The Wallflower (Vol 1)

A Little Persuasion

•Nashe me kadam mere udhar kabhi idhar

"Yaar, Disha!!! Open the goddamn door."

"No. I don't want to go through this anymore."

"Seriously!! Yeh shaadi karne se pehle sochna chahiye tha. That ship has already sailed."

( should have thought of that first before getting married)

"Don't even remind me of that day. Do you know what happened after the ghar nu laxmi ritual?"

"I will only know after you have opened the damn door, Disha." Vritra replies in a very calm manner while applying make-up underneath the eyes. In situations like these, where the newly wedded bride is hyperventilating, responding calmly is the best way to calm her.

After 30 seconds or so, Disha opened the bathroom door, and by that time, Vritra was ready to face her best friend and soul sister.

"Who conducts a marriage for freaking 5 days. These rituals, one after the other, are just not ending. Don't even get me started with my father's attitude. He didn't even cry. It was like another business deal for him. I thought when I will get married, at least then he will show any sign of love."

That said, Disha starts sobbing, but Vritra is more concerned about make-up than her best friend. She had predicted it would happen during this wedding process, and she had prepared herself for the impending situation. But first, let's start with the root cause of the problem.

Satish Agarwal, Disha's father, has never incurred any losses and is gaining from this marriage. For Satish, everything is a deal, even her daughter's marriage. With the Agarwals and Rajawats' alliance, he is meant to gain the tender for constructing national highways.

But he was getting a higher bargain from another business family, which was a widower, nearly 40 years old, and had two kids. Satish, the opportunist and ruthless man that he was, was ready to offer her daughter as the sacrificial lamb to the widower when, ultimately, Maya Rajawat came and asked for an alliance. In addition, she offered a better deal, which he couldn't refuse.

The problem is not just Satish's ignorant attitude towards his daughter but Maya Rajawat's. When she does a favor for you, she makes sure you will be reminded of it daily. Vritra has an inkling of what would have happened in post-marriage rituals.

But right now, making Disha calm and radiant was more critical. She knew Disha from her Kindergarten days. Disha was the kind of person who could easily trust anyone without thinking of consequences. The same goes for her decision-making process.

Akshay is one such person whom she decides to trust, and getting married is the result of that. Akshay had arrogance in childhood, but with time and maturity, he has edged out his edifices. He is a decent man, but the same couldn't be said about his mother, Maya Rajawat.

On top of that, getting married to Rajawats has its fair share of problems.

With extreme gentleness, Vritra uncovers Disha's face, which is camouflaged by Disha's hands.

" Chal, aur nahi rote. Let's tuck you in a saree first."

"You are making it sound like you will be putting me into bed."

"Yes I will put you to bed with Akshay!!" Vritra teases her with a knowing smirk. "Now tell me everything."

Vritra takes the golden sequined, heavy, bordered Manish Malhotra saree in her hands and plates it around Disha's midriff while looking for safety pins.

"I don't know. This huge palace, the reeti riwaaz, it's just getting to me. There is a list of rules I have to maintain when speaking out in public. Just for the record, there are Fifty Nine rules. Fifty Freaking nine! Some duties and rules are written to say, "Disha, you are dumb." Disha holds the central pleats while Vritra crouches down, keeping them straight and securing them with more pins.