Destiny

8. Sneak-Peak Into The Past-Present And The Final Decision

When Anand, told his mother that he had chosen the girl he wished to marry, his mother was in silence. Sunaina was a women of very few words. No one could ever guess, what was going on in her mind. She was in her late fifties, but traces of her beauty still remained. She still looked young enough and it was difficult to believe that she had two children, who were on verge of getting married. She was an orthodox-type women who believed in old customs and traditions. She had sharp piercing hazel green orbs, which never carried any emotions or feelings. Her features were sharp enough, which made shivers run down in many people's spines. Her behavior made others think, that she would have surely been a Queen in her previous birth. Her late husband, Sameer was a successful businessman but had always been scared of his wife. They had two children, Anand and Aadya. Anand was born to her, after a lot of prayers for a male child, and going for many various pilgrimages. He was the Apple of the eye of his mother. Though, there were many servants in the house, she preferred to take care of Anand herself. Anand was grown up in a very sheltered environment.

He was always very obedient to his mother. He inherited his looks from his mother and intelligence from his father. His sister, Aadya was born after 5 years of Anand. An arrogant and very egoistic girl. She talked rudely with everyone and her mother would always make excuses to hide her daughter's behavior, by saying that she was just a small child. She was not at all good in studies and no one even bothered about it.

The house, in which they lived was named as Lakshmi Nivas. The house name was apt in every way. It was a huge mansion with many rooms. Every year on the occasion of Deepavali, the whole town would be called for the Lakshmi Pooja. Sunaina was a narrow-minded woman. When her husband died, the thought that she was a widow made her feel very uncomfortable, though she had no financial worries. With the death of her husband, she felt she could no longer conduct the puja of the Goddess, given the attitudes and conventions prevailing in the small town where she lived. She believed that only Anand's wife could now perform the Lakshmi puja, and she was waiting for him to get married. Although he had won a scholarship to go to New York for higher studies, Sunaina would not let him go until after his marriage.

~*~

The village schoolmaster Satish,-was teaching mathematics in the verandah of his home to a group of students who were all from well-off families. In keeping with the usual custom in the village,no money was paid to the teacher, but the children brought him coconuts,vegetables or other produce from their fields. Satish's mind was not on what he was teaching. He was impatiently waiting to hear the sound of the village postman's cycle bell. Since the small village was located some distance from the district headquarters, the postman came once a week. He not only delivered the letters, but, if necessary, also read them out and wrote the replies as dictated to him. He would stay at the village master's house and leave the following morning for the next village.

Diya and Riya Satish and Sarita's daughters, were helping her mother in the kitchen. Though Sarita was busy chopping vegetables, she came out every five minutes to see if the postman had come. The postman, brought a pile of letters when he arrived. There were two letters for Satish. He opened one and began reading. The children whom he was teaching noticed that he was occupied and started whispering among themselves, the whispers quickly turning into a quarrel. The noise distracted him. He was already upset by the contents of the letter, and this unruly behavior angered him more.

'Children, go home now. For your homework, write out the multiplication tables from twenty-one to twenty-five, three times each, and show it to me tomorrow. The children behaved as if the doors of a cage had been opened, and they disappeared within moments.
The letter he was reading was from the father of a boy who had come with a marriage proposal. Anupama, though the eldest, had told her father very clearly that she did not want to marry just yet as she wished to pursue her studies, or start working. She had also requested her father to go ahead with Diya's marriage. As Diya was not interested in studying and was ready to get married, he had tried to arrange her marriage, and she had been 'seen' by a prospective bridegroom and his family.