'Day two', that was the first thought that crossed my mind as I woke up.

A very excited Vasundhara burst in through the door with a maid behind her a few minutes later.

" Lekha today you will get to meet maasa's side of the family. All my mamosa, mamisa, maasisa, masosa everyone will be arriving soon. You would love my naanisa, she is the best. Whenever maasa says 'no', I can easily change it to a 'yes' with naanisa by my side. She makes the best dal batti (food) in the whole world." I could feel the love pouring out of her for her grandmother, making me teeny bit envious.

"O silly me... I am so excited about meeting everybody after such a long time that I forgot that maasa asked me to get you ready fast. Maasa has sent some jewellery and poshak for you. " said Vasundhara as her eyes twinkled with joy. She went on and on explaining to me about all her relatives, while a single thought was stuck in my head and I couldn't stop myself from asking.

" Will it be a joint ceremony too"

" Ooo... You are dying to get a glimpse of bhaisa... Hmmm. I must inform him to make a special appearance just for you" smirked Vasundhara.

Vaishali joined the laughter while I was red-faced.

" I didn't mean it that ways... I just wanted to know if taisa relatives will come too as Mahira Dastoor is for both" I lied.

"No ... no... we are having it separately as there will be a huge crowd and loads of confusion. First we will have it for you as it's our house and then for bhaisa. Maasa will be happy to have extra hands to help, with her relatives over."

I felt relieved at that and my level of enthusiasm increased. I was excited to meet maasa's relatives since I had been hearing fun stories about them and actually being able to put a face to those stories was going to be fun. Vaishali and I soon got dressed up in the clothes maasa had again sent for us. I was indeed grateful to maasa for having taken Vaishali under her wing too.

We had our meals in the verandah where all the ladies were chatting together as they ate the food sitting in rows, while the maids served them. The arrangements for the men had been done outside in the colourful tents.

I had heard that while women slept inside the rooms, the men slept outside on the charpoys in the tents or on the roof terrace. Rudra being the groom had been made to sleep in his room and thankfully he was absent. A small part of my heartfelt guilty at having taken that promise from him but I had been hurt.

"Has Anil eaten?" I asked Vaishali softly.

"Don't you worry about him. He is being treated better than me "she said rolling her eyes. "He is staying as a VIP guest with Rudra and even having his food with him. Everyone is taking great care of him... but..."

"But...? what?" I asked anxiously as my imagination in a fraction of a second went wild imaging the worst.

"He didn't seem to be enjoying all the attention. He asked about you but then it's not appropriate for him to meet you without getting undue attention. I told him to enjoy this once in a lifetime experience and not sulk. It's as if he has decided not to let happiness touch him. He is such a ..."

"It's alright Vaishali. He is all alone between strangers while you still have me" I cut in between before she went on and on with her bickering about him.

"But..."

"Leave it... see your food will get cold "

I knew why Anil was anxious but even I couldn't help him with that as I had to maintain appearances too.

Roopmati joined us soon looking as beautiful as ever but with my friends surrounding me in the circle of love, I didn't care of who was present or absent.

Maitri too had joined us today. It seemed that she was the busiest of the lot or as we could guess that someone was keeping her busy. She was teased about it left, right and centre whenever anyone got a chance. It was quite enjoyable when someone else was getting the short end of the stick.

Relatives did interrupt our ruckus lot with 'let's look at the bride' demands and I had to immediately metamorphose into the coy bride and touch feet if they were from Rudra's side of the family.

Vikram, Udai bhaisa and Suraj joined us for some time in the name of giving their 'bored' sisters some company but we believed that it was more due to Maitri. That provided us with enough arsenal to make a big issue out of it again. Rudra was the only person missing but I couldn't ask out rightly.

"Where is the groom?" asked Vaishali as if reading my mind. I kept a straight face as a show of nonchalance.

"He is in his room and has not come out today according to my knowledge" replied Vikram.

"Is he not well?" asked Vaishali again as if she had suddenly taken up the job of being my mouthpiece without me asking her.

"He is well but ... Hmm ... Something about coming out only during Mahira Dastoor ...he said"

"He seemed a bit moody... Did you scold him bhabisa?" he teased looking at me.

I blushed red unable to answer but I wondered was it all because of me. He indeed was following his promise to the tee. That meant that he was really serious and wanted to keep me in a good frame of mind so that he could reach his ultimate goal without a glitch. This reminded me again of Anil. I wanted to confirm properly with the boys as they were the ones in charge of him.

"Where is Anil?" I asked.

"Don't you worry for him bhabisa... bhaisa has been treating him like the most esteemed guest. He has been taking him along with him wherever he goes. Even Anilsa sleeps in bhaisa's room and eats with him. Kakisa even arranged wedding clothes for him to wear. We are taking really good care of him if bhaisa is somehow not there. We even took him out for a ride and have shown him our land around here" said Vikram with pride.

"Indeed ... I am happy that he is being treated so well" I said with a tight smile while I fumed inside. Indirectly Anil had become 'his' prisoner without bars.

He was making sure that I was unable to meet Anil.

" Bhaisa really loves you... See he is treating your friend as his most important guest ... Must be trying to score points with you" teased Gayatri.

The sound of drum beats from outside interrupted out the chatter.

"The people for bhaat(Mahira dastoor) have come" someone cried from outside.

We girls stood up as maasa and taisa moved to the entrance holding a puja thali with a lighted lamp. The drum beats got louder as they neared the entrance of the house. The dholans started singing songs for the occasion on the beats of the dholak and manjeera.



