Gauri was in a fix. Should she run? She knew the goons would be scavenging the whole jungle road and the highway at this moment, hunting for her. The highway was not far, she could still make it in half-hour and then hitchhike to the nearest bus stop to take a bus to Moradabad. Her clothes and jewelry were going to be a problem, but she'll exchange them for something on the way.
But that would mean leaving Jatadhaari Hippie to his fate. His survival was dicey even now, if help didn't reach him in time. Gauri didn't know who to call. The kids had already done a lot for her. For anyone to reach her, them, in this jungle itself, will take a long a time. It could prove fatal for the stranger.
She was wasting time here thinking.
"Shankarji, show me the way!" Gauri nearly shouted as she looked up at the heavens.
She started surveying the jungle for anything that could help her. Then her eyes fell upon a rudimentary large wheel barrow lying near a tree. Gauri was sure it wasn't there before. But miracles had happened to her before. Her Shankarji always sent a signal.
With difficulty Gauri managed to haul the stranger onto the wheel barrow, using the incline to push him on. Gauri mentally cursed him for being so heavy.
The afternoon sun was overhead as Gauri managed to make out of the jungle onto the state road. It was lucky that it was end of February, and the winter were receding slowly into spring. Had it been summer, Gauri would've fainted due to a heatstroke by now. As it is the winter afternoon sun also slightly burning her back.
He is too heavy, thought Gauri. "Shankarji, please help your chiraiyaa save this man" Gauri said her prayers. As always, just like he had helped with her mother, Shankarji gave Gauri the strength she needed to push that stranger on the road.
After what seemed like eternity, but was in actuality only quarter to an hour, Gauri could finally listen to the music coming from the Dargah. She had made it to the Dargah on the edge of the city of Bareilly.
Should she leave the stranger in the Dargah. Surely someone would help an unconscious man, Gauri would even tell them how to, but she needed to run and hide.
But then Gauri remembered that the only reason the stranger got stuck in the jungle, was because she pushed him from the train. True, she didn't intend to, but what happened had happened, and indirectly it was her fault that he was in this mess.
She entered the Dargah, pulled him down from the barrow, and lied him near the band of Qawaali singers. She remembered the solution of clove oil and sesame that she needed to mix the antidote. It was lucky that there many shops in the Dargah premise and she could easily find what she wanted. She took some money from the strangers pocket, and made her way to buy those oils.
Gauri came back with the solution to help the stranger. He was still unconscious. Gauri checked his pulse to make sure he's alive. She sat down next to the stranger's head, and raised it slightly to pour the solution down his throat, hoping against hope it would work.
Next to her the singers reached a high pitch in their music. As Gauri listened to their prayers, she also joined her hands and prayed to the Lord to revive the stranger, hoping for a miracle.
A large green cloth, beautifully embroidered, carried by the devotees, flew out of their hands due to a sudden gust of wind and landed on Gauri and Om, whose head was on Gauri's lap, still unconscious. Gauri opened her eyes as she saw the green cloth enveloping them. Then she looked down and saw the stranger opening his eyes, tentatively, squinting at the green sky. Suddenly, his eyes opened wide, he looked around, shifted his head, and got up with jerk. He looked confused and stared at Gauri, and the green cloth which acted like some strange terrace. His eyes almost popped out as the cloth seemed to lift on its own, but then he realized that the devoting were lifting it.
Gauri smiled at her joined hands with gratitude as the Lord heard her and performed a miracle. But her smile soon vanished as the cloth lifted fully, and she could see Kali Thakur's goons entering the Dargah, most probably looking for her. She got up, and so did the stranger. By now the devotees had left with the cloth.
The stranger looked at her curiously, then he took an about turn and started walking towards the exit of the Dargah.
"Please don't leave me alone. Please let me come with you." Gauri pleaded as she ran behind him for cover.
"What?" Omkara was confounded. "Our destinations are different, how can our paths be the same?"
"Where destinies are joined, the destination also becomes one." said a blind, old fakir standing next to them. "Zindagi ke safar mein humsafar ho tum. Aayega zidd pe toh Qayamat hogi, yeh ishq abhi masoom." (In the journey of life, you are soulmates. When it becomes stubborn, then there is hell to pay, the love is still innocent right now).
The fakir touched their heads with his feathery small broom and left his way. How he managed to see where they were standing when he was blind, was another mystery.
Omkara looked dumbfounded at the ridiculousness of the whole situation. Then as if ridding himself of the nonsense, he shook his head and started walking again. Gauri started following him too.
"Stop. Don't follow me, you...you are trouble. I want to reach home in one piece now, don't follow me." said Omkara and stomped off, without a backward glance.
Gauri was undeterred, she continued to follow him, which only made him walk faster, and the gap between them widened as tiny Gauri could not keep up with Omkara's huge strides.
Gauri called out to him to make him stop, but before a sound could escape her mouth, a huge, ugly hand clamped down on her mouth, closing it shut. Kali's goons has caught up with her. Gauri tried to break away from them, kicking, scratching, biting, but there were too many of them. Some devotees at the Dargah tried to come to her aid, but the goons blocked them off with their swords. All through this commotion, Omkara had slipped out of the Dargah, not paying attention to what was happening behind them.
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The Khap Panachayat, along with its members were waiting for Gauri at the village tree near the city limits. Kali Thakur and his brothers were there too.
Once Gauri was caught and brought there, they lost no time in encircling her. There were no women there, no common people who knew Gauri, who Gauri could appeal to for help.
Some of those people had been purposefully kept away by the Panchayat because they feared that those people might protest this meting out of punishment. Some of them had purposefully stayed away because they could not watch a girl, who they knew since childhood, meeting with such a terrible fate.
Kali Thakur repeated his false story, framing Gauri. Gauri vehemently denied this, pleading with the Panchayat members to listen to her. Then her uncle and aunt emerged from behind the crowd, and affirmed what Kali Thakur said, that he had agreed to marry his younger brother to Gauri, and there was no question of buying Gauri for himself. Gauri pleaded and begged the crowd not to believe them, but it was her word against Kali Thakur and her own uncle and aunt. Kali Thakur was powerful, and the village bowed to his power.
"I'll leave the Panch to deal with this girl. She has hurt me a lot, physically and emotionally. Me and my brothers will now go back to our house to mourn the loss of my Thakurain, their sister-in-law and prepare for the mourning ceremony. I hope to see you all there tomorrow." saying so, slightly smirking at Gauri's plight, Kali Thakur left with his brothers.
The Panchayat now tied Gauri with ropes. The Sarpanch said, "You, Gauri, are responsible for the suicide of the Thakurain. Not only did you instigate the Thakurain, you also caused her to name Kali Thakur as the reason for her death, a prominent and respected member of our society. Girls like you, who are home-breakers and ruin lives due to their greed, do not deserve to live. I hereby, announce death by stoning as your punishment," as he said so, he picked up a stone and so did all the other members, ready to stone Gauri to death.
Gauri shut her eyes, and just mediated on her Shankarji. "Duniya maane na maane (whether the world agrees or not) you know I am innocent. I am fully confident, that you would not let lies and falsehood win over truth, you would not let your favorite chiraiyaa down."
The crowd started raining stones on Gauri.