We must have got only three hours of sleep I guess, when a very sleepy looking Vasundhara, Gayatri and Maitri came in and tried to shake us awake. Vaishali gave an irritated grunt and went back to sleep turning the other way.

"Maasa has asked you to get ready, take a bath and wear these clothes" yawned Vasundhara as she put the clothes on the chair.

Then all three of them pushed me to a corner and lay on the bed in whatever space they could get. It didn't take long for them to start snoring softly. I sat in one corner trying to decide on my action plan which was nothing great, as I had to just pick up the clothes and go for my bath. It was gathering the will to get up which was the actual problem.

I felt someone shaking me again and through my blurry eye, I saw a maid smiling down at me. I wondered what she was doing.

" Wake up jeeji, your maasa is asking you to take the bath and get ready."

I looked towards the bed and saw all four of them sleeping peacefully fitted like puzzle pieces in the constricted bed. I felt a wave on envy pass through me but life had happened and I was a married woman now unlike the few lucky ones.

I took a deep breath and headed out to responsibly fulfil all my duties.

I came back to an empty room and realized that no one could escape maasa's verdict. Despite having no claim to any kind of input which might have caused this event, I felt victorious.

The girls slowly trailed in and sent dirty looks towards me seeing me smile at them, which again made me snicker earning me even more frowns.

Lajjo came in soon after looking upset and slumped on the chair.

" What happened Lajjo?" asked Maitri.

"Roop jeeji scolded me," she said looking totally disheartened.

"Why?" jumped in Gayatri.

Now everyone who had been previously feeling dull and sleepy perked up. I truly believed Lajjo's sadness had nothing to do with it.

"She was shouting at the maid to pack her trunks and since I slept in her room I woke up. All I did was ask her why she was packing her trunks as it wasn't even dawn ... She shouted at me to shut up" blubbered Lajjo with her lip trembling as a sob escaped her, leading to a full-scale bawling.

Lajjo and her friends had been trailing Roopmati all throughout the wedding waiting on her voluntarily. She had even converted them into her spies, I suspected since she had been concocting all kinds of devious plans. I realized where she must have got the hints from about the dresses I wore during the rituals and tried to one-up my presence. I felt pity for poor Lajjo, it's always heartbreaking to be rejected by one's idol at such a tender age.

"She even said that everything became futile all because of me... I don't know what I did wrong? I tried to do whatever she asked of me. She even said that if I told her about what Lekha jeeji was doing, she would be able to help you plan your marriage better, but since it was a surprise she asked me to keep quiet about it... which I did. Didn't I?" she said looking at me, proving my theory right.

I had been so busy with being upset that I hadn't realize what people had been doing around me. The girls tried to soothe her down.

"I don't know what I did wrong" she kept on repeating.

"You have done nothing wrong Lajjo dear, that jeeji must have been troubled by something else but took her frustration out on you," I said trying to get her out of this self-blame mode. I didn't want her to have low self-esteem because of that witch.

"Some other kind of trouble ...?? Ooo... is she going to have trouble when she reaches back home" she asked worriedly.

"Why do you think she will have trouble when she goes back home," I asked.

Everyone's curiosity was aroused but we had to tread carefully with Lajjo so that she didn't hide anything from us. Youngsters, when they feel that their idol is under threat, tend to hide information under the false hope of protecting them.

"She was talking to her maid and worrying about what she would say to her father when she returned unmarried... Whom was she marrying jeeji?" Lajjo looked at us puzzled.

"Don't know Lajjo. Maybe if you tell us everything we might figure out how to deal... I mean help your Roop jeeji. " coaxed Gayatri using the same tactics Roopmati had applied to her. It was mean of us to do so but then we had to find out the truth.

"Well... I had once heard her say that her marriage broke... but they stopped talking when I came in. She was scared that her father was going to be very angry. In the end, she muttered about getting revenge"

The last part struck a chord with me and I looked towards Vaishali who seemed to be on the same page as me.

"They never talked in front of me but always kept sending us out on errands... Which we did. She even praised me. She gave me her pretty hair clip too. " said Lajjo with dreamy eyes.

Lots of sobs and heart-wrenching stories later we somehow managed to finally pacify Lajjo and sent her out.

The other girls started talking about her wickedness and deviousness but only two of us knew about the extent of it and its final consequence.

I had realized one thing after all these revelations that 'I was destined to marry Rudra', and all this was just the predecessor to the events we had heard about in our time. It was all due to some kind of misunderstood revenge. Now that the real reason behind the future events had come to light and I had no way to prevent them. All I could do was make sure that my family was lead to safety at the right moment.

Another idea flashed through my mind which could have prevented things from escalating further but then one never knew which way the wind will blow when it came to the Rajput egos. I still had time to find the solution to that problem, but first I had to hunt down and kill the person who had used me and hurt me.

