The key to the continuity and vibrancy of the River of Life is the relationship. However, the unfolding of relationships is always shrouded in mystery. They seem to blossom out of nowhere and then follow a path most unpredictable. They grow like the eye pleasing ivy shrub, not willing to give a clue as to what way they would climb up and spread out on the surface they are clung to. No one on earth knows why Rana met Keka and not Rebecca. Or, why they had to meet in Darjeeling and not Calcutta where they actually belonged. Only the Architect of the River of Life has that answer. Only He appoints the players to play their roles in it and orchestrates the matching and unmatching of the relationships commensurate with His plan for the River of Life.
At the agreed date and time Rana called the telephone number that Keka gave him prior to his departure from Darjeeling. Mita responded, “Rana, pleased to hear your voice again. How is your grandma?”
Rana answered, “She has to be feeling better, now that she has seen the gem of her eyes.”
Mita laughed and said, “Nice to hear that.” She continued, “I know Keka asked you to call her today. However, she had to go out with her grandfather and would be back in an hour. I will give her the message that you called.”
With a little pause she said, “Rana, since you are on the line, let me take advantage of this. I trust, you will not mind.”
Rana replied, “No, no, why should I?”
Mita said, “Rana, while talking to my father-in-law on our return from Darjeeling, I mentioned your name to him. He took a keen interest in you. He asked me if I can invite you to our home for dinner. I said I certainly could. So I was planning to call you to set up a date for the dinner. I hope you have no problem with that.”
Rana said, “None, whatsoever.”
Mita asked, “May I ask if you would be available this Friday evening to meet with him and have dinner with us?” She continued, “As you know, he is an attorney and normally on Friday evenings he is relaxed and in great spirits.”
Rana said, “It would be my honor and pleasure to meet with him. However, at what time he would expect me?”
Mita said, “I think six in the evening would be an ideal time for him.”
Rana said, “That would be fine with me.”
Mita said, “In that case, I have a little idea. You know Keka is the only grandchild of my father-in-law. He always loves to give a little surprise to her. I am not going to tell Keka that you will be here on Friday. I will give her the message that you called and will call back on Friday evening. When you are here, I will take you straight to my father-in-law and then he will handle the matter with his granddaughter in his own way. Is that okay with you?”
Rana said, “That is perfectly okay with me. I will sit back and enjoy the fun.”
Accordingly, Rana presented himself at the mansion of Attorney Ramnath Basu with a bunch of yellow roses. He anticipated that since he would encounter Mita first he would have to give the roses to Mita, however embarrassing. Nonetheless, knowing her nature by then, he knew that Mita would certainly put the flowers in Keka’s room. The security man at the gate called a domestic help from inside. The domestic help came without delay and politely led him to the drawing room. In a few seconds, Mita came down to usher him to the family room on the second floor. Rana bit his lips out of shyness and handed over the bunch of roses to her.
Looking at the roses appreciatively she said, “Nice choice.” She then lowered her voice and said, “Keka must be waiting for your telephone in her room. She does not know anything about this invitation.”
Before entering the family room Mita kept the roses carefully on a decorative antique table by the wall close to the door.
Sitting on his easy chair Attorney Ramnath was browsing through some court papers very attentively.
Mita cleared her throat and said, “Here’s Rana.”
Ramnath seemed not to hear. She raised her voice a little and repeated the words. The old man looked at Mita and then sized up Rana from head to toe before asking her, “Who did you say the young man was?”
Mita answered, “He is Rana. I mentioned about him on our return from Darjeeling. He is the nephew of Rita’s neighbor Devika.”
Ramnath almost sprang up from his seat and said, “Oh yes, yes. I am sorry; I got lost in my papers.” Then looking back at Rana he said, “No wonder, he has created such a stir! He is a smart and handsome young man.” He gestured both to sit on the sofa opposite his easy chair and they obliged.
Ramnath asked him, “Rana, may I know your full name please?”
Rana responded politely, “My name is Ranadhir Roy.”
Ramnath said, “I like that name. That suggests why everyone calls you Rana.”
Rana said, “You are absolutely right.”
Ramnath said, “I hear that you are going to be a graduate this year.”
Rana said, “You are right about that, sir.”
Ramnath asked, “What was your honors subject?”
Ramnath said, “That’s very good.”
He said, “Thank you.”
