Lekha (Completed)

Lekha 55

My musings with Rudra's poster were stopped as the door opened with a bang and Vaishali entered huffing and puffing as if she had run a race.

"Bhangarh...Bhangarh...go" she said.

I looked at her confused but still alert hearing the name. My heart rate accelerated.

"What happened Vaishali? Why were you running? What happened in Bhangarh...?" I questioned as I quickly scrambled out of the bed and stood beside her suddenly wide awake.

"You mentioned Bhangarh yesterday ...?" she seemed quite pleased with herself, almost like the cat who got the cream.

"Yes, I did... so?"

"You know our milkman...."She gave a dramatic pause and wiggled her eyebrows at me as if that itself explained everything.

"What about the milkman?" I frowned at her. Morning and hunger were not a good combination for the Sherlock inside of me, so although curious I turned my back ignoring her.

"You are so ... so... huh! Don't you know our milkman is from Bhangarh?" She looked at me irritated as if it was the most obvious conclusion to draw from her half-cooked sentences.

I had not expected that. "How do I know?... we never ever spoke to him... How come you found this information?" I asked now very curious.

"Well... I am a brainy person and obviously you know..." she said shrugging her shoulders looking quite smug.

"Okay."

"Okay... that is all you got? Here I being the clever person that I am figured out that the people who are natives to this place would be knowing the villages around here. I went out of my way to wake up early in the morning to catch hold of him... chat him up... while mind you .. you were snoring away... and all you say is ... okay?"

"Oh!" I realized my mistake. "I am sorry dear ... it's just that its early morning and my mind is still quite fuzzy... so tell me what did you find my Sherlock" I said trying to appease her.

"Well I found out that our milkman's name is Bhura (brown), because he is the only one comparatively fair in his family" she said smirking. I knew she was baiting me by giving all the useless information as revenge in the beginning. I sighed heavily and gave her a long stare, gesturing at her to continue. I wasn't planning to give her any satisfaction by showing my impatience even though I was dying to know all.

"You are such a bore... well this guy Bhura is from Bhangarh and he has a great grandfather who is still alive but bed ridden. He has loads of stories to tell, about the events in history which have been passed on as songs from generation to generation. "

She looked at me with abated breath and eyes twinkling with anticipation. I felt a tiny excitement flutter in my chest but then as soon as my focus shifted to 'the poster' my eyes filled with hopelessness.

"What will we get out of it... Vaishali? Going so far ... two days travelling ... to do what? Listen to some old man singing songs that we won't be able to understand" I said trying to ward off the flutter inside of me.

"Oh! come one don't be such a killjoy. The journey won't take more than a few hours at the best in a car... we are not going to be travelling in a camel cart" she smirked. "Where is the Lekha who would have jumped with joy to get even a small whiff of real history?"

I didn't feel like explaining to her that I didn't want to alight any kind of hope or nostalgia inside of me. It would be too cruel to get my heart crushed again if things turned out... I didn't even want to think about it.

"I don't want to go" I said rigidly.

"O come on ... please... please...please. Consider it as a return gift for being such a 'great friend' " she pleaded exaggerating the term 'great'. I couldn't help smiling at her puppy dog expressions.

"Okay... but ... don't get your and my hopes up... coz I know it will amount to nothing " I said finally giving up to her pleading. "And you will arrange for everything ...from the permit to travelling there... I won't raise a single finger to help you" I warned.

My warning was ignored as my friend engulfed me in a huge hug with what sounded quite like a joyous 'war cry'.

I just looked at 'the poster' with a big sigh feeling the depression settle a bit more tightly around my heart. 

Quite small but that is me trying to give faster updates ;-)