“Vinnu! Stop your work. Now!” said my mother, before continuing “We need to attend the marriage of our family friend’s daughter, remember? Dusk is about to settle in… when will you get ready?”

I, with my hands full of choosing between scribbling and shredding papers replied “Amma, you already knew that I detest weary arranged marriages. Sorry, I cannot make it to this. Please leave me this time!” I pleaded. “We can get back as soon as possible, moreover that is the order given by your father. Obey it!” My mother apprised.

With no option left at salvation, I promptly called up my father “Papa, this is not fair at all. When she wants to set off for a movie or coffee, you will be free and when it comes for shopping or functions, you assign me!” I was agitated, and did not mind showing it. “My son, I am sure you are matured enough to understand that this is an affluent wedding. I won’t be surprised if you find someone interesting there! You are always cooped up in that room of yours. Some allure won’t hurt you once in a while. And if required, from the subsequent month I will raise your pocket money by five hundred rupees, so that you can keep with the affluence of your date, if you find someone to date that is.” he chuckled. “Ha, during your down beaten instance, you smartly grab hold of my fragile points. Your son cannot be sold just for five hundred bucks.” I retorted with a Shakespearean twang. “Acceptable and no issues with one thousand and furthermore opt for preeminent attire. Bye! Meet you for dinner!” and saying so, he disconnected the call.

Left with no further choice, I quickly dressed up with while trying my best to help mother. Though I am not sure whether I can truly classify it as help. Sample this: “Vinnu beta, which one is looking good, this one or that one?” she probed. “Amma, I cannot understand psychology of typical women. You spend hours in malls to select the best garments and yet when you are back home, waste all ready wasted time to pick the best from already selected best! Choose as you wish!” I articulated with nonchalance. “If I had a daughter she would have definitely helped me. But you are the only one for me!” she coaxed. “Don’t create senti, wear the one in your right hand!” There! That was settled. Or so I thought… “Really? Isn’t this one more gorgeous?” she asked, pointing to the one she held in her left hand. “To hell with your clothes!” I retorted. “I will wait for a maximum of five minutes. After that my mood may change!”

Having nothing better to do, I decided to take a nap on the sofa. However, when I woke up, even though my pores had assiduously opened, the door to the dressing room had not. Luckily after another half an hour, she came out of the room and the mere sight of my mother for a moment made my mind scamper. She you see was wearing a scintillating sari with full of clashing gold jewellery from top to bottom. “We are going to a marriage reception, not at gold exhibition!” I hollered. “You don’t know anything, my poor innocent son” she replied laughing, “Yes we are attending an arranged marriage and that too between two very well to do families” not understanding how these two were even related, I replied “I am not in the mood to squabble with you. Let’s just leave, okay?” I urged her. We locked the main gate (dad had a spare key) and  moved towards the main road to hire an auto. In spite of it being dark, because of that showstopper gold that mom carried with aplomb, everyone, even total strangers, stared at us with interest/amusement/shock. But somehow we managed to get an auto briskly and again because of her loaded appearance, he demanded two hundred rupees more than the usual fare. As people in front of the ceremony hall were watching, my mother suggested me to not get into an argument for a hundred or two lest it degrades our self respect.

However, one of my mom’s friends loomed towards us and enquired about the problem “Nothing yaar, that autowala was refusing to acquire more money than agreed. I don’t know how these kind of fair charging persons live in this our society!” my mother covered the situation sarcastically.