Ramnath asked again, “I believe the results would be announced in about a week.”
Rana said, “Yes, you are right, sir.”
Ramnath said again, “I hope you are not feeling butterfly in your stomach.”
He said, “Sometimes I do; not always.” Everyone laughed at that.
Ramnath asked, “Mita told me that your grandma was not well; how she is now?”
Rana answered, “She is feeling much better now.”
Ramnath said, “I am glad to hear that.”
Ramnath’s attention then shifted to his granddaughter, Keka. He asked Mita, “Does the gem of my eyes know that Rana is here?”
Mita smiled and answered, “No, she does not know anything about it. I just told her that Rana would call her back this evening. She must be waiting for his telephone call.”
Ramnath said, “Then call her and say that grandpa is looking for her urgently.”
Instead of calling her loudly Mita preferred to walk up and give her the message. As expected, Keka was waiting for Rana’s telephone. Having missed his phone the other day, she was reluctant to miss it again. So she walked down half the stairs and shouted at the top of her voice, “Grandpa, what happened? Why are you looking for me?”
Ramnath also shouted back, “Come here Sweetie, I have an important message for you.”
Keka calculated that she would finish off with her grandpa quickly and hurry back to receive the call. So she came down running, but while entering the room she got the shock of her life. Totally taken aback to see Rana talking to her grandpa, she stopped at the doorstep nervously and asked, “What do you want to say, grandpa?”
Ramnath answered, “Here’s Ranadhir, commonly known as Rana. He is the only son of my best client. He will be graduating with Honors this year. As you can see, I am very fond of him and just thought of introducing him to you while he is here.”
Keka was at a loss as to what to do. She stole another look at Rana and looked back at her grandpa. She was beaming, but did not say anything. She was in a quandary as to what to make out of her grandpa’s assertion about Rana.
Seeing her speechless, Ramnath knew she was totally surprised. He said to her, “It seems you are not interested in Rana at all. Rather you are in a hurry to go back to your room. Is anyone waiting for you there?”
Keka answered, “No, I was waiting for a telephone call from a friend of mine.”
Ramnath quipped, “Is that friend more interesting than Rana?”
Keka kept smiling but did not say anything. Ramnath then said, “From your silence I take it that your friend’s call is more important to you. Then I will not stop you Sweetie, you may go back and answer the call.”
By then Keka must have been dying to stay back. What a quandary! Finally, she said, “No, that’s all right. I am not in a hurry to go back.”
Ramnath quipped, “Well Sweetie, if you miss the call don’t blame your old grandpa or Rana. He just happened to be here to pick up some court papers from me. He is unaware of anything in this household.” Still smiling, Keka gave another furtive glance at Rana and looked back to Ramnath. He continued, “Sweetie, since you do not want to go back and are stealing frequent looks at Rana, I am just guessing that you might have seen him before. Is it fair to say?”
Keka became further uneasy on being caught red-handed, but kept smiling and nibbling at her nails.
Then like a seasoned lawyer Ramnath zeroed in on her, saying, “Looks like, Sweetie, you already know Ranadhir. Am I sufficiently right?”
Keka nervously said, “We met in Darjeeling.”
Ramnath exploded in laughter and said, “You only met him? The grapevine has it that people were mesmerized seeing two of you on horseback all over Darjeeling. Is there any grain of truth in that report?”
Keka again nervously said, “That is partly true.”
Ramnath said, “Then tell your grandpa the whole truth that you were waiting for Rana’s telephone. Is that right?”
Keka thought there was no way she could escape the truth. So she nodded bashfully. Observing the embarrassed look of his granddaughter, Ramnath exploded in laughter. He then said, “You now sit next to him. Let me see why Rita, Mita and Devika were so captivated simply by seeing the two.”
Mita was savoring her dream being fulfilled through her daughter. She never had the opportunity to have her beau introduced to her grandparent with fun and frolic before her wedding. In her own case, her husband was simply planted on her. She had no choice. No one even asked her if she liked her husband. It was just a chance that everything worked out well. That was because her parents-in-law, i.e Ramnath and his deceased wife treated her like their own daughter. Her happiness showed up in her glittering eyes.
Keka sat on the sofa next to Rana, invoking unfathomable joy in her grandpa. Ramnath exclaimed, “A perfect match! A match made in heaven!” He kept looking at them and laughing in joy. Then in order to tease his only grand child he said, “No wonder why my sweetie looked so romantic on returning from Darjeeling! I don’t blame her for that.”
