“Hurry, we have to get everything ready soon, the haldi will be arriving from the Raizada’s any time now!”
“Yes Jiji, we’re ready, don’t worry, if the Raizada’s come we’re ready for them.”
The Kashyap’s were rushing around making sure that all the last minute arrangements had been made for Khushi’s haldi. It was the morning after the engagement and everyone was already tired, but were running on enthusiasm and excitement. It was the first wedding for their family and the first wedding of this generation so regardless of how tired everyone was, everyone was excited to play their part in ensuring that this was the best wedding yet. With the haldi ceremony to start any time soon, Lavanya was left to ensure that all arrangements for the mehendi, which was to take place the same evening, were also done. It was hard work as she was pretty much working single handed, but she didn’t mind it. It was her sister’s wedding and she was so excited that everyone had trusted her with such responsibilities. Once La made sure that all the main arrangements were done, she left her cousin to make sure that all the little details were taken care of and left to go upstairs to get herself ready and to make sure that Khushi was ready. When Lavanya got upstairs, she was releaved to find that Sia had helped Khushi into her haldi outfit and that they were all ready to go. Unable to stop to compliment, Lavanya grabbed her own outfit and rushed into the bathroom to get dressed. She rushed out moments later and was met with a very amused looking Khushi.
“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“In all the time I have known you, I have never seen to get ready that fast.”
“It can’t be helped. I am the sister of the bride and I have so much work to do, I don’t have the time to get ready slowly. Any way, you look amazing!”
“Thanks La! I was worried that this dress would look to simple and plain but I really like how the overall look is now. Priya and Sia helped me get ready.”
Lavanya gave Sia a grateful smile. Khushi was wearing a simple yellow kameez because Garima had stopped her from wearing the fancy yellow anarkali that she had originally brought. She had stated that it was too fancy for the haldi and that it would just get ruined and Anjali had agreed and offered to send another dress out to wear instead. While both Khushi and Lavanya had been disheartened by the change, they knew now that it was the right decision.
Just as Lavanya was putting her bangles on, the doorbell rang. The Raizada’s had arrived. Lavanya left the room so that she could go to meet the Raizada’s at the door and welcomed the ladies of the Raizada family. Anjali was holding a large taal of haldi which she handed to Garima before turning to Lavanya and giving her a hug. Turning to La, Garima told her to go and get Khushi. Nodding, Lavanya rushed back upstairs and brought Khushi down and gestured for her to sit on the little stool on the floor. Before sitting down, she approached the ladies of the Raizada family, touching nani and mami’s feet before giving Anjali and Payal a hug each. Anjali smiled as she took Khushi’s arm and sat her down, ready for the ceremony to begin. As nani was the eldest of both families, she applied haldi to Khushi first.
“You know Khushi bitya, some of this haldi was applied to our chote first, not all of it, but quite a lot of it and now we are applying it to you.”
Khushi felt herself blush. There was something about the fact that she was being covered in the same haldi that had already been on his body, that just felt so intimate. Bur before she could dwell on the thought, Mamiji was next up to apply the haldi. She made small talk before blessing Khushi and then moving along. Buaji came next, then Garima, then Anjali, then Payal and then Lavanya. She covered Khushi’s entire face with haldi and Khushi struggled to contain her laughter. Once the main family members had had their turn all the other women in the room too came forwards and applied haldi to Khushi. Once everyone was done and the ceremony was over, nani ji told Khushi to go and wash it all off. Lavanya helped Khushi up and then both made their way to their room. Lavanya opened the door for Khushi, but didn’t go in with her. La still had work to do and Khushi was capable of washing herself down. As Khushi shut the door behind her and turned for the bathroom, there before her, sitting on her bed was her groom to be. She almost let out a yelp of shock but contained herself because she didn’t want to bring anyone upstairs. Quickly, she turned back to the door and locked it before turning her attention back to him.
“What are you doing here? You’re not supposed to be here! You can’t see me until the sangeet tomorrow evening!”
