Seven Vows Part 1- Published

The Wedding Circus

A lady had come to take her order from Suman. As she was collecting the saree some other ladies came running

" Arrey Maheswariji, Vindhya, Renu come fast. Heard something interesting happening in Rawat's house"

" Vindhya I cannot run behind these things. You go and check" told Maheswari

" Bhabi you also come. Looks like real chatpata thing" told Vindhya dragging Renu. Maheswari nodded to Renu and both the Varma bahus followed the other ladies. The lady who had come to collect her saree paid Suman and she too ran after the crowd.

Soon Vindhya, Renu and other ladies reached Rawat's house. What greeted them was a puzzling scenario. Atleast a dozen young men were standing in straight line and Mrs Rawat was evaluating each of the men. Naina stood in bridal attire in one corner. She looked too tired. Rawat seemed to have fallen on the ground and one of his son was giving him water. His wife was least bothered by her husband's condition and continued looking at the young men.

Finally after looking, talking to all the young men she pointed at a young man. " Fine I feel you are the right man. You can marry Naina"

The boy's mother thanked the stars, while others looked disappointed. Soon the marriage rituals started and Naina was married to the young man. But what was interesting was the bidaai. After the bidaai ritual, Mrs Rawat also got into the car that took the bride and bridegroom and soon the car went out of the Rawat driveway. An ambulance came and Rawat was carried in it.

It was then that tit bits of information started flowing. One lady told they had come to attend Naina's marriage. The groom was the same man to whom Prakash Samrat's niece marriage was fixed. But then for this marriage also the district collector came. Mrs Rawat told that her daughter is tortured and not in a condition to speak. The district collector arrested the groom and told he will not get bail this time. Even Rawat would have been arrested, but then he fell down. People felt it to be cardiac arrest and ambulance was called. Mahantji told Mrs Rawat now her daughter is tukrayi dulhan. Mrs Rawat told her daughter will be married. She told her daughter will be getting 5kg gold, 10 lac rupees, a car and a haweli. She told all this money is in her name. The only condition is that the bridegroom will stay with her and her daughter in the haveli. If the bridegroom has any responsibility at home like marrying of his sisters, she will pay the dowry. Well the boys stood in line, she picked one and went with her daughter and Son in law. And look at the stars of that boy. Till yesterday he was just the owner of a kirana shop and today he got Lakshmi.

Discussions continued. Once they reached home Vindhya and Renu told the happenings to everyone. Maheswari was equally puzzled " Surekha has this much grey matter in her head "

" Don't know Maa. But some ladies were telling she was doing it as if someone told her" told Vindhya

When the men came in the evening they were equally puzzled " Pooja told she got an anonymous tip of such a marriage is happening. What is more interesting is that after the arrest of the man his two wives came to register complaint and demanding their share. Pooja called Amit who had taken Vaishnav's case, now Amit is looking into it. According to her by the time the wives are settled that man will be finished. Since he has jumped the bail and tried to break the law second time he will get the jail term for polygamy also" told Sudhir

" Bhaiyya we have more puzzles. First the man who came in the community meeting who cornered Santguru, now this mysterious marriage of Naina" told Sreedhar

" Sudhir but we have a good advantage with Shashank Rawat in hospital. I came to know he is not going to come out in near term. It is severe heart attack. That means the corpus fund audit can happen in Apr without much trouble. I don't think anyone would want to mess it up as now everyone will prefer to pass the buck on Rawat and save their skin " told Tilak

" Exactly Bhaiyya and if I am right that fund audit can threw some startling results also " told Sudhir

" I know Sudhir what you are hinting at. Money laundering has happened, but you mean human trafficking "

" Yes Bhaiyya human trafficking. There has been rumours about Rawat involved in human trafficking and Setia's political clout protecting it. Money might have been routed through this corpus fund" told Sudhir

" Human trafficking " told Suman shocked. " Human trafficking happens here too"

" Why here too. It happens everywhere" told Sreedhar

" No I mean I have heard about this Prathana Devi's spiritual tourism linked with human trafficking. Now this Rawat is connected with Mahantji right"

" Spiritual tourism what is that " asked Sreedhar

" I don't know. I heard foreign people come to her ashram. Then they have a good time. They seem to get divine experience " told Suman

" Children are sitting else I would have told something about divine experience. Bhaiyya that corpus fund manipulation we have to expose at the earliest. God knows how many girls will be saved " told Sudhir.

" Yes Sudhir " told Tilak. But even as they moved to their rooms and as Suman, Sreedhar and Poorni worked through night their thoughts lingered. Did what happened to Naina, the wives of the old man coming and cornering of Sant guru mere coincidences or is it connected.

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