Keka blushed and said, “Grandpa, you are now making up things.”
Rana was enjoying the interplay between a happy grandparent and his loving granddaughter.
Ramnath’s interest then shifted to Rana. Looking at him he said, “Rana, we are all happy to have you with us. My son Sudhir is not here today. He has gone to our ancestral estate at Burdwan to take care of some property related problems. But knowing him well I can emphatically say that had he been here today, he would be happy too.” With a little pause he asked him, “Rana, how about your family? Do they know my sweetie too?”
He answered, “As you know, my aunt in Darjeeling knows her very well. My grandma and my parents do not know her yet. I am sure Aunt Devika will let them know when the time is ripe.”
Ramnath said, “Great. However, I have a friendly suggestion. Please don’t take it as an offense. You two are very young. Gone are the days of my generation. I was simply asked to step into marriage vow by my father. I was only sixteen and my bride, twelve. No one even asked my opinion about her, as if I did not have a mind. What I am suggesting is that you two continue with your romance for five years. My request to Rana is, settle down in whatever career you choose. Let my Sweetie be also a college graduate. Then only marriage will be joyous and meaningful. How does that sound?”
Rana said shyly, “Actually, the occasion to discuss about marriage did not come up as yet. But that is exactly what is in my mind.”
Ramnath then raised a natural follow up subject, saying, “Talking about your career, I did not ask what career you want to pursue. However, if you decide to come to legal profession, never hesitate to let me know. I will be most pleased to guide you into my profession.”
Rana said, “It was so nice of you to say that to me. However, I took Economics as my Honors subject primarily to complete Business Management course and pursue my career as a Business Executive.”
Ramnath said, “There is nothing wrong with that. Do whatever you are comfortable with.” As Rana’s eyes veered to the clock not for any particular reason, Ramnath asked, “Rana, why don’t you have dinner with us?”
Rana quietly looked at Mita and she said, “I invited him already and he accepted the invitation.”
Looking at Rana, Ramnath said about Mita, “She is my mother. She automatically takes care of the steps that I miss.” Then looking at Mita he said, “We have about an hour to go for dinner. I suggest let my sweetie take Rana upstairs to show him her world. She must be dying to talk to him. Let me work on a brief that I have accepted today. Then we will all assemble at the dinner table at eight. What do you think?”
Mita said, “That will be perfect for me.”
When Ramnath walked out of the room, Mita looked up at the ceiling and with the intention to tease her daughter, exclaimed, “Oh God, what a surprise?”
Keka understood that those words were directed toward her. So she said, “Okay ma, I will also give you the surprise of all surprises.”
Mita gave a riposte, “My daughter, you will never be able to give me any surprises.”
As Keka and Rana were walking up the stairs to the third floor, Mita told Keka, “If I finish early, I’ll come up and join you. If you need me for anything, I will be at the kitchen.”
Keka said, “Okay ma, if we don’t see you by eight, we will come down to the dining room.”
At that point a rare but pleasantly delicate moment was shared by the mother and the daughter. After walking down a few steps Mita ran back up and said, “Oh, I almost forgot!” She picked up the roses from the antique table and then said, “Keka, my daughter, see Rana brought these lovely roses. Please arrange them in the vase on your table.”
While handing the flowers to her, the mother and daughter looked at each other and smiled. Keka blushed because her beau brought the flowers for her and her mother accepted them on her behalf; what a shame! Rana admired at the ease with which Mita handled the matter. In most such cases during that era a mother would say, “What a shameless show of love!” But Mita was very understanding and measured in her words. She did not say, “Rana brought these lovely roses for you,” but merely said, “Rana brought these lovely roses.” However, by asking her to arrange the roses in her vase, she made it amply clear that she knew that they were intended for her daughter. Anyone could understand that Rana took the roses for Keka and not for her mother.
On reaching the third floor, Keka heaved a sigh of relief, saying, “My mum and grandpa love to give me surprises.”
Rana did not want to be seen by Keka as a link in that plot to embarrass her. He said, “Is that right? You mean to say you were not told that I would be here this evening?
Keka said, “My mum only told me that you would call me this evening because I missed your call on the last occasion.”
