One day before the festival

Swarag was attending the call from his brother who was making excuses on not visiting them for the festival under the pretext of his children's education.

Swarag knew that his sister-in-law was never interested in their family affair and would never turn up for the festival.

So, he was silently listening to his brother's wailing of missing his mother and the fresh aroma of their ancestral house.

After much talk, he promised to visit them next month when the children would receive their summer vacations.

Swarag could only agree to his elder and resumed his work cutting the call.

"Sir, Some Rajanna has come to meet you. Shall I send him in?" Swarag nodded his head and adjusted his small table which was filled with small pellets of iron and wood cravings. He changed into his regular more 'official' look to be presentable in front of his new clients.

"Please come in. Have a seat. Shammi, bring two cups of filter coffee!" he ordered his worker who was waiting for the order of snacks for their new client.

Rajanna looked around the little office get up and smiled awkwardly at the young man who had managed to run his small business without much hassle.

Swarag followed his vision and tried to clean the area with his dimpled smile to impress the client.

"Well...I have come with a proposal for you?" Rajanna started off with much courage in front of the athletic man whose muscles threatened to bulge out with the slight flex of his hands on the desk. However, his doe eyes relaxed the old man who spoke

"I know Son, that the elders are supposed to talk these things. But since your father has demised. It leaves me no choice but to discuss with you only."

Swarag was trying to understand his words by scrunching his perfectly shaped eyebrows.

"Well, I contacted your elder brother but he said that he was busy with some office work and told me to meet him in his office. I have hardly travelled outside the district; how would you expect me to travel all the way to Bangalore!" Rajanna explained his problem of ill health and leaving his little family for longer days.

Swarag was listening patiently to the elder and smiling in between for him to continue.

Rajanna finally found some courage and spoke

"I am asking your agreement for marrying my elder daughter," The smile on his cupid bow dropped at the word 'marriage'. He shaked his eyes and was finding words to refuse the proposal.

"Sir, I highly appreciate you to come all the way here to my humble factory. But I am sorry, I for now am not interested in marriage. I have to build my factory, take care of my mother. It will be difficult for me to take care of a new person."

Rajanna didn't come all the way to get rejection. He smiled saying

"For that only, you should get married my son. My daughter will take care of your lovely mother and your house. She is a gem of a person. You will be very happy with her. Believe me?"

Swaraj smiled politely and got up from his chair. He went across the elder and joined his hands saying again that he was not interested in the marriage.

Rajanna sulked at the rejection for his lovely daughter and got up to leave. He refused to have the coffee bought in my Shammi who looked at his boss for answers.

At Rajanna's house

Gauriamma was tiding up the bed for their sleep when she saw her sad looking husband sitting on the edge of the bed with hands on his sides.

She went to close their room door and asked him the reason to which he narrated what had happened in Swarag's factory.

Gauriamma smiled and told him that she will take care the young man's refusal.

Rajanna looked at his wife with confusion. As he an experienced businessman was not able to convince a novice in the field how could his housewife convince the lad.

"Oho! You are thinking like a businessman. I will approach his mother Kaushalya. I have heard about her and their family heritage. It seems they will be coming for the festival tomorrow in town. That time, I will befriend her and even talk about our Ragini. I am pretty sure, once he sees my beautiful Ragini, all his business will fly away from his head. Hahaha...." Gauriamma laughed to earn a confused look from her husband. He shaked his head at her unbelievable talent to achieve the unachievable.

The festival

Swarag had taken his mother in their Swift car to visit the temple in the little town which hosted the festival. His mother was a strong believer in the goddess of the temple and hoped that the deity would bless her child with his better half.

Kaushalya was climbing the stairs of the temple and was huffing for a breath. She reached out for her little water bottle in her satchel but it dropped because of her clumsiness.

She saw a maiden approach her with her bottle with the most charming smile. She looked at her and was mesmerised with her green almond eyes and wavy hair falling on her beautiful face.

She was awestruck by her simplicity and didn't listen to her calls.

"Aunty, your bottle!" Ragini handed her the bottle to earn a weird smile from her. Her maiden then climbed the rest of the stairs with her bestie and brother who looked at the elderly woman with suspicion.

"Amma, why did you stop? We have to go early before the sunset," Swarag came to his mother who seemed to be gazing at nowhere.

She jolted at his call and nodded her head searching for her maiden.

Inside the temple, Kaushalya was more interested in her maiden than the holy water offered by the priest who insisted her to move the line.

She immediately took the blessings and went towards the Prasada counter to search.

She caught her hip and puckered her lips to see where had her maiden disappeared suddenly.

"Amma, let's go to the high priest. We have to arrange for the homa for the house purification as usual for the house. He is waiting for us," Swarag came to see his mother looking again at nowhere. He snapped his fingers in front of her to gain her attention.

Kaushalya gave up her search and followed her son to discuss the arrangements for the homa in their house.

"Akka, We have to buy the mosquito bat this time. I swear those wretched creatures seems to have grown in numbers from the last time. I am fed of them!" Rajesh was complaining to his sister who smiled at his whining and promised to buy it for him.

Ragini went to take the money from her sling bag and to her horror she found that her bag has been tampered with. The bag had been ripped from down emptying all its content.

She got worried at her lose and thought to go back to search for it. But the shopkeeper demanded for the price of the mosquito bat and started low screaming at them thinking them to act out the whole scenario.

After a whole 5 minutes of argument, she saw the similar aunty paying for her. Kaushalya smiled at her little victory to earn a thankful look from the youngster.

"Thank you Aunty, Let me take you to my Amma and Appa. They will be delighted to see you," saying so, she clutched her hand and took her new friend to meet her parents.

Like so, the family met with each other and casually invited for their respective houses.

Kaushalya looked out for her missing son and praying that he would land up on time to see her maiden.

But Gauriamma excused saying that they would miss their bus if not hurried back to the bus stop.

Alas, she had to bid them bye with disappointment. But took their promise to visit her house to meet her charming son.

Kaushalya was smiling the whole ride from the fair to their home confusing her son who looked at her from time to time.

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