The Weeping Stars

The Fair

The village has a dedicated fair-ground. This ground was gifted to the village by the Banerjee family to hold fairs, plays and other communal activities. In this time of the year this ground holds a large fair to mark the occasion of Durga Puja. The rides are not sophisticated, but fun enough for the village locals who had little money to spare for such activities anyways. The giant Cart-wheel is the main attraction, along with the giant boat and merry-go-rounds. For Isha, this looked like a new world. She all but jumped from the car, looking around with the wide-eyed-wonder of a child.

Ishaan expressed his regrets for not being able to join the group. They needed to meet the village head to oversee the arrangements for the next ten days of puja, a responsibility handed over by the Banerjee family to the village committee.

Isha and Runa, along with Nitin, spent a good couple of hours trying the various rides. After a while the girls headed for the jewelry shops lining the ground perimeter, while Nitin joined a group of young men from the village. They failed to realize that they were getting a lot of attention from the villagers. While most of them speculated about the new-comer, some men were openly leering at Isha. Nitin's departure seemed to be the opportunity they were waiting for. Isha and Runa were unaware of this. They weaved around the crowd with the confidence of city-girls, looking for bargains and having a good time in general. The trouble started when they stopped at a tea-stall. The stall had four benches in front of it. Isha sat down on one of them while Runa went ahead to place an order. Suddenly Isha was given not too gentle a push a four burly youths settled themselves beside and in front of Isha, even though there were other empty benches around. The leader spoke up.

'I have never seen you around. Are you are friend of Nitin? A distant cousin perhaps?', asked the youth, while his eyes roamed all over her.

'You are too pretty to miss out. Come with us and we will take you around other rides', came a suggestive rejoinder from the youth in front of Isha.

'This can't be happening, not in broad daylight' thought Isha, as she looked around helplessly, trying to locate Runa in the crowd. The nearby crowd seemed to have become quiet alert, although none of them seem to be paying them much attention.

The youth got more bold. He laid one hand suggestively on Isha's thighs. Isha's fear turned into white hot anger.

'Get your hands off me right now', she said in a calm voice, which did not reveal how scared she actually was.

'What will you do if I don't remove my hands?' asked the youth with a laugh.

'Good point', thought Isha, as she tried to think of a way to get out of the situation.

'Your hands will no longer be attached to you' interrupted a cool voice. Isha looked up to see Indra standing there, observing the scene with apparent cool, although his eyes spelled murder. The usual grey-green had darkened into almost black, and his facial muscles looked like they were carved out of stone.

Indra's P.O.V.

His presence worked like magic. The youths hastily removed themselves with muttered apologies. Indra closed his eyes briefly to clear his head. He never loses his cool, but this time it was a close call. He was standing around surveying the ground, and trying to catch sight of the trio, when he saw Isha surrounded by the youths. It only took a glance to sum-up the situation.

The sight of Isha's fearful glances and the youth's hand creeping up her legs were enough to burst a vien in his head. He rarely loses his cool, but this time he came close to murder. Their hasty retreat probably saved their lives. He closed his eyes briefly to calm himself.

A soft 'thank-you' brought him back to reality. He looked down into the flushed faced of Isha and tried to figure out how on earth he will be able to keep this girl out of trouble if she lives alone in the teacher's quarters. Somewhere down in his mind, he had no doubt that it was his responsibility to protect her.

Realizing that he was staring at her, and it was making her very uncomfortable, Indra headed towards the shop. After a while he came back with two cups of tea and a place of 'Bhaji'.

'Naru da's special chai and bhaji', said Indra with a small smile, as he placed the tray beside Isha.

Isha' P.O.V

Indra's sudden appearance had completely thrown Isha. On one-hand she was thankful of his appearance. On the other she was apprehensive of the accusations Indra was sure to throw at her. he was sure it will be her fault that the youths cornered her. She also worried about how she will deal with such situations if they happened in isolated streets of the village. For the first time she began to doubt if it had been a wise decision to accept the job offer.

Indra returned with chai and bhaji. Isha was not prepared for his friendly attitude. She sipped the tea quietly as people came up to greet Indra. Indra's conversed with the villagers with habitual ease. Looking at him it was difficult to imagine him as the CEO of such big business empire. Here he was very much the loved son. Although he gave nothing away, traces of his earlier anger was still visible in the set of his shoulders.

'Thank God it's not directed towards me', thought Isha, as she continued to observe Indra.

Suddenly Indra turned his head and looked straight into her eyes. Isha was too preoccupied to look away. As they stared into each others eyes, the world became a distant blur. The surrounding noise dimmed to a murmur, as her heart started picking up pace. It lasted only a minute. Indra looked away with a confident smile, telling her that he is aware of her scrutiny and his effect on her.

Isha let her breath out in a long sign.

'This is all very confusing' thought Isha, biting into the Bhaji. In a moment all thought went of her head as red hot sensations spread through her mouth. The Bhaji is full of red chillies, hotter than anything she had ever tasted. She covered her mouth and gasped into her handkerchief.

'Is it too hot for you? I actually asked him to add extra-chillies. Oh dear!' asked Indra innocently.

All the grateful feeling Isha felt for Indra evaporated in thin air.

'It's perfectly fine. Why don't you taste one. There are too many for me in here', fumed Isha.

Indra calmly popped one and then another in his mouth and chewed on without any obvious discomfort. Isha watched open mouthed as Indra all but finished off the bhajis without a pause, all the while watching Isha with laughing eyes.

'You must have been very hungry', remarked Isha.

'Yes, starving', said Indra in a very different. In a second, the laughter in his eyes was replaced by a hunger that sparked a responding fire deep within Isha. She hastily looked away to see Runa racing to her rescue with arms laden with food packets.