Rana said, “How strange!” After a pause he said, “Keka, here you have got someone else also who loves to give surprises. Then you must be happy that your life would be full of surprises.”
Keka smiled and said, “Then I will also start giving surprises to everyone.”
Rana asked, “But Keka, please tell me why you heaved a sigh of relief when you came up? It seems you were very worried before and kind of relieved now.”
Keka said, “I told you that my grandpa’s opinion carries so much weight that when he is convinced, the rest is easy. It is not difficult to please him. Yet until his opinion is known, one can’t be certain.”
Rana said, “Yes, I cannot agree with you more.”
Keka asked him, “How did you find my grandpa?”
Rana answered, “Very understanding, supportive and friendly. All that is needed to keep him happy is to listen to what he says and what he says is reasonable.”
Keka was delighted to hear those remarks about her grandpa. She then asked, “What do you think of my mother?”
Rana said, “She is simple, affable, loving, helpful and delighted to see her dreams coming to fruition through her daughter. She wants her daughter to live her life the contemporary way because she did not have that opportunity.”
Keka leapt up in excitement. She said, “My mother keeps telling me that all the time.” She continued to say, “You can read people’s character very well.”
While talking to him Keka picked up the flower vase on her table to throw away the half withered flowers in it to make room for the new flowers that Rana brought.
Rana said, “Let me help you with that.” He took the roses from her hand. She changed the water of the vase. Rana took out the pocket knife from his key pouch and cut the stems to size them up to fit into the vase. Finally, he placed the bunch of flowers in and spread them evenly and handed the vase over to Keka, saying, “I hope you like the arrangement.”
Keka said, “Many thanks for the roses. They are gorgeous.”
Rana said, “Pleasure is mine.”
Keka said further, “And I can see that your flower arrangement is as good as my mum’s.”
Rana replied, “Good or bad I don’t know, but I can do little bit of everything. And if I may add, the most important of all is that you do not have to worry about anything.”
Keka said, “It is good to know that I am so lucky.”
Coming back to her room Keka kept the vase on her desk. Rana asked for her hand. She obliged. Rana held her hand and kissed the back of her palm. All these happened in a flash, but spontaneously. Both of them blushed, but both were happy probably because several milestones were reached during the course of that evening.
At eight, they went down to the dining room. Ramnath was already there. Dinner was sumptuous. Food was cooked by Mita herself. Though the cook was there, Mita took special care to pamper Rana, having invited him in the first place. The cook helped her by putting together the ingredients. At the dinner table most of the talking was done by Ramnath. He became nostalgic while telling Rana about his childhood and boyhood, his education, his marriage and his joining the legal profession. He also talked in details about his wife who had passed away a few years earlier. He did not forget to talk about Sudhir, Mita and Keka also.
As they moved from the dinner table to the drawing room, the discussion also spilled over there. Finally, Ramnath invited Rana again on the next Friday to meet with Keka’s father and have dinner with them. It was getting late for Rana. He politely took leave of Ramnath. Mita thanked him for coming and listening to her father-in-law so patiently. She was apologetic supposedly for not paying more attention to him. Rana said he did not feel any lack of attention and, in fact, enjoyed the evening. He also added that he was looking forward to the next week. He then bade goodbye to the two women and drove away slowly. Rana felt thankful to God for the development of the evening. He thought it was kind of revolutionary in the context of time. He knew, had Keka belonged to any other family, he would not be allowed entry into the grandfather’s house, much less invited. He marveled at the changing face of the society and felt great for being a pioneering agent of that change.
Next Thursday the university announced the results of his exam and there were no surprises for Rana. He obtained an Honors Degree in Economics. The friends and family were delighted. Rana called Keka to inform her. She was overjoyed. She did not know what to do and ended up calling her mother Mita. She said they were going to celebrate when he would visit with them.
As scheduled, on Friday Rana went to the residence of Keka’s grandfather Ramnath to meet with her father Sudhir. This time Keka came down to usher him to the family room upstairs. So he did not have any dilemma who to give the bouquet of brilliant red roses this time. Keka seemed to be in a bubbling spirit. While walking up the stairs she hurriedly said that there were discussions about him between her parents and grandparent and it was all positive. She also said that her father was looking forward to seeing him.
