part 55
Threshold
ceremony began with big pomp and show. All members of Mahaale family and other
fiends had come to attend the ceremony. They were all appreciation for the way
this village girl achieved this position and that too without any male support.
Elderly members blessed Veena and prayed for her further growth. They were
comparing other boys from the village and said, they should learn from Veena
something and do rather similar feat in their career. They also cherished friendship
of the Arabian girl and Veena. Shree had come but he looked more interested in
other matters. He wanted to find out if he might get a chance to do something
in the city to supplement his income and for that, he was discussing
possibilities of any export business with help from his newly found friend in
Kamaal. He showed sparse attention to Ibna excepting greeting her at the
beginning. Ibna behaved similarly and all that fitted properly for the
occasion. Kamaal's friends who had visited the village had come with special
gifts to commemorate the threshold ceremony.
Ibna
looked more interested in the religious ceremony and other those things
particularly the fire to appease the deity she looked with amazement and for
that she was keeping company of Veena's mother. Veena's mother also was
enjoying that Inba was taking interest in those rituals. Ibna told her that
they the Arabs do not have any such elaborate services and opined that such
rituals add flavor to the occasion. She whispered to her that her brother
Kamaal has requested their priest to come and get blessings of Allah for the
occasion; wanted to know if that is allowed by the family. To her surprise,
Veena's mother immediately agreed to that and told it to Veena's father about
that. He with folded hands said that the priest is most welcome. After that
Ibna looking to her brother said to him in Arabic that he can call the priest
as if the priest was waiting to get the approval. Kamaal with a sweet smile and
a nod of approval called for the priest on mobile and soon the priest in his
typical attire entered the living room with some of Kamaals friends, whom Veena
had never seen, where the Hindu ceremony was arranged. The priest looked to the
Hindu ceremony and after greeting with appreciation to the Hindu priest
requested all that all please be silent while he praises Allah and request the
almighty to bless the girls for their future. This appeared very much different
from the Hindu ceremony because while that was done nobody bothered to keep
attention for the ritual, everybody was making all the noise around so much so
that nobody could hear the mantras priests were chanting. After it was all
silent, he began to prey for Allah and the prayer continued for sometime, after
brief pause, he told the meaning of the prayer to the attending gathering since
the prayer was in Arabic and not in any language that they could understand.
This small change added considerable seriousness to the occasion that it
deserved. The gathered people were all Brahman; they felt embarrassed that they
did not give the occasion the seriousness it deserved, even though, that aptly
was essential. When we call God, we must maintain some decorum but we Hindus do
not do it and this unsophisticated mannerism of Hindus came under criticism;
they agreed that Hindus should learn something from these people and improve.
All that condemnation of their crude mannerism was in Marathi not accessible to
Kamaal and his friend and that saved them from their reaction of ridicule. Ibna
understood that censure but gave no reaction to that as if that was not very
important to her. However, she told later to Veena's mother that probably
Hindus are not very careful with these mannerisms because, for them the God is
their mother, as usual children often take mother for granted, and that may be
the reason for this carelessness. Mother thanked her for her defense but all
the same did not accept it and said we Hindus must improve our ways with our
Gods. We Hindus are the only stupid people who do not care to show simple
respect to our Gods, we pass jokes on our Gods, write satires and even make
plays showing our Gods in not very respectable manner; all these things are
sure signs that Hindus are not civilized enough. They must change these habits
and stop defending them. On that, Ibna kept quiet.
Veena
had invited all her superiors from her office and they all came to attend the
ceremony. After the lunch, they all dispersed and some members of Mahaale
family began to prepare to leave for their village. Immediate family decided to
stay in the flat. Kamaal whispered to his sister that there are so many people
and so she should come with her and join Veena to stay after the family goes to
the village however, she refuses that and tells him that, this is her home and
will stay with Mahaale family.
"Brother,
please do not bother for it, I have stayed with them at Ghatla and they are not
new to me."
Veena
has achieved her first ambition; we shall see how things move in future.
This Story continues in the next posting.
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