An arranged tale.

Meeting Them

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Narendra Modi is right, Ganga do needs to be cleaned. I mentally make a note to donate some amount to swacha bharat abhiyan. It's been 5 minutes we as in, me and Nandani are sitting on banks of banks of some Bhonsale ghat. And it's sunny. Thank god I grabbed a cap from the car. The cap is nice and black. And the girl sitting next to me is tremendously quiet and shy.

Well i have some doubt that she might not be this quite in general. I guess I need to start the conversation. But it an arranged marriage stuff, if I would have met her in a bar or something, it would be much easier. Arrange marriage conversation is tough.

I know her name. I know her qualifications. I know her work. I can't ask her for a drink. Should I ask her if she drinks? No no it might be too direct. What if she feels offended and pounce on me? But she looks quite bholi types.

I came with an idea of denying this marriage, and here I am seeking to have a conversation with her. It's funny how I beat the shit out of people sometimes and here I am scared to ask even a single question.

"Ammm.... there are many ghats here right?" I asked, finding it the safest question.

"88." She said.

Straight. Short. Accurate. Thank you for ruining my sole effort.

"Have you seen all of them?" Obviously she has.

"Yes". Straight. Short. Accurate.

What do I ask now? If she is going to reply yes, no, and 88s there is no scope.

"Ammm... have you been to Banaras before?" She asked politely and in a very low voice. Thankfully my attention was there,so I heard.

"No, first time." I said. Well I don't blame her now, there's no elaboration to such yes - no questions.

But after that one question, again it's silence. And I am looking everywhere but towards her. But finally I glanced at her. Her eyes were fixed on her lap. Her fingers fidgeting the dupatta in her lap. Her few hair strands were waving with the wind and the rest were pushed behind her ears, leaving a good view to her ethnic jhumkas. She was bitting her lower lip slightly. Her face clearly said that she's gonna be a little bit funny and a little bit more stubborn. I don't know what got into me that was making me notice so much about this girl, because I was always said to least expressive one. But I wanted her to speak something at least about herself.

"Soo.... tell me something about you..." I said taking a pause.

"Ammm...my name is Nandani,Nandani Arora. I am a software engineer. I work in trigent software, Mughalsarai. Thank you." She said still looking down. She said full three sentences out of which two I already knew.

"Mughalsarai se roz up down krte ho?" I asked.

"Jee.." and just nodded. But after a while she said in a questioning tone,

"aur apke...??" And looked up and our eyes met. And as soon as they did she drifted them back down.

To my own surprise I smiled a bit and said, "ACP Manik Malhotra, IPS officer, Maharashtra cadre." I said trying to be soft, but  her eyes shifted back up for a second looking directly into mine with a hint of smile on her face and something more in her eyes. And She looked back down.