After spending a restless afternoon in anticipation of the negative kind I had to again get ready for the mehendi ceremony, where the groom's side sends the mehendi to be applied on the bride's hand.

The amount of time I spent changing my clothes for each occasion, I had started to feel like a model on the ramp with the other ladies evaluating me and giving me marks. And then there was Roopmati, the embodiment of competitiveness. I wondered how much luggage she had brought. When she must have 'given orders' for loading the trunks, didn't her parents wonder if she was planning to run away?

It was obligatory for me to keep changing dresses being the focus of everyone's attention, but that woman kept up with the times I changed dresses with a new dress of her own. Others I knew weren't changing dresses so often as I had seen my friends and relatives go around in the same dress if the occasion didn't demand.

I was now completely sure that she had come with a full arsenal of clothes to compete with Rudra's bride whoever that might be.

The girls gathered up in my room before going down for the mehendi ceremony and their topic was, of course, the one and only Roopmati. My already upset feelings were further crushed when I heard them discussing how Roopmati had attended Rudra's ceremony which was held post-lunch. They bisected and dissected the whole episode of how she hung around right in front of him trying to attract attention. I didn't get to hear about Rudra's reaction as nobody imagined that their brother would want to change his bride and so nobody had paid attention to him.

Instead of enjoying the festivities as I had done previously at the fort from the perspective of a time traveller, everything had started to lose its lustre the moment it was my life which was at stake. Things now were really happening to me. I felt like the reader who wanted to cheat and read the last chapter of the book to know the end.

I again accompanied by my friends and was made to sit on a separate chair with a footstool nearby.



Mehendi for the bride

Taisa along with Gayatri who had again changed sides got the mehendi in a bowl to be applied especially to me. There were other bowls of mehendi placed at small junctures so that the rest of the ladies too could apply on their hands.



Here it's a kid's hand so imagine a neater design :)

The older ladies just made a circle in the centre of their palms and covered their fingertips with blobs of mehendi. I even saw a unique thing some of the older generations did was by putting some mehendi paste in the middle of their palms and closing their fist. It was a shortcut but they were happy with the results it seemed. Mehendi was another one of the symbols associated with marriage and even young girls applied it.

"Make sure to hide the letter 'r' or Rudra bhaisa's name in her mehendi design," said Gayatri trying to take a peek at the design the lady who was applying mehendi for me, was creating. It was really amazing to watch how she created such intricate designs by using just the end of a stick.



Mehendi design

The bride's mehendi design usually had the groom's name hidden in the form of scrolls so that later after the wedding everybody could have fun playing the game where the groom had to find his name on the palm of his bride's hand. It was more of a tease as the groom got to hold the bride's hand in public for the first time.

"Make sure to get a hidden "v" in Maitri's hand too" smirked Vasundhara.

Without being too obvious the girls started teasing Maitri making others around us curious but then flaunting a secret to keep outsiders puzzled added to the fun.

The lady who had put mehendi on my hands lived up to her reputation as she created a beautiful pattern of peacocks on my palms. Then she proceeded to put aalta (a red liquid used to colour feet) on my feet. Making them look quite pretty.



Aalta on the feet

While we had been busy bickering among our self and teasing each other, Roopmati had already made her entry. We had been too involved in teasing Maitri that we hadn't even noticed her.

"Can you put mehendi for my baisa too?" Asked someone to the lady who was just closing the bottle of aalta beside me.

I looked up to see Roopmati's maid standing there awaiting the reply.

"No, we are in the queue here, so you better tell your baisa to get hold of someone else" Gayatri replied hotly.

"Why don't you apply it yourself for your baisa" quipped Vasundhara.

The girl looked taken aback, she must have sensed the heat of tempers. She slid away back to Roopmati to relay the answer. The girls had been planning to help each other with applying mehendi but this turn of the event suddenly made everyone to sit in a queue near the mehendi lady. It was funny to watch this kind of retaliation.

Roopmati looked towards us for a while trying to gauge the situation and then having made up her mind asked one of her friends to do the honours. There was a lot of whispering amongst them and it almost felt like a war-like situation as hostile glances were exchanged between my friends and hers.

They crossed their limit when one of the girls from her team shouted for all to hear " put the letter 'r' in Roop's mehendi "

They started giggling after that and whispering. I saw Roopmati feigning innocence and look at us apologetically. She said softly with a sly smile "My name too starts with the letter 'r'."

I knew it was done to agitate us but we held our cool as we had decided previously. I too maintained a stoic façade but inside I wanted to find the letter 'r' in my mehendi and scrub it off. She had been successful in killing whatever little pleasant feelings that were left inside of me. I had tried hard not to give her the satisfaction of killing my spirit but ultimately she had done it.

I held in my unhappiness waiting for an appropriate time and then feigning tiredness left for my room. I felt like an escapist but then I didn't want to give them the satisfaction of knowing that they got to me.

All the celebration around me now felt like a mockery being staged for my further humiliation and ultimate downfall.

I didn't have to wait for the time Rudra would ultimately reveal the truth, it was happening slowly consuming my mind to a state of darkness.



This one is a short chapter, but it had to be just that. Hope you guys liked it :)

Do write to me how you feel ...a reminder <3