An inflorescence of hundred smiles
“Get me Bamboo flowers, I want to see what they look like”-
Charis protruded her lower lip in a whimper and looked with those puppy eyes at
Arjun.
“What’s that? Come on! What a new obsession this is?” –
Arjun asked incredulously.
Arjun arranged the bunch of chrysanthemums that he had
brought for Charis in a vase intently taking care of the symmetry. In the past
few months he had become Charis’ page boy and jinn, and very willingly so.
Chrysanthemums had fallen out of favour like the fresh
litchis had, a week ago. In the month of January she ordered for litchis, not
tinned or preserved but farm fresh litchis. This had Arjun flummoxed. No amount
of cajoling, coaxing or reasoning would pacify Charis. What she wanted, she wanted
and Arjun knew it.
He called every
single dealer, every relative and every friend in the country, but to no avail.
Finally a friend studying Chinese at Nehru university got it from his friend’s
uncle’s orchard in the Guangdong province of China
However, fulfilling her wishes gave Arjun as much
contentment and happiness. He had accepted his role of jinn very gladly. Some
other fancies came and went quickly just to be replaced by new ones. Daisies , The Satanic verses, ………..
He got her everything but Bamboo flowers…Good Gods! He had
never seen them and whoever he asked looked at him as if he was asking for the
magical monkey’s paw.
“Bamboo doesn’t have flowers, Charis!” – He tried to reason
it out but pat came the reply complete with information and statistics.
“It grows every 80
years and there could be species which grow them earlier. I just want to see
them. Else I ‘ll not eat.”- Charis concluded the discussion.
“You are impossible!” – Arjun ruffled his hair in despair.
“And classy too” – She smiled and Arjun was bewitched, like
the first time when he saw her. It happened every time she smiled.
Like everyone Arjun and Charis thought theirs was a
fairytale wedding. They were madly in love and after a lot of squabble between
their parents they had their way. The wedding would be as per the rites and
rituals of Hindu marriage. It was nothing in the wave of excitement.
When Arjun beheld Charis under the veil of maroon sari with
brocade of gold, all the vows that he took in Vedic chants couldn’t have been
more truthful…..
And here he was grappling with a new mission - getting
Bamboo flowers for Charis which he had never seen.
“There are other flowers…petunia,hibiscus,balsam,
chrysanthemum,rose, Lotus….why Bamboo flowers!!” – he thought.
Arjun called up all the florists,agricultural farms
,research institutes, his friends and relatives all over the country and nobody
had ever seen Bamboo flowers.
A day ,two days, three days , a week passed by and there was
no way Arjun could get Bamboo flowers for his queen.
One evening as he walked by the florist who Charis and Vijay
visited very often shouted from behind. Waving frantically he ran towards him
and was holding a bamboo shoot with inflorescence on them.
“Here is your Bamboo flower, Sahib” – the florist handed it
to Arjun as if it was a rare trophy. And rare trophy it indeed was.
Vijay put a hundred rupee note in his palms and took the
flowers.
Looking at them closely he saw hundreds of smiles light the
bunch.
“I miss you Charis. I’ll always miss you”. He kissed them as
a tear rolled down and perched itself on one of the flowers that smiled on.
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