Hi, friends. My name is Raj, and I live in Bhopal. This story starts at the wedding of Anand, my mama’s son.
I could not attend the wedding itself, so I went to the reception. People were going up on the stage one after another. I went up too, to wish the couple.
The moment I reached the stage, I stopped short. The bride was a girl of twenty-three or twenty-four, and she was stunning. Her skin was milk-fair, smooth as marble. Her eyes were like a doe’s. Her hair fell to her waist. Pink lipstick sat on her mouth. Her waist was narrow. She wore a red lehenga and chunari, a deep-cut blouse, and gold from head to foot. Standing in front of me, she looked like an apsara.
At that time her figure must have been about thirty-two, twenty-six, thirty-four. Her name was Jyoti. The name fit the face. I felt as if some heavenly woman had been set down in front of me.
Just then my younger cousin Anand called out, and I met them both and gave them my wedding wishes.
That was the first time Jyoti spoke to me, with a namaste. I took her into my heart right there. I thought, if only Jyoti had married me. Cursing my luck, I came down from the stage.
Through the whole party my attention stayed on her. On the way she moved. On the way she spoke. Four or five times her eyes met mine, and each time I looked away. I also felt she had caught me watching her.
When the party ended, Jyoti came down from the stage. I walked behind them, watching her move, almost sighing. I kept thinking about her beauty, and what good was it. She was married to mama’s son, Anand.
That night I went home and could not sleep properly. I thought about Jyoti all night.
Time passed. Because I was her jeth, we never spoke straight to each other, but if she picked up the phone she would say, “Namaste, bhaisaab, I will give him the phone,” and that voice was enough. Hearing it felt good. When she came in front of me she was in a ghunghat, and that only pulled me harder. It felt as if the moon were sitting behind the veil. Jyoti always wore a sari, and the sight of her waist settled something in me and cut me open at the same time. That fair waist went straight through me. When she passed back and forth, the sound of her payal pulled my attention every time.
Their marriage reached six months.
Then a relative’s wedding in the village took everyone out of Bhopal for ten days. Only I was left in my house, and Anand and Jyoti in theirs.
Everyone else left. A day later Anand suddenly had to go to Delhi for five days on business.
He called me and told me the whole thing. He said, “For these five days, just drop by the house morning and evening.”
Hearing that, I had no place to put my happiness, but I still refused. I said Jyoti was my bhabhi, and how could I come and talk to her.
He kept asking, so I agreed and told him to go without worry.
At five-thirty in the evening I took the car to drop Anand at the train. Jyoti was ready to go to the station too. I thought both of them were going to Delhi. On the way Anand said I only had to leave him at the station, and Jyoti had a little work in the market.
That relieved me.
We reached the station. The train was still twenty minutes away, so I left Anand and Jyoti to talk alone and stood apart.
From a distance I took my fill of looking at her. She looked like a fairy.
That day she wore a green sari and a backless blouse, and it sat on her beauty like four extra moons. I had never seen her like that. Her hair was open and kept falling across her face. The red on her lips and the kohl in her eyes held me.
Her body had changed since the wedding. Her figure had shifted. It was now thirty-six, twenty-eight, thirty-six.
I was still thinking that when the train was announced. Anand boarded, and a little later the train left.
Jyoti and I walked toward the car. We had not spoken at all. She still had her face covered.
I reached the car with her. I opened the rear door, but she opened the front door and sat down. I got in too. She asked me to switch on the AC.
She said, “What, I cannot sit in front?”
I said, “Why did you sit in front, then?”
She said, “You opened the back door, so I asked.”
That pleased me. I told her to sit freely and not to take the ghunghat. I said I was against that custom, and we talked about it. She lifted the veil and thanked me.
The moon was in front of my eyes. I kept looking at that face without blinking.
After a few moments she broke my stare and said, “Are we not going? Where did you go?”
I said, “I was just looking at you.”
Jyoti went shy.
I said, “Where do we have to go?”
She said, “A women’s clothing shop.”
I thought the chance was right, and I turned the car toward my friend’s shop.
As we reached it I said, “Here, the shop you need.”
On the way Jyoti and I had talked a little. The moment we went in, my friend came over.
He said, “Years later you show up, and that too with bhabhi. When did you get married? You did not even call me.”
Before I could answer, Jyoti said, “No, bhaisaab, the wedding was in the village.”
That hit me. I thought, if only it were true.
Talking like that, we sat down in the shop. My friend asked Jyoti, “What should I show you, bhabhi?”
Jyoti answered, “Bra and panty.”
He brought bra sets and started showing them. She liked two bras and the matching bottoms. She asked me, “They are good, no?”
I laughed and said, “Everything looks good on you.”
The sets were pink and red. We took the things and came out, then sat in the car.
As soon as we sat, Jyoti said, “When we are alone, call me Jyoti.”
I said, “You did not mind, did you?”
She asked, “Mind what?”
I took the opening and said, “My friend spoke to you as if you were my wife. That did not feel bad to you?”
Her killer smile gave me a green light. In a short while Jyoti and I had opened up.
I asked, “Where else?”
She said, “Let’s go to some park.”
