The Sarees

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Characters introduction
 
Ramya - A girl who is going to marry.
Anandmohan -Ramya's father.
Usha -Ramya’s mother
Ramlal - Elder brother of Ananda Mohan, who resides in America.
Uma - Ramlal's wife.
Rita - daughter of Ramlal.
Rakesh - Ramlal's son.
Tony - Rakesh's American friend. Member of a Drug Cartel
Ramesh -An acquaintance of -Anandmohan.
Manoj - Son of Ramesh who lives in Mumbai. Works in films. Make the arrangements of cannabis for celebrities.
Sandhya – Ramya’s father’s sister.
Manish - Ramya's maternal uncle.
Sunanda-Manish's wife.
Rekha -Sandhya’s younger sister in law.
Nila - A fashion designer in Mumbai.
Veenu - A junior film director. 
Padmini – A film heroin.
Alex – A drug smuggler who is in a prison in India. 
 
 

 
1
Rakesh was trapped in Tony's web. He previously consumed marijuana. Tony gave him cocaine. Greed for cocaine made him follow Tony. Tony ran a travel agency. Rakesh did not know that he was also a member of the drug cartel. When Tony came to know that Rakesh would be going to India, he thought of going to India with him and with his help find a contact to fill the vacancy of Alex, who was apprehended and imprisoned in India. He wished to revive the supply of narcotics from the Golden Crescent. Alex used to send the best quality hashish of Afghanistan. 
Tony invited his gang, and Rakesh, to a party in his new flat in New York.After eating and drinking, some people prepared Hashish filled cigarettes and started smoking leisurely.
Tony asked Rakesh, " When will you go to India?"
Rakesh replied, " Next month."
Tony asked, "Is your cousin going to marry? "
Rakesh said, " Yes."
Tony said, " I love Indian Marriage. It is very colorful and grand. Can I come to India with you? "
Rakesh said, " Of course you can come"
Tony said, " I'm saying seriously. I had been thinking of going to India for a long time. It will be fun if we go together. "
Rakesh said, " Yes, dear."
 
 

 
2
Ramya and Rakesh were cousins. They passed a memorable childhood together in Agra. Then their families lived together. She was happy to know Rakesh was going to come to her wedding along with the family.
Ramya's Kanpur-based Sandhya Bua was also very happy and excited about the news of her elder brother Ramji Lal's arrival. She was very fond of imported things. He had emailed the entire list of her demands to Ramjilal.
The next day Ramji Lal asked over the phone, " Sandhya,  why have you written sorry at the end of the list of stuff?"
Sandhya said, " Maybe the spelling mistake that is a Saree."
Ramji said, " I will get the saree coming to India. There we will get better and cheaper sarees. "
Sandhya said, " But I want to wear a Saree imported from America. People get to know who is Rama's sister. "
Ramji said, " Okay. I shall bring.
 
3
Ramya's father Anandmohan was a typical government officer, who did not do anything else except his job. Now he realized that he got a bit late in marrying off Ramya. Had he arranged her marriage a year ago, when he was in the service, many things would have been easily done. . Being on the post has different importance. He retired last year.
Whenever Ramya's mother Usha used to talk about Ramya's marriage, he used to get irritated. He used to think that Usha was rushing into everything.
The best thing was Ramya and Usha searched and found a suitable boy on the Internet for Ramya. His name was Rajan and he was a marketing manager in a company in Indore. Both families had a meeting. The two sides liked each other and the marriage was finalized. The wedding date of Ramya and Rajan was one month later. On the initiative of Usha, preparations for the marriage were started.
 
4
Knowing the news of Ramya's marriage, Manish felt happy and on the other hand, anxiety surrounded him. The concern was about the expenses. It was a winter wedding, so new woolen clothes would have to be purchased. He did not have to buy anything for himself. But the wife and children will want new clothes. Then Sunanda would say, " Take a new suit for yourself. You have been wearing the same suit for the last five winters."
Then he and his wife also had to perform the duty of being the maternal uncle of the bride. Manish thought of taking a loan from his office.
Sunanda's wardrobe was full of Sarees, but her craving did not leave her. On every wedding occasion, she used to get in the mood to take revenge on other women who had let her down on any of the previous occasions. However, it was not easy to get success in it because she liked the Sarees of other women more. 
 