Attorney Ramnath was seated on his familiar easy chair, browsing through the newspaper of the day. Seeing Rana with Keka, he got up from the chair and congratulated him warmly for his graduation. At the same breath, he asked Keka to call her parents. Her father Sudhir came shortly, followed by her mother Mita. Ramnath again rose from his seat and said, “Rana, let me introduce you to my son Sudhir. Like you, he also graduated from the St. Xavier’s College. He then went to London to be a Barrister before starting his law practice with me.”
While Ramnath was talking, Sudhir was wearing a broad smile. He was in his early forties, but looked ten years younger. As soon as Ramnath concluded his introduction, Sudhir said, “Rana, I am really very pleased to meet with you. In the last few weeks, I have been hearing a lot about you. It appears you have many admirers in this house. You must be something special. I have been trying to win over my father for more than forty years and my wife for twenty years, but without any success so far. However, you have won them over literally in minutes. May I know the secret of your success please?”
Rana could easily make out that Sudhir was as smooth as silk like a seasoned attorney and at that moment he was trying to make him comfortable. Judging the light mood around, Rana responded, “They are very simple people. It was easy to impress upon them. But my real test will follow this discussion as to how soon I am able to win you over.”
Everyone laughed and Sudhir responded, “You have already won me many times over. If I say otherwise, I would invite big trouble from my father, my wife and my daughter.”
Again there was a big roar of laughter. Sudhir seemed to be a delightful person, very polished, friendly and easy going.
Just at that moment, an important client of Ramnath called to have a hurried consultation. Both Ramnath and Sudhir excused themselves to go down to their office on the first floor to access the files for consultation with their client. That opened up the opportunity for Rana to talk to Mita and Keka.
Mita congratulated him once again and said, “We are all very happy on your success at the exam. Especially, Keka’s grandfather said that it was very creditable to earn Honors in Economics. Only a handful of students managed to get it every year. Though Keka’s father did not see you before, he already has a high opinion about you.”
Rana said, “Many thanks to you all. I tried hard and God is gracious on me.”
Mita said, “God is gracious on everybody, but not everyone gets Honors in Economics. Credit must go to you for your extra-ordinary effort.”
She then addressed both Keka and Rana jointly, “One other thing I wanted to tell you both before they come back. I understand fully well that you need to see each other. However, given the fact that both of you are still students, it would not be appropriate to meet more than once a week. Of course, meetings on special events and celebrations are extra. You decide, between the two of you what day of the week is convenient for you. Needless to say, you can talk over telephone everyday.”
Saying these she rose to go to the kitchen to supervise the preparation of the special dinner. Perhaps she wanted to give them some time to talk between themselves. The young lovebirds were delighted to have those few minutes to themselves. They decided that Friday evenings would be most appropriate for their meetings. In about an hour, Mita came back to say that they should go to the dining room in fifteen minutes. She added that Ramnath and Sudhir were still tied up but would join them at the dinner table.
At the dinner table Sudhir asked him, “Now that you are a graduate, have you decided what you are going to do?”
Rana replied, “I am going to apply to the Indian Institute of Management to join their Business Management course. However, I will also keep my options open in case I get an offer from a reputable company for an Executive Trainee position.”
The table conversation kept on switching from topic to topic, from sports to politics to world affairs. Rana could not figure out if that was deliberate to test his range of interest in life. At the end, however, the old man said he was impressed at the whole gamut of his knowledge in a wide variety of subjects.
The evening came to an end. It was a good getting-to-know each other event. Rana felt abundantly satisfied for two reasons. Firstly, he was able to plant confidence in all the senior members of Keka’s family whose opinion counted in so far as her future was concerned. Secondly, he found an approved way of courting Keka. This may sound ludicrous today. But in the early sixties of the twentieth century the arrangement was kind of revolutionary in that part of the world. He considered himself very lucky to be a harbinger of change. He also felt God’s invisible hand in making his path to courtship with Keka a virtual cake-walk and shorn off daily parental intervention. He couldn’t help saying a word of prayer for that rather easy sail.
Courtship is but a privileged relationship of intimate nature in the context of the narrow confines of love. In most of the cases, serious courtship leads to marriage and marriage to the growth of mankind and, as such, courtship is the most potent force driving the destiny of the River of Life. Quality courtship leads to quality marriage, quality happiness and quality offspring. Keka and Rana were looking forward to what their courtship would bring to them now that it was blessed by the most important members of their families.