Tanhaiyan | neirohi

18. nothing, everything

"What are you searching for?"

"Dry cleaning waalo ka number."

Dropping the lehenga on the bed, she paced up and down the floor searching for the number in her contact list. Looking up from the screen, his eyes were stuck on the ivory fabric which glittered with gold. Even on the eve of a chilly day when light was minimum since no one bothered switching on the bulbs, the glimmer was unmissable.

"Woh tumhaara shaadi ka joda haina?"

She turned back, sharing a look between the lehenga and him. Nodding, she was back on her search mission. She had freaked out in the morning when she found some fungus inside the wardrobe, thanks to the monsoon, but did not have time to sort it out and had to leave for the hospital. The first thing she did on coming back was to turn the room into shambles with all her clothes strewn here and there.

Neil Birla surely thought that their bedroom was hit by a storm the minute he stepped in.

However, understanding that it could've been worse, he decided to quietly find a corner for himself and carry on with his office-work. And now he had his eyes stuck over the fabric, mesmerized. Back then, even now. The designs were good, perhaps a bit too simple for a bridal lehenga. One could say that the bride did not put enough thought into it before buying. He could find himself shaking his head on remembering the biggest day of their lives.

Cause just like them, their day too was nothing short of a mess.

"Do you remember that day chipkali?"

"What day?"

"That day," he said, stretching the word as he pointed at the lehenga with his eyebrows doing rest of the work.

"Oh God, yes," she groaned out, recalling the horrible chaos. It was disastrous. After that wedding, she was willing to get married anywhere except for the temple. Heck, she'll get married in that little balcony of hers but not the temple. Their marriage was less of a celebration and more of a funeral. Absolutely moody.

And surprisingly, that moodiness was her favorite part of it.

Barring Harsh uncle and maybe Bade papa, all the others were either indulged in their own problems or were lukewarm about it. The rest of the Goenkas were skeptical on getting her married into the Birla family. Whereas the Birlas genuinely did not know how to react. In fact, Manjari auntie who herself brought the proposal was a bit muddled out during the wedding. The groom's brother was not happy with it while the bride's sister was the happiest.

What about the bride and groom?

"Waise, even if something happens to the joda, so what? I mean, you were upset that day, nahi?"

Testing waters.

"Upset?" she repeated slowly. Replying to her own question she spoke lightly, "No." Falling on the bed with a soft thud, uncertainty clouded her features as she spoke the truth, "Confused? Hell yes."

His neck snapped as he looked at her. She had to speak no more for him to understand what she meant. He too went through the same thing. After staying away for three years, she was back just for three months. Yet, it was one random Wednesday morning that his mother went ahead with the proposal and by the time it was evening, their alliance was fixed. The next week they got married. Point to be noted, Tuesday night his mother had asked or more like, informed him about it.

Fairly, everything about them was abrupt.

"We should've demanded for a destination wedding chipkali! I'm telling you, we could've bought us more time!" he yelled out excitedly, slapping his hands.