|Alternate Universe|
An arranged marriage tale of Manik and Nandini, set in the era of late 90s.
Beautiful cover made by :- @weirdosaurs.
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31st October, 1995.
Continued from the last part…
Scrunching his nose in disgust because of the smell, Manik sat on a small stool with a scowl evident over his features. Madhu came forward and began the ceremony by applying the yellow sticky paste over his cheeks followed by his shoulders and arms.
One by one everyone stepped ahead and smeared Manik with 'haldi'. All his younger nephews and cousins participated with zeal and played Holi with him. Gulping his anger, Manik sat quietly and let the kids enjoy. Manas was no less and Manik’s frowns deepened.
The drops from his forehead slid down to his nose tip making him feel ticklish. He was piqued and looked around for Renu, for an escape.
He jerked his face a bit and adding more to his irritation, the drop from his nose tip fell over his lower lip. He shut his eyes tightly, to keep his anger at bay and not spoil his own 'haldi' function.
Manas sympathizing with his brother’s condition immediately ran towards him and cleaned his lips, as the latter's hands were already stained with ‘haldi’ making him helpless.
“Just ask mami to get done with this soonest. I cannot bear this smell anymore.” Manik grumbled in his low pitch and shut his eyes again as another hands applied 'haldi' on his cheeks and neck.
Few minutes later, Chitra came and asked Manik to stand. He inhaled a deep sigh in relief and his nose twitched as the smell hit his nostrils again. “Mami and Madhu have gone to give the haldi for Nandini.” Chitra informed him and he nodded, remembering Renu wiping a little 'haldi' from his face and putting it in a copper bowl for the bride.
“Now you can’t step out of the house and neither you'll stay alone. Once you are done with the bathing, call someone.” The instructions from Chitra did nothing but reminded him of being grounded along with close monitoring, just like his mother did when he played pranks on everyone, or like his father who'd locked him up in a store because he didn't want to live with him anymore, after his mother left to her heavenly abode.
Here, he couldn’t argue as the ritual was to protect him from any evil eye.
Giving her a slight nod, he entered the washroom for a refreshing bath that lasted for half an hour since the 'haldi' was thick and dry and wasn’t ready to leave his skin. He disliked the entire ordeal.
“Bhai!” Manas patted his brother’s shoulder who simply wanted to sleep after a warm bath in winters.
“Hmm.” He mumbled turning around, his eyes half open and filled with sleep.
“You cannot sleep bhai. You are getting married tomorrow.” Manas exclaimed with an unbelievable look while Manik tried to connect the dots between the two sentences but couldn’t. Was an about to-be- married guy not allowed to sleep?