As soon as I entered into the function hall, I wondered whether it was a marriage of hall or a funeral. Nobody from the bride’s family greeted us. It was a waiter who approached and offered a soft drink. Not something, everything was missing in that hall. There was no hustle and bustle in the hall; I did not find any affection in mostly mindless small talk that seemed to be going on. Everybody, including the kids were stuck to the round tables and most importantly, I could not find even a trace of a smile on the couple faces. They were not changing their boring expressions, I wondered as I was beholding the marriage of statues. While I was thinking about all these yet another waiter proffered me a fruit juice “yeah, this is really needed in this hot marriage” I told him. My mom settled down in one of the round tables and started showcasing her tendered gold knick knacks. Not surprisingly, others too were similarly involved. The uncles were occupied with discussions about business, shares, stock market etc And added with that, because of my graceful fortune, I stumbled upon not even a single girl of my age. So, my option of enjoying rich clothes was also buried and to my wonder, there were heavy number of waiters in the hall and I questioned myself that whether it was a function of waiter or the so called rich! Yet again the same waiter approached me “No, thanks. My hot blazing pain can’t be controlled by these soft drinks” I informed him, while he was offering me one more. “sir, since you entered this hall, I have been glazing at you and understood your problem. Now a day’s these arranged marriages are becoming as marriages of formality. Even I am not interested to serve here because the function hall next door was hosting a love marriage where festive will be replaced by formalities, but to my ill fate, I was appointed here, that too to serve routine drink to routine faces for every single minute.” he revealed his depression. “What a first-class scoop it is! Is it true that a marriage of love was happening in the adjacent hall?” I probed. “Yes sir, but why are you getting overwhelmed? There is no way for you to attend that marriage” he reacted. “Look my dear, I don’t even know bride and groom in this marriage, but didn’t I enter into this hall? The same applies there!” I replied with enthusiasm and bided him adieu.

It took five minutes for me to reach that hall and for my goodness, I perceived that it was a marriage of middle class family and from a distance, I heard the beats of the song of popular movie Kabhi kushi kabhi gam “Bole chudiyaan, Bole Kangana…” As soon as I reached the hall, my eyes were stuck by placard invitation, engrossed as “Divya weds Dinesh” including a well heeled photograph of the couple. By looking at that poster itself, I convinced myself that the strength of their love might have crossed the limit of yield point and it was un-fracturable! Because of serendipity, while I was entering in to the hall, no one stopped me. “Huh, what a couple they are? Ideal pair, perfect match, superlative selection…” a list of positive adjectives floated in my mind when I squinted at the twosome over the dais. They were looking as if they were the happiest beings in this cosmos. They were chit chatting and chortling themselves. The princess of the marriage, obviously Divya, wore a dazzling orange coloured sari with diamond cubicles embedded on it.  She was slim and fair in complexion with a sharp nose and baby eyes. She had mushy hair and her stature was exemplary. At that juncture, I coveted to term Dinesh as the luckiest hubby, since his spouse was already looking like a model in beauty parlour brochure, so there was no need for him to spend money to ameliorate the beauty of his angel. But Dinesh was not on the sturdy side, I sensed that all the friends of Divya must have felt jealous of her for getting a hot and smart gentleman as a fiancé. Not only did he have a good height, he also had a muscular body, was fair and wore a par of framed spectacles that made him look intellectual as well.

The obsessions that I had missed in the former hall has accumulated more than enough in this hall; hustle and bustle, twinkle on couples visage, affinity in their conversations. I wished that exceptional night would alter in to a stupendous and in my inner empathy; I thanked my mother for escorting me to that moneyed marriage. A bit later, the duo stood up and there was a small yet cute crown on the groom’s hands. As the festoons of coloured papers filled the room after a blast, he consigned that crown on to the appealing forehead of the bride. To capture that outstanding moment, everyone including yours truly, took our smart phones and seized that memorable moment and with that, the apt caption of princess for the bride. After that, both of them went in to their individual rooms.

