Incidentally.....

Incidentally, a few years ago, across many districts…..

With a high chest for holding my Dad’s phone and a grumpy face for have been forced to wear a servani, I strode the unknown lanes of my birth town. Sometimes getting lost but eventually finding my way back to the main green field, I felt a sense of pride to have been able to successfully explore the small mines-township (seemed so big then). Ten years ago a beautiful woman lived in this very town when her father had a desk job at the mines of. It was here a beautiful woman got married and it was here when a small boy’s cry echoed the hospital, the boy who now is narrating THIS tale.

It was the first time I came to this town after leaving out at an early age of 3 months. Later on I couldn’t return, Grandpa retired and they moved in with Uncle in another town of the state. As I reached a particular house, about a kilometer away from the marriage house (I was here to attend the marriage of a far aunt who liked me very much), I saw some familiar faces and heard some known voices.
As I approached the house, I saw my dad. He grabbed my arm and pointed to a house across the road and marked it as the house where my mom lived before marriage. She had decided not to accompany us on this trip for she had to take care of my little brother back at our house in Rourkela.

It seemed that the barat had arrived. *So that was the reason for such an excited wave throughout that house!!!!* I went in when I saw that most people were being served cold drinks. *So this was the barat’s rest after which the musical procession would begin.* In expectation to get a ‘Coca-Cola’ I rushed in and most fortunately I was immediately handed a bottle by one of my elder brothers. The fizzy drink went in the belly without a burp. I longed for more.

Searching for the same brother to request for another such fizzy treat, I glanced at the people in the room. The ‘man of the occasion’ caught my attention wearing a handsome servani (at least I was not the only one) with a painted forehead. There was a yellow-white turban placed at his side that had rows of flowers dangling from one frontal side. People were laughing, giggling and joking around. A few were a sleepy as one can ever be. The tire of the journey had broken their backs.
And there was this little girl who was playing with that decorated turban. I don’t remember what she wore or how exactly she looked. She was quite busy adjusting the flowers of the turban, occasionally questioning the groom. *So she is from the groom side!!!* When she finished with her work, she rushed down to a middle-aged man and started firing questions at him. When she stood up I noticed she was smaller than me in height *Yes!!! I’m a Complan Boy!!!* And was a bit on the healthier side. *If you know what I mean!!!!*

Just  a little less than a decade later, the same girl Incidentally, is the girl who is the centre of my universe, the girl whom I want for the rest of my life, the girl who wants me to be in such a similar room while she prepares herself as the ‘woman-of the-occasion’.

Incidentally, a few years ago, across many districts, WE MET.