“You know how I am; I don’t listen to anyone. If I want to see my fiancé, then I am going to come and see my fiancé, no one can stop me.”
He slowly made his way towards Khushi and she moved back, but was stopped by the wall behind her.
“You didn’t apply any haldi on me Khushi. That’s all I have come for, nothing else, I promise.”
As he closed the distance between them, Arnav took some haldi off of Khushi’s face and then applied it to her nose before resting his nose against hers. The proximity, the joy of being with her, the excitement of knowing that they were soon to be wed caused Arnav to close the last bit of distance between them as he took her lips between his own and gave her a chaste kiss before pulling away once more, causing Khushi to wrap her arms around him in an attempt to pull him back to herself.
“Sorry babe, as much as I would like to carry on, you know we can’t share anything more than this for now… It was your rules after all. We have to save it all for our suhaag raat.”
Khushi laughed as she put a little distance between them.
“When will I see you again?”
“I might just come during the mehendi.”
“But your not allowed!”
“I’m not allowed to be here right now, but I am.”
Shaking her head, she wrapped her arms around him once more before dropping a kiss on his nose.
“I love you Arnav.”
“I love you too. As much as it kills me, I should head off now. You need to get ready and we’ll get in trouble if anyone sees me here with you.”
Sighing, Khushi nodded as she let him go. Placing a gentle kiss on Khushi’s cheek, he finally took his leave.
“Wait, how did you get in the first place?”
Smirking, Arnav pointed to the window before jumping out of the window and onto the roof before carefully making his way down to the ground. Khushi watched him go and couldn’t help but feel in awe of him. He really was something else.
*****
It was later the same evening and Khushi was ready for her mehendi ceremony. She was standing before the long mirror in her dark green anarkali suit that they had picked the day that they had gone shopping. She was fully dressed and ready to go when Lavanya came up and to take Khushi downstairs. Khushi’s eyes widened upon seeing the entire Raizada family before her, not just the women. There at the front stood Arnav who was staring up at her, wearing a stunning suit. Lavanya nudged Khushi, bringing her out of her thoughts.
“Look at NK, he looks gorgeous right?”
“I still can’t believe you hid that from me for so long.”
Lavanya gave Khushi an awkward smile before trying to distract Khushi.
“Oh look, there’s Arnav!”
“I’ve already seen him! I know what you’re doing, but I will forever hold it against you that you hid that from me for so long.”
Before either of them could say anything more on the topic, they reached the bottom of the stairs and Lavanya made Khushi sit down on the magnificent chair that was especially for her. Khushi looked around and smiled at the guests who were approaching her, congratulating her on her upcoming wedding. But before she could really converse with anyone, guys started playing the dhol on the sides. Anjali came over to Khushi.
“I hope you liked out surprise! Normally the mehendi is supposed to be a woman’s only ceremony and that’s how we’ve always done it in our family, but we decided that it would be more fun if all of us were here. And then there was chote who just really wanted to come any way. If we told him to stay at home, I know for a fact that he would have found a way to make his way here any way.”
Anjali gave Khushi a knowing smile and for a moment Khushi was almost certain that Anjali knew that Arnav had paid her a visit earlier. She made a mental note to ask Arnav later on.
“I’m glad you all came, you’re right, it’s better this way.”
“I’m sure you’re just saying that because you wanted to see chote as much as he’s wanted to see you.”
Anjali gave Khushi a playful nudge and Khushi felt herself blush. The door bell rang and someone went to open it. There was a pause which was then followed by a squeal of delight as Sia rushed forward and hugged Khushi.
“Sorry I’m late. There was so much traffic. I haven’t missed anything right? I’m such a fool for not bringing my dress with me this morning.”
“No you haven’t missed anything and yes! It was so silly of you to have not brought yours stuff with you. I was starting to worry you weren’t going to come back.”
