Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17
I took fast steps towards her with a heart that had out stepped me and was already trying to comfort her. She was facing down without any energy to look up. I went near, kneeled down to see her face and my hands went up to hold her face almost involuntarily. But something stopped me; my mind processed an archived memory and caught hold of the information beating all Data warehousing tools known. “I won’t talk to her without you allowing it” my own words were stopping me and with tears flowing I turned to look at her Dad.
He had tears as well and nodded in affirmation. I reached her face and my touch should have made her process whatever ATPs left in her body, helping her manage a smile and her eyes met mine. Those eyes which have captivated me all these years showed every expression known to me. Her smile, her tears, the sticky chicks from the dried tears, the single drop that was hanging from her left eye lid, everything lost their divinity when I felt her saliva in my forehead. She placed her forehead on my forehead and closed eyes to force the tear to drop between us.
I sat near her and she reached my shoulders as if she was expecting that for a long time. She held my left collar with her left hand and I wrapped her inside my arms. “I love you” I said in her ears, for the first time. Yes! for the first time in all these years. She looked up, offered the genuine smile that reached her eyes and forced some tears out of it. I bent down, kissed her forehead closing my eyes and my tears flowed in her face.
Her father moved a few steps forward towards my family and started speaking “I never thought you all will come. We had started seeing grooms for her for the past one month. But when her mother talked to her about this, she started to create a big fuss, which turned into a big fight between us” he was narrating how all this happened as I saw the same from her eyes.
“What do you think about yourself? You are going to marry the guy I select for you and the decision is final” he said with a firm look.
“Yes. I will, if you choose him”
“Don’t even dream about it. When did you become cheap enough to even think about marrying a guy from that caste?”
“When I felt that he has a heart that no one else in this world can even come near to”
“Shut up. He is just acting. You don’t know how barbarous they could be. All illiterate, cultureless people have started ruining the society when they learnt something. They should have remained as slaves”
“Oh Dad. Whom do you call Cultureless or illiterate? For all the powers his relatives possess he could have took me by force long back. He is waiting for you to accept when I myself feel your acceptance is secondary when my life is in question.”
He reached to slap her and as she fell on the floor, said, “All those people can do is to use the brutal force and take you away. What does he even know about culture and the pride that a girl child holds in a family?”
“Dad! Stop accusing him. He is far more cultured than us. He values my decisions and your acceptance even when the love of his life is in question. I know how cultured and matured he is, he would even forgo his love and move on with life if that is my decision.”
“So you think he is very cultured and won’t take any stupid decisions when I say No to this marriage and also that he values your word. For all the tantrums you did all these days and the remaining love I have for my girl, I will do one thing. Let’s arrange for your wedding, a fake one. If at all he respects your decision and values my acceptance, he won’t indulge in any mean ways to stop the marriage or take you away by force. But what I feel is that he will abstain from this marriage as there has been a big interval and he would have moved on for sure.”
She laughed and then said, “I accept Dad. I know he will certainly give importance to my word.”
“But you should marry any guy I say after this, if he does anything to stop this marriage.”
“That won’t be necessary.”
“I will make it look exactly like a real marriage. I will print wedding cards and send it to him.”
“A wedding card alone won’t make him know that I have accepted the marriage, I will write to him and you can very well read it before sending him”
“Yes. At last you are going to marry the guy I have selected.”
She didn’t speak anything after that.
I was very certain that he will not come. But I didn’t want to take any risk, so I planned everything as real. Since I had already selected the groom who was also a relative, I could print the wedding cards with his details. I attached the letter she gave with the card from the first few wedding cards I printed and posted it along with her as she wanted to be sure that I don’t play any tricks in that. She left to Chennai, back to her software Job the same day. I sent the remaining to all you people to make sure you stop him even if he intends to come or make him do some heroics to stop the marriage. Both of which will make her realize her mistake.
But when my relatives came to know about all this, they were very upset with my plan and accused me for playing with family values for this girl. They were furious about this fake marriage and made me accept that her marriage will happen on that day as fixed in the wedding cards. My relatives had taken over all the arrangements from me and every work was carried out by them. My mother consulted our family astrologer and insisted that the marriage timing should be changed to 4-6AM. This alternate timing was fixed and cards printed after that had this timing. I didn’t even give a thought about informing the change in timing to him as I was very sure he won’t come. After all I had so many other things to worry about. It is my daughter’s wedding.
Her Dad gave a big pause and her mother stepped forward to continue. “She was very casual with the grand arrangements when she came here yesterday morning. It was only when the Engagement function started, she came to know that all this is for real. She tried to protest when we asked her to wear saree and come for the function but she can only show her anger to us not to her granny. My mother in law made her dress up and come for the occasion. But I know my girl, She sat amidst us in shock and didn’t everything she was asked to do. She didn’t utter a word to any of us after that. I don’t know what all she went through inside her heart when she had to exchange rings. I was terrified by her silence and had to keep an eye on her all night to make sure she doesn’t do anything to herself.
At around 2 AM, she woke me up and showed a wedding card to me.
“What is this?”
“What? It’s your wedding card.”
“Why is the timing wrong?”
“No this is the timing. Your granny had changed the timing after the astrologer said this is auspicious”
Tears started flowing in her firm face before I finished my sentence.
“So you people don’t have any value for me and my feelings” she said and wiped the tears off her face.
“It’s not like that dear. We just want to be sure you live happily.”
“Happy? What’s left in life to be happy?” she said and lied on the bed.
I tried to tell her that all this is for her well being. But she closed her eyes in protest and didn’t utter a word after that.
But I never thought she will do, what she did today” her mother said wiping her tears with her saree. She turned to my chest, moved her left hand from my collar to put it around my neck, hugged me close and started breathing heavily on my heart.
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