Nenjamellam kadhal

Chapter 25

                                                                                  Sakthi

The next day after the cultural event, the principal allowed us to arrive two hours late because we returned from the cultural event late. I asked Dada to instruct his driver to drop me off at college. When I entered the classroom, it was during the morning break. My friends were already eating the food they had brought for lunch during the morning break. Two hours passed quickly. During lunch, we all headed to the canteen since Ramya and Sakthi had not brought lunch. I spotted the professor in the canteen having lunch with his colleagues. I smiled and gave him a small wave, and he responded with an awkward smile. After buying our lunch, we joined our friends.

Our music team decided to take a break before starting to prepare for another competition scheduled for a month from now. The date for the cultural event at JJCET had also been set, but we had around two months to prepare for it. Overall, it was a rather uneventful day.

On the bus ride home, Nivetha asked me, " Enna d solraru un professor ?"

I gave her the run-down version: "Avaru daily kalela and night sometimes wish pannuvaru, aparam epaum pola instruction sollavum thittavum ph pannuvaru. aparam next day oru bar chocolate varum Janani akka ta irundhu. Enaku indha santhosh subramaniam Jayam Ravi thitavey velia poi ph panuvarula adhu madri dha feel agudhu avaru ph panna."

Nivetha laughed at my comment, and Priya, who was seated beside us, started laughing too. Ramya, in the back seat, observed quietly.

As I had mentioned to Nivetha, that evening, he called to scold me for talking to drunken Arjun. I thought ' the news had reached him late, and he was calling me today; otherwise, he would have spoken before'.

On impulse, I changed his contact name from "Professor" to "Angry Bird." It seemed more fitting than "Professor." Nowadays, I started to tune him out when he spoke on the phone, responding with an occasional "hmm."

Two weeks flew by, and before taking a break for the wedding, I invited all my friends to the reception. I invited the professor as well, but he turned it down, saying it would look strange and awkward with him being the only teacher present at the reception. I stopped pushing him to come any farther.

After getting permission from the principal, I took a week off for the wedding. I was excited about the wedding, and the festivities began a week before. Thatha had asked Harish Aththan to stay with us until the marriage since he had no parents, and Thatha planned to perform the rituals in place of Aththan's and Anni's parents. So, he temporarily moved here before the muhurthakal function.

Thatha had hired an event manager to organise Nalungu and Mehndi functions. I, along with Ramya, accompanied Anni to the spa and makeup trials before Nalungu, so the days rolled faster than I liked.

Three days before the wedding, my brother and Akka's nalungu function had been held at my mom's place. Akka had her mehndi the same evening. The next day, we held a nalungu function in the morning for both Aththan and Anni and a mehndi function for Anni in the evening at Thatha's home. Following tradition, my Thatha performed all of the morai and gave seeru in place of their parents.

The surprise of the function was when Anni's mother and paternal aunts came for her nalungu without the knowledge of the men in their family. When they showed up with Jithu, Anni was taken aback and overjoyed. Though they were unable to attend the mehndi ceremony, she was thrilled that they had arrived for nalungu. Later, she was devastated to hear that her aunts would not be able to attend the wedding. We all comforted and lifted her spirits to return her to a joyful state.