LOVE IN THE VALLY
So here is an unique Love Story of Rekha-Lalit Sheth of 'Raj Travels' published in the latest issue of CHITRALEKHA - the Valentine Day Special. The Gujarati story is by Chitralekha' Senior Journalist KETAN MISTRY and the following English trans-Created by KIRAN CH RAIVADERA... Here it goes:
In ‘Kashmir Ki Kali’, a blockbuster of the yesteryear’s Yahoo Boy Shami Kapoor, a boy named Rajeev visits Kashmir and gets enamoured of Champa, a Kashmiri girl.
This real story does precisely match the reel story in all its twists and turns. And of course in terms of romance as well.
Way back in 1976, Lalit Sheth, a wide-eyed Kolkata boy is struggling hard in Mumbai to grab his share of success in travel industry, organizing trips for his clients. Around the time, he happens to see an ad in the paper:
‘Learn skiing in Gulmarg’s Jawaharlal Nehru Institute..’
The ad ignites the boy’s adventure instincts and he instantly decides to take a plunge in learning skiing. Having done the 10-day course in Gulmarg, he spots an impressive looking hotel-Jahangir- on his way from Gulmarg to Srinagar.
The hotel’s manager reveals that this is a new hotel and obviously needs business. On his part, Lalit Sheth says that he too is fresh in business and looking for such hotels for his clients. He offers assurance to confirm booking of 60 rooms every season on condition that his cooks will take care of the hotel kitchen.
This heralds the advent of Raj Travels’ Kashmir chapter, which understandably necessitates Lalit Sheth’s frequent visits to Kashmir. From this point onwards, Lalitbhai takes over narration of the most fascinating part of the story.
“Coming from an orthodox Kashmiri Pandit family, Rekha used to take care of various responsibilities at the hotel, chiefly looking after connecting and transfer of calls. When I needed to talk to Mumbai or any other place, she would connect the line for me. It is a different story that neither of us realized when we felt connected.
At the time, it was a sacrilege to even glance at Kashmiri girls, let alone fall in love with them. Neither had seen the other, their interactions being confined to only telephonic talks. It was love at first sound, so to speak, and not love at first sight…
Lalitbhai muses about the girl: how the girl, who is gifted with such a melodious voice and soft-spoken demeanor must look..!
On her part, Rekha wonders how this mild-mannered boy would look like.
At the end of the one year of telephonic association, Lalitbhai once musters up courage and meets Rekha. It is only then he realizes that she is a Kashmir ki Kali. It is irresistible for him not to propose to her.
But his proposing to her did not alter the situation a bit, which remained exactly like the Kashmir imbroglio. It was still not clear whether her response was positive or negative. In the meantime, Lalitbhai’s father passed away at Kolkata. His mother was quite liberal. Lalitbhai would often prod Rekha to break the news to their respective families. But Rekha kept deferring by repeating every time, ‘not now’
Recalling those days, Lalit Sheth says, ‘one day, in the beginning of 1978, I just marched into her house. After self-introduction, I blurted out everything. I also made it clear that we would marry each other only after they give us a green signal and not otherwise..’
This sudden attack was followed by the stunned family members breaking into an animated debate among themselves in Kashmiri, not a word of which could be fathomed by Lalitbhai. At the end of what turned out to be a long, intense deliberation, Lalitbhai could figure out that they had given them a nod.
Their approval was followed by a long exchange of correspondence between Kashmir and Mumbai. Interestingly, in this extended exchange of letters, Rekha would invariably shoot off questionnaires instead of wasting her time in sharing sweet-nothings.
‘How and who would your mother worship?’
‘What would she make for breakfast and lunch?’
‘How would she greet and welcome guests?’
The objective was to learn everything about Gujarati culture, their food habits, the manners and etiquette, but wedding was yet a distant possibility.
Thinking that enough is enough, Lalitbhai resolved to sort out the matter once and for all and headed for Kashmir. But as luck would have it, he could not locate the beloved’s house. Armed with a sketchy address, he failed to reach the desired destination. Realizing that it was a futile trip, Lalitbhai decided to return when he bumped into a teary-eyed Rekha coming from the opposite direction. In fact, her father was seriously indisposed, she revealed with tears rolling down her face.
