With a sigh, he got up and had a cold water bath. He entered the bedroom and looked at her. She was still trying to figure out the odd accessories he carried, she was holding the heavy metal rod, trying to use it as a telescope. He couldn’t help smiling at her childishness. She quickly put the rod down as he approached his bag.
He opened a small square box and pulled a pendant about an inch in diameter. It looked like The Sun attached to a chain.
“What’s that?” she asked curiously even as he looked around, found a nail in the wall and hung it there. He looked at it solemnly and bowed to it with reverence.
“That, sweetheart is everything I belong to, it’s my honour, it’s my religion, it’s my pride, something I live for… and I do things it tells me…”
“Does it talk?” she asked wide eyed observing the pendant.
“No” he laughed, “it’s my faith, my religion – just like you have yours in an elephant.” he looked at her, “Elephant is your GOD – right?”
“How do you know that?” she looked at him in awe.
“I have studied few details about the tribes in the jungle where you come from. I know your tribe worships Elephant. The tribal village next to yours worships Tiger. You have about 15 different tribes in that jungle, each worshipping various animals according to their faith.”
“You seem to know a lot about us.”
“I have been there and I was planning to visit the jungle and the tribes who live there to see how I could help development there when Amar invited me to this place to help the people in this town.”
“Maybe, you can visit our tribe once you finish here. I’ll be your guide in the jungle.” her hand unwittingly touched that rod again, “By the way you haven’t told me what these are for.” she pointed at his accessories.
He laughed heartily, “Curiosity kills cats” he murmured and looked at her, “I was about to tell you when you started telling me about the jungle and Rajasaab and his promises – so I stopped to hear what you had to tell me.”
She winced at the mention of Rajasaab and put on a hurried look, “Hey! Let’s talk about this later? Go to the bazaar and get our groceries.”
He saw her smile in triumph thinking she had been able to steer the conversation away from her and her tribal life to something else which was the need of the hour. He nodded and put a mental tag to this conversation with her. He dressed up and picked up a cloth bag and turned.
“Please don’t get any green vegetables” she almost begged and looked at his curious expression and hastily added, “They are too tedious to cook. Get something easy like potatoes, etc. – Yes, and don’t forget to get the wheat flour else I won’t be able to bake any rotis.” she rattled off a list of items she wanted in the kitchen.
“Yes! Madam” he said with equal vigour and both started laughing – she realized he had seen through her nervousness about cooking.
“Hey! Come here and stand at an arm’s length”
She walked across and stood feeling awkward as his eyes sized her up. She was about 5’5” tall, slender, slim, had an athletic, attractive body.
“What are you doing?” she asked a bit nervous at these looks from him.
“Are you familiar with Punjabi suits?”
“Yes.” she mumbled in confusion, “Why?”
“This style of your tribal wear will not go unnoticed in this town. So I thought of buying you a couple of them…” he smiled.
“Thank you so much” she blushed happily, “By the way my favourite colours are pink, yellow, red, and black, blue, green …”
“Hold on.” he said hastily even as she bit her lip, “I know you are young and you love all colours… we can buy those a few days later – I’m going to get you few for a start.”
“Please get needles and thread as well” she said thoughtfully, “I may need to mend the suits you get so that I can fit in them – I need to look like your wife, right?” and started laughing.
“I’ll be back by noon.” he said, his mind trying to recall the list of items she had rattled off to him. He reached the bazaar and finished buying the groceries and started searching the shops with readymade clothing stuff. He looked at many dresses to imagine which ones she would like to wear. Finally, he settled on a few. The daughter of the shopkeeper was almost the same size and shape, he asked her to hold those dresses up to look at them. He inquired if some alterations could be done right away. To his relief, the shopkeeper agreed to get those done in about half an hour. He directed them for the alterations he wanted and thanked the shopkeeper for his quick service. He kept the grocery bags in shopkeeper’s custody and walked into the bazaar lane and mentally started noting the shops he would visit later.