The Weeping Stars

The Play

After Mahalaya, the whole village started gearing up for the pujas. The Mullicks engaged all the girls, including Isha, in cleaning and setting the house in order. It was fun. As the girls worked together, waves of laughter rung out from the different corners of the house. Runa and Isha were given the responsibility of clearing the attic. This room has been the family dumping ground for centuries and each year only a section of it is targeted. This year its the north-east corner which contained mostly old books and carved boxes. Isha's has always been fond of book. She delved into the task with great enthusiasm. The family has directed them to get rid of most of the book. But Isha painstakingly tried to salvage something from the rotting mess. 

'More books', exclaimed Runa.

Isha turned around to see Runa in front of a big wooden box, full of tattered books. 

'I will sort this out' said Isha, as she drew the box closer and began rummaging through the contents. From the looks of it, these were normal puja books which are used by priest. Judging by the looks of them, they could have belonged to Runa's great-grandfather. Suddenly something familiar caught her eyes. Down at the very bottom, is a book that looked exactly like the one Isha saw in the Banerjee library, the one that was the history of the Banerjees. Moreover, the book seems to be in excellent condition as it has been wrapped very carefully.

'Good! now I will not have to borrow the book from Indra'. She kept it aside and got down to work.

It took them two full hours to sort out the mess. By lunchtime they were thoroughly exhausted. However, an amazing lunch served on banana leaves did much to revive their spirits. After lunch they decided to go for a walk. Nitin decided to accompany them.

As they walked towards the main village, Nitin explained how Ishaan was organizing a play for the Dashami celebrations and they needed more actors. Nitin asked if Isha and Runa were interested.

'You could have asked Krishna. She would have loved to work with Ishaan', said Runa. 

'I know and there is the problem. We need actors who would not be so easily distracted by our handsome director. This is one factor that has ruled out most of the girls from our village', observed Nitin dryly.

Isha has always loved acting. In university, she was one of the most enthusiastic performed.

'What play are you staging?' asked Isha.

Nitin gave a small wince. 'We wanted to stage something modern. But the family decided it was too modern for the village society. So Ramayana it is'.

'It's fitting. Dashami celebrations are never complete without a play from Ramayana.' Isha observed sincerely.  

They had now reached the road that runs through the fields. The road is pretty slippery from the rain yesterday night and both girls had to hold on to Nitin to keep their balance. The sound of car wheels forced them to get down from the road, with Nitin lifting first Runa and then Isha down to the fields. The car stopped beside them. Isha looked up to see Indra sitting at the wheels, with Ishaan by his side. Ishaan's delightful smile revealed how happy he was to see the girls. Indra's expression gave nothing away, although his eyes briefly rested on where Isha was still grasping Nitin's shoulders.

'Where are you guys headed for?' asked Ishaan.

'I was taking the girls to the fair', said Nitin.

'We are headed that way. We will give you a lift', said Ishaan.

The girls looked at each other uncertainly. But Nitin had already accepted the invitation and was moving towards the car. 

Nitin broke the silence. 'I was trying to convince the girls about joining our play. Isha would make a lovely Sita, don't you think?' 

'That would be lovely!', Ishaan looked genuinely happy. As the trio climbed on to the back of the Jeep, Ishaan went directly into how the play would be staged and how the girls can help. Ishaan explained how they were using the unused western-part of the mansion for rehearsals. 

'It is rumored that the part of the mansion is haunted and few venture out there at night. But as we will be using only the courtyard and that too in the morning, we should have no problems with out nocturnal friends', Ishaan added with a wink directed at Runa. Runa for her part did not seem impressed. Isha could barely concentrate on the conversation. Her sole attention was captured by an intriguing set of eyes, that seem to find her with an unnerving accuracy in the rear-view mirror. 

'It is all designed to make me uncomfortable', thought Isha, trying hard to look anywhere but the mirror. But her eyes seem to have a mind of their own, returning to duel with the grey-green ones every few seconds. 

Indra's P.O.V.

 Indra was dueling with problems of his own. It was rude to not offer the girls a lift, but Indra would have been very grateful if he had not met Isha today. As it is, he was having trouble keeping his mind off Isha. Now the sight of her clinging to Nitin, did nothing to soothe his nerves. 

Isha was siting right next to Nitin, their shoulders touching. He could see the wind sweeping delicate strands of her hair onto Nitin's shoulders, while her mesmerizing scent seemed to have enveloped the whole car. Indra did not want to be so aware of Isha. But he could not help it. And the unreasonable feelings of jealousy were not helping things. He had an insane desire of wrapping Nitin in a sack and leaving him by the side of the road for some rubbish van to collect later. How come Isha sat so comfortably beside Nitin, chatted so easily with Ishaan, while he did not even get a smile of recognition.

So, it was out of pique he kept glancing the rear-view mirror, hoping to catch her eye. It was no trouble. It seemed Isha was having trouble to look anywhere else. So, as the group chatted along jovially, the two fought their own unspoken war through stolen glances.