Both reached her home where the bed-ridden father held Lalit Sheth’s hands and said with a lump in his throat, ‘it is good that you came. I am not sure how long I shall survive. Why don’t you both get married tomorrow?’
Lalitbhai was stunned. Marriage? Tomorrow? No relatives, not even mother? But there was no option. Reminiscing about those days, he says, ‘when I reached my hotel, another crisis was awaiting me. Some local extremist elements protested against our proposed wedding. I started getting life threats but mercifully, Rekha’s maternal uncle was a senior cop who reassured us that once we reached Bhawani temple the next day, he would take control of the situation thereafter. Again, when we reached Srinagar airport after the ceremony was over, protestors had lined up agitations, but we were unharmed thanks to foolproof security’
Those days Lalitbhai did not possess his own house. Somehow he raised money and bought a house in Borivali. The rest was of course taken care of by wife Rekha, who lent the home a warm and caring touch.
In his 32-year married life, Lalitbhai shares, they underwent a lot of vicissitudes. His enterprise Raj Travels got enmeshed in a financial squeeze, but all this while, Rekha stood by him like a solid rock. Those days, besides their two children, his uncle, aunt and their kids would stay at his house. Never ever did Rekha grumble for a moment about having to take care of as many as eight people in the family. ‘I always loved her but now to this love was added a sense of respect for the way she ran my family’.
On her part, Rekha confesses that the first three months after she went to Kolkata following her marriage were pretty tough, for Lalit had left for Japan on his tour. ‘It was too humid out there and there was no phone. I could neither contact my parents nor Lalit. Even back home my parents and others too kept worrying about me. But later everything began to fall in place. My mother-in-law was too loving and understanding, she made me an expert in the language and Gujarati manners etc.
Today, both can speak each other’s language. While Rekha does converse in and read Gujarati, Lalitbhai can speak Kashmiri.
He says that those days a boy from the Dasha Sorathia Bania family marrying a Kashmiri girl had triggered a mini furore, but today ‘our family has become a symbol of national integration: my son Akash has married an Assamese girl Priyanka whereas my daughter Shreya has married to a Punjabi boy - Jiten!'
 | Kshitij M Kotak, BE (Computer) Kshitiz, as he prefers to be called in personal and professional life, is an IT (computer systems) infrastructure services specialist working as CEO for his own enterprise, Fortune Grecells P Ltd having the mantra: Simplifying Complex IT. Personally, Kshitiz is very impressed with life and achievements of Dhirubhai. And regrets that he can never be like him. He is more sensitive than most of his peers and very attached to people he loves. An ardent believer in Saibaba, Kshitiz believes that even the pain inflicted by Him is to ensure that God is challenging him to see if his faith in Him is unaltered and that God is pre-poneing his pain to now when it can be withstood easier than at a later age. |
 | As a professional, Kshitiz believes that there are 3 essentials to IT support...
Fortune Grecells thus has it's deliverables clear and unadulterated with mission statement that is equally well-defined: Simple, Authentic and Innovative. Fortune Grecells was thus probably the first amongst it's class to offer RIMS to US chain of stores across India with support. Everything at Fortune Grecells is fastidiously simplified by removing all the intimidating garbage that marks technology world-wide. Visit www.ITEasily.com* when you wish to purchase any computer related products to experience this first-hand. Fortune Grecells service focus is Small & Medium Businesses, typically sized between 2 - 200 employees, as Kshitiz believes in the Gandhian principle of small, self-reliant enterprises being better for this country. For this very segment, where there are less time and resources devoted towards the most critical aspect of business, its data, Fortune Grecells has innovated a data protection solution known as IT's BLACKBOX at a price that is affordable to these growing businesses, underlined with a peace of mind mission statement that says "Never Lose Data... Nor Sleep". * ITEasily.com, currently in a state of beta testing through soft-launch works on the principle of Best IT products, BETTER prices, EASILY. |