As I could not resist my zeal to know of their love tale, I took paces towards their space and thought about which room to enter and opted for the groom’s, but there was a senior habitant in his room. As I was not a guest in the marriage, I scared and punctured in to the bride’s chamber.  “Hi miss handsome! Congratulations” I wished her. “Thank you, but I think you are frail in English, we should not term female as miss handsome, and either we use miss beautiful or something else” she instructed me. “Huh! Professor, actually you are going to be miss Dinesh in an hour or two, as he is handsome, I can term you as alike” I replied. “Your words are smarter than your semblance! But till now, I never knew that my sweat-heart has a brainy brother” she revealed. “Have I told you that I am his brother? I don’t belong to either of your families” I apprised her. “But then, how, when, why did you enter in to this room?” she asked. “To get something from you” I replied. “Ha? No, don’t do anything to me. Help me! Help me!” she started yelling. “Hey! Chill down, I am here to get some information about the journey of your love and as well! I love, love marriages and yes, I do not belong to either of your families but I want to join lovely family of about to married Divya and Dinesh and don’t worry, I will not have dinner in this hall. I just came here to find out about your everlasting love story!” I responded. “Oh! I am sorry, but please have dinner and we can discuss these things after marriage” she replied. “Anyway, I am not feeling hungry now, and even if I feel, I would rather satiate my appetite with the story of your love. You can articulate your story later but revealing your fabulous story before few hours of marriage and that too to a stranger, won’t it create an incorrigible memory? I notified her. “Okay! You are hyping our story way too much. As you are expecting, ours is not the superlative story” she replied. “Look, there is nothing like good tale and the bad, all that matters is the feel that packed the story” I replied. “Okay, we have only half an hour to discuss. So, let me summarize it briefly, sketching only the main plots” 

That was before two years and during a special vacation in our family. “Take out bride’s garments from the Iron safe and festive my queen as beautiful as the queen of Bollywood” my aunt roared from the kitchen. “I will take care of her. You don’t agonize and prepare south Indian tiger food with proper mixture of enough ingredients, especially tamarind” my mom responded. Yes your expectations were correct, someone was getting married there and it’s my cousin Anju with Venkat; the CEO of a MNC, as it was the evening of Sangeeth, men were furnishing the stage with blossoms of flowers and fresh mango leaves and women were hectic in spreading the smell of garlic through of the house. People of my age, i.e., teenagers were terribly practicing dance to dominate grooms groups and the most important person of the marriage through singing soothing songs, she was enjoying her shower and that’s me! From a certain distance, I perceived the sound of the famous and my favourite song “Tujhe Dekha Toh Main Jaana Sanam, Pyaar hota Hai Deewana Sanam...” from groom’s vehicles of ceremony indicating that they were advancing. “Divya, choose the best clothing, but not white. Because, if you choose white, guests will confuse you to be the bride over Anju and I am here ready with our camera!” my mother enlightened me. As I was a good looking girl, I obeyed my mom’s request; I picked up a sky blue coloured half sari which was embellished with white thread design works. As I was a medical student, I used to wear westernised clothes over traditional but this time, I altered my mind. I hand-picked matching ear rings, bangles in vivid vermilion, untied my hair and stepped out of the room and went in to the veranda. As notified she was a ready with canon digital camera and changing some default settings.

“Beautiful! Astonishing! I never grasped that I am the mother of a seraph. Come on let’s have a photo shoot” my mom remarked and started arresting my postures with different angles. Whenever, I dressed in unusual robes it used to happen. Her intention was to get an eye catching snapshot and thereby to send that to the consultancy of matrimony! By that time, she had nearly clicked five hundred shots on various occasions but she was never satisfied and used to brief me that something was missing in my resemblance and we comprehended that something was a sweet smile from inner heart and even if I smile, trying my level best, she simply blames that to be fake. “No darling, your smile did not improve, may be you can give a better one before video man” she dragged me to coverage man and requested him to shoot my postures. “Amma, what is this? Have some sense!” I murmured while he started focusing me. “Okay! Let’s try my luck during sangeeth and in between go and practice some twirling steps and even you have a dance trainer in the left corner of the top most floor” she informed. As I have good interest in dance, though my attire was troubling me to walk with a curiosity to learn new paces, I went near the notified room. In that split second, I was thunder bolted, because whilst my mother mentioned about the trainer, I had assumed him to be an old aged man, who usually teaches dance wearing a kurta. But he was a smart and handsome man of age around 23; he wore a matching coloured graphic long sleeve T-shirt over a torn Jean. He had v shaped structure with a curtained hair cut. Forthrightly verbalizing, I fell for him in the first instant itself! I proceeded in to the space with steps of hesitation and erstwhile I was joining in the group, he took two strides further, bended his body slightly and started looking at my half enclosed waist “Gorgeous! Continue to spin it slightly as previous, don’t stop. Come on, advance” he alerted while I stopped walking. As he approached me, I was scandalized and enveloped my waist but he crossed me and reached for a kid, who was following his intimations “I told you not to stop, your style of performance is beguiling. Continue to show your features!” he instructed the kid. He was not an amateur trainee; he has very admirable professional training techniques. He was persistently inculcating all the people in the hall but not even peering at me. Though I was inquisitive to learn steps, I could not focus as I already kept down on his looks.

