Benign Flame Saga Of Love In Chapters Format Read online

  Mid way into the first-term, when Roopa was on top of the world, Sandhya, the daughter of the new Joint Collector, joined the class. About the same age as she was, Sandhya was shorter by a fraction but rosy in complexion. While she looked cute and lively, in her slim frame, she carried herself with that grace often associated with the

  children of the well-off from the cities. The sophistication of her manner, and the chastity of her accent, acquired at the Hyderabad Public School, put everyone in awe, the teachers included, but her modesty and friendliness enabled her classmates to flock to her in their numbers.

  However, Roopa felt like the spirited person at a dinner party, who would have lost the audience upon the arrival of a celebrity, and acted in a like manner; she didn't join the bandwagon but when Sandhya herself sought her help to catch up with the syllabus, Roopa obliged her, having felt vindicated. While Sandhya was impressed with the keenness of Roopa's intellect, the warmth of Sandhya's persona attracted Roopa. The closer they became, the more they admired each other. M oreover, the more they came to know about one another, the fonder they became of each other. Soon, they were seen only together.

  As the final exams neared, they co-studied at Sandhya's place during the preparatory holidays. With Kamalakar and Damayanthi, Sandhya's parents, having readily taken to Roopa, she felt at home at the Joint Collector's Bungalow, where she found a large collection of fiction, which she began to pore over. Ramaiah, recalling his teacher's advice to him that classics would improve one's language, deepen his vision and broaden his horizons, was glad that his daughter was on the right track though he himself had missed the bus.

  Soon enough, Ramaiah was forced to take stock of his situation. Agricultural income became meager ever since they left Ramavaram. After all, the lessee of their depleted landholding made it a habit to blame it upon the drought to deny Ramaiah his due. Besides, as all the eligible accounts were discounted, there was no way to have a loan from his office. As for their ancestral dwellings, the modern houses that came up made them antiques already. Thus, Ramaiah began to feel as if he reached the dead end of Ramavaram.

  "Why not dispose of all that? What with the diminishing returns, they're assets only for the record," he broached the topic with Janaki. "Well if only the old man were alive it would have been a different story."

  "With the 'land for the tiller' thick in the air, better we come out clear," she gave the green signal. "You better sell away whatever little my father left me as well."

  When he returned from Ramavaram, after having sold what all they had, he felt as though his umbilical cord with the place was severed. With those proceeds, he proceeded to acquire an old building in Gandhinagar as their 'old age shelter' as he put it. The rest of the fund he deposited in a scheduled bank to take care of future needs.

  Chapter 2

  Realities of Life

  After that summer recess, with the reopening of the PR College, Roopa and Sandhya joined in the Intermediate, and as though to signal the end of their schooling, they shed their skirts to switch over to saris. Looking all the sweeter in their sweet sixteen's as they entered the campus that day, Roopa in her snuff chiffon sari and Sandhya in her Gadwal cotton one, they created quite a sensation.

  The delectable contours of Roopa's well-proportioned body of five feet five appeared accentuated by her narrow waist as her curvy figure in that velvet skin lent form to her sari meant for enhancing her modesty. Her robust breasts that dared the veiling, and the thick seat, which hugged it tight, made it seem that her genes strove hard to enhance her sex appeal. While her tapered arms that abutted on her flowing frame lent

  poise to her persona, swung by the swing of her seat in her tantaiizing gait, her hair in piait pictured a penduium that caressed her bottom. As the radiance of her face gave an aura to her charming manner, her seif-beiief was in consonance with her sensuaiity. Moreover, the imbibed sophistication in Sandhya's company gave styie to her substance that made her ravishing.

  Sandhya's rosy compiexion, in congruence with her angeiic soui, imparted pieasantness to her persona. Whiie her siim figure and sharp features defined aesthetics, her sparkiing eyes refiected the spirit of her iiveiy nature. Even as the evocative features of her suppie frame brought fiuidity to her movements, the radiance of her siiken skin ennobied her womaniy assets. As her smooth brown bobbing hair added styie to her demeanor, her sweet manner ient poise to her figure. Enhancing her appeai her gait was such that the faii of her sari acquired the rhythmic grace of the ioom on which it was weaved. With her gaiety being in harmony with her youth, the aiacrity of her mind conjugated with her sprightiy nature making her gorgeous.

