Manohar Asija
"In fact, I had never spoken to her even a single word, though she continued to send me signals for initiating a dialogue with her. I had to go to fetch my daily quota of water from the water-tap, provided at the back of her tenement, for all the four segments, in the vicinity. Almost every time, we had to place our buckets or utensils, in a queue, while waiting for our turn. Being shy of passing through the front lane, while approaching the water-tap, I preferred to walk along the back of the segment, in our front. God knows, how she could spot me from such a long distance that I had come out of my room, with buckets in my hands. Quite often, I marked her busy in looking towards me with furtive glances, while waiting for her turn, as she would deliberately waste her time, simply to ignore the fact of my arrival there and would thus make room for me to place my buckets before hers.” .......... It pains him to recall his last meeting with that `unfortunate girl`, who was destined to spend a spinster's life and breathe her last, while resting her head at Bihari's knee, who kept caressing her forehead, in the presence of her trusted maid and Pushpa, sent for by the rapidly waning-life herself for attaining a `peaceful exit` from this mortal world. ............ "How could I choose to marry a broad-chested and heavily breasted girl, simply to reel under the threat of being crushed anytime in life?" The cryptic response, though in the form of a question, betraying his hidden anguish, impelled Kavita to make a frantic effort to pull down her folded 'Dupatta' (headgear for the ladies), from her neck region, to 'cover her own modesty' in an appropriate manner. At this point of time, she was feeling the furtive glances of her companion towards her. In fact, Minocha happened to mark it, though inadvertently. He was so much engrossed in limiting his revelations, that he remained unmindful of the presence of the brink of the slab ahead, and consequently stumbled against it, losi
Read this work at the World Public Library (library card needed).