I had never been mesmerized by any one in that short a span of time. One could hypnotize by their looks, but this chap did with his style and way of speaking and only because of him, the sangeeth session had ended in the most beautiful manner. At the end, he joined in our family group photo and after that, all the teens gave him a fantastic send-off. But I didn’t even vocalize a single word with him, because, I didn’t have any friendly feeling towards him, but something much more than that. It was very complex to speak with your crush at first! And in the succeeding days, I brooded a lot for missing the chance to articulate my feelings to him. As I was a striking medical student I received a considerable number of proposals in past. But I did not find genuineness neither in their actions but also in their words, so I never accepted any of them. However, when it came to him, there was something magical within him and I was trapped with that witchery!

But then, I contemplated that I don’t deserve my tendered being as my soul mate and also affixed that I don’t get any chance of meeting him again. But I terribly wanted to meet him, “If you have the right amount of confidence, even your destiny cannot stop you from being given a second chance” My inner voice encouraged me and in the subsequent days, when I was watching the wedding album of Anju, I got struck by the group photo, because I found my my object of admiration at last. In that picture, I stood at the right corner and he was at the extreme left and in between there were a lot of my relatives. Though my eyes were watching all of them, my heart was beating only for him. I also imagined a snap in which I stood beside him and rested my hand over his shoulder as if I possess him. After some sprightly investigation, I came to know that the one, my heart beats for was Anju’s best friend. As she was close to me, I revealed my entire dilemma to her. She told me that his name was Dinesh, with that I amused of thinking nick names for him but she disclosed heart breaking news that he already had crush on some other. On hearing that, tears rolled down my eyes and confirmed that I was not lucky enough to get a second chance. Even though I objected, Anju gave me his contact number. But I never called him, because I believe that I was somewhat mature.

Even though I hadn’t till then believed in love at first sight, for my first crush I spent sleepless nights of thinking the fortuitous of crush of my crush and resolved that Dinesh should be not only my first crush, but also the last. But because of him, I was missing myself and becoming fragile. On a mission to make me active, without my intention, my friends added my name in the dance club. But luckily for them and unluckily for me, I was elected to give solo performance in front of the entire university during our annual cultural festival. And thereafter entire college started calling me solo Divya and I thought that it was really a suitable caption for me. As I was not an expert in dance, I thought of rejecting the opportunity, but not everyone gets that sort of prospect. If I perform well, my name would be reputed in all the other colleges. So finally I settled on performing but I did not have any idea for staging exceptionally and remembered that sangeeth night and there by rung up Dinesh to seek his favor. “Hello! This is Divya; we met at Anju’s wedding. Can you train me for an upcoming youth festival?” I asked. “Ha, I remembered you, I don’t have any problem in training you, attend my class at 6 PM” he said, before going on to provide his address.

The next day, wearing my usual outfit, i.e, a quarter sleeved T-shirt and a tight fit Jean, I went to his place as scheduled. But to my bewilderment, the dance hall was abandoned. There was no one expect him. He wore a sleeveless T Shirt over a track pant which made him casual yet cool. I explained about the program and what I had in mind in brief. Since my body language suits western, I had decided to opt for that style over Indian but he advised me against it. “I don’t know the reason behind the craze in western besides leaving slow romantic songs. An amateur artiste can perform his or her optimum in heart crushing songs.” He reasoned. So, later I shifted on to passionate beats. He was more casual than I anticipated. During initial banter itself we acquainted very well and he taught me some essentials. “Divya, don’t feel bashful before me. In order to win the hearts of massive crowds, you must win the heart of your tutor. Feel free as if I am your dear one” he advised when he sensed my shyness. “Yeah, I will be awfully happy, if you factually become my dear one!” I murmured to myself. I practiced for some time by following his instruction! “Divya, I presumed that your heart is suffering with a poignant pain. In these two hours, I never saw you smiling. Smile, as if you don’t know the meaning of pain and even if pain faces you, reply it with a smile, your smile makes you more romantic and also remember that everybody on this earth is lucky enough to get second chance!” he advised. “Thanks a lot for your concern towards me” I bided him good bye with a beaming face. On my way back home, I pondered to ask him about his crush but as we had just met, convinced myself against it. I assumed that in due course of time, I will anyway find out about it.