  Whereas the effervescence of Sandhya's ethereai beauty was apparent at espiai, the magnetism of Roopa's charm compeiied for its conjuration in interaction. The friends became a great hit with the boys who tried to befriend them. However, whenever accosted by a iad, Roopa tended to turn into a bundie of nerves.

  "You make such a heavy weather of the whoie thing," Sandhya was wont to tease Roopa. "The poor things might end up being dumb."

  'When I couid get on weii with boys at schooi,' wondered Roopa, 'why am I iii at ease with them, now? Oh, won't the way they iook at me make me feei different and diffident too!'

  However, the searching iook she espied in the maie eyes thriiied her in her vitais. As she tried to visuaiize herseif through their perception, her body, in her own eyes, acquired a new dimension. The more she became mentaiiy cioser to the opposite sex; aii the more she distanced herseif from the boys. Sandhya, on the other hand, proved to be a cooi customer known to unnerve the dashers. Whiie her giamour gave her a rare aura that overawed the boys, her father's position oniy confounded their confidence. Nevertheiess, Chandrika, who by then was in B. Com., pre finai, heiped them in their initiation into the campus iife.

  When Chandrika got her degree and Roopa was through her Intermediate with fiying coiors, what with the recaicitrant Raju too seemed to mend his wayward ways, for the Ramaiahs it seemed time fiew as if it deveioped wings. However, proving that good things won't iast forever came the joit as Roopa reveaied the cards that she so cioseiy heid to her chest aii aiong.

  "Don't you know," said a surprised Ramaiah, "what it takes to be doctor?"

  "You know I've topped the class," she said naively.

  "M edical education costs a fortune," he said helplessly, "and it's beyond my means."

  "But I'm craving to be a doctor," she said.

  "Sorry, there's no way," he dismissed her in despair and left in dilemma for the Post Office

  'How I took it for granted!' Roopa wondered all day, 'Maybe when one is obsessed with a singular aspect of a situation, the attendant issues fail to get the focus they deserve.'

  When a distraught Roopa approached her mother pleading for her support, affected by her daughter's passion, Janaki promised to persuade Ramaiah. While Roopa hoped for a miracle as the condemned would to escape the noose, however, on Ramaiah's return, she avoided him like the one who tends to hide himself from the one commended for the favor. When Ramaiah sent for her, after what appeared to be an eternity for her, she went up to him with her heart in her mouth.

  "Now I recall that night on the train when you were just nine," he said, patting her head as she squatted beside his easy chair. "Though I was pleased with your ambition, I never knew you were nursing it. Had I guessed it then, I would have cautioned you in time."

  "Naannaa, it became my obsession," she sank into his lap. "I'll be miserable otherwise."

  "You know we're lower middle-class now," he seemed to give an account of his helplessness. "The lands are all gone and I'm going to retire soon. Agreed there is some money in the bank but it would barely meet your dowries and your brother's higher studies. This house, of course, is for your brother lest he should curse me for having left him nothing to inherit. As for your mother and I, the pension should see us through."

  "Pledge the house and raise the money," she suggested with apparent hope. "I'll red
eem it in time."

  "Be realistic Roopa," reasoned Ramaiah, "once you get married it would all be different. After all, your earnings would be your husband's. M oreover, to marry you off as Doctor Roopa, I would have to cough up much more for your dowry."

  "What if I don't marry at all," she said with such a conviction that startled Ramaiah. "I want to be a doctor and that's all."

  "Don't be silly," he said, showing her the reality of life. "The essence of life lies in its wholesomeness. You would realize later on, that nothing is worth in life to the exclusion of all the rest that makes it what it is. Besides, marriage is the key that opens life alike for the boys and the girls."

  "It's my only dream and the sole ambition," she persisted, hoping against hope.

