Long For

Kali puja

“Come here, give me a hug!” Mr. Sundar said and came to me. I expected a slap, but he hugged me. “I thought you were going to lie, but you didn’t, but you have to know something that my little daughter has just started her life and she wants to learn dance and as a single parent I wouldn’t let her this dream get crushed, I want her to make up something with the passion she has and then we can decide on you marriage,”

Amrita came to her Dad and hugged her, “Thank you, Baba,”

We had tea and some conversations about the past, as I and Amrita stood at the stop for the bus to arrive, he came by and said to me “Listen, I am not any harmful villain to both of you, as a single parent I always tried to have that smile you see on her face right now, I don’t want it to ever disappear, I never want to even fake a smile, I want that real one, I trust you on that, I had even told you when you were the tiny child, that you can always regain money if it is lost but to regain the trust it is impossible, though you do a thousand good things once the trust is broken it always remains the same, don’t let my trust and my daughter trust on you,”

“I will always let that smile on her face because…I love that smile, I don’t ever want it to fade away,” I said and grinned.

“God bless you, now go and catch the bus with her, have a wonderful and safe journey,” he said and patted my back. As we both sat next to each other this time not being afraid, she asked me “What was going on between you and Dad? Is everything alright? Has he changed his mind? Did he say something bad to you? Or he doesn’t want you as his son-in-law?”

“Calm down, Amrita. he had some father talks with me, nothing more, he has not changed his mind, he is happy that I will be the husband of her beautiful daughter,” I said.

“You make me happy, don’t forget to buy proper flowers as we reach the pandal,”

“I always take, don’t worry,” I said. We were on our way to the Kali Puja which was organised in Ulaspur on a big scale this time, people across villages and cities of Bengal were visiting to see the puja.

When we reached the place after somewhat one hour, we were shocked to see such a beautiful idol of Kali maa, this time they had put more effort to make it look magnificent, they had spend all the trustee money I guess, the pandal looked elegant, even the crowd which had surrounded this place was a sight to see, I had never seen so many people gather over this village. While attending it, Amrita had wore the white color sari with red straps, she had tied her hair and looked yet again beautiful, I wore a yellow kurta and white colour pyjama, she stood a little ahead of us among the other girls, I stood up with the boys, one of the boy by my side said “Isn’t that girl beautiful?” another one said “Ahh, I dream about such girls,” another one said “I hope I could go and have a chat with her,” my curosity increased I asked “Who are you talking about?” one of them said “ You look at the girl in the middle,” they pointed towards Amrita, I tried to play a dirty game over here “Listen, are you going to bet, then I will go and talk to her,”

“Okay, but only talk? That we can also do by some bongus reason like give us flower or I want to give sweets to the pandit,” one of them said out.

“Then even the bhog but I will need a rupee from all of you,” I said. They were almost six.

“If you lose then we get only one? Not a fair deal,”

“Then I will pay…six rupee,” I said, I knew I wasn’t going to lose with any chance over here.

“That seems fair, go on and talk to her, pal,” they said. I went ahead and slowly whsipered in her ear that “Listen, I am on a bet, act as if you don’t know me, but also talk to me nicely, like laugh or something,”