Rudra :)

My eyes kept flitting towards the entrance of the house as I waited for Rudra and then he did make an entrance which took my breath away. He seemed to have surprised others too. I could hear whispers with contents like looking quite different, had stopped dressing like this, what brought about the change and lastly much to my embarrassment I could hear my name being whispered too in this regard.

He was dressed in Rajputana finery with a pearl necklace around his neck. He had shaved off the light beard which he had let grow in the past few days. The surprising part was that even in the palace he had not dressed up like this considering that it was the occasion of a royal wedding. He threw a huge smile at everyone and then raised his brow in question when nobody seemed to move. My heart fluttered madly seeing him smile. Now all he had to do was carry me away on a white horse and my day would be made.

"What happened? It seems you people are seeing me for the first time. Come on .... I am your very own Rudra. Don't you recognize me?" He laughed.



That got everyone laughing and looking here and there with embarrassment. Taisa's eyes filled with unshed tears, seeing her son looking back to the way he was before the dark period of their lives. Rudra went towards his parents and as he bent forward to touch their feet for blessings on the occasion, taisa stopped him. Rudra looked up at her in surprise.

"Lekha come here lado(darling for girls). Now you are a couple so you should always touch feet together specially on festive occasions" reminded taisa beckoning me towards her. Her annotation about us being a couple still had the capability to make me blush. I think it was the way she said it, making it so intimate.

I avoided looking at Rudra as I moved towards her. We touched her feet together.

"May God always keep both of you happy together just like this. You have brought happiness in my Rudra's life Lekha. I can't thank you enough. I had lost all hope..." Taisa started sobbing as she said this. Rudra hugged her to soothe her down, while I stood there feeling like a cheat. I wanted to say that nothing much had changed in our relation and we were just friends, but I didn't want to spoil the moment for them.

We went ahead and touched the feet of all the elders as it was a custom to take blessings of all especially before and during the festivities. The only feet I didn't touch were those who had declared themselves as my side of the family.



Lightning the Holika

Tausa lighted the Holika using a mashal. Everyone circumambulated in pairs around the bonfire chanting a mantra asking for happiness and well being of the family. Having previously arranged my words into a sentence with no loopholes, I too joined my hands in prayer and whispered my wishes to Holika ma.

"Mother Holika I pray to you to grant me this wish ... if Rudra is my destiny then please make him fall in love with me and let it be a marriage of love ... or else take me back to my century so that I can forget it all like a dream. I can't take this pain any longer."

I had worded my wishes with the whole algorithm of 'if then else' with a hope that the 'else' factor won't be needed. I had also specified that it should be a love marriage so that I could be sure that Rudra was in love with me before the marriage took place. After so many specifications I was sure that no more twists to the tale was possible.



Circumambulating with bundles of grain stalks

We were all given small bundles of newly harvested crops to roast in the bonfire which I was told would be distributed as prasad to all. There was a group of gypsies who had also been invited to perform their kind of dance and music.

It being a public gathering the ladies sat at one side and the men on the other side. Few of the villagers knowing that we would be having the gypsies performing for us had also come to join the fun after lightning up their Holika in the village square. Some of the performances were so enthralling that I would have loved to dance along with them had it not been a taboo for a female of the upper class family to dance in public.



I had wanted to approach Rudra after the ceremonies but he had been dragged away by some of his friends and now sat on the opposite side. Once during the entertainment I did manage to look towards him when I thought that no one would notice and found him staring back at me. I gave him a quick smile at that and quickly looked away. I could see through my peripheral vision that he was still watching me, which made me blush hard and saw a big grin form on his face. After this I lost interest in what was happening around me as my focus shifted fully on Rudra. It seemed like a game of hide and seek as he glanced away the moment I looked at him and I did the same.

"Lekha you want to go upstairs to sleep? This celebration is going to keep going late into the night. Maasa and the other ladies have already left" nudged Vasundhara from the side. I nodded my head and got up disappointed at not being able to get a single word in to Rudra. I looked towards him casually but found him engrossed in the dance. It annoyed me as it seemed that the dancers had superseded me in his list of priorities.

Just as we girls were walking towards the entrance of the haveli (mansion) a sudden urge made me turn and look towards Rudra one last time before I went to bed. My heart skipped a beat as I found him looking in our direction. The distance between us being a little wider, I couldn't say that our eyes met or something equally romantic but my heart leaped with joy even with this little gesture. I would have happy dreams after this, I thought to myself.

Gayatri and Vasundhara came to my room before dawn the next day. I groaned at being woken up so early after the late night entertainment.

"Get up or you will miss all the fun" whispered Vasundhara loudly in my ears, shaking me vigorously.

"What fun... waking up so early is not at all fun" I grumbled.

"You can go back to sleep after this" proposed Gayatri.

I slowly opened my eyes looking at them with irritation but seeing their big mischievous smiles I was filled with curiosity.

"What are you girls planning?"

"You come with us and then you can see. Don't make even a single peep. All the boys are too tired after the late night celebrations but we still have to be careful" said Gayatri, as she showed me a bowl full of what seemed like a dark ink. My eyes widened with horror and glee as understanding dawned on me. Horror was just at the thought of the aftermath if we were caught. The boys would be unforgiving for this act.

"But what if we are caught?" I asked.

"Maasa will save us and its Holi so everything is forgiven for today" said Vasundhara with child like glee.

Picking up my odhani(veil) which I always left hanging on the bedpost, I followed the girls to Udai bhaisa's room. Vasundhara held a small lamp in her hand to guide us in the dark. The door was ajar and we found him sleeping diagonally on his bed too tired to even change his clothes. The girls used a handmade brush of cloth attached to a wooden twig and dipped it in the ink to paint his face, as they didn't want any tell tale ink marks on their fingers. I was prompted to do the coloring with the gulal(dried colors) I had been given. The end result was indeed quite funny as we moved out of the room stifling our giggles.

