaaa
There stood Maan leaning against the
pillar with his legs crossed right behind her, playing an imaginary guitar with
his hands and teasingly looking at Geet! He raised his eyebrows at her and
added:
Ha ruk ja o
dil deewane
Poochhoon to main zarrraaaa!!!
Poochhoon to main zarrraaaa!!!
Geet’s big brown eyes glared at Maan and
she stompedly retreated her steps towards and pointed a finger right at him about
to blurt out a hurl of rightful abusing words she could think of to put him in
his place for his audacity to stop her midway by teasing her with a song!
But instead Maan just stopped her mid-sentence and rolled off the next lines in the song:
Paas woh
aaye toh
Chhoo ke main dekhoon zara…
Chhoo ke main dekhoon zara…
And he touched her cheek with back of his hand playfully to
rouse her cute anger further.
But little did Maan realize that his one innocent touch would
make him loose himself yet again in her innocent aura and he managed to merely
whisper the last line:
Ruk ja o…. dil… deewane…. Poochoun toh main…. Zara…
Geet suddenly felt the heat rise to her
cheeks and she didn’t know why the flutters in her stomach would appear whenever
Maan came this close to her.
She looked into his eyes mirroring the
questioning emotions arising in both of them unknowingly.
Her eyes watered with the unwavering stare
and she blinked back to reality!
She suddenly stepped back from his close
enclosure and didn’t realize that she was on the edge of the stairs so her foot
tripped and she lost her balance just then Maan saw her falling backwards he
lurched forward and pulled her by the hand and she fell into his arms.
Geet looked half shaken half surprised;
her form clutching him tight with the scare. Maan realized that she needed
space to get a grip on herself so he tried moving back but his shirt button
tugged on the ends of her paranda tassle.
From down below, Dadima and Jassi ji
stood stunned at the scene they just witnessed of Maan pulling Geet in his arms
and Geet holding on to him tightly with both her hands around his neck.
