Serendipity

72

"Leela," Hasmukh excitedly ran to her clutching a piece of paper in his hand. "I have a wedding proposal for Vanraj."

Leela was sitting on a wooden cot in their backyard, instructing their help on how to spread the red chillies to dry them efficiently. She turned her attention to her husband who seldom spoke to her of his own volition. 

Excitedly, Hasmukh placed the girl's photo and horoscope in her hands. "She is from the same village as us.

"I know they're not very well off, but what can be said. Kismat. Her father died when she was barely 10."

Leela scoffed. Her son was good-looking with great future prospects. Since her boy had turned 21, she'd been inundated with wedding proposals for her son, some from very well-to-do families. She had only held off on pursuing any of them because Vanraj wanted to complete his graduation before he got married. Leela did whatever made her son happy.

"Just look at this girl, she's so pretty," Hasmukh gushed.

Leela picked up the photo and looked at the nervous girl staring back. She was thin, perhaps had draped a sari for the first time. One of those floral polyester prints that seemed to be the rage. Whoever had taken her to the photo studio had advised her to liberally douse her face with powder. Some kohl and neatly braided lightly oiled hair that had been placed squarely between her shoulders. The girl had stood straight, staring into the camera, not blinking, not smiling, as if she was taking a picture for an army recruitment interview.

Leela sighed and placed the photo aside.

"What?"

"I don't like her."

"Why?"

Leela shrugged. "My Vanraj deserves better."

"Isn't that Vanraj's choice? Are you even going to ask him for his opinion?"

Hasmukh's comment irked Leela. "I always care about him and his choices. I have always put his needs before mine. It's you who doesn't care about him. Always finding fault with him. Always correcting him. Always telling him how he is wrong. Why don't you let him be?"

She got up and huffed away, leaving a flabbergasted Hasmukh staring after her. Shaking his head at the hell his life had become, he left too, to find solace among his friends. The photo along with Anupama's horoscope lay forgotten on the wooden cot in their backyard.

Two days later, their local priest had stopped by to discuss the requirements for a prayer service Leela wished to perform, for Vanraj's successful life. As the Panditji was leaving, he happened to chance on the photo along with the papers. Casually picking up the papers, he realized it was a horoscope. Curiosity getting the better of him, he sat down and using his fingers began to add up the numbers he was seeing on it. He smiled.

"Whose horoscope is this?" he asked Leela. 

"Some proposal Vanraj's bapuji got for him," she replied disinterestedly.

"Vanraj is very lucky. This girl has Raj Yog. Her husband will one day be king."

After the Panditji left, Leela fell into deep thought. She didn't like the girl. They were from a lower-middle-class family. They couldn't even afford to give them any dowry. And the wedding, that would have to be a very simple affair.

She'd received proposals for Vanraj from girls who belonged to wealthier families. But the Panditji had said that this girl has Raj Yog. She sighed. She'd talk to Vanraj's Bapuji about going and visiting this girl. Vanraj was born to become a king.