5
October 2020
Manoj was watching Kapil’s comedy show on TV at his residence. Then he received a call from Neela Madam.
Neela said, " Padmini needs four doses. Can you deliver ?"
Manoj asked, " When ?"
Neela said, " Now."
Manoj said, " All right. But I don't have the goods at this time."
Neela said, "Take that from me."
Manoj said, " I come now."
Manoj wore a mask, locked the flat, and went to Neela's house on a bike.
Taking four cigarettes of Hashish, he went to Padmini's house and came back by eleven o'clock.
In normal times, Mumbai never slept and used to run at high speed. The Coronavirus had slowed down its speed.
Neela realized that she was doing illegal work, but she did not consider herself guilty.
She was a successful fashion designer. Her clientele consisted mostly of upper-class people, including film actors. Many of them had become her friends. She used to provide these drugs only for them. That too because by coincidence she knew Manoj, who was a small drug supplier. She did not consume any drugs. She used to think of charas, ganja as tobacco. She only understood substances like cocaine, heroin, LSD in drugs. She had nothing to do with them.
If any of her upper-class customers discussed them, she would tell them to directly contact Manoj, and then she did not even try to know whether they contacted Manoj or not. Their need was fulfilled or not.
In the colony of thieves, there are also some decent thieves.
Manoj came to Mumbai from Kanpur four years ago to become an actor. His struggle was on. Till now he had so much success. He was introduced to Veenu, a junior director. He got a few small roles in his films.
One day during the shooting of a film, the health of the hero deteriorated. The important part of the film was to be shot. The director wanted the shooting not to be canceled. Known Hero had worked on Night Shift. Hence, he felt extremely tired. He went to rest in his luxury van. The director called Veenu and said something. Veenu beckoned Manoj. Manoj went to them.
The director gave ten thousand rupees to Manoj and gave an address. He took a photo of him with the mobile and said, " You take a taxi and go to this address. There you will find a person named Karim. Give him eight thousand rupees. He will give a packet. Bring it. I sent your name and photo to him."
Manoj understood the matter but he was in dire need of both work and money. Sometimes we do not shy away from making threats to fulfill our ambitions. He took the money and booked the cab as he walked away. As soon as he reached the pickup place, the cab arrived and he sat down.
The address given was in a crawl of Goregaon. The man named Karim took the money and handed over a cigarette box in a plastic packet and said to him, “take care."
Manoj kept that packet in the right pocket of his pants. He felt as if he had a time bomb in his pocket.
He called a second taxi to return and left. He kept his hands on his right pocket all the way.
The shooting location was near Juhu Beach. After reaching there, he handed over the packet to Veenu.
He took it to the Hero's luxury van.
The Shooting resumed after about half an hour. The shooting went well.
Manoj got double the money that day and got the opportunity to shake hands with the hero.
Gradually he came to know more about Mumbai besides Goregaon. Now he had a double role. He started getting small roles in films regularly, and he became a VIP customer of the drug market and a trusted drug arranger. His Income increased and he started sending money to his home.
Everyone in Harinagar knew that Manoj worked in films. Sometimes he was also seen in a movie.
Manoj's father Ramesh was proud of his son. He said several times to Ramya's father, " My son lives in Mumbai. If you want anything from Mumbai please tell me.
Clothing is very important at weddings. Sarees are also needed in plenty for wearing and for gifting. 
One day when Anandmohan met Ramesh in the market he asked , " How are you? You look a little tense."
Ramya's father said, " Conducting a marriage is a heavy task, do not understand where do I start from."
Ramesh said in a friendly manner, “Take the help of people close to you. My son Manoj is in Mumbai. He can bring cheap and best series and other items for the wedding from there
Ramya's father liked the idea. He said, " I will consult my wife about our requirements and tell you. I will give you money also
Ramesh said, " Don't worry about money. You tell me your requirements."
Manmohan said, " Okay I 'll go home and give you a call."
Both of them went on their ways.
An hour after reaching home, Anandmohan received a call.
Ramesh said, " Hello."
Anandmohan's voice came, “Hello Ramesh"
Ramesh said, "Please tell me."
Manmohan said, " Please note down. "
Ramesh wrote down the items mentioned by Anandmohan in a diary.
 
