I was lost in my thoughts and didn't notice when we reached the estate. Rudra helped me down in silence. Though we had made a pact to be friends the kiss had made the things awkward between us again. I moved towards the entrance without looking back.

"Lekha "called Rudra.

I halted but didn't turn around, still unable to look at him.

Seeing that I wasn't going to turn around he said "I will be taking your riding lessons from now onward".

I clenched my fists on the side feeling annoyed that even after the agreement he didn't trust me. I simply nodded my head and seeing that he had nothing more to say I walked away.

Suraj and Vasundhara were sitting in the veranda chatting with maasa and Lajo.

"O here is Lekha jiji. How was your ride with bhaisa?" she grinned naughtily.

I looked towards Vasundhara who smiled widely, while Suraj looked curious. I could see that he had accepted the news of my betrothal.

"It was fine" I said not wanting to go into details.

"How is your ankle dear?"asked maasa.

"It's good and not paining much" I said.

"Where did you go jiji?" asked Lajo.

"We had gone till the grove" said Rudra coming from behind.

"I was supposed to have taken her" pouted Vasundhara.

I tried to give some kind of excuse but Rudra beat me to it.

"We had not entered the grove, just came back from the periphery of the grove" he said.

"Oh! That's good, now I can show you the place and we can have lunch out there like when we were kids" smile Vasundhara.

"Are you going to be teaching jiji to ride bhaisa?"It seemed Lajo was not able to contain her curiosity any longer. She would have made a good press reporter in our time I thought.

"Let them rest a bit Lajo. Go bring them each a glass of buttermilk" interrupted maasa seeing that we were not in a mood to go into the nitty-gritty of the matter.

"Come sit beside me Lekha you must not put too much strain your ankle on the first day itself" said maasa scooting over to make space for me on the takhat (a low seating bed like furniture) where she sat.

Rudra sat on a chair across me.

"Tomorrow onwards I will take over the riding lessons of Lekha "said Rudra looking at Suraj.

I instantly looked over at him too as I felt bad, even if he didn't know the real intent behind Rudra's change of plan. To my relief Suraj didn't seem fazed by it but just grinned and nodded at him. Rudra in fact looked a bit taken aback by his casual attitude which only I could make out as I knew the inner workings of his mind.

"I had some free time so thought that I could give her the lessons... I mean Suraj already has so much to do " he tried to clarify awkwardly.

"She will be your bindani (wife) soon so you can do whatever you want. We don't want explanations now ... Do we? " said maasa her eyes twinkling with humor, making both of us blush.

"No it's nothing like that... I just wanted Suraj to..." Rudra tried to explain further without noticing that he was further falling in his own trap.

"No problem bhaisa we understand" interrupted Vasundhara grinning.

Now everyone would think that he wanted to spend time with me, I thought, which was quite the opposite even though we had made a pact to be friends. I still doubted the real intention behind the pact. I wondered if it was just a lure to keep me in line till the marriage.

"What happened?" asked Lajo looking both unhappy and curious at having missed something which was making everyone grin like Cheshire cats.

"Nothing of importance Lajo" said Vasundhara making her face neutral again. Lajo made a wry face but didn't say anything further as she served us the buttermilk.

After a bit of chit chat on other topic which was unrelated to our engagement thankfully, I got up to go to my room to change.

"Lekha wait... I forgot to tell that a letter had come from Rudra's home. The date of your marriage had been fixed for after holi (Indian festival of colours). So we have one month more to prepare for your wedding trousseau" massa smiled at me and Rudra.

"We will begin sending the invites for the wedding tomorrow after the first letter of invitation has been sent to Lord Ganapati of the temple in Ranthambore, to get blessings for the happy married life of the bride and groom. We have also kept a small yajna (ritual done in front of a sacred fire with mantras) tomorrow to install the idol of Lord Ganpati so that all the auspicious ceremonies can commence. Rudra since you are already here jeeji said that you don't have to travel back and forth for the puja (prayers), you can do your Ganpati puja here itself. "

She looked at Vasundhara and said " Lekha is still new to our place and customs so I give you the responsibility to help her in everything... and ... I have happy news for you girls".

She gave a dramatic pause, enjoying the curious and expectant faces of ours.

"I have asked Gayatri to come and she will be coming day after tomorrow. Jeeji will be joining us after a few days. As Lekha won't be leaving for her husband's house after marriage jeeji and I had decided that we will have all the celebrations together. The house is big enough to hold both side guests and since we have more of common guests it will hardly be a problem. "

All three of us girls squeal with delight and hugged maasa. All thoughts of cleaning up in my room were forgotten as we huddled up to make plans.

"Girls let Lekha change first then you can discuss as much as you want" laughed maasa.

I looked up embarrassed and saw Rudra observing me silently. I forgot all the anger I felt towards him and unconsciously smiled at him. He quickly turned his face away and walked back outside the house. I realized that he must be finding it odd that the girl in love with someone else could feel so much of delight in preparing her trousseau for marriage with a different person.

It was a mood dampening thought that he might take me for a fickle minded girl but then again what did it matter as he had no interest in me. He had already put it in words that he would never love me and was marrying me out of duty.

The enthusiasm lost I went up to my room to change, suddenly very tired.

Lunchtime again felt like a job which had to be done to keep people from guessing my state of mind. Why was love so depressing?

I ignored Rudra and Suraj not wanting any further misunderstanding. It was good that we had our meals separately so interaction could be kept as minimal as possible without raising suspicion. The nights were still a bit depressing for me here despite being here for a long time, as I still missed the entertainments available in my century.



The sacred fire of the yajana

The next morning a priest had been called for the yajana. It was unusual for the bride and groom to be together for this ceremony but then unusual circumstances required unusual practices. Considering maasa's unorthodox views it could not be considered queer that she didn't exactly follow the norms but looked at the practical aspect of everything.

Maasa had told directly and hinted to all who could have questioned the marriage, that her house was as much Rudra's as it was Lekha's even if they were not related by blood. The degree of relation, caste and gotras were taken quite seriously by the people. It must have been thought about thoroughly my maasa and taisa , so as not to cause an uproar in the community.

After my morning ablutions I was dressed up in one of Vasundhara's new yellow lehenga and odhani as everything had to be fresh for the puja and I was yet to get my new clothes made.

When I entered the temple I saw Rudra already seated with all the male members of the family. We sat in a semi circle in front of the idol which had been placed on a pedestal covered with yellow cloth and decorated with flowers. I tried to sit on the opposite side but maasa made me sit beside Rudra as it was a puja for our benefit and we were going to be the main participants.

Vasundhara and the other ladies sat on the side. It was a beautiful ceremony where the marble stone idol of Lord Ganapati's abhishek (a kind of giving bath before worshiping) was done with raw milk. Mantras were chanted for Ganpati Pran Pratishtha vidhi (where you pray to Lord Ganapati to come and reside in the idol). I prayed to the Vighnaharta (vanquisher of all obstacles- Lord Ganapati) to guide me through this difficult phase and if I didn't belong in this century, to take me back to my time before the marriage happened. The wedding invite which was hand written was placed at the foot of the idol with a symbol of swastika made with turmeric on top of it as turmeric is considered auspicious.

Later the yajana was conducted offering oblations and libations into the sacred fire. Rudra had to pour ghee after every mantra , while I had to put in havan samigri (a mixture of herbal preparations). After five rounds of repeating this ritual other family members joined us too.

After the ceremony we touched the feet of the elders.



Sorry for the long wait ... some problem with the laptop. Hope the next updates will be sooner.

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