Marriage Unarranged by Ritu Bhathal

Marriage Unarranged by Ritu Bhathal

Author:Ritu Bhathal [Bhathal, Ritu]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: RBW Books
Published: 2020-02-08T16:00:00+00:00


Kiran

“Ouch! Oh, my God! Sorry, Bali. Why didn’t you say I was hurting you?” Kiran was mortified. It had been good, walking with him, alone, talking about their surroundings, sharing opinions. She had felt so comfortable with him, not realising she was marking him at the same time!

He laughed it off. “It didn’t hurt, don’t worry. I might tell the others back home I had some tribal markings done while over here if they don’t go down.” He winked at her.

Kiran felt herself start to colour, so she playfully punched his arm. “Shut up!” Clocking her best friend’s red eyes, she shook her head. “Oh, Aashi, I might have known you’d be in tears.” She sat next to Aashi and hugged her. “Sensitive is not the word. Come on. I think there’s been enough testosterone and emotion today. We’ve not got long until the train back to Delhi, and no doubt him over there,” she pointed at Bali, “needs to get fed soon.”

Soon enough, the atmosphere lightened. They grabbed some lunch from one of the local eateries and made their way back to the guest house but not before an emergency stop.

“Look!” Kiran was in a heightened state of excitement. “Cadbury’s chocolate! Oh, my God, I’ve been craving chocolate the whole week. They’ve got Cadburys!” She rushed over to a shop where there was a small refrigerated cabinet, proudly displaying a range of Cadbury chocolate bars. She grabbed two of each, paid the bemused vendor, and returned to the group.

“I can’t wait to eat proper chocolate,” she said, and opened a Whole Nut bar, sinking her teeth into it, rather than breaking a piece off.

Bali burst out laughing, and the others followed, as they watched her expression change from pure bliss to a look of disgust. Swallowing her mouthful, she exclaimed, “Eurgh! That is NOT Cadbury’s! Oh, my God, it tastes rank!”

“What did you expect? We’re in India, not England,” Sunny rolled his eyes. “It’s made here, not in Cadbury World back home. The milk is different. Everything is different.”

“I’ve bought a whole bag full!” She held her little, black plastic bag of booty up, to the sniggers of the others.

“Don’t be wasting it now, Kiran, think of the starving children here!” Bali teased her. He took a piece from the opened bar and sampled it himself. Watching his face gurn, Kiran laughed back at him.

“See!” she said, “I wasn’t exaggerating, was I?” She offered a piece to the others, and they all tried and agreed. English chocolate was incomparable.

Bali grabbed the bag from Kiran. “You don’t want this, do you?”

Before she could say anything, he turned to a small group of children who had been following them and distributed the chocolate bars to them.

A little girl looked at him hesitantly, took the chocolate offered, and threw herself at him grasping his legs in a brace-like grip. She peered up at him, her dirty face filled with a huge grin, rather than the usually prominent puppy dog eyes. She let go and ran off to join her friends.



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