“Do come to our village fair” Sakshi invited her friend Soham. Sakshi and Soham were students at NHS High School Chandor. They were studying in 9th grade. Back in those days yearly village fairs(Jatra) were big deal. Village man, women, children, elderly, everyone waited for the fair. It was time to invite the friends & relatives. Have chicken shagoti and visit the temple for night out as temple cultural committee arranged for mythological drama events. People carried mats, blankets and reserved their space in temple hall for the dashavtari natak.
How could Soham refuse Sakshi’s invitation. He liked her. Not only as a friend but more than that. They were too naive to understand girlfriend boyfriend stuff. But they liked each other.
The feast day arrived. Sakshi and her friends went to the temple. There were different stalls attracting all age groups. Toys for children, bangle shops & flowers for ladies, makeup sets for young girls, khaje & laddo stalls for food lovers. Behind the temple there were men sitting with cards & lanterns. Young boys & Men from good houses avoided to go there. But many men could be seen playing cards & trying to make themselves rich.
Shops with artificial jewelry attracted these young girls. There were necklaces with different sizes. Some with pearls some with silver color with big pendant. There were hairbands with different colors, attractive Earings, bindis etc. Sakshi’s eyes were stuck on 1 bracelet. It was a silver color bracelet with green, yellow, red & blue colored beads. It was beautiful.
“How much will it cost” -Sakshi enquired.
“Rs 25” shopkeeper replied.
Rs 25 was a big deal then. Sakshi has only Rs 50 with her. She couldn’t spend half of the amount on single bracelet. She left the stall with disappointment.
She went to different stalls. Took rabdi to eat and went to temple hall with her friends to reserve place for dashavtari drama. She was wondering why Soham dint come. Soon, she forgot about Sohan and started chitchatting with her girlfriends.
There was a time for Dashavtari drama to start, so the girls went out for a stroll again. There Soham was. With his friends, hopping from 1 stall to another. They exchanged smiles. She pretended to be angry for being late. It wasn’t Sohams fault. Soham had to walk for almost an hour from his village to reach the feast. There were no buses in evening.
After some time, dashavtari drama started. Everyone went to temple hall. The term Dashavatar refers to the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu.
Actors came dressed as Lord Ganesha, Riddhi, Siddhi, Brahmin, Sharada, Lord Vishnu etc. They were narrating their dialogs, singing ancients poems at a times.
Sakshi was sitting on the place reserved by them earlier. Sohan was late so he could not find a place. He was standing near wall. After some time, he sat on half built wall and started watching drama. While the act was going, Sakshi couldn’t help but try to find Soham and have a glance at him from corner of her eyes. At once such time her eyes met Shohams. She quickly turned her face.
By this time children were already asleep on their mother’s lap. But old people were watching drama with full concentration. As the drama progressed, Sakshi & friends also started feeling drowsy. Sakshi was making unsuccessful attempts to keep her eyes open. She was not used to night outs.
Finally, drama ended at 4am. Everyone got up & started leaving the hall. Sakshi also got up and went outside the hall with her friends.
There he was. Soham. With a bunch of red roses. Beautiful, big, fresh roses from one of the nearby stalls. He smiled to Sakshi. “These are for you.”
Sakshi was shocked. Taking a red rose from a boy meant something very different. Also, she was surrounded by her friends, her village people. She was blank for a minute not understanding what to do. What if someone saw her with a guy taking red roses from him & told this at her home, she could not imagine. Her parents were very strict.
Also, she was just in 9th standard. For her, such scenes only happened in movies.
“No. I don’t want them” she said and started walking.
“Please take these. Don’t go” Soham followed.
She didn’t turn back.
“Please……” tears followed in Soham’s eyes.
He didn’t expect such reply to beautiful roses. He was devasted. He loved her. His friend held him. He was sobbing. He looked at the roses not knowing what to do with them. In his pocket, there was also a bracelet which he brought for Sakshi. It was a silver color bracelet with green, yellow, red & blue colored beads.
