Rikara One Shot Story Collections I

My Village Belle

Thanks to all for voting and commenting on the previous story. Here is the new story.

This story is highly inspired from Roja, mainly on Rishi-Roja. It is my tribute or rather my "plagiarized" version of that awesome love story.

P.S: My hindi is not that great, so I will be writing the dialogues in english but please assume that it is in hindi.

Omkara took in the serene beauty of the village where his parents were born as the SUV sped through. He turns to see how his mother was taking the drive and finds her sleeping; she might have been really tired from the travel, he thought as no one could sleep through this bumpy ride. He leans back on his seat as he closed his eyes with a happy smile on his face. This is the first time he was coming to his ancestral village, his parents had eloped to Mumbai and got married. He was born and raised in Mumbai but all his life he had heard about the beautiful Bareilly and it's people from his parents. Without even seeing the place, he had fallen in love with it and the people.

Last week when his mother had told him that it was time for him to get married and what kind of girl he wanted to marry, he had put forth only one demand, the girl should be from Bareilly. He smiles remembering his parents' joyous expression. His father had immediately tried contacting his old friend from village. It took him a few days to track him down, and was delighted to hear that he was still in Bareilly and had two daughters of marriageable age. When his father had put forth the proposal they were ecstatic. And now they were on their way to meet the girl.

Omkara smiles wondering how the girl would be, he was already in love with his village belle. Having been living in the modern society he somehow never found any interest in the city bred girls, his mind and heart filled with Bareilly and its people. Since long he knew if there was a girl for him he would find her in Bareilly. He knew she would have difficulty adjusting to his city life, she would even find communicating with people from his circle difficult, and there was a high chance she wouldn't even know English but it didn't matter to him, he knew he will help her with every step and both his parents were raised in Bareilly and they have adjusted to the city life very easily, and he had no worries.

"It has changed a lot."
Omkara hears his mother saying in wonder. Looks like his mother woke up from her sleep.
"That was what I was thinking. Lot of progress, since we left." Tej says amazed.
Jhanvi opens the window and inhales and says dramatically, "But smells the same."
Omkara chuckles hearing that. "Dad, do you want me to drive? You might be tired." Omkara says looking at his father worried.
"No, I am fine. You were driving since we left Mumbai. You rest now." Tej says as he continued driving as he took in the view.

By late evening they reach Tej's old house. Tej gets emotional seeing his younger brother and parents whom he had lost touch with when he had left years ago. They were equally happy to see them and welcomed them open heartedly, forgetting their anger. Jhanvi was also nostalgic seeing her family as she caught up with them. Tej and Jhanvi were neighbors and had fallen in love. Omkara visited both his paternal and maternal family. Much later, feeling tired he decided to call it a day. Tomorrow was his big day as he was going to see his village belle.

Next day morning, they all left for Sharma house. As Tej and Anand talked about their life and was catching up, Omkara impatiently waited for his village belle. Finally losing his patience, Omkara keeps looking at Tej and the moment Tej looks at him, Omkara glares at him.
Realizing he had forgot why he had come there in the first place he says, "It's been an hour we are here and we haven't met your daughter yet." Tej quickly says giving Omkara an apologetic look.
"Oh yes! I forgot! Seeing you after so long I just forgot the reason why you were here." Anand says and turns to Padmini and says, "Call Gayathri."
Padmini brings Gayathri out who was wearing a saree as she nervously walked in looking down.
"Come sit here." Jhanvi invites her near her and Gayathri sits next to her while Omkara slyly looks at her. She was a beautiful girl. "I got a gift for you." Jhanvi says as she handed her the saree she had got for her. Then turning to Padmini she asks, "Padu, where is your other daughter? Gauri."
"Gauriii..." Padmini calls her and Gauri comes out smiling happily and says Namaste. Then she turns to boldly look at Omkara. She looks him top to bottom and then smiles approvingly.
Omkara looks at her in shock. Her sister hadn't even looked at him once, but this Gauri had checked him out boldly and even approved him if he was to go by her bright smile.
"This is for you." Jhanvi says as she hands her a saree.
Gauri happily takes the saree and says "Taanku."
Omkara smiles hearing her, seeing him smiling at her she smiles proudly having said her English correctly. Gauri checks out the saree.
Seeing Gauri looking at the saree Jhanvi says smiling, "I hope you like it."
"You got it wrong, aunty."
"GAURI!" Anand scolds her.
"Yes?" Gauri turns to her father in polite interest ignoring the fact that he had just scolded her making Omkara grin.
"Why is it wrong?" Jhanvi asks to avoid any scene.
"You see, green suits di more and red suits me more." Gauri explains.
"Oh! I didn't know that." Jhanvi says disappointed.
"That's okay, aunty. We will exchange." Gayathri finally says.
Omkara's face falls as he had selected the red one for his village belle. Watches sadly as the sisters exchanged the sarees.