“Honestly, I almost didn’t come back. When I got home, I did think that maybe I should give this evening a miss so that I could get assignments out of the way so that I could enjoy the rest of your functions in peace, but then I realised that I would regret it so much if I missed this. Khushi seriously though, you have to tell Jiju to go easy on us with the essays! You’d think he’d be in a more lenient mood considering he’s getting married.”
Khushi laughed as she shook her head.
“I’ll tell him for sure, but you should tell him yourself. He’s around here somewhere.”
“I will definitely go and have words with him. But that’s for afterwards. Did I mention you look so beautiful! That colour suits you so well.”
“Thank you!”
Time passed and the guests came up and greeted Khushi. After a while, Lavanya sat down beside Khushi and took one of her hands and started applying mehendi to it, while Payal did the other. The dhol people were playing different tunes and people danced. Arnav was sitting talking to Lavanya’s cousins, and sneaked a look at Khushi every now and then. The ceremony went late into the night and when Khushi’s mehendi was dry, Lavanya pulled her to her feet and took her over to the middle of the room. Lavanya gestured to NK to make Arnav to get up. Khushi would have protested, but she wanted to be with Arnav now. It had been hours, but he had simply looked at her from afar. He had been unable to approach her, and now she just wanted him close to her. The dhol players started playing the song ‘Mehendi laga ke Rakhna’ and there was a loud cheet from the guests as Arnav and Khushi danced while Lavanya, NK, Sia, and everyone else sang. Akaash nudged Arnav over and over, prompting him to sing along too, but Arnav drew the line at dancing, he wasn’t about to start singing as well. Khushi laughed at him, but she didn’t mind. The fact that he was happily dancing with her was all that mattered to her.
At the end of the evening, most of the outside guests had left, leaving only family and close friends. Everyone was minding their own business, either getting something to eat if they hadn’t already had their dinner, or were helping with the tidying and preparation for the next day’s festivities. Arnav and Khushi were finally left alone so they could speak.
“Sangeet tomorrow, then the wedding the day after. You excited? Has the reality of it all kicked in yet?”
“I’m nervous! But yeah I guess I am excited. It’s the day I’ve dreamed about all my life. I feel like the reality of it all hasn’t actually kicked in just yet, but it probably will within the next few days. Or maybe it won’t kick in at all until after we’re married.”
Arnav laughed as he played with Khushi’s hands.
“So where do you want to go for our honeymoon? I’ve been looking at a few destinations but I wasn’t sure where you wanted to go.”
“I don’t mind. Where do you want to take me?”
“I was thinking Thailand?”
“Oh that would be lovely, but is there any point going so far considering we would only be there a couple of days? I’ll have to get back to class and you have to get back to work. Maybe we should go somewhere like Goa. At least that way we’ll still be close but we will be somewhere new.”
Arnav thought about it, maybe she had a point. He argued his point that he wanted to take her somewhere special and Goa just didn’t feel special enough for a honeymoon. Khushi didn’t agree.
“Anywhere I go with you will be special, I don’t care where it is. All that matters is that I will be with you and we will be able to spend time together.”
They discussed the topic for a while more, but then Arnav realised that for the first time all night, they were finally completely all alone. Taking her hand, he brought her close to himself as he also moved in slowly. Khushi closed her eyes, anticipating the coming kiss. Just as their lips met, Anjali, Shyam, Akaash and Payal walked it.
“Oh gosh, sorry guys, we didn’t realise! We’ll leave.”
Arnav and Khushi jumped away from one another, Arnav angry at being interrupted and Khushi hiding her face in his arm out of embarrassment.
“There’s no point leaving now, you’ve killed the moment!”
*****
Author’s note:
Hi guys, I hope you’re doing really well. I just wanted to take this moment to apologise again for being late with this and for the delay to ‘Wilted Heart.’ I am really trying my best to get it all done and up soon, but I’ve been really struggling with motivation to work recently. But I promise I will try to get back on track as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience.
Tanzeela’s Creative Writing Corner 