We were asked by the maid to come down. As we chattered enthusiastically while climbing down the stairs maasa seemed surprised by the liveliness of our group. She must have been expecting the grouchy sleep-deprived girls to come whining downstairs.

The only difference between me and the others was that I had to keep my head covered at all times as I was now a married woman. It was difficult but I managed somehow.

Not many people were around as they must have been busy packing up for their journey ahead or sleeping peacefully prompted a little sleep deprived voice in my head. In a normal marriage even I would have been busy getting ready to leave for my in-law's house and there would have been other extra rituals to follow too.

Soon taisa joined us all smiles and I touched her feet for blessings when maasa gestured towards me to do so. I had yet to learn to do things keeping in the traditions in mind and thankfully maasa was always around to prompt me.

Rudra came alone. It seemed that his group of boys had abandoned him when they had to choose between sleep and him. That thought itself made me proud of my team. I had already observed him coming down the stairs but chose to ignore him. I wasn't a forgiving person, I realized. Even though I fell in love with him and would have loved to get married to him, but the whole painful process had killed the happiness I might have felt on achieving the goal.

We were taken to the temple in the courtyard where the punditji conducted a small prayer for the well-being of our married life.

As we came outside maasa and taisa stood together as a unit whispering amongst themselves.

"Rudra and Lekha... I know both of you are not children anymore but my greed to keep Lekha a bit longer with me has stopped the bidai (sending off the bride to the in-law's home) from happening today. Jeeji and I both plan to do the rest of the rituals as usual. But... "Maasa took a long pause heightening our curiosity. " Since this is Lekha's maykaa (parents' home) and since the custom of bidai is important before ... (a pause) ...So we have decided for you to have separate bedrooms till Lekha is here."

I blushed hard at her insinuation while I could see the girls smirking and Vasundhara trying to hide her giggle with a cough. I took a small peek at Rudra but it seemed I had missed his initial reaction as he stood still expressionless as if maasa had just talked about the weather.

Then she turned towards Rudra and said" You are going to be staying in the same house ... so I hope you follow our decision as you have always done"

It was a message subtly given, but the gravity behind it I could see in both the mothers' grave looks. Even though in this period child marriage was a norm and some even had children at the young age of thirteen or fourteen, I wasn't comfortable with it.

For me, this decision was a blessing especially since I didn't want to share a room with him even if it was permitted. I had been feeling upset at leaving this man who I still loved, but now my confused feelings revolted at the thought of being used. What exactly I was being used for I had no idea, but I had been kept in the dark, my ego had been hurt and he had the audacity to conspire against me. Above all he made me cry.

As soon as the mothers moved a bit ahead, my shameless friends started teasing me and Rudra. I wondered why Rudra didn't walk away or retaliate with counter-attacks like he used to do before.

He just kept walking with a small smile on his face. Gayatri and Vasundhara too seemed to have forgotten that they were his sisters as they got together with Maitri and Vaishali to tease him on my behalf.

We saw the boys and a few other guests already gathered in the verandah. Food was being served as some had to leave early. We too were served our meal alongside the guests but I couldn't eat much as my eyes drooped and my body felt tired due to lack of sleep.

After our meal, we sat gossiping in a corner away from the other people waiting for maasa to give a go-ahead for the post-marriage games to start.

Maitri came towards us looking excited.

"I have news" she whispered gesturing towards us to huddle up.

"Vikram sa told me..."

"Oooo... you went to meet bhaisa" crooned Vasundhara as we all started giggling.

"Shh ... keep your volume down and listen to the main news. Soon after we had gone up to sleep... Vikram sa and some other boys had been called in to help load Roopmati's trunks in her carriage. She said a messenger had come with some urgent news from her home and she had to get back. "

We all looked towards each other with wide knowing smiles.

"Vikram sa escorted her to her home. He didn't know the entire history so he genuinely thought that something bad must have happened to upset her. She seemed very angry too and shouted at her maid two-three times. "

"I still haven't told him the real story ... and won't till you permit it," she said looking at me.

I was grateful but then I realized that now after being married everything concerning Rudra was automatically being considered as my personal concern. I didn't know how to react or feel about it. I told her to let the matter die its own death slowly as people would soon forget it. I wanted to handle it based on the situation as they arose. Pre-warning Rudra was a good option but considering I was pretty much annoyed with him, I decided to wait.

We were soon called in for some post-marriage rituals which were in the form of games played at the groom's house after the arrival of the bride but since there was no such scene in our case, on the insistence of the girls maasa allowed the games to be held there. The other customary rituals had to wait until I officially shifted to Rudra's home.

Rudra seemed reluctant at first but was dragged in by the boys and after maasa commanded him to comply with a smile.