Puja thali



Sister welcoming the people from her side of the family doing aarti and tilak

We peeked from a distance as to what all was happening at the entrance. The ladies started entering from outside and for each maasa did tilak, aarti and then put flower garlands around their necks as a welcome. The younger guests touched the feet of baapusa, maasa, tausa and taisa, while the older ones were welcomed with an embrace by their gender equivalents.

They segregated into two parts according to genders and sat on each side of the verandah. As maasa served the chaach drinks and snacks with the help of the maids to each guest, she also introduced me to them.

I was showered with compliments and best wishes. They didn't allow me to touch their feet since I was considered their daughter too. Some of the older ladies kissed my fists after folding my fingers and hugged me. They all reassured me again and again that they were my relatives too as I was maasa's daughter. I felt overwhelmed with so much love. I felt really bad for deceiving them but then reconciled with the fact that I was not the perpetrator of the plan.

Vasundhara was right about her naanisa who was indeed a jovial person. It felt as if I had known her forever. All the girls surrounded her as she talked to each one of us making us feel special.

After partaking the refreshments, the two elder ladies got up and moved towards the centre of the verandah where they started displaying all the gifts they had brought with them with the help of youngsters with them.

Maasa, baapusa and I stood on one side with Vasundhara slightly behind me. Vasundhara kept her commentary on about who is who as people stepped in the front of us one by one for the ceremony.





Brother draping odhani over his sister

Maasa's elder brother, representing all his clan came forward and stood on a low chowki. Maasa's eyes glistened with tears as she did his tilak again, fed him sweets, and gave him a coconut which is considered auspicious. It was an emotional moment for her. He draped an odhni over her head and a cloth around bapusa's shoulders. Then with the help of others gave all three of us gifts kept on thaal covered with cloth. There were a few for tausa and taisa too as even though they were the groom's parent but they were related to maasa too.

After that, each of her younger brothers, male cousins and nephews came one according to age following the same process.

Soon after the ceremony as we moved towards our room, I saw Rudra's door open and then close again.

I knew that it was me who had made him promise, but again it was me who felt hurt when he kept it. He was following everything too much to the tee, I fumed. Then things went a bit overboard as we saw Roopmati's maid come out of the room smiling.

"Isn't that Roopmati's maid " whispered Vasundhara.

"What were you doing in bhaisa's room," asked Gayatri in an authoritative voice.

"Baisa (Roopmati) told me to take some sweets to kunwarsa's (Rudra) room as he had not had breakfast," said the maid giving a sly smile.

That news was enough for me to go marching inside my room without a second glance. My friends followed suit.

The discussion which followed was only about how impudent and shameless Roopmati was. I kept my thoughts to myself since I had given up my rights on who courted Rudra and anything I said contradicting their thoughts would again lead to counter questions which I didn't want to answer. From past two days the headaches had become a common phenomenon for me.

I wish I had my pods to listen to and cancel out all their chatter.

None of them left the room after that as they seemed to be having a gala time exchanging news and hopping on from one topic to other. I couldn't even ask them to leave as that would have raised unnecessary suspicion. They only left to bring in food from downstairs as the servants were too busy catering to the older guests.

" Bhaisa wasn't even in the room," declared a fuming Gayatri as she entered the room. " He had been outside right from the morning"

That perked my interest too, but I chose to remain neutral. " Who told you? Vikram sa had said that he was in his room" Vaishali asked as Vasundhara and Maitri looked on with curiosity.

"Lajjo told me, in fact, I got the information out of her using tactics" Gayatri at that moment gave the feel of a victorious spy who had just accomplished an impossible mission using stealth and had laid her life on line.

It brought a smile to my face, as I observed others listening intently. Each person had an intense expression on their faces and I could feel the wheels turn in their brains. I really pitied Roopmati, as she must have thought that only I was an obstacle in her race to Rudra.

But then she didn't know that her desperate attempts at spying were all in vain as the winner had been already chosen by default and there was no competition to begin with.

" .... Vikram bhaisa too..." I heard Gayatri say. I had missed out on the conversation being absent-minded.

"Let us teach her a lesson in the evening " declared the excited Gayatri.

"Stop it all of you," I said " it shouldn't matter to you what others are doing or not doing ... Think of all the guests"

I looked straight at Gayatri who was the most hot-tempered of the lot " Taisa and maasa would be so disappointed if something goes wrong. Think of their reputation. If someone is trying to create misunderstandings and we know who, so won't it be better if we all don't fall into the trap but just bypass it"

I sounded like a teacher at that moment and others seemed to have been equally reproached.

There was silence after that as every person digested the lecture. Then Vaishali had to kill the somberness.

" You seemed to have turned into an aunty even before you got married" quipped Vaishali drawing a burst of laughter out of all. Even I couldn't help smile at that.

That got the ball called 'What Lekha did?' rolling with gusto. Everyone was all years listening to my past. The narrator had the smartness to modify some parts suiting this period and when she saw that she had got the audience enthralled, she had the audacity to make up a few things just for laughs. I weakly protested but my protest was weakened by the audience pushing me back.

The atmosphere had changed from spiteful to that of laughter. People racked up each other's past and I fully believed that our room was the noisiest one in the whole house.

It had the good impact of even diverting my attention so much that I didn't protest when I was asked to dress up and come down for the evening mehfil.





Any questions from people not from India are most welcome :)

Mahira Dastoor / Bhaat - Maternal uncle from the respective houses (bride and groom house) tries to share the expense of his loving sister in the wedding in any manner he can up to his will and status as weddings are an extravagant affair and full of heavy expenses. It is not Bhaat actually but the love, affection, and responsibility of a brother for his sister.

The odhni over the sister's head symbolises that he will always protect her. That makes the ceremony emotional for both.