Yuhn Hota Toh Kya Hota- Rikara FF

Chapter 16: Calm after the storm

There was something wrong with this girl's mental faculties. She actually blamed him for falling off the train! The gall! He was annoyed enough to burst now. So annoyed that he didn't notice where he was going and went straight down into a pit! And then....blank.

Try as he did, Omkara couldn't remember how he reached the Dargah. In the relative calm of the flight, Omkara thought he would be able to recollect what happened, but nothing, it drew a blank, it was all darkness. 

He didn't suppose Gauri would attack him from behind in the jungle and then he would wake to still find her there. No, that theory was preposterous. But the sight he woke up to was also something of a fantasy. His head on that girl's lap, covered by that heavy green cloth, with a band of Qawalli singers singing in the background....no, it was a stuff of fairy tales, and his life was no fairytale, it was a nightmare. The girl, she was no princess, she was a home-breaker, even if unintentionally. This was what he thought when he made up his mind to get up, and get away from the girl as soon as possible. But the girl, she just refused to stop following him, perhaps encouraged by what that gone-in-the-head blind baba had said in the Dargah. This was just some bizarre world, from which Omkara wanted to escape as soon as possible. The moment he exited the Dargah, he speeded up to find his way back to the railway station. Unfortunately for him, a group of useless young men, had given him wrong directions, just to get some fun out of confusing a stranger maybe. Omkara kept going on the wrong road, but for once he was absurdly relived that he took the wrong path. If he had not, then he would've not been able to prevent the crime that was going to happen. 

Honour killing. Omkara had read about it in papers. Self-appointed defenders of the society's morality and laws, hunting people dared to defy those laws. Usually, it was stories of couples, where the boy and girl were from different castes or religions or something like that, and these 'Khap' Panchayats would hunt them down and kill them mercilessly. Omkara always thought of these groups as extra-legal groups who were enemies of love, equality, and everything that made the country a free country to live. But as much rage he would feel while reading this in newspapers, he never for a second imagined that he would be a witness to their enforcement system. 

When Gauri collided with him on the road, Omkara was already annoyed at being misdirected by those youth. He got further annoyed when he saw Gauri, because she meant trouble. So, he said so when he saw her. And then he saw, that she was hurt and bleeding. She didn't stop to ask his help but kept running until Omkara saw with his very own eyes the goons attacking a woman, with swords. Without thinking, Omkara intervened to stop this. Omkara abhorred violence of any kind, especially against women. And here they were out to murder her. Yes, it was murder. 

Or attempt, anyways. He felled down the goons easily. It was like he was fueled more by the rage at what his life had become than for what was actually happening to him. And he was relieved that the goons provided him a channel for outlet of his anger at his life, his father, at everything that was wrong. 

For the first time, the Oberoi surname had done something good. The villagers were intimidated by his surname and let go of their vendetta against the girl. Omkara was glad of that, but he wasn't happy to see the girl. Now that Omkara had got an idea of the people who lived in this city, he wanted to leave it as soon as he could. Either there were evil people like Kali and his brothers, or suspicious characters like Gauri, or these villagers with their blood lust. No, Omkara didn't like any of them. He wanted to get rid of this city soon, and that meant sending this girl off on her way. 

From that moment till the moment he saw off that girl in the bus, everything he did mechanically. He didn't save her life to see her bleed to death, although that was an exaggeration. He decided to take her to the hospital, but they had to seek help from those devotees at the procession first. What struck him, was how genuine was the girl's devotion towards the idol. Everything about her could be a lie, but Omkara could swear on anything, that the expression on Gauri's face when she beheld the idol, the expression of total trust and surrender to god, that expression was genuine. Omkara wished someday he could trust someone or something like that, surrender himself, like she surrendered herself without any fear that God wouldn't listen. Gauri, however, was intimidated by him. She wanted to say something to him, but seemed scared, which Omkara thought was a good thing, because he did not want to be further annoyed by her chatter.