Misfit

11. Beating Heart

After eating, I told Yuvan that I would catch up with him, the next day and went to join Kimayra.

"I thought you were never coming to me", she said slightly annoyed, "You were stuck with that Yuvan like a leech".

"Come on Kim. He called me to hang out. It would have been rude to refuse", I said indignantly.

Kimayra gave me a 'do-you-think-I-am-stupid?' look but thankfully didn't argue further.

By the time, we were out of the bazaar, it was close to midnight. We were all terribly tired and soon as we reached the lodge, we went upto our rooms and crashed.

The next day passed pretty fast. We went rafting in the morning and it was real fun. In the evening, we sat together in the backside garden of the lodging house overlooking the ghats of Rishikesh, and played antakshari.

Holy chants could be heard from the ghats and prayers were being sung in temples.

"Listen up people", our teacher said as we winded up for the day, "Better get up early if you want to go and see the Triveni ghat. We're checking out at 10 am tomorrow. So you'll have to get up before dawn to go and see the ghat. If you don't want to see it, you can stay here and sleep".

Everyone felt upset when she said we were leaving so early, the next morning. It had been so much fun and two days were just not enough for Rishikesh.

The next morning I and Kimayra, got up in time to go and see the Ghat.

"Should we change?" I asked Kimayra.

"Of course, it's a holy place right?" said Kimayra seriously, "Can't go in our pyjamas".

So we changed into the only set of kurtis we had brought and left the room without disturbing Rakul who seemed fast asleep. She apparently didn't want to waste her beauty sleep seeing some boring holy bathing ghat.

As we were going out, I bumped into Yuvan again. He was alone and he was carrying a package in his hands.

"What? Have you brought some offering for worship?" I chided him.

"No silly. I'll tell you what it is. Later." he said.

I was surprised, "I actually thought you wouldn't want to come".

"Can you go to Agra and come back without seeing the Taj Mahal?", he chided, "Rishikesh is all for Triveni Ghat. Why would anyone not come? And besides I've never seen a Ghat before."

"Well Rakul is upstairs, sleeping", said Kimayra spontaneously.

Yuvan pouted, "Oh is she?" he said dully.

"Never mind about that now", I said hurriedly trying to bury the awkwardness. "Let's get going".

"Well I actually wanted to have a private word with you", he said.

Uh-oh!

"Yes, tell me, Yuvan", I said.

"Just with you", he said looking apologetically at Kimayra. She took the hint, shrugged at me and said "See you later" and walked out.

Now what? I was a nervous wreck. Kimayra has abandoned me with Yuvan just like that.

I was feeling like I would pass out  when Yuvan said, "Umm..are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah", I stammered "So what is it that you wanted to tell me?"

"Actually I wanted to give you something".

Oh God! No!

I actually closed my eyes and stretched out my arms and felt a lumpy something fall into my arms.

No it was not Yuvan.

I opened my eyes and saw..

"A SAREE?" I literally screamed.

"It's not a saree Hina. It's the saree. I mean, this is the saree you wanted, isn't it?" he said and smiled.

I looked at the saree again. It was indeed the same turquoise coloured chiffon saree, I had seen at the shop, the first day.

I couldn't believe Yuvan had bought it for me.

He stared at me expectantly.

I finally found my tongue, "Yuvan! You really shouldn't have!"

"Why can't I?" he said surprised, "You really wanted this right? You can wear it for the farewell now".

"Yuvan, it's so kind of you. But you really can't go around buying me sarees. Plus, I know it was a heavy price. How did you manage to pay it?"

"That's my business Hina", he said indignantly and quickly added seeing my face, "Hey relax! I didn't steal or anything, alright? It was from my own pocket".

"Yuvan!"

"Come on Hina. Don't fuss. Just take it".

"I better do something in turn for this quickly", I said looking at the saree with both awe and guilt.

"If you really want to do something, take it and wear it for the farewell. I'll be happy".

OMG! I wanted to melt into a puddle right there at the entrance of the lodge.

I smiled at him, "Can you wait for a second? I'll put this is my room and be right back".

"Sure", he said and I dashed upstairs, stuffed the saree into my already overflowing suitcase and ran down back.

"Let's go", he said and we walked out hand in hand.