It seemed that Rudra's name was threat enough for any kind of mischief anyone might have planned to do. I wonder at the kind of person Rudra was, that his siblings also feared him.

"I wonder when we will get to celebrate another wedding in the palace and where will Lekha be when it takes place. It's best she gets to see each and every celebration " said Gayatri giving a wise nod.

"What do you mean where she will be? Didn't maasa say that she will stay with us" said Vasundhara with an annoyed frown on her face, at the prospect that some other situation was a possibility.

My heart felt a warm glow of happiness at the thought that Vasundhara was so full of love and caring towards me. Though everyone kept on showering me with all the love and care, but my dubious situation which I myself was unable to decipher kept me on my toes. Every affectionate gesture thus left me a tiny bit surprised each time.

"I meant Lekha might be married by the time, the next wedding came up." Gayatri gave a naughty smile and winked at me.

I blushed pink as this thought had hardly ever crossed my mind since coming here and I was still a teenager. The scene here was a bit different though, the girls of my age were already married and some even had a child or two.

"No no no... I don't want to go anywhere leaving you. I don't want to get married. I am too young to get married. You girls are not married so why will I have to marry." My eyes went wide with apprehension.

"Look... Now what you have done. The poor girl is embarrassed and all flustered." Vasundhara said as she put a comforting arm around me.

"Don't worry Lekha. No one is pressurizing you for anything and you can stay with us for as long as you want... We won't let you go anywhere till you force us to get you married." Vasundhara now winked back towards her cousin with an equally naughty smile on her face.

This had the effect of lightening up the atmosphere.

After dinner we again gathered in the Baradari (the central meeting place in the ladies section). The ladies were all seated in a circular formation with the center left empty for the performers which were later going to dance there.

We took our place on the durrie (woven carpet) behind some group of ladies. There were two playing dholak (two headed hand drum), one the cymbals and some were singing songs. The other ladies seemed to have loads of gossip still left to be discussed and were chatting away, unconcerned about interrupting the singers. The mood was quite jovial all around.

"Is this how it is going to be, the whole time. " I asked curiously.

"It's just a warm up. They are all waiting for other ladies to join them. Even my maasa has not joined us." explained Gayatri.

"Was she not supposed to have joined Mahadevi sa for the wedding" I asked surprised.

"Maasa was not feeling well so she stayed behind" said Gayatri.

Five minutes later a group of women entered the courtyard and everybody stood up and did pranam (bow with folded hands) to them. In the center of this group was Gayatri's mother whom I recognized, having seen her before when Mahadevi sa had touched the feet of Gayatri's mother before leaving with the wedding procession.

In Indian culture it's a custom to touch the feet of elders to take their blessings, before going out for any important work.

Gayatri's mother came towards us smiling and I did pranam to her.

"How are you Lekha dear? I heard lots of praise from Mahadevi about you. You look just as she had described you... very beautiful." She smiled as she put her hand on my head, her eyes twinkling with kindness.

"I am fine tai sa (the elder sister in law of one's mother). Hope you are feeling well now."

I smiled shyly at her, as I never had been called beautiful before.

"Yes my child, I am much better due to all the blessing from the Lord. Take good care of her Gayatri" she instructed as she moved towards the other ladies of her group to take her seat on a chair.

The singing started again as soon as all were settled. There were some songs being sung which created great hilarity among the women.

"Why are they laughing while singing?" I asked.

"They are singing Barna (groom) and Barni (bride) songs. Some of them are teasing songs related to the life after marriage for the bride. Some are songs of blessings for the happy couple. The songs where the women are laughing the most are the naughtiest ones about the groom's side people. They take names of the people related to the groom and say something in a poem form but completely ridiculous about them. In a way it's considered auspicious as it wards of any jealous evil eye which might fall on the groom's family" explained Gayatri.

For me it was lot of singing and lot more of laughing as I could not understand even a single word of it. The laughter was quite contagious and even I couldn't help laughing at the fun.



Few ladies even got up and started dancing. It was a very old fashioned kind of dance, where the ladies kept going round and round with every beat their hand moment all wavy. The feet movements were a bit difficult to grasp , as they were hidden under the long skirts.



Ladies dancing on a Rajasthani song

Everyone looked so amazing and colorful dancing on the beats of the dholak that it was very difficult to sit still with such kind of exuberance all around me. As I tapped my hand on my thigh with the beat while sitting cross legged and my head nodding in rhythm, I was dragged up by both my friends.

They pulled me to the center as both started dancing around me and urging me to dance like them. Although feeling shy the enthusiasm caught on and I too started dancing, trying to follow their steps.

I saw Gayatri's mother coming towards us as she rotated her both hands full of coins around all three of our heads and gave it to a servant sitting there. I learnt later from my friends that it was another way to ward off evil eye from all three of us. It's was a mark of affection and appreciation too, symbolizing that since we were dancing so prettily that people might be jealous of it and cast an evil eye on us.

The maid who got it was a nahin (the barber's wife) who is considered the main servant for the ladies section, who helps around with all the auspicious rituals and is given neg (a kind of reward) for all the services done. In fact both the husband and wife are given the most important jobs in the servant's category. They had to distribute invites to all the guests where their employers were unable to go personally. Wash the feet of all the guests arriving and loads of other services. The Nai (barber) for all the male guests and the Nahin (barber's wife) for the female guests.

It was quite late at night that we went to sleep.

Another day of my adventure over I thought as my eyes closed. Tomorrow was another day 'here or there'.



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