6
Ramji Lal had left the task of buying gifts for Ramya's wedding to his family. The wife and daughter were not interested. Rakesh gladly took this responsibility. He purchased small fiber dolls of the Statues of Liberty to share with the family. Took a dozen American crepe Sarees for Bua's special demand. These Sarees were imported from India. But the arrival of the Saree from America was very important for Buaji. Ramji Lal also wanted to gift his niece gold jewelry. But he had decided to do the rest of the shopping in India to avoid any problem with the customs department.
Ramji Lal arrived in Mumbai two days before the wedding along with his family and Tony. He had arranged a stay at the Hilton Hotel.  Alex had given earlier the phone number of a man named Manoj. Tony wanted to arrange cannabis in India for himself and Rakesh to use while living in  India. For this, he called Manoj.
Following the suspicious death of a popular young actor there appeared a drug angle in the investigation. Hence the Narcotics department became very active and raided a few people in the film industry. Therefore Manoj was extra cautious. Yet he made some arrangements for Tony and Rakesh.
 
7
On the day of the ring ceremony, Sandhya asked her younger sister in law Rekha, " Rekha, what are you going to wear in today's ceremony ?"
Rekha took out a pink saree with a silver border from her box and gave it to her and said, "I am thinking of wearing it."
Sandhya was left stunned. She had bought the same type of Saree after spending fifteen thousand rupees. And she planned to wear that Saree at the ring ceremony. At the time of the wedding procession, she wanted to wear a sky blue saree brought from the United States.
She asked Rekha, " Do you have any other saree?
Rekha showed another blue Saree, with a silver color border.
She advised, " I think you wear a blue Saree today."
" Why,” Rekha asked.
Sandhya said, " Simply. I felt."
Rekha agreed and wore a blue Saree at the Ring ceremony.
When the Sandhya got ready in the evening and appeared before everyone, Rekha was shocked. She was wearing a pink Saree like that of her Saree. She felt angry thinking that Sandhya had tricked her.
 

 
8
Ramlal Ji along with his family reached Harinagar on the morning of the wedding day. A few people touched the feet of Ramlal and his wife. Some children touched the feet of Rakesh and Rita as well.
Sandhya asked Ramlal, “ Have you brought the saree for me or forgot it. Ramlal gestured to his wife Uma. Uma took out a Saree from it and gave it to Sandhya. She gave the remaining Sarees and other gifts to Ramya's mother. Sandhya was happy. She was even happier that the Saree was already stitched with a fall and a matching petticoat and blouse were also provided.
But in the evening, when Sandhya was ready to wear the American Saree at the time of the wedding procession, she noticed that Rekha was already wearing the same type of saree. There was a slight difference in the color. She felt her saree’s color was better than Rekha’s Saree. She was satisfied.
 

 
9
Barat had arrived Most of the women and men of the house were busy at the door or outside welcoming the marriage procession. Someone called Sandhya. She saw Manoj, Rakesh, and Tony stand together. Rakesh had a saree box in his hand.
Rakesh called her. She went to him and asked, "What's the matter Rakesh.
Rakesh said, "Buaji You change the saree. This is your saree. By mistake, you received a wrong saree"
He opened the box and showed it. There was a rich color saree, petticoat, and blouse. The name of the showroom in America was written on the box.
She immediately took the Saree and went to change.
Sandhya  came after changing the saree and gave the former saree to Rakesh.
Tony said, "You're looking beautiful in this Saree."
Sandhya Bua smilingly replied, "Thank you." And went out fast.
Tony, Rakesh, and Manoj went to the terrace with that saree. Manoj traced the fall of the saree to four places and came out with four packets of thin and small pouches hidden inside it. Tony opened a packet, and filled it in three cigarettes.
Manoj took out a lighter from his pocket and lit cigarettes. The three comfortably sat on the ground, and smoked cigarettes leisurely. The trio went down when they were a little intoxicated. The band was playing a sharp dance tune on the instruments. Boys and girls were dancing. Rakesh, Tony, and Manoj also started dancing. The boys and girls got tired and sat on chairs, The three young men danced for a long time.
Sandhya Bua suddenly became the center of attention of women due to changing another new Saree and she enjoyed it.
10
The marriage ended well.
For two-three days, sarees given as gifts were criticized by female relatives. Sarees did not have the variety. Manoj also brought similar sarees. He thought that Sarees would go to different places. He did not have to focus too much on the selection.
Sandhya Bua's saree was also very much discussed. Rekha put a stop to it by saying that if Ramlal Ji brings a special saree for his younger sister, then what is the harm?
No one knows the real secret of that saree. 
Seeing the stern attitude of the Narcotics Control Bureau, India's organization against drugs, Tony and Rakesh thought it appropriate to return safely. And Tony too spent a few days in Harinagar and went back to America with Rakesh's family.
Manoj decided to stay away from drugs and decided to spend a few months at his home. His family was very happy.