Insomniacs

Insomniacs

Hansabai ji remained stoic masking her disappointment. Of all people, Rao ji brought Dheerbai along with him to speak to her. The woman had been non-stop with her usual antics for the last 15minutes, and Hansabai ji had enough of her already.

“You do understand that everything that is going on is ethically wrong” Dheerbai spoke sweetly. Her sugar coated words hiding their real intent. The saving grace of the whole situation, Hansabai felt, was that the children were not a part of the conversation. Rao Ramrakh wished he had taken a different route to meet his wife because then Dheerbai wouldn’t have followed him and completely ruined the one chance he had of speaking sense to his spouse. 

He glared at the butler who had announced Ajabde’s arrival.

“Has Baisa taken dinner?” Hansabai ji asked to which the man shook his head

“Apologies, hukum but we do not know. I’ll go and find out” he took a step back but Hansabai ji stopped him.

“I’ll check on her myself. It’s getting late I suggest you retire to your rooms to rest.”

She walked out of the room leaving behind the duo, Dheerbai ji walked out a minute later, but Rao Ramrakh had other plans. He walked towards the kitchen making sure no one was watching or following him and like a thief looks for gold, he searched for the things he needed. 15minutes later he placed the thaal in the room and quickly left not to get caught in the act.

Ajabde entered her room and stared at the thaal kept on the table; it contained most of her favourite dishes- yellow daal, zeera rice, a small bowl of raita, two chapattis and ladyfinger vegetable.

“It must be Maasa.” she thought as she sat down to finish her meal.

 Hansabai ji smiled as she saw her husband’s retreating figure, “you do care for her Raoji but why do you hesitate to show it in front of her?”

Heer felt uncomfortable as she tried to adjust the hair falling on her face. She and Jiwa had gotten the mehendi done at the very last moment because they were helping out with the ceremony. Her sister was absent from the ceremony due to some business reasons which worked for them as they controlled the whole event and made sure Raoiji’s name was written on their mother’s hand. She looked at her henna with a smile; Shakti had done a fabulous job with the event for the men making sure food, drinks and entertainment was taken care off. He had checked in with her couple of times to ask if they required anything. She read his name on her palm and realised she needed to thank him for everything. A laugh escaped her, there was going to be no sleep for her tonight.

Jiwa made a face as her husband refused to give up on his antics. “I’m hungry” she had told him, “please feed me.” And ever since Patta was treating her like a baby,

“here comes the aeroplane” he flew his hand towards her only to eat it himself.

“I’m not talking to you anymore” she looked away making him chuckle. “Please don’t be mad” he pleaded as he finally fed her from his hand. “I want the sweet dish next,” she told him as he followed her instructions. It was going to a long night for the couple too.

Phool lay on her bed unable to sleep; the whole day had been tiring. From Pratap’s distant behaviour to Dheerbai’s nagging, Ajabde’s absence and the mehendi. She looked at her mehendi and sighed; it was light in colour.

Darker the colour of mehendi more deep is the love

She couldn’t get those words out of her head, and she had no right to be sad about it after all her wedding was an arrangement. Love was never there to begin in the relationship, but she did care for Pratap. But the question was, did she love Pratap? 

She stared at the sky outside, there would be no sleep for her tonight.

Unable to sleep, Kunwar Pratap made his way back to the stable. He hoped that some time with Chetak and Sarang would make him feel better. He stopped in his tracks as he saw Jalal taking care of a horse

“Ohh hi there” Jalal smiled as he looked at the newcomer, “are you here to spend time with Chetak and Sarang?”

Pratap nodded his head as he picked up two buckets and placed them under the tap, “and may I know your friend’s name?”

Jalal rubbed his cheek against the horse’s face, “Kunwar Pratap meet Badal. He’s my best friend.”

“Nice to meet you, Badal” Pratap smiled as the horse nodded his head in excitement. Jalal laughed seeing his four-legged friends happy and at peace.

“So she kept him from you?” Pratap asked as they walked out of the stable an hour later.

“She saved Badal when I couldn’t” Jalal looked up at the sky, “I’m not privy to all the details, but I do know this much that she gave away something very precious to her in exchange for all of the horses.”

Pratap lay on his bed surfing through Instagram when an image caught his attention. The picture was of a girl’s bedroom, but it was the wooden figure with peacocky coloured feathers that hung on the bed that made him zoom in on the image. His eyes widened as he recognised the object- it was the”dreamcatcher” he had carved for Ajabde as a present post their engagement.

Jalal’s words came rushing back to him, “she gave away something very precious to her in exchange for all of the horses.”