27
It was three days since the movie incident had happened, there was no news from Karishma and Reshma also had no clue about her. It wasn’t easy for Karishma’s parents to digest the fact that their daughter was involved with a boy and was doing shameless things in the theatre. I cursed myself for having forced Karishma to go for the movie.
I finally lost patience and decided to call her home, in our style, I first let it ring twice, and after a minute I called again. Karishma did pick up the phone, “Hi K, I am so worried about you, where have you been?” I asked with a sense of relief.
“Arjun yaar, I am in big trouble, my parents have stopped my going out anywhere, and they have been very angry and upset about the entire situation,” sobbed Karishma as she said that.
“Don’t worry K, everything will be alright. I hope they didn’t hit you.”
“Dad slapped me a couple of times and he warned me that if I ever meet you again, they will kill me. They want me to change my college.”
“That’s bad! I will do something about it.”
“No Arjun, you….” and suddenly her voice was cut short and replaced by a scream from her possibly from another slap by her father.
“Arjun, let me warn you, I am not going to allow you to destroy my child’s life. If ever you call her again or try to meet her, I will complain to the police,” ‘Jitu bhai said.
“Sir, please listen to me,” I said, trying to pacify him.
“I am not going to listen to a single word from you, just stay away from my daughter.” He said and he hung up the phone. Jitu bhai was clearly very angry about the whole thing, and the tremor in his voice proved that he was not going to take things easy. I was more worried about what would happen to Karishma. She had no support whatsoever and was not being allowed to come to college as well.
I called Reshma, “Hi Reshma. I just spoke to Karishma and her dad came on the line and fired non-stop bullets at me.”
“Hi Arjun. I know he is really upset. He had called me home and had given me a piece of his mind as well. He blamed me for being a part of all of this and leading Karishma to a wrong path. I don’t know why he was blaming me for it,” complained Reshma.
“Exactly,” I said, “what did you say?”
“I tried to reason with him but to no avail. He wants to change Karishma’s college and wants to make sure she never meets you.”
“It’s so sad, I wish I had not taken her for the movie, it’s all my fault!”
“Don’t blame yourself Arjun! It’s not your mistake. This was bound to happen, if not now, later. Her parents would have never agreed to your relationship. They want only a Gujju boy for Karishma and that too from the sub-sub-caste they belong to, it’s completely crazy.”
“We need to figure a way out to get Karishma out of this trouble. Can we meet tomorrow to discuss?”
“Of course, Arjun, we need to solve this one. Let’s meet tomorrow.”
Reshma and I met the next day over coffee and we agreed that Reshma will try to convince Karishma’s parents to at least allow her to attend college. We also agreed that J&K will separate for the time being to ensure that in the long term they were united again. I loved Karishma and wanted her to be a part of my life forever; even if that meant that I would have to be away from her for a short time. If her parents didn’t even allow her to attend college, there was no way we had a chance to save our love. I was confident that over a period of time, I will be able to convince Karishma’s parents that I really loved her and that I would take care of her. As they say in Hindi, kuch paane ke liye kuch khona padta he aur kho ke paane waale to baazigar kehte he (to gain something, one has to lose something, and the one who gains after losing is called a winner).
It took Reshma at least four visits to the Patel residence to convince Karishma’s parents. It also took a letter from the teachers of the college to convince Jitu bhai. After all, Karishma was a star student and the college didn’t want her to suffer. Eventually, Reshma succeeded, but not before the Hitler Jitu bhai presented her with a list of Ten Commandments which Karishma had to follow and if any of the Ten Commandments were not followed, Karishma would have to leave the college. I summarized the Ten Commandments in a formal way after hearing it from Reshma.
The Ten Commandments:
Karishma and I had no choice but to accept these commandments, we sold our liberties to buy time for our love.