  "Ambition is a double-edged sword," he turned to philosophy to help her soul. "Possessed by the resourceful, it's cut out for success and in the hands of the lesser souls it tends to hurt their peace of mind."

  Then he recounted his own disappointment; his inability to become an advocate, and advocated to his daughter to learn to take life as it came, ordained by karma. "If I were an advocate, perhaps, I would have been rich enough to fulfill your ambition. However, it was not to be, and therein lies our fate - yours and mine as well," he concluded.

  Roopa, though reconciled to her situation, resented her fate. As if she were revenging on her helplessness, she shunned the sciences and opted for commerce. However, as per her inclination, Sandhya went in for the humanities.

  "Got tired of dissecting frogs and all or what!" said Sandhya in jest as Roopa filled in the admission form.

  "Like to have a closer look at the commercial side of life," said Roopa mystically.

  "Jokes apart," said Sandhya as they got into a rickshaw, "tell me what's wrong. I know you always wanted to study medicine."

  Roopa just sighed for an answer.

  "A friend is one with whom you couid think aioud, I read once," said Sandhya empathicaiiy. "You know I think with you, now it's up to you."

  "Know I iove you the most," said Roopa earnestiy, and biurted out. "But somehow I wasn't frank with you. From now on I'ii thinkaioud."

  Moved, Sandhya eniaced Roopa, which brought soiace to the iatter and induced warmth in the former, making both of them feei ioved and wanted by the other.

  Chandrika, who graduated that year, didn't think in terms of post graduation as ia affair Roopa gave the ciue to her father's mind and the famiiy's finances, and so, thought of a job for an occupation.

  "Sit stiii untii we fix a match," Janaki was dismissive. "It might heip improve your compiexion a bit,"

  "What if I work?" said the daughter spiritediy.

  "I don't want any compiications, that's aii," Janaki appeared firm.

  When Chandrika persisted, Ramaiah, however, reiented and persuaded his wife, "You have to change with the changing times. Moreover, some boys have started preferring empioyed giris for their brides."

  After a coupie of unsuccessfui attempts, Chandrika got an assistant's job in an export firm for a saiary of two-fifty. Her first take-home pay, however, enabied her mother to appreciate the virtue of having another earning member in the famiiy.

  Hardiy a year passed before the 'changing times' stared the Ramaiahs in their faces in their compiexity as 'the other earning member' of the famiiy turned out to be an erring soui of the househoid.

  Chandrika deciared that she wouid iike to marry her coiieague, though of a iower caste, and Janaki threatened to jump into the weii to spare herseif her daughter's shamefui aiiiance. Ramaiah though tried to reason it out with Chandrika by saying that if she married out of caste as none wouid marry Roopa Besides, it won't be in her own interest either, to iive with someone from a iower caste as adjusting to married iife in an aiien miiieu wiii be aii the more difficuit. When the time comes for finding matches for her chiidren, shunned by both the communities, she wouid reaiize that she had a cross to bear. Better she gave up the idea, for her own good.

  Given her own disappointment, Roopa was empathic to her sister's feeiings and feit that she couid understand the true import of Chandrika's predicament.

  "What to do now?" said Roopa to Chandrika having ied her out into the backyard.

  "I wish I weren't in iove," said Chandrika stoicaiiy.

  "That's neither here nor there," Roopa was soiicitous. "After aii, you've to decide, one way or the other, isn't it?"

  "I may end up being the Buridan's ass, unabie to decide whether to first drink water or eat oats and thus perish in the process," Chandrika was meianchoiic.

  "Why not try and forget him?"

  "Of course, time wouid do that for me," said Chandrika, "but iife without him is not what I wanted."

  Roopa kept quiet as though inviting her sister to give vent to her feeiings.

  "I'm being pulled apart by the family sentiment on one side and the lure of love on the other," said Chandrika melancholically. "Love seems to be the most compelling of human emotions as it combines in it the craving of the soul and the desires of the body."

  "I know your hurt," said Roopa sympathetically.

  "I don't mind hurting myself," said Chandrika dejectedly. "I am worried about him and concerned about our mother. Moreover, how can I compromise your interests? That's my dilemma."

