A new year surprise! A tiny peek inside Inder's head. Let's see how he views the world and what he thinks of "Mud Monster" that Jasmine that has turned his world upside down!

March 1960. Inderavadhan Singh Deo's bedroom, Vaikunth Niwas, Ranikhet Estate, Shimla, India.

I wearily climbed up the stairs.

I had saved Jasmine's skin and slaughtered my own.

Gayatri had raved and ranted for one hour and I had shut my ears with cotton buds as usual.

Why I put up with her?

Just because Ma Sahib chose her for me!

No I can't bear her idiocies any more and I shall speak to Ma Saheb about it after the harvesting. The thought of spending my whole life with her gives me creeps.

She is beautiful ,vain and malicious.

We have nothing  in common.

I reached my room and sat down by the window ruminating.

As I closed my eyes, a radiant face serenely sleeping floated before my eyes.

Jasmine!

I was shocked.

That spit fire had spattered me with mud, hurled abuses at me and called me names. She had even slapped me and punched too. Her sharp tongue and retorts instigate me to rile her all the more.

I suddenly smiled and laughed.

She had come like a whiff of fresh air .

I t was like a new vibrancy had been infused into the decaying walls.

You can fight with her but not hate her.

Even  Ma  Saheb had taken to her in spite of her resemblance to Rosalie Watson. She is a beauty. How enticing and pristine she looked as she slept in the car and I had called her a clown just to annoy her!

But she has brains too. She pinned the problem which we all had been trying to solve but in vain. I shall give the devil her due.

The cerulean eyes, the ivory skin and thick brown cascades make her look stunning .

But she seems to be unaware of her charisma and appears so unpretentious.

She is a resolute young lady  and the only one who has not swooned over me.

She is made of a different mettle .

But what was the look in her eye when she was looking out through the window in the morning? She seemed so lost and vulnerable and these Cedars seemed to be whispering into her ears .What is her story? It is not what meets the eye.

I shall find out and solve the mystery of real Jasmine.

Wasn't that Ma Saheb's favourite flower?

I shall take Shanta's help.

I feel that she is trustworthy.

That night, I fell asleep thinking of beautiful shrews.