We visited Vikram and Suraj's room after that, painting each face even more hilarious then the last.

"Now comes the most difficult part. Bhaisa is a very light sleeper" whispered Gayatri as we stood outside Rudra's room.

"You go do this one" said Vasundhara pushing me towards the room. I shook my head furiously not wanting go and also tried gesturing a big no with my lips, but they kept pushing me.

"He won't say anything if you are caught "encouraged Gayatri.

"Caught??" I mouthed towards them, my eyes widening with fear at the mere thought. No matter how friendly we had grown lately but I wasn't sure if Rudra would forgive me this mischief.

"Go... go. We will stand here. This is your first Holi with him. Make it memorable" whispered Vasundhara with a smirk.

The girls didn't leave any option for me as they pushed me inside, so I took God's name and prayed that I would not be caught. If nothing else, it would be a big embarrassment for me.

I thanked the almighty when the well oiled door opened inwardly without a noise. I felt shy on entering Rudra's room for the first time. It was four times the size of my room and had a big four poster bed in the center. The moon God was being good to me by shining brightly through his window so that I could see things even without the help of a lamp. I crept slowly towards the bed and saw Rudra lying on the side facing away from me.

With others the face painting had been fun but with Rudra apart from the fact that I could be caught leading to an odd situation, there was this thing about respecting him. His overall personality demanded others to think twice before playing any tricks on him.

I was stuck between being teased by the girls if I did not accomplish the task at hand and making Rudra look comical in front of all. Everyone would find it funny in the morning but I didn't like the thought of depreciating Rudra in front of others.

Knowing I had to at least create some kind of handy work on his face, I drew a tilak using the ink on his forehead with shaky hands. He didn't even twitch at my handiwork. It emboldened me to take a little gulal in both my hands and softly rubbed it on both his cheeks and that is when one of my hands got entrapped between his cheek and the bed as he shifted. I tried to use stealth to slide my hand out but his face seemed to have gained weight all of a sudden and had become too heavy for me to move. I tried to lift his face using my other hand but suddenly it was trapped by another hand holding it in an iron grip. My heart missed a beat as I tried to stifle a scream which rose in my throat.

I looked up to find two chocolaty eyes looking directly at me. First time in my life I felt so scared and my heart started thumping loudly.

"You were planning to play one sided Holi" he said in a quiet voice.

"... No". I heard a croak and realized that it was me with a croaking voice.

"Are you feeling scared?"

I simply nodded my head as I searched for an escape route with my eyes.

"What would happen if I capture you like this and keep you here till the morning?"

My eyes widened in fear and missed seeing the mischievous glint in his eyes, as his face remained impassive.

"You have come to my room uninvited ...that too at such an hour. What are your intentions? I felt you touch my cheeks intimately. What should I make of it...?" he whispered, suddenly pulling me towards him before I could give some kind of explanation in my defense and I fell right across him.

"I didn't come here on my own" I squeaked. "Gayatri and Vasundhara are outside waiting..."

My words died on my lips as I found him gazing directly at my lips.

"Lekha..." I heard my name being hissed in a whisper. It broke my trance as I instantly struggled to be released but he held me steady not letting me move even an inch.

"Your sisters are outside ..." I whispered, begging with my eyes to be released. That seemed to have got his attention as he suddenly released me. I quickly tried to get up from my position but was unable to raise myself without touching him further for support. He must have seen the hesitation as he held my shoulders with his hands and helped me stand. The moment I regained my balance I hurried out of the door not daring to even risk a glance at him.

"What took you so long ..." whispered Gayatri as we entered my room.

"It was quite scary doing it all alone so I had to be careful" I said in a way of explanation.

"It's good that bhaisa didn't wake up. This is the first time somebody has been successful with him. We always get caught even before we enter his room. He must be extremely tired" enlightened Vasundhara making me want to throttle the two of them.

"You both sent me there despite knowing that he might catch hold of me" I said in an angry whisper.

"O... but you are his fiancé. He would not get angry with you even if you were caught. And look ... the best part is that you were not caught. Nothing lost ...see" Gayatri tried to validate their choice as I glared at them annoyed.

"Actually Lekha we tried every year to paint bhaisa's face but every year we got caught even before we took two steps inside his room... so... this time we thought why not enroll you into doing the deed and look you were successful "ended Vasundhara with a flourish as if I had accomplished a miracle.

"I could have been caught" I pressed on trying to put my point across with a bit more force. I had let them think that I had not been caught as what occurred inside the room was quite embarrassing and knowing the girls they would have asked for all the tiny details.

"But you were not... get over it Lekha. It was just my brother there ... your fiancé. I am sure he is not such a monster." There was truth in what Gayatri said but I couldn't explain to her that what was fun for her was different for me. The crux of the matter was that I was not related by blood to them and that created a line of decorum for me, which I had to maintain, but I couldn't say that aloud to them as it would hurt their feelings.

"Alright... leave it. Maybe I over reacted. I was just scared" I said with a smile. I didn't want to drag the matter too much.

"You get some sleep. We will wake you up when it's time to go surprise the boys" laughed Vasundhara as they left the room.

My thoughts returned back to what had happened in Rudra's room, as I lay down to rest on my bed but soon sleep overtook my thoughts.

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"Lekha... Wake up. What happened to you?" asked Gayatri as she me nudged me.

"Me! What happened?" I asked still feeling quite drowsy. I stretched my arms and yawned. I was still too tired from the night's rendezvous. At least this time when I woke up the sun was out shinning bright too.

Vasundhara held a hand mirror to my face and I saw my cheeks covered with gulal, the same color as the one I had used.



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