The following day, I spent all the time in thinking about the last evening and soon after the completion of class, with hefty anxiety, I went to the dance hall before mentioned time but missed the presence of my beloved. So, I started practicing some neck sliding movements. Erstwhile, my polo neck had got jammed and I found it difficult to move it. A little later, he joined and I did not disclose him about the pain and followed his instructions.” While you are dancing, every cell and organ must be active, but you are not even moving your head” he reacted. “Sorry, I cannot move, I hurt my neck when I was practicing a while ago” I revealed. With that, he swiftly approached closer to me and held my neck with both of his hands and commenced to move my head to and fro. I was consternated with the touch of his stiff fingers on my skin. “Is it better now?” he asked, massaging slightly while looking into my eyes, but did not leave my neck. “Yes it is okay, thank you” I replied focusing in to his appealing eyes in which I found care towards me. And in the later days, we got attached profoundly and during those days, there was lot of change within me. Because of his madness, I started conversing with myself like a mad girl. Even when I was standing before the mirror, instead of me, I was witnessing him. Whichever thing I held, I used to assume it to be Dinesh’s hand.

One day, one of his friends joined us in the hall. He was short, fat, and generally acted like a buffoon. When Dinesh was executing a few gymnastic steps, he teased him that he could do those even on a chair. Not surprisingly, he fell down, when he tried to attempt that from a chair. With that both of us laughed our hearts out. This irritated the chubby man, and he started chasing both of us, while the two of us holding each other hands ran across the hall and tried staying out of his reach. But When he gave up, sitting on the floor and panting, Dinesh reminded me that we had met during Anju’s wedding. “Yeah! I got him and at first, I met him with the stupidity of my mother” I noticed. “No problem, I will click your snaps now” he retorted and even though I protested, he started clicking my photos and a while later Dinesh joined me for the shoot. In that day, three of us enjoyed a lot and he relentlessly clicked snaps for one complete hour.

During the last few days of the festival, I severely rehearsed his awesome composition in which expression was imperative. In the twilight of festival, I wore a gorgeous Ghagra. But as it was my first solo performance, I was initially scared a lot about presenting in front of the chief guest, dignitaries and most importantly, ten thousand students was not facile. Standing beside dais, when I am assuming all these, tears swayed down my face and it was glanced by Dinesh. “Look Divya, in order to perform before that much heavy crowd, you don’t need courage, All you need is just confidence. You can easily impress the crowd and whenever you are losing your confidence, forgot about the audience, just fill your heart with the person on whom you have most affection and his memories” he boosted me. So, I cleared my face, stepped on to dais without any hesitation or tension. As I was a pretty and well structured girl, youth started whistling and shouting but without caring them I started performing as the wraps began. My slot was for five minutes but during first minute, I did not even get claps. So, I thought that I was degrading the value of Dinesh and following his instructions; I filled my heart with him and was giving expressions remembering all the memorable time that I spent with him. As my songs are a female perspective, tears rolled down my eyes during the final moments of the performance. When I was presenting, every audient kept silent and deeply focused on my heart soothing expression during the emotional moments in the song.