We had gathered quite a crowd of a fine mix of both young and old around us.



Untying the kangana

The first game on the list was to untie the kangana tied on each other wrists using only one hand to make it bit more challenging.

The girls pushed for me to attempt first. After the initial struggle, I soon was able to open the knot of Rudra's kangana. It was when I put my wrist forward that I realized why the girls had insisted on my being first. While Rudra's knot had been simple, they had tied several knots on mine and there was some glue kind of substance over it to make it harder. In my troubled days, I had hardly paid any attention to whatever mischief the girls were up to.

The boys started crying foul, but after a laughter-filled shouting match taisa intervened.

"Girls don't trouble my Rudra so much. It's okay to use both your hands"

The girls' faces fell immediately but couldn't protest much out of respect.

After a pause as soon as Rudra moved his hands towards me, with a twinkle in her eyes she added " our goal is ultimately to untie the kangana ... But ... The girls will be considered the winner as there was nothing stopping the boys to have used a little innovativeness. You all knew what all games were to be played after the wedding"

That made all the girls give a group hug to taisa while she smiled indulgently. The boys groaned and muttered about how they had actually been working hard while the girls were enjoying, gossiping and primping themselves all throughout the wedding.

It was a weird sensation as Rudra held my hand for the first time after the marriage. The running commentary from the sidelines and the teasing comments made me go red in the face. Rudra kept trying to make eye contact with me but I kept my face down as if the knot was the most important thing in the world.

In-between all these flirtatious games I had to keep reminding myself about our unresolved issues. I had to harden my heart and not give way. I believed that the games had been designed by the ancestors as some form of ice breakers for the two people who although got married but were meeting for the first time.

Never thought that holding hands that too in public could be so arousing. As soon as Rudra opened my kangana taisa asked a maid to get the prop to be in used for the next game.



Find the ring

It was a big vessel filled with milky water and the rose petals floating on top of it.

Taisa had already seated herself in between as the self-nominated referee for further games. I could see from her face that she too was enjoying in the youthful fervour.

"I will drop a ring inside and both of you have to search for it using one hand. Whoever gets the ring will be declared the winner and will be considered as the dominant side in this marriage."

I looked at Rudra this time sending a silent challenge at him to try and win.

Taisa took the ring and dipping her hand inside dispersed it in the cloudy water.

On the count of three, we both dipped our hands in the water. I tried quickly covering all the bottom surface of the vessel but couldn't find it. Suddenly I felt Rudra's hand touching my hand and I felt him poke something circular in my hand. I quickly looked up at him but he pretended to be quite busy searching for the ring. It felt like cheating when I realized that he had passed on the ring to me.

I couldn't do anything about it as he had moved his hand away pretending to look for it in other places. If I called him out for it, I would be embarrassing both of us. I slowly pulled out my hand as I produced the ring in front of the elated girls.



Victory

The boys whined to Rudra for not being able to do a simple task. I didn't like this kind of victory but then on deeper introspection, I realized that indirectly Rudra had passed on the lead role of this marriage to me or was it a peace offering. I didn't want to divulge into this act's deeper meaning. Holding on to my grudges was a safer bet.

The last game of the day was where he had to find his name in my mehendi. As Rudra held my palms in both his hands to look for his name, I painfully recalled the events that took place when the mehendi was being applied.

Even though Roopmati had played the vamp I couldn't erase the fact that Rudra was partially responsible for all that pain. I still wasn't sure if he had married me as he, in the end, had not been able to come forward with his love story in front of the elders or if it had been his plan all along. Both ways my anger elevated to a new level just thinking about it and involuntarily I tried to pull my hands back but he held on to them steadily. I couldn't play tug of war with him right in from of taisa and others so I reluctantly relented.

Whatever tiny bit feel-good factor I had got during 'find the ring' game was lost during this one. It was all back to square one.

I couldn't steady my fluctuating feelings. I needed to talk to him, rather confront him but that would end up disclosing my heart's desire to him which I again didn't want.

I was brought back to reality as the boys shouted in victory. It seemed Rudra had been able to find his name in the mehendi design.

In the end, they asked us to feed each other sweets, which made me gag from inside but then for the sake of image I took a tiny bite. When it was my turn to feed him Rudra's lips touched my fingers causing much hilarity and teasing by all.

We were soon allowed to leave. I could feel Rudra's eyes on me but I refused to give him even a single glance. I was determined to make him beg.

Though by all his actions it didn't seem as if he was pinning for Roopmati but I reminded myself that men were fickle creatures, not to be trusted. That thought gave me the power and confidence to give him the royal ignore.



For all those impatient people I have divided the long chapter which I had been writing into two parts. Will update part two soon. Enjoy :)