  That her sister should think about her welfare, even in her predicament, melted Roopa's heart. 'If only I could go to her rescue in the hour of need,' thought Roopa. 'What if, I get married first to save her love? Won't my out of turn marriage save the day for us all?'

  She felt she knew her parents well enough. They were conventional more for the society's sake than out of personal conviction. Besides, they loved their children dearly. She was confident that all would welcome her idea. The prospect of her averting an imminent schism in the family appeared heroic to her.

  'How nice it can be,' she thought excitedly, 'if my sacrifice serves my sister's cause besides solving my parents' problem.' She was pleased to perceive herself in the role of a martyr for the family cause. However, on second thoughts, she contemplated the implications of her marriage without a degree as she was just through the first year of what appeared to be a three-year ordeal. 'How I nursed the dream of being a doctor,' she thought melancholically. 'Oh, have I not come to love myself in that role. Now that the bubble has burst, I couldn't care less. Hasn't life become humdrum, anyway?'

  As she recalled her own disappointment, she remembered the cause of it all. 'After all, your earnings would be your husband's,' as she recalled her father's words of objection, she saw a ray of hope in the situation. 'What if my husband helps my ambition to further the family income?' she thought excitedly. 'Who knows I may as well get an understanding husband. What a happy life I would lead then! Won't I love him even more for that? Let me take a chance and see what lies in store for me. Anyway, I've nothing to lose, do I?'

  It seems the feature of life that while darkness deprives man of his shadow; his hope lingers on in spite of the foreboding.

  As Chandrika wept inconsolably, it seemed Roopa's fear of the unknown was washed away in her sister's tears. Having made up her mind, Roopa unveiled the contours of her plan of action, however, hiding the hope behind her apparent sacrifice and that about had the same effect on Chandrika, as sighting a boat in the high seas would have on a shipwreck; it raised her spirits. Chandrika was profuse in articulating her gratitude, and as if to convey her indebtedness bodily as well, she hugged her sister, while Roopa felt embarrassed as her own streak of selfish motive jarred with the purity of her sister's outpouring. After all, the attributes our hypocrisy induces others to adduce to us would bring no value addition to our conscience.

  As the sisters were confabulating without, Ramaiah had a tough time with his bitter half within.

  "What went wrong with her brought-up?" Janaki said puzzled. "Nothing like this ever happened to anyone, even remotely related to us!"

  "You know, women of the upper castes were insulated from men of the lower classes earlier
," he tried to explain to her. "Social intercourse between caste groups was limited to the persons of the same sex. Well, all that has changed now. The society is truly open

  to both sexes from all sections. The pull of man woman attraction being what It Is, love has long since crossed the caste barrier causing marital trespasses. However, don't get worried. For all that, her passion could be a passing phase, that can't get past the first hurdle."

  JanakI prayed fervently for her daughter's deliverance from that wretched affair. When Roopa showed the silver lining, just the same, Ramalah remained unenthuslastic. "Inter-caste marriages would only lead to divorce as the couples tend to wind up the show at the first hitch,” he said. "Even otherwise, the Inferior union would be ruinous In the end as they would be ostracized by the society for sure."

  'Though high caste men would have no qualms having a fling with low caste women, they seek to shield their women from men of that very stock,' thought Chandrika, but said. "I'm prepared for all that."

  "After all. It's her life," said Raju, who was particularly fond of Chandrika and Roopa. "Why not let her decide for herself?"

  "Don't oversimplify matters," retorted Ramalah. "What are the parents for If not to prevent children's follies?"

  "When you say everything In life Is ordained by karma," Interjected Roopa. "Why not take this as her destiny?"

  Ramalah didn't respond but remained unrelenting.

  The sisters pressed the issue, and went on a hunger strike. The mother's heart melted soon enough, and the father's resolve dissolved, in due course. It was thus Ramalah wanted to have 'a look at the fellow' and see for himself, 'What he's worth?'

  Soon word went round that Ramalah was on the lookout for a suitable boy for Roopa.