Stranger Prompt 7

A  Stranger

Koel, a young girl, about twenty years old   lived  in Chandergarh, a small village  in Bihar. Her father, Lallan   was the head of the village, with a population of about two hundred people.  They were adi vaasis  ( ancient  tribals).  Koel  was the only daughter  of Lallan. He  felt  that there is no one fit to be his daughter’s groom.  Koel’s  mother  died when she was only four years old. Lallan  cared for her, both as a father as well as a mother. Lallan was so  much attached to her that not even in his dreams he did not think of  separation from her.

                   It was a cloudy night. A helicopter, driven by Lt. Subodh Dasgupta  met with an accident. It crashed in the  panchayat office of  Chandergarh. The whole night Lt. Dasgupta struggled to  come out from the debris, but could not succeed due to injury in his back. He did not know when he drifted into deep slumber. It  was  raining,when he became conscious. A  group of   people  had surrounded the helicopter. He tried to decipher what language they were speaking, but  could  not understand. He had splitting headache and again he slept. When he became conscious, he was under a roof. There was a sound of  many  people but he did not know the language. Suddenly Koel entered and  diplomatically asked all of them to leave the room. She sat near the stranger and said,''Open your mouth, and drink this milk ''. She kept his head on her lap and and fed him with a wooden spoon. Subodh obeyed her like a baby and opened his mouth.  He tried to get up, but Koel  signalled him to keep lying down. In a sign language he asked  her  how long he had been there. She  showed four fingers.  They  conversed in sign language for a long time and did not realise  how time  flew away. Her father entered . She got up  and stood by the side of her father. Lallan knew some words of  Hindi and English and  they could manage to  understand each other. In the last four months he had seen signs of attraction  for Subodh  in the eyes of Koel.  He asked Subodh  about his family.Subodh told him that he was brought up in an orphanage. He had no knowledge about his parents or any other relatives.

                           The stranger won the hearts of the father and daughter.  The father   got the two love birds married and declared him as his successor. He was no more a stranger for them.

Written for Prompt 7 set the challenge Sunday# 1