Even after performing, I did not receive any applause for the first few seconds, but just in suddenly the chief guest stood up and clapped, followed by the chancellor of the university and thereafter the entire auditorium gave me a standing ovation for my performance. As the chief guest requested the choreographer to join me on to dais, Dinesh came out of the aisle holding a mike. When the dignitaries were praising his choreography, he moved the mike away. “Divya, my heart was suffering with a strange illness for which I could not get any treatment. It was more dangerous than cancer, its prevention is tougher than Aids.” he murmured. “Have you gone mad? What are you speaking?” I asked, smiling at the audience. “Yes, my sickness has a name – MODI – Madness Over Divya Intensively. I consumed countless medicines, but it’s in vain and realized that no other doctor can save me, expect you. It just needs your presence. Without you my heart will not be functioning properly. Cure the ailment of my heart with your heart, stay beside each other for the rest of our lives… I love you” he proposed in front of massive crowd. “Dinesh, have some sense, we are on the dais” I gurgled, when the audience began clapping and took the mike away from him. “Thank you; I want your everlasting love and support!” I addressed both spectators and him and holding his hand, I ran off the stage and revealed that I fell for him at the marriage itself and enquired about his first crush. “She was dead; I could not find her anymore. She doesn’t know the way to smile wholeheartedly and always gives a fake smile, but my dazzling darling can smile anytime and anywhere. So, I thought that my first crush was dead. I saw you few days before Anju’s wedding and attended the Sangeeth only to meet you. But at that time you seemed to be so homely. So, I lost hopes on you and never met you again, till you called me up that day. Love you sweety! Will you marry me? ” He disclosed. “My dear sweetheart, I can smile candidly, only in your presence. Make me to smile for the rest of my life” I replied and hugged him tightly, giving him a gentle kiss on his cheek. From that day, I never felt bored for even a second. With his unexpected surprises, and wonderful behaviour, every moment used to appear new and refreshing. Even when we had a quarrel, we used to overcome it with our unmatchable understanding. For both of us, it seemed to be very tough, to spend the time without the other and thus we planned to marry as early as possible.

On my birthday he gifted me a framed photo which was taken by his friend in the dance hall and I hanged it on to the wall of my bedroom. “Charming, I am striving to get this kind of laughing expression on your face, who is that person beside you?” My mother probed and I revealed everything about Dinesh and also told her that I wanted to stay beside him not only in photo but also in every step of my life. But unexpectedly she got agitated and also notified me that she would send that picture for a match, which I got from a US settled NRI. “Without him, I can live, but not delightedly. I can laugh, but not whole heartedly” I informed. She became more annoyed and conveyed that her decision was final. I never wanted to cross and fluster the instructions given by my parents. So slowly with bitter ache in my heart, I started overcoming my attachment towards Dinesh and refused to take his calls. “Your mother requested my friend to detach me from that gifted photo. May be she will send that same photo to your wedding match. All the best for your married life, stay smiling forever!” he messaged me. With that my pain got reinforced and I felt like compressed from all the sides and assumed that my life was meant to reside in gloominess instead of being given a chance to witness the illumination of true love.

On one day my mother reported that the family of my prospective US settled husband to be had come over downstairs to talk about our marriage and I joined the assembly with a tedious face. I completely forgot them and their conversations but memorizing my beloved sweet heart. When I was assuming the crazy way he proposed on the dais, tears streamed down my face and my mother slowly lifted my head and asked me to gaze at the groom. At that moment, my gloominess disappeared like darkness and my face beamed like the light of a thousand suns! My tears of heartache changed into tears of happiness, because the person who sat in front of me was none other than my prince Dinesh himself! He was looking down at the floorboards like a lost bride! “No necessitate to see her, I will tie the knot to whichever girl you want” he retorted when his family requested him to look over me. “You don’t need courage, all you need is just confidence” I apprised with a laugh. Promptly he lifted his head and like a circus clown, he leaped towards me. Holding his hands round my thighs, he lifted me up in to the air and moved in the manner of a horizontal joint wheel. “If I get you married to some other, I am damn sure that you will live with a permanent smile that would be fake. I want your laughter not only during the photo shoot, but also in every instant. So, I had sent your detached photo to his family and without the notifying both of you, we also made several discussions for yours matrimony!”my mother enlightened me and she also convinced my father to give his consent towards our marriage. Though my family insisted to offer affluent wedding gifts, his family rejected them outright, for they were against any form of dowry.

