Love Amidst The Chaos

24|How did I Get so Lucky?

• Esha •

I step out of the car, the sky above me illuminates in golden lights making me frown. I tip my head and find fairy lights hanging above me, hooked on trees to trees, decorated beautifully lighting the surroundings with a dreamy ambience.

I look at my husband through my shoulder in question.

In reply he shoots a soft smile, stands beside me and stretches his arm out, asking me to continue my stroll.

I oblige without a word, my heart racing inside the rib, an anticipation enveloping me. The obvious fact that I'll be spending the rest of my years here, with my husband and family drowning on me way too hard than it ever did. No, I'm not scared or uncomfortable with it, maybe a little worried about whether I'll fit in here among them and co-exist as smoothly as they'd been. But moreover at this moment I'm just excited and over the moon for reasons more than one.

The huge wooden door is wide open, my brother-in-laws along with their grandfather stand by the doorstep, smiling uniformly like a robotic move rather than a natural human. Must be the connection they share that makes them act similarly in certain situations.

Proving me right, the boys yell in unison like kindergartens who saw their teacher enter the class. "Welcome home, bhabhi."

I almost flinch, but I manage to flash them back an equally energetic smile.

Talk about the golden retriever energy they emit and I could write a series of books on them.

Daddu holds a golden plate and does our aarti, applies tilak on both our foreheads and steps aside revealing the beautifully decorated floor in the inside of the house. There is a kalash filled with rice, a golden plate filled with kumkum and a white sheet laid open on the floor and more flower petals around.

I smile with the same enthusiasm as them even as they murmur among themselves. The men seemed not to have a great idea about the rituals and it was clear on their faces. Fair point, neither do I have any good knowledge about these other than of the scenes I've encountered on the daily soap opera.

But the efforts they've put to even make an attempt to do it warms my heart. I hadn't expected a huge welcome where family members crowded the house while I came back, ooh I didn't expect this either. But they were making this happen and I couldn't be more happy.

"You should come in." Daddu encourages with a smile.

I gently kick the kalash filled with rice and a series of loud pops and bangs echoes through the air jittering my heart and drawing my attention. I turn around, my eyes with astonishment watching the umbra night sky ignite with a fusion of colors. A beautiful kaleidoscope of colors created by the fireworks fuming in air.

What a coincidence.

I watch in awe until it ends with wonder in my eyes, lips parted softly like a kid and then it hits me somewhere.

Right at the moment I kicked the pot it began and now it slowly subsides. Just a coincidence?

Confused, I turn back around, look at my husband and his brothers. My man like always has a small smile, eyes not giving away anything but his kins have a huge satisfied smile on their lips.

"Did you guys do that?" I wonder aloud, my heart thudding in the ribs even at the thought of it.

If they said yes I'd bawl like a kettle boiling over right here.

"Of course," Athvansh stands at my side, wraps an arm around my shoulder. "The world must know we are welcoming our Queen, right bhai?"

"Hamare ghar mai Lakshmi aayi hai, kushi tho manani haina." Daddu smiles at me the warmth that always resides in his eyes shining.
(Goddess Lakshmi has come to our home, it's an hour of celebration.)