We headed for a park. As soon as we got there, another friend turned up, with his wife. We walked with them for a long time, and then he insisted we come to their house for dinner that night.
I refused plenty, and they still would not take no. In the end we gave in. We went to his house, spent a long time there, and ate with them.
During dinner my friend asked me about the wedding.
Jyoti told bright little false stories about a marriage that had never happened. I kept laughing as I listened. It felt good. I kept thinking, if only it were true.
After dinner Jyoti and I left. In the car I asked, “Where next, madam?”
She said, “A long drive.”
I turned the car onto the road. We went about ten kilometers out, still talking in an ordinary way.
Suddenly I asked, “How does this evening feel to you?”
She did not answer. She was shy. I kept looking at her.
Her eyes were on me too. While we talked I put my hand on hers. She went completely quiet. I pulled the car to the side of the road and stopped. The moment it stopped, she got out and stood there. I stayed inside for five minutes, thinking I had made a mistake, cursing myself.
After a while I got out and walked toward her, ready to apologize.
The moment I reached her, she caught me and started kissing me. I forgot everything and answered her mouth right there on the road. Soon I was kissing her hard. I had forgotten all of it. While kissing I even bit her lip. It hurt her, and she still stayed with me, so the pleasure must have been in it too. Our tongues locked as if they were never going to separate.
After about ten minutes she pushed me away, opened the car door, and sat down. I stayed outside a little longer, then got in.
I started the car and drove straight to drop her home. We did not speak the whole way. The car stopped at her house. She got out and went in. I turned the car and drove to my own house. I checked the time. It was eleven.
I reached home at eleven-twenty. I freshened up, lay on the bed, and thought about the time with Jyoti, especially that kiss, the one where we had gone into each other. During the kiss my hand had only held her face. I had not touched her anywhere else. Even so, that kiss had shaken me through. Thinking like that, I lost track of time. I told myself she would never speak to me again, and somewhere in that thought my eyes closed and I fell into a deep sleep.
The next morning, at exactly seven, my phone rang. I woke with a start and picked it up without looking.
The voice said, “Suprabhat.”
It was Jyoti. I could not speak.
She wished me good morning again. “Suprabhat.”
I answered, “Suprabhat.”
She said, “Your tea is ready. If you are up, janaab, come over.”
The way she said it made me happy. I said I would come right away.
I got ready fast and left. On the way I bought a bouquet and thought the day was right. I would tell Jyoti today.
Thinking that, I reached her house. I rang the bell and she opened the door. She looked different. She had on a blue two-piece gown, and her head was uncovered. Her hair was loose, down to her waist.
She stood there smiling. She said, “Will you only keep looking, or will you come in too?”
I went in and sat on the sofa. She started toward the kitchen. I watched that walk, smooth as a snake.
A little later she came back with two cups of tea on a tray. We sat facing each other on the sofa. We drank and started talking.
I said, “You called me this early just for tea.”
She said, “Why, do we not even have the right to call you?”
She was stretching as she spoke. I thought the time was right, and I should say it.
I took out the bouquet I had brought in a bag. I gave it to her and said, “I like you, Jyoti.”
She laughed, took the flowers, and said, “I do too. But it is all a lie. If you liked me this much, why did you not say it till today?”
I said nothing.
She said, “My foolish lover, it took you a full six months to say this. I read your eyes on the day of the wedding party, when you kept moving in front of me and behind me. That is why I kept looking at you too. Later, whenever you came, I passed in front of you on purpose, again and again. And yes, I was the one who picked up your calls. I thought you would catch the hint sometime. But you, my foolish lover, never read my eyes.”
Hearing that, I had no place to put my happiness. I got up and moved toward her. She got up too and ran behind the sofa.
She said, “No, no, not yet.”
I stopped and sat back down. She sat down too.
She said, “Meet your bride on the wedding bed. I will even do the bride’s muh dikhai.”
I said, “Of course. But how?”
She said, “Book a room in a rest house outside Bhopal for three days.”
I said, “All right. But I have a condition too. I want you dressed the way I first saw you. Dressed as a bride, in lehenga and chunari, the way you were on the stage.”
She said, “All right. I will meet you like that.”
I said, “But how will you come, and that too for three days?”
She said, “You just watch.”
Jyoti called Anand and put him on speaker.
Anand said, “Yes, jaan, tell me.”
Jyoti said, “Hello. My friend Suchita’s brother’s engagement is fixed, and she is asking me to go with her for three days near Indore. You are not here either, so I was thinking I would go. A little outing as well.”
Anand said, “All right. I will tell Raj you are going.”
Jyoti said, “All right, thank you, and I love you.”
Anand said, “When are you leaving?”
Jyoti said, “Today at four in the afternoon.”
Anand said, “All right, bye. I will be a bit busy, so I may not be able to call.”
Jyoti said, “All right, no problem. I will be at the party too, so I may not be able to call. Bye.”
She cut the call with a wink at me. Then she called her friend Suchita and settled it with her as well.
Jyoti seemed fearless to me. Her nerve left me stunned.
What happened with her after that, I will write in the next part. How did you like this story?
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