a feel good book about two people arranged together, falling in love.
the entire phase of courtship between two strangers after their marriage is arranged, it's incredibly underrated.
it's like falling in love with an intention to remain in love, t...
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Disclaimer: you might find a few things slightly backward and less progressive, but I did a bit of research and remember, these both belong to a village, not very forward and modernized. So a few futile things might exist, and might maybe even seen offensive or dumb to a few. But that's how it is.
***
Shopping was a painful task, Atharva realised. He had never had to endure shopping with a woman, and that too, a woman who had a right on him. It was tedious, taxing and annoying. But somehow, watching his feisty Valli fight with the shopkeeper, it kept him entertained.
They had purchased a saree before they ventured out into the wild to attain a kurta of a matching colour to go with his pancha.
She had 3 beautiful, elegant and classy silk sarees, Kanchi pattu drapes in choice. She had all three of the draped, standing on the same podium that brides stood on whilst trying on sarees. He could see families gathered in the expensive saree showroom, all getting prepared for weddings. His Valli was carefree, her eyes only looked at him and for him, even through the mirrors. But his eyes wandered around. He could even hear their conversations. Brides came with their sisters, their mothers, aunts and mothers-in-law.
He mother should have been here, and so were Valli's mother and Vedangini. He was missing his amma a lot lately, ever since they started preparing for the wedding. He made it a point to definitely bring Valli's mother and whoever she wished along with her for the wedding shopping.
"Chinnayya!" Her shy voice called a little louder, he was lost in thought. He looked up again, this was the third saree that was tied to her.
The first one was a light blue and had a thin gold border. It was quite simple, the second was a dark green and again had gold thread work. This one - it was that unique onion pink colour that Valli wanted - he realised it was a mix of mauve, purple, darkish brown and pink mixed together. The saree was truly unique. Valli loved everything simple and classy he realised. Even the border on her saree had very elegant dark goldish copper thread work. There was an almost invisible pattern all over the saree and Valli was glowing looking at herself, she loved it too, just as much as he did.
Valli looked at Atharva again, he hadn't spoken very many words since they began shopping at the saree boutique. His expression of like and dislike only came with nods and tilts of his head. But she could look at his eyes through the mirror, they were stuck on her. His tongue swiped across his lips to moisten the dryness. Her eyebrows cocked up again, a blushing smile took over her face as she looked at him. His lips finally tugged up into the smallest smile and he nodded his head, affirming his choice being with the saree she had on now.
"This one." She announced to the shopkeepers.
"We will pack it up, madam." The man clapped happily.
"And we have a wedding collection that is on sale right now for clearance if you want to have a look!" He marketed more.
