“Arre, Sharmili! You are looking so beautiful! Very nice. And this Salwar suits you very well.”, Shikha noted when she saw Sharmili entering the room. “Shukriya.”, said Sharmili shyly smiling. “Come, sit down. I get the food from the kitchen.” “May I help you?” Shikha smiled. “Of course. Chalo!” The two women went to the kitchen, fetched the food and brought it in the dining room. When everybody sit down Sharmili found herself sitting next to Aditya. She didn´t know for sure why but she felt awkward when he was around. The odd glances he gave her made her feel like a little unconfident child.
When Sharmili looked around she noticed that there were only Shikha, Tanay, Aditya and her. She wondered where Shikha´s husband was and so she asked. “Oh, Manghesh is away on a business trip. He´ll be back at Sunday evening.”, answered Shikha while putting some rice on Tanay´s plate. Sharmili nodded and felt silent while eating.
It was a strange feeling for her to sit at the dining table with this family to which she didn´t belong. But she hoped that it would change when a little time has passed by. Suddenly she noticed that Aditya was staring at her. She looked at him and tried to find out what he was thinking about but she didn´t get it. Instead of that she blushed. He gave her an pejorative glance and stood up. “I have to do some homework for tomorrow.”, he said to Shikha. “I go to my room.” Then he left the dining room.
“I´m really sorry, Sharmili. Aditya is very strange these days. I hope he gets better soon... I really don’t know what´s wrong with him... ” Shikha tried to excuse Aditya´s behaviour. “No, it´s absolutely okay. Maybe he just has to get used with me.”, Sharmili replied but in truth she felt not well. She wanted to get to know why Aditya was behaving like this to her.
************************************
“No, Shikha, please! It´s too much. I can´t...” “Sharmili , stop arguing with me and take it. I want you to try on this Salwar. Come on.” Shikha insisted and thrusted the yellow Salwar Kameez into Sharmili´s hand. Sharmili gave up, nodded and went into the fitting room while Shikha was triumphantly smiling at her.
While changing Sharmili felt a little awkward. She and Shikha were already shopping the whole day and she bought her four Salwars, two Saris, some shirts, trousers, skirts and underwear. Sharmili didn´t know how she ever could pay all this generosity back and so she got a bad conscience.
When she stepped out of the cubicle Shikha gave her a bright smile. “You look absolutely gorgeous. We have to buy this Salwar, too.” Sharmili sighed. “I really don´t know what I should say but it´s all too much. I really can´t take all this...” Shikha smiled and laid her arm around Sharmili´s shoulders while clarifying. “You don´t have to get a bad conscience. It´s just the simple fact that you need some clothes to wear. Ergo I buy them because you have no money yet to buy them by yourself. When you get your first salary you can buy all the stuff you need at your own. Sounds good?” Sharmili nodded with a shy smile and went back in the cubicle to change her clothes again.
Shikha crossed her arms over her chest and sighed. It would be a tough job to put some self-confidence into Sharmili.
After a long shopping day Shikha and Sharmili came back home in the evening. When they entered the house they almost fell over Aditya who was on his way from the kitchen to his room. Shikha greeted him with a smile but he was just nodding and observing their shopping bags. After another glance at Sharmili he turned around and went upstairs to his room.
When Aditya closed the door behind him he sighed and felt anger rising up in his chest. What was this Sharmili-girl thinking of herself? She entered his family, spent the whole last two days with Tanay and now she let Shikha buy her all her clothes. He wasn´t jealous but he hated the fact that this slumdog-girl was about to infiltrate his family to take advantage of them.
He sat down on his desk chair and looked out of his window. The sun was about to set and the sky had a nice violet colour which reminded him of the Salwar which Sharmili was wearing yesterday. He had to admit that she was a very beautiful girl with her long, thick, black hair, her hazelnut brown eyes, her soft skin and her pretty face. And when he had see her only wearing this short towel that day there were some indecent thoughts in his mind which he didn´t want to recall.
But he was sure that all that was just façade. Also her shy smile and her lowered gaze. She just had to be devious. Maybe she told Shikha a big lie and her parents were still alive and they channeled Sharmili in the family to take advantage of their wealth. He couldn´t really say why he had this feeling but he was quite sure about that.
While trying on her new clothes again in her room, Sharmili´s thoughts spaced out to Aditya. She avoided him most of the time because she felt so awkward when he was around but she couldn´t suppress his glances. They were pejorative and hurt her. And she had absolutely no idea why he looked at her like that. She had the shade that it could be because of her status but how was it possible that Shikha and Aditya were so completely different?
She really wanted to ignore his glances but it wasn´t possible. When she lived in the slums it was normal that all the city people gave her odd glances and she was used to it but now she felt uncomfortable.
Sighing she seated herself on the bed and stared at the ground. She didn´t know what to do with all the problems she faced by now. Her bad conscience concerning Shikha, her new job in this house, Aditya´s strange behaviour and Sharmili was sure that there was much more to come. Her only bright spot was Tanay. The little boy seemed to love her uncompromising and that gave her that little level of comfort which gave her the strength to face everything.
