The Great Indian Wedding Romance

9. Haldar Haveli

Siddharth buried his head deeper into the pillow when his mother pulled the curtains away to let the sunlight stream into their room. 

"Ma, can you draw the curtains?" he mumbled sleepily into his pillow. 

"Siddharth beta it is almost noon. When are you going to wake up?" she said bustling about the room. 

The truth was that he hadn't been sleeping too well since coming here to Jaipur. What little sleep he did get was haunted by his father's face purpled in rage and a hand poised to strike him. He had found himself roaming the halls of the hotel till dawn last night as well. 

He'd carefully managed to extract every single memory of his father from his mind and bury it in a deep dark corner of his brain he never had to access. He hadn't even thought of his father in the past few years except for an occasional flitting remembrance that was gone before it made an impact.  

Being this close to his family had stirred up old sentiments and fears. He blinked his eyes open and looked at his mother combing her hair in the mirror. 

He wondered how she managed to bear it all and pretend to have a good time with those same people. 

"I assume you won't be joining us today?" she asked when she caught his gaze in the mirror. 

"Which twenty-something doesn't love a day filled with Puja right?" he smiled and sat up in bed. 

"Veer and his friends are going to explore the city. Maybe you should join them," she suggested.

"I would rather sit for the Puja than spend a day with those morons," Siddharth said matter of factly. 

His mother gave him a chagrined smile and gathered her hair up in a bun. Siddharth walked up behind her, gave her a little affectionate peck on her head and walked to the bathroom. 

He turned on the shower and contemplated how he could utilize the day. Joining Veer and his friends was out of the question as he had made perfectly clear. He could explore Jaipur on his own. He sure wanted to visit the famed palaces of the city again since he was a toddler the last time he was here.

He could also spend the day scouting the location for their concert that was to happen next week but that could wait till tomorrow when his friends and bandmates would be joining him here.

He dressed in his usual attire of dark clothes and slipped in the essentials for the day in his pocket. He decided that renting a car would make things easier even though driving with a GPS could be annoying sometimes. 

He was looking up car rental agencies when there was a tentative knock on his door. He stood up and opened the door. To his surprise, Chetna stood there dressed in a t-shirt and jeans. 

He had never seen her out of ethnic clothing and this was a welcome surprise. 

"Is your mother in?" she asked before Siddharth could recover.

"Uh, no? Did you need her for something?" he asked. 

"Not her. You," she said. 

Siddharth ignored the tiny rush of pleasure that her response sent down his body and moved aside to let her in. 

She walked in and glanced at his guitar case lying on his bed. 

"I always forget you're some kind of rockstar," she said smiling to herself. 

Siddharth gave her an amused glance and quickly picked it up to clear the space for her. 

"Have a seat," he said.