“That was the end of my enchanting love story, I have got a crazy proposal and a match making meet, now you are gifting me a marriage of excitement! Thank you brainy!” she said, thus ending her narration. “It is a beautiful and impressive story. I felt grateful to listen it. Thanks for fulfilling my wish” I said, expressing my gratitude. “Take the bride on to the wedding stools” the priest yelled and I left the room and occupied the hall. A little later, as a mob gathered in groom’s room, I stepped towards them. “This marriage won’t be carried out unless and until they present fifty kilograms of gold to our family” the senior habitant who earlier resided in the grooms room began screaming.” It seems Dinesh’s grandfather was demanding for an unforeseen dowry at the last moment causing the bride’s family to suddenly be in terrible turmoil. “He is the head of our family. As he is uneducated and stubborn he is claiming this. You don’t worry, let us collect the gold from our close friends and soon after the marriage, we will return it”, the groom’s family advised. “But why was he exactly demanding fifty?” I asked. “Our family has a strange tradition of receiving the gold equal to the weight of bride as a dowry” they informed. “Thank God! Divya is slim!” I reacted even as the guests began to literally harvest the reap of gold from their close relatives. But it did not seem to meet the threshold of 50 Kgs. As they were straining to think of a solution, abruptly my mother’s show creating appearance stuck my mind. I hastily ran in to the former hall and pulled her in to this eternal love marriage hall. “Hey! Why are you taking off my ornaments? Are you going to sell them or what? In no circumstances will I allow that!” she cried when I began to relieve her of the pointless gold.

“Amma, we need to assist that young couple, so that their marriage goes on as per schedule. They will return the jewellery after the marriage” I pleaded. “Why are you troubling yourself for our families hitch?”Divya asked me.”Haven’t I told you that I want to join lovely family of about to married Divya and Dinesh?” I informed her. “What a lovely couple! Their bond of love might be more costly than this useless gold” my mother joined in helping them. I took that heavy gold bag and held it near the old money minded man. “I have not asked you this kind of gold. I want 24 carats, which has everlasting glitter” he notified and we requested him that time was running out for all that. “You can get fifty kilogram of twinkling gold here itself” he said. “What are you speaking?” we asked. “Hey fools! I have asked to present my little girl Divya to our family, Isn’t she 24 carat gold weighing fifty kg’s? Old people are not money minded, we are healthy minded” he apprised which immediately caused the entire hall to break into cheers and laughter. Divya introduced me to her fiancé Dinesh and I congratulated him for getting such a fair hearted and fair skinned girl as a spouse. At last Anju with Venkat and a two month old baby Mouni, in her arms arrived. Exactly at the juncture of the wedding Muhurtha, groom tied the sacred thread on to bride’s neck which made the entire hall to float in the air of bliss.

A little later, friends of the newly married couple dragged them on to the stage of musical night. As the wraps began they began rocking the stage in wedding attire. “Gorgeous! Continue to spin it slightly as previous, don’t stop. Come on, advance!” he teased looking at her half enclosed waist. “Stupid sweet heart!” she hugged him and he kissed her affectionately for almost a minute, but not on cheek! In the final photo shoot, Divya rested her hand over the shoulder of Dinesh, as if she possessed him completely!

“Actually, this evening as I was scribbling a love story script for a short film producer, I could not inculcate affection in that. Could I write a story about you and Dinesh?”I asked Divya. “Oh! Yes you can and that’s indeed a great gift for our wedding. By the way, haven’t you ever fallen in love?” she agreed and probed. “Yes I did. In the past, I had crush on a girl. But after spending years in thinking about the ways to approach her, and win her heart, I realized that I made a filthy selection and at present I am in love with your love marriage. In future, if I fall in love, I am sure that you will help me. Won’t you?” I asked. “No, she alone won’t help. We will together assist you, because after marriage, there will not be any individuality and what might be the name of your story?” Dinesh assured me while raising another. “Probably it may be’ The Love Marriage’. By the way my name is Vinay and they call me Vinnu!” I disclosed and soon after that a beauty sprinted through the rush and my eyes had stuck to that angel of angels and thought “can it be called love at first sight?” 

TO BE CONTINUED…

Choose a soul-mate who can make you laugh forever! And once you choose, you can smile as if you don’t even know the meaning of pain!