Udaariyaan: A Different Perspective

First Meeting

"Knock, knock, knock..." Sameer stood behind his family, slightly nervous as he waited outside the house waiting to meet the girl who had saved his Dadi. A few days ago Sameer's dadi had told him about a girl she met at the temple, who was kind enough to help her and save her life. In a record breaking time his Dadi had called around and found out about the girl. Sameer wasn't too surprised because when Savitri Prithviraj Sehgal calls herself, she gets her answers quickly. The doctor who his grandmother saw knew the girl, she was the niece of one of her other patients and was visiting them in town. Sameer's Dadi had gotten her family's number and called to arrange a meeting. Sameer was slightly nervous as this was the first time he had physically gone to a girl's house to meet her. In the past he had met girls at functions or office occasions where relatives tried to get him married to someone they knew. Sameer always ignored their advances, as fate would have it, the first time he had to meet a girl he agreed himself, he agreed for his Dadi and also to thank the girl for what she did. Standing outside Sameer was lost until his babhi brushed his shoulder, wiping off some dust from his coat. Sameer was dressed in a off white Jodhpur coat with black pants fitting perfecting over his long slim legs. He wore his watch and his brushed hair and clean shaved face finished his look, simple and classy, simply Sameer. "Nervous?" asked his babhi as she wiped the dust off his coat, "a little" he replied with a slight smile. "My devar has nothing to be nervous about, don't worry I'm sure she'll be great, if Dadi liked her there has to be something special about her" she said as the door opened. "Welcome, please come on in." said the man behind the door. The family was led by Dadi, followed by Sameer's mother, father and babhi. Sameer was the last to enter and before entering folded his hands and slightly bent his head to greet the elder lady and her husband. They looked at each other happily and then at Sameer approvingly. Motioning them to sit down, they brought snacks and tea and engaged in small talk about how Dadi met the girl, how she saved her life and so on. While they talked Sameer's phone rang not wanting to interrupt them he quickly cut the call. The phone rang again and he cut the call again. As the phone rang the third time, the uncle insisted he take the call and that it might be urgent. Sameer got up and walked to the corner of the room but couldn't hear anything on the other side "Hello, hello" he asked a few times calmly, "there is a slight network issue here, you can go up to the terrace there will be better network there" said the man. Sameer nodded to his Dadi as he walked towards the terrace. "Sorry we have a small home so sometimes the network is not that good" the man said hesitantly, "No worries at all ji" said Sameer's mom, "the size of the house doesn't matter, network issues are everywhere, its the people in the home that matter, right Mummyji" she asked looking at Dadi. "Correctly said, and your niece is a great girl from what I've seen" she continued as they got to know more about each other. 

Sameer walked up to the terrace, trying to get a network signal on his phone he was unaware of the clothes that hung to dry. He stood in front of the railing next to the hung clothes, "Hello, hello" he asked on the phone, a few seconds later he heard a small "hello" back, it was a girl and the voice came from outside instead of his phone, Sameer looked around and said "Hello" again, this time he heard another "hello" and realized that it was someone on the terrace somewhere behind the hung clothes. He pushed the hung cloth away and saw another blue cloth hanging, he could see a small stool from the bottom and saw a girl standing on the stool, she had two silver anklets on. Sameer figured the girl must have thought he was talking to her and it was she who replied to his "hello". As tall as Sameer was the hung cloth was tied up high, Sameer straightened his back and titled his head trying to get a look  above the hung cloth and managed to get a glimpse of what stood behind. The girl stood on the stool with another cloth in her left hand and with the back of her right hand tried to move her hair out of her eyes, her hand covered her face and the slight wind played with her tresses as they moved around in front of her face. Trying to dip the cloth in a bucket which was placed on a table next to her she quickly lost her balance and trying to brace her fall put out her free right hand in front of her, the impact had pushed the hung cloth away and her fall was saved as she put out her hand on Sameer's chest and used him as leverage to gain composure. Sameer stood still his torso slightly bent backwards as he watched her slowly try to stand back up only to have the cloth in her hand fly above her and her falling back. Sameer moved quickly and swiftly held her before she could fall. The cloth in her hand was now on her, so much happened so quickly Sameer had yet to see the girls face. He held the girl, she was slim, Sameer's left hand was around her waist and it barely required any effort on his part to hold her up. Sameer freed his right hand from under the cloth and hesitated on what he should do before he slowly started to pull the cloth from the girls face. Normally he would be a gentlemen and after helping the girl would have quickly left the place, but he was oddly still there. The girl's voice was sweet even her slight yell when she fell was sweet, her long wavy hair that danced in the wind and the slim waistline that Sameer currently held had all held him in his place. He wanted to see who this girl was, who had saved his Dadi and impressed her so much that she brought her grandson to talk about marriage with her. Sameer slowly pulled the cloth slightly grazing her forehead to reveal two big brown almond eyes. Sameer froze letting go of the cloth. The eyes looked just as surprised, frozen back at him, his touch made them open even wider, despite the surprise there was a slight shine to them, Sameer could see his reflection in her eyes. Her light kajal in her eyes made them even more beautiful if that was possible and the long lashes fluttered as she looked back at him in equal surprise. The eyes held Sameer's gaze, this was the first time he had seen anyone's eyes from this close by and the first time he had spent this much time looking into someone's eyes. And yet this first time didn't seem like the first, the proximity was new but the eyes, Sameer felt like he had seen these eyes before. "Ring, ring..." breaking their trance Sameer's phone rang, as he stood straight, the girl quickly turned and left as Sameer answered his phone. By the time he looked up, the girl was gone. Finishing his phone call Sameer stood on the terrace for a few seconds to gain his posture, his heart and breathing were suddenly faster, he found it weird, never in his life had a meeting with anyone, let alone a girl affected him this much. There must be something about this girl he thought, babhi was right, if Dadi wanted him to meet her this fast, there must be something.