Overcome with the suppressed emotions, their expression forbidden for long years, Ratno freely cried for the first time since that life altering night with Jagat. Sukhia's eyes that could no longer see well were to shedding tears. Jaggi had never seen her or an old man cry. To see them weep his eyes too moistened up and he took bother father and daughter into his embrace.
"Beta unable to tell Qaadian off, I died a million deaths," Sukhia said sinking into the cot.
Sangram and Hassan came in and with other sat down to eat. Shiv took the thalis containing otis and daal to each person and as he placed the thali before Jaggi he said,
"Enjoy but do tell me if Qaadian food is as good as Delhi's. Ratno Bhooa must be a good cook but so is Seeto chachi. She makes a killer daal as your nostrils can probably tell already. Hey, would anyone like raw onion?"
In unison all said 'yes'. Sangram brought out onions from the basket. Holding them one at a time on the inside bone of his ankle he smashed them with his right hand.
"Hey Sangram puttar, the onion was fresh from the khooh, right? Soft and sweet but still edgy," said Sukhia pushing away the empty thali and caressing his belly. "Ratno, come with me. We've twenty years and how my daughter became Principal Rattan Kaur to traverse."
The daughter and father talked all night celebrating the reunion. Of course the pretended funeral, immersion of her remains in the Ganga, registration of her demise with the Benares register keepers or the tangled tale of Jagat and her remained unsaid. As far as Sukhia was concerned she had a story no Qaadian wala could contradict and a son in substantiate it. Moreover she was now a Principal that no Qaadian wala other than Preeti and Jagat ever had been. All night long he listened, she told her story, true or false he no longer cared.
Jagat spent the night imagining the conversation between Sukhia and Ratno.
The next few days Ratno and Jaggi spent most of their time at Jagat's home or khooh. As Sukhia's health improved and he spent his days with them at the khooh or home and noticed that Ratno and Jagat were drawn to each other, talking, laughing and lounging but he put it down to them being Principals, their familiarity. past and present pulling them toward each other.
"Ratno, come with me to the college; you can see Preeti's small bungalow while I attend to my duties," said Jagat one morning. Sujata's visits to Qaadian had raised eyebrows, many drooping from exhaustion; she didn't come to Qaadian as often because setting tongues wagging was unnecessary. But Ratno won't face such a problem, he reasoned because she was a Qaadian wali and he was close to Sukhia.
After his Delhi rendezvous with Ratno, she had begun haunting his thoughts even as he regularly saw Sujata but deceiving himself he had put is down to his wish for Jaggi to be close to him; after all, Jaggi was his first born - he argued in his head but the truth was different. He had been craving a woman, anyone, who could be with him in Chajjuwara and Qaadian. The craving had troubled him but he found consolation in Gandhi's recent history when abandoned for partition by Nehru and Patel, he had turned away from power but in his sexual experiments he had discovered that abjuring libido was much harder. Like his messiah Jagat too abjured power but remained unable to tame his libido.
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