Pyar Mil Jaye

Part 1

Cardiologist Dr. Abhimanyu Birla was standing amongst the chaos of one of the grandest wedding Udaipur had to see. Why wouldn't it be one of the grandest weddings? It was after all the wedding of a Birla. The youngest son of Harsh Vardhan Birla. Dr. Neil Birla, his baby brother.

Fighting his sleep, he quickly gulped the kadak chai one of the servers had passed on to him. He just couldn't knock off the extreme exhaustion. Exhausted was probably letting it off a little easy. He felt like the walking dead. He tried to wake himself up but to great difficulty. 

He had performed three back to back surgeries at the NYU Hospital right before he boarded his flight here. His whole previous week was jam-packed with surgeries so that he could have the next few weeks off to be here in Udaipur for his brother's wedding. It was just unfortunate that he couldn't be there for all the pre-wedding events. Just as he took a seat right by the altar, he saw his sweet younger cousin, Nishtha, ran towards him.

"Bhaiya, Papa, and chacha are calling you to the bridal room," as she pulled him toward a set of door in the back of the wedding hall.

They walked into the last room in the narrow corridor and saw his parents along with his Tayaji-Taiji and the bride's family standing in the middle of the room huddled together. As the door closed behind him and Nishtha, he heard the quiet chattering of the dwellers in the room resume. 

His dad turned to him and pulled him toward the group of people. As he was engulfed between them, Harsh Vardhan told him that Neil was no where to be found and they are in the midst of a crisis since the Murat was about to start and the groom was no where to be found.

"What do you mean you guys can't find Neil anywhere?"  He asked them as he looked at his dad and mom. Just then, he heard a soft sob of the bride who was seated on the couch with her knees to her chest and head bow down. It was then he realized the crying was coming from her. She looked so fragile, all huddled into a small ball.

Parth Birla, along with his wife, Shefali Birla, rushed into the room and reconfirmed that Neil was really nowhere to be found. The bride side didn't look so good. All looked as the earth was about shatter. There was more talk amongst them, and then Harsh finally pleaded Abhimanyu to marry the bride since he was their only option.

Abhimanyu shook his head  "There is no way that I will do this, I am not marrying some girl I don't know." 

Just then, the bride's father stepped in front of Abhimanyu and joined his hands together and pleaded him to go on with the wedding. "Please, Beta, oblige with us and let this wedding continue..." As he was about to continue further, the bride stood up and walked over her father and said to him "Bade-papa don't bow down to anyone for me. How will I live with myself seeing you lose your pride like this? "

The tears on her face were dry now, and she turned to everyone and told them to not to plea to Abhimanyu for anything.

"Hey, listen," Abhimanyu said to her, and she turned to face him.

"Kya?" She said with the tigress look in her eyes. That was when Abhimanyu noticed who the bride was.

Akshara Goenka, the quiet and docile intern at Birla Hospital from three years back. That completely makes sense that she was marrying Neil. Thats where they must have become friends and more. Abhimanyu just realized how little he kept in touch with anyone in the last three years to even know how Akshara and Neil became a thing.

Akshara started to look less and less like the jilted bride who now just wanted everyone to wrap up for the day as it never existed.

Harsh tried to reason with Akshara while Abhimanyu was long forgotten. He tries to make her understand how if the wedding didn't happen today, it would look extremely bad for both families considering  that there were still other Birla and Goenka children who had yet to be married. Harsh calmed Akshara and turned to Abhimanyu to convince him.

"Sir, no mein yeh shaadi nahi kar sakta," Abhimanyu said as he swept his right hand through his hair. He saw a small sign of relief in the Akshara's eyes but suddenly hidden as fast as it appeared.

"Abhi, meri baat to sun." Manjri Birla cried out to her son as she stepped toward him. "Mein meri beti kai bina aaj yaha se nahi jaungi, tu sun raha hai na meri baat" she pleaded to Abhimanyu to marry Akshara.

There has never been a time when Manjri had asked Abhimanyu for anything, and she was denied. So it was given that auspicious Murat was starting Abhimanyu Biral was to marry Akshara Goenka.