Mr and Mrs Unromantic

Vridham & Naandhi

Sreeja's family came to the marriage hall at night ,to welcome the groom and his family who would be in at early morning. This is the first time Sreeja is seeing the marriage hall that is booked for her. As she was at onsite, she did not get a chance to see it. 

Sreeja's father and brother took a separate room for them along with other men. They very well knew Sreeja's room or any other room where ladies are present, they will never get a chance to come inside. It  would always be locked stating the ladies are wearing saree.

After keeping her belongings in to the bride room, she went in to groom's room to see how it looks. It was the same but had some slight difference to her. She was able to hear her father voice in bride's room instructing his relatives on the luggages kept.

"woah... these rooms are not soundproof. or may be its because the marriage hall is empty I can hear voice from the other side" thought Sreeja.

The night passed by with Sreeja and her family busy with preparations as they need to get up early next day.

Next day... early morning

Sreeja woke up early and took head bath with a sleeping face. Her cousins felt very difficult to drape saree to her as Sreeja was wriggling around due to shyness and was not standing properly. 

"Sreeja, behave as a good girl till the marriage completes and obey what we say" warned one of her cousin.

"ya you drape the saree without touching me"

Just then her father knocked the door. " Is Sreeja ready? before the groom and his family comes she needs to be ready. hurry up."

"you tell your daughter to co-operate first" said one of her relative opening the door.

"Sreeja till your marriage is over, you are like a puppet and do what we say, get ready soon" said her father who left.

After 1 hour, Sreeja was decked up with a beautiful sky blue saree and minimal makeup and hairstyle. Her cousins then went to get ready for themselves before the function starts. 

Sreeja wanted a coffee badly but found no one to help her out as everyone were busy with their own work. So she herself came out to see the coffee station near the entrance door of the marriage hall. 

"Anna , two coffee. "

The server looked at her differently. 

"ya its me the bride na.. two coffee for me only. everyone are busy with their work. Had I been the groom the coffee would have come to my room."

Just then her father and others were rushing to welcome Venkat and his family who have reached the marriage hall in Van.

"Ei.. Sreeja, go inside, who asked you to come out now, go go." he rushed her. Turning to the servers, he said " get ready with the coffee first for groom side , they all belong to Thanjavur, so coffee should be good and strong and don't miss any single one in the guests"

"appa enaku oru coffee.." (paa, one coffee for me..")  her father left not even hearing what she was saying.

"pesama payana porandhurkalam. petha ponnu oru coffee kuda kudikala kandukarara paru. mapilayam periya mapilai. Yenna kalyanam pandradhunala dhan mapilaindra postey kadachuruku."

(May be I should have been born as a boy. His only daughter has not even drank coffee since morning  but no one bothers about that. It is all because of me he has got the post of groom, but no one cares about that, uff..)

She then went inside empty handed to her room.  Sitting on the bed she remembered " omg, dad told venkat has arrived, I totally forgot about it. Let me go now and see".  Opening the door, she saw the server with two coffees in his hand stretching it towards her. 

She took those coffee and mouthed thanks. After closing the door she thought, "is it coffee or Venkat? what should I do first?" 

Without next thought, she took her coffee and started drinking it slowly immersed in the taste. Sreeja is a big coffee lover. May be coffee addict can be used to describe her. Even now she chose coffee over venkat because , she likes coffee hot as Venkat can be seen even later.

After finishing her coffee, she tried to come out and see, but by then, all the welcoming rituals got over and Venkat too had gone inside his room. Since she was out of her room, some of the relatives from Venkat side saw her.

She felt little awkward standing there as everyone were looking at her and went inside her room. She heard some noises and turned to see that it was coming from Venkat's room. Both her room and Venkat's room had same wall and was not soundproof, so she was able to hear noises but not clear one.

After half an hour or so, the priests came who started with the pooja for Vridham. The marriage hall was filled with close relatives from both their sides. 

(The vratham, is the first function that takes place after the bride's family welcomes the groom and his family to the wedding venue. Both families do it separately, with each praying to the kula deivam for wealth, fertility, and protection from the evil eye.)

As the stage was small and cannot occupy two families at the same time , Sreeja and her parents were given a place to do the vridham ritual near the stage on the floor, while Venkat family was sitting on the stage. 

"paa, we are the one who is spending money for this marriage , still we get a place on the floor and they get place on the stage, what is this , partiality, I strongly object this" she told to her father.

"ask your daughter for once to obey and behave as we tell" he said with a warning face to her mother.

"Sreeja, just shut your mouth and don't talk unnecessarily.Now give pose for the photographer with a smiling face. Everything will be captured in video and photo" warned her mother with a smiling face.

After completing the vridham and Nandhi, both the families got blessings from the priests. One of her relative came and told Sreeja  

"hey what is this di? you did not even care to get a glimpse of Venkat. Look at him and give a smile at least"

"he is standing too far for my sight. If I can see him properly without specs, why would I be like this han..? Moreover, we are starving here in the name of Vridham(fasting), I am waiting for lunch, will see him later. Namaku soru dhan mukkiyam ( Food is important for me)" said Sreeja who went to change her saree.

After the function got over, the guests had their lunch. Post which everyone took some rest to get ready for